A Style Tournament Consultation Thread

[GregaMan]

Hey guys,

I think we all know a DmC style tournament is inevitable (and a 4SE one eventually too). I've always been intrigued by the TrueStyle thing but honestly don't know much about how it was operated. I also don't want to touch/reappropriate TrueStyle--that's its own thing that I hope lives on as a fan-run effort. But I do think Capcom would be remiss not to do something in a similar vein.

So I wanted to consult you guys, since I imagine you would comprise a sizable chunk of the participant pool. How would you like to see a style tournament conducted? I have my own thoughts, which I'll share bulleted below.

• I think style should, nay, must ultimately be determined by a sentient audience rather than an algorithm or numerical score within the game. However, we could still use those factors to set contest criteria. Example: "Winner will be determined by vote, but all contestants must achieve a SSS at some point during their combo." Or alternatively, "All contestants must remain BELOW an S rank for the duration of their combo." Ho ho!
• I think for the sake of consistency and manageability, contest entries should be limited to a single take (no video editing other than trimming the ends), and a set time, such as a minute or two minutes.
• Since we'd be focusing on just the one game, I think you could do a lot of different brackets, but there's an almost overwhelming number of different ways you could chop it up. I'm open to and interested in suggestions here. Examples:
  • Divide brackets by difficulty level
  • Just have two: Must Style and non-Must Style
  • Have a number of brackets, each with random, specific criteria (e.g., "DMD mode, Must Style, Hardcore, must be somewhere in Under Watch")
• I think Dante and Vergil should definitely be judged in separate brackets. Can't really compare one to the other.
  
• This will have to start quite small in terms of prizing--I have very little money. To that end, I'm not really sure what kind of prizing I'll be able to provide, but I'm imagining that there would be a few different competitive categories, each of which would have a winner who would receive some manner of prize.

Anyway, those are some preliminary thoughts, but I was hoping I could pick y'all's brains on this, so have at it.

 

[Demi-fiend]

Oh. Um... I would've done it like this:

• Gods Must Die or Dante/Vergil Must Die only.
• Hardcore Mode must be on.
• Must Style Mode must be on.
• Must have at least one Stylish Finisher [Example: Finish off two enemies at the same time.]
• No editing.
• Seven Minute Limit.
• Optional Turbo. [Like back in the "Classic Days."]
  
• Optional Hard Lock-on.

 

[DragonMaster2010]

My vote would be between Michellegun201 or Kγ〇∫∪KE.

 

[absolitude]

oh, definitely vote system and achieve SSS at certain point.. my vote will be for kyle boostrom, or something like that i forgot his name (he did vergil on the video i've watched).. his doing it with style and timing, not rushing it for the sake of doing lots of attack, in a way, i could see what's what..

 

[GregaMan]

Are you guys suggesting players you would want to see participate? I would hope michellegun201, Kyosuke, Boostrom, and all the other heavyweights would participate, but the point would be for this to be open to all players. Since all players will be able to upload clips easily (assuming they have an internet connection), I expect to see some skilled folks we haven't seen before.

Hence wanting to limit it to relatively short clips. Seven minutes seems extremely long for one straight take. I'm not sure there is any point in the game where there are seven uninterrupted minutes of combat (unless you're playing poorly). Not sure it's necessary or that exciting to have seven unedited minutes of gameplay if the purpose is to showcase stylish combat. I was thinking one solid "fight" per clip. Make sense?

I also think if we incorporate Hardcore Mode it should be restricted to a single bracket to keep it a little more welcoming.

I agree that Turbo and Manual Lock should be optional. Definitely.

 

[Erian1Mortal]

So this would be only for the definitve edition then?

 

[sssensational]

Are you guys suggesting players you would want to see participate? I would hope michellegun201, Kyosuke, Boostrom, and all the other heavyweights would participate, but the point would be for this to be open to all players. Since all players will be able to upload clips easily (assuming they have an internet connection), I expect to see some skilled folks we haven't seen before.

Hence wanting to limit it to relatively short clips. Seven minutes seems extremely long for one straight take. I'm not sure there is any point in the game where there are seven uninterrupted minutes of combat (unless you're playing poorly). Not sure it's necessary or that exciting to have seven unedited minutes of gameplay if the purpose is to showcase stylish combat. I was thinking one solid "fight" per clip. Make sense?

I also think if we incorporate Hardcore Mode it should be restricted to a single bracket to keep it a little more welcoming.

I agree that Turbo and Manual Lock should be optional. Definitely.

Man, a competition would be so cool. I doubt I'd enter since I'm not nearly as good as players like michellegun201, but put all the combo players together in one video at the end.. that'd make for one sick combo vid that could even serve as a gameplay trailer for the game. ;-)

 

[GregaMan]

So this would be only for the definitve edition then?

Yep. I'd want to do one for DE, a separate one for 4SE, and then expand it beyond that and make it a recurring thing.

 

[DragonMaster2010]

Can the vanilla version be an entry as well?

 

[absolitude]

Yep. I'd want to do one for DE, a separate one for 4SE, and then expand it beyond that and make it a recurring thing.

and then make a montage of both DmC and DMC4 in one video, to show love for the series

 

[GregaMan]

Eh, I'm a little wary of mixing Vanilla with DE (a.k.a. "Chocolate") because of the rebalances.

 

[Demi-fiend]

I also think if we incorporate Hardcore Mode it should be restricted to a single bracket to keep it a little more welcoming.

I agree that Turbo and Manual Lock should be optional. Definitely.

Sure, that sounds about right. I was only stating seven minutes as an example. Three minutes (or even two) would serve our purposes much better, in this case.

As much as it hurts me to say this though, I agree that DmCDE should be the only game on display here. There has been too many changes made from Vanilla to DE for the regular version to be even considered as a a possible entry.

 

[GregaMan]

Yeah, considering how short each individual clip tends to be in high-level "Mad" videos, I don't think we'd need more than 1-2-minute clips for a tournament.

 

[sssensational]

Eh, I'm a little wary of mixing Vanilla with DE (a.k.a. "Chocolate") because of the rebalances.

♫ the darker the chocolate... the richer the taste ♪

 

[DragonMaster2010]

♫ the darker the chocolate... the richer the taste ♪

Girl, that's the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice.

 

[sssensational]

Girl, that's the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice.

In my defense, BOTH are correct.

(You better be talking about Run And Tell That like I am.)

 

[DragonMaster2010]

(You better be talking about Run And Tell That like I am.)

No. Fridays

and Definitive Edition blacker then a muthafucka too~

 

[TWOxACROSS]

If the entries would be relatively on the short side, perhaps you could divide things between a few combat sequences found in the game, like the first fight of Under Watch (mission 4) on a certain difficulty and the like. This way, instead of just a video of Dante and Vergil pulverizing one enemy, players can make use of what certain enemies appear and the environment around them. Perhaps even boss fights, to show off some interesting style against things like the Hunter and whatnot.

So to speak, entrants would choose a combat situation from a pool created by...uh...I dunno, someone, then the entrants go to town to make a stylish vid.

I like the idea of having to acquire at least an S, but at the same time, certain stylish set-ups could incur massive Style decay, meaning some really clever choreography could end up disqualified because they don't reach dat S rank. This is an extreme case though, I would imagine.

 

[Chancey289]

As long as it visual looks cool and impressive with an exceptional amount of skill on display, the grade earned shouldn't be that big of a deal. Like Two said, there's some players out there who set up and perform awesome things with the game that looks amazing, but it might not exactly reach a S rank just because of how the game reads it.

 

[GregaMan]

I tend to agree about Style rank, and @TWOxACROSS , I really like your idea about designating specific "fights" in the game. Now I'm thinking maybe do a series of weekly brackets, designating a specific fight sequence, difficulty, and modifiers each time, and then having the winners of each bracket compete in one final "freestyle" bracket for the final prize. "Freestyle" meaning they get to choose the fight sequence, difficulty, and modifiers (but not the character--we'd do separate ones for Dante and Vergil), and people just vote on what they feel is the most stylish/cool.

Whattaya think?