given that 12 people are moving on to the second round, i included NPCs to bring the total number of participants in-universe to 24. this preserves the “half of all contestants are eliminated” in-universe.
as such, there are now essentially unlimited nighttime and daytime spots. if you would like to change the placement of your appeal, please let me know.
there will be 6 daytime and 6 nighttime performances in the second round. reservations of these spots will not be open until the next round officially begins.
each performance time + time for wallace’s spoken feedback is assumed to last 10 minutes.
JULY 20 - FIRST ROUND
Performances start: 5:00 P.M.
FIRST HALF: Daylit performances
@gottamuseemall and @eevee-sohma
@imbicilite and @sky-and-spear
@intelligentskull and @sangmer
@aeshmedai and @eigenaces
NPC pair
NPC pair
NPC pair
NPC pair
NPC pair
NPC pair
NPC pair
NPC pair
INTERMISSION: 20 minutes at 7:00 PM
Sunset: 7:20 P.M.
SECOND HALF: Nighttime performances
Performances resume: 7:20 P.M.
@princelyluck and @eidolae
@portaltrainer and @liberatingknight
@a-hell-of-a-lot-of-muses and @cafeshiawase
@fxrprxsperity and @timebranded
@writtenbykaichu and @musesbygeoff
NPC pair
NPC pair
NPC pair
NPC pair
NPC pair
NPC pair
NPC pair
Performances end: 9:20 P.M. Results are announced; everyone goes home.
SECOND ROUND BEGINS NEXT DAY.
JULY 21 - SECOND ROUND
FIRST HALF: Daylight performances
Performances start 6:00 P.M.
asdf
asdf
asdf
asdf
asdf
asdf
INTERMISSION: 20 minutes at 7:00 P.M.
Sunset: 7:20 P.M.
SECOND HALF: Nighttime performances
asdf
asdf
asdf
asdf
asdf
asdf
INTERMISSION: 10 MINUTES at 8:00 P.M. while results are being tabulated.
Contest resumes 8:10 P.M. Award ceremony takes 10 minutes tops, ending the Contest at 8:20 P.M.
to everyone who joined, to everyone who performed, regardless of how far you made it: THANK YOU. thank you for your interest and enthusiasm in the deadest time that i have ever seen in the pokémon rpc--a period where activity was so slowed, i didn’t think i would even have a finished contest at all. i know this was a terrible time to have a contest--i was feeling it too. so it means the world to me that so many people signed up and no matter what the result was, you all poured as much of you into it that you could. this contest--no, this rpc--would not be the same without your energy.
he’s taking a break before the second round begins--it’s a mere twenty minutes , and there he is, leaning against the sootopolis gym, texting his sister on his phone. how’s it going? oh, it’s wonderful, do you see how close the scores are? oh heck yes! i’m thrilled! i’m really surprised, though. i thought you’d be harder on them. ;) he laughs at this, then pockets his phone to go check some things backstage before he returns to his judge’s post.
his sister was joking, that much was true. but even in a joke, he can see a serious suggestion: has he been too kind? should he make things more difficult? he’s about to reach the location of the speaker system when he makes his decision.
the sun has long since set, and the contestants have long since been ushered into the sootopolis city gym. the audience whispers amongst themselves about who will win, some of them trying to tally what they remember in their head; at least one of them has written down the actual scores. a fifteen-minute hiatus ensues between the end of the appeals and the beginning of the score announcements. isn’t that a bit long to tally scores? some say. ah, but there is a reason.
wallace gathers the six remaining contestants--dionysus (@sangmer), fabien (@imbicilite), daisy (@deerlingrps), acerola (@eevee-sohma), murasaki (@portaltrainer) and ann (@liberatingknight)--and beckons them into the underwater elevator. he hasn’t given any hint of what to expect, but he’s planned something spectacular. smiling, he leads them to a platform and tells them their cumulative scores and placements. he also explains to them why he’s telling them now and not waiting for them to hear it later: he’s planned a massive surprise, and it will only work if he does what he’s doing. he knows they might still be confused, but there’s no more time to explain.
❝i have instructions for each of you,❞ he says. ❝come here, and listen closely…❞
more than fifteen minutes have passed. the audience has no idea what’s going on. the surface of the water is still, and the bite of the night air is starting to nip at their faces. some say perhaps there’s been a mishap backstage. are they experiencing technical difficulties? is he telling off an unruly coordinator? there are a few snickers in the crowd as they imagine the drama that the papers will sing of next morning, but more of the audience is concerned. many of them, however, just want to hear the scores and go home. two days of fifteenth anniversary excitement is more than enough.
the lights go down. the crowd quiets. some think they’re going to be treated to another show. then, a gasp--the moon is gone, the stars are gone--it seems as though all of sootopolis is plunged into a blackness deeper than night. they seem to be in a space where light itself cannot penetrate; the audience cannot see, do not dare to move.
and then--the music.
the opening four seconds of wallace’s theme--the one he composed himself--spirals out into the inky sky. the sound seems to come not from a speaker but from the darkness itself, all-immersive, all-encompassing. [0:05] then the song picks up, two triumphant notes announcing the change in speed--and there is STARMIE, not a creature, but an incarnation of the sun itself, shining with the yellow aura of a combined thunderbolt and dazzling gleam. LUVDISC hovers there as well with starmie’s psychic, it and all of its double team copies forming a ring of black silhouetted hearts around the pulsating star. bolts of lightning radiate upward and down into the water as starmie hovers there with psychic as well; from the golden halo of light surrounding them pour stars upon stars, little beads of light swarming out in a galactic swift.
the illusion of the vanishing sky is now as clear as the light that replaced it. no other star can shine when the great wallace kasai makes his show.
[0:15] THERE HE STANDS, master of masters, atop the head of his milotic who had soared from the waves. the thunder claps behind them, illuminating their silhouettes as the serpent spirals into the air and he does a corresponding twirl on her head. [0:18] sheets of rain dance pour down, a heavenly waterfall illuminated by rainbows from a hidden VAPOREON’S signal beam as GYARADOS, the one who brought the torrent, spirals into a dance around milotic. he gives a roar; milotic gives her sonorous call; the water storms with ten whirlpools, ten doorways to the deep. wallace extends his hands, and his voice booms from the clip-on microphone--
❝Now RISE!❞
[0:23] there! spinning their way through the depths, illuminated by starmie’s light alone, ALL OF WALLACE’S REMAINING POKÉMON! WHISCASH, the fish that shakes the bedrock of the world. SWAMPERT, the wise ground-type who has lived for longer than any human alive. LUDICOLO, the dancer of many blooms and many weathers. VAPOREON, the embodiment of feline grace and feline power. GOREBYSS, one of his lesser-known--but still one of his oldest friends. TENTACRUEL, the hex master, the closest thing to a ghost that any living being could be. PRIMARINA, bold and shining, a shiny received over wonder trade whose talent is as rare as her color. LAPRAS, sweet and gentle as her breed can be, always looking to repay the kindness wallace showed her from the egg. and LURANTIS, the only non-water type, but a dear award-winner and a precious friend.
the whirlpools were not whirlpools, but columns of spinning water that stretch to the sootopolis sea bed; the pokémon, positioned in precisely those locations, now rocket to the surface contained in bubbles of gorebyss’s aqua ring. this is his way of thanking them, letting them all rise so that their greatness can be honored and acknowledged.
they hover in the air below starmie, filling the space behind them in their bubbles with color--starting from a darker blue on the edges to white in the middle--the official color gradient of the wallace cup. then, silhouetted against their colors, they sink back into the water. the rest of the ceremony may now proceed.
[0:32] milotic bends down her head. wallace steps onto the very water itself--the water has been hexed by tentacruel to behave like a walkway. he speaks before the cheering crowd, barely able to be heard above the din.
❝beloved guests, you have been extraordinarily patient; well, you shall WAIT NO MORE. of our six remaining contestants, all will walk home with a prize-and all prizes have most certainly been earned. now--LET THE PLACEMENTS BE REVEALED!❞
[0:41] the water begins to pulsate to the rhythm of a beating heart, intricate geometric patterns forming on its surface thanks to the control of whiscash’s water pulse. these patterns glow bright white like a lost message from an alien civilization, but they seem to stop at three circles drawn in the center of the stage. in the middle of the circles are the outlines of three peoples’ faces: sixth place on the left facing right, fifth place in the middle staring straight ahead, fourth place on the right facing left. three outcroppings of white rock emerge from the sea, all of them the creation of swampert’s earth power, with one each labeled 6, 5, 4--sixth, fifth and fourth place. all of them had people standing on them surrounded by protective aqua ring air bubbles--the honorable mentions!
[0:52] then the stars themselves begin to form words above the contestants’ heads. the entire universe before the crowd clear space and reshaping itself to spell out the names and point totals.
ANN PETERS
276 POINTS
MURASAKI
278 POINTS
ACEROLA
287 POINTS
the crowd cheers as wallace gestures to the three outcroppings; starmie’s light pulses to the beat of the music, glowing even brighter with the swelling energy of the crowd. [1:17] but it’s not long before the next display goes forward. in front of the honorable mentions, vaporeon and gorebyss leap out of the water like dolphins from opposite sides of the water, and primarina leaps over them from the center; each leaps much higher than the height of a man. they draw rainbows of ice across the scene: behind them trail iridescent ice beams that arc above and between where third and second place are supposed to appear. an ethereal voice harmonizes with the music--primarina’s sparkling aria forms moving half-dome backgrounds on the overhang. both contain details from two of the appeals: the left background has a samurott with a missing leg swiping his sword at an invisible opponent, whereas the right one features a thorny cage whose boundaries swell and eventually burst into a swirl of abstract colors.
[1:30] she’s not done there. the song lifts two giant, glowing lotus flower buds out of the water, each in front of the honorable mentions’ podiums, each one placed in the spaces between the podiums to form the base of a triangle. each were formed by a combination of ludicolo and lurantis’ synthesis and grass knot. the one on the left shines a solid, bioluminescent bright blue with the number 3. the one on the right sparkles with a similarly bioluminescent blue-and-white that light up in different patterns, alternating to the beat of the music--this one bears the number 2. standing atop these lotuses are lurantis on the left, ludicolo on the right; ludicolo poses his arms in ballet’s third position, whereas lurantis does the same thing but in mirror image. [1:37] the stars begin to form into the names of third and second place as the petals unfold, revealing the silhouettes of the contestants; lurantis and ludicolo each kick a leg outward to opposite sides. [1:46] as the petals lower, each grass-type springs off their single standing leg to do a front flip into the water. then, just as the petals unfold to their lowest and the stars finish forming their message, starmie’s dazzling gleam makes spotlights revealing the faces of third and second place.
DAISY SKETCHIT
293 POINTS
FABIEN LAFAYETTE
306 POINTS
some of the audience knows who is in first by now, but they don’t know the display that will follow.
[2:02] much of the light dims to nothing. starmie disappears from the sky, and some of its swift stars fall into the water, fading as they sink into the depths. the only thing left illuminated now by dazzling gleam is the podiums, the lotuses and the contestants; whereas they glowed in many colors before, they now glow a dim reddish-orange—the color of hellfire. a tentacruel’s glowing dome appears in front of and in the space between the third and second place lotuses, the ruby domes on its head flickering in anticipation of something bigger. the music bass rumbles, and so does the stadium; gyarados’ earthquake causes a shuddering throughout the ground while its flamethrowers lace out underwater. the blaze beneath the waves speaks of volcanic ire—the fire burns through paths of oxygen laid out by milotic’s aqua ring. the audience can see the shadows of milotic and gyarados swimming around seemingly inside the conflagration beneath, great dragons of water and fire coming together to create.
[end at 2:11, skip to 6:43] gyarados gives a roar, the sound of stone creaking in the cauldron of the earth. pillars of ground erupt from both sides of the scene: glistening columns of obsidian raised by earthquake and studded by starmie’s power gem containing swirls of water and fire. the glow of the podiums and contestants switch from hellish red to purest gold. sharpedo aqua jets down the middle of the existing podiums starting from the honorable mentions row, sending up a spray of waves right between the columns before he disappears into the water again. also starting from the honorable mentions row, the columns outline the triangle of podiums that wallace was attempting to make—[6:47] and there, in the middle where his tentacruel once was, rises the back of his lapras. she soars above the other contestants, positioned atop what looks like a miniature mountain base; she is the top of the hill that has been created. but lapras looks different. for one thing, her head and flippers have been tucked into her shell, like a turtle. for another, tentacruel’s hex has turned her back from grey to a shining white, and power gem has given the appearance that night-lit buildings stud her back as well as the white stone beneath her. but it’s not just any shade of white—wallace was very specific about how he wanted it to look. her back looks like volcanic rock; the number 1 on her seems to have been grown from the rock itself.
she is sootopolis.
this is how he chooses to honor the greatness of the one in first: with the creation of the island on which they compete.
[6:52] a combined flamethrower and threads of water gun shoot from the middle of lapras’ back—the moves have been hexed to phase through her stomach and shell as well as the flesh of the invisible person standing on top of her, so that the effect can be achieved without any harm. then, as the column of flame dies down there appears the winner of first place, his very self illuminated by a sun-starmie now hovering above him, his name spelled out by all the remaining stars in the sky:
DIONYSUS
308 POINTS
[7:01] the audience erupts into seismic applause. the pillars shift thanks to swampert’s earth power. instead of showing abstract patterns, the water and fire within them swirl via starmie’s psychic into shapes of siebold’s pokémon: empoleon, bruxish, gourgeist, aegislash, aurorus. wallace pays tribute to not just trainer but also his companions.
[7:12] tentacruel sends out a row of thick black toxic to create a walkway. gyarados lights it via flamethrower underneath, taking advantage of the poison to make the illusion that the ocean itself is on fire. wallace is teleported into place by his starmie at the beginning of the passage, then steps into the hexed flames unharmed, walking on both water and fire thanks to psychic with something clutched in his hand. smiling, he steps onto lapras’ back and presents the AQUA RIBBON to the contest’s winner. he lifts siebold’s hand into the air, and the audience once again cheers.
[7:46] then the music changes. no longer does it play on an endless loop; it segues into an ending. the notes of this end at first sound like some of the notes of the beginning, but the audience can tell that it is the end.
❝to my talented performers, thank you for your will to illuminate the soul of magnificence. and to my dear audience, thank you for your patronage of the wallace cup. it is truly your efforts that make this event what it is,❞ he says.
❝Until next year, my friends. May the spirit of greatness go with you!❞
the music stops as soon as wallace says the last word. the whole scene goes dark for the final time, obscuring pokémon, contestants, wallace himself. unseen by the crowd, starmie teleports the humans onstage back into the sootopolis gym’s underwater room, then nullifies the poison in the water with psychic; the pokémon that were just performing swim their way back to the gym as well.
slowly, the moon and stars reappear as reality fades back in. they have been permitted to shine again, as though by arceus himself.
How exactly does the mod for this contest define 'greatness' for the adherence to theme rating? Greatness is such a broad subject matter and could be seen in many ways. It might be hard for people to adhere to how you view greatness and how they do.
that’s a really good question and it’s something i definitely should have answered right off the bat. since i’m judging this from wallace’s point of view, i will answer with his definition of greatness instead of mine.
wallace sees that there are three aspects of greatness: personal, interpersonal and nonpersonal. the personal aspect of greatness is something that is covered more in the second round, though first-round contestants are welcome to appeal to it. personal greatness, to wallace, lies in aspects that pertain to the individual’s personality and traits. this includes: technical skill on the performance field, charisma, vision, creativity, intelligence. a performance that highlights each individual’s skill and personality is one that could definitely qualify.
however, personal greatness is only one form of greatness. interpersonal greatness, to wallace, is highly connected with personal greatness but depends mostly on a person’s relationships with others. are they a particularly kind person, for example–do they go above and beyond ordinary decency to strengthen bonds with their friends and improve the lives of others around them? do they learn from their mistakes as well as the mistakes of others, and do they serve as a guiding force for others around them? are their beliefs empowering and uplifting to others? can they inspire and move people in the world? a performance that highlights any one of these through storytelling, for example, could qualify as a performance about the meaning of greatness.
finally, there is a greatness that lies outside the self–nonpersonal greatness. wallace is a religious man, and he certainly believes the gods and the natural world are great, so having a performance about the greatness of such would also qualify. in the first round, performing as a tribute to the greatness of something other than yourself–something bigger than yourself–would be suitable, and wallace would enjoy it very much. it doesn’t have to be about gods or nature, either: it could be about the greatness of your art form, or the greatness of pokémon, or the greatness of humanity. it could be anything.
overall, wallace puts great stock in personal greatness, since he believes himself to have personal greatness in spades. but on average, he would prefer those performances that at least hint at something beyond the personal greatness of the individuals performing.
hope that helps, and i’m sorry for only posting this so late in the game. because i posted this so late, i’m going to break one of my rules and say that if you need help restructuring your appeal to fit one of these definitions, i will be available to help you. in addition, if you have a different take on greatness than what is depicted above, please let me know and i’ll see if wallace would like it--he usually likes different perspectives, so things like that would be very welcome!
read closely friendos, because things just got complicated.
i should start by saying that because of the deadness of the pokémon fandom, this is the smallest wallace cup i have ever hosted. on top of that, this contest has had four dropouts and six people who have had a ton of trouble with their appeals due to irl reasons. that’s a total of ten people who are definitely or potentially unable to finish the first round--and this is only the first round. if those six people were not given a chance to finish? not only would this be the greatest individual number of dropouts i have ever had in a contest, it would also be the greatest proportion of dropouts to remaining contestants i have ever had. if the six people were not allowed through, the consequence would be this. whereas in previous contests this proportion has always been 1/3 or less, in this wallace cup nearly half of our 22 participants would be unable to fully enjoy having a shot in the first round.
i realized that this may be due to the fact that, objectively, this is a really bad time in the pokémon fandom to hold a contest. i also realized that the demands of this first round are much higher than they have ever been for any other first round in any of my contests, which also adds to the difficulty. this realization comes in part because many potential contestants had felt intimidated by the prospect of a tag team, and even some of the people who had successfully completed appeals had felt rushed and run into considerable difficulty. given these extraordinary circumstances, i felt as though an extension was in order--even though i had been very stern about the “three weeks only” rule before. since so many people were unable to complete appeals on time, both numerically and proportionally, i asked the six struggling people still in the contest whether having another week would allow them to complete appeals that they would be proud of. they all said yes.
the solution is simple, right? just extend the contest another week. but i can’t simply do that because……well, here’s where shit gets messy.
originally, if the majority of the six people did not feel as though having another week would help them, i had decided i would allow all twelve people who had posted to advance to the second round without eliminations due to our low number of contestants. this means that if i extend the contest for the six people still struggling with their appeals, the bottom 6 of our current 12 contestants would be forced to face elimination where they would not have faced it before. this gives me a moral dilemma. on one hand, i have already floated the promise of an extension to the six struggling contestants, and if i retract it now, i expect many of them will be seriously bummed. but on the other hand, if these six “newcomers” eliminated any of the bottom six because they were given a second chance to compete, that would also lead to broken hearts--and it wouldn’t have happened if i put my foot down about the deadline. either way, people are potentially going to get hurt, and now i have no way of preventing this.
in the end, here is my solution.
I will extend the Contest for ONE FINAL WEEK--until Saturday, August 3, 11:59 P.M. in whichever partner’s timezone is later. In addition, the number of participants who will advance to the second round will be 12/18 instead of 9/18.
i have a few reasons for this. one, allowing 12 people to advance instead of 9 lessens the probability that any one person in the bottom 6 will be eliminated, and so would mitigate any potential harm done; 12 is also the number of people who would ordinarily have been allowed through. two, if we get a significant number of dropouts in the second round (and historically in my contests there always is), having 12 participants in the second round instead of 9 means that the event would be less decimated. three, everyone in this contest has signed up acknowledging the risk of getting eliminated, and because of this i don’t think “re-adding” eliminations when i had considered taking them away would be particularly inappropriate. and lastly, having a greater number of participants in the second round would increase competition, keeping the amount of competition the same as if the 12 posters were auto-allowed through and the 6 people who haven’t posted yet were not allowed a chance.
if you would like to talk to me about this, my DMs are always open for a civil chat. thank you all for understanding and i hope you are having a good night. <3
@a-hell-of-a-lot-of-muses @cafeshiawase @imbicilite @eidolae@princelyluck @sky-and-spear @aeshmedai@rebornchampion @intelligentskull @eigenaces @timebranded @eevee-sohma@gottamuseemall @kalosian-writer @sangmer @writtenbykaichu @musesbygeoff@portaltrainer@fxrprxsperity @liberatingknight @waveraging it’s that time of contest, folks. as of today, july 13, you all have seven days left (unless you have requested an extension) to complete your appeals! (if you requested an extension, you have fourteen days left.) your appeals are due july 20, 11:59 PM in whatever partner’s timezone is LATER.
once you see this, please let me know where you and your partner are in setting up your performance (ex: planning stages, early writing stages, halfway through the writing), how soon you think you can finish your appeal, and whether you would like an extension. right now i have extensions for @aeshmedai + @eigenaces and @writtenbykaichu + @musesbygeoff--if i forgot about your extension or if you would like to request one right now, please tell me ASAP.
thank you for reading and i hope you all are having a good night! <3
it’s that time of contest again, folks. yet another week has passed, and if you have not finished already you now have one more week until the first round is complete! your appeals are due on saturday, july 27, 11:59 PM in whichever partner’s timezone is LATER. when you see this post, please let me know where you are in your preparation (e.g. just started writing the appeal, almost done with the outline, halfway done with the writing), as well as whether you have any concerns about making it by the deadline. that would be very much appreciated.
i have another short announcement to make. i have decided that the first round of this year’s wallace cup starts at 6:30 P.M. and ends at 8:00 P.M., with sunset being at 7:20 P.M. ordinarily, performances would be in chronological order of their postings. but if you want to have a performance at 7:20 PM or later so you can have the benefit performing in the dark (or make sure your performance is earlier in case the darkness would fuck you up), please let me know. there are five slots for evening performances, slots 5-9, and two remaining slots for daylit performances, slots 3-4. thank you for reading and GOOD LUCK ON THE HOME STRETCH! <3
