Z-I-v Battle Royale 2017

These votes will appear on the next page!
+5 - Industrial Nation
+4 - Stereo
+3 - 聖槍爆裂ボーイ
+2 - BREAK OVER
+1 - OTD

The whole round was solid. Great job, everyone!

Totals:
Stereo (Digital Dog Club Mix) [Spork!] - 39
Industrial Nation [xRGTMx] - 33
OTD [Feraligatr] - 24
Mad5cience [ROOK] - 22
BREAK OVER [DMAxel] - 15
Damage Per Second [Oni-91] - 11
Rampage [Aegis] - 10
聖槍爆裂ボーイ [Gameoson] - 9
Try 2 Luv U -SF Electro House Mix- [DDRDAIKENKAI] - 7
少年勇者団 [mf32892] - 5
忍恋花 [ledgam3r1279] - 5

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+4 OTD
+4 Stereo (Digital Dog Club Mix)
+3 Industrial Nation
+2 Damage Per Second
+2 忍恋花

Totals:
Stereo (Digital Dog Club Mix) [Spork!] - 43
Industrial Nation [xRGTMx] - 36
OTD [Feraligatr] - 28
Mad5cience [ROOK] - 22
BREAK OVER [DMAxel] - 15
Damage Per Second [Oni-91] - 13
Rampage [Aegis] - 10
聖槍爆裂ボーイ [Gameoson] - 9
Try 2 Luv U -SF Electro House Mix- [DDRDAIKENKAI] - 7
忍恋花 [ledgam3r1279] - 7
少年勇者団 [mf32892] - 5

edit: whoops I missed a point on Stereo, not that it makes much of a difference.

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Round 4 Start!
(The last round, I believe...)

The competitors are...
Spork!
xRGTMx
Feraligatr
ROOK
DMAxel
Oni-91

With a healthy mix of new and old steppers...
which two players will come out on top
and host the upcoming Summer Contest???
Find out on the next episode of Z-I-v Battle Royale!

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Eeeek, this is so exciting
I'll finally be able to vote again this round, so yay me too ^^

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Oni didn't vote..?

That rule is weirdly ambiguous. Pandy explained (somewhere, not sure where specifically) that voting isn't actually mandatory, but voting gives you the edge in the event of a tie.

Some people didn't vote in round one and still moved onto round two anyway. I guess Pandy probably revised the rule at some point and forgot to actually edit out the "mandatory" part.

EDIT: honestly I wish it were mandatory, just because then you are actually forced to give other files points. Otherwise, you could strategically avoid voting so you have a greater chance of ending up in the top half.

Yeah, editing out the "required" part would make sense.

I actually asked about about this a couple weeks ago and I too thought that the description should be changed. Either to actually make voting mandatory to not get DQ'd, or to be more clear about what exactly you gain from voting. I thought this had already been changed though? (I guess not)

Anyhow, the current system kind of sucks in terms of encouraging voting, since it only really makes sense to vote if your score is really close to another contestant's and you are close to being eliminated.

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Didn't see myself making it past round two, so I'm glad to have made it as far as I did. This was fun! Can't wait until the summer contest!

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This idea was brought up before, with a "blind vote" where the results can't be seen until the end of the voting period, to eliminate "voting strategies". It's certainly something to consider for the future, but not a rule that can simply be enacted, since it changes so much about how the contests work, and you'd need someone trustworthy to tally the votes.

Oh wait, you don't have to vote in this contest? That's bizarre... should be changed for the future

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I wasn't talking about any blind voting ideas though, just the fact that (not voting = DQ) is better than (not voting = disadvantage in case of a tie).

As it is right now, there's no need to vote if you're safe, and there's no reason to vote if you're probably going to get eliminated. By enforcing "DQ if you don't vote", at least you'll "guarantee" votes from anyone who's got enough points to pass the round.

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IDK if I get to say anything, not being in the contest and all, but here.

The rule only makes sense in a setting like TOI, where the only person anyone has to beat every round is their opponent, and voting does give them an edge there. While this contest has eliminations that remove half its participants every round like TOI, that's where the similarities stop. Here, everyone is voting in one giant pool, not in brackets, and that changes people's considerations to vote, since by voting they're only damaging their own chances of qualifying.

The DQ rule works in this setting because not voting here means they will not qualify to the next round. It introduces a better reason for participants to vote, if to only avoid a DQ. I think it's much better to use that instead of the current tie-break system, where it's even less likely to both happen and matter than in TOI.

While I'm here, I wish all 6 finalists best of luck for the final round! Two new hosts will emerge, can't wait to see how it goes!

In all honesty, I was kinda skeptical about making it to the final round, especially when I took an ECFA approach this time around. However, I wish all my other opponents the best, and I cannot wait to see the end results.

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Are people still stepping for this? It *seems* that people have forgotten or were intending to submit last minute

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It's strategic timing! Wait until the last minute so you can see what you're competing against and can make adjustments to try and push your file ahead of the competition.

...Or you can be like me and spend 5 days finding a song you liked enough to write charts for while juggling a work and social life. Should be done in time, hoping someone else can get theirs up before mine though so I can cry myself to sleep a little knowing I chose Vocal Trance instead of something epic.

Yep, gimme a few moments.

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I'm not actually sure if I'll have the time to finish my file to be honest, lots of stuff to do this week. Maybe tomorrow...

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Alright. Guess I'm starting the votes this time around. Since it's the final round and there are the final 5 standing in place, I'll go into analytic mode for the five submitted. Without further ado...

WWEZIv presents... Battle Royale 2017
Alright, welcome to the final round of Battle Royale 2017. We had 46 enter, and now there is 5 left. Which of the two in the 5 will win Battle Royale? Well, let's find out.


I'm going to be honest, I had low expectations going into Axel's file for this round. I felt underwhelmed by his last file, so maybe this would change my mind. Unfortunately, I had the same feelings as I did previously. The first stop can be fine for - , but with how the steps are placed for + , it sideswiped me from a distance (and not in a good way). I do think the BPM change at b237.5 + b.238 was a nice touch and a set of stops before that was neat. I do feel that could've had more stepping variety during the dubstep part (b.127-b.191) to set it apart from 's take on it and perhaps I thought the red note holds in short bursts for was unnecessary. This, however, did earn a single point from me. I thought it was an improvement from BREAK OVER, but I still think it could've been better.


Okay, so this is an electro house song. This seems to be going towards Feral's favour. Well, for the most part that is true. It only had , but it's no big deal. Going for his usual stepping tactics, he uses gimmicks in some parts of the song (i.e. use of multiple stops in a short period of the song). The stepping pattern seems to fit with the music, so not much complaints in that department. Perhaps how the song was cut is where I give it 2 points from me. It does feel repetitive towards the end and frankly, that's where the variation of steps puts it down to utilise the song cut. Thank god the graphics weren't people eating people, however.


It's alright. It does what it could do from a trance song. A nice balance between vocal stepping and beat stepping. I love how the BPM changes that begins at b.96 and it speeds up til it reaches b.136. It gets you into the music and feel involved playing the stepcharts provided. It did feel a bit out of place with mine usage in . Perhaps Spork! had a reason for its use in to distinguish between the kick and for the synth to be stepped instead. It got 3 points from me as how enjoyable it is to play it for how simple it is.


ROOK seemed to be going on a roll recently. Starting out as a novice in the stepping scene, seeing how far he went, the steps provided in this song showed why he got this far in Battle Royale. I will start off that I didn't enjoy the huge gap between b.32 and b.48. I think that ROOK could've progressed with the steps starting from small to big (as in big gaps b/w notes transitioning to small gaps b/w notes). The stepping pattern, however, little to no complaints. It definitely fits under its 10 rating for . I do find it slightly annoying that the red up notes are placed in-between the mines in b.180-b.182.25 and I can't exactly tell if I stomped on it accurately, but that's not a really big issue in itself. It gets 4 points from me.


Yes this is the top file for me in the final round. I thought the whole thing was really nice and mighty fun to play through. It has a right amount of steps and it flows seemlessly throughout the song. I'll admit that the stop at b.133 threw me off and its length surprised me. Even playing it again on it still caught me off guard. Frankly, I have no complaints for this one. I give it 5 points to this one. While it isn't the most innovating, it doesn't try to be and keep it to the basics whilst throwing a curveball at one point.

So that was my analysis for the files submitted. Even though I was one of the ones to be eliminated in its first round, I still keep an eye on this contest. I had fun playing through most of the files submitted here and it was fun taking a look at the contest. I just want to say thanks Pandy for hosting the first Battle Royale and to everyone involved in this contest. See you guys in the next contest.

TOTALS: (I added a dividing line as a bonus to show which two are currently going to win this contest).
Glitch Nerds [Oni-91] - 5
Super Game [ROOK] - 4
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You Can Walk on Water [Spork!] - 3
Dance with Cannibals [Feraligatr] - 2
Backflow [DMAxel] - 1

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