Ultimate NOT Dredd Tourney (UNDT) - ROUND 2

[Colin YNWA]

So the initial fighting is done and blooded and wounded 32 'heroes' and 32 ' villains roar triumphantly... then pause, nerves slowly appearing behind their eyes. They quickly pull themselves to full height, steel themselves as they realise that they have to do it all again.

When will the torment and butchery end... well actually some time in September by my estimates... but sooner for many....

Round two is starting pretty much straight after Round 1, I'll put the first votes up tomorrow as I hope to get it completed before I go on my holidays for a week a week on Saturday (some of the counting will be while I'm away but I'm sure I'll have access to stuff to do that...) with wifi and availability not properly investigated! We have a break then folks, but for now the violence continues.

I'll be adding things to this thread throughout the day and will contain:

1) A full list of characters, winners and runners up who made it through to this round
2) A summary of the structure and format of the draw
3) A recap of the 'rules'
4) Any other mindless blathering we choose...

Voting back tomorrow!

[Colin YNWA]

Full list of characters who made it to Round 2:

Group winners - Villains

Brass and Bland
PJ Maybe
Judge Cal
Blackblood
Nelson Kreelman
Torquemada
Mean Machine
Thrax
Stickleback
Lulu Romanov
Rico
Mortis
Slough Feg
Satanus
Judge Child
Old One Eye

Group winners - 'Heroes'

Halo Jones
Judge Anderson
Devlin Waugh
Hammerstein
Johnny Alpha
Nikolai Dante
Jacob Sardini
Jaegir
Harry Absalom
Harry Exton
Jim DeGriz
Marlon Shakespeare
Slaine
Sam Slade
Nemesis
Gene Hackman

Runner ups - Villains

Cap'n Evil Blood
Fink Angel
Judge Edgar
Mekquake
Stix Brothers
Tsar Vladimir the Conqueror
Howard Quartz
War Marshal Kazan
Al Bestardi
Jenny Simmons
Cinnabar Brenneka
Death
Masterman
Mose Tanenbaum
Malak Brood
Tiger Commander

Runner ups - 'Heroes'

Jack Dancer
Dirty Frank
Metta Lawson
Ro-jaws
Wulf Sternhammer
Purity Brown
John 'Giant' Clay
Kano
Bridget Kurtis
Ramone Dexter
Spike Harvey Rotten
Galen DeMarco
Aquila
Ace Garp
Zenith
Shakara

[Colin YNWA]

Having done that list it occurs to me I also need to mention some of those that have passed already. I guess the headline here is clear

Rogue Trooper meet his Quartz Zone Massacre - that surprises me and doesn't, as for me he was never much of an actual character, but I always felt he was held in such high regard.

Beyond him surprises (in my mind) seem to be we all hate Max Bubba (well actually he got quite a few votes but when has truth been important these days). Dmitri Romanova; Judges Hershey and Giant (though their group was strong); Durham Red and Middenface (again strong group). And I must admit I thought both Defoe and Zombo would get through.

Who are the fallen you feel must surprised and disappointed by?

On a personal note I'm very sad to see:

Claw Carver
Skizz
Shako (by my hand!)

[broodblik]

For me the biggest letdown is that Rogue did not make it. Rogue and his dog-chips is for me a single character rather than multiple characters.

[Greg M.]

Max Bubba - the most important non-Kreelman villain of the series, the man who killed Wulf Sternhammer, the subject of Johnny's most famous piece of dialogue, the focus of one of the all-time great 2000AD stories - and he got taken out by the %&£#ing Stixes.

Judge Giant - though I appreciate that he currently seems written as an inveterate whiner with daddy issues, which may explain it.

And also the fact that Kano struggled to even be a runner-up and only made it through by the Will of Colin. What's wrong with you people?

[Colin YNWA]

And also the fact that Kano struggled to even be a runner-up and only made it through by the Will of Colin. What's wrong with you people?

Yeah I was surprised Kano didn't romp that group. He's A list to me and while I know Jaegir is popular I don't think there's many characters as interesting as Kano.

[Bolt-01]

The biggest travesty, when all is said and done is that Mrs Kneeble's offspring didn't make it...

[Magnetica]

Bubba's the big surprise for me. Wulf's death was the most shocking thing in the comic up to that point. And indeed I'm struggling to think of anything since that matches it. Bubba was a great mix of greed, self absorption, and ultimately cowardice. I was always sure  he would ditch his gang at a moment's notice or make sure they would sacrifice themselves to make sure he survived.

Overall a downright nasty piece of work.

[Colin YNWA]

So the draw for Round 2 will go a little like this:

- Again in Divisions for dubiously defined 'Heroes' still separated from dubiously defined 'Villains'
- There will be 8 groups of 4 (no fives this time) in each division meaning 16 groups in total and 64 characters overall (maths not withstanding)
- Each Group will consist of 2 group winners and 2 group runners up from Round One
- Two votes - one villain, one heroes per day so over 8 days, each vote lasting 3 days with any luck.

Draw is made by me (and done) and if it looks dodgy well... you'll just have to trust me!

Full 'rules' to follow.

[WhizzBang]

Space Spinner has made me re-appraise Rogue to his detriment. It was never a favourite of mine (Dredd and Slade were the faves) but it always seemed okay and was accepted as being one of the greats but only occasionally did it really deliver something good. The Space Spinner podcast has kind of shone a light on how dull most of the stories were. The artwork was always great though.

[Colin YNWA]

'Rules'... kinda...

1. In each group you can vote for the two characters you'd like to go through to Round 3, just type the names in a reply to the thread.

2. There is no weighting to your vote, each vote gets that character 1 point.

3. If you vote for only one character in a vote that's fine but they will still only get one vote. If you name more than two I will give the first two mentioned a vote each (unless you make it clear who you are voting for in which case I will allocate accordingly)

4. After 3 days I will count up the votes in each group and the 2 characters with the most votes will progress into the next round.

5. In the event of a tie I will have any casting votes needed (I will therefore not vote in the actual rounds)

6. What makes the best character - well that's up to you. It's not meant to be the best, or most stories a character appears in, it's how much you like the character. That could be best design, most interesting, heck you can decide it on who would win in a fight for all I care. All I ask is this is about the character not specifically their story.

So last Round even though I love the strip Lawless above all others I actually gave a casting vote to Devlin Waugh over Metta Lawson as I think he's the better character, even if I prefer the story Metta appears (I do love you Metta I promise!)

7. As ever I'm making this up as I go along and might change things as I go on? Or add rules as they need to be added.

[Colin YNWA]

Last one I promise ... well until the morning!

BONUS GAME

As these groups have no title or theme I will award a bonus prize - that will be of no actual value - for the person who gives what I judge to be the best group name (NOT GroupyMcGroupFace or similar) for any particular grouping of characters here.

This will give you nothing, sweet nothing, except the warm feeling that having a name you have slaved over reflected in some distant spreadsheet and the admiration and respect of your peers. So with that in mind why not send hours thinking of something that links these four apparently* random characters that seem to be thrown together by fate alone. Or just come up with a cool name that encaptulates them. See what takes your fancy.

*Actually random