Steel chairs form a square around a roughly circular pond in a grass field. Only two rows of them -- preliminary rounds don't attract big crowds, since the least notable competitors are there and the big stars are likely to keep the good appeals for later on. Even with so few seats, the crowd wasn't exactly packing, and empty chairs were as present as occupied ones. Behind the pathetic folding seats, slightly more respectable desks stood, in three different positions to capture three different angles, occupied by three different qualified referees who were in for something of a different routine that day.
For the very few who may have not already realized who was competing in that block, the primary judge announced who was competing in the Block One: Blackthorne Steele, shadow_lugia, Alraunne and Blastoise. Weak-spirited applause rolled in as the signal to begin the appeals was given.
Blackthorne Steele and Rift
Some expectations grew for the first appeal -- that fellow over there was, after all, none other than the very best trainer ever seen by one single island, who managed to, alone, outmatch three battlers that were on to him. That sentiment spiked when he chose to send out the Ghost-type who had nabbed that one match, plus now in an evolved form.
Rift opened the appeal by using the same trick that marked, for good, the match on the island. This time, however, there was no Riolu to fall for it. Only a very select few among the select few could find a nugget of attraction in a strange gas cloud with hands licking a judge on the face and winking.
The crowd's dumbfounded state extended on to the Haunter's. She wasn't quite sure what her trainer meant with "unleashing Psychic powarz"; there was no target, no specification of where these powers were meant to be shot. In what may have been an awkward guess, she tried establishing telekinetic contact with the same judge she tried to pose for, hurling them at the pool for what all but one of the beholders may have found funny.
Again dealt confusing orders, Rift couldn't quite figure where exactly "the place" was, so, she merely and abruptly charged an electic ball in her hands to shoot at a random target on the ground. The voltaic orb did not much more than peter out into the grassy ground, maybe buring some of the grass where it hit.
As the first two appealers left the stage, the unfortunate judge had a quick break to change the soaked clothes, and the janitors did not much more than get rid of spilled pond waters, as well as cover the circle of burnt grass with... Well, more grass.
Metallica Fanboy: 4.5
Sorry to break it to you, man, but that was definetly not a good appeal. It was pretty disjointed, what with the three moves feeling like they were just tacked in there, with no correlation. Also, as the A&A guide may imply, Psychic really needs to be targeting something.
Negrek: 4.0
Your appeal commands were pretty vague, and as you can see, that came back to bite you. In general, when planning an appeal you should try to think of how you can use your three attacks in sequence to build off one another, to create a scene or tell some kind of story. You kind of just threw three random things in here, and it didn't go over so well.
Chiropter: 5.0
Not sure what you were trying to go for here. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the attacks Rift used, and none of them were impressive enough on their own to make up for that (Attract in particular, which would only work on half the audience anyway).
shadow_lugia and Fern
The next competitor took the stage, and sent out a quadrupedal reptile with leaves and a bud above her backside. Immediately upon being sent out, she took action, as the pink bulb on her back emitted a pink cloud that relaxed and entranced the crowd like a roll of weed.
The drowsy spectators were suddenly knocked awake when the appeal took a turn for the intense, as the aforementioned bulb began to frenzy fire leaves to form a massive whirlwind
around the stage, unleashing a surge of pure energy about.
The momentary shock settled when the leaves did, which was quite sooner than one would expect. In a final move, a mighty roar echoed in the less than mighty arena. Clouds shrank and vanished as the sunlight grew harsher, shedding light upon the falling leaves. As abruptly as it began and proceeded, the appeal then ended.
Janitors felt like they were cleaning piles of fallen leaves in autumn as the round had to wait for the sun to back off again before the next competitor could take the stage.
Metallica Fanboy: 6.0
I liked the whole natural and Grass-type feel, and while the first two moves did produce a good contrast, I don't think Sunny Day is what you're looking for when you want "really awesome light effects" unless you have something that reflects light on the field. Overall, it was a nice appeal, though.
Negrek: 5.5
Your appeal was certainly cheerful, but it didn't hang together all that well. Some indication of how you wanted the leaf storm to combine with the sunny day, exactly, might have helped to give this appeal some cohesion, and right now the sweet scent feels rather tacked on.
Chiropter: 6.0
Sweet Scent isn’t really very impressive on its own, and I’m not entirely sure what effect you were going for with the Sunny Day at the end, but the Leaf Storm was impressive, and it all tied together with a plant-related theme, so all in all, not bad, not great.
Alraunne and Bertrando
Finally, the sun was no longer insanely hot. It was time for one more appeal to be revealed to the eyes of the scarce spectators. Alraunne sent out a small, black bird with a hat-like crest on his head to carry the performance out.
Bertrando flapped his wings, taking to the air with dazzling speed as he drilled and swooped in a show of magnificent mastery over flight.
The crowd was further taken in by a sudden stop and a dark, almost murderous stare, combined with birdsong that was probably meant to be evil laughter. The small stature of the Pokémon contrasted with the sudden menace to compose a captivating effect.
After the brief display of threat, the crow resumed his spinning routine, this time leaving behind a blurred dash of black feathers where he passed. His trajectory marked by the down, he landed, receiving plenty of applause as the feathers slowly fell.
One round of collecting feathers later, the final appeal for the block was to start.
Metallica Fanboy: 6.7
Aerial Ace and Featherdance went very well together there, but I'm afraid I don't quite see how Captivate was meant to fit in with the remainder of the appeal, specially not when it was meant to have such a different feel in comparison to the other two moves.
Negrek: 6.8
This was a simple appeal, but it ended up working out pretty well. It would be nice if you had drawn the attacks together a bit more, given it more of a build-up or a theme, but as I said, it ended up turning out nice and pretty in any case.
Chiropter: 7.0
Pretty good, but I feel like it needed some reorganizing. The Captivate in the middle seemed very out of place and unconnected to the rest of the appeal - it might have been better to have that at the beginning, then combine the Aerial Ace and Featherdance for a better effect.
Blastoise and Coronada
Blastoise sent out yet another ghost; unlike Rift, however, Coronada seemed to be in a completely different mood, with a look that seemed sad yet serious. The peculiar gaze was aimed very specifically at the crowd as the Misdreavus slowly hefted herself off the ground, still keeping the grave tone.
Eyes closed, she began singing a creepy tune that, for some people in the crowd, was a motive to shut ears and desperately try not to hear it. While singing, the Ghost-type moved around the air slowly, with a circular trajectory and movement upwards and downards.
Still humming the dastardly music, Coronada unleashed a purple breeze through the underside of her body, releasing an ominous sound as a haze filled with vengeful spirits wafted around the arena, raising hairs wherever it passed. Their roaming followed the path that the slowly fading Misdreavus took, forming the same distorted circumference.
As the suspicious wind began to settle down, the Misdreavus rose as high as she could. Floating above the center of the arena, she released a horrible shriek, her eyes widely opening only to close again. Her body started to slowly and pitifully tumble down towards the ground, and she was then recalled.
Not much applause had the chance to be given out -- right then, most of the crowd suddenly took horrified looks, mysteriously fainting. The last gradings were dealt as doctors hastily stormed the stage.
Metallica Fanboy: 7.2
In particular, I really liked the "scream and die" gimmick, and it was built up nicely, though it could be done better as an Ominous Wind petering out is subtle but shrieking aloud is absolutely not.
Negrek: 7.2
A creepy appeal, although perhaps a little too creepy--typically I take points off really brutal appeals, which I think a normal audience would tend to find disgusting or disturbing rather than entertaining. Play-acting a drawn out and apparently painful attack would make most people a bit squeamish, I think. It was put together well enough besides that, though, although you didn't really need to spend an entire action on "scream and die"--that sort of thing you could do in combination with another attack of some sort, perhaps something a bit more flashy.
Chiropter: 8.5
A very fitting appeal for a misdreavus. Perish Song and Ominous Wind went very well together. I did feel, though, that the ending could have used an actual attack - at the very least, misdreavus does learn Screech. Still, what you had was very effective.
As the crowd recovered from the shocking final appeal of the round, the scores were announced.
Blastoise: 22.9
Alraunne: 20.5
shadow_lugia: 17.5
Blackthorne Steele: 13.5
Congratulations, Blastoise, you're in the next round. Good luck over there. And, as for the remainder of the contestants, better luck next time around.
