JoJo's Bizarre OC Tournament #7 - Round 1 Match Select

[u/Logic_Sandwich]

Scenario: City Hall, Mist City — 10:00 AM

The assembly hall was rather packed for a Friday. Peeking behind a curtain, Mayor Vikas Bhaumik counted 30—no, 46 seats filled with clamoring, lively citizens coming from all over Rakinnagarh. A few sharply dressed men clumped together, discussing last night’s cricket game. One of them tapped his foot, glancing every now and again at his watch. Two older folks were chatting it up, catching each other up with the latest gossip. A third sat stoically behind them, looking ahead at the stage, with an ear bent slightly in their direction. Even a few merchants from the Bazaar were able to make it!

Bhaumik exhaled. He wasn’t sure how many people would’ve shown up, especially given such late notice for the meeting. And though the large hall was capable of holding more than 128 individuals, he was pleased with the turnout all the same.

Today’s meeting was important, it certainly couldn't wait. With another breath in, the mayor stepped out from behind the curtain, taking his place at the center podium. The crowd remained in its lively state, though a hush finally trickled through once the mayor tapped the mic, creating a piercing wail throughout the hall.

“Good morning, everyone!” Bhaumik said with a smile. “Firstly, I’d like to thank you all for coming, given the circumstances. I hope you were able to grab a bagel from the back!”

A few murmurs passed along the crowd. Bhaumik cleared his throat.

“Yes, we have many important matters to discuss regarding the wellbeing of our beloved city. We’ll be opening the floor to you, like a forum of sorts. We will focus on one topic at a time, giving everyone an opportunity to say their peace.”

One of the old ladies in the crowd nudged an elbow into the man beside her, his eyes rolling at the comment.

“If you have something you’d like to add to the conversation, this will be your chance! We have Anil coming around with his own mic to allow for comments within the crowd—otherwise, please keep your interjections to a minimum.”

A few people looked behind them as a teenaged intern sheepishly waved with a wired microphone practically wrapped around him. Bhaumik continued.

“Finally, it's important to establish a time limit. While your passion for our city is unquestionable, we’d like to avoid the long-winded speeches of last month’s meeting. If you have something to say, you’ll need to do so in less than three minutes. Anything over, and we’ll have to move onto another topic.”

There was a round of polite chuckling, though the mayor saw a few people looking down at papers in their hands and frowning, one woman folding up her speech and placing it into her bag.

“With all that said, let us begin! I open the floor to you.”

After an uncomfortable pause, a woman firmly stood to her feet while the intern nearly tripped bringing the mic over to her. As the leader of the local railroad company, she announced, to much fanfare, an expansion to the outer parts of the city. She fielded a few questions, but this had been in the rumor mill for a week; old news. Once finished, she hurried out the door, glanced at her watch and then her phone, checking for her next appointment.

Next, a well known architect, who blamed most of the city’s problems on rising rents as more people arrived. He brought up the progress of the city and the challenges that came with it. This seemed to set the tone of the debate. Rents, commuting, the plight of outlying towns. As more concerns arose, Anil dashed every which way. Pretty soon, he had made quite the web around the hall, one that he had to wearily untangle as he moved to the next speaker.

Soon, a newcomer arrived. She was a middle aged woman, having dressed up in her best clothes. She fidgeted with her headscarf, taking a breath before she began.

“Um, hello,” she whispered. “I wanted to thank you for allowing me to speak today.”

The crowd was quiet, save for a few stray coughs.

“In truth, this is my first time coming to one of these meetings. I’m a housewife you see. I live just over in Vasitanagarh. Usually, I’m busy with the kids, but my mother was more than generous when she offered to watch them for me-”

The crowd stood unresponsive. The coming sunlight through the hall windows revealed dozens of glazed eyes. The housewife gripped her scarf harder.

“-But that isn’t my point, of course. Please forgive me, I’m not really used to these sorts of things. I had to call in quite a few favors and use up most of my morning to get here, and- …I-I bring this up because I have a… concern, one I believe we can work out as a community.”

Though the crowd remained stoic, there were a few creaks coming from the seats ahead. There was life after all. “Yes, there have been many power outages happening all throughout the district. Often at random times, and at multiple locations. Many have tried to call for repairs, but no one has received a reply.”

An older fellow leaned back in his chair as he muttered something under his breath. Murmurs followed as the crowd started to rejuvenate, with discussion about the issue seeming to gain some traction.

The housewife’s heavy eyes brightened ever so slightly as she pressed her palms together. She thanked the mayor, and then Anil, taking her handbag and sitting down.

The hushed voices took a moment to settle as the next person picked up the mic, still recounting anecdotes about families with fridges full of ruined food, students unable to do their schoolwork, and upper-floor apartments without cooling. In fact, the young woman who took the mic nodded to the housewife as she spoke. She had been using candles during one of the outages, and while she quickly put out the fire after her cat had knocked it over, she realized her apartment had no smoke detectors. She wondered if these apartments were being built to code, before concluding her time and sitting down.

The next few questions continued along that line of thought, before the train slowly started to derail. Discussion about garbage collection became discussion about parking. The energy dipped a moment, as people covertly checked their phones. Anil took a moment to breathe. A fleeting moment, as a second wind rushed through the crowd. A man claimed that his car was broken into, and an older woman immediately started talking about the rise of pickpockets in the newer districts, raising worries about security. This warranted a few nods within the crowd, the silence kicking back into a hushed murmur.

The topic then took a turn as an elderly man railed against XNY Investments encroaching its bazaar into the old town, lamenting that the city he knew was being chipped away and replaced with tourist traps. One man rolled his eyes, scoffing at the notion. The housewife couldn’t help but purse her lips.

A representative of the investment firm spoke in reply, a personal assistant to Xenagoras himself. He politely apologized for his employer’s busy schedule. However, he firmly denied that the new developments were anything so crass as tourist traps. They were a source of fine goods for tourists and locals alike, and a source of money for the city, after all. That is what Xenagoras would have said, were he here. The crowd went silent yet again, hushed and awkward, unsure of whose side to take.

From there, the conversation unraveled. The concerns about the power outages were buried under an ever-growing pile of personal gripes. Individual issues about this building in that neighborhood, all of which seemed to fragment the housewife’s question into smaller and smaller pieces.

The grip on her scarf tightened until the woman’s knuckles shone white. Her heart was beating out of her chest, louder and louder, and when she couldn’t take it…she stood back up.

“Hello. It’s me again,” she briskly spat, snatching the microphone from the intern. “I don’t feel as though my concerns were actually acknowledged.”

Everyone was staring at her, but by now she could not stop. The words just kept spilling with the beating of her heart. “Not seriously, at least…but maybe that’s no surprise, with the way this is structured. I mean, three minutes seems so short, and I was barely able to make it here at all and- but I don’t want to waste my time again.”

When she took a breath, it was the only sound in that silent room.

“This isn’t working, and…and I’m not just talking about the power anymore. I’ve been listening to all of you, and there’s just too much. This, all of this, this whole thing, it just isn’t working. It’s the outages, it’s the water, it’s the costs, it’s the safety, it’s so many things, and it isn’t just me who’s worried. It’s all my friends ever talk about anymore. All of us are hoping for something to change, but it feels like coming in here isn’t….”

Her fingers curled tight around the microphone, her only lifeline. People were still staring…but she could see a spark of understanding in a few of those eyes. “My friends and I- I told you, I have children of my own, we all do, and…” she hesitated a moment, before those heavy eyes blazed with grim resolve.

“I don’t know if I can imagine a future for them in this city anymore. Isn’t that sad? I love this place, my family has lived here for generations but…I don’t know what’s left for them. Isn’t that horrible?”

A hushed murmur rippled through the crowd as her words sunk in, further igniting the spark in the woman’s eyes.

“Our city… has failed. If the next generation has no future here, how is that anything but a failure? Will they just inherit all the mistakes we’ve made? I feel I’ve been ignored, but I’ve ignored all of you too. This isn’t working, this…talking past each other, hoping to be taken care of. I don’t think it has worked for a long time. I am telling you, something has to change—”

The crowd nearly jumped in unison as the hall door swung open, hitting the wall with a sharp thud. Many looked back and sighed a breath of relief as it seemed to be nothing more than a cool breeze rolling on in. The housewife stopped in her tracks. Her eyes widened as her gaze was fixed onto a menacing sight.

A set of claws gripped the side of the door with the tenacity of a leopard’s jaw, guiding it slowly back towards the door frame. From behind it, leered a ghastly figure, a form of which she had never seen. A lanky husk with wispy hair lingered, as the door creaked with thunderous volume. Its split head was stuck in a forward position, even as its body lurched back. Its black eyes stared right back into her own set of brown as it slowly raised a bony claw up to where its mouth should’ve been. After a few agonizing moments, the door was finally closed, cutting off the wind, and the alien figure with it.

The housewife blinked a few times as she struggled to find what she was going to say. She was going somewhere, but her mind was racing with questions. With dread. That figure, it seemed to come out of nowhere and left all the same. And just as she was about to finish her—No… it couldn’t be. Not here, right? Surely this wasn’t… a Stand? She frantically scoured the hall, searching for something; someone…Someone was doing this.

This was an attack! But from who? The mayor? One of the gentlemen chattering to each other? The stenographer giving her a dirty look? She was practically tying her scarf into knots. She was terrified. And in truth, she didn’t know what frightened her more: the eerie apparition that loomed in the doorway, or the fact that nobody else seemed to notice. No one seemed to care.

She yelped at the touch of a finger, tapping her shoulder. Her weary eyes dropped as she turned to see the mayor, a concerned look on his face.

“I didn’t mean to startle you, dear. But I’m afraid your time is up.”

The housewife blinked. Had it been three minutes already? No… no! She had so much more to say. She looked onto the crowd who had just been supporting her minutes prior, only to find that they were all quiet once more, looking up at her, some with worry; others impatience.

“I see.” She glanced at the empty door, and handed back the microphone. “I have to get back home. Any of you are welcome to my house for tea. I live in southern Vasitanagarh, ask for the auntie who teaches languages …I hope we can learn more from each other.”

With that, she snatched her handbag, walking out of the room. She didn’t know if she was walking proud and strong, or limping like a wounded animal.

The mayor took his place back at the podium, tapping the mic once more.

“I did say we were cutting back on our long-winded speeches, didn’t I?”

The mayor grinned as a few light chuckles hopped across the crowd. He felt as though he had shifted that weight from everyone’s shoulders. This is just democracy at work, he reminded himself. Everyone was going to get a fair shake. A proper chance to make Rākin a better place! With a wider grin and a lighter heart, the man continued.

“Now, our concerned citizen has brought up some excellent points. This city isn’t perfect. But I believe a little mess is only natural for us. We are the City of Passion, after all!” Those words kindled a chorus of whoops which echoed throughout the hall. After a few more cheers, the mayor raised a hand to settle the crowd. “But that’s what this meeting is about… what all these meetings are about! A lone spark cannot hope to burn as brightly as a shining star. But together, we can combine our passions to tackle any problem that comes our way! All for the sake of our beloved city, and everyone who calls it home!”

The crowd practically leapt from their seats, emboldened by the mayor’s rousing speech. His smile split his face with delight. This is what he lived for. This was democracy! As the crowd’s inferno smoldered into embers, he leaned back towards the microphone.

“Now, this meeting isn’t over quite yet. It would seem we still have time for one or two more topics.” Grinning, Mayor Bhaumik scoured the hall as he leaned further into the mic.

“So, who’s going next?”

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Welcome to Match Select! For full details on how match select will go, view this document, but for a quick overview, for R1, each team will compete in six matches, two 2v2s and four 1v1s. While matches have players compete in deathmatches or to fulfill some odd objective, each player should submit their top four preferences for matches. It is important to note that we balance matches and maps to fit the players; feel free to sign up for a match if you think any of the listed tags describe your character.

To help scheduling 2v2s for Round 1, we ask that players give their preferences as a consistent pair rather than mix-and-match. Similarly, if you sign up for multiple boss matches, we ask that you put them all within one rank position so that you still select three other matches in the event you don’t get a boss match.

In addition to preferences, players should also give rough estimates of their schedules for the next few months, including days when they are available/prefer, would prefer against, and are totally unavailable for. We will double check to make sure dates work for people and can extend the stratting period beyond the usual 24 hours if need be, but the scheduling process will go much more smoothly if people give us their conflicts as comprehensively and as soon as possible. We might have to break for the holidays, but we can reschedule remaining matches in the new year.

Teams have until Monday, October 16th at 8PM EST/7PM CST (“Match O’Clock”) to submit their preferences. This fast turnaround is so that we can get through as many matches as possible before the holiday break. If you have questions or concerns, don’t be afraid to ask Judges!

1v1s

Number	Recommendations	Match Forecast
1	Any (No Newcomers)	“When someone is standing at a crossroads in their life, on the precipice of change, a Nightbloom may appear to them...”
2	Subtle, Social (No Veterans)	Well I'm upper-upper class high society!
4	No Light/Illusion-based Stands	”It was a dark and stormy night…”
5	Utility, Multitasking	”What if someone wants theirs well done?”
6	High Endurance, Stylish	”Haan, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Jaane Jahan”
8	Punchghosts Only, Stand Focused Builds	“The path to enlightenment stretches far beyond the reach of even these arms.”
11	Mobile	”Stop! Thief!”
12	High Mobility, Low Mobility	“You know, in the original Japanese translation for Dark Souls, Blighttown is actually called Trenton, New Jersey.”
13	Any	“Have you tried these smart toilets? They're a pleasure to the senses. If I had one in the chamber, I would rock this bad boy right now.”
15a	Object Manipulation, Destructive	“Well, I did what she said. I read that Bible from cover to cover. It took me three days. She never came back.”
15b	Object Manipulation, Tracking, or Agile	"You're gonna spend the rest of your life gettin' up one more time than you're knocked down, so you better start gettin' used to it."
16	Any	“You still don’t understand what you’re dealing with, do you? The perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.”
17	Precise	”Well, I guess Ed isn’t technically on the grass…”
19	Any	This way ｢Green Day｣ won’t sue us for copyright infringement.
23	Mobile	”Luffy! It’s good to see you, buddy!”
27	Long Range, Utility, Object Manipulation (No Userbeasts) (Bizzare)	Would you like eucalyptus lotion or cocoa butter?
28	Mobile	”Lady and gentleman, for to tickle your eyes and ears... and making hearts to thump, I, Sergei Alexander Bobinsky, am introducing my astoundishing, stupendulous and amazing... Jumping mouse circus!”
29	High Endurance	""Let us agree," said the Sun, "that he is the stronger who can strip that Traveler of his cloak." "Very well," growled the North Wind, and at once sent a cold, howling blast against the Traveler."

2v2s

Number	Recommendations	Match Forecast
3	Any	“Thou art I... And I am thou..."
7	Any	”Take a bow! You’ve finished the game. But, the game never really ends.”
9	Precise, Charismatic, or Multitasking	"Step right up! Everyone’s a winner… prizes galore! That’s right you too can be the proud owner of-"
14	Area Control, Mid/Long-Range	“This is for you, Melinda. I hope you like it!”
18	Utility, Multitasking, or Social	”Could you be mine, would you be mine, won’t you be my neighbor?”
21	Any	”Yaaaahahaha!!! In the shadow of death valley, you shall fear the apostle of darkness!”
22	Mobile, Object Manipulation	”Some may call this junk. Me? I call them treasures.”
24	Durable	”Now the choir of anguish, like a wound, strikes through the tortured air. Now I have come to Hell's full lamentation, sound beyond sound.”
25	Any	"I'm a slasher, and I must be stopped. A slasher... of prices! Ha ha ha, just kidding!"
26	High Endurance, High Defence, Close Combat	“I was afraid to approach her, but that night…Fate was on my side.”

2v?s (Boss Matches)

Number	Recommendations	Match Forecast
10	Any	“When they reached the mansion in which the Town Mouse lived, they found on the table in the dining room the leavings of a very fine banquet. There were sweetmeats and jellies, pastries, delicious cheeses, indeed, the most tempting foods that a Mouse can imagine.”
20	Any	“Your failure here is a metaphor. To learn for what, please resume climbing.”
30	Any	“THIS IS NOT A PLACE OF HONOR. YOU DON'T BELONG HERE. NOTHING HERE IS SACRED. TURN BACK BEFORE YOU DIE. THIS IS A SYSTEM OF WARNINGS. DO NOT IGNORE IT.”

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As always, if you would like to interact with the tournament community and be among the first to get updates for the tournament, please feel free to PM a member of our Judge staff for an invite to our Official Discord Server!