balmung The Grindstone - Saturdays at 10 PM EST (9 PM Central)

[Warren Castille]

I'm thinking of scrubbing the Win/Loss bits to just show wins and perhaps number of appearances. Tracking losses doesn't really seem worthwhile when there can only ever be one person who doesn't lose any given week. Thoughts/ideas?

[g0ne]

Erm... may Eleni try out the Grindstone? 

 

*raises scared, shaky hand*

[Warren Castille]

Erm... may Eleni try out the Grindstone? 

 

*raises scared, shaky hand*

 

Open to all! It IS genuine combat, though, even if there are some bare-bones rules in place. Come looking for a scrap and you won't be disappointed!

[Aoi Fukiku]

I'm thinking of scrubbing the Win/Loss bits to just show wins and perhaps number of appearances. Tracking losses doesn't really seem worthwhile when there can only ever be one person who doesn't lose any given week. Thoughts/ideas?

If you are talking about the brackets if who went against who and moved  on I say keep it. I like seeing who went against who.

[Warren Castille]

I'm thinking of scrubbing the Win/Loss bits to just show wins and perhaps number of appearances. Tracking losses doesn't really seem worthwhile when there can only ever be one person who doesn't lose any given week. Thoughts/ideas?

If you are talking about the brackets if who went against who and moved  on I say keep it. I like seeing who went against who.

 

Oh, yeah, that will be unchanged. I'm referring specifically to the "Standings" tab. Not a lot of reasons to track losses when everyone is going to lose!

[Aoi Fukiku]

I'm thinking of scrubbing the Win/Loss bits to just show wins and perhaps number of appearances. Tracking losses doesn't really seem worthwhile when there can only ever be one person who doesn't lose any given week. Thoughts/ideas?

If you are talking about the brackets if who went against who and moved  on I say keep it. I like seeing who went against who.

 

Oh, yeah, that will be unchanged. I'm referring specifically to the "Standings" tab. Not a lot of reasons to track losses when everyone is going to lose!

Yeah I think getting rid of that is fine.

[Gegenji]

I'm thinking of scrubbing the Win/Loss bits to just show wins and perhaps number of appearances. Tracking losses doesn't really seem worthwhile when there can only ever be one person who doesn't lose any given week. Thoughts/ideas?

 

Eh, I'm of a... neutral mind on it.

 

I mean, considering the varying size of the participant pool, just showing wins and number of appearances could lead to skewed-looking results. Say someone participated in Eorzea's Smallest Grindstone, where there was just four people participating. He wins both matches. He'd have one appearance and two wins (including a Grindstone victory!), but someone who won two (or more) rounds in a larger competition would have a similar (or better) showing. Unless you're only counting wins as "Won the Grindstone"... and then there's gonna be a lot of zeroes.

 

On the other hand, seeing the number of losses can be a bit disheartening as well. Especially if you're one of those who can't seem to make it past the first or second rounds. Two wins, four losses over four appearances? Wee, how fun. And, with the standings still intact, if you really want to see how many people someone climbed over, you can refer to that.

 

In the end, though, if I may be a bit cynical for a moment - the whole thing is basically a tracker of who had the favor of the RNG that day, isn't it? Your character could have twenty years of military experience IC, but if you can't roll over a 100 on your /randoms, you're still going to lose to the kid with the rabbit helmet on his head. Of course, that's more a limitation of the format, and still a good sight better than trying to freeform it - since almost everyone will want to win all their rounds.

[BlackmoreKnight]

And if FF ever gets mechanical dueling we'll just see strength-accessory tanks win week after week and lose all the fun emotes that make the event worth doing. RNG's the only way to make it work and fair.

 

But that said I'm in favor of taking out the 'loss' record. Because yeah people are just going to get a massively bad ratio over time, everyone, because of the RNG. Tracking just fights shows either consistently good RNG or consistent attendance.

[Jancis]

Going to agree with that as well and say take out the loss.

 

- It's a lot less effort on the management's part to keep track of and that should be something that isn't overwhelming.

- The whole purpose of the event is to have strong people competing and it's not an actual black mark or worth rating for loss and giving some kind of value to that skews the whole point of fighting.

 

I also have a concern about keeping track of participants because that list can get very long with inactive people over time and might be more of a pain to maintain. If that's something people are honestly interested in, then there can be a roster post along with the winner here each week and people can go back and account for themselves that way.

 

Keeping it simple is always key; already do enough to maintain and fund the event.

[Warren Castille]

Alright, for now:

 

-Losses are scrubbed out. Anyone with a win now has "X Wins" besides their name

-Anyone without a win is removed from the list to not make people sad

-Will continue to consider how to make use of tracking this sort of thing

 

Tracking participants is relatively easy at this point; Because I was listing them from the first night, my list only gets a few extra names added each night and Sort A-Z makes it pretty simple to include people without it being much work to reorganize. It's also handy to reference whether or not someone's new or not, and to give them an appropriate "Story booking" when someone makes it to the finals.

 

As always, open to further discussion. The Grindstone belongs to everyone who participates, I figure.

[Warren Castille]

Another Grindstone in the books! We had a hell of a crowd show up again tonight, 24 fights and maybe another dozen or two spectators, fans, friends and on-lookers! Hopefully everyone who came to watch walked away entertained.

 

This was probably the most tense Grindstone I've seen, and not for the reasons you'd think! Multiple outside storylines threatened to spill over onto the dust and there were at least three factions eeking out a fragile peace. Thankfully, zero body parts got lopped off this week!

 

Rolls-wise, this one was a bit crazy. We saw our first-ever /random for 0, which happened in a thirty-minute-tied-at-two ironman match between Reiner Dorn and Kyuu'sae Yuusatsu. The two exchanged horrible rolls and constant defenses until finally, Reiner went down in a heap. There were also multiple times where someone would roll a terrible two-digit number, only for their opponent to then roll a worse one! I say it every week, folks: Every night is anyone's night!

 

Our finals this week saw a determined Iskander Ionius make it to the end to face a back-to-the-finals Sounsy "I wrote the history books" Mirke. After another tense struggle, the loremonger was able to overcome her own history and take home the championship title!

 

Sadly, tonight marks the end of an era. We're remiss to confirm that Cyneler Fenrir has publicly retired from the Grindstone. He may be gone, but he will certainly not be forgotten.

 

[video=youtube]

[Aoi Fukiku]

[Cynel1]

Another Grindstone in the books! We had a hell of a crowd show up again tonight, 24 fights and maybe another dozen or two spectators, fans, friends and on-lookers! Hopefully everyone who came to watch walked away entertained.

 

This was probably the most tense Grindstone I've seen, and not for the reasons you'd think! Multiple outside storylines threatened to spill over onto the dust and there were at least three factions eeking out a fragile peace. Thankfully, zero body parts got lopped off this week!

 

Rolls-wise, this one was a bit crazy. We saw our first-ever /random for 0, which happened in a thirty-minute-tied-at-two ironman match between Reiner Dorn and Kyuu'sae Yuusatsu. The two exchanged horrible rolls and constant defenses until finally, Reiner went down in a heap. There were also multiple times where someone would roll a terrible two-digit number, only for their opponent to then roll a worse one! I say it every week, folks: Every night is anyone's night!

 

Our finals this week saw a determined Iskander Ionius make it to the end to face a back-to-the-finals Sounsy "I wrote the history books" Mirke. After another tense struggle, the loremonger was able to overcome her own history and take home the championship title!

 

Sadly, tonight marks the end of an era. We're remiss to confirm that Cyneler Fenrir has publicly retired from the Grindstone. He may be gone, but he will certainly not be forgotten.

 

[video=youtube]

its for the Best I observe from now on. (i couldn't get used to this Type of battle.)

[Sounsyy]

Our finals this week saw a determined Iskander Ionius make it to the end to face a back-to-the-finals Sounsy "I wrote the history books" Mirke. After another tense struggle, the loremonger was able to overcome her own history and take home the championship title!

 

LOL greatness. Sounsyy will be back next week to break the winner's curse! Come see history in the making!

[Kishi]

Grats to Sounsyy for winning! Though sorry at the same time. I don't have any pictures from your winning week , they decided not to save last night.

[Star Lin]

Yeah, there were some great matches last night.  Might actually have gotten some character growth with John....or at least his head on straight about why these Matches were taking place.  If Kyuu is there next week, John might be bringing some papers that his parents have been holding on too, perhaps holding infor on his 'birth' family.

 

After the match, John hung around to give congrats to Sounsyy, and then follow the group back to the Quicksand where he then perform the trick 'Insert foot into mouth' with Cliodhna by being too familiar and shortening her name.  Poor Kit (usually it loosely since he's 21) lit up like a red christmas tree light.  If I hadn't realize that it was so late at night/early in the morning (3:30 am because of time change) I might have stay on long to get him really good and embarrassed.

[Cliodhna Eoghan]

After the match, John hung around to give congrats to Sounsyy, and then follow the group back to the Quicksand where he then perform the trick 'Insert foot into mouth' with Cliodhna by being too familiar and shortening her name.  Poor Kit (usually it loosely since he's 21) lit up like a red christmas tree light.  If I hadn't realize that it was so late at night/early in the morning (3:30 am because of time change) I might have stay on long to get him really good and embarrassed.

 

she just has a slight discomfort with people not familiar using it is all.

 

still overall we had a nice party to celebrate sounsyy winning and surprisingly no one got wasted to the point of needing to be carried home

[Sounsyy]

still overall we had a nice party to celebrate sounsyy winning and surprisingly no one got wasted to the point of needing to be carried home

 

5am came too soon. Like an hour too soon.

[Cliodhna Eoghan]

still overall we had a nice party to celebrate sounsyy winning and surprisingly no one got wasted to the point of needing to be carried home

 

5am came too soon. Like an hour too soon.

 

for reals ._____.

[Aaron]

Well thanks to my dumbass internet and the fuggin maintenence I can't even log back in for the final match.

 

Wonderful timing internet. Just wonderful.

 

Grats on your win by default Sounsy .

[Berrod Armstrong]

My internet gave out on me right as it was about to start. It's back now but I can't log in anyway. Ah well -- I hope you guys are having a blast!

[Sounsyy]

Grats on your win by default Sounsy .

 

You were missed! ; ; I won't spoil anything... but there was no win by default. ;P

[Cliodhna Eoghan]

My internet gave out on me right as it was about to start. It's back now but I can't log in anyway. Ah well -- I hope you guys are having a blast!

 

i put stickers on your afk face to cheer your scowl up some :3 and gs was soo much fun tonight.

[Warren Castille]

It's Sunday morning! Time to recap the Grindstone!

 

I've been thinking of editing the main calendar post. While the actual event doesn't get started until 10PM EST, last night there was roleplay out at the rock around 7:30 or so. It's ridiculous! You are all ridiculous.

 

23 of Balmung's finest lined up last night to see who would ultimately take home the top prize for the week. At first it was a strong showing by Aaron Frostheart, who completely gutted his side of the bracket in what might have been record time. On the other side of the gathering, Sounsy Mirke was proving last week wasn't a fluke as she dispatched previous Grindstone winner (and someone who'd defeat her in the finals some weeks ago!) and newcomers alike, going to far as to skewer Val "Mister Four Million Gil" Nunh to make her way to the finals.

 

But then, disaster! The ongoing maintenance left us alone for the most part, but a combination of that and pigeon internet left us without a contender at the very last moment as Aaron got Sneak Attacked by the red dot monster. With a former champion bristling at the idea of breaking the Winner's Curse and a crowd of folks wanting to see one more match, a deal was struck. Sounsy's title would have to be earned by going through the Arbiter himself!

 

...but anyone who has ever seen Warren fight at the Grindstone should have known how that would go. In a duel to disarm your opponent, it was Mirke's shield versus Warren's sword, and after a very tense series of exchanges the highlander was forced to release his weapon. Another week, another Mirke win! She was on fire last night, having rolled 600+ for seemingly every encounter.

 

Now it's time for a picture dump!

 

 

 

People gathered before 8PM.

 

If you've ever seen Warren looking around from person to person during introductions or thereabouts, this is why! Look at those names blending together! It's worse during the line-up proper.

 

The line-up.

 

When you and your opponent are ready, you may begin.

 

Mirke and Raik squaring off. It doesn't end will for him, though not as bad as it could have been.

 

Haku preparing to finish off Rhin via a backhand with "the force of 3000 Warren Castilles."

 

Val and Mirke, after Val's been stitched back together by every healer present. They remembered to remove the sword first this time!

 

Mirke preparing to earn her title the hard way. She made it looks so easy, though.

 

[ProvaDiServo]

Zonked out on the rocks pls forgive >.