The Topical Tourney 2024
Semi-Finals Magazine!

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Welcome back, boils and ghouls, to another thrilling instalment of our The Topical Tournament 2024 magazine! First off, thank you to EVERYONE involved for making this happen. We had a fantastic turn out for the opening round, a lot of positivity, votes were of the highest order for the most part and it felt dope to see something go down around here after so many false starts. This was going to take a mammoth effort from all involved for us to see there was still life in the lime Green dog still, but WE DID IT! Text isn’t dead. The topical side just own things now. This is our playground. We began last round with just eight competitors, all vying for a coveted place in our semi-finals and edging one step closer to infamy by winning the tournament. Were there upsets? You bet there were. Did anyone think it was still possible for Netcees to hold a topical tournament? Almost certainly not. Yet here we are, on the precipice of greatness, and I’m here for it all the way. Who will be joining me at the very end? Well, there are just four competitors remaining and all that stands in their way are their opponents this round. It’s now or never. Do or die. Sink or swim. You get the picture! But before we get down to business, let’s recap how we got here for those potentially tuning in late…

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Round One Battle Reviews

It’s difficult, isn’t it, defining the success of a tournament? For me personally a tournament needs a strong character at the helm. Not just in terms of stature within the game, though that certainly helps, but they also have to have some personality about them — otherwise no one cares that much about what they have to say. It’s almost like a football commentator who never played at the highest level attempting to give their insight. You can appreciate the effort for what it is, but when you hear a true great of the game speak they’ll mention things you perhaps hadn’t even considered before. The subtle nuances and thought processes involved behind the choices made. I feel, and hope, I can give you guys that when I breakdown the battles. It’s my way of giving back to the game in some small part and the idea is that by going to such efforts - it will be paid back in the effort yourselves show me. There’s no half-measures when I run a tournament. I’m going all out. I’ve always maintained that those that show up, but more importantly perhaps those that stick around after they’re eliminated to carry on voting and spectating - will always have an advantage over a bigger name in any future contests I hold. I would prefer to have one of those loyal heads over a name any day of the week. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, of course, but you have to show me love for it to be reciprocated. I’ve no problem in doing that, you guys deserve it. The success of these tournaments is only as good as you help make them. I’m content to give you my all, but ultimately YOU guys make the tournament what it is. I expect you guys to show up, and show out, but more importantly show love on each others battles too. Break them down consistently, explain what lead to your conclusion, give people constructive feedback and let’s give those reading impetus to want to sign up and take part. The text battle side of the site right now is defunct, it’s a perfect time to try and convince some of those still interested in writing that there’s an outlet for them right here. We’ve got this. I’m mindful that this wall of text has gone off on a tangent somewhat, so let me try and come back to my original point real quick. How do we judge the success of a tournament? Is it one seen through to a logical conclusion with a winner declared at the end, or is it by the efforts of all those involved? To me personally it being seen through to conclusion is almost a bare minimum we should be expecting of the moderator in charge. Do you judge the tournaments success by its number of participants showing up? Because we had a full house of battles go down last round. (Yes, White LGI was a disappointment, but we had fill-ins on deck and Regulator got a verse up super fast. This is the sort of hands-on management you need from the moderator to neutralise the problem before it even becomes one. Not a single thing was lost with White LGI no-showing. Everything was handled to keep things moving along with minimal fuss. We had 8 verses out of 8, every battle commenced, voting was of a high standard and we move onto round two in a strong position here. The semi finals are right around the corner. It may be on deaths door, but text is still alive at NC. Write us off at your peril. (Pun always intended).

@Etherwave vs @Master Rock - This one saw our #8 seed pitted against the #1 ranked in the opening round. I don’t think it’s disrespectful at all to say that going into this battle Etherwave was an unknown quantity, no one really knew what to expect save for a couple of short Open Mic verses that read more poetically both in terms of form and structure. The fact Etherwave chose to drop early on this one too, perhaps showing her cards to her opponent before deadline which was a risky move all considered as it could have, potentially, given him the room required to write around that and counter her verse. He certainly went the opposite direction in terms of him having a storyline based narrative to the topic, rather than a more insular personal perspective. Etherwave was original, utilising a less conventional approach in terms of line structure and formatting compared to what is traditionally done with a topical/storytelling verse. Yet it was still very much topical, that man had managed to plot its own destruction long before its mastery of artificial intelligence. Master Rock was more tried and true in his execution, with a lot of imagery used - especially towards the final third of his verse. There were highlights to be found in both verses, for Etherwave it was in her short succinct descriptions and turns of phrase such as “Self saboteurs by nature,” but primarily for me here it was the writers voice than shone through and allowed her to speak conversationally to the reader, the subtle uses of “we” and “our own” for example to form a connection between her writing and the viewership. Ultimately this battle ended in an upset with Etherwave shutting out the opposition in votes. It’s a great opening round battle to see it happen, blowing the field wide open from here on out. Let’s hope she sticks around.

@White LGI vs @symetrik - Let’s not gloss over it, White LGI somewhat unsurprisingly no-showed Sym, but we were already aware his inclusion was a huge gamble. Luckily for us we had a stand-in readily on hand in the form of former AOWL champion @Regulator, he showed up on super short notice to give us another battle here and I, for one, have nothing but respect for that fact. White LGI is hereby banned from participating in anything I choose to run from here on out, while Regulator will be welcomed in with open arms. This battle was now Regulator vs Symetrik, and a massive upgrade on the previous matchup regardless I think it’s fair to say. I also think both paired up well in terms of their technical prowess, and their decisions to tackle mental illness from the topic itself. This wasn’t going to be an easy one for the voters to call, and I expected it to lag a little in votes as a result as there wasn’t a clear cut winner like we had seen in other matches. This wasn’t an easy call, far closer than the votes had it looking on paper, which ultimately saw Symetrik emerge as the victor but with everyone giving props to Regulator on his short turn around for the verse. This verse wasn’t just good for being turned in on short notice, the verse was good regardless and arguably the better idea conceptually of the two - truth be told - with Sym’s execution of his own verse proving the deciding factor in his favour over the creativity of Regulator’s own drop. Personal preference is often relied on heavily as a crutch during votes where there isn’t always a clear cut winner, however, I do genuinely believe this battle to have come down to personal preference here as there wasn’t a great deal to separate them in terms of mechanics, rhyme scheme or technical ability. The deciding factor was largely down to the execution of both, with Mike Wrecka rightfully pointing out that Regulator began at a high standard that slowly ebbed away perhaps towards the final third anchoring his verse. The time constraint possibly played a part in that, even if it was to be somewhat expected given him filling-in, enabling Symetrik to flesh out his narrative slightly more and ultimately win over the voters. It may be of little consolation to @Regulator right now but he was keen to get involved from the jump and I’m pleased he was given the opportunity, he put in work. You’re welcome to sign into anything I run in future and I’ll happily have you involved. Stick around and help the tournament out to reach a conclusion.


@Objective vs @Mr. J - First and foremost, I apologise for the topic. Lol. I ran a randomiser and this one came up for you guys, it was my least favourite of the topics given this round and I initially thought about spinning the wheel again but then I figured it would be a test of both of your abilities to try and create something. It lent itself to some sort of worldbuilding being required, there were characters to incorporate which I felt may lend itself well to your storytelling abilities, there was a lot of imagery in the scenery I felt you might both be able to incorporate into your verses - though I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect! I hope you enjoyed writing to it. It was put there to challenge you. This was a nice battle to have so early on in the tournament, two writers very much evenly matched on paper and seeded accordingly (even if some may have felt Mr. J was ranked too lowly at first). I think pitting the two against each other made for a really nice matchup. The voters seemed to agree, with Brokenhal0 noting how each of you showed imagination to utilise the topic provided and craft your own tales from it. I really liked Mr. J’s concept of the father / hunter wanting to track down the animal and the daughter wanting to try her best to keep it alive. I think conceptually it had legs, albeit perhaps not a sheep’s legs, though as we drew to a conclusion I felt myself wanting something more in the way of resolution. The brevity of the verse likely did him no favours in that department, truth be told, and allowed Objective room to manoeuvre by opting for something larger in scope (and verse length) to capitalise on what Mr. J did. While I felt both were relatively even matched in terms of experience, and stylistically, this battle became a relatively comfortable victory for Objective with it ending 5-0 in his favour.

@Candy vs. @Mike Wrecka - This battle is a complete throwback to 15-20 years ago when text battles were still popping and even text albums were possibly a thing (yes, they were a thing, once upon a time…). While I admire the two of these immensely for still going, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect of this match up before it went down in truth. Candy has remained active throughout, though if truth be told many would perhaps tell you he’s lost half a yard from his RSTL days of yonder and this match favoured Mike Wrecka - who perhaps hasn’t remained as consistent at dropping week in and week out, but had at least seemed actively writing again in recent months and seemed to have been able to pick right back up where he left off. This topic was also deliberately challenging I thought, not my favourite at all in truth, but had a sort of Warhammer type vibe with some blood priestess looking figure which could have lent itself to the Angel of Death or any number of different things depending on the world built around it. It had a fantastical element, in the sense of sci-fi or fantasy fiction, perhaps a warmonger or victorious heroine if you chose to view it as such. I found it quite open-ended in the possibilities it presented, giving both of these experienced writers creative freedom to see what they brought to the table. I thought both had solid takes on a difficult picture submission here, Candy went full Candy mode in the turns of phrase used and unique wording, while Mike stayed closer to his true and tested method with a strong submission - particularly in the opening and closing stages. Candy made this closer than I think many thought he would, even taking a vote early on, but Mike ended up stealing the lions share of the votes and winning this battle. He will make a difficult semi-finals opponent for whoever he ends up facing on the strength of this performance.

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Verse Of The Week

Please bear with me here. This wasn’t an easy decision to make and I’ll try to explain my reasoning behind it, as muddled and convoluted as that may be, because there is a logic behind it — and rather than this simply being the verse I thought was the outright best, there were mitigating factors that played a part in the final decision. Rightly or wrongly, you can debate that amongst yourselves, but I wanted to hand it to Regulator out of respect for putting him in last minute as a replacement and him showing up on short notice with a strong submission. I respect that. My job as moderator is to keep you all enthused and wanting to show up the best you possibly can throughout. It did, however, pose a problem because ultimately he lost and thus, how can verse of the week being awarded to someone that was beat? It doesn’t make logical sense in that regard. I’m also not a huge fan of awarding VOTW to the same people that win Battle Of The Week (which is coming up, be patient! You may have won that one!) so it had to be someone that won. It’s then difficult to overlook the person that won against the tournaments #1 seed in the biggest upset of the round, which was… Etherwave!


Congratulations on the win this week. Hope you stick around to see the tournament conclude.

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Battle Of The Week

So as I alluded to briefly in the above, I quite enjoy handing numerous people props over singling any one person out. The Battle Of The Week and Verse Of The Week aren’t entirely mutually exclusive, of course, but it never hurts to give credit to multiple people where possible. A casual tally of the votes last round will tell you that the closest battle was between Symetrik and Regulator, ending at 3-1 in Sym’s favour but with the final vote going Regulator’s way. When you factor in that he showed up on short notice as a stand-in for White LGI, it’s feels only right that we show Regulator respect for getting his submission in on time and making it difficult for his opponent in a closely fought contest. I wish there had been more votes. I felt you guys deserved it. There’s not a great deal more I can do at this point but show my appreciation for both involved and give them a nod of acknowledgment by awarding them BOTW. Thank you both for turning up and turning in your submissions. When the game needed you, you answered the call. I respect that.

vs.

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Tournament Brackets

So here we have it, a final four to be reckoned with in the shape of Etherwave, Symetrik, Objective and Mike Wrecka! Our #1 seed has been unanimously unseated in the opening round of the tournament, blowing things wide open and rendering Lars dumb as fuck. Or something like that, at least. If you paid attention to the brackets last round you already know who is facing who, because that’s how brackets work (duh.) but for those not paying attention - LET PLAY PRETEND AND SEE HOW THAT MAKES OUR BRACKETS LOOK AHEAD OF THE SECOND ROUND!!!! WHOOOOOO!!!!!!!

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Etherwave vs Objective
Symetrik vs Mike Wrecka

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Semi-Finals Match-Ups!


Etherwave vs Objective - We roar into our semi-finals completely unsure of where we may end up! Etherwave came out of nowhere last round to dethrone our #1 seed, blowing the brackets wide opening and putting down an early statement of intent that she means business. A complete unknown. A novice to the NC topical scene. A wildcard entry if ever there was one. What a debut. There’s still a huge question mark surrounding how far she can actually progress into this tournament, but rest assured Objective won’t be looking to roll over and make way at his expense. This is the semi finals now. Both of these competitors should try not to look past their opponent this round, simply focusing on the task stood in front of them rather than having one eye drift towards a mouth watering finale. So who is the favourite this round? Well, experience would tell you that Objective is the veteran with many years of competition under his belt. He’s not only well accustomed to the narrative storytelling format and unexpected twists and turns that are often found in topical pieces, but he also has an ever-improving knack for the more technical side of his pen game - and in his second language too which is all the more impressive. Let’s not overlook Etherwave’s chances here though, as despite her lack of multi-syllable rhymes her rhyme placement and writers voice last round saw her run clear of Master Rock to cause the biggest upset of the tournament so far. The girl is having fun. I don’t think we’ll see her drop as early this round, perhaps taking more time to consider the topic and tighten up her drop. Objective will be looking to utilise the entire line limit and I think she would be wise to do the same. The topic chosen should play to both of their strengths as it has a macabre element to it, with a lot of visual imagery that may appeal to both writers, but is also somewhat open-ended in how it can be utilised and approached. I’m intrigued as to how each of them will choose to invoke this one. We should be in for a really creative clash of penmanship and stylistically the two are very different. There won’t be a great deal to separate them here which sets the winner up nicely for a finale against either Sym or Mike Wrecka.


Symetrik vs Mike Wrecka - There’s not often a time where you could say either semi final had Battle Of The Week potential, but I genuinely think this round could see either of these in contendership. This one, at least on paper, is inarguably the most likely to produce as neither are unknown quantities on the NC topical scene, both have competed in the numerous leagues and have duked it out towards the very top. Both these two are experienced writers. Both of these guys know what it’s going to take if they’re to reach the final. It’s not going to be an easy ride for either of them if they plan on being crowned champion. What they’re each going to need to look for here is a chess move; something to cause a clear separation between what they and their opponents do, that could be the more creative conceptual idea, it could be a display of technical merit above and beyond what their opposition is capable of, it could be a unique twist to turn the topic completely on its head unexpectedly or some sort of combination of those things — but there’s very little else to separate them both in terms of ability, experience, and know how. As the field has thinned down to the final four contestants, these are two of the names you would perhaps have expected to still be here. Their opponents won’t be caught sleeping, both are well aware of what each other are capable of. It’s all or nothing for them this round. The topic I selected for them was purposefully challenging, an artistic piece with some characterisation I hope will bring out their creative sides while also providing them with a frame work to either build a world around or attack from a more topical angle rather than a story - though both could certainly apply - it’s open ended enough to not dictate the way in which it should be approached, and as both these guys are known for their originality and creativity I think the topic provides them with room to expand upon it as they see fit.

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WTF & LMAO’S OF THE WEEK

WTF @ White LGI no-showing the topical tourney of the year?!
LMAO @ It not even mattering that he did anyway.
WTF @ Etherwave eliminating our #1 seed in Master Rock
LMAO @ This tourney literally having no favourite right now. Any of these four could win.
WTF @ those topics? I must have finally lost my mind.
LMAO @ this massive middle finger up to anyone doubting this would happen
WTF @ Mr. J thinking that creature last round was a sheep.
LMAO @ us just occupying the AOWL forum with zero respect shown
WTF @ Frank’s disappearance? Will he ever reappear with Lars money?
LMAO @ NC being owned by the topical side of the site again
WTF @ that Broke Lesnar album drop no one donated to. For shame.

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Originally Posted by Etherwave (Post 841962) Fire. And I do not intend to disappoint. Objective, "May the odds be ever in your favor." What I'm hearing is, I drop early, objective gonna chew me up and spit me out before picking my meat from his teeth with my bones. Heard.

Originally Posted by Master Rock (Post 841963) Oh, snap. Dope dope mag. I was assuming it was a league And not a tournament even though it’s called tourney. lol! Yeah, I never read my opponents verses Until I’m done. I’ll never want a cloud my mind with other thoughts. Etherwave Keep rising to the top I shouldn’t have slept on you I look forward to hearing what you drop next

Originally Posted by Etherwave (Post 841962) Fire. And I do not intend to disappoint. Objective, "May the odds be ever in your favor." What I'm hearing is, I drop early, objective gonna chew me up and spit me out before picking my meat from his teeth with my bones. Heard.

Originally Posted by Dope girl (Post 841977) It's good to see another another Topical queen @ EtherWave

Originally Posted by sral (Post 841964) You won VOTW though. Just be more patient this week, use the full allotted time awarded before posting, craft something as best you can (there’s no prizes for posting first) and utilise the maximum line limit possible if you need to - your opponent(s) likely will be doing so. Don’t leave yourself at a disadvantage (arguably like Mr. J did against him last round truth be told).