[Objective]

I've gone back to the battle 2-3 times by now, read both submissions a few times. Written some stuff down and deleted it each time cus my opinion changed. I think it's super fucking hard to pick a winner in this. Symetriks creativity, heartfelt words and concept is so fucking dope vs a retelling of a story with a really dark twist,that's also dope. I keep going back'n'forth between the two. Diablo's story is fluent and beautifully crafted, Symetrik hitting the personal and emotional buttons and really put in some serious work that I find astounding as well. That's a heart bleeding words on paper right there, and it's fresh and inspiring to see in this league. Honestly I think this is the best battle of the league so far considering how close both are and the way they handled this topic. I'm leaning towards Symetrik, then I read Diablo and I'm leaning towards him and the cycle continues. And here we are.

Normally I loathe links in battles but if you are going to do it it gotta be for a solid reason and this kind of creativity puts it in the "when to break rules"-category.

I think I got to give my vote to Symetrik on this one. As much as I love Diablo's take, and all I can really say about it is that flips on stories have been done in other areas of entertainment and writing (unless referenced or not really crafted to that well) while I haven't seen anything like Symetriks approach. Each link tells a story too, how he views himself and what he's about to do/unleashe along with everything going on story-wise is incredibly dope to me. I'm interested to see how he'll do continuing the play-offs given that he'll keep giving his all, if Diablo go to rd 2 I can't wait to see what he cook up either. However:

Mvgt Symetrik for taste if I absolutely have to pick one, I love a bit of creative lunacy mixed with raw emotion. Tbh this is a tie if I ever saw one cus both verses excel in different areas. Concepts and ideas won't always be this good tho, Sym gotta step it up a little bit on "cleanliness" and certain errors like not using capital letters after periods etc. (I know most of you don't care but in voting, I do) cus had it been a lil bit worse my vote could/would have edged it in Diablo's favor. And I may have voted for Diablo if lines here and there wasn't too simplistic in execution and end rhymes (less is more to not tire the reader either before a bit more rhyme-heavy sections so I do see that as well) but that's extreme nitpicking cus seen it all/vehicle stuff balances it out in terms of the complexity shown. You guys went in