Round 1: 15. Blanco Bishop vs. 2. Darth Yoda \\ Darth Yoda wins 5-0

[Certain]

Blanco Bishop: You normally rhyme much better than this. Better mechanics are key in a short-verse tournament like this because you don't have enough space to overcome a lack of mechanical prowess with content. You tried to tell a story here, but the length came back to bite you because you weren't able to develop your character enough for us to connect. We know that aging and poverty are his biggest fears, but we don't know much about why those things affect him so deeply. The writing was basic but had a few nice turns, such as "slithered" as your verb and the natural voice of the first stanza. Develop those further by intertwining more complex rhymes and schemes, then flesh out your stories. At that point, you could be a match for more skilled opponents.

Darth Yoda: The opening line threw me off a bit. The incomplete thoughts gave me little direction. But the second full line (the third line) grounded the verse in an image. The words were interesting and the train of thought grabbed me, but it mostly was the sound of the words that interested me here. I think you could stand to polish this up a little bit when you face tougher opposition, in that this did read like something you wrote rather quickly and some of the strings could be tightened to focus more. But it was one of the better verses of the round and clearly enough to win this battle.

Vote: Darth Yoda