The following is a quick update from your friendly neighborhood Combat Master.

Rivalries

After looking over the remaining 16 Active matches, I’ve decided extended the conclusion of ACC Rivalries until Friday, September 25th. This is being done to make sure matches that are close to finishing are able to conclude. Some matches are not close, but will be given the best chance possible to get as completed as possible.

When the competition ends, all matches will be finalized. There will be no further extensions for the sake of the competition (If you want to continue for the sake of story, I have no problem with this). However, per the competition details, when a match is finalized:

All Matches will expire when the competition ends. In this scenario:

A.) If both members have posted at least once, the match will end in a draw, with each writer earning a point.

B.) If only one member has posted, and the other has not, the match will end by Time Out.

Extensions in Rivalries

Throughout the course of Rivalries, the 24-hour auto-extension was used a lot. This is a hard coded site detail that allows for this to happen once per match. After the first is granted, the second can be requested but requires approval from the opponent. I have no way of tracking this feature, so I let it go for the purposes of Rivalries. In the few cases that questions arose, I addressed the match case-by-case. Similarly, I’ve tried to be a flexible as possible with people running into RL issues. It can be a bit of a gray area with differentiating poor time management and actual issues like “I got called to serve as an additional EMT and had no internet access for a week.” For a competition like this (not a War or Vendetta) I think this was something I was able to manage very fairly.

If anyone feels that something was mismanaged or not communicated properly, please let me know immediately so I can get with you, discuss, and figure out what can be done. My primary concern is that everyone feels that they were treated fairly across the board. My direct line, as always is: [Log in to view e-mail addresses].

With that said, I’d like to reiterate that the goal of Rivalries was for everyone to have fun, learn more about other people’s characters, build history and spark some ‘flames’ (you know who are ;P). Please keep this in mind as we finish this monumental competition (for the ACC) competition this week. Be respectful of your opponents and understanding. It makes the satisfaction of kicking their butt in the end all the more fun ;D.

Thank you everyone, again, for your patience and willingness to try out my crazy idea. :)

ACC Exams

I hinted at this in my last updates, but I am pleased to announce that the ACC Qualification Exam has been updated with a brand new look and feel.

Thanks to some awesome, heads-up perspective and advice from the P:GM (Montresor), we now have a single ACC Qualification Exam instead of two separate ones. The goal here was to cause less confusion for new members, and to make things as streamlined as possible for the new members coming in.

The Exam consists of 20 multiple choice, true/false, or short answer questions that show that you have read the ACC Guidelines and are aware of the various rules and regulations that Judges apply to ACC matches. This includes information from the recent CS 2.0 Update.

ACC Qualification

The new ACC Qualification Exam has been re-written from scratch and is now live! This also comes with an updated ACC Guide (Thank you, Alaris, for Wiki-magic).

As I mentioned earlier, ACC Fundamentals has been removed as an Exam. The ACC Qualification is now one, single exam that members will take to participate in the ACC.

To answer some questions before they are asked:

1. If you already Qualified for the ACC (ACC:Q on your Dossier) previously, you do not have to take the new Qualification Exam.

2. If you are not Qualified for the ACC, you will need to pass the new Exam in order to compete.

ACC Combat Studies

The new ACC Combat Studies was written as a post-Qualification continued education course on how Character Sheets are used in the ACC. The exam involves reading a full 4-post ACC match between the same NPCs featured in the Qualification Exam (Krin and Harry) and has you answering multiple choice questions based on the details and content of the match. From the course description:

The ACC Combat Studies Exam aims to both heighten and test your ability to read an existing ACC match and break down how the Character Sheets are used to create the story of a conflict between two characters. The fight is staged between a Sorcerer/Force User and a Weapons Specialist Mercenary/Non-Force User. The battle will highlight key changes in CS 2.0 and the the way that Force Powers, Feats, Aspects, and Skills all play a part in writing the characters realistically.

There is a rhyme and reason for everything in the way this match was written. In it, some of the more common questions asked of the ACC Staff are organically addressed, and we show off how a conflict between a Non-Force User and a Force User could happen. There is also the creation of Harry West as a half-Chiss. This was done to give an example to how a hybrid species could work in the Dark Jedi Brotherhood.

(Please note, Hybrid species are highly discouraged. But if you’re going to try one, use Harry West as an example. Please also note that Hybrid races are subject to harsher scrutiny from the Voice Staff).

This exam is not required. However, I encourage anyone who is serious about participating in the ACC to read it over and take it. It will help you know better understand how Judges look at matches, and hopefully lead to less confusion when you're writing your own matches.

It's a new exam, so any feedback or notes you have would be appreciated. Drop us a line at: [Log in to view e-mail addresses]

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I’d like to take a second to thank the entire ACC Staff for their feedback on the exam. More specifically, I’d like to call out our rookie Judge, Calindra, for stepping up in a huge way to help me with the exam. I am juggling multiple projects at once right now, and her input and willingness to sit in a Google Doc and raise questions and lend a hand was invaluable to me being able to focus and get these exams done for you guys. I appreciate the hustle. Thanks, Cal!

Huge props to Ood as well for helping me sort everything on the coding/backend of the Shadow Academy. I have ordered a fresh batch of...”specimens” for his ongoing “research” in his lab.

In Closing

CS 2.0 Links:

• Species Wiki
• Disciplines Wiki
• Aspects Wiki (Which now include the new Aspect Templates(TM)
• Skills Wiki
• Force Powers Wiki
• Feats Database -- CDawg

New Exams

• ACC Combat Studies
• ACC Qualification Exam

I’ll have a formal Combat Master Report hopefully out this weekend following the conclusion of Rivalries. Please let me know if you have any questions on any of the new material. You can find me on Telegram, GChat, and Gmail. Or you can just yell “WALLY WALLY WALLY” really loud and you will probably hear my faint echo of: “OY OY OY?”

Thanks everyone.