Post by Wolfe on Mar 28, 2020 13:11:31 GMT -5
The Amity Colosseum was a real marvel of modern engineering. Introduced six years ago at the 10th Vytal Festival, the structure is an enormous levitating arena that can move vast distances, making the journey to the host Kingdom every time the festival is held, so this time floated all the way from its home base in Atlas to Mistral for the Thirteenth Vytal Festival. The architectural marvel has a distinctive inverted cone shape that tapers to a point at the bottom where an enormous dust crystal powers the structure. Located above the main dust crystal are two levels of docking bays for air buses and other transportation to receive and offload passengers. Large archways lead passengers to the seating area which surrounds the arena. The seating area is the largest of any permanently airborne structure in the world, comfortably able to seat eighteen thousand people from across Remnant. The closest ring of seating to the arena itself are red seats reserved for contestants of the Vytal Festival itself along with other VIPs that typically include faculty members of both combat schools and Huntsman Academies along with the occasional politician or high flight businessman.
Above the seating area are huge holographic screens, which display the aura monitors for tournament matches, as well as videos of the matches in progress to include action replays and commercials. The tournament presenters in a small booth above the top level of the seating area, and for this tournament rotate out but always form some combination of two individuals who are either current faculty members of a Big Four Academy, or former finalists of the tournament itself.
The audience is protected by an invisible force field which prevents projectiles and other objects from leaving the fighting area powered by hard light dust. When hit, the force field pulses a light blue color and ripples around the impact. It can prevent flying contestants from smashing into the spectator stands and is also able to absorb stray bullets or semblance attacks.
The tournament matches themselves take place in a large octagonal arena measuring 150 meters in diameter. The arena can change its environment into several different "biomes", including grasslands, forest, fire, ice, geyser fields, stormy mountains, desert, an ocean and beach with a wooden ship, city ruins, gravity arenas, and a swamp. The arena also has artificial weather effects, such as thunderstorms and an artificial sun. In all matches, the central octagonal section measuring 50 meters in diameter remains the same regardless of the biome.
During the team round, the arena is split evenly into two biomes, which are chosen randomly at the beginning of every fight for each half of the arena. For this opening match of the First Year bracket, the biomes randomly chosen were Mountain and Lava.
To the left side of the arena, the combatants can see a rocky landscape filled with patchy foothills that start only one or two meters above the central combat area that quickly rise into several mountains with peaks that reach dozens of meters high. Atop the tallest of these peaks, at fifty meters up, a storm is constantly brewing, scattering the stony top with fierce lightning and booming thunder every few seconds. With all the mountains, Mistralians will feel most at home in this region and will find traversing the rocks fairly easy.
To the right side of the arena, the combatants can see a hellish landscape of steamy black and red rocks along with a constant expulsion of steam due to the immense heat in the Volcano biome. Thank the gods for aura, because hot plumes of boiling hot liquid and ash rocket out of the handful of geysers in the ground that shoot up easily ten meters high that have been placed around the arena. Smog fills the acrid air with the scent of sulfur and also obscures vision on this edge of the arena, making it harder to aim ranged attacks or even see long distances due to the haze.
This particular match would be fought between Haven Academy’s Team SSAJ who came in as their school’s fifth seeded team and Beacon Academy’s Team PUFF who came in as their school’s third seeded team. The follow graphic flashed up on the big screens as the introductions began, with the aura levels of each student being displayed under their names. On the commentary team for this particular match was current Beacon Academy faculty member Caerwyn Erez and her former teammate and current Vale Huntress Bianca Hunter. They were teammates on Team CBLT (Cobalt) who were finalists in the Eighth Vytal Festival Tournament.
The first voice over the mic was much more boisterous and animated than some of the other announcers at the tournament, and it showed from the second her voice was on the mic. ”Hello, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the opening rounds of the Thirteenth Vytal Festival Tournament! What we have here is a couple of first year teams duking it out for one of two guaranteed spots in the final eight where the best two teams of every year along with two wild cards will duke it out for the title of Vytal Festival Champion!”
The woman was really animated, and it was clear that she was no stranger to speaking on a live mic. ”Huntress Bianca Hunter here and I happy as heck to say that I am joined by my former team leader and current Beacon Academy faculty member Caerwyn Erez to bring all of you live commentary on this match between the third seeded Team PUFF from Beacon Academy and the fifth seeded Team SSAJ from Haven Academy. The biomes selected for this match by the rolly-spinny thingy or as my colleague Thelly likes to call them ‘Random Number Generators’ is Mountain and Lava, meaning that this match will most likely be fought either at range in the biomes or up close and personal in the center.”
A more measured and silvery voice came through the mic next. ”Professor Erez of Beacon here working color for this match. The team you see coming out now is PUFF from Beacon. Leading the group with the red hair and oversized sword is Pavo. Right behind him with the white hair, glasses, and assault rifle is Ulli. Coming in next with the blue hair and dual pistols is Fabbri, and last but not least with the orange hair and tonfas is Fionn.”
”And next up we have Team SSAJ from Haven Academy. White haired girl in the front with the swords is Seiya Sune. The tall, cyborg looking guy behind her is Solomon Moon who is an… interesting admission choice. The short and thin girl behind him is Aegle Verdant, and the dark haired giant behind her is Jack Dawson. Jack’s older sister, Merla Dawson, served with distinction in a medical capacity during the Faunus War and saved a lot of lives whether they were human or faunus.” The pronunciations were pretty good, but Aegle's name was butchered in the processed and pronounced ay-gull.
”Yeah, that was a tragedy. Merla was one of the best people I’ve ever met, and did a great job repairing my arm when a Beringel broke it. I wasn’t the closest with her, but she provided support to our team many times during the conflict and without her the death toll would have numbered hundreds more. I also seem to recall that she once pushed you--” Erez commented somberly before Bianca changed the subject to something more immediate and presumably less embarrassing.
”Wynnie, you’re a teacher at Beacon so know your team better than me – what do you rate their chances at winning to be against Thelly’s team?”
”I don’t know. The discrepancy of skill level between first years is bigger than it is with any other group, and that is consistent every year just due to different backgrounds and levels of combat schools that everybody went to. The performances shown thus far by Haven teams has been exceptional, but one good performance could just be a fluke. Two standout performances against decent opponents is a pattern, though, and Haven has had an incredible start to this tournament.”
”You know, Thelly said earlier that it was due to the missions and the lack of upperclassmen at Haven now that led to their first years being so good – like in my opinion they’re as solid as second years already for the most part which is pretty impressive. What do you think of that logic for why they seem to be overperforming expectations?”
”I don’t buy that. Shade is… an interesting person with a unique perspective of events, but not one that I normally agree with. From my point of view, they just got lucky with admitting a bunch of skilled nontraditional trainees that skew on the older end. They’re performing like second years because most of them are way older than typical first years and thus have more experience. Normally there’s an age limit for the first year section, but that was waived this year due to Haven’s unique situation. Mister Moon, for example, is several years older than our third years. Seiya is the same age as our third years, roughly, as well. Jack and Ae… Slight pause while I look up the pronunciation guide… Aegle are the only age-appropriate members of this team so I wouldn’t be surprised if they won off the back of that. Most first years are good off of combat school experience, but Haven seems to have substituted that with older students who are more physically developed and in theory more experienced in fighting Grimm. Haven is doing the best they can with the resources they have to protect their kingdom, but it’s not fair for anyone involved to pretend it’s a fair competition between someone who is literally twenty-two fighting against seventeen year olds. We'll see what they're actually made of in the later rounds.”
”See, that’s the spice I’m looking for when I ask these questions. The hot takes that give us viewers and sound bytes. I’d love to egg you on a bit more, but we’re almost ready to get this show on the road. For those just tuning in – this is the Vytal Festival’s opening rounds, featuring First Year huntsmen trainees from across Remnant. The camera is now focused on the middle area between the two biomes, which is give or take about fifty meters long. At the beginning of the match, each team gets half of the center area and can deploy however they want so long as they do not go backwards into one of the biomes or forwards into the other team’s section. The red line on the big screen shows the dividing line, and placement along that line usually reveals a lot about each team’s strategy.”
Professor Erez cut in, here, for color commentary. ”Team PUFF, for example, is staying very far back and pushed to the very edge of where the mountain biome starts. They do not want to make the same mistake as Team ARCT made last match against Team KASH and will opt for cover and height advantage if at all possible. The Haven team can respond by pulling back to the lava section and drawing it out or pushing forward and attempting to rush the mountain biome before Team PUFF can set up defenses. They don’t have long to decide what their strategy is going to be, though, looks like we’re ready for the countdown with Bianca.”
”Five… Four… Three… Two… One… BEGIN!”
Above the seating area are huge holographic screens, which display the aura monitors for tournament matches, as well as videos of the matches in progress to include action replays and commercials. The tournament presenters in a small booth above the top level of the seating area, and for this tournament rotate out but always form some combination of two individuals who are either current faculty members of a Big Four Academy, or former finalists of the tournament itself.
The audience is protected by an invisible force field which prevents projectiles and other objects from leaving the fighting area powered by hard light dust. When hit, the force field pulses a light blue color and ripples around the impact. It can prevent flying contestants from smashing into the spectator stands and is also able to absorb stray bullets or semblance attacks.
The tournament matches themselves take place in a large octagonal arena measuring 150 meters in diameter. The arena can change its environment into several different "biomes", including grasslands, forest, fire, ice, geyser fields, stormy mountains, desert, an ocean and beach with a wooden ship, city ruins, gravity arenas, and a swamp. The arena also has artificial weather effects, such as thunderstorms and an artificial sun. In all matches, the central octagonal section measuring 50 meters in diameter remains the same regardless of the biome.
During the team round, the arena is split evenly into two biomes, which are chosen randomly at the beginning of every fight for each half of the arena. For this opening match of the First Year bracket, the biomes randomly chosen were Mountain and Lava.
To the left side of the arena, the combatants can see a rocky landscape filled with patchy foothills that start only one or two meters above the central combat area that quickly rise into several mountains with peaks that reach dozens of meters high. Atop the tallest of these peaks, at fifty meters up, a storm is constantly brewing, scattering the stony top with fierce lightning and booming thunder every few seconds. With all the mountains, Mistralians will feel most at home in this region and will find traversing the rocks fairly easy.
To the right side of the arena, the combatants can see a hellish landscape of steamy black and red rocks along with a constant expulsion of steam due to the immense heat in the Volcano biome. Thank the gods for aura, because hot plumes of boiling hot liquid and ash rocket out of the handful of geysers in the ground that shoot up easily ten meters high that have been placed around the arena. Smog fills the acrid air with the scent of sulfur and also obscures vision on this edge of the arena, making it harder to aim ranged attacks or even see long distances due to the haze.
This particular match would be fought between Haven Academy’s Team SSAJ who came in as their school’s fifth seeded team and Beacon Academy’s Team PUFF who came in as their school’s third seeded team. The follow graphic flashed up on the big screens as the introductions began, with the aura levels of each student being displayed under their names. On the commentary team for this particular match was current Beacon Academy faculty member Caerwyn Erez and her former teammate and current Vale Huntress Bianca Hunter. They were teammates on Team CBLT (Cobalt) who were finalists in the Eighth Vytal Festival Tournament.
The first voice over the mic was much more boisterous and animated than some of the other announcers at the tournament, and it showed from the second her voice was on the mic. ”Hello, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the opening rounds of the Thirteenth Vytal Festival Tournament! What we have here is a couple of first year teams duking it out for one of two guaranteed spots in the final eight where the best two teams of every year along with two wild cards will duke it out for the title of Vytal Festival Champion!”
The woman was really animated, and it was clear that she was no stranger to speaking on a live mic. ”Huntress Bianca Hunter here and I happy as heck to say that I am joined by my former team leader and current Beacon Academy faculty member Caerwyn Erez to bring all of you live commentary on this match between the third seeded Team PUFF from Beacon Academy and the fifth seeded Team SSAJ from Haven Academy. The biomes selected for this match by the rolly-spinny thingy or as my colleague Thelly likes to call them ‘Random Number Generators’ is Mountain and Lava, meaning that this match will most likely be fought either at range in the biomes or up close and personal in the center.”
A more measured and silvery voice came through the mic next. ”Professor Erez of Beacon here working color for this match. The team you see coming out now is PUFF from Beacon. Leading the group with the red hair and oversized sword is Pavo. Right behind him with the white hair, glasses, and assault rifle is Ulli. Coming in next with the blue hair and dual pistols is Fabbri, and last but not least with the orange hair and tonfas is Fionn.”
”And next up we have Team SSAJ from Haven Academy. White haired girl in the front with the swords is Seiya Sune. The tall, cyborg looking guy behind her is Solomon Moon who is an… interesting admission choice. The short and thin girl behind him is Aegle Verdant, and the dark haired giant behind her is Jack Dawson. Jack’s older sister, Merla Dawson, served with distinction in a medical capacity during the Faunus War and saved a lot of lives whether they were human or faunus.” The pronunciations were pretty good, but Aegle's name was butchered in the processed and pronounced ay-gull.
”Yeah, that was a tragedy. Merla was one of the best people I’ve ever met, and did a great job repairing my arm when a Beringel broke it. I wasn’t the closest with her, but she provided support to our team many times during the conflict and without her the death toll would have numbered hundreds more. I also seem to recall that she once pushed you--” Erez commented somberly before Bianca changed the subject to something more immediate and presumably less embarrassing.
”Wynnie, you’re a teacher at Beacon so know your team better than me – what do you rate their chances at winning to be against Thelly’s team?”
”I don’t know. The discrepancy of skill level between first years is bigger than it is with any other group, and that is consistent every year just due to different backgrounds and levels of combat schools that everybody went to. The performances shown thus far by Haven teams has been exceptional, but one good performance could just be a fluke. Two standout performances against decent opponents is a pattern, though, and Haven has had an incredible start to this tournament.”
”You know, Thelly said earlier that it was due to the missions and the lack of upperclassmen at Haven now that led to their first years being so good – like in my opinion they’re as solid as second years already for the most part which is pretty impressive. What do you think of that logic for why they seem to be overperforming expectations?”
”I don’t buy that. Shade is… an interesting person with a unique perspective of events, but not one that I normally agree with. From my point of view, they just got lucky with admitting a bunch of skilled nontraditional trainees that skew on the older end. They’re performing like second years because most of them are way older than typical first years and thus have more experience. Normally there’s an age limit for the first year section, but that was waived this year due to Haven’s unique situation. Mister Moon, for example, is several years older than our third years. Seiya is the same age as our third years, roughly, as well. Jack and Ae… Slight pause while I look up the pronunciation guide… Aegle are the only age-appropriate members of this team so I wouldn’t be surprised if they won off the back of that. Most first years are good off of combat school experience, but Haven seems to have substituted that with older students who are more physically developed and in theory more experienced in fighting Grimm. Haven is doing the best they can with the resources they have to protect their kingdom, but it’s not fair for anyone involved to pretend it’s a fair competition between someone who is literally twenty-two fighting against seventeen year olds. We'll see what they're actually made of in the later rounds.”
”See, that’s the spice I’m looking for when I ask these questions. The hot takes that give us viewers and sound bytes. I’d love to egg you on a bit more, but we’re almost ready to get this show on the road. For those just tuning in – this is the Vytal Festival’s opening rounds, featuring First Year huntsmen trainees from across Remnant. The camera is now focused on the middle area between the two biomes, which is give or take about fifty meters long. At the beginning of the match, each team gets half of the center area and can deploy however they want so long as they do not go backwards into one of the biomes or forwards into the other team’s section. The red line on the big screen shows the dividing line, and placement along that line usually reveals a lot about each team’s strategy.”
Professor Erez cut in, here, for color commentary. ”Team PUFF, for example, is staying very far back and pushed to the very edge of where the mountain biome starts. They do not want to make the same mistake as Team ARCT made last match against Team KASH and will opt for cover and height advantage if at all possible. The Haven team can respond by pulling back to the lava section and drawing it out or pushing forward and attempting to rush the mountain biome before Team PUFF can set up defenses. They don’t have long to decide what their strategy is going to be, though, looks like we’re ready for the countdown with Bianca.”
”Five… Four… Three… Two… One… BEGIN!”
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