Top Parse

Main Match 10: Top Parse

Well, it's the final episode before the finale; that means it's time for a final boss before two of you face off!

This final boss is an octopus: a super scary and deadly octopus!

All of you are wizards, so that means you can cast spells. To cast spells, you must make a sequence of gestures. There are four gestures, named A, B, C, and D.

Spells consist of a sequence of gestures that must be done; at the final gesture, the spell is cast. The gestures have to be performed in order, but do not have to be consecutive. Multiple spells can be cast at once, but the same spell cannot be simultaneously cast multiple times. For example, the sequences ABCCC and AABBCC would each only trigger the spell ABC once. Spells always cast if their conditions are met.

This game works in timesteps. Each timestep you will perform one gesture, and a phase will consist of a set number of timesteps. For each phase, you will be given its length in timesteps, as well as the exact actions of the boss.

There are two types of spells: Damaging spells and Utility spells. It is also possible that a spell falls under both of these categories.

Before each phase, there will be a selection of spells to choose from. You will be told how many spells you can learn for that phase's selection, as well as the specific spells. The spell learning limit may be divided between damaging and utility, so for instance, you may be allowed to learn 2 damaging spells and 2 utility spells. Each spell will only show up once throughout the entire game.

Prior to Phase 1, you already know four starter spells.

There are several resources in this game:

Health: You, of course, are a human, so will have some amount of health. If your health goes to 0, you will die; you cannot make any more gestures for the rest of the phase, and during the next phase, you will be revived with 5 health, and the damage you deal will be halved, rounded down. The base health for players is 20; this is also your maximum health, unless modified by other factors.

Mana: You gain 1 mana at the end of each timestep. You need mana to cast certain spells. Your mana is capped at 10. You may go into negative mana; however, you will only cast a spell if you have at least the number of mana it costs. Before each phase, your mana count is reset to zero.

Garnets: Garnets! You may use any number of garnets to start with that much mana at the beginning of the round.

The most important thing in any battle is your DPS. That is, the total damage you deal. The player with the most damage dealt will win the MM. The losers will fight to survive in the DM.

The DM will use spells from the MM. You will be given the chance to transfer the spells you learned in the MM into the DM. The game will not be the exact same; however, a spellbook that performs well in the MM will tend to perform well in the DM too.

A spell has many possible attributes:

• A sequence consisting of gestures.
• A mana cost.
• An effect with some duration.

There are a few key words.

Damage # means you will attack the boss for that amount of damage. Attacks are one time unless otherwise stated.

Shield # means you will gain a shield of strength # for some amount of duration. If you take damage, the damage will initially be absorbed by your shields, starting from the closest to expiration to farthest, before you lose health.

Heal # means you will heal that amount of HP. You cannot heal past your max HP.

Everything else will be on a spell by spell basis.

ADMINISTRATION

Timing

This Main Match will take place over 9 phases. Each phase will last 24 hours. There is also 24-hour pregame phase prior to Phase 1.

Submissions

In each phase, submit the following:

• Some number of spells to learn
• A sequence of gestures (either A,B,C,D) of length equal to the number of timesteps in the phase.

Information

Publicly announced, at the start of each phase:

• The boss's actions during that phase
• The restrictions on how many spells you can learn during a phase
• The spells available to be learnt during the phase

Publicly announced, at the end of each phase:

• The spells casted during each timestep
• The final statuses (damage dealt and current health) of each player at the end of a phase

Known only to you:

• The spells you chose each phase (until they are casted for the first time)
• The exact sequence of gestures you did each phase

Garnets

Garnets may be spent in the following way:

You may spend Garnets to start with mana at the beginning of a phase, at the price of 1 Garnet = 1 mana.

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Action Priority

The following action priority is used for when basic effect types resolve at the same time. For other effect types, ask.

• Status application
• Shielding
• Damaging (including boss attacking players)
• Healing

For example, if you were at full health, and casted Shield 5 and Heal 5 on the same timestep that the boss dealt 10 Damage to you, you would end the timestep at full health again.

Clarifications:

If a cast fails (e.g. not enough mana), you need to start back from the beginning to cast it again.

Unless specified otherwise, everything except for player health (shield, ongoing effects, statuses, etc) resets between phases.

Status effects overwrite rather than stacking.