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battlefield: post-apocalyptic central park--teams start 1km apart, 10sec prep.

good luck gents.

ps--OP's were not nor WILL they be read by me. trusting you guys NOT to do anything illegal. if something crops up either myself or the judges will deal with it once it's been brought to my attention.

have fun kiddies.

Alright let's do this:

Official Post #1

Alright so I'm just going to have to go by your count then? I can believe three or four times faster, but 10x? Really?


Deathcage doesn't need to come close to 'Ruin' in terms of running speed, not when he has the proven reaction speed and senses not only to react to but also handily defeat a speedblitz attempt. Not to mention that at the speeds Ruin will be going at when he gets tagged by Class 25 Deathcage his fleshy bits (the skeleton will be fine) will get turned to Jelly, something that will take some time to regenerate from, giving Deathcage and Mr Terrific time to regroup.


Deathstroke has knowledge of Iron Fist's fighting style thanks to the added experience of Luke Cage, so there's one trump card thrown out the window. Its a proven fact that if Deathstroke has ANY knowledge of your skills or capabilities he WILL use it to **** you over.


Okay and? Deathstroke had absolutely no prep when he took on Aquaman and Green Lantern and more than held his own.


Puffery. Pure undiluted puffery.


I'd certainly be worried if I didn't have a means of destroying ruin from a safe distance.



Luke Cage has lots of experience with Iron Fist as I've mentioned above but now he has the speed and skill as well as tactical acuity to put that knowledge to good use. As for Wolverine he's well aware of Wolvy's claws and will certainly know that his skin isn't up to scratch (no pun intended) to take hits from it, but though Cage may be something of a "go ahead, hit me with your best shot" brick, Deathstroke isn't.

Vastly? No. Superior yes. But not to an insurmountable degree.

As for skill you have a slight edge there, but Deathstroke has proven the ability to adapt to attacks on the fly based on only slight knowledge of the enemy's skills and powers and here he has INTIMATE knowledge of IF's skills and decent knowledge of Wolvy's skills thanks to Luke Cage. Ruin on the other hand doesn't know a damn thing about Deathcage and what he's capable of since he'll be relying on Slade's skillset rather than the simpler and more familiar Power Man skillset.

There's also Slade's staff which combined with his world-beating swiftness and accuracy has allowed him to defeat a speedblitz FROM THE FLASH.

2 mile a second T-Sphere+ Adamantium skull+soft, squishy brain=Ruin's amalgamated ass on the floor. How's that for some math?


By amalgamating all your characters into one you've made my job easier, or rather Mr Terrific's job easier. Now there's just one target.


While 'Ruin' is following the familiar scent of Luke Cage (assuming it isn't covered up by the unfamiliar scent of Deathstroke) five T-Spheres traveling in a staggered formation in a convergent pattern will close in on Ruin at 2 miles a second.


Even if your 'math' is to be taken at face value he's a mere Mach 1 whilst the T-Spheres can travel at 2 miles a second. Now since you're such a fan of math I know you'll appreciate that 2 miles a second comes out to 7200 miles per hour: EXTREMELY FASTER than even the fastest rifle bullet. You'd have to be a genuine speedster to hope to dodge or destroy one. But to dodge five at once?

I'm sorry but there's no way in hell Ruin is getting out of that mess. Unless Cyclops can release omnidirectional blasts he isn't going to stop the T-Spheres that way either.

Even if Mr Terrific doesn't set them to explode (which he probably will) the sheer force generated by an object moving at such velocities would strip the meat right off Ruin's adamantium skeleton. Not to mention that it has been established that sufficient trauma directed at Wolverine's skull can force his brain to collide with his skull, damaging his brain and knocking him unconscious for a clean win.

Smurph Post 1

We're traveling at Mach 1. That's pretty much indisputable. The lowest of comic street-levelers easily move a few times faster than real life athletes, and Wolverine and Iron Fist have no shortage of feats consisting of them dancing around even the most well known superheroes with superior speed. For comparison, fitting Wolverine with Iron Fist's chi powers and training would make Logan to his former self what Iron Fist is to human athletes and fighters. This would put us over three times what the speed cap is, so even if Omega Vision wanted to argue that we're not that much better than real people, it doesn't make any difference- we still exceed the speed cap at the 4x as fast that he said he'd believe.

So, we're covering a kilometer at Mach 1.

Mach 1 = ~340.3 m/s
Kilometer = 1000 meters
1000/340.3 = 2.9s

That's how long it would take for Ruin to personally reach his opponents. If the judges for any reason believe that we would need to take this to hand-to-hand (a match that would be ridiculously spiteful in our favor), then we would spend less than three seconds before Ruin's claws move through his opponent's skulls backed by Iron Fist's chi-amped blows.

For reference to how powerful Iron Fist can hit:

He's recently gotten a huge upgrade since Omega Vision's scans regarding him vs. Luke.

Nowadays?

He accomplished this with one strike:

http://thumbnails20.imagebam.com/5765/915f5457643238.gif

Yes, that's a helicarrier.

Here, he put down a dragon significantly bigger and stronger than the original dragon that he put down to gain his powers, and he did it in two strikes:

http://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af17/RageOfOlympus/th_IronFistKillsDragon1.jpghttp://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af17/RageOfOlympus/th_IronFistKillsDragon2.jpghttp://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af17/RageOfOlympus/th_IronFistKillsDragon3.jpghttp://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af17/RageOfOlympus/th_IronFistKillsDragon4.jpghttp://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af17/RageOfOlympus/th_IronFistKillsDragon5.jpghttp://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af17/RageOfOlympus/th_IronFistKillsDragon6.jpg


Here, he damages Luke with an unamped kick, then puts him down in one blow:
http://s989.photobucket.com/albums/af17/RageOfOlympus/?action=view&current=IronFistdefeatsLukeCage1.jpg

Keeping in mind once again that Ruin not only has this chi at his disposal, but also Wolverine's claws. Ruin will make extremely short work of any opponent that he comes across physically, and, as shown, he will arrive there in less than three seconds.

HOWEVER

It won't even take that long. 2.9s is how long it would take Ruin to physically reach the other team and one-shot them. Why need to physically reach them though, when we have the most powerful long-range attacks in the entire tourney?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/howdysaysthedrow/X-Men/Blast3.jpg

Ruin is capable of replicating the above feat at greater power, with greater range. In truth, we wouldn't even need to move from our position to one-shot our opponents. We're doing that from the getgo of the match. We can reach them in 2.9s, but it would take an incredibly small fraction of that time for our blast of pure physical force to wipe out them along with everything around them. They would be blasted just like that sentinel, and entire buildings would fall on them.

Omega's only sole hope to avoid this fate was ludicrously impossible: He hoped that Mr. Terrific would realize what was happening, instruct his T-Spheres to dive-bomb us in a fashion that would avoid the constant obliteration of Ruin's optic blasts, and that the T-Spheres would accomplish this task not only before we kill the opponents, but before we turn our heads to look at them (which would destroy the objects regardless).

Iron Fist was fast enough to deflect around 50 flechettes from 5 feet away prior to his massive amp:
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/4109/grsp30coyy7.jpg

Ruin has that speed 10 fold, as well as both Iron Fist and Wolverine's hyper senses, amplified further by current IF's massive chi store.

Ruin does not need to slap these T-Spheres away. He does not need to dodge their impact, shrug it off, or do anything remotely fancy. He simply needs to turn his head. That in itself would obliterate anything incoming as optic blast meets small metal orb.

It's all pointless anyways though, as we wouldn't even need to destroy the T-Spheres. Why? Well, we have Wolverine's healing factor.

He eats explosions for breakfast.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/7672/wolverine1616wb6la1.jpg
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/1927/wolverine1617zl9wj2.jpg

If he was conscious after THIS:

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee113/wolverinerespectthread/Durability/UncannyX-Men14423Durability.jpg
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee113/wolverinerespectthread/Durability/UncannyX-Men44502Durability.jpg
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee113/wolverinerespectthread/Durability/UncannyX-Men44503Durability.jpg
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee113/wolverinerespectthread/Durability/UncannyX-Men44504Durability.jpg

A T-Sphere isn't going to do much.

I also don't see high-speed velocity explosions doing much to a man who kept fighting as a walking skeleton immediately after crashing in the Blackbird.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/1491/sabesinfernofight3sb1.jpg
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/1875/sabesinfernofight4ga6.jpg
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/6366/sabesinfernofight5kl9.jpg
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/1259/sabesinfernofight6qy3.jpg
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/8025/sabesinfernofight6bxw5.jpg
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/627/sabesinfernofight8qr3.jpg
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/1491/sabesinfernofight9no1.jpg

Anyways, here's the hilarious part: Omega's vaunted SOS plan is a bust anyways, as Leo has ruled:

Originally posted by leonidas
all gear is also capped at mach 1.

So not only would he have absolutely no time to implement it, not only would there be absolutely no chance of getting hit, not only would we survive it regardless, but the whole thing is illegal in the first place.

Ruin one-shots them from the getgo. If you have any doubts about his capability to do so via-optic blasts, I encourage you to review Cyclops feats in the opening post. If there is still nagging doubt, realize that we could be an amalgam of two without Cyclops, and still have little problem speedblitzing our opponents with greater power output and deadliness than they can muster, and with greater skill and speed than they can hope to match, topped off with healing and dodging more than sufficient to ensure that they can never put us down.

Good match.

Omega Vision's Official Post #2
Originally posted by Original Smurph Smurph Post 1

We're traveling at Mach 1. That's pretty much indisputable. The lowest of comic street-levelers easily move a few times faster than real life athletes, and Wolverine and Iron Fist have no shortage of feats consisting of them dancing around even the most well known superheroes with superior speed. For comparison, fitting Wolverine with Iron Fist's chi powers and training would make Logan to his former self what Iron Fist is to human athletes and fighters. This would put us over three times what the speed cap is, so even if Omega Vision wanted to argue that we're not that much better than real people, it doesn't make any difference- we still exceed the speed cap at the 4x as fast that he said he'd believe.

So, we're covering a kilometer at Mach 1.

Mach 1 = ~340.3 m/s
Kilometer = 1000 meters
1000/340.3 = 2.9s

That's how long it would take for Ruin to personally reach his opponents. If the judges for any reason believe that we would need to take this to hand-to-hand (a match that would be ridiculously spiteful in our favor), then we would spend less than three seconds before Ruin's claws move through his opponent's skulls backed by Iron Fist's chi-amped blows.

Deathstroke was able to not only to react to but also accurately hit the Flash with a staff blast to the chest. Now even given the fact that Ruin will doubtless try some form of evasive maneuver, Deathstroke's accuracy and tactical acuity (like compensating for maneuvers) cannot be denied. If he can hit a flying target in the neck from ranges commensurate to a kilometer with an UNSCOPED PISTOL then he can hit a grounded target with a point and shoot weapon like his staff.

I don't pretend to assume that the staff blast could seriously damage Ruin but IT WILL break his charge and possibly knock him on his ass given its proven ability to completely destroy a helicopter, something that puts it in the range of a rather powerful anti-tank rocket launcher.

With the charge broken Mr Terrific will have time to send in the T-Spheres.

Now this would be the case but for one issue you seem to have overlooked. The Environment. You're not on a Kansas prarie, you're in a post apocalyptic New York City, filled with collapsed buildings and other obstacles that would make your 2.9 second speed-blitz a laughable pipe dream. You'd be lucky to get there in ten and by that time my team will have adapted and scattered.

Nice scan. It certainly shows how Iron Fist can whallop an unprepared and not even close to bloodlusted Luke Cage who doesn't have the benefit of Deathstroke level skill and senses.


I really shouldn't even have to dignify this with a response but I'm somewhat obligated to anyway. The primary advantage of the T-Spheres over the Optic Blast (as well as a good reason why your speedblitz isn't as nice as it sounds on paper) is that they can move in 360 degree patterns and go through spaces as small as pipes and air vents offering an ENORMOUS potential for bushwhacking tactics.


Mr T is more than just a nerd with neat gadgets, he's a brilliant thinker with a sharp mind and the honed reflexes of a Martial Arts Master.
If he can play chess (while blindfolded) against two opponents at the same time (http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb260/DarkCrawler90/Tourney/34strategy.jpg) then he can figure out, aided by data both from his T-Spheres and T-Mask exactly what's going down and how best to deal with it.
His T-Mask's ability to detect incoming threats is not to be downplayed:
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb260/DarkCrawler90/Tourney/6visorpowers.jpg


Hyper senses and speed are all well and good but the key difference between flechettes and T-Spheres is that the T-Spheres are not limited to single direction travel and are in that way much harder to tag. Added to that the fact that he had time to prepare for that (if only a second or two), something he won't have here.
To reiterate: blocking 50 flechettes at point blank after being warned of their deployment=pretty impressive.
Blocking five to six T-spheres traveling at Mach 1 in erratic multi-directional flight paths, (and possibly including dozens of simulated T-Sphere hologram duplicates) converging from multiple directions at once in a rather cramped space with no prior warning and only Wolverine's senses as means of preparation=insane.


In all the above cases the key difference between those scenarios and the T-Sphere impact is the location and relative diffusion of explosive force/trauma.

The first example, an exploding helicopter, really only proves he could survive Deathstroke's staff blast. Wonderful, you've proven something I've already conceded.

The second example, an exploding house is also irrelevant. The kind of explosion the T-Sphere is capable of+the sheer force of initial impact is far more concentrated and potent than a house explosion that didn't even destroy his costume completely.

As for the third example that's certainly something to brag about but the whole issue of localized impact comes into play. His face was melted off but clearly he didn't absorb much in the way of actual kinetic force, at least not to his head. Its like the difference between falling from a tall tree and landing on your back and getting pegged by a baseball in the forehead. One may actually be more damaging overall to your body but the other knocks you out by forcing your brain to collide with your skull. Wolvy's HF is mitigated by the fact that his Adamantium skull would probably turn his squishy brain to fluid.

Smurph Post 2

Here's how the battle as we know it plays out:

Team Smurph:

The match starts.

Ruin runs forward at Mach 1, blasting full power optic blasts, enough to cover over a kilometer and obliterate everything in its way. It should logically make contact with the enemy and destroy them, or at least subdue them for enough time for Ruin to cover the rest of the distance, continuously pummelling them with optic blasts and then driving adamantium claws through their skulls with top tier strength.

Scans have been provided for everything claimed above to prove that we can do it. If more are required, there are a plethora for each character that makes up the Ruin amalgam.

Team Omega:

The match starts.

Team Omega will somehow keep Ruin on the defensive by sniping an amalgam of Wolverine and Iron Fist with an energy blast using only Deathstroke's skills, apparently slowing them down enough to then launch T-Spheres at them, which will of course unerringly strike despite moving no faster than Ruin and despite Ruin's capability to destroy them with a look. This will then somehow win the match for Ruin, despite no evidence provided to back up the assertion that these blasts would overcome Ruin's formidable healing factor.


So..


Problems:

Omega provides no defense for the optic blast

OV claims that he'll halt my team's progress with an energy blast- somehow- but completely ignores that our energy blast would reach him MUCH faster. We are personally faster, we don't need to raise and aim an implement, we were blasting from the get-go, and we strike everything a mile in front of our face.

Somehow, Omega Vision will:

1. Concoct a defense for our offense consist
2. Relay this to his T-Spheres
3. Work his way around the terrain that he claimed would change a kilometer run into a three kilometer obstacle course
4. Snipe us with an energy staff
5. Blast us with multiple T-Spheres

Before our optic blast reaches them, which would happen within the initial second of the match. Even if there were doubt about the blast's range capacity (which there really shouldn't be, given the forest-blasting scans where he clears significantly more than a kilometer of space...), we can close the entire distance between us in under three seconds. How long do you think it would take to close enough distance so that the optic blast could strike? 1 second? A half? A quarter?

To suggest that OV will somehow keep us on the defensive with an energy attack is inane. If he somehow comes up with an explanation of why he wouldn't be made into paste within the first second of the match, then maybe he can try and argue that he would get the first strike. He wouldn't, but an attempt to argue so would be less ridiculous.

How would Deathcage hope to hit Ruin with his staff?

Originally posted by Omega Vision
You're not on a Kansas prarie, you're in a post apocalyptic New York City, filled with collapsed buildings and other obstacles that would make your 2.9 second speed-blitz a laughable pipe dream. You'd be lucky to get there in ten and by that time my team will have adapted and scattered.

So, the environment will apparently change a kilometer-long run into a trek that's over three and a half kilometers, thus forever ruining our hopes of blitzing OV's team.

Deathcage, however, despite being far, far slower is not halted by such obstacles. The environment does not apply to him- perhaps he's a teleporter, and I wasn't alerted. Or maybe Luke Cage can phase now too? I don't really see how it's possible to assert that he would strike us with a long-range blast before we close the distance, unless he with his vastly inferior speed can somehow avoid navigating the environment like the rest of us.

Wait, that's not right- we don't have to navigate the environment. I mean, Deathcage still does, but that's because Deathcage is not turning everything a mile in front of his face into ash and rubble. No, Omega, we're not on a Kansas prarie, but the resemblance will be a lot closer once the match starts. Ruin's optic blasts will be completely clearing the field for us. While your brains are trying to make sense of the ceaseless and complete destruction (assuming that you're somehow not already dead), we'll just be doing a beeline for you. Wolverine can leap heights of sentinels, as can Iron Fist, so it's not like any rubble would halt us for any measurable amount of time.

Deathcage is limited. Ruin is not. Deathcage has to attempt to get to a vantage point where he can aim and strike a figure moving at Mach 1 who can kill him by looking at him, and who has all the dodging skill of Iron Fist + Wolverine, before Deathcage is obliterated. Good luck?

The T-Spheres have no hope of coming within fifty feet of Ruin

Picture Wolverine.

Take your mental Logan and give him all the skill of Iron Fist. Remember the flechette-deflecting scan above? Logan has all that training. A lifetime of training in martial arts and superheroing from the heavenly K'un Lun cities, yada yada yada.

Now give your mental Logan all the powers of Iron Fist. The speed would, as we know, amp Logan ten times over, and give him all sorts of supernatural awareness and senses and etc. Also it would allow him to amp his already immense skill. Nifty stuff.

Now give your mental Logan the ability to destroy anything he looks at, instantly.

Would mental Logan ever get hit by bullets that can move no faster than he can?

The T-Spheres are just really big bullets that can dodge a bit- but what Omega Vision suggests is that they can actually dodge Ruin seeing them.

Seriously, Ruin can destroy Omega's hopes with a pirouette. Somehow the orbs will, moving at the exact same speed that Ruin is, cover more distance than the optic blast will when he shifts his head a few inches.

Let's also keep in mind that Cyclops has tagged classic Quicksilver- who can move at Mach 1 and dodge, exactly like the T-spheres- many times now. 'Cyclops' for these purposes still has his aim, but is now about a hundred times faster and has removed all fears about letting loose.

Finally, let's remember that in their erratic movements, in order for Omega's hopes to have any weight, the T-Spheres have to connect before Ruin destroys his team, which would happen almost instantly. In fact, the T-Sphere's would probably be in the same area as everything else that we're obliterating in the first second of the match, and would thus be destroyed before they can attempt to implement any plan.

The T-Sphere's wouldn't do anything anyways...

I have yet to see any scans to suggest that the blast from a T-Sphere would do absolutely anything to KO Ruin. I don't see how the velocity impact would be worse than any of the hundreds of impacts that Logan's taken from bullets, rockets and miscellaneous ammunition. As I've shown, explosions are useless, and Logan's fought as a skeleton- how would this harm Ruin, who has, if anything, even greater chances of shrugging this off thanks to his chi powers?

If judges don't believe that the T-Spheres would do the trick (and there's no reason to believe that they would- for every possible scan that he could provide to support his case, there are twenty to disprove it), then there is no possible way that Deathcage or Mr. Terrific (now without T-Spheres) could hope to put Ruin down.

This match is utterly impossible for Omega Vision to win.

pardon the interruption but JUDGES NOTE--kandy, bada and batdude are judging this match.

proceed.

this match closes tonight at midnight. no posts made after that time will be considered.

Omega's Official Post #3

On the subject of T-Spheres and their power:
In addition to their explosive/kinetic potential they are also capable of releasing powerful electric charges:
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb260/DarkCrawler90/Tourney/16electricalcgharges.jpg

Now the thing about electric currents is that they don't just effect the muscles and internal organs, they also effect the nervous system directly.

An electrical current (in this case beautifully conducted by Ruin's adamantium skeleton) can completely **** over the electrical impulses nerves use to communicate. If Ruin gets hit by one, no matter how impressive his healing factor is, he can still get dropped if his nervous system is overloaded with a powerful electrical current.

On the subject of Deathcage's strength:

Deathstroke's serum was said to enhance his natural strength tenfold. Multiply Luke Cage's Class 25 strength times ten and you have a Class 100+ brick. Deathstroke with Class 100+ strength and titanium-strength skin is a DANGEROUS opponent, someone Ruin would do well to avoid in h/h.

You still have yet to rebut the fact that Deathcage knows Ruin's moves but Ruin knows nothing of Deathcage's skillset, since Luke Cage's style isn't going to be used.

On the subject of your speedblitz:

Even if you blast through the buildings in your way you still have an obstructed field of vision, not to mention your incredibly bright optic blast will be the same as launching a flare. Deathcage and Mr Terrific will be ready for Ruin when he comes into view.

Smurph Post 4


T-Sphere's electrical output will be completely ineffective

The claim: The T-Spheres will KO Ruin with electricity

Why it doesn't harm us: There are scans of Logan tanking Storm's lightning, electrical torture, Swordsman's electric swords and other miscellaneous electrical attacks (some definitely superior to T-Spheres) without ever being KO'd, but I'd rather use this opportunity to show off my favorite scans of the fight:

The Train scans.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e156/marvelkris/Scans/IronFist14-011.jpg
http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e156/marvelkris/Scans/?action=view&current=IronFist14-012-13.jpg
http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e156/marvelkris/Scans/?action=view&current=IronFist14-014.jpg

To recap:

Ironfist (far inferior to Ruin) destroys a train that is moving extremely fast. That is very impressive. But not nearly as impacting as after you read that the train was loaded with enough explosives to make Hiroshima look like a sparkler...

"ZOMG, how is this possible!?!?"

Danny did this by tapping into the electromagnetic energy generated by the train.

Which leads into my next section...

Why this does harm them:

You've either just lost your T-Spheres when we sensed them coming a mile away, or you amped us with electricity, and then lost your T-Spheres when we swatted them away like flies.

Incidentally, on a side note, the scans also only support the notion that T-Spheres exploding would be equally ineffective.

Deathcage's strength would be completely ineffective

Let me preface this section by noting that there would never actually be a scenario where physical blows were required, as we would destroy them within the first second via optic blasts. Hypothetically though...

The claim: Deathcage will use his Cl. 100 strength to KO us.

Why this doesn't harm us: Well, first of all, Cl. 100 strength is illegal in this tourney. I wanna say that it's capped at Cl. 50, but, either way, far below.

Secondly, even if you had your vaunted strength, Logan (far inferior to Ruin) has taken repeated blows from the likes of the Hulk, Thor, Juggernaut, Thing, Colossus... this isn't really worth expanding on past that evidence, but I'll continue regardless.

Ruin has all of Logan's durability, healing and skill, and then all of Iron Fist's as well. We just saw Iron Fist amp his durability to be capable of surviving a super nuke. With his normal ocean of chi, it should still be absolutely plenty to amp our durability ridiculously, which, compounded with Logan's durability and healing, would be insurmountable even if you gave you many minutes to pound on us.

Instead though, we won't. We'll dodge every single blow (because we are far faster), we will stab you (repeatedly if necessary, it will be neither difficult nor slow), and then we will dust ourselves off and walk off into the sunset.

Why this does harm them: This section is included solely for formality. It should be obvious that opening yourself up to Ruin's claws and chi is suicidal.


----------------------------------------------------------------

Probably my last post, I'll close with this:

Ruin is the epitome of what you can achieve with a low meta amalgam. He is far superior up close, he is far superior at a distance, and he is utterly impossible to surprise, harm or put down.

This match ends in the same second that it started.

match closed. KK, bada and bats have agreed to have their votes in by monday at midnight. well done to both.

OK... judge vote. Lets see. Hmm...

Well, let's start with what I didn't believe. I did not believe the speed difference between the two is anywhere close to what Smurph was implying, and I don't believe anyone's going to be speedblitzing in this fight. I have a hard time swallowing that smurph will be mach 1 in the first place, let alone that the other team wouldn't be able to react at all.

On the staff-blast, Deathstroke has been able to hit the damn Flash. I don't believe for a second that Ruin will be too fast for Deathcage to hit with the blast, and while I agree it won't do much damage, it will definitely slow him down or knock him over, all that Omega ever said it would.

The optic blasts of Ruin are quite strong, but I had a hard time believing they would be able to be at the city-busting level continuously just because he was amalgated with Wolverine. There wasn't enough evidence to support such a claim. Nonetheless, they are powerful and are likely sufficient to defeat Deathcage.

The T-Spheres will be able to hit Ruin. While its true looking at them is sufficient to destroy them, Smurph needs to know where they are. His senses may be good, but I doubt they'll be good enough given that the entire city is getting blown up around him, creating way too much noise and debris to allow him to sense them.

So far, seems like Omega was doing pretty good. But he wasn't able to do much to convince me that the T-Spheres deliver the kind of punch needed to put Ruin down. The electricity argument was sketchy at best, although the refutation Smurph gave I didn't find very persuasive either, and seemed like a misinterpretation of what actually happened in the train scan.

So, here's kind of what I see happening. Ruin charges forward, beams a flying... maybe not as fast as Smurph said, or with beams as powerful, but he charges nonetheless. He gets knocked over by a chest beam, and the T-Spheres hit him and explode. Sounds good, right? Wrong. Smurph showed pretty conclusively that he'd probably just get right back up. And that's it. It's over. Omega had clearly placed his bets on that being sufficient to beat Ruin, but I just don't see it happening. Hand to Hand combat is suicide, despite Omega's attempts to argue to the contrary.

While I thought Smurph's defense wasn't nearly as infallible as he thought, Omega's offense is simply not of the level necessary to effectively fight on this level. Therefore, i'm going to have to give the vote to Smurph.

However, Smurph, this fight was imo not nearly as one sided as you seemed to think it was.

My vote will be in Monday evening, EST.

Judge's Vote:

To start off, I should mention that both Smurph and OV did an excellent job of explaining their positions in this match. It took me awhile to formulate a decision, but this is how I saw it...

First of all, I wasn't buying the idea of Ruin having Mach 1 speed. At all. Like... really? There's a huge difference between combat/reflexive speed and actual running/travel speed. It's the same principle that's applied to the debate between Superman and the Surfer, only on a much smaller scale here. Regardless, Batman, Daredevil, Cap, etc. all have feats of agility/combat speed easily comparable to the ones Smurph used as evidence for Ruin. The concept of Wolverine + Iron Fist = being able to run at 760 mph (roughly) had me laughing.

Second of all, I felt that in terms of skills, IF + Wolverine would be a slight handicap. Both characters have wildly differing styles; almost polar opposites, in fact. Imo, they're skill sets would collide, rather than mesh and/or stack.

Third of all, I think Smurph was severely downplaying OV's amalgamation while simultaneously over exaggerating his own (which I don't fault him for, as it's the nature of tourneys... being overconfident helps sway the judges in one's favor). For example, I don't see Ruin being completely un-hittable, especially when DS has tagged Flash (on numerous occasions) and also blitzed the JLA.

Even with all the above said, unfortunately for OV, Smurph still won this match, imo. Frankly, Cyclops was his ace in the hole that I wasn't convinced OV had an answer for. By pouring on Scott's optic blasts, I see OV's team being down for the count. It's a shame though. Tbh, I really don't see how the f*ck Scott was able to be drafted in a low meta tourney, but that's just me.

Anyway, good job to both competitors, and congratulations to Smurph on winning the match.

Sorry I'm so late with this vote.

Good match up and debate.

I felt both Omega and Smurph gave enough proof and explanation to back up claims. But Ruin isn't going Mach 1.

Skills...Deathstroke is a bad man and has held his own against DC's top MAs and powered heroes alike. I think the fighting skills is a wash.

Now, this is the tough part. Part of me is visualizing Deathstroke doing what he does augmented with Cage's strength/durability and winning this on the fly. T Spheres exploding and giving off electric charges would give him the edge imo. But Cyclop's optic blasts basically doing a more controlled "get off my lawn" routine, plus Logan's healing/adamantium and Iron Fist's chi amp gave me pause.

So, what it came down to for me was T Spheres vs Optic Blast. I believe the Optic Blasts would at least negate, if not overwhelm, the T Spheres in this situation. Leaving Ruin to defeat team Omega.

Very close match. Took me a few times reading to decide.

My vote goes to Smurph.

well done gentlemen. and it WAS a very good improvement OV.

tomorrow night's match, OV vs cdb--battlefield: a rainforest in western canada.