Trial Tournament 1 - Round 1 - Match 4 - Vagrant Tom vs. Kagutsuchi

[Cochise]

1. Vote clearly on the victor. You must state a reason why you feel that team would win. Your vote is voided if: You don't have a reason stated, you have less than 100 posts (unless it is decided differently), and if you don't put I vote for: (Participant Name here) at the end of your post.

2. Only 1 vote allowed. If later you are persuaded by someone and choose to vote for the other person, then only that vote will count.

3. No filler abilities, none period.

4. No character hype, yes Zoro is fucking awesome, but please try and be serious and just go off their skills

5. Experience of fighting WITH or AGAINST character's are in play. (eg Baroque Works pairs, such as Mr 4 and Miss Merry Christmas will work well together) EXPERIENCE IS ONLY IN AFFECT FROM CHAPTER 500 AND BEFORE.

6. There is no prep time. But your characters have unlimited time before a match where they can discuss strategy and share knowledge etc. But no actions may be taken before a match.

7. The Incharacter Rule
Characters will do their best to follow a strategy. They will happily attack the enemy (even Sanji will kick a girl if she is the enemy). Characters have no fear (Ussop will not run away). When left with nothing to do and no guidelines, characters will behave incharacter as they would do in the manga.

8. If caught bribing for votes or cheating (making aliases), you will be disqualified from the tournament.

9. Logias are not intangible, they can be hurt by all normal attacks (eg, you don't need water to hurt Crocodile). Zombies character are also the same, they can be hurt with normall attacks, not just salt and fire.

10. A strategy cannot plan for things the characters have no knowledge of. For example, a team cannot plan for Don Kriegs poison if no one on that players team has knowledge of it.

Location - Tree of Omniscience (http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/391/18/)
Distance - 150 metres

Vagrant Tom
Ryuuma - 30
Crocodile - 30
Foxy - 10

versus

Kagutsuchi
Post-EL Luffy - 40
Pre-EL Luffy - 25
East Blue Sanji - 5

[Teach]

Kagutsuchi IMO has a better team.

[Vagrant Tom]

Good luck, I don't think I have a chance against this team, Luffy seems to be a steal in both versions.

Knowledge
Foxy and Crocodile have seen most of Luffys moves in base form. Although they have no idea about the gears (nuts!) Foxy has seen the later version of Sanji fight and thus knows he mostly uses kicks.

In return they know everything about Foxy and Crocodile. But Ryuuma is the mystery here, much to my advantage.

Strategy
Okay, I know Luffy is a rubber man. This is one of the main reasons for his toughness (besides just being naturally tough). Rubber is good against blunt force like punches or bullets. But is is not going to deal well with being sliced. Thus I have two main weapons to kill Luffy. One is Crocodiles water draining powers and the second is Ryuumas extremely strong sword (which Zoro was worried about breaking his own swords).

So, right off the bat, I'm going to fall back to the buildings that surround the tree. See here (http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/391/18/). Foxy and Ryuuma will cover Crocodile. A blitz after me would be stupid; running straight into a Noro Noro beam and Ryuuma will punish any hasty actions. Ryuuma was equal to Zoro in speed and cannot just be blitzed like a fodder.

I will turn the houses and surrounding area into sand. I will keep doing it until I have a good perimeter of sand around my team (about 50 metre radius). If Luffy tries to attack in this time, thinking I'm too busy, this will happen (http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/201/08/). Once again, Foxy and Ryuuma are covering too.

Once I have sand, I can advance slowly, moving the sand with me. My team can fight on the sand, his team can't. I will seek to immobilise his team with Noro Noro beams or by sucking them into the sand (http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/178/06/). I will then have Ryuuma cut off their heads of have Crocodile drain their water rather than letting them live or attempt to escape. Crocodile is also to use have his poison hook out the entire match. Rubber won't stop poison.

What ifs?
What if Luffy uses gear 3?
He then becomes slower and a massive Noro Noro beam target. I know I don't know about this attack, but it will be obvious if he uses it and so Foxy, being as smart as he is, will probably just use his attack anyway.

What if Luffy uses gear 2?
Luffy will then be faster than Ryuuma, but not that much faster that he can completely dominate (imo). Once again, I don't know about this attack so there isn't really an explicit plan.

What if Luffy uses gear 2 and gear 3 together?
My team surrenders? Nah, but even if I knew about the gears I think I'd be pretty fucked.

[Kuya]

VT, solid and not complicated strategy, his team is definately superior, but you cut off that advantage. You're still in this.

[StrawHat4Life]

This should be very interesting. VT has planned well and made the most of his team's resources. I can't wait to see what Kagutsuchi has in mind though.

[Vagrant Tom]

Come on Kagutsuchi! Hurry up and beat me.

[Cochise]

Man, Kagu's team is tough. Ryuuma is right up there with Luffy though. I haven't read VT's strat yet.

[Kagutsuchi]

Ah I'm fudging drunk man. But yeah, a maannnsssss gootttaa dooo what a manns goottta do. I'm gonna try to be creative here and let's hope it works.

Knowledge:

Um, everything except Ryuuma, although we could probably tell that he is a zombie and is vulnerable to fire.

1st Stage:

- Luffy (with Gears) preps Gear 2.

- Sanji turns upside down like so:

http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/961/34007360ad0.jpg

- Luffy (with gears) who is in gear 2 right now uses Sanji's legs as a catapult to where the enemy team is where he'll proceed to jet stamp (http://img39.onemanga.com/mangas/00000002/00000388/06.jpg) the fuck outta Foxy but in my version Luffy will try to do a jet stamp version storm/gatling where he'll do a kicking version of gomu gomu no gatling thing as he probably is the main problem.

- Luffy (Without gears or whatever) will proceed to blitz the other team, again aiming at Foxy, I want to take him out as soon as possible.

2nd Stage.

- Sanji will attempt to attack Ryuuma with his kicks along with throwing a cigarette at him (maybe he'll catch alight who knows).

- The two other Luffys (The one with Gears will always remain in Gear 2 as speed is everything in this match) will just remain IC beating the crap out of everyone else.

The end.

[StrawHat4Life]

I think that VT has an edge here based on the strats but I'll wait for some rebuttal's.

[Vagrant Tom]

I think the catapult will work to some degree. Except that the relatively linear (ie. straight and direct) attack will surely run into a Noro Noro beam since Foxy is guarding from blitz attacks.. Especially since it is aimed at Foxy. Once caught in a Noro Noro beam, Ryuuma will make short work of Post EL Luffy whilst he is defensless. From then on, it becomes easy for my team.

[Kagutsuchi]

Ah god dammit, I didn't note that Luffy will catapult himself in the air.

But meh I'm pretty sure that Gear 2 Soru'd up Luffy with the catapult could get Foxy before he could even react.

Remember, Luffy back in the day still had a speed advantage over him and now O GOD! Foxy shouldn't be able to do shit. Also, the only reason why Foxy had an advantage back then is because the battlefield was tweaked to give him a giant advantage.

Ability to dodge, even though the noro noro beam was shot from Luffy's blind spot:

http://img39.onemanga.com/mangas/00000002/00000315/07.jpg

Pre EL Luffy Blitz:

http://img39.onemanga.com/mangas/00000002/00000315/05.jpg

Once I have sand, I can advance slowly, moving the sand with me. My team can fight on the sand, his team can't. I will seek to immobilise his team with Noro Noro beams or by sucking them into the sand. (http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/178/06/)

The quicksand got beaten by Luffy's Bazooka two pages after, try again :zaru.

[Vagrant Tom]

Luffy is fast, yes, but Luffy's speed has nothing to do with it when it's Sanji's launching a catapult. Anyway, moving in a straight line over 150 metres, it doesn't matter who you are, no one in One Piece has covered such a distance at a fast speed, let alone faster than you can react.

Quicksand can and does work. (http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/179/19/) Especially when coupled with water draining attack.

[StrawHat4Life]

Even in Gear 2 mode, Luffy will just be going in a straight line dead on into Foxy's Noro Noro beam and a waiting Ryuuma who is no slouch (http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/450/005/) when it comes to speed. You might as well have gift wrapped Luffy to the enemy. East Blue Sanji stands no chance against Ryuuma even if he does flick his cigarette at him. Without Post EL Luffy for Kagutsuchi's team, VT has the clear advantage.

I vote for vagrant tom

[Kagutsuchi]

Luffy is fast, yes, but Luffy's speed has nothing to do with it when it's Sanji's launching a catapult. Anyway, moving in a straight line over 150 metres, it doesn't matter who you are, no one in One Piece has covered such a distance at a fast speed, let alone faster than you can react.

lol wut? Zoro Baroque Works arc ages ago:

http://img39.onemanga.com/mangas/00000002/00000107/13.jpg
http://img39.onemanga.com/mangas/00000002/00000107/15.jpg

Luffy Vs Blueno

http://img39.onemanga.com/mangas/00000002/00000388/04-05.jpg

"I can't see him at all".

Luffy will be completely invisible to Foxy's eyes.

I see a severe underestimate of Luffy's speed here. Additionally, I have full knowledge of the beam, and I'm pretty sure Luffy will use all of his power to avoid it by blowing out air to dodge etc.

Quicksand can and does work. Especially when coupled with water draining attack.

Again, a bazooka would get him out (http://img39.onemanga.com/mangas/00000002/00000178/08.jpg). Crocodile only got him in the quicksand when Crocodile physically touched him to drain his water supply (http://img39.onemanga.com/mangas/00000002/00000179/07.jpg). Fortunately for this match Crocodile doesn't have intangibilty, and with perfect knowledge, my Pre El Luffy could easily handle him with a storm + more.

[Rice Ball]

i think Kagutsuchi made a bit of a error here, i don't think the geared luffy rushing straight into them will be good enough. Vagrant tom has setup his team to prepare for a rush attack with Ryuuma on the defence.

Voting for vagrant tom

[Vagrant Tom]

Oh yeah, just to say, Luffy's speed, even when geared, doesn't matter when it is East Blue Sanji firing him. Luffys speed doesn't come into it. It is Sanjis leg catapulting power that matters. And I don't think this version of Sanji will give Luffy the speed needed at all.

[Cochise]

Calling 24 hour now.

[Cochise]

Match Closed

VT, 1 (http://forums.narutofan.com/showpost.php?p=16459476&postcount=13), 2 (http://forums.narutofan.com/showpost.php?p=16495238&postcount=15).

Kagu, 0.

Vagrant Tom wins.