[MAG] The Tribune Vol.3 : Issue 2 + Play-Off Pamphlet

[Lucifa]

..The Tribune : Vol. 3 : Issue 2..


I. Introduction
II. Weekly Poll
Play-Offs Pamphlet
III. Play-Off Finale
IV. A Look Back At Season 2 Play-Offs
V. Divisional Format Feature
VI. Got Life? Breaks Down Week 2
VII. Loose Cypher
VIII. Got Life? Predicts Week 3
IX. Mod Balls
X. … Of The Week
XI. Outroduction

I. Introduction

Welcome to the penultimate Tribune of Season 3 as we know it right now. Next week will see the start of the RSTL Divisional Format and this will also see changes made to how the [MAG] is written and presented. This will include a new section for profiling RSTL members. More information on the Divisional Format will be mentioned in section “V.” of this issue.

The Play-Offs Finale is in the sticky area and needs voting on to decide our S3:Play-Off Champion of Champions.
Get your vote on guys!

The mag is still evolving and will soon be a more consistent format to suit the divisions and new vibe we have going on in the RSTL through the Worth Points system and such. So stick with us or get involved; if you aren’t already.


II. Weekly Poll

Last week’s poll of “Who has brought the RSTL into most disrepute?” was won by: J o o k

This week’s poll asks: “Topical or Story?”

We know a well written topical can beat a poorly told story piece, but what do you seriously prefer to read?

A: Topical
B: Story

[Lucifa]

III. Play-Off Finale

4 became 2 as the race toward the champion of champions title heated up.

Eye-Rime Vs Got Life?

Voting is still live. An announcement of the winner will be made next week in the mag.


IV. A Look Back At Season 2 Play-Offs

Round 1: The Top 16 ranks were confirmed and to fill all spots we offered a substitute system to make it a full house. This went down well with everyone except vada/Vern Acular who pulled his verse down when he actually had an opponent. He later decided to allow his verse back in and battle went ahead with only 1 no-show winner, in LDogg. We would have had 2, but Quriosity and I allowed Got Life? back in from his ban (after he used DeadKing’s account to post a verse) to compete. Levels of writing were high and not many match-ups ended in huge gaps between votes.
Advanced: LDogg, Got Life?, Eye-Rime/Quriosity, DaAlmightyDolla, Infinite Truth, nah son/Jook, Pent uP, vada/Vern Acular
Dropped Out: MetaSin, Lucifa, TheReturn, RICO, nom de plume., Bodian/Baron Mynd, Cereal_Killer, 3-Planes

Round 2: Things got interesting as the Top 8 squared off. The biggest disappointment being that Infinite Truth pretty much gave up on advancing via last years Play-Off winner nah son/Jook. The low turn out on voting was also disappointing, but the rightful winners advanced to the Semi-Finals.
Advanced: nah son, vada/Vern Acular, Got Life?, Eye-Rime/Quriosity
Dropped Out: Infinite Truth, DaAlmightyDolla, LDogg, Pent uP

Semi-Finals: This was the week that things really got interesting, but at the same time also down right dirty. Certain rules were not followed by vada/Vern Acular and this meant that his tied result with Got Life? became a loss due to losing 2 of his votes. This was followed by Eye-Rime/Quriosity taking a deserving win over nah son/Jook. Things got heated and then a (not so) shocking confession came to light from Jook; admitting that he was infact nah son, and as such had cheated his way to winning Season 1 Play-Offs along with other weeks when he’d been double voting (at least). A sour taste was left in the forum but the show must go on.
Advanced: Eye-Rime/Quriosity, Got Life?
Dropped Out: vada/Vern Acular, nah son/Jook
Disgraced: J o o k

Finale: Still in voting stage.

[Lucifa]

V. Divisional Format Feature

You can find detailed information by Clicking Here.

A Quick Over-View:

Divisions: The league will be split in to 2 groups of competitors.
A RED and BLUE division.
You battle it out against people in your division to climb the ranks of one or the other.
Top ranks will feed in and out of (League) Contender and Champ matches.
Losers drop into the opposite division to which they ‘escaped’ from.
Use the link provided to see much more detail on how the Divisions and Contender/Champ matches work.

Worth Points: The league will now rank with Points rather than Records.
Points reward your own effort and input to the league.
You will have 2 Points Values. Accumulated (always climbs) and Active (variable points used for ranks).
It is possible to earn the same, if not more, points in a loss than the winner obtains, depending on effort.
Since points are awarding for such things as – voting quantity and verse post date.
Other interesting and fun things will be done with the points over time, including possibly “gambling/betting” with Active Worth.
Use the link provided to see much more detail on how the Points break down in value.

Your goal?
To achieve Champ status and earn yourself an RSTL Champion Gauge:

[Lucifa]

VI. Got Life? Breaks Down Week 2

Lucifa - As editor of the mag I am very interested in opinion here. Would you prefer to see Got Life?’s extensive opinion on your matches as seen in this issue, or would you prefer the more bite-size and less opinionated version (Example) which I have been writing lately?

Extreme Venom vs Ace the Prophet

Ace and Venny have both signed out stating that they don’t have enough time to continue on as of right now, but before they departed they gave us a battle that was pretty close in nature though the votes show it to be pretty one sided. Ace wrote a piece about a young love…or more so a young lust that led astray. The piece started with imagery that focused strongly around the physical aspect of the relationship, though with the relationships downfall Ace brought out the emotional downfall as exhibited by the guy in the relationship. While this is something I’m sure just about every last one of us could relate to, there wasn’t anything in this piece that allowed Ace to make it his own and take it away from every other piece like this that we’ve ever read. On the other hand Venny used a concept that has also been done before, but he approached it in a refreshing manner. The premise at hand, the war between good and evil, in this case a literal battle between heaven and hell…angels and demons, battling it out here on Earth. The piece itself was depicted from the perspective of a poltergeist that seemingly acts as a guardian angel to men in order to earn a spot in Heaven and eventually join the fight. The piece while not written with the most profound mechanics had solid imagery and was carried with a really good flow and solid writers voice which made for quite an enjoyable read. At the end of the day Venom won by a clear margin with only Q disagreeing with the popular majority as to who won the battle.

Pain vs Mic-illaH

When I saw this match-up in front of me I was disappointed that mods didn’t decide to match up Mic-illaH with Rocket and rematch Pain vs TheReturn again because I felt like it would have been a more even match, but this actually genuinely surprised me with how close this battle really could have been. Pain obviously being the favorite in the match for once, something I don’t think he wants or appreciates, but as a former champ and someone who has won just about 60 battles in the RSTL you have to give the guy his due. He wrote a piece which felt a little familiar to some of us as he wrote a piece about God as an artist with this pallet of colors and how certain things were brought out from this. It felt like a combination of TR’s piece where God was a graf head putting the world together and a little of DaD’s color coded piece in that he really brought his verse to life in another dimension by actually displaying a lot of color coding in his piece, but what stood this verse apart was that slightly poetic touch, strong flow, and strong writers voice that Pain always seems to bring to the table. On the other hand Mic-illaH came into this match with virtually no one knowing anything about him. As his piece started you could tell that he needs to polish up his mechanics and that stronger word choice/vocab would definitely expand his writing by leaps and bounds, but there was certainly substance beneath the surface. Perhaps a “diamond in the rough” as Mic first had us assuming this was another piece about a young guy lusting after a girl, but as the second stanza opened up you could tell that he was leading this piece into flipping it about actually being an affliction for cigarettes rather than anything having to do with a female. While this is a concept that has been done it can be quite good if executed properly and I look forward to seeing more from Mic in the coming weeks. Pain won the match by a clear sweep, but props to both writers for putting up a very enjoyable match.

TheReturn vs Rocket

While not everyone is to familiar with Rocket, mainly due to his obsession with no-showing and lurking online during odd hours of the night, but I appreciate his subbing in out of nowhere so that the league could have one more match. With that said though, it’s tough to sub-in against everyone’s lovable TR who seems to have taken a page out of the late, great, Tali Rodriguez’s book in becoming the guy that everyone seems to want to see win. All that aside, this battle was more one-sided than it could have been had Rocket actually showed to his full potential. TR delivered a piece that was relatable and familiar to the male audience here in the RSTL, the constant struggle towards finding that perfect woman, where in reality the protagonist finds perfection in two halves of two different women; if only it were possible to piece them together. Actually had TR then flipped that into some crazy gore medical experiment this verse would have been even better in my eyes, but none the less the piece had a real genuine vibe to the writer’s voice and read very smooth. Rocket wrote a piece that really dripped with emotion, particularly depression/grief/pain and it was a piece clearly written to a loved one in a relationship that has been through some turbulent water. It’s easier for me to interpret this because I know some of the things that have gone on between him and his wife over the past year or so, but where this piece snagged was the lack of a smooth flow and solid mechanics. Had those elements been brought out I think Rocket could have really shocked people and blown by TR, as it stood though TR wins by a unanimous decision as another solid match came to an end.

[Lucifa]

VI. Got Life? Breaks Down Week 2 cont..

Nom de Plume vs Chin Kwon

Outside of the Season 2 Finale, I have to say this was definitely the closest match of the week and I absolutely loved it. Chin really captured me with his piece about Boston and how he turned it into this story that continued to unfold, it added a depth to this piece that went beyond an Ode to “my city” or a “this is my home” type of piece. Instead Boston came to life as the relatability of the piece was really brought out, for me in particular considering my proximity to NYC. Also the way Chin played off the pictures and connected them it was one of the few pieces where people use pictures inside of their actual verse that I enjoyed I a while as that usually tends to irk me. Nom definitely needed to provide a solid effort in order to overthrow Chin in light of this and he did not disappoint. Though his piece faltered a little in the middle with some ramblings that felt a bit out of focus, Nom delivered a very poetic piece about a character that was somewhere between Joan of Arc and Jesus Christ. It was a character that was truly developed well, who became so relatable that a twinge of sorrow was felt when she died, though her doom was forecast from the start. The symbolism of the rose on her blouse was also carried out quite well, while the whole of the piece was propelled by a smooth flow and an elaborate rhyme scheme. Nom won by a clean sweep however the battle was far from being that lopsided. Both of these guys are not to be taken lightly and I look forward to seeing more from them in the coming weeks.

Season 2 Finale…

Got Life? vs Quriosity

While some people sat there predicting this person or that person I’m really not shocked to have found myself head to head with Q yet again when the dust settled and two people emerged for the Champ of Champ matches for Season 2. I mean who else would have been a better fit; we’ve both won the most titles/matches since the revival and we’ve been the most consistent writers around. Granted I was initially “banned” from the final 16 because of recycling many times, but at the end of the day things just had there way of working out. When it came down to the battle both of us took advantage of being able to write more and tried to not neglect details that we normally may have cut short or left out in light of a more rigid line limit. I went a familiar route and worked off the theme of obsession, in this case a man obsessed with music to every little detail so much so that he gives up everything else simply for music. What I demonstrated towards the end was that when he was finally for once distracted by a female (who was supposed to be the devil in a succubine form; something I chose to not develop) his world crumbled. In that one moment that he showed weakness and strayed from his passion it all crumbled and resulted in his demise. His obsession was so intertwined with his existence that it was his portrait if he had been Dorian Grey. Q also tread some familiar territory as he approached a verse about a woman stuck in a bad relationship as he carried his character through beating after beating you really had to appreciate what was going on, the character grew quite familiar to anyone that’s ever known a girl in an abusive relationship and Q related it quite well. Beyond that the fly metaphor that he combined it with made for a clever idea and this boiled down to quite a solid match even though both of us have been dealing with outside distractions. Q dealing with the birth of his daughter and me dealing with the impending death of my grandmother. The battle is actually still open for votes so no outcome can be slated here, but good shit none the less.

[Lucifa]

VII. Loose Cypher

I was asked last week why my Loose Cypher segment had gone AWOL. Over the last few weeks I have been playing with the mag to see what works and what could change etc. The Loose Cypher being one of the segments I was happy with got dropped to look at other things. In the absence I’ve also had thoughts about how I could maybe change this segment too. Looking to merge with the Weekly Highlights (that you may or may not have noticed is missing). So instead of creating my Top 5 verses as previously, I will look at shouting out/highlighting/lime-lighting my Top 5 “competitors” for their match-up, verse, voting, example and form.
So on with proceedings..

Top Match: nom de plume. v Chin Kwon : Link
It was a whitewash in terms of votes, as nom de plume. took this win with a 6-0 result. However, don’t let the result overshadow the level of competition Chin Kwon gave in this bout. Two good writers here, where the elegance and eloquence level of nom de plume.’s writing style was the main difference, as both told interesting and entertaining stories with their pieces. Good shit fellas.

Top Verse: .:Pain:. : Link
Most of us have seen the colour coded verse used before, so we know it’s not original in concept. However, Pain used an image that suited this ‘gimmick’ very well and also gave very solid content that didn’t leave the reader bemused or off-put by all the colours. Nice work .:Pain:.

Top Voter: Quriosity
This isn’t awarded to someone for getting 100% of their votes correct with the results. It’s not even awarded to someone who votes on ‘everything’, as they can be whack votes still. This is awarded to, who I feel, gave the best level of feedback per competitor, making sense and useful constructive critique. This is true of Q this week for me, as he spent time on his breakdowns to give clear reasoning behind each vote. Props.

Top Competitor: Chin Kwon
This guy was up there in contention for the voter award this week, and has been a great addition to the RSTL ranks since joining last week. Long may this continue, as he’s shown a good level of dedication to the league, along with impressing other competitors with his standard of writing. He’s one to watch out for in match-ups and a has so far proven to be reliable on the voting front. *tips hat*.

Top Dog: TheReturn
On this week’s proof, Return is getting back on form and all beware if he hits the form that saw his 5 week champ run of a few months back. No-one in the league can step in to a match-up with TR and feel 100% confident of a win. He has levels of diversity, but when he uses his main style of writing, the flow is faultless and the mechanics are superior to most, including clever wording and good use of vocab. A serious contender for the 1st Champ Gauge of the RSTL Divisional Format.

[Lucifa]

VIII. Got Life? Predicts Week 2

If your life has felt like a hollow shell without Got Life?’s crystal ball motivating you to do better as a man, have no fear, the segment is back in the flesh. While there aren’t too many people in the league this week I definitely see things turning around and I see some really killer match ups that should make for quite an interesting week.

Got Life? 0-0 (20) v. Infinite Truth 0-1 (9)

The first time we met IT was this new fascinating writer and his piece of utter madness won over the crowd moving him past me by a score of 3-2, all things considering this should be the match of the week as both of us are top notch writers with giant egos who bring two completely different styles to the table. At the end of the day this will come down to desire or execution. Being that I’m the asshole with the biggest ego, I’ll go ahead and say that I win by 3 votes. So there you go IT, this is me saying fuck your mother, your sister twice, and btw, I took a dump in your bong, so in the words of Shaq, “tell me how my ass taste!”

Lucifa 22-9 (7) v. TheReturn 13-3 (7)

This is clearly the case of which mod has the bigger dick. Naturally the winner of this can lay claim to such theatrics and while this could be a really close match I think this is TR’s match to win or lose. What it breaks down to is while Lucy has been a solid opponent since the revival of the RSTL, he has yet to really show that destructive force that some of the higher tier writers in the league have. TR is definitely the crowd favorite with his loveable personality and smooth flowing writing. At the same time the last time I read a piece from Lucy it was one of his best to date and TR hasn’t been impressing me much as of late. Considering the under-abundance of emo topics I’m going to actually go against the grain and predict Lucy to win by 2.

.:Pain:. 2-0 (6) v. nom de plume. 8-4 (6)

The third battle on the card should be yet another clash of top notch writers as we see yet another pair of champs collide. Pain; who has probably seen roughly as many matches in the RSTL as me if not more is certainly a veteran of the league and a guy with his own unique style and perspective. This is obviously something both of these guys share as Nom definitely has his own style as well. Being that neither of these guys are big storytellers, we will see what prevails when relatable slightly poetic, but raw topicals clash against more poetic based, emotion driven stories of a topical nature. If both of them come hard to the table this could be the closest match of the week. At the end of the day though Nom doesn’t seem to have had that same fire that he did when he tore through the league to win a title and Pain has been very on point and has even been voting these past few weeks. With that said I will cast my prediction in favor of Pain by 2.

Pharaohe Def 1-0 (4) v. Chin Kwon 1-1 (1)

While both of these names seem fairly new to the RSTL especially as of late, these guys are obviously not new to writing and both have been getting noticed for the pieces they’ve produced. Pharaohe has had the misfortune of getting no-shown against twice, but his piece that Meta ducked (yeah I said it) was actually quite good and showed that he is not someone to be taken lightly if he can produce pieces at that level consistently. On the other side of the table Chin found himself facing off against IT in week 1, a match in which IT clearly slept on his opponent and let Chin advance with a win. Week two found Chin against Nom, where the poetic style was able to break him down. One thing we can expect is that Pharaohe will finally have to see battle and that Chin will not be someone that goes down easy. I think that Chin will be more motivated after coming off two actual battles and will bring a little more fire to the table edging out Pharaohe by 2 votes.

Mic-illaH 0-1 (1) v. E Tha Real 0-0 (0)

Mic-illaH surprised a few people last week by proving to not be just some random newbie, but by actually bringing some fire and creativity to the table. If he takes the criticism he was given in stride he should be able to improve quite well this week and make this match one of the sleepers to watch. For those unfamiliar with E Tha Real outside of the RBL world he use to topical from time to time a while back and was a pretty well balanced writer with strong ideas and solid mechanics. If E has stayed true to form then I think he might make quick work of Mic, but all things considering I look forward to seeing how this one actually boils down. I’m going to actually go against my gut and predict Mic-IllaH wins by 3.

sfsportsfan 0-0 (0) v. Calibre 0-0 (0)

I have never seen anything really worth reading from either of these two so I predict that this will be something rather disappointing that will resemble more of a chore than an enjoyment in terms of having to vote on this match. Considering Calibre has been around longer and SF’s inexperience and poor OM quality of writing I have to predict Calibre no-shows or wins via white wash.

Rap Antics 0-0 (0) v. MC Guttso 0-0 (0) v. rocket 0-2 (-3)

I don’t care for aliases and clowns that hide behind them so I hope that rocket climbs out of his slump and makes quick work of these clowns.

And with that I leave the fate of how accurate my predictions were to you. While the numbers are down from what they typically are, this is still a week where we have quite a good amount of solid competitors and it should make for some interesting outcomes.

Enjoy.

[Lucifa]

IX. Mod Balls

A quick segment this week, just covering some old and refreshed ground.

Know Where You Stand

The Rules & Regulations are found : HERE
They have been updated for use within the Divisional Format.
The Divisional Format is explained : HERE
We’ve attempted to explain it as easy as possible. Any questions, feel free to ask a moderator.

The moderators are here to keep the league moving in the right direction. We will not rule with bias and when competing; are bound by the exact same rules. The rules are written for clarity to both competitor and moderator, with the stipulations clear on what happens if a rule is broken.

Don’t be a bitch. Just do the do and don’t step out of place. This way you will be fine and not feel hard done by when you are deemed to have infringed upon a rule outlined in the appropriate thread.

Remember..
Moderator Word Is Law!
So lick our balls and have a nice day.

[Lucifa]

X. … Of The Week

Honey Of The Week
Make that .. HoneyZ .. of the week.
This week I’m posting images of a collection of totty from UK TV series ‘HollyOaks’.
As requested by nom de plume.

























Music Video Of The Week
Slick Rick – Children’s Story
Going back to a track that’s on a story telling tip.




Random Video Of The Week
The best use of Domino Rally to date.




Lucifa’s Joke Of The Week

An old man of ninety was sitting on a park bench crying. A policeman noticed this and asked him why he was crying.

"Well," says the old fellow, "I just got married to a twenty-five year old woman. Every morning she makes me a wonderful breakfast, and we have then have fun together laughing and relaxing. In the afternoon she makes me a wonderful lunch and then we make fun together laughing and relaxing again. At dinner time she makes me a wonderful supper and then we relax more and enjoy ourselves."

The policeman looks at the old man and says, "You shouldn't be crying! You should be the happiest man in the world!"

So the old man says, "I know! I'm crying because I don't remember where I live!"

Boom!

[Lucifa]

XI. Outroduction

Double whoop. The mag is done and it’s in a day early!
Thanks to Got Life? for his time and input.

I’m looking forward to next week and what comes after that, as I see some real potential with the divisions and points structure. People clung to records like they meant everything and acted like it meant they held weight in the league beyond their station. The points will prove who is valuable to the league and who is out just for themselves.

Enjoy the last week of Jook’s tainted legacy.

If anyone would like to submit material to the mag then feel free to contact me:
AIM = Lokoveli
MSN = lokinontoyou@hotmail.co.uk
Email = lokoproductions@hotmail.co.uk
Or simply PM via RM.com

[Got Life?]

looks better already...

*gives self daps*

[Infinite Truth]

you took a dump in my bong?

which one?

shit.