rhapsody-crossing · 6 years ago
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S2: RSI Tournament - A Memoir (Part 8)
Part 1 HERE Part 7 HERE
25. Semi-Finals
a) Maws vs Sukalu
Experienced-and-dominating old team Maws against budding-yet-promising new team Sukalu would be an interesting sight to watch. Sukalu had beaten Maws in a match before, were they able to re-enact that miracle?
Sadly not. They were able to score a victory in CB, but Maws had a disconnect and therefore their victory did not count despite Maws continued to fight. MarioM would later share that CB’s match lowered their battle morale, allowing Maws to quickly pulverised them despite a few hiccups in the internet.
b) West Mountain Tofu vs Harapan
Harapan-- our Finals opponents in IYHO, to think we would face each other again! Only najmuddin and syamin remained from the original team. joshg was a formidable slayer, and DonkeyBen, despite being new, was of course utilised well by the team.
Clam Blitz - Musselforge Fitness
The beginning was a long stalemate, mostly due to members being nervous. Harapan had been a scary opponent in IYHO, after all!
I would say, the stalemate ended when slap decided to play a little more aggressively; he scored both power clams while others were too busy slaying each other. 
All in all, Tofu won CB with both sides killing each other fairly equally.
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Splat Zones - Sturgeon Shipyard 
It was unsure how we lost in SZ. 
The change in tempo after I sub in? The lack of coordination? The jitters from competition and how close the last battle went? The fact that we knew we could have done better but somehow didn’t? My struggle to position and turf SZ? joshg’s distraction at our base? All of the above?
It was unfortunate that the RSI vids are gone at the moment, but it was undeniable that we gained our first loss in the tournament.
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Tower Control - Starfish Mainstage
Even scores made us nervous. Would this end up as a difficult fight like the past? Finals would start immediately after Semi, so we could not afford a long-drawn battle.
The first wipe out on Harapan gave everyone the confidence to battle again, and we regained our tempo as we moved the tower into their base. Lots of bubbles were used, allowing us to regain turf on the map easily despite opponents having 2 NZaps in field.
Ultimately, we secured a victory by KO bonus. 
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Rainmaker - Inkblot Art Academy
RM was when everyone got over their jitters and warmed up; Kuniki was on fire, slap took what was inspired by louhai and started taking enemies by surprise, Furi was slaying left and right as usual, and I started to utilise my Splash Wall a little more.
We often reached far into the enemy’s base, but was unable to make it to the pedestal. Our opponents did not fare any better, for we never let them made it to our high ground.
The match went on an overtime when naj carried the Rainmaker. The tension caused a disarray on our slayers as he slipped through our slayers near their base by using the right path and climbed to our left while the others were distracted by joghg. slap went chasing after naj a little too late; naj avoided his shots by passing the obstacles and started climbing towards our left wall... little did he know, I was perched at the top, ready for him. My mind was calm; someone had to be, when my teammates were getting nervous.
I remembered the first time I faced Harapan, the traumatic moment of seemingly never able to reach for them due to their long range back in IYHO.  
Whatever darkness that Harapan left in my heart ended as I unloaded my Heavy Splatling on naj’s face, effectively ending the overtime and securing Tofu’s win.
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Without even a second to rest, we moved on towards the Finals.
26. Grand Finale: Maws vs West Mountain Tofu
Splat Zones - Internet as Our Worse Enemy
The tension was palpable in our team. After all, Maws had full S rank players and we were just a bunch of misfits. We were aware of Maws’ strength, but had not directly faced them. 
(In fact, Leaf was also against a scrim with them, for we were concern how predictable louhai would be to the opponents.)
During the match on Musselforge Fitness, Tofu was able to take the lead and control the zone. While the zone switched between sides, it was to Tofu’s advantage. Opponent disconnect forced them to rematch, but I could see the sparkle in louhai’s eyes as he turned to Furi and Kuniki; Maws wasn’t as hard as they thought it would be, and Tofu could match their pace!
Sadly, the switch towards Sturgeon Shipyard was a big blow to louhai’s ability to flank. The match was swiftly dominated by Maws. It was twice in a row that Tofu had lost on Sturgeon Shipyard’s Splat Zones.
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Rainmaker - Regrettable Lost Lead
I subbed into the team. Manta Maria was our Rainmaker map, and we were confident, having such high win rates in this. I was also on killing spree for this one, often killing the Rainmaker carrier from behind and scoring 19 kills in the end.
We had a good lead on this match before Furi disconnected halfway in the match, about more than 2 minutes to spare. I was confused on what to do next. I asked others if they would like to fight on considering that we had a lead, or let them win to start a rematch. After much pondering, slap replied that we should not risk it with just three members and let them win instead.
Part of me wanted to fight on, to fight our best, to pulled a Maws and fight with both tooth and nail, then called for a rematch if we lost. Too bad we’re such good sportsman. 
Our noble intention had cost us, for Maws won the next round at The Reef swiftly.
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(Sometime in the beginning or the middle of our matches with Maws, Kuniki made an oath that if we won the Finals, he would be vegetarian for a week.)
Clam Blitz - Turnabout
Morale was low for Tofu when CB was announced to be the next mode; we all knew CB was Maws’ specialty and therefore the chances of winning is lowered. It was as if everyone was ready to lose.
I tried to cheer my team, but I could see that it fell into deaf’s ears. Nameless and Leafy pass us their power a la Son Goku’s Spirit Bomb style, but it done little to cheer them up.
Furi disconnected once, prompting them to restart the match, this time on Starfish Mainstage.
Ironically, turnabout came when Furi disconnected again. 
slap, Kuniki and louhai was dazed on whether to continued, but I noticed Benji had disconnected on the opposing team as well, and urge others to continue, to do their best. This was a 3v3 fight, let’s do our best!
Adrenaline must have surged for the others. By some miracle, louhai would gather enough clams, forming a Power Clam and broke the opponent’s net barrier. Our captain would then freaked out by running around in circles before his senses returned, he collected and tossed in some clams to prolong the opponent’s net barrier downtime, just enough for slap to followed quickly with a Power Clam to the net with Tofu taking the lead! 
Overtime went into effect as the barrier closes and a free Power Clam dropped for our opponents. Silica used Super Jump and rallied others to our base, but Tofu did their best defending with only three. slap especially gave them tons of pressure for being longer range than any of them that it was only until he went down when Silica boldly stepped in and threw the Power Clam! 
The whistle blew, and overtime ended with Silica’s Power Clam swirling just over our net, ready to break but never did.
Miraculously, Tofu beat Maws in CB! (Sadly, we forgot to save the result page, ugh!)
Maws would want a rematch as they had a disconnect. We rejected it as we also had a disconnect on our end, and I added that both teams had fought to the end. However, had there not be a disconnect on our end, I would have also rejected on the grounds of what was stated on the rules. 
There was nothing more bitter, more infuriating than fighting so hard for a win only to be told that they had to rematch especially when the opponents were not adhering the rules. LMoU had tasted that bitterness in TC, Sukalu had tasted the same in CB. 
Out of pettiness, I hoped Maws tasted that bitterness of those teams even though the context was different. Not that it matters now, because the loss in CB must have been a blow on their pride anyways.
(And that, perhaps, taught them a lesson, because subsequent disconnects had them stayed in the base like good kids, allowing the match to end swiftly and a rematch to start quickly.)
Tower Control - Clockwork
Since the beginning, my gut feeling told me to pick my main weapon
After two disconnects and on our third try, I finally relented and switched from Heavy Splatling to Tri Slosher Noveau on Wahoo World. Considering that the majority of Maws member were using mid range and short range weapons, my choice should not matter much. I told slap that we would leave Riderman to him.
slap did that and more, he was the shining star of this match. His range allowed him to touched all, and he was true to his favourite motto (“Kill them all!”) in this map. He was on fire, spinning and splatting like a whirlwind as he took down enemies in both high and low ground and then produced bubbles for distraction. Furi continued playing her role as a fierce assault, taking down many others with her. Kuniki tried, but it was clear that he was getting tired. I was the main tower rider, supporting my teammates with my Tri.
NeoSotong described our roles as Clockwork, and he was right in a sense: Furi and Kuniki would head to the front, I would slow a step behind them while watching out for flankers, and slap moved in and out to take down everyone. Even if we were splatted, we came back in rotations and pushed the tower like clockwork.
The tower went back and forth, though we were able to take quite a solid lead. 
However, TC ended in a tensed overtime when Maws rode the tower and shook off our defensive wave twice, even setting off a coordinated Special attack at our base. The sirens blaring made everyone rushed to the tower with frantic fervor, and even the battle moved like ticking clockwork: 
Riderman took down Kuniki, who was waiting at that round high ground for the tower to reach. Furi splatted Silica and Benji, but was splatted in return. slap splatted JustMe on the tower from the round high ground, hopped tower and was promptly splatted by Riderman who was hiding on the tower. 
In my gaming experience, I was called “lucky” by my friends due to gatcha luck (at times), and often scoring critical hits in Pokemon Competitive Battles when needed, and often unintentionally picking the winning side of Splatfest.
Luck had me drop down carelessly from the high ground when I was hopping along with slap. Had I succeeded in the jump, Riderman would have splatted us (slap and I) both. But no, I dropped, and climbed onto the tower, effectively stopping the tower on its track, just 3 points away from taking the lead.
Gut instinct had me used Tri Slosher Noveau, and I was thankful that I adhered, for my Heavy Splatling would not have reached Riderman, who had hidden so well behind the tower’s pillar.
For the second time in the tournament, I ended the overtime in Tofu’s favour, this time by sloshing Riderman to death. 
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TC’s victory even out our scores with Maws and pushed us to the final mode: 
Turf War - Ink Your Heart Out
Furi had difficulty picking weapons in Turf War in Mako Mart, she considered using Sploosh to both Turf and kill. 
At that, I urged Furi to use Dapple Dualies Nouveau. I told my team to use their best weapons and leave the turfing to me. Besides, Dapples is good enough to turf. slap just had to watch out for Riderman and we would be good to go.
The match started, and it was like Ink Your Heart Out all over again; I weaved in and out of aisles, staying away from crossfires and turfing as much as I could. slap was able to score some splats on most of the short range opponents while turfing quite a bit. Kuniki was visibly tired, but he made wondrous distraction for the opponents and also scored some splats. Furi, on the other hand, wore Leaf’s IYHO mantle by slaying every single opponent, she performed so outstandingly at the final minute that every kills she made was met by a gasp and a cheer from the crowd.
30 seconds left, and I knew we had the match in the bag when a Danger sign popped beside Maws’ colour.
The match ended with Tofu, the past IYHO champions, winning Turf War and subsequently becoming the first champions of RSI.
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(Fito would later tell us that he had asked Maws why did they pick their weapon comp. Maws members would then reveal that they were really unsure what to use for Turf War because they had not pay much attention to that mode before. Fito-- player of all modes-- would then scold them and said no modes are unimportant, Turf War included!
Hearing this, I became secretly grateful of the hell training we were put through for the sake of IYHO.
Moral of the Story, kids, don’t forget Turf War!)
TBC - See Finale 
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Interview // Gwenno
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I interviewed Gwenno Saunders for 7digital.
Having won the Welsh Music Prize for your debut, the reception must have surpassed your expectations?
Oh yeah, that was a massive shock. I’ve been making music for a really long time in different guises and me and my husband [Rhys Edwards] moved back to Wales and just got stuck in with what was going on Cardiff and across Wales musically. And I was rediscovering a lot of things that I grew up with. So the motivation for making [Y Dydd Olaf] was just making something that didn’t already exist.
That’s a real advantage of working in Welsh and Cornish – when you have a language that fewer people use you’ve got to make your own entertainment, and so your motivation for creating things is because they don’t exist. It’s a really natural, DIY approach to making music in general; you’re having to create content because it’s not there. And so, the fact that the album was taken up by Heavenly Recordings was such a massive added bonus. So when I was thinking about the second album I tried to remember all those motivations so I would make the right decisions. I was creating purely for myself. I’ve always wanted to make a Cornish record and so the first album gave us an opportunity to do that.
The final song on Y Dydd Olaf was in Cornish so this album does feel like a natural continuation.
Yeah, it was almost a deliberate thing. It hit home, like, “Oh god, that’s what I’ve got to do.” As far as inspirations like that – where you’re compelled to do something – it’s quite scary because obviously on paper it doesn’t look like the most naturally popular option. Because if someone’s willing to put your record out, I’m sure you can feel pressured to release something that you think the most amount of people would like. But then you’re probably imagining people that aren’t there so you might as well just concentrate on doing something that’s exciting to you.
Can you tell us about your relationship with the Cornish language?
My dad was brought up in Cornwall, so we spoke Cornish to my dad and Welsh to my mum. So when I actually went to Cornwall to visit my dad’s friends, they would all be Cornish speakers so I actually thought a lot more people spoke Cornish than did. I had a son in the period after my first album and started speaking Cornish to him, so I really just started taking ownership over something that I’d been given that was a bit of an anomaly and something that I hadn’t been fully able to explore geographically. I wanted to form my own narrative in the language, like, “Oh well here’s how I express myself through Cornish.” And also I was getting excited by meeting a lot more Cornish speakers, independently of my family.
How big is the community of Cornish speakers?
They say there are between 500 and 1000 fluent speakers and then there are 1000 or more that can understand phrases and have basic conversations. But it’s constantly growing and I love that about it. I’ve realised that I get excited about exploring the points of view that are less known or less familiar in general. You know, there’s this language that people don’t even know exists, and I’ve lived my life in this language fully. How brilliant is that? It’s worth celebrating, because the fact it exists at all is incredible, you know?
In terms of the structure of the Cornish language, does it allow nuance of expression that you couldn’t replicate in other languages?
Oh completely. Also, the Cornish language had a real renaissance at the end of the 19th and early 20th century. There was an artist called Robert Morton Nance, and he really started getting [the language] going, because up until that point people were looking at the language as something just to be documented. And the botanist Edward Lluyd too – a lot of people documented the language and phrases that were still hanging around. But then there was this conscious effort in the early 20th century, reflecting a lot of the Celtic revival that was happening in general. And obviously that came from Art Noveau and the Arts and Crafts movement of the period, because of this mass industrialisation.
So anyway, a lot of the phrases and the words were from miracle plays that were written pre-Reformation, which really excited me because there’s a strong medieval element to the language that I speak, even though I’m using it in the context of the modern world. It was exciting thinking of all the people that were speaking Cornish in the 13th century.
What are the challenges of communicating in a language that so few people speak?
I personally felt particularly fortunate, because in my creative relationship with Rhys I’ve obviously dictated what the album is sonically to an extent, but he has produced the album and engineered it, and Rhys conjures up and creates a sonic landscape. It’s a really exciting way of communicating because you’re just creating a world that you can get lost in, and so it becomes about the music. My motivating factors aren’t really that important to the listener because it’s all there to be interpreted. I think there’s something quite nice about not understanding the lyrics because people can just get lost in it. It becomes more subconscious rather than something where you’re really listening out for a word or whatever.
Were there any reference points for the record?
Yeah, well we’d been listening to Bo Hansson, this Swedish 70s prog artist, and to Alan Stivell, who’s a Breton artist. He’s a harpist, and a bit more new-agey. And Clannad. And Brenda Wootton was a massive influence as well. But a lot of these were things that I’d been brought up with and that I’d rejected, by just being a teenager going, “Right, I’m going to find something really synthetic and horrible just to react against the organic, folky, rustic feeling of music.” So it was about coming back round and really connecting with that music.
I wasn’t brought up on Anglo-American popular culture at all. Like, extremely not. I wasn’t allowed to watch English television – which was stupid – so I had no idea about English bands for a long time. And I definitely rejected that when I was younger, but now I quite like that because it’s a different narrative, and another expression of living in Britain.
The album title Le Kov translates from the Cornish as “the place of memory”. What’s the story behind that?
Well, it’s an oddity really that I’m a Cornish speaker and I live in Wales, even though historically there are strong connections between Welsh and Cornish. They come from the same strain of Celtic languages. I’ve always been brought up in cities or lived in cities, so my experience of Cornish was quite different to if I’d lived in Cornwall, which is quite a rural place. So I was then thinking about how to contextualise it.
I started reading about Lyonesse, which is just past St Michael’s Mount, off the west coast of Cornwall. There’s a legend that there was a land there where King Arthur lived, and then it sunk under the sea. And then there was another story that on the north coast of Cornwall there was this city called Langarrow which was a state that got drowned because it was too debauched. So there are a series of stories of sunken cities within the Celtic world. And I was like, “Brilliant, my city! That’s where I live!”
I wanted to imagine this place where it was a utopia where everyone spoke Cornish; a place where this record could exist because it didn’t exist in the real world because my experiences of Cornish were an oddity. I was reading Situationist texts that imagined a city where people didn’t have to work anymore and it would just be a place for pleasure. That’s what Le Kov is: it’s a city that’s accepting of everyone just existing and being happy.
My last record was very dystopian and I wanted to react to that. So instead of imagining a future which is awful – which we’re kind-of living in right now – maybe there’s room to imagine somewhere really warming and beautiful and loving, which is actually my own experiences of the Cornish community. Hence why there are songs about cheese on the album. (Laughs) There are highs and lows obviously, but I just wanted to have a sense of celebration as well.
You tackle Brexit on ‘Herdhya’. Obviously Brexit is something that Cornwall did overwhelmingly vote for despite the fact they stand to lose out economically. That’s an interesting juxtaposition, don’t you think?
So many factors were influential in why things turned out the way they did. A lot of it has to do with the existential crisis that the UK is going through anyway. Right now the UK is like that awful person at the party who’s not willing to deal with their own problems so they’re just getting really, really drunk and embarrassing instead. (Laughs)
Obviously, we’re all responsible for that, but I think there is an awesome opportunity creatively to have different conversations. I enjoy having creative conversations that don’t seem confrontational. I mean, I don’t have the ability to write a Brexit album, talking about how awful it is and the bureaucratic practicalities and the bad media and all of that. But I think there is quite an exciting opportunity to raise different points about why so many of us have influenced the negative outcome, and the motivation behind that.
I adore history and I think a lot of the right wing rhetoric is that England in the Middle Ages was just English, which obviously has never been the case because we’ve always been incredibly multicultural. So I just felt this was a way of expressing that creatively and celebrating Cornwall’s international-ness. And people aren’t taught their own local history in school, because there is this dominant narrative which is propaganda, tied to an empire that doesn’t exist anymore. For example, I didn’t even know Henry VIII was of Welsh descent through my teaching at school, which explains a lot to me about the way Welsh history panned out.
But with you addressing those ideas in Cornish, Le Kov never feels didactic.
Absolutely! And that’s the thing! Because having this conversation, that’s why I feel really lucky and excited to do what I do. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t put it into music. It really is about escapism as much as it is about confronting ideas. That’s what’s so amazing about music; it works on such a subconscious level that you get lost in it and it’s much more pleasant than having a conversation, almost.
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