[Switchblade]

So here's a thing I thought might be fun. Inspired partially by some old character tournament threads at TFW and partially by being up way too late, I've decided to throw together a fight to see which of Kamen Rider's many evil forces bent on world conquest truly reigns supreme. To do this, I've set up a randomized bracket of 31 of the most terrible forces ever to threaten our Rider buddies during the last 41 years and I'm letting you guys vote on each match-up.

The rules are pretty simple, this is a single elimination tournament where popular vote determines the winner of each round. I'm going to have each round run for approximately 48 hours, then start the next. I'll post the bracket here for your perusal, but I won't accept any votes for any match-ups but the current one. To help you guys decide, I will also give each contestant a quick write-up, explaining who they are and highlighting some strengths and weaknesses. Feel encouraged to discuss your choices and to try to persuade others to side with you - that will make this a lot more fun.

This is a pretty big contest so I'm not going to post individual polls for each match - it would create a ton of threads and likely get me scolded. I may start a new thread for each major round (semis, quarters, finals, etc. if it seems this one grows too big), but this one thread should suffice for the whole shebang. Please keep all discussion and voting in this thread. I will also be cross-posting this at HJU because it will widen the voting pool and, what the hell, I'm signed up at both sites so why not?

For now, I'm going to post a link to the official bracket so you can get a glimpse of how things will be going: http://challonge.com/switchbladeriderbattle

I'm going to do a quick write-up of the first two competitors and then we'll get this ball rolling.

[Switchblade]

Okay, so here's our first match-up: Kuuga's Grongi vs. Hibiki's Makamou; ancient civilization vs. primordial monsters! Let's get this Gegeru started!

Grongi
Kamen Rider Kuuga

The Grongi are an ancient tribe of monstrous creatures who once threatened all of mankind in the distant past. Temporarily sealed away, they reawakened in the year 2000 to resume their Gegeru, a brutal game in which dead humans serve as points. The ultimate goal of the game is to win the right to challenge, and conceivably replace, the current leader of the tribe.

Commander: The leader of the Grongi is N-Daguva-Zeba, a monumentally powerful monster who’s capable of slaughtering regular humans and weaker Grongi by the thousands.

General: Ra-Baruba-De – aka “The Rose-Tattooed Woman” – is the most prominent commanding Grongi. Her role is to act as the referee and official score-keeper of the Gegeru.

Officers: The rank and file Grongi are made up of several different ranks, each one denoting their position in the Gegeru. The Go group is the strongest, followed by the Me, and then the Zu. Even the weakest Grongi is still capable of easily killing dozens of normal people.

Infantry: The Grongi have nothing resembling numerous foot soldiers.

Tactics: Each Grongi plays by his or her own rules, often setting specific requirements for how they wish to kill their targets. These attacks can range from poison to sniping to tearing apart their victims personally or even running them over with a truck.

Strengths: The Grongi are very physically durable; they are all markedly stronger than humans and are impervious to conventional weapons (although anti-Grongi weapons can and have been developed). They are also highly intelligent, capable of forming and executing complex tactics. Their most powerful members possess phenomenal strength and power.

Weaknesses: The Grongi tend to lack group cohesion, as each one is consistently looking for personal advancement and care little for their fellow Grongi. They will often ignore lower ranked tribesmen and few would ever come to the aid of a more powerful one who might someday best them in the Gegeru. Gaining the power to defeat N-Daguva-Zeba is always their ultimate goal.


Makamou
Kamen Rider Hibiki

The Makamou are an ancient race of giant demons that terrorize the Japanese countryside. Frequently growing to large size, these monsters exist solely to devour humans and grow ever larger and stronger. Their natural enemies are the Oni, armored humans trained to defeat them. Despite centuries of conflict, however, the Makamous’ numbers never seem to dwindle.

Commanders: The Makamou lack true organization, but they still have some form of hierarchy. Seemingly at the top are two strange individuals known only as The Man and The Woman, both of whom seem dedicated to experimenting with new ways to make the Makamou ever more powerful and deadly.

Generals: The Man and Woman both possess several “Puppet” versions of themselves who can create and/or mutate new Makamou. There are also some noticeably stronger Makamou, such as the fabled Orochi, who possess abnormally great intelligence and power.

Officers: The Makamou themselves come in a variety of shapes and sizes, some as small as humans, some as large as small buildings. They possess a wide range of abilities and can be specially bred for certain environments, including both underwater and airborne monsters. Regardless of size, they are invariably quite powerful.

Infantry: Accompanying the Makamou are their parents, the Douji and Hime. These are weaker, smaller demons who often take on human form, although they can take on a more powerful demonic form. Their main goal is to capture humans to serve as food for their children.

Tactics: The Makamou do not possess a great sense of strategy, focusing instead on blind destruction and slaughter. The Man and Woman can and occasionally do make plans for the Douji and Hime to follow, but the Makamou themselves are typically just encouraged to destroy.

Strengths: The Makamou are uniformly the largest enemies in the history of Kamen Rider, with most of them being at least the size of a pretty comfortable RV. Their size is a good indicator of their power, with all of them – even the smaller ones - possessing great strength and durability. They also have a great numbers advantage, as there seems to be no finite number of Makamou in existence.

Weaknesses: While the Man and Woman – and to some extent the Doujis and Himes – possess some intelligence, the Makamou themselves are only dumb animals with few concerns other than feeding and survival. While the Makamous’ numbers may seem unending, they also require an incubation period before they reach full adulthood.

Round 1 will run approximately 48 hours, maybe a bit longer as I'll be at work around this time on Tuesday.

[Matrixbeast]

This is a neat idea, but popular vote does lead to some issues, primarily in that the more popular characters would advance much easier, despite their apparent weaknesses (I'm particularly afraid of Double's Dopants getting ahead in an unfair manner).

Anyway, I'm gonna vote Makamou simply to the form of hierarchy
While I have yet to see Kuuga or Hibiki, your description of the Grongi does make them sound strong, but if they're willingness to grow is so great that they care nothing for fellow Grongi, then I think the Makamou would have them beat.

[ShockerCon]

I'm really feeling the Grongi with this one.

Also: Shouldn't this have a poll?

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShockerCon

I'm really feeling the Grongi with this one.

Also: Shouldn't this have a poll?

I'm trying to keep this in one thread. If I did polls I'd have to create dozens of new threads and that would really clutter this forum.

[ShockerCon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

I'm trying to keep this in one thread. If I did polls I'd have to create dozens of new threads and that would really clutter this forum.

Ah.

[Switchblade]

Okay, so discussion didn't seem to work - probably me being shortsighted. I still don't want to create a ton of poll threads, so let's try this:

Voting Match 1: Grongi vs. Makamou

Unfortunately I can't seem to get it to post directly, but that will take anybody who cares to a formal poll. The poll will be open until approximately this time on Wednesday. If anyone participates I'll post the results and continue the tournament. If not I'll just write it off as a failed experiment and move on with my life.

[Switchblade]

So the winner of round 1 was the Grongi with a (literal) 4-1 victory. The bracket has been updated accordingly.

Honestly, I was kind of hoping this idea would be more popular and would spark some decent discussion. I'm going to run the second match-up and see if there's any interest. If not, I'll just close up shop on this. I had Dogma vs. the ISS pegged next, but let's try something a little bit more popular from lower on the bracket:

Round 1, Match 2: The Gree(e)d vs. Dai Shocker

Vote Here!

Greed
Kamen Rider OOO

Living embodiments of avarice, the Greed seek to achieve their full power by unleashing the rampaging desires of others.

Commanders: Doctor Maki, a nihilistic human scientist who injected himself with purple Core Medals, allowing him to transform into the dinosaur Greed. Brilliant and obsessed with the destruction of the entire world.
Generals: Ankh, Uva, Kazari, Mezool, and Gamel – five of the original Greeds who have reawakened in the present. Their primary goal is to locate and secure all of their Core Medals, allowing them to return to full power.
Officers: The Greed use Cell Medals to create Yummies, monsters born of a human’s desire for something. They seek out this specific desire and, upon achieving it, create more Cell Medals to feed to the Greed.
Infantry: Weaker Yummies, called Waste Yummies, can be created out of broken or damaged Cell Medals. They do not achieve a fully formed state like regular Yummies and are notably weaker, but can be created more quickly and in larger numbers.
Tactics: Each Greed typically works alone, creating a Yummy and sending it out into the world to cause havoc and gather more Cell Medals. Under Maki’s tutelage, however, the Greeds have begun combing some of their powers to create new and more powerful Yummies.
Strengths: The Greeds are very powerful entities who possess both great physical strength as well as some measure of elemental control (Ankh can shoot fire, Uva lightning, Mezool water, etc.). They are also virtually indestructible and can only be killed by destroying one of their Core Medals – otherwise, even a fully discorporate Greed can be reformed with enough Cell Medals. So long as humans have desires, there will always be fodder for more Yummies.
Weaknesses: The Greed are extremely self-centered and selfish. They care nothing for others, including their fellow Greed. All that matters to them is regaining all of their Core Medals. This can be difficult, as it does not take a great amount of effort to steal and/or scatter a Greed’s Cores. Without all of their Core Medals, the Greed are significantly weakened and need to conserve Cell Medals to maintain a physical form.


Dai Shocker
Kamen Rider Decade

A literal “Greatest Hits” of villains, Dai Shocker was created when all the great Rider villains of the past teamed up to get their final revenge upon the Riders.

Commanders: For a time, at least, Tsukasa Kadoya – Kamen Rider Decade – served as the leader of Dai Shocker. He betrayed the organization, however, leaving command to pass amongst the various generals
Generals: The generals include several of the great leaders of pas Kamen Rider series: Doctor Shinigami, Ambassador Hell, Apollo Geist, Shadow Moon, General Jark, and many others have all served in this capacity.
Officers: The Dai Shocker army is made up of hundreds of monsters from past conflicts with the Riders – Orphenochs, Undead, Imagin, Fangire, etc. They’ve all been reborn and united to take down their common enemies.
Infantry: Dai Shocker uses the classic Shocker grunts as its foot soldiers, occasionally equipping them with explosives to serve as living missiles.
Tactics: Dai Shocker’s main goals are to takeover the world while gathering together and defeating the Kamen Riders. They’ve tried using their own Rider – Decade - to take down the others, but since that plan failed they tend to fall back on brute force and overwhelming numbers.
Strengths: Dai Shocker is made up of scores of the best and strongest foes that the Riders have ever faced, from brilliant commanders like Apollo Geist to nearly unstoppable monsters like Doras. Together they possess 38 years worth of experience battling the various Kamen Riders.
Weaknesses: They also, however, possess 38 years worth of experience losing to the Riders. Also, it is worth noting that, with a couple of exceptions like Doras and Shadow Moon, the various monsters brought together to form Dai Shocker’s army are significantly weaker than their first incarnations, many of them proving only about as strong as the cannon fodder Shocker grunts.

[Matrixbeast]

The Greeed. They may be selfish, but they are not unwilling to help each other (As seen in the first half of OOO), and through Maki's machinations and planning, I'm pretty sure they could take Dai Shocker.

[Sunred]

Greeds. Dai Shocker participants individually are awesome, but something about katamarying villlians together never seems to work.