Cage Match 2013: Round 1 Recap!

46 Responses to “Cage Match 2013: Round 1 Recap!”

1. Jonrock411 says:

   March 8, 2013 at 11:28 am

   Is just me or is the Cage Match 2013 not actually working?
2. dancressman says:

   March 8, 2013 at 11:32 am

   @Jonrock411 How do you mean?

   There do seem to be a lot fewer people on here than past years, though. I miss the high levels of completely useless nerd debate and fanboyism! Also, the voting periods seem to be pretty quick.
3. Pygmalleon says:

   March 8, 2013 at 11:51 am

   I think there’s less in the way of characters from the recent big hits – with two rather noteable exceptions. Whoever wins that match is going to take the entire contest, methinks.
4. Archon says:

   March 8, 2013 at 11:51 am

   I kind of like it better this way… the people here have actually read the classics and aren’t new to sci-fi/fantasy… and, by extension, they aren’t horribly biased towards the one or two fantasy series that they’ve actually read.
5. Alex says:

   March 8, 2013 at 12:52 pm

   Yeah, I have to admit I prefer the more modern matching, both because I’ve read more modern stuff, but also because the capabilities of classic characters tend to be more understated and much more ambiguous. For example, no one truly knows the extent of what Gandalf can do. It makes for much more speculative matches, I suppose, but I do miss the fanboy “my magic is stronger than your magic” wars.
6. Jlingo says:

   March 8, 2013 at 1:02 pm

   Well at least there are not any WoT characters and their rabid Twilight like girl fans screaming and hollering how this isn’t fair and that isn’t fair and making characters like Per beating Paul Atreides when anyone that is sensible knows that would never have happened. They are at home gazing at their Rand and Mat posters next to their Justin Bieber poster.
7. Dotcomaphobe says:

   March 8, 2013 at 2:41 pm

   The Air and Fire brackets are looking pretty stellar. Those four matches are outstanding.

   Seriously, Merlin vs. Smaug? Gandalf vs. The Doctor?

   What am I supposed to do with that? How can I pick a victor there?
8. Brettish says:

   March 8, 2013 at 3:03 pm

   My main complaint isn’t that the characters used are from classics, it is the bracketing system itself. A bracket is meant to be designed so that the path to the final is easier the higher you are seeded. For example, number 1 seed Gandalf shouldn’t be meeting the second highest seeded number 8 Doctor in the second round (the effective number 2 seed in the division). That match-up screams quarter-final. Now the winner of that slugfest gets an easy win over either of the 2 lower-ranked IT or THING. The correct method of bracketing would be the 2 highest seeds starting in different trees against their respective lowest seed counterparts. Seeds 1 and 4 in one tree, 2 and 3 in the other and then everything falls naturally from there. I guess the only good thing to come out of this set up is we get the quarter finals early…
9. chad56s says:

   March 8, 2013 at 3:17 pm

   What Brettish said. All the excitement for the quarterfinals has been sucked into this round.
10. kmk says:

    March 8, 2013 at 4:07 pm

    Why the F is Gandalf in Air? He holds the red-ring. He’s fire all the way. Combine that with the seeding issues (see Brettish above) and it appears the people know not what they do…
11. Maxx22 says:

    March 8, 2013 at 11:39 pm

    I think the numbers say it all. People have voted with their feet and decided that the Classic cage match is a dud. Suvudu probably should have put some feelers out before making the switch.
12. Chivalrous says:

    March 9, 2013 at 7:42 am

    I think people don’t leave comments on here because the comment system on this site is horrible! The little box you have to type the words into never works on my mobile device, and its a pain on a regular pc. I comment on several other sites that have a much better comment system and get many more comments. I think the articles here are worthy of comment, but rarely receive them.

    I preferred the more modern brackets aswell, why i know most of these combatants–I don’t care about many of them I’m 28 and have been reading since i was about 7! I havent read a ton of classics though. Anyway, the right ups are nice! And who doesn’t love Inigo Montoya? He has my vote! =)
13. WoT4Ever says:

    March 9, 2013 at 9:38 am

    The low fan turnout serves Suvudu right for this BS… anyone can plainly see that this “classic” tournament was just a way that they could exclude WoT this year without making it “look” like they’re excluding WoT specifically. It’s lame, transparent, and boring. That would be like the NCAA tournament saying back in the 70s that Only Mid-American Conference schools could compete in the tournament because they didn’t want UCLA to continue dominating the tournament.

    You WoT haters are just like any other losing fanbase who can’t stand the fact that your team keeps getting beat down by WoT. If you want to be the man, you gotta beat the man. Don’t hate because WoT > than your favorite.
14. AHEM says:

    March 9, 2013 at 2:37 pm

    Hmm, I missed the voting in the first round. Oh well, I’m looking forward to the second one, lots of interesting fights seem to be waiting, there.
15. Metacognition says:

    March 10, 2013 at 6:10 am

    There’s only two actual battles here, IMO. Merlin vs Smaug and Gandalf vs Dr Who. Whoever wins these two battles, we’ll see in the quarterfinals, to be sure. Gandalf should own, but there’s a pretty large fan base for the Doctor. Merlina and Smaug is much more difficult and I can’t call a winner either way.
    The rest of the battles are pretty moot. Who ever wins in the Thing vs IT fight pretty much loses the next round. White Witch is a shoe in and will stomp either Tarzan or Dracula in her next match.
    Either way, the fun of the Cage Match is seriously lacking this year. After this match, I could sit out until the finals and be entirely fine with it. I think the idea of a classics battle was a fine idea, but it was poorly implemented. The only problem I have with it is that we have to wait an entire year to get another one and the integrity of the matches is already compromised…
16. Logic says:

    March 10, 2013 at 12:31 pm

    I think some people are missing the point on what a ‘cage match’ is, and how it should translate to the bracketing system. A cage match has nothing to do with which combatant has a greater fanbase. When one side can no longer combat, their opponent is declared the winner. If the entire bracket was to decide the ‘character of the year,’ then it could go to anyone who received the votes. Hell, even Queen Amidala could win it with enough support. So, for round 2, the real question becomes: locked in a large cage, who would emerge victorious after a set timeframe of combat, using only what they have access to while within that cage/battlefield?

    I’m fairly sure ‘The Doctor’ would lose that fight to Gandalf almost every time.
17. Logic says:

    March 10, 2013 at 12:40 pm

    Also, the Air bracket facing the Fire bracket to determine who is in the finals is a joke, lol. The championship really should be Merlin vs. Gandalf. That’s a fight worth fighting over.
18. Jonathan says:

    March 10, 2013 at 8:40 pm

    I’ve been following the Cage Matches since they first started, and I’ve always been a fan of them. This year, however, does seem a bit more… meh. I agree with the bracketing thing others have posted above, but I question the idea of it being a classics-only tournament. One of the things that brought in the most other people in years past was authors and their current, dedicated fans all coming in to vote for their favorite characters. People were a lot more involved when it was their favorite character from their favorite recent series, whereas a many of these characters may just remind people of whatever they had to read in English class.
    (Plus, there was the allure of a character’s author possibly stepping in to give their own ‘definitive’ version of the fight, which is kind of impossible with classics like these).
    I do have to give suvudu’s writers credit for writing some fantastic matches and really playing into the style of storytelling for certain characters, as well as writing engaging and cool stories for many of the others that weren’t written like a play or an epic poem.
    I think the classics round is a great experiment, and I plan to read, enjoy, and share the matches when I can (especially Gandalf vs. The Doctor), but I hope next year will bring in more modern characters again. Classic characters, I think, just don’t bring in the same emotional investment as those from more recent books with more active and passionate fans.
19. JOE says:

    March 10, 2013 at 9:32 pm

    I am mad. I was without power the whole time round one was going on, and now I’m back online and almost my whole bracket is messed up. Merlin can still win it though, he just wont be fighting against the person I thought he would, and that could change everything.
20. Max says:

    March 11, 2013 at 12:59 am

    How about Suvudu call this the failure that it is and schedule a ‘contemporary’ cage match later this year.

    Scrap that, not a ‘failure’. Just label it ‘The Classic Cage Match’ and treat it as a bonus.

    Line up the ‘real’ cage match a few months from now and stand back and be amazed as voters grow from 300, to 3000!
21. Metacognition says:

    March 11, 2013 at 2:32 am

    @ Logic: Either you’re new to these cage matches or you really want to see them play out as they should.
    Half the reason we’ve got a ‘Classic’ cage match this year is because the fan bases of popular series (WoT stands out) flooded the voting and just voted for their favorite character. Perrin, for example (and this is books 1-11 Perrin at best) won against opponents that should’ve wiped the floor with him, all because the fan base voted for him rather than be realistic. Moraine won last year and this was after she’d been drained of a good chunk of her ability to channel from her time stuck with the snakes and foxes.
    Fan base plays it’s part. The thing I like about the Classics is that it takes some of that power away. It’s not gone, as we have LotR and Dr Who fanbases to contend with, but they’re still there. It’s inevitable that we’ll have them, but it’s less likely that people will just vote for whom they like better in these Classical matches.

    My biggest complaint is that I’m not finding any new authors to read based off of these Matches. I found a few great series after the last one, but on this one, nothing.
    The ranking is a problem, but minor in compared to that, for me and I’ve heard this same sentiment echoed through here a few times.
22. Max says:

    March 11, 2013 at 6:43 am

    @Metacognition

    The benefits of voters judging the outcome ’seriously’ are irrelevant to this ‘Classic’ cage match. Look at the numbers. Overall, there are only a fraction of the voters of previous years. And just look at the spread; the fanboy favourites got far more votes (as per usual). As for the rest, apparently no one cares.
    The voting isn’t any more ’serious’ than usual. The only difference is that the cage match has lost the vast majority of its participants.

    Congratulations Suvuvu.
    You got rid of most of the fanboys.

    Unfortunately you managed to get rid of just about everyone else as well.
23. Archon says:

    March 11, 2013 at 9:05 am

    Well worth it, in my opinion… I recognize most of the posters still here and find them to be a far higher level of discussion than the flocks of fanboys that usually overwhelm these cagematches… obviously, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but give me quality over quantity anyday.
24. Jlingo says:

    March 11, 2013 at 11:18 am

    @WoT4Ever: Quick Ben beat your lame WoT character so stifle your lame wrestling quotes and take the Rand and Justin Bieber posters off your wall….