02-18-2018, 02:25 PM
Trash talk is not absolutely needed, but relevance is needed at some point within your work for the week even if it's not necessarily in every RP that week.
We don't have a public rubric for judging anymore because so much can vary from writer to writer, but these are the things I originally told the staff should matter... IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER...
Character development: You show us how your character has somehow evolved/changed during the week, or is evolving throughout a series of stories/weeks... or simply showing us more about that character and his/her background. Again, showing us the developments... not just having your character tell us in one paragraph.
Story telling: If you aren't cutting classic wrestling promos, you probably have "Story" instead. This is incredibly subjective but basically if a judge starts wanting to fast forward through your story, that's a problem. If we finish reading your story and wish it didn't end yet, or are genuinely looking forward to the next installment, you succeeded. If your story is intended to be humorous, is it making us laugh? If it's intended to be dark and disturbing, is it freaking us out? Etc.... etc...
Trash talk: Are you the type of trash talker who can be compared to The Rock, where you regularly come up with creative and entertaining insults for your opponents? Is it delivered SO well that it doesn't even matter if it's a blatant lie about your opponent? Or are you more of a quote killer, meaning you like to take what the opponent said and expose them for sounding like an idiot (or making them sound like one with your spin on their words)? Are you more of a narrative trash talker where you have things appearing in your narration and scenes that blatantly are meant to make fun of or expose the opponent, even if your character doesn't necessarily talk shit to the camera?
Classic promo delivery: If you aren't a storyteller, you can obviously use the style seen in most real wrestling promos and do more simple skits/interviews/etc... If you keep them creative and not repetitive, this should beat a storyteller whose story isn't as relevant to the XWF, since a classic promo is almost always "oozing relevance" as I like to say. If you can't do this, go for storytelling instead but remember relevance does help.
Entertainment value: Whatever you did, even if it's something totally crazy like just posting a Youtube video of you acting out in character, did we get a kick out of it? Is your RP packed with interesting and entertaining content, or do we have to sift through a lot of filler in order to pull out the truly entertaining aspects? Often times, shorter RPs are going to have a much easier time scoring higher here. Longer RPs can be packed with entertainment value, but I don't see it often.
WRITING ABILITY: Are you a good storyteller, good trash talker, and good entertainer but I'm finding sloppy errors in your RPs on a regular basis? That's a PROBLEM, and should hurt. Why? Because writing is the tool we utilize most here to deliver our characters. If we can't be bothered to proofread our work, or learn the differences between they're/there/their, your/you're, etc... we should need to be just about flawless in every other category we deliver if we're winning matches here. If you have sloppy writing errors in your narrative or trash talk, and your opponent successfully uses it against you in a creative IC way and is given a lot of material to work with as a result of your errors, you're probably screwed... or at least you should be. This category I know for a fact doesn't get looked at as thoroughly as it should right now, so we are going to be changing that ASAP. If you normally have 0-1 errors or sloppy narrative per RP, you will probably be ok even if your opponent tries to use this against you because they won't have much to work with. If you're having 2 or more errors on a regular basis, especially if we can tell it's just you being careless and not proof reading, expect to get bitten on the ass at some point in the near future. The only exceptions we MIGHT make is if we are pretty sure English is your second language, or you're young enough that it's clear you're still learning and improving in writing.
RELEVANCE is not a category in itself but simply is supposed to be a booster of sorts. Give us ZERO relevance the entire week, and your opponent will defeat you even if all they included was ONE sentence about you (relevance) in their entire week. You can write 9 RPs that have zero relevance, and 1 RP with relevance should always beat you. If you are able to incorporate relevance in more creative ways, or able to get your work to "ooze relevance" through your narration comments, story telling, etc... that means whatever you gave us that week should have an added boost. We are a wrestling company and your WRESTLER is supposed to be aware that they have a match coming up and it's supposed to seem like that's their top priority in life going into the match, otherwise how are they prepared?
A couple quick notes:
-Can a great, relevant storyteller beat a great trash talker? Yes. You don't NEED trash talk. You NEED to score highly in whatEVER it is you give us, and it has to feel like you belong in the XWF and aren't just giving us unrelated stories that some of us might find boring and pointless.
-Can a great trash talker (automatically relevant) beat a great storyteller? Yes, even if their RPs were 100% trash talk with NO narrative or scenes. If they literally tore your story to shreds and exposed you to be a fraud, laughing stock, or whatever it is they're trying to make you look like, they win. Do I think we have trash talkers who can do this successfully on the current roster? Honestly, maybe we have 1 or 2 right now but I'm not going to name names. They have massive amounts of XWF experience though. You need to be one of the top trash talkers in the entire game to do this, or just get lucky against an opponent who was really easy to shred with just straight talking.
Make sense?
I can't say if RPs are being looked at this way currently since I haven't been involved in judging lately, but if they're not, they need to start being judged this way ASAP. Any questions are welcome here or to me via PM.
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