A lot of people do it a lot of different ways.

For my character, Theo Pryce, I general strive for comedy and story, with a little bit of trash talk sprinkled in. I generally try and discuss the upcoming match at least once during my RP's for said match. I think the people that do the best around here are able to find a good balance of all the different factors. That's not to say you can't win if you focus on just story or just trash talk but being one dimensional can hurt you in terms of how your work stacks up to your opponent. Again, I said it can, not that it will. If you and your opponent just put up story driven RP's than it will come down to who did a better job. But if your opponent is all story and you do some story, some trash talk, talk about the match etc, than that can only help you.

It's all about finding that balance. I think the more you are around here and the more you write as well as the more you read from your peers you will find out very quickly what works and what doesn't.

Good luck.

I hope that was helpful.