The moment you have all been waiting for is here. The tournament bracket has been made.

Let the games begin, and may the best character win!

Alright, so first off, the bracket itself. I'll be using a site to host it and keep track of it, but will also be posting images via this thread as we go along. I will also be updating via my blog--but this thread is where it's at. I want everything here, unless I specify elsewhere.

The link to the online bracket.

How the Game Will Work

So, here's how it's going to work. I want all of you to reply to this post once, claiming your character and also saying how you would best like to contact your opponent (do not reply to one another here), and, ultimately, making a doc for you both meet at. No GDoc links here--I don't want those available to anyone but myself and your opponent until it's time for the vote. You can send those via PM. When you have established that, I want you to also PM me the link. Make sure it is set to: Anyone with the Link Can Edit.

When you've done that, I will come to each doc and leave the more specific instructions of the Chaos Arena and allow you to ask questions and whatnot. You will then have two weeks to get me your fight.

The pair of you will talk, discuss, and explain your characters to one another. Then you will go to your own GDocs and write your fight, by yourself. You may ask questions or clarifications, but try not to spoil too much of your version of the fight to ensure both are as unique as they can be. You may also utilize editors or proofers, provided they are not also contestants.

Leave a link to your completed fight within the first doc [Important Update:] Do not do this, that was dumb of me. PM me the link, making sure Anyone with the Link can Comment. When I have both fights, we'll put them up to a vote in as many places as we can. I suggest you all blog this and spread the word wherever you can. I have received permission to utilize the Writer's Group for this. I will also be posting it here, on the Collab Cage, and Author Support.

Edit: Important Note: Due to the incongruity of followers and popularity between players, I must ask you all to not blog about this. Those with large amounts of followers would naturally have an unfair advantage. Thank you.

Edit2: Thanks to a little talk with Between Lines, I have found the solution. You all will be able to blog about it... Provided you do so in such a way that the general populace is blind to who controls which character. This means that, once we're ready for voting to start, I will have to clear every instance of pairings on this group. Which is fine. I'll also ask you all not to claim ownership of your character anywhere else but here, for the time being. Once the tourney is over, everyone will get full credit on who belongs to who, obviously. This way, we can get the more noticeable use of everyone's blog when it comes to voting.

Whoever gets the most votes is considered the canon fight and moves on. The losing fight will either be available as part of a bonus chapter that will be added later, or as a link to the GDoc if that doesn't look good. And that should be it.

Shoot me any questions you have in the question doc. Also, if you can draw or maybe if you ask Shunketsu really nicely, maybe give us some art on particularly awesome scenes within your fight. But I'll leave that up to you--the only necessity is the written fight itself.

When it comes to writing, I would like everyone to use these conventions, to make it easier for your editor (aka myself). These may be updated as more become apparent:
+ Use em dashes, not en dashes. You may hotkey an actual em dash or utilize a double hyphen-minus (--)
+ Do not capitalize racial names (Pegasus/Pegasi, Unicorn, Diamond Dog, etc.)
+ Use three periods for an ellipsis (...). If the ellipsis is a pause within a sentence, like...this, do not space. If you're trailing off... Well, a space is needed.
+ Write in third person omniscient

Other Rules for General Writing:
+ Do not write Discord. If you absolutely must have him in, let me know and I will take care of that myself, or grant you permission provided I OK what you write.
+ Be descriptive. Remember, this isn't just a fight, it's a part of a story. Let your characters talk, banter, insult, whatnot. Fights can lull and heat up--the Arena will have a lot of room, so you might even separate for a little bit.
+ I'm going to start by requesting 5000 words, +/- 100. The closer you all are to the same length, the more fair it is.
+ Utilize your terrain, be creative, remember this is Discord and Chaos we're talking about.
+ Above all, stay canon in feel. Do not do anything that absolutely breaks with the established abilities as they have been defined.