The Ultimate Order of the Stick Book Tournament, Round 8

[137beth]

Greetings playgrounders, and welcome to
The Ultimate Order of the Stick Book Tournament!
Here, you can vote for your favorite of the first eight books in a double-elimination tournament. Each week I will post a new matchup. Vote in this thread, not by PM. You get one vote per person. If your post contains more than the name or abbreviation of the book's title, I ask that you bold your vote. Votes may take the form either of the book's title, the abbreviation, or the number.

The Contestants
Dungeon Crawling Fools--Eliminated
No Cure for Paladin Blues
War and XP
Don't Split the Party
Blood Runs in the Family
On the Origins of the PCs--Eliminated
The Start of Darkness
Snips, Snails and Dragon Tales

Although BRitF has not been released, I think that we have seen enough of it from the online strips to include it in the running.

Last match was drawn out a bit, but that didn't stop Blood Runs in the Family from Familiciding erasingOn the Origins of the PCs out of the tournament.


Current Bracket Standings: clicky! (http://challonge.com/OOTS_Books)

The Current Match:
Match 5:War and XP http://www.giantitp.com/Images/products/OOTS03_4in72dpi_RGBds.gif
vs. Don't Split the Party http://www.giantitp.com/Images/products/OOTS04_4in72dpi_RGBds.gif

The winner of this match will move on to the first semi-final.

The current match will end Saturday, June 14 (for real, this time!). Vote away!

[Jaxzan Proditor]

This is a difficult decision to make. I will have to think on this for a while.

[137beth]

This is a difficult decision to make. I will have to think on this for a while.

Yep, this is where it gets hard. The weakest ones have been eliminated, or knocked down to the loser's bracket.

[Gift Jeraff]

War and XPs

[Procyonpi]

I vote WaXP

[Demolator]

Eh...War & XPs mainly for the intensity, but also because the island part of the plot was a bit too light for me.

[ChristianSt]

I think this is probably the closest match-up for me.

But in the end it is a clear vote for DstP.

WaXPs is nice and features my favourite strip (439, which sadly lost the favorite strip voting (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?354700-The-Stick-Awards-II-Second-Edition-(-0441-0450)) recently :smallmad:) and a bunch of other really strong moments, but overall I'm not that fond of the Battle of Azure City (it is still awesome - but less awesome than other stuff) - which just is the biggest part of the book. Every time I think of WaXPs, I just think of it as an basically endless battle. Yes it also features other stuff (and the Cliffport arc, especially the CPPD, is my favourite arc), but I prefer the overall more balanced DstP. It has imo a more diverse structure which makes it better: There is Roy's afterlife, the Therkla subplot (especially the orc part), Haley and Belkar and the beginning of the Resistance, the Thieves' Guild and the whole O-Chul/MitD interaction. On top of that there is Familicide and probably a dozen other things I'm still missing.

[Killer Angel]

but overall I'm not that fond of the Battle of Azure City (it is still awesome - but less awesome than other stuff) - which just is the biggest part of the book. Every time I think of WaXPs, I just think of it as an basically endless battle.

There's certainly truth in it, but i love the siege, so i vote WaXPs

[Jaxzan Proditor]

Having weighed the options, I have come to a decision. On one hand, W&XPs features some of my favorite strips. On the other hand, DStP has some of my favorite arcs. In the end, I vote War and XPs, because I think, overall, I like that book more than I like DStP.

[137beth]

War and XP seems to be off to an early lead 5-1...
but then, Azure City also seemed to be off to an early lead, but lost anyways! Can DStP turn the tides?

[ImperatorV]

A very tough one. I'm going with Darth V though, I love that plot arc.

DStP

[thatSeniorGuy]

Don't Split the Party.

[Bird]

W&XP is of more consistent quality--not much of a surprise, considering that Don't Split the Party split the party, and the story-lines.

Still, I go for DStP based on the overwhelming dramatic impact of the Darth Vaarsuvius arc.

[Thanatosia]

Darth V is awesome, but War & Xps is OotSs defining Grow the Beard (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GrowingTheBeard) episode. The Siege of Azure City is so well done and epic I still go back and read it regularly. And rare is a moment so fist-pumpingly awesome as the Ghost Martyrs of the Sapphire Guard. It also had Roy leaping onto a freak'n undead Dragon being ridden by a Lich (complete with lens flare!)

So my vote is for War & Xps

[Bitzer]

I vote War & XPs.

[137beth]

Voting is now closed!
The winner is War and XP!

The next round will be up shortly...

[martianmister]

Don't Split the Party