The Ultimate Order of the Stick Book Tournament, Round 11: Semifinals

[137beth]

Greetings playgrounders, and welcome to
The Ultimate Order of the Stick Book Tournament: Semifinals Edition!
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
No Cure for Paladin Blues
War and XP
Don't Split the Party
Blood Runs in the Family
On the Origins of the PCs
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, Blood Runs in the Family narrowly defeated its father Don't Split the Party. Turns out, Blood Runs in a Family Not Related to Black Dragons!


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

The Current Match:
War and XP http://www.giantitp.com/Images/products/OOTS03_4in72dpi_RGBds.gif
vs. Start of Darkness http://www.giantitp.com/Images/products/OOTS99_4in72dpi_RGBds.gif

The winner of this match has a guaranteed slot in the finals!

The current match will end Saturday, July 5. Vote away!

[Jaxzan Proditor]

I vote for Start of Darkness, although War and XPs is also a great book.

[Gift Jeraff]

The 2 best books.

War and XPs

[Bird]

Start of Darkness. Suck it hard, arthritis.

[LadyEowyn]

Voting for War and XPs. Great story, giant battle sequence with innovative tactics, Redcloak becoming a genuine leader of the goblin people. And, pre-Battle-of-Azure-City, Elan becoming awesome.

Also, who doesn't love a Tolstoy reference?

[thatSeniorGuy]

Easy choice, Start of Darkness.

[Bulldog Psion]

Two of my favorite books. This is a truly painful choice. :smallfrown:

Torment ...

Agony ...

Horror ...

Despair ...

Hmmm...

Okay, enough histrionics. Start of Darkness. But only by a tiny, tiny margin.

[ChristianSt]

Easy: SoD

[Angelalex242]

War and XP

Gives us such great moments as 406, 407, 462, and 464. Miko for the win.

Also kills off the lead character, even if it's only temporary.

And the sexy shoeless god of war, who somehow didn't make it in its best of the 10 vote.

[Sylian]

Start of Darkness.

[137beth]

A day in, and SoD has a decent lead 6-3. This round seems like it won't be as close as the last couple.

[FLHerne]

Time to narrow it a bit then.
War & XPs really expands the scope of the comic, building on NCftPB's plot hooks to move it from 'adventuring party has wacky adventures' to 'saving the world'. We see a proper war, get an answer to the obvious question 'why isn't someone else doing something about this world-undoing thing', and get O'Chul and Hinjo. :smallbiggrin:

Also, Elan and Haley. And Vaarsuvius failing to solve things with magic. And Redcloak's epiphany (SoD has much more character development for him, but it disappears again before DCF).

[Oudyn]

Start of Darkness. No contest. W&XP was, but SoD was incredible.

[Legato Endless]

Start of Darkness

[Silferdrake]

Start of Darkness, hands down. That said, War and XP is a very good book, but SoD is just... Magnificent.

[Killer Angel]

SoD is a masterpiece (and so i'm glad if it'll win), but I'll go for War & XPs, because it's probably the best one in the "regular" storyline.

[martianmister]

Start of Darkness.

[137beth]

Voting is now closed!

Start of darkness wins by a huge margin, and will move on to the finals!
War and XP gets another chance in the second semifinals.

The next round will be up shortly...