The Stick Awards II: Second Edition (BotH [#0601-#0700]) [Semi #1]

[Porthos]

Welcome to The Stick Awards II: Second Edition!

The Stick Awards are handed out to the best strips of all time as chosen by our fellow Playgrounders.

Over the next few days, we're taking a bit of a break and entering The Best of the Hundred Tournament for Comics #601 - #700 as we take the time to decide which of the strips really are the best of best.

For full details about the Stick Awards, and any questions about them, please check out the main thread here.

To read more about the original Stick Awards, created by Nazzo, the 102nd, please read his thread here.

To vote in this thread, simply state which comic of the five listed is your favorite. Bolding the number of the comic (Like this) helps it stand out.

Voting, which only lasts five days during the Best of the Hundred Tournament will close on January 24th, 4pm EST. Any votes made after that will NOT count toward the totals.

The winner of this semi-final will go on to the finals which will be held after the second semi-final is done. The two strips that get the most votes during the semis that DIDN'T win, will also reach the finals. So voting is extra special important this time around, as it will determine who the 'Wild Card' entrants are.

Last week, 696 Still a Long Way to Go observed that the number of situations that can not be solved by voting approaches zero as the voting pool gets large enough. Hard to argue with that logic. And thus it is the final entrant in this Best of the Hundred Tournament.

All of this has happened before, and all of it will again as we embark once more into sorting out which strip is worthy of moving on by voting in.....

................THE STICK AWARDS II:
BEST OF THE HUNDRED TOURNAMENT (601-600)
..............(Semi-Final #1)

610 - You're It
612 - Technically, the "Fish" Version is a Subset of This One
628 - Every Parent's Worst Nightmare
639 - If They Pull a Knife...
642 - Choice

[Jaxzan Proditor]

It totally slipped my mind again that we were up to a Best of the Hundred! This looks to be a pretty good round too; I even voted for most of these. The answer is pretty obvious to me right away. All of these are very good (I'm especially fond of 610 and 612), but #639 takes the cake and the cake's entire family.

[Bird]

I've run out of things to write about it, but nothing matches the impact of 639.

[Emperordaniel]

Of the strips presented here, 639 - If They Pull A Knife... packs the greatest punch; there's probably an argument to be made that it does the same for the entire comic's run so far, as well.

[Gift Jeraff]

#628 gets my vote.

[NobodyWasTaken]

Lots of goodness here, but I'm voting 628 because it's my favorite of all the entries that won't win.

[Emanick]

I'm incredibly torn, but I've always been a huge fan of 610: You're It, and I'm afraid that it won't get enough love this round. So put me down as a vote for that.

[ti'esar]

639 for me. I can't think of any wittier way to put it than what's already been said:

#639 takes the cake and the cake's entire family.

[Timy]

OK, For me it is 639 !!!

I guess it could win against about any other strip ...

[Meph]

628
(sorry Belkster)

[ChristianSt]

639 - If They Pull a Knife...

This is one of the top contenders for winning this thing for me.

[nogall]

Almost went with 610, but 639 does taste like victory.

[AGD]

642 gets my Vote.

[Jasdoif]

The presentation of the wide swath of dragonkind eliminated in 639 has always been chilling. None of the other contenders here can top that.

[martianmister]

628 - Every Parent's Worst Nightmare

[littlebum2002]

Ugh. As much as I love V's familicide story arc, I'm going with Belkar so he at least gets one vote

610

[Angelalex242]

639

Cause Familicide is still an epic level spell I'm trying to research

What do you MEAN I'm in the deep end of the alignment pool?

[Killer Angel]

given that the winner is pretty evident, I'll go for some Belkar. 610 for me

[oppyu]

#639

Bad. Arse.

[LadyEowyn]

It's definitely a contest between 639 and 642 for me, but ultimately it has to be 639 as one of the most shocking and important moment in the entire strip. It's a giant moment for V's character; an impressively detailed part of art; and it also hints at the Draketooth plot by demonstrating (with the centaur-dragon hybrid) that the spell targeted part-dragons as well.

It's not badass, even if it initially comes across that way. It's a massacre of random people irrespective of their actions. It's horrific. That's what makes its such a powerful strip. Perhaps even more so now that the comic has made the implications of V's actions and assumptions more clear.

It's key to the themes of the entire comic.

EDIT: Also, a note - can the thread for the entire tournament be updated to include the winners for Strips 501-600?

[thatSeniorGuy]

Definitely 639.

[Porthos]

EDIT: Also, a note - can the thread for the entire tournament be updated to include the winners for Strips 501-600?

Check Post #2 of the main thread.

[Cartographer7]

628 - 639 is going to win anyways, and Momma Black Dragon deserves some respect.

[Mike Havran]

#612 so that it gets a vote.

[Vargtass]

610 for me. Very well-written, cross-cutting, with a remarkable throwback and eventual turn-around.

[declinator]

Keeping an eye on the wildcard race, I'll vote for 642. Familicide is a great strip, and I would not be surprised (or disappointed) if it won that century, and did well in the millennium, but its significance in the comic sets in much later. The discussion between Inky and Suvie however is extremely powerful in providing Vaarsuvius both with an outside view of the actions and a clear choice.

[Angelalex242]

Choosing between family and that...V's choice is clear.

[Sylian]

This is tough. 610, 628, and 639 are the obvious choices for me. 639 is going to win anyway, and I think both 610 and 628 are better than every strip in the next semifinal, so I suppose what I should do is vote for either 610 or 628 to increase their chances of getting a wild card spot.

While I'm tempted to vote for 610 to give it some extra support, I'm leaning towards 628 since I find it slightly better. So 628 gets my vote.

[Porthos]

Fantastic set of strips here, with all being worthy to one degree or another. But a choice (heh) must be made. 610 is epic, but 612 is hilarious (especially with the title taken into account). 628 is dramatic and 642 is consequential. But in the end, for this set of strips at least, it's
639 for me. Depending on how things shake out in the next semis, I might not vote for it in the Finals. But it is certainly the best so far.

And with that.....

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED!

639 - If They Pull a Knife... is the winner of this semi-final! It now moves on to the finals for the Best of the Hundred tournament (601-700).

628 - Every Parent's Worst Nightmare is currently holding down Wild Card spot #1 with 6 votes and 610 - You're It is currently holding down Wild Card spot #2 with 4 votes.

Full Results are as follows:

.............THE STICK AWARDS II:
..BEST OF THE HUNDRED TOURNAMENT
......... (601-700 | Semi-Final #1)

	Comic Number	Votes Received	Vote Percentage
	610	4	15.38
	612	1	3.85
	628	6	23.08
	639	13	50.00
	642	2	7.69

Please join us as we continue this Best of the Hundred tournament, in this thread here.