The Stick Awards II: Second Edition (BotH [#0801-#0900]) [Semi #2]

[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 continuing The Best of the Hundred Tournament for Comics #801 - #900 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 July 18th, 4pm EDT. 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 this 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.

In the previous semi-final, 830 Tidying Up decided that if the other participants were going to dare to openly try to take a move against it, it had better make its move first. Well, its opening salvoes were more than enough to let it survive the first round of combat. Time will tell if it succeeds in the Finals of this Best of the Hundred.

Meanwhile, 842 All in the Family is currently holding down Wild Card spot #1 with 7 votes while 808 - Five Rows Down, Three Columns Over and 819 Parental Insight have a very tenuous joint hold on Wild Card spot #2 with 1 vote each. Thus if another strip is to enter the finals without winning this semi, it has to get at least 2 votes.

While one strip is busy ordering another to eat itself out of this competition, we still have a piece of unfinished business to deal with ourselves. Namely figuring out which strips will dare try to stare it down by voting in...

................THE STICK AWARDS II:
BEST OF THE HUNDRED TOURNAMENT (801-900)
..............(Semi-Final #2)

859 - Smoked
870 - Death in the Family
877 - The Bright Side
881 - Temporary Weakness
896 - Two Paths

[Mordae]

Ouch. Moment of awesome vs. Big reveal vs. Intense sadness vs. Belkar(tm) brand wisdom vs. Bigger reveal.

Yeah, it's not hard to vote for 896.

[Gift Jeraff]

#870 is my personal pick for best of the hundred.

[Euclidodese]

881 One of the greatest moments for undoubtedly, the B-A-Double-D Baddest Halfling on the planet.

The Ranger who's so hot he needs to jump into the sauna just to cool off.

Belkar 'I don't know what I'd do if I woke up in the morning and I wasn't me' Bitterleaf!

[Jaxzan Proditor]

#877

Also, I love how the first four votes are all different.

[Xihirli]

877
(edited)
We love you, Durkon! Come back!

Tears are manly!

[Bird]

881 for me, this time.

[137beth]

Ooh, tough. I'm going to go with 877, I felt stronger emotions when I read it than with 896.

[thatSeniorGuy]

Easy choice.
#877, The Bright Side.

[Cartographer7]

Dang this is a hard set. It's hard not to put in a vote for the IFCC strike in 896.

But I have to vote for 877. I still get a vague sick/empty feeling reading that strip. I think it feels even sadder now that we know he knows that his prophecy doesn't work out the way he assumes here.

[Cartographer7]

870

We love you, Durkon! Come back!

Tears are manly!

870 doesn't have Durkon in it. Are you sure you voted for the right strip?

[Emperordaniel]

877 The Bright Side.

One day, you shall rest in peace, Durkon Thundershield.

[declinator]

881 is my personal favourite here. really has the problem nailed down...

[ChristianSt]

Some really nice Strips to vote for. I'm in for 877 - The Bright Side

[Killer Angel]

Too much sadness.
I like to remember Durkon at his best. 859

[littlebum2002]

SO many good ones!!

881

[Sylian]

881. Solid Belkar character development combined with a great reaction from Roy.

[Emanick]

Ouch. Man, this was difficult. I think I'm going to go with 896: Two Paths, partly because I can't decide which reveal is best and partly because I love montages to death.

This might be the first time I've voted for a strip in the semi-finals when I didn't vote for it the first time around. I guess that just speaks to how confused I feel about how to choose the truly greatest strip in this sequence.

[Xihirli]

870 doesn't have Durkon in it. Are you sure you voted for the right strip?

...No. No I am not.

[GuySmiley1970]

881 for me (and Belkar)

[Dushara]

Gotta give Belkar his due.

881

[Sheba]

I'm really torn between 870 and 877. 870 had more impact on me personally than 877 did (because Malack is my favourite character), but 877 obviously had more impact on the comic. How to choose? I suppose I'll support 877, simply for the fact that it has more winning chances.

[AvatarVecna]

877. Because it vamp'd Durkon, because it was such a soul-tearing scene, because of Durkon's speech, and because of 881. Why "because of 881"? Because while Belkar may say he can brush it off if necessary, 880 and 881 make it clear that however much Belkar is pretending it doesn't phase him much, you can tell it cut him deep. Somebody gave their life to save Belkar, despite knowing him; you can practically see the plot strings of a redemption arc in the making...and it gives a bit of insight into why Belkar is so determined to prove that Durkula isn't Durkon.

[Mike Havran]

This is shaping up pretty clearly, so here is one vote for #870.

[Elenna]

Decisions, decisions...

877

[martianmister]

877 - The Bright Side

[nogall]

finally back after 3 week trip (work + vacation). A bit sad though to have missed some votes (for the first time, maybe?)

moving on, I'm going to throw some love at 859. Yay for efficient and competent order of the stick!

[Porthos]

I reserve my right to change my vote in the Finals, but for now I'm going to vote for 881. Mostly because while 877 is poignant, in every sense of the word, 881 is perhaps the absolute best Belkar strip in the entire comic so far. Certainly Top Five. That it shows Roy, of all people, coming this close to breaking is just icing on the cake. Good enuf for me.

And with that....

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED!

877 - The Bright Side is the winner of this semi-final! It now moves on to the finals for the Best of the Hundred tournament (801-900).

Moving into Wild Card slot #1 is 881 - Temporary Weakness which had 8 votes in this semi.

Just one vote behind is 842 - All in the Family, which slides down to Wild Card slot #2 with seven votes from the previous semi-final.

Full Results are as follows:

.............THE STICK AWARDS II:
..BEST OF THE HUNDRED TOURNAMENT
......... (801-900 | Semi-Final #2)

	Comic Number	Votes Received	Vote Percentage
	859	2	8.00
	870	2	8.00
	877	11	44.00
	881	8	32.00
	896	2	8.00

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