Match of the Millennium

Overseen by Professional Fighting Worldwide and supported by a broad coalition of martial arts schools, entertainment enterprises, security companies, and even educational institutions, the International Fighting Festival will be in town over the course of the upcoming month. The Festival's mission statement, as announced by PFW Public Affairs Director Howard Zhang, is to "celebrate martial prowess and introduce a new generation of fighting talent to the world stage." Participating organisations will be setting up shop in various rented spaces around Southtown, most prominently in the areas of Chinatown, the arenas of the Business District, and the normally quiet Southtown Village and its Mall, where they will put on demonstrations and exhibition matches, selling martial arts-related merchandise, and have what are expected to be broad opportunities for recruitment. While expected to bring an economic windfall to the area, which has recently seen steady economic growth thanks to recovery efforts funded in part by the Neo League, perhaps most intriguing will be the launch of the 'New Fighting Generation' program. A joint venture between many of the various sponsors involved in the festival, the program promises to introduce audiences to never-before-seen fighting talent. A step further than the Rising Star tournament, The New Fighting Generation allows only candidates who have never participated in professional fighting tournaments to apply. The New Fighting Generation program (or NFG) promises to follow these freshest of prospects from their debut in the International Fighting Festival's New Fighting Generation tournament through roughly six months of training and sponsored events to be broadcast worldwide, culminating in a final championship that promises to show the fruits of the candidates' labour. In addition to the security of a six-month salaried contract, promotional media, and a potential cash prize of $100,000 and immortalization in the form of a statue for the winner of the championship, these rookie fighters will also be given a chance to work with some of the fighting world's top notch mentors, trainers, and promoters. These sponsors will have a chance to draft fighters into teams, where they will be given training and provided accommodation for the duration of their NFG contract. This is expected to be perhaps the most valuable part of the experience when it comes to these fighters' future prospects. (This post has been copied from board 9 for consolidation purposes.)

Hello, doodz! As you may have already seen in the post titled 'International Fighting Festival Comes to Southtown' on board 9, we are launching a new event geared toward brand new Original Characters! This is an opportunity for any of you who are interested to create fresh new ratio 1.0 OCs, enjoy accelerated progression, compete in an even playing field, and participate in a shared storyline throughout the course of the year! WHAT WILL HAPPEN? Original Characters participating in the event will start at ratio 1.0. These characters will accrue additional bonus AP matched to their earned AP, up to a cap of 163 extra AP. Players will not be allowed to spend AP not earned by the same character on their NFG OC. This means that participating characters will essentially earn double AP, though the extra AP earned, as bonus AP, must be spent on the participating characters. Characters apped by the end of Friday 7 April will have the opportunity to participate in the International Fighting Festival's climactic New Fighting Generation Tournament. As all prospects will be locked from dojo advancement before the tournament, this will essentially be an R1.0 tournament. The tournament will be held in week-long single-elimination rounds and run from four to six weeks depending on participation. At the end of the tournament, there will be a draft of the participants between sponsor teams. These teams will last throughout the course of the NFG Project, although there may be a shuffle or two by the end of it. Sponsors are then responsible for the care, feeding and training of their team members until the end of the NFG Project. Over the course of the rest of the year, we'll be holding monthly +signup events for participants, who are also encouraged to face each other in matches and engage in social scenes with peers, rivals and sponsors, all of which will be rewarded with the aforementioned accelerated AP gain. The monthly events may range from classic fight cards to battle royales, team matches, or special training exercises (such as car-destroying competitions). Seeding for the end-of-year championship tournament will be determined by points scored through participation. The championship will be another single-elimination tournament that will be a chance to see how far the characters have come since the start, with an IC cash prize of $100,000 for the winner as well as a prize for their sponsor! (Reposted from board 28)

WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO PLAY A NEW OC? I'm glad you asked! For those who either don't like playing OCs, don't want to come up with a new OC, or don't want to start fresh at R1, you can get involved by participating in NFG as a sponsor! ICly, sponsors have been invited to participate in NFG, attracted by the prospect of getting first pick of a new generation of fighters to work with. Some might be senseis looking to take on new students for their dojo, or jounin looking for new candidates for their ninja clan. Others might be wrestlers or managers looking for new talent for their federation. Some might even be members of shadowy cabals looking for unscrupulous fighters to indoctrinate. (Don't blame me, they paid their sponsorship deals, same as everybody else!) This is up to the sponsor's player! If you don't already have a character you feel would fit, but have an idea for one who would, be encouraged to temp or even app one! Sponsors receive a stipend toward the housing, feeding, and training of their charges. Whether this goes toward luxury housing and steak dinners or leaky dojo roof repairs and six months' supply of rice depends on the sponsor. Some lucky participants might even get a wealthy and generous sponsor who goes above and beyond the stipend, but what will they expect from their prospects after the show? The dynamics of this are something for players to explore! The sponsor of the champion of NFG will also be receiving a choice piece of real estate in Southtown as a prize. (Repost from board 28)

HOW DO I SIGN UP? If you want to participate as a sponsor, use +signup NFGSPONSOR on the signup machine as the character you'd like to participate as and set a plotnote giving a little info about why that character has thrown their hat in. Sponsors will need to +signup before the end of the Festival tournament! If you want to participate as a New Fighting Generation candidate, submit an OC application to the Admin box (motmadmin@gmail.com) as per the standard process outlined in 'info OC Application.' Keep in mind that the character will need to start at ratio 1.0 and indicate that you'd like to participate in NFG in the Hooks and Plans section of the application. Then, once your application is approved, use +signup FIGHTFEST to sign up for the Fighting Festival tournament! If you miss the tournament but still want to participate, you can still apply as long as the NFG Program is still ongoing! Latecomers will receive the same AP benefits but may need to work harder to catch up. If you need assistance with designing your new OC, especially with movelists, feel free to reach out to your fellow players, and join our Discord at: https://discord.gg/3Cbm5XMGdn Participation in monthly events is encouraged but not mandatory. We don't want to discourage participants from giving it a try even if they can't commit to the full year's Program! (Reposted from board 28)

TIMELINE RECAP - Signups for Fighting Festival tournament will close EOD April 7th. - Fighting Festival tournament will run for roughly four to six weeks. - Monthly events in June, July, August, September, October, November, aiming to finish with an end-of-year championship tournament. RESTRICTIONS RECAP - Only one participating OC per player. - Participants must be fresh OCs and will start at R1.0. They can begin earning AP as soon as they are approved, but can't spend post-CG AP until after the conclusion of the FightFest tournament. - Participants may not use AP earned by other alts to advance - advancement should come through the participant's activity. PERKS RECAP - Bonus matched AP Pool up to 163 AP - Exclusive events, including two tournaments - Sponsor interactions! - Compete from a level playing field - Build your story alongside other participants - An introductory post for each participant provided by hype master Pringer X (Reposted from board 28)