Lars Magnusun
Judge's Introduction: I'm not a real big fan of someone trying to take complete ownership of the control of a match. It's a big turnoff to see someone go over the top and not allow the basic give and take in a natural/solid match.
~ Don't work stiff!
~ You are NOT Superman!
~ Your "Glare" will not stop anyone or an army of men for that matter!
~ Do NOT try and point out no selling of others in your posts!
Judging Criteria
Action ~ I WANT ACTION! This is HUGE for me. I mean, Hey! Guess what? You're here because you're writing about wrestling matches. Well if I'm your judge and your booked in one, you should be. Give me some realistic/logical match and (if appropriate) backstage action. Could it happen and how it happened? Tell me. Write that story. You could be the greatest story teller in the world, but if you do not have solid match action to be the base/backbone of your writing about a wrestling match, then that's a negative for me.
Dialogue ~ It is highly important to use the proper dialogue that fits the proper scene or events going on. And lets face it, dialogue is a huge space filler in posts and it is the easiest part to do for a lot of role players. But when you have too much of a dialogue heavy post it hurts you. Rapid session talk without the narrative on the reactions and the events going on around the dialogue is not appealing to me. Also, you need to make certain that your selling the proper dialogue for those you are having speak in your posts. Make sure you're characterizing those you are using correctly or it will hurt you.
Selling ~ JUST SELL BABY! Listen, if you are not willing to sell every aspect that your opponent or your surroundings in the match that gets thrown at you, it shows in your RP. That's called short selling no matter how you cut it. Paying close attention to details that have previously been posted in your (by all that are posting) match or on the board is key too. There are a lot short selling issues in the missing of minor details that end up being glaring mistakes and miss ques whether intended or not. Grayson said it well by saying "You can't sell what you don't read." and that's true. There are no short cuts in selling a match.
Effort ~ So when I am thinking effort, I'm looking not only the length of the post, but the proper attention to the detail within that post. Your Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar, Research on the current and past angles or Storylines that may be relevant to the match. Quality beats Quantity every time. 700 words is a good level to strive for if you have the proper content to do it with. Much over the 1300 word mark in a normal match (Non Rewrite/All RP Match) is a getting at the high mark to where it gets to be too long or you try to take way too much of the match/story for yourself.
Progression ~ What are you doing from the start of your post to the end? What was accomplished within your post that progressed the match on to the next step for you or your opponents. Each match tends to have a pace/rhythm. If you have a jerky jerky, choppy post that looks like it is just there to take up some space and do not bring you closer than the match was than when you started, that's not going to score well with me. Do you follow the timing of events that have been played in the match or the other outside events that are or have went on? Are you aware of those? There is some pacing in here also. Starting out too high may hurt your pacing if you start to get flat throughout the middle of the match and makes it a bit difficult to recover from.
Innovation/Creativeness ~ Whatever you wish to call them: High Points in the Action/Plot Twists from unexpected directions/Wow Factors, Every match should have something that you can look back on and say, hey, that was the high point in that match that the RPer really took the bull by the horns and innovated or created something out of the build up of the match. Make those points the reason people want to read the entire match to get to. Keep them coming back for more. BUT, it MUST be realistic and logical in the context of what is happening.
Story Telling ~ So every judge will tell you that it makes for a better match if there are some good storytelling involved in it. Both good drama and good comedy equally score well for me when done correctly and sells correctly. I favor none over the other, but I do favor the quality of whatever story telling style you choose to use. Those that can mix those two styles in with their own unique style will have a great chance at scoring good.
