So obviously the circumstances surrounding the end of this match are super unfortunate, both to witness and experience.
In the process of being salty af it got me to thinking about what the gym system is supposed to represent in ASB on a philosophical level, whether it's supposed to be a "pure competition" arrangement vs. an "achievement" challenge. Essentially, is the gym league and the gym leaders supposed to represent a no holds barred everything to win competition against the challengers or is the system one where the end goal is expectation of completion where the gym leaders are facilitators of the challenges the competitors face. Considering situations seen similarly from the actual anime's gym league, this brought me to consider the idea of whether there should be a system in place for challengers to appeal for a badge in a losing scenario and how that would look, which brings me to my proposal.
The idea, fleshed out in conversations with the gym committee (who I'll note have in no way signed off on this as of yet) is essentially as follows:
- Provide a system where a challenger who believes that they genuinely deserved the badge but were denied it* can appeal to be granted the badge
- Have such a system be heavily protected against abuse and usable only in rare and clear cut circumstances
- Remove the time penalty for challengers where the above circumstances apply who would otherwise have to rechallenge
*ex: circumstances impossible to control, absurd hax, impossible matchup
The specifics:
1. When a challenger truly believes they "really ought to have won this one", they may make an appeal to a panel consisting of the standing gym committee and the gym leader who was challenged to be granted the badge
2. The aforementioned group of four meet (in PM or on discord) and have a brief discussion about the circumstances of the match and overall merit of the appeal based on the qualities they deem important, i.e. quality of play, cause of loss, etc
3. The group of four vote on whether or not the challenger should be awarded the badge.
In the event of a tie, the gym leader's vote will carry the tie break.
In concept the assumption is that every member involved in the situation would be heavily disinclined to award a badge except in exceptional circumstances. The gym leader's vote carrying tiebreak weight ensures borderline cases do not pass where the committee is split, while a four member committee ensures that a salty gym leader cannot deny a challenger a badge if the entire committee disagrees.
In consideration of the above, I therefore formally make this proposal to the gym committee of
smashlloyd20,
deadfox081, and
Elevator Music for implementation and request that the three of you, along with
Birkal, meet to discuss the merit of my personal appeal in the case of this gym match, the reasoning for which should be self-evident within this page.
