a3rarepairstournament

[a3rarepairstournament]

WELCOME TO THE A3! PLAY SHIP BATTLE ROYALE!

"Holy shit, another Tumblr poll!?" you ask. Well. Yes. Why? Um. My friends brought up the idea and I have terrible impulse control. ANYWAY.

DO YOU LIKE A3! PLAYS!? DO YOU LIKE MAKING THE FUNNY LITTLE A3! PLAY CHARACTERS KISS!? BOY, DO I HAVE THE POLL FOR YOU!

Welcome, one and all, to the A3! Play Ship Battle Royale, where we pit our favorite a3 play ships against other people's favorite a3 play ships and hopefully spawn either a couple new ao3 fic tags, a silly crossover piece of art, a newfound appreciation for a3 plays, or...! I ran out of stuff. But you get the gist.

SUBMISSION RULES AND GUIDELINES

- The ship must be a play ship. The characters do not have to be from the same play! Extended playverse ships are allowed, provided that at least one person in the ship is a canon play character AND you can provide a visual of the extended play character/s. Ships between a play character and an actor are NOT allowed for the bracket at this time (but maybe it'll change in the future).

- The play ship in question does NOT need to be a main troupe/mixed play. Ships from other plays like Royal Blue or Inner Palace are allowed!

- Play characters must be within an appropriate age range with one another. I'll leave that to your discretion as to what counts as "appropriate", but as a general rule: no adults with anyone younger than college age. Also, please don't submit ships where the characters are related to one another.

- You do not have to ship the actors who play the characters, as long as you ship the play characters themselves. (Just as an example, you can submit Luke/S, even if you don't ship Citron/Tsuzuru.) Specifically, though, I will not accept ships played by Juza/Kumon/Muku, or Azami/Sakyo, even if the play ship is technically okay. I won't consider those submissions.

- In case I get a lot of submissions (like, a lot of submissions), I'll do my best to provide a mix of popularity in the poll. In case that a certain actor pairing has a lot of submitted play ships, I'll likely just choose two or three of them. If your submitted ship didn't make it, I'm really sorry! ><

- Submissions that don't follow the rules will not be considered. Also, if a certain pair makes me wildly uncomfortable, I probably won't consider it, sorry. Unless it's, like, really, really popular or something.

POLL RULES AND GUIDELINES

- Be nice to each other in the notes! If I see the shooters of any particular ship being nasty, I will give one (1) warning only. If you can't get your act together after that, I will disqualify the ship.

- Propaganda is allowed and encouraged! Silly crack fics are allowed and encouraged! Funny art is allowed and encouraged! I want everyone's brain juices to start flowing!

- This poll is run by one person, so please be patient! And please be nice, I'm fragile.

GOT THAT? YOU CAN SUBMIT YOUR SHIPS HERE!

(submissions will be open until may 19, or i'll close them if i get way too many submissions that i start struggling.)

Special shoutout to some of the other tournaments that inspired this! @weirdass-shiptournament and @a3rarepairstournament in particular! Heart emojis.

(last note, i won't be submitting any ships myself, but if you're interested in hearing my personal play ships, um. i guess you can ask, but it might take a while for me to get back to you because dms scare me, lol.)

#poll #ohhh look at that new tournament~ #promo

[a3rarepairstournament]

im honestly all for the idea of repeating the tournament again and again after blacklisting the previous winner ajdbdjd i think that'd be funny but ofc only if you guys (gender neutral) have the time and energy for it! i know running a poll takes lots of time and effort and coordination so don't force yourselves! thanks for hosting this one 🫶🏼🫶🏼 im really stoked to see the rarepairs others have submitted and to campaign for the ones i did 😌

Thank you for your interest! I'm also having fun discovering the rarepairs, honestly. It's also fun to recognize people based on their submissions ww

Honestly I wouldn't mind repeating the tournament, although we'd need to come up with mechanics... I feel like it could be boring to have the same VS everytime, especially since we did get a lot of submissions.

I fear that randomizing the spots wouldn't do much because the same pairs would be on top, and it'd still end up repetitive.

I think the best option may be to do several tournaments with different pairings, so people get to focus on a few at a time.

I'll discuss this more with the other mod, but I'd be curious to hear your opinions on this, so feel free to send an ask!

#mod s speaks #I basically want to make people discover rarepairs while still making it a fun tournament y'know? #I'm also tempted to draw the winners hehe.

[a3rarepairstournament]

hello, just a quick reminder that submissions close tomorrow (may 6), so if you have a ship that fits our guidelines and haven't sent it in yet, make sure you do that before then!

mod b (hi!) cleared out any ineligible submissions yesterday and compiled some of their favorite free space messages (plus one or two propaganda bits that were PARTICULARLY funny), so the rest of this post is composed of those! you guys are hilarious tbh

They're bi4bi and t4t just trust me

look we've all read the catboy fic

IDK IF THESE MAKE SENSE, IM RUNNING ON PURE SPITE FOR MY ASSIGNMENTS

penis

I'm insane I'm still insane [mod note: separate entries, presumably from the same submitter]

it would be extremely funny to, when this tournament is over, just start the tournament again, but in the guidelines add the previous winner to the blacklisted ships. and just keep doing that until u get sick of it, to get a ranking going /j

Sobs and wails. Cries. Claws at the floor. Ueuegehheieueuegeheueueuueurueueue

Prepare for more I have so many fuckin ships that I forged with my own two hands like a deranged scientist

I love mlms (both the pyramid scheme and gay kind)

Look man, old man yaoi I don’t actually have much else to say here

Do you think Itaru’s ever tried to commission a Vtuber model based on Eito

ay caramba

come on baby america

#i'm saving the propaganda of the non-rare ships though they're cute #mod b speaks #also to the anon who sent us an ask earlier: thank you!! you're very sweet <3

[a3rarepairstournament]

Hi, out of curiosity, can I ask how you gauge what's popular? I'm not trying to argue with your list or anything, I'm just genuinely curious.

Hi anon! Here's our reasoning.

We're basically basing ourselves on the amount of fan content available for the pair, and how much its talked about in the fandom. Also, some pairs may be popular some times more than others, or are mostly drawn as playverse ships, which we also try to take into consideration. Thus, some ships may not have a lot fics available on Ao3 but may have a lot of fanart from both EN and/or JP sides; and/or are often mentioned in AUs and such, which we then don't consider as rarepairs.

Speaking of which, we realized after posting the guidelines that TasuAzu may not be considered as a rarepair based on these factors, and may update our guidelines. If this happens, we will properly announce it on its own post; if you submitted TasuAzu, we apologize for the inconvenience.

#poll faq #I hope that my explanation isn't too confusing. #mod s speaks

[a3rarepairstournament]

Hihi!! Are non main cast characters (haruto, Izumi, Rento, etc) ok? Totally fine if not!! ^^

Thank you to the mod(s??) running it!! Flowers for u 💐

ABSOLUTELY

#poll faq #sorry for the caps lock i Love when non-main-cast gets love - mod b

[a3rarepairstournament]

I'm sorry to say this but I'm worried that a popularity contest for the less popular ships may be upsetting and alienating for the shippers of the rare pairs that lose

Like a "your ship is too rare and the fandom doesn't care about it enough, not even in the rare pairs world" kind of thing

I understand your concern, but once again, this poll's objective isn't to define the superiority of any rarepair, but it is rather an opportunity to make people discover rarepairs that might interest them. Don't we all want people to notice our rarepairs more? Although a few rarepairs may be more choosen than others, this isn't about judging their validity or how interesting they are, but to share them to others.

I (let's call me mod S) myself have my own rarepair that most people aren't very interested in, but I'm aware that it doesn't lessen its validity. The suggestions have made me discover rarepairs I wouldn't have thought of, and I am now considering them and maybe even thinking about their relationship and such. This really is just meant to be something for fun.

#poll faq #mod s speaks

[a3rarepairstournament]

hi, i've gotten a couple more asks related to the gekka thing (or related to similar subjects), and while i get all the impulses there, i'm going to mark the matter as...i don't want to say non-negotiable, since that sounds a little harsh, but these are the boundaries i'm comfortable setting, not just for discourse-avoidance but for my own general comfort, and i'd greatly prefer these not be criticized or called into question.

i understand being disappointed about not being able to include a ship you care about, but i do ultimately have to compile the bracket myself. this is a poll for fun, ultimately, which obviously includes the fun of the community at large but also includes my own.

#mod talk #thankfully most if not all of the stuff i got has been pretty respectful but i do wanna head off any issues before they become. issues. #mod b speaks

[a3rarepairstournament]

hi there's something i want to correct regarding a classification -- anyone 18 or 19 (so tsuzuru, kazunari, misumi) in act 1 is actually still a minor! japan age of adulthood was 20 in 2017 when act 1 takes place (it was changed to 18 last year) & there's even a story in game where itaru refers directly to tsuzuru as a minor when discussing buying gacha currency or something :0

oh i forgot about that!! thank you for the clarification, anon!!

#does that mean act 5 is gonna have like. three years worth of actors hitting legal adulthood at the same time. #poll faq #mod b speaks

[a3rarepairstournament]

Yeah Gekka has been an unit since young but… so has TasuTsumu? and no one has a problem with that

Gekkas are not canonically incestuous, and while some people may interpret them as family (blurry asf term, married people are family), not everyone does

Honestly, I understand if someone's uncomfortable with it but in that case they should blacklist the ship name, they can't stop others in the fandom from shipping it (same with the age gap thing, if it's not someone's cup of tea then… well blacklisting has existed as a feature for years)

it ultimately comes down to like a comfort level thing, i guess; i personally view those situations differently, but i can see your point.

ultimately this isn't about, like, policing what anyone does. i really just want to make this tournament as accessible to people as possible, and fitting it within the confines of what both i'm comfortable with as well as what the majority of people are comfortable with as well as like. avoiding discourse and whatnot. god knows we've had enough of THAT in the polls lately

i'll move the gekkas to a different bullet point, honestly i probably should have done that in the first place.

#poll faq #sorry about. that. #mod b speaks

[a3rarepairstournament]

Hi, I'm a little bit confused about the guidelines? Nothing wrong with them and I understand if it's for hosts' personal comfort, but the rules about Tsuzuru/Misumi/Kazunari and Omi feel oddly specific to me since they... are adults in y1? And then the guideline about Chikage/August/Hisoka... I don't understand how that's incestuous and harugumi isn't? When neither group are actually related in a familial way, nor by blood? I don't understand where the lines are drawn ^^;

hiya, no worries! lemme explain my reasoning here

so yeah, the y1 college boys are indeed adults in y1, and the guidelines are kinda specific! but i do know a number of people who feel a little weird shipping them with folks too much older than them, and i fall in kinda the same boat sometimes. (basically it's like, they're adults but they're still like YOUNGER adults.) some of them is personal comfort, some of this is for broader comfort reasons!

as for the gekka grouping vs. harugumi, while i fully admit that i'm not FULLY up-and-up on their deal, the understanding i have of them is that they've been a unit since they were reasonably young, and i know a lot of people (and myself) interpret them more along familial lines. Haru specifically is mentioned because i occasionally see people treating them in the same fashion, but their situation is different imo based on ages the unit formed at.

sorry for any confusion!!! this was a bit of an impulse decision and i whipped up the guidelines in like an hour so they might be a little unclear or poorly explained x_x

#thank you for being respectful! i figured i'd have to clarify these at some point WHOOPS #poll faq #i acknowledge some of these are KINDA specific but i do wanna maximize participant comfort! plus the mods' own :3 #also REALLY sorry about the college boys in particular my brain is REALLY weird about them sometimes #mod b speaks

[a3rarepairstournament]

— Guidelines

As this is a rarepair tournament, the following popular pairings have been blacklisted:

- SakuMasu, BanSaku, MadoMasu, TsuzuKazu, CitoIta, ItaBan, ChikaIta

- TenYuki, Taiten, Taiyuki, MukuYuki, MisuKazu, Azakyu

- Juban, BanTsumu, SakyoIzu

- TasuTsumu, HisoHoma

Additionally, ships fitting these criterias are also blacklisted:

- Pairings featuring a Y1 minor with anyone three years older/younger.

Examples: Tenma/Misumi or Tenma/Kazunari

- Tsuzuru, Misumi, Kazunari paired with anyone at Homare's age or above.

- Omi paired with anyone older than Sakyo.

- Anything incestuous.

Lastly, Chikage/Hisoka will also be blacklisted to fit a mod's comfortability.

#a3! rarepairs tournament

[a3rarepairstournament]

Welcome to the A3! Rarepairs Tournament!

Hosted by two mods!

As the title says, we'll make A3! rarepairs compete against each other. Reminder that this is just a popularity poll, and that it does not define any ship as superior to another!

Slots will depend on the number of submissions we'll get; we'll announce it at a later date and update this post!

Submissions will be up until May 6th.

Please make sure to read our Guidelines before submitting.

Every poll can be found under the tag #a3 rarepairs tournament poll.

Let's all have fun!

#a3! #a3! act! addict! actors! #a3! mankai company #a3! rarepairs tournament