Make Your Move 22: Moveset Design Contest - Top 50 released! New sets go in MYM23!

[Slavic]

Oh yea, feel free to throw in as many as you can, we love our set count going up

 

[Kholdstare]

Question before we start MYM23: can we submit more than one moveset at a time?

It'd be helpful to separate them either in Google Docs links or separate posts because of how we link sets to The Stadium but otherwise that's totally fine!

 

[FrozenRoy]

Question before we start MYM23: can we submit more than one moveset at a time?

You can submit as many movesets as you want while the contest is open, or in the same day. I would recommend, however, putting them in seperate posts.

 

[chikin]

Question before we start MYM23: can we submit more than one moveset at a time?

You can

 

[Perkilator]

Thanks! I have some movesets I’m more than happy to share, but I’ll wait til April 1st.

 

[FrozenRoy]

We only have like three people left to vote, but real life has forced them to have some difficulties right now, so we've extended reading to April 6th to accommodate that. MYM23 will still be posted on April1st and that's no joke.

 

[Deleted member]

So we come to this time of MYM again when the top fifty is nearly at hand. Last time I made a grand Top 11 sets list and before that, I commented on some movesets that weren't in that Top 11 I felt it was necessary I give further thoughts on. As I said then this is not a wholly negative list but as these sets aren't at the top of my vote list there's clearly any problems whatsoever, however mostly I just feel obligated to give some commentary to these ones.

I've got to say, this was a great Make Your Move! Most people were at their best and made themselves very proud, constructing a vote list was definitely a challenge at the top. Needless to say, the bar was high, so any set that appears here and wasn't at the top of the list has nothing to be embarrassed about.

So without further ado lets get right to the set commentary.

Kyoko barely missed out on a RV+ for me and is by all accounts a great set, in a very competitive contest it's a shame it couldn't get higher. I considered it for SV at one point! The set is arguably your best melee ever as an extremely "dry" set that works off of creating a wall that foes are hit off in a unique way. That's about as dry of a core concept as it gets without getting into the intricacies of her Ivy-from-Soulcalibur sword whip and its many interesting functionalities.

It's not just that the melee is good, it's also one of your best presented sets what with all the GIFs and very delicate way you handled the character. It made a big difference imo in understanding some of these moves. On the same note the set does one of the best jobs of any of your sets in outlining each move's unique animations, general feel and tone, feeling very fitting in a straight up melee-focused fighting game. Smash Bros is of course a different beast from a pure fighting game and that is why MYM gets away with so much, but it's still refreshing to see you handle a weapon fighter who's not particularly flashy.

The reason why the set lost out to the ones it did was mostly that it didn't do anything that particularly impressed me beyond having good execution and a solid base. If I was to prod deeper into it, the overall playstyle feels a little unfocused compared to Xehanort, who is generally always hyper focused on building up his Org 13 mechanic or in general has a lot of strong themes. Kyoko is a pretty standard set conceptually that isn't as interesting on a basic level. Not like there's much you could do about that given the character and it's still very good. I think in any other MYM it'd likely hit my Top 11.

Nox like Kyoko is another very strong moveset but almost the opposite to Kyoko, has some fascinating concepts and less stellar (though still good) execution. The time stop has never been done as good as in this set, period. That's quite a statement given the plethora of sets that tried to do this gimmick over the years ranging from top ten placers like N. Tropy to memes like Teferi and now finally done in a very balanced way in this set.

Obviously what's most impressive about it is how it's a pure no BS time stop. This is quite shocking to take in because a time stop is inherently very broken, giving the player a huge advantage on the foe for basically nothing, and if it doesn't do something that strong it feels like a pointless cop out. The way this is handled is really clever by tying it into a meter mechanic and giving it a really intuitive way for the foe to break out, while still having counterplay for Nox if they do. It's just a genius move overall.

In my opinion the set does fall off pretty fast after an overall pretty great set of specials, even the recovery is a pretty unique one being in Nox's set. Stuff that stood out to me as less than great was his weirdly lacking quantity of projectiles and the kind of bland melee. I'm not saying it's bad but it doesn't really tie that strongly into time stop. It almost felt to me like you were wary to mess with the time stop, which is a shame as you had such a good base for it, but I can see why you'd not want to mess with it too much given balance issues that might crop up.

While this isn't your best Wakfu set this MYM it's still a mighty effort. I don't think time stop will ever be the same again!

Dragonmaid Hauskee was actually my favourite Dragonmaid. It was a pretty fascinating movement overall, and weirdly for me it was the set that somewhat crashed the movement that was the real standout. Not that I'm alone in thinking that, Aki is a pretty excellent set! Hauskee is no slouch herself however, being one of your best this MYM. I was considering commenting on Victoria here, but I gave any chat commentary on that set and this one is a bit more interesting, sorry if you were hoping for some bolt witch feedback.

Without further ado, this set gets a great deal right from a characterisation and balance perspective. It takes the interesting approach of treating Hauskee's fellow DMs as her "supports" from a tag fighting game like MvC and has them summoned as her replacement for a dragon form. It's a very fun and refreshing take on the mechanic and the fact she doesn't transform is interesting in of itself and instead uses it in moderation. It actually makes her seem a lot cooler and stronger than her compatriot maids! It's such a subtle and clever approach to this kind of character in a movement.

I also really like the air of superiority the set has in its animations. Hauskee almost has the atmosphere of a final boss or villain when she is so serious and in control of everything. All of this off of cards is some amazing "world building" in set form that is really fun considering Hauskee is perhaps the least ambitious of the maids, but ends up making such a lot of good out of these smaller concepts. It's not quite as good as the top notch sets in this particular MYM, no less reason to be proud of the set.

Dragonmaid Nasary was an experience to read, that's for sure. I love your sets and both this and Parla were so long I could practically imagine 2 or 3 sets being fused together here. There are parts of this set that are just as wonderful as the typical Kat masterpiece but on the other hand, I did have some issues where the set got a little bit away from itself. It's a pretty amazing case study as a moveset because of how ambitious and the scope of the set is crazy, making me wonder what inspired you to go so far with these characters? This is the kind of inspiration that writes a best selling novel! Really, even if the set is far from your best, it needs to be said how amazing it is you dedicate so much time and effort to this project, I have to give you massive credit there.

I will also say here I am giving this commentary long long after edits are over so boo me. Any criticism can't be addressed, we're past that, booooo Mr. Smady.

I'm just going to dive right into the negative. So I am still confused as to exactly how the healing works on a couple of fronts. Nasary's meter fills when the foe's dodges heal, but the set doesn't do a good job explaining if this is just passively from a distance or when the foe's got a bandage on from her up special. The mechanics are also equally confusing on the foe's shield. In general the mechanic isn't too clear.

There's a great degree of tackiness in how the bed works and the way it treats prone. Prone is mostly a moment of incapacity for the victim, but they can quickly roll or get up with i-frames, so it's not actually as abusable as we thought back in ye olde days of MYM6 era. This set treats prone like more of a general state that can be abused, on the bed especially, where it gets pretty intensely strong! I don't really like abusing the prone state like that, and the bed in general feels like a pretty obstructive construct that could be annoying in practice.

The last big complaint I had was just the earthquake that not only does no damage but launches the bed into the air. It's not a big deal, just a pet peeve of mine to have no damage moves. Maybe I have a vendetta against beds because the earthquake hitting the bed into the air got my goat too.

The thing is once the set does get into the later moves and the very good input sections like aerials, it's really a fascinating execution of negative healing and a playstyle that's utterly unique with all kinds of janky off-kilter moves that are just wonderful. At times it feels a little overwhelming trying to piece it all together, particularly the dragon moves, but the way you utilize the human form was always a treat. I loved all the ways she used her tail in creative ways, the personality behind every animation (a Kat trademark) and getting so much out of such a minor character.

In the end I did like the set but it was a pretty weak like. I actually RV'd Reigen and Kunai, though I don't have a ton to say about Reigen and IIRC I commented Kunai already, so here ya go. I hope the negativity doesn't get you down because it's honestly an accomplishment of a set even if it didn't come together for some people, it did really impress some others, so it's hardly a failure.

Dragonmaid Parla was surprisingly not as impactful on me as Nasary, and I rank them around the same. It's a good set, but it has lower highlights and higher lowlights than Nasary, so it feels like it won't be as much of a watermark on the MYM landscape.

I will immediately say that compared to its sister set, Nasary, Parla's mechanics are a lot more straightforward. It's a little complex mechanically, but preferable to Nasary I think. I also really dug the references in the intro and to Lickitung in the food move! Always gets plus points from me with that, and keep it coming. The set definitely oozes personality with the sweet obsessed Parla being one of the best characterized besides Hauskee in my opinion.

Where the set faltered a bit for me was in the later inputs where it wasn't as interesting as Nasary, leveling out the good start, and it doesn't come together in a super cohesive way. It's again just a bit overwhelming for me, despite how impressive it is just like Nasary. It may have been a mistake to have all the dragon moves. FWIW I felt a similar way about Tilroo but I don't have a ton to say about that set on an individual level even if it was good, about on par with these two. Sorry if that's not a very satisfying comment and I am grateful for such an amazing project even if it's not exactly my favourite movesets of all time. It's left a massive impact on MYM for sure, especially with Aki being inspired by it all. Well done guys.

 

[Professor Lexicovermis]

Let There Be Light
10/10

I praised Mina Aquila in the chat for being a set that knew what it wanted to do and laid out a precision-based setup playstyle, and Xehanort takes that even further beyond, with so much cool **** he can do that a skilled player can be a downright nightmare. Every single major move in this set is amazingly flashy and viscerally satisfying, and I was left eager to see what was coming up next after reading every input! The set made very good use of every tool Xehanort has to weave an intricate and interesting combo-based kit that feels organically freeform even despite the myriad mechanics that could've easily given him a flowcharty feel if handled poorly. It all culminates in an incredibly good set that shines beautifully even in a contest full of very high-quality sets. Exquisite work, FA!

The Time God of Tick-Tock Clock
9/10

​

Nox was a really fun set that set out to do something always ambitious: modernize time manipulation as a genre. With a fairly modest, but far from uninteresting, toolbelt of moves that have interesting implications with Nox's time stop, slow, speed up, and reverse gimmicks, I think you've done a wonderful job of revitalizing a concept that's always been a tricky one to handle in a balanced manner, Froy! Nox's best techniques are expensive drains on his resources, and while he can reasonably get them replenished, he has to put in some respectable work to do so, which seems fitting to the character as you've described him! You also gave him some really satisfying moves and mechanics that have a pleasingly smooth, yet mechanical feel, like well-oiled clockworks. There's also something very darkly, poetically fitting about how a bad Nox player could easily fall into the trap of focusing heavily on a powerful time reverse, but taking so much time and effort to do so that it ends up fruitless...

-nickelodeon gak sound effect-
9/10

​

I think this is my favorite of the Witchverse yet, US; Dahlia has a really fun choice of medium, and you got a ton of mileage out of her ooze and various forms thereof! The set is also dripping with character, really painting a vivid image of this eccentric sort of glory hound with a penchant for the most basal of dungeon monsters. She's just as much a playground as the other witches, but I'm very fond of the visceral, almost effortless way she commands her setup, just taking a Smashed input to fling everything in her desired direction posthaste. The biggest highlight is probably the grab game, which has some really fun animations and mechanics, but the whole set has a lot going for it! The only issue I saw was that the set still thinks Slime Blocks are on DSmash sometimes, but that's an understandable quirk of moving an input in post. Excellent work!

Toys-R-Us
9/10

​

...unfortunately, Dahlia seems to have been immediately dethroned as my favorite Witch set, as Victoria's aesthetics and mechanics resonate with me even more than the Slime Witch's did! I love how endearing Victoria's companions are, with even Franziska getting some cute characterization in the win pose section; I would buy real life versions of her toy constructs, to be honest. Anyway, the gameplay conceit of battery-operated pseudo-minions that are paired with a myriad of electricity hitboxes is really fun on its face, and Bolt Boy elevates this concept to something really novel and interesting, with him being an incredibly customizable minion, yet simpler than past examples of such minions, with his customization being easily handled on the fly instead of requiring Victoria to break from combat for lengthy periods. The set stays wonderfully cognizant of how Victoria and Bolt Boy work together, and it paints a wonderful picture of the teamwork that Victoria's kit requires to shine. My only real complaint is that the other toys don't get to shine as much, only really coming up tangentially. Even that is fairly minor, all things said, really, as the set is definitely another fine example of the well-oiled US machine at work, as always!

Freddie Mercury Learns Yoshikage Kira's Name While Riding His Bicycle
9/10

Man, It's surreal to read descriptions of Killer Queen acting like a person because I'm so conditioned to imagine the fanon joke that they're basically a cat in a humanoid body. More seriously, Kira has been the biggest Jojo set I've wanted to see, and by god did you deliver on the hype! You did a wonderful job of adapting the character to Smash, even tying in the fact that, as a serial murderer who isn't exactly used to actually FIGHTING, he's pretty hosed without KQ immediately handy, or if he goes too ham without a plan. You also made sure that, even with that weakness, Kira can still get KQ back fairly quickly; I think you struck a good balance where he can be caught out if he's not careful with puppeteering, but it's also not the kind of thing he'll have happening too often with any kind of care. Puppet fighters take a delicate touch, so excellent work, Khold!

 

[FrozenRoy]

Alright, voting is offically closed all! We got 11 voters, preeeeeetty goooooood. Top 50 should be up soon enough.

 

[FrozenRoy]

1) Master Xehanort by ForwardArrow
2) Hol Horse by FrozenRoy
3) Fox Butler Aki by Professor Lexicovermis
4) Rudy the Clown by Smash Daddy
5) skekSil the Chamberlain by BKupa666
6) Quilby by FrozenRoy
7) Kira Yoshikage by Kholdstare
8) Naomi Faren by UserShadow7989
9) Black Polnareff by FrozenRoy
10) Ennard by Smash Daddy
11) Nox by FrozenRoy
12) Mina Aquila by ForwardArrow
13) Bolt Witch Victoria by UserShadow7989
14) Vulture by BKupa666
15) Dragonmaid Hauskee by UserShadow7989
16) Hugo by Smash Daddy
17) Alex by FrozenRoy
18) Dragonmaid Nasary by Katapultar
19) Utsuho Reiuji by FrozenRoy
20) Kunai by Katapultar
21) Slime Witch Dahlia by UserShadow7989
22) Reigen Arataka by Katapultar
23) Kyoko Sakura by ForwardArrow
24) Dragonmaid Parla by Katapultar
25) Water Witch Andrea by Munomario777
26) PaniK by Slavic
27) Armie Buff by Katapultar
28) Lakitu by UserShadow7989
29) Solf J. Kimblee by MasterWarlord
30) Dragonmaid Tillroo by UserShadow7989
31) Katsuki Bakugo by Slavic
32) Cioccolata by UserShadow7989
33) Kritter by BKupa666
34) Robin by IvanQuote
35) Imaginary Numbers by Professor Lexicovermis
36) Pidgey by WeirdChillFever
37) Kingpin by BKupa666
38) Elekid by FrozenRoy
39) Kano by Slavic
40) Arina Makihara by Bionichute
41) Springtrap by ZLBProductions
42) Zeraora by bubbyboytoo
43) Poochyena by FrozenRoy
44) Reapress by Munomario777
45) Whisper the Wolf by bubbyboytoo
46) Lord Zedd by Bionichute
47) Primeape by UserShadow7989
48) GUN Soldier and Black Warrior by IvanQuote
49) Fenn Mataraci by Professor Lexicovermis
50) Sarcophacurse by Bionichute​

 

[Katapultar]

Phew, MYM22 was a SURPRISINGLY competitive contest! Didn’t even break into the Top 15! (but I did so better than I expected, heh)


This contest felt similar to MYM21 for me in output, but I don’t think it was quite as good as the Holy Anime Girl Trinity was that Yui, Himiko and Shinobu.


The Dragonmaids’ reception (no pun intended) was a relatively bitter and eye-opening experience. It was also very painful for everyone else who had to read them, which I profusely apologise for (it won’t happen again!). I’ll admit that the irony of having sets that I spent a lot of time on lose out to much shorter sets (or ones made really fast, like Pol and Hol) made me feel negative and jealous, but that was just me being too hooked up on the competitive side of MYM and being too spoiled. Still, there was a lot to learn about not adding too many superfluous details or tiny little hitbox details, which did really add up on the maids. I believe that this is something I’ve been guilty of for several contests and it was only REALLY brought up on the Dragonmaids. I had not been reading as much as I did this contest; I think the reason why some of my sets ended up so unnecessarily long was because I felt that some of the sets that placed high in previous contests that I didn’t read were popular because they were long, whereas in reality they were perhaps not quite as long as I thought. Reading this contest certainly helped.


This contest was WEIRD for my sets reception-wise. All but one of them ended up with lopsided reception scattered across various voters, with 4/6 sets oddly getting one SV but otherwise getting anywhere between NVs or RVs at best. I’ll admit that I would have liked to make at least one set that got “universal appeal”, that being pretty consistent RVs, but hey this was a pretty competitive contest.


Funny enough, I feel that my 4/6 sets this contest has different strengths and weaknesses scattered across them.

• Kunai was inspired and fun to make after Shinobu. I did not expect FA to like her nearly as much given all the amazing stuff this contest, but that’s promising for the Shinobu family in the future! She was one of the more “playground” sets of mine this contest, but I do feel she was a bit soulless and not as “full” as a character and set as she could have been, compared to a more AAA character.

• Reigen actually felt like my most personally satisfying set this contest! It’s ironic that he and Kunai were made in the shortest amount of time and were my shortest sets this contest vs the preteen and the monster girls. It is really fun to do a AAA anime character with lots of character (especially if they’re clumsy or comical) to play off and have GIFs for their set, similar to Yui and Himiko, and it helps if they don’t have 300+ episodes worth of appearances. Reigen felt like a step in the right direction design-wise, I should honestly do more of these kinds of short sets, could have done 3-4 of them instead of a 34k Dragonmaid! If anything, I don’t think his concepts were the strongest, but he got surprisingly darn good reception and I honestly didn’t know he was a hype character for MYM until I said I was going to post him. If I could do another Reigen style set with a more fun concept, that would make MYM23 very satisfying.

• Nasary and Parla were obviously both really long, and looking back at the former she did have a very congested writing style that could have been fixed up but it would have been too late because like half of the voters had already read her. As mentioned, these two girls did provide a big set-making lesson. Not to say I wouldn’t do another Dragonmaid in the future; if I did that, I actually put the dragon form on their Final Smash (to show off their individual power!) or on Special or Smash(es) as a standalone attack. The main appeal of the maids was in their character, after all, and that way I wouldn’t have any annoying meter or mechanics to bog them down.

• Though Smady and Kupa really liked Armie, I don’t think she is particularly good as the naysayers all had very good points (I’m oddly sad about Froy not finding the Final Smash funny, but I can understand why). She and Ibaraki suffer from the ironic reverse-inspiration/PolHol case where they sat around on the computer for too long between contests and I forgot stuff between transitions. If you consider the former from a results perspective then production was certainly a waste of time. Would still be pretty hype to do a simple 10k-ish set from F/GO, as there are hundreds of potential characters not just in their individual powersets but also being tied to in-game stories.

This might not have been my best contest, but I actually learned a fair bit and have now gotten back into the habit of reading and commenting, which has carried over into MYM23. Despite my stumblings, I do actually feel pretty excited for MYM23 with all that I’ve learned (and re-learned), and think I could do something kickass next contest… just so long as things don’t get tooo competitive!



Things I learned from the Dragonmaids and reading and voting this contest:

1. Less can be more.
2. Unless you have a 20k high concept/playground set.
3. Playground and projectile manipulation typically rule the roost, as has always been.
4. Hype characters help.
5. Quick, inspired sets usually do better than sets that had their productions dragged out for longer.
6. Juggling how much detail to put into a set to make it not-too-long vs not-too-short might be one of the trickiest aspects of setwriting.

FrozenRoy

Froy has consistently had great contests, but MYM22 was something else and he absolutely deserved to get his second win with this peak set... or so I initially thought, but it's fitting because Hol Horse is a number two kind of guy! He sure had it coming with his Ribby-and-Croaks-esque inspiration with this set and B. Pol. Maybe that magic zone produces two sets, given Ribby and Croaks are two characters! (but then again, Pol and Hol came with multiple characters too)

It’s also pretty crazy that he got all those other sets out in short timespans, as I believe that Alex, Nox and Quilby were done in less than a week individually. I enjoyed Nox and Quilby reviving old, popular genres and would be pretty stoked if they inspired more of their kind, to see how far they can push the boundaries of time stopping and portals and whether it would be possible to execute them in other creative fashions. I also loved Alex for just being so simplistic but appealing and showing that yes, you can do fighting game without all the complex command inputs and auto-turning that Ryu and Terry bring.

Also a shoutout to Elekid. I think he was an overlooked set this contest, if partly due to Froy’s other stuff, him starting out as one of those simple Pokemon sets and his changes sort of going under the radar. I only noticed because he was one of the last sets I read.


ForwardArrow

It was cool to see FA post multiple sets this contest. Master Xehanort was a real treat who I didn't expect to win, no wonder Froy hasn’t won as many contests! I can’t see Yawgmoth reaching this level being much of a struggle for FA with his skill, but then he’s dealing with an entirely different medium and powerset. His tendency for universal appeal shows yet again this contest. I do think Mina was kind of overrated, but I can understand why she was so liked and am kind of envious. I do think she did some cool stuff though, and would have still voted for her if I had the votes for it. Meanwhile, Kyoko was an interesting revival of Madoka, with Slavic going on making a Mami remix. Would be cool to see Madoka or a Magica Record character, though, now that there’s a new anime.


Lex

Aki was a crazy milestone for you Lex, amazing job! It feels like you’ve improved leaps and bounds with this set, actually putting those good ideas of yours to more coherent use. With this and Prae, I can definitely see each of your individual sets being taken a lot more seriously than before, on par with the leaders. Super fascinating that our Dragonmaids helped to inspire Aki; that made them more worthwhile to make! Great to see that you got out of your depression this contest, Lex, and interested to see what you’ll do in MYM23.


Smash Daddy

Hugo was Smady’s more appealing for me this contest and one that I hope would inspire more fighting game/SNK sets. But in the end it seems that clowning around won the day. Smady was ironically one of the setmakers who I felt that nailed the “simple but appealing” sets with Froy, which was very unexpected for me when I remember him for ambitious minion sets like Mr. Badd and Fassed. Ennard is interesting for “introducing” taller-than-Bowser characters and showing that people are okay with it, would love to see more heavyweights take advantage of being super tall. Smady had a great contest this time around, but I think that with a slightly more daring and ambitious concept he could absolutely peak and get the vaunted 10/10 Froy/general rankings! But being able to make consistently appealing stuff is still fantastic.


Bkupa666

It was definitely unexpected to see Kupa return, and even less expected to have him return to power in both leadership and set quality, effectively taking Warlord’s place for the time being. They certainly both have Warlordian tastes, too. It was fantastic for SkekSil to be so loved, I’m sure Kupa and fans of Dark Crystal must be very pleased to have this loved character place so high.

I feel a bit bad for not voting Kupa stuff higher than a RV and not voting for the Marvel boys and their platform/stage shenanigans, as I have definitely enjoyed a number of Kupa’s sets in the past. Kupa has a unique movesetting style that combines past practices from the MYM10-12 with more balanced modern practices, but I would enjoy Kupa embracing more of the latter. I’d love to be able to SV a Kupa set when voting comes around again; Kupa’s next set being more melee definitely shows promise, as like Froy I do enjoy my melee.


Usershadow

Another great contest, and not just because he made the second highest number of sets this contest. It was amazing to get more Witches and finally a yugioh set, for a Dragonmaid no less! Working on the maids with him was quite fun, and it definitely feels like they had at least some semblance of an impact on MYM. I personally believe that the two of us learned a lot from the movement, with Usershadow upping his melee game from the experience. The greater awareness and inclusion of melee is why Tillroo and Hauskee were my favourite US sets this contest, though Naomi definitely still had fun and deserved her Top 10 placing. It is very fitting that the head of the maids ended up placing the highest!

Oh, and we also learned that, while sharing a mechanic between sets might give a consistent flavour between the sets in the movement, it won’t always work out for the best. It is a bit of a shame that Parla didn’t end up as a joint set between us, but I think it was for the best given her reception didn’t turn out super. I would still be up for a joint set with anyone in the future though, providing there was a character and franchise we had in common. I would be quite happy to do another yugioh/card/anything movement with US or anyone really, preferably with some diversity in the set concepts so I’m not as interested in the Charmers as I could be. Unfortunately, I don’t have a ton of franchises that I share in common with other MYM’ers… maybe I should actually write down the franchises I would be interested in doing sets for, like Froy did.


KholdStare

It’s great to see a great set from a returned veteran! Kira was a passionate project and a definite sign of what’s to come from you in the future. Not many setmakers do research on real things like tarot cards and gambling just to raise the authenticity of their sets! It would be cool to see how you’d fare with a quick set though, as I’m sure you’d do well with say a one-day inspired set for a video game character or something, even if it was a minion or Robot Master. That way we could have more Khold sets! As much as I am looking forward to the very ambitious Overhaul set.

Kira deserves a higher placing just from the sheer love put into him. Honestly, this set was almost a RV+ from me and would have absolutely deserved it (or even a SV), but then Quilby happened. In any case, Kira is an interesting case of a super hyped character being done by an unexpected setmaker, similar to Master Xehanort who Smady wanted Froy to make and he thought I should make him due to Young Xehanort. You never know who will make who; Slavic could end up making Senator Armstrong next contest for all we know.


Slavic

Slavic had a good contest this time around and a very promising one next contest. As the guy who made 5 votable sets this contest, I didn’t have many painful exclusions or drops from my votelist, but I really wanted to RV Bakugo but couldn’t, because again Quilby, or should I say Utsuho. When someone makes strong edits to their sets, I like to hand out strong votes for that extra work they put in. It was great to see another MHA set this contest, and honestly Slavic could end up having a brilliant time next contest given his hyped previews like Shigaraki and This Is Where The Fun Begins.


Bionichute

I did like your sets this contest! I personally think that Sarcophacurse could have been a great set with more polish, as he had some solid ideas but felt that was overlooked at the start of the contest (though I know Kupa commented on him early). It’s sweet to see that you got some success with Arina in this very competition-heavy contest. For next contest, I think it would be very beneficial if you took a character/set you wanted to see succeed and slowly edit it based on the comments it gets, similar to WCF’s style of developing successful sets like Kilton. There’s also the fact that your set previews might not get a ton of attention, but reading and talking to others about potential set edits could help too. In any case, I am quite looking forward to Mr. Compress from you next contest, and would be happy to offer my assistance if you wanted it.


WCF

It would have been sweet to see Magica more developed, as she had a very fun and unique character of controlling a resisting pawn that would be fun to see more of in future sets (maybe OCs?). But you do have Pidgey, who was a fun set! I do wonder what you have planned for next contest, as you do come up with some neat concepts.


Munomario

I know you’ve been hiding away working on Rivals of Aether custom stuff that I should really check out, but it would be amazing if you came back and posted at least one set, even translated one of your works directly into text form - Andrea was a fantastic set that took one of my SVs, and Doomfist was definitely an influential work 2 contests ago, and not just for me from what I have heard.



Zoey

Excellent to see Springtrap place! I’m glad I was able to vote for him for all the work you put into editing. Would have voted for Eeevee too if we had 45+ votes. It was great to get you and plague as new setmakers and would quite love to see Kirito joke set and Xion from you. I would also be interested in seeing you read sets next contest, even if it was just for a character that interested you for a start, as that could help with your setmaking quite a bit to gain some more universal appeal. Oh, and I massively enjoyed the image you contributed to Lucky Louise, it would be very cool to see something like that in your set.



Plague

I would have love to vote for Ethan, but it didn’t work out this time. He still left an impression on me though, with looking him up on Youtube and him essentially being the main character of the MYM22 SM that will sadly probably never be finished, but ah well it was fun to talk about it.

Even if you didn’t place, I still think you had a great contribution to this contest just from the fact that you jumped straight in and read - at fast speed no less! It was very enjoyable to see your unique set rankings, like Springtrap being a SV and Imaginary Numbers unexpectedly being your favourite set of the contest. I’d ask you to remind me to do a mathematical/calculation-orientated set next contest, but Lucky Louise already has your number. The fact that you even read and got a good grasp on what makes a set good is very promising for your future endeavours, as you didn’t have that when making Ethan or Wobbler. Giovanni Potage is definitely promising, you got me into the amazing-ness that is Epithet Erased! (having Zora as your Smashboards Avatar helped to some degree)

 

[Professor Lexicovermis]

Wow, what a contest this has been, huh? I barely know where to start, really...

2019 was a really awful year for me, personally speaking. I was in a pretty dark place creatively and emotionally for most of the time, and it definitely affected my MYM output. Where I would've previously put out a solid handful of sets, this contest I had my lowest output since my debut in MYM19: 3 sets.

Imaginary Numbers was a set I never really planned to make. I had a LOT of ideas for my day one set, but some personal circumstances led to none coming to fruition. Frustrated, I tried to force out something, ANYTHING for the early days of MYM... and I found my muse in the form of Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass, a game that I have a very... complex relationship with. Imaginary Numbers was created as an experiment, with the goal being to see if damage percent numbers as a resource was a viable concept. Though the set definitely wasn't one of my best, and received pretty mild reception outside of Plague, I do feel it achieved exactly what I wanted it to do. It laid out a bizarre concept and tested the waters, opening the door for potential expansion some day. I fancy myself something of a mad scientist when it comes to MYM; while I do think it's good to put out the best you can do, sometimes you just need to go completely out there, make something unprecedented. Even if it doesn't succeed in terms of voting, you learned something! IN taught me a good bit about using meta-resources, and perhaps some day I'll put that concept to better use. Or, if not me, someone else!

Fenn Mataraci was another set I never really intended to make, put together in about a day to force FA to do audio comments for Bizarro Day. Admittedly I don't have much to say about her, really, beyond her setting, which I do plan to expand eventually. So... keep an eye out for that, I suppose!

I'd be remiss if I didn't touch on the big elephant in the room: Aki. Aki was a set that I made during a very rough time. I was in a creative slump more severe than any I had ever had. I was in a state of extreme anxiety every day, worried I'd lost my touch. I was wracked with guilt for not contributing to the community I loved. Desperate to do SOMETHING, I latched onto US and Kat's Dragonmaid movement, designing a character to serve as the "villain" to the merry archetype of dragons. I never expected Aki to get any sort of reception beyond "it's neat". I made them to pay tribute to the hard work of two of my friends, and to experiment with unorthodox transformation mechanics, with a hefty dose of inspiration from more traditional fighting games, especially Arc System Works' catalog. Writing the set took a few months, during which I never really got out of that depressive slump. It was incredibly hard to muster up the mental fortitude to write even a single move, some days. Some days I'd open that document and sit, staring at the screen for an hour or so, and never type a letter...

...so imagine my sheer shock when people loved the set. I could not, and STILL cannot, believe just how positive the reception for this silly OC made on a whim in a desperate bid to shake off some heavy self-loathing has been. I'm not ashamed to admit the praise has brought me to tears multiple times. I never imagined a day where I would ever crack so much as the top 20, much less finish on the podium. It's... still so surreal, really, to be rubbing elbows with such amazing writers as Froy, FA, Smady, Kupa...

It's from the bottom of my heart that I thank all my beloved friends of MYM for their support. I literally could not keep writing sets if it weren't for all of you. MYM22 may have been rough for me, but thanks to everyone's hard work, we produced a contest full of quality, a contest I think we can all look back on fondly in the coming years. I won't ramble much longer, but I do want to touch on some particular names in the community before I go.

FA, I couldn't be happier to see Xehanort take home the crown. That set was so clearly a labor of love, it really deserved the win. I'm so very happy that, over the course of this year, we've become close friends, close enough I don't hesitate to say that seeing Xehanort's name on that list made me almost as happy as seeing Aki's.

Froy, you had an amazing contest all around, putting out a hefty amount of quality content. While I know you'd have preferred first place, you should still be proud of Hol's placement. Hol was a wonderful set that really impressed me, and it showed your design chops in a fantastic way. I'm excited to see you hit the big 100 next contest; here's to 100 more!

Kat, US, I cannot thank you both enough for your incredibly hard work this contest. Even though they may not have gotten the reception you hoped for, you should be proud of the Dragonmaid movement. Both of you poured a TON into this initiative, all for the love of the idea, and I hold immense respect for both of you for having the tenacity to stick with it to the end. You two were a great inspiration to me, thank you.

Kupa, Khold, it's so wonderful to have the two of you back in action, and to see you both catching up to modern MYM sensibilities incredibly quickly. You both had great sets this contest, and I'm confident you'll both continue to be solid pillars of the community.

IQ, I know you and I aren't SUPER close, but it warms my heart to see you put out a set like Robin. I'm glad to see you getting some well-deserved love, and I hope to keep seeing you grow and improve as a writer.

Bubby, I have watched your set-making skills improve with every single entry you've put out, and I have a lot of faith in your abilities to keep growing and learning. You have a bright future ahead of you, I know it.

Zoey, Plague, Dilliam, it was such a wonderful thing to have amazingly enthusiastic newcomers like yourselves come into the community. You've all proven so eager to learn, so eager to interact and be part of this community. It's an honor to know the three of you, and I'm excited to see you all grow even closer to the community as MYM continues on into the future.

In closing... thank you. Thank all of you. This community kept me sane in a dark time, and I can never, ever express how much you all mean to me. Here's to the future, to MYM23!

 

[Slavic]

Alright, you nerds! MYM22 is finally over, so now its's time to lay into y'all AND the T50!
(might as well play up all my characters being bullies this time around)

This has been the most successful contest I've ever been a part of, and I suspect greatly just MYM's best year in general. We got some of the absolute best, most impressive sets I've seen put out as well as scooping up a bunch of newcomers under our wing! I haven't really done Top 50 posts before so bear with me, I'm probably going to just rip how Kat did it part and parcel.

ForwardArrow:
Incredible contest output, especially good to see you posting three sets in one contest and each one knocking it out of the park. About half-way through reading Master Xehanort I had a feeling it would win, and by the time I finished the set I was confident in its place at the top of the class. It just manages to capture the grandeur and absurdity of MX and Kingdom Hearts in general with very little irony while still turning it into an extremely impressive set. That's not to say your other two sets were slouches, however. Mina was a really fun set that felt a bit more in the same vein as Aurelia, both in terms of being an OC and the different petals can be a little reminiscent of the dusts that Aurelia used. We've belabored the point on Kyoko in chat but you really did make a fantastic set for her, about as good a set could be without getting really tacky. She just really falls victim to pretty much everyone above her having more to work with in their sets, though I am personally surprised she wasn't a bit higher. Kyoko was also a huge inspiration for my set-writing, so I greatly appreciate her being made.

FrozenRoy:
I envy your work ethic, producing 9 sets with 8 of them placing and nabbing 2nd, 6th, and 11th. I know that it's kind of memetic to win second over and over again but it's really not an easy feat, especially considering the competition. Plus, with FA a little burnt out right now it's the perfect time to strike and steal first for 23. Hol Horse was extremely close, as everyone has said, and a lot of what I liked about MX applies here too. Hol doesn't pull any punches when it comes to flashy and stylish moves, things like shattering the very screen of the game, and combines Thoth, Hanged Man, and other concepts I don't know because I don't know JoJo into a set I wish could have been in a different contest from Xehanort because both are handily first place winners. Quilby and Nox rounding out the strongest half of your work this contest is something I like to see as well, and I'm glad Nox got the love he deserved despite falling off just a little bit. Alex was a set who sat near the top of my rankings for a long while but ended up getting power-crept hard. It's a bit of a shame because Alex was a great set to read in terms of developing my set-making I think. Utsuho, who I still have to check on the spelling every time I refer to her, was a fun take on a heavyweight-style character who ties in with what I said for MX and Hol Horse having over-the-top moves. Elekid and Poochy were both great sets for the characters but I hope it's no surprise they ended up quite a bit lower on the T50, both from competition with other setmakers and yourself, they simply can't compare to someone like Hol Horse or Quilby. Fantastic contest.

(also I somehow skipped B. Pol but like many sets at one point he was at the top of the rankings and had some really cool buff/debuff stuff)

Lex:
Regardless of how you felt with the praise at the time Aki fully deserved a top 3 spot and as their author you do too. I was blown away by Aki, who I complimented and still do praise in chat a lot. It's such a runaway success on a character made, as you've said, in a slump and as an OC tangentially related to US and Kat's Dragonmaid movement. Aki just has so much going for him it's not even funny, with my personal favorite concept in the set still being the passive form-change as I love any set that can streamline common gameplay elements to redefine them like that. The screen also a good way to have Aki's transformation be tied to the ground in juxtaposition to the Dragonmaid's aerial transformations. She's an excellent set and I thank you for carrying through with it! Imaginary Numbers was an absolutely bizarre set, fitting for a Lex set, and the sheer novelty of trading the numbers around along with the execution propelled it higher than some might have expected for the character choice. It's also nice to see Fenn rounding out the T50 as she had some fun concepts even if I thought she paled in comparison to your other works.

Smash Daddy:
I'm very glad that Rudy got to place as high as he did, because I personally think the entirety of the top 5 would win any contest without the others. It's a very exclusive club and Rudy feels like the most MYM out of the quintet of chart-toppers. I know some people liked Ennard more but I think Rudy had both a greater focus and just generally more to execute off of than Ennard did. That's not to say Ennard is a bad set by any means, taking the 10th spot on the competition. Hugo rounds out your heavyweight trio with a set who, like Alex, was originally much higher in my rankings before getting power crept. I never vocalized this until now but I thought it was funny that Hugo used Froy's super mechanic but Alex didn't. Your setwork this contest felt a lot more consistent than last contest, all of your sets landing comfortably in the top 20 alongside two top 10 placers. Additionally, you're always extremely active in the chat, which while not technically related to the top 50 is something I want to commend you on.

BKupa:
A king has returned! Coming back in as something of a surprise guest with Kingpin, then releasing 3 more sets and securing a spot as leader once more on its own is impressive, but you dusted the cobwebs off real quick to put out skekSil for a top 5 win. skekSil was a set who sat on the top of my rankings for a long time, and even with the set-creep stayed high up there. It's an extremely fun set that does a lot of ideas I haven't seen done well before. Vulture was also an absolutely stellar set with fun concepts like the flight plan. While Vulture didn't do quite as well as skekSil, as I think it fell off a bit closer to the end, it shows some real promise for some different style sets than the stage controllers that dominated your setlist this time around. Kritter was a set I think I liked a fair bit more than others so I'm glad to see it up relatively high in the rankings because it was a refreshing take on classic MYM concepts. It should say a lot that even your first real set returning placed, with Kingpin being a fun, if less refined, set to go with your others. It's an impressive return contest and it's good to have a fossil like you back :hippo:

Khold:
Speaking of returning veterans (feels like a real EVERYONE IS HERE contest this time around), you did come back last contest of course but you've really made yourself quite the presence this competition. I'm very glad to see Kira taking a top 10 spot. I always worry that I sounded or felt ungrateful or selfish for asking for the non-narrative version of the moveset but a big part of that is because I really did like the set and wanted it to be as accessible as possible. It's one of the most character-love filled sets I've seen for a bit, and it's great that you could get a strong win like this so shortly after coming back. Sorry about Lon Lon Ranch not placing though :/ Thanks for being an excellent chat presence and for taking on a role as someone to occasionally come and clip our memeing over someone or a set because we can get a bit mean-spirited once we get into it.

Usershadow:
I will say it's kind of neat that one of our very first sets this contest ended up taking a top 10 spot! While Hauskee is still my favorite of your sets Naomi was nothing to sneeze at either, and the effort was definitely worth earning a high ranking! Victoria was a set that I gave a fair bit of praise to in chat on reading, and she just had a great combination of her Bolt Boy and a lot of personality that even in a contest chock-full of electric characters she could still stand out. Hauskee, as I've already said, was a great set by you and my personal fav out of the Dragonmaids. It takes the movement concept and tweaks it, helping her stand out in a really good way. Dahlia is a bit of an odd spot for me because I greatly respected the effort you put into her but I didn't find myself blown away like I was with your higher ranking content. I think Dahlia had a simultaneous problem of too many concepts but also lacking some that I would have liked to see, like more interactions with herself being slime as I've talked with Froy about. It's comforting to see her still placing high, though, because she was an impressive set.

All your sets placing means there's a lot more sets to talk about for this post, so bear with me. Lakitu's a set I think surprised everyone in terms of its quality, though it did end up having way too much competition to land in the top 25. Tillroo coming up 30th and the tail end of the Dragonmaids might be disheartening, but of course this was a hyper competitive contest and TIllroo just showed a bit too much... restraint? to stand out. Cioccolata was a fun set for the extreme personality showed in it, something that afaik was an edit into the set. This is well worth the changes, helping the set make an impact. This was another set that showed a lot of restraint in the applications of the powers, though those restrictions might be in the source material anyways. Going a bit more wild with the Stand might have boosted the set in people's eyes. Finally Primeape, who inches onto the top 50 to keep your set-placing streak going. Primeape got a bunch of comments and as a top 10 placer you clearly don't need advice for the lowest placing of your many movesets. Great contest, and you're another one of those great chat presences who's usually on and able to answer a question, give encouragement, or just chat about Yu-Gi-Oh!

Katapultar:
I do want to say that despite not hitting the top 10 this time around (which is crazy to me considering your history) you had a killer contest regardless. Nasary taking the highest spot for your sets was a bit of a surprise to me as I did think Parla had better execution, but Nasary easily had the most interesting powerset of the Dragonmaids and wasn't exactly a flop compared to Parla. Having three sets before Parla does feel strange for how long she was in the top of my rankings, but Kunai had much better focus and personally I think used tornados on moves better than Parla. Reigen landing as high as he did was a pleasant surprise as he had one of the most entertaining sets in the contest easily. Finally we get to Parla, who for all the guff I gave about length and word choice I did really enjoy. I could give more intricate commentary on the Dragonmaids but I don't think there's anything that hasn't been said by someone including yourself yet, and the movement as a whole was a good learning experience for everyone I think. Armie was another set I think I enjoyed more than a lot of other people, and like Reigen I did find it comical especially towards the second half with the Strangelove references. This certainly wasn't a bad contest for you, with nearly all of your sets placing and those that did place all landed in the top 30. Based on your T50 reflection a few posts up I can tell this contest was good for learning and I'm ready for you to pivot off this contest and knock the next one out of the park!

Muno:
I know that Rivals custom characters are way more tangible than MYM sets but like Kat said it would be great if you dropped write-ups in MYM for the characters if you're too busy to write new sets. Andrea got a strong response and was a really fun character concept for someone with essentially an aquarium in her foot. Reapress also placed, and both these sets have been a huge change from old-Muno set-making in a major way. You're also just a chill person to be around and it's good to see you exist more. I know the community likes to fight you on, well, most things, but eventually we tend to buckle and a lot of our infrastructure is due to you, from normalizing Doc sets to setting up the Discord. You've become a pillar of the community so it'd be cool to see you do more if you can find the time.

MasterWarlord:
Obviously this has been something of an awkward point for the community given how prominent you've historically been to step out abruptly, but it is good to see you having plans for 23. While not a horrible set by any means, Kimblee would be something of an awkward note to end on. As a set, Kimblee is Fine, and I did like some of the elements more than others did, but it certainly doesn't have the grandeur of a set a major pillar should leave on. Even if you aren't ready to step back into the chat for a while, I do look forward to the plans you have set for 23 and hope your life gets a bit more manageable!

IvanQuote:
This has been a good contest for your growth, IQ, particularly with Robin. Robin's electrical stage control is really memorable and has good thought put into it, despite the fact we had a million electricity sets this contest. Robin also had the Usurper, an extremely cool concept for a move that, like, everyone in the chat commented on. I think I'm as surprised as you are about GUN Soldier/Black Warrior placing but it did have a good deal of merit. It actually makes use of the differences in the Echoes meaningfully, making this IIRC the first echo sets we've had in the contest. It's also extremely entertaining, especially with the soldier's sign smashes that brought a smile to my face. This contest showed a good deal of pushing the envelope, now it's time for you to rip that envelope wide open in 23. Or something.

WeirdChillFever:
I do hope you get back into frequent set-making. I'm very glad Pidgey placed as it did some pretty neat stuff with dust and feathers and especially Tailwind, fitting for how little material Pidgey has. However, compared to Kilton and Misko, Pidgey's a very bland character, essentially being an animal. On top of that, Pidgey had a much more grounded playstyle and move choice compared to the other two. It would be great to see you embrace some of the weirder, more creative ideas for MYM, especially from what we've seen from your chat previews today. That's not to downplay Pidgey at all, but it is good to get feedback on the drop from Kilton's placement last contest to Pidgey's placement this contest.

Bianca:
Personally, I think Arina should have been higher, at the very least above Kano, but competition was really fierce this time. I'm very glad you had all three sets place top 50, as while I think everyone expected Arina to place people were shakier on Zedd and Sarcophacurse. Arina I posted a whole comment on, and I still think she represents both more focus and passion than a lot of previous sets. Zedd's a set who starts off strong and ends up fine, and Sarcophacurse is in that same boat. A lot of time with your sets it feels like the passion for writing them falls off quickly, which is a shame because having read some of your non-MYM writing I know you can put more personality in the sets (and did with Arina). Another thing I've talked about with other people is that a major help in your sets would be more pizzazz, (particularly in images). Your sets aren't the only ones that have this issue but it could help with keeping hype and passion for the set. I hope you take this to heart finishing Carrot and working on whichever sets you have in the works because you absolutely have the potential for a home-run set if you can just carry the strong concepts through to the end.

Zoey:
Congratulations on placing sets faster than I did as a newcomer! I think I talked about Springtrap in the chat, but if not one of the biggest differences in between it and Eevee was the presence of a coherent playstyle, moves that benefited from other moves in a more tangible way. I've said before about being more word-of-god about combos instead of wishy-washy language, as it helps you sound more like an expert on your own set. On top of posting (and editing) sets, you've been an amazing addition to the chat, perfect for adding to the emote count on anyone's reaction to anything. Also you're generally positive and have good input on things, but really I only care about Discord for the emotes. It's good to have you on board and I can't wait to see what you bring to the table moving forward.

bubby:
You've talked about this in the chat before bubby, but Zeraora and Whisper both show a growth by landing on the Top 50 without being, well, Jupiter. Also I'm still sorry for that one day where I got your name wrong multiple times, this has been a great shame for me. Your progress is a bit different than mine going through being a newcomer, as an example, as your sets are developing some really solid gameplay before going into the actual weird and hyper-creative side of MYM. I haven't read Robobot Armor yet but I hope it continues the trend of growth. Also, while you aren't always popping into chat as often as others, you've been a very positive element to it and have helped setup some of the more fun MYM side projects, like story modes and the MYM-Dex (even if it has fallen off everyone's mind).

Plague:
You may not have landed on the top 50 but you're so prominent in the community now that you've earned a write-up. A lot of my commentary with your sets is already being addressed, or others have brought it up. For instance, you've obviously shown a great growth in presentation of your sets just through previews. You also take things in stride, which is great to see especially in a newcomer. Certainly don't feel bad about not placing this contest (especially this contest, with how talent-crowded it is), it took me 6 or 7 sets before I got a placing set and that was back in 16 when things were much more tame. Between editing, accepting criticism, and an impressive amount of reading, I fully expect your sets in 23 to be a huge improvement, and definitely think you'll start placing next contest.


As for me...

I've been very vocal in the Discord about my sets this contest and despite a lot of their shortcomings I would consider this a successful contest for me. Heck, my highest placing set in 21 was Alolan Golem in 38th place, only two spots higher than Kano in 40th who was my worst performing. PaniK nabbing 26th spot is nothing I can complain about in a contest like this, and Bakugo nearly right in the middle at 31st works for me. I spent most of my time writing snippets for everyone else so I'm a little burnt out now that I'm here to talk about my sets but I'm still going to give it a whirl.

My first set of the contest, Bakugo, was a set I was immediately proud of. It was the first set where I really tried to focus on making a cohesive melee game (and still the one I think the melee is the strongest on). Bakugo's Nitro was a mechanic I felt was really inspired, even if some numbers needed adjusted after posting, as someone's comment put it turning Bakugo into a breserker rather than a glass cannon. I think out of my entire catalog of sets none of my gameplay compliments the actual character's personality like Bakugo's does. While not as extensive as PaniK's edits, I also put a good amount of effort into Bakugo changes, switching some of the weirder moves around (like BAir into a standard attack and giving him a more versatile SSpec). Because it's one of my favorite sets I've written, both before and after edits, it is a little saddening to see it not be my most popular set this time around. I know it does have its fans, especially in Khold, but I think it also goes to show that I just did a better job at addressing concerns with PaniK.

Kano was a set that I made somewhat on a whim after a MYM discussion about Mortal Kombat designs. After proudly declaring Kano the coolest MK character, I had to make a set to back it up. Kano is Fine and is the first time I've tackled a fighting game character for MYM. Kano is certainly not nearly as good a translation as Hugo or Alex, and I even think Arina did a better job at putting a fighting game character in Smash, but it did help me think about how other fighting games worked. Unfortunately I didn't actually play MK until I was pretty much finished with the set. A big problem that Kano has, and one I felt even while writing, is an overflow of interactions. If something could play off Kano's laser or knife, I made it do that which lead to a lot of uninspired interactions in the set. I am very comfortable with Kano being my worst set this contest, all this considered, and am happy it still managed to place.

PaniK was a set that had a pretty horrible initial response. As far as I know, Smady was the only person who liked the original PaniK set with Khold, Kat, and FA all providing commentary either in thread or in chat about the set's many gameplay and character issues. After a few weeks of brainstorming in my head, I was able to come back and give a mountain of edits to PaniK's moves (albeit a little sloppy with certain artifacts of the old set still hanging around by accident). These edits really paid off, landing PaniK nearly in the upper half of the contest in a competitive competition. PaniK as a whole was a good learning experience for me, as it showed me what people look for in character, what liberties can be taken, and how to come up with successful OC moves like PaniK's Shadow Shackle.

Like I said, this was a success to pretty much everyone in the community, myself included, and I think that (to the pain of everyone's votelists), 23 is going to turn out as strong or possibly stronger than 22 did. Great work and thank you for the entertainment, everyone!

 

[WeirdChillFever]

"I love MYM22. I would love to be a part of it someday"

I don't think that by any stretch of the imagination I earned rights to make a big look-back post on MYM22. All I picked up from it was heresay from the chat and my own input was underwhelming, both in quality and in quantity.

But I have things to say so I will.

Before I go on a tangent about myself, I'd like to congratulate the winners. Not just the setter who made the number one entry of this contest, whoever that may be, but also the plenty of newcomers taking their first steps in MYM and the returning veterans who made clear they're here to keep up the pace with the MYM as it is today. A very special congrats to Lex, who gets to inherit the title of "Not-exactly newcomer making a splash"

And it's because of that title I'm making that post, because as you have all so nicely reminded me of, I made a good set last contest. I'm not gonna lie it was really good. But as I noticed with multiple things this year, doing things you did a good job of last time is *hard*. Chasing a high and expecting the same result is insanity. And this contest was the result of that.

I was inspired making Magica, my first non-video game set. And I think the base of the character is very fun and sadly also very wasted right now. But the gravity of the set was its character, and not the playstyle. So the set was split. The written character, the flavor and the animation versus the "obligatory" moves she uses in the series and a gameplan to justify the character. I feel that with time and attention I could've written something nice there but lmao I did not. The stars didn't align for that one. (I think my hestitation to make the shadows into minions and have em overshadow the characterization played a role there)

Another kind of inspiration struck for Pidgey, as it was my first foray in the realm of Pokésets. Now I've never played Pokémon so I didn't turn to Pokémon for inspuratjon, rather focussing on elements already present in Smash. By working on it, I managed to carve out a weird playstyle that weirdly enough also worked. Taking into account what would work for the character and meshing some wildly different elements together was fun. Building a world around Pidgey was cool. Of course, there was a limit on hiw crazy it could be, between being a Pidgey-set and being based on some very in-Smash mechanics. So again, the stars didn't align on that one.

I'm not saying Kilton was a one-and-done deal. I'm not saying it was a fluke and I'm not saying I got lucky last time. I worked hard and I got rewarded. But it was also very specific junction of circumstances: The amazingly inspiring gravitas of Breath of the Wild and it's world, the concept I transformed to fit the character and a lot, and I mean a lot, of time are factors I simply cannot replicate for now. Please do not expect me to come back grand next round, I'm still learning and as Kats post demonstrates, we all are. But a "Kilton" is not in it this time. I don't have much inspiration for sets, let alone the inspiration to build a world as big as Kilton's in a set.

This post has actually given me inspiration though, I like making movesets as a way of world-building. Pidgey brought a view in the life of a Pidgey under attack and the limits and potential a small bird can have and Kilton brought Breath of the Wild to a few dozen inputs. Maybe sets aren't as much about a specific character as they are about the world they're from and what it is in that world that drives the character forward.

 

[Kholdstare]

Top 50 and contest Retrospective incoming. In the mean time, enjoy this!


This is what the cool kids are doing and I want to be a cool kid and also talk about myself.

MYM22 was a great contest, activity was slower than MYM21 at times but I was happy to be back for an entire contest for the first time in years. MYM22 was a hella more competitive, vote slots felt way tighter and most people generally put out equally good sets making it harder to pick and choose my favorites out of them. I regretted cutting a lot of sets from my votelist but they had to happen. I was happy to see the return of Kupa and new faces like Zoey and Plague show up to post their first sets. I was sad to see Warlord leave for the time being but look forward to him returning refreshed in MYM23. Some brief notes on the top 10:


1) Master Xehanort by ForwardArrow - An excellent tribute to the big bad of Kingdom Hearts, doing him proper justice with a cool moveset.
2) Hol Horse by FrozenRoy - Hol Horse demonstrates Froy's skills and while I had hoped to see him take first, it's undeniably fitting that he place second.
3) Fox Butler Aki by Professor Lexicovermis - A set I'm super proud of Lex for creating and proof that he's a great setmaker and character builder.
4) Rudy the Clown by Smash Daddy - An example of Smady iterating on a much loved archetype with great success in what he sets out to do.
5) skekSil the Chamberlain by BKupa666 - What you get when you take a beloved character/series and hand it to someone who has great Smash skill, creativity, and writing style. Definitely a good omen of what Kupa has in store.
6) Quilby by FrozenRoy - I know how much Froy loves this series and I'm happy that he got one of his favorite villains to place so high. Portals are a seriously fun concept.
7) Kira Yoshikage by Kholdstare - Oh hey that's me! I'm super thankful for everyone who read, commented, and voted for him. I was really excited to make this set as a passion project to do the character justice. Also you helped me beat my own high score of 10th place which makes me just as satisfied as if he had placed higher.
8) Naomi Faren by UserShadow7989 - Funny how the two best OCs this contest bookended it, with Naomi posted first and Aki posted last. Naomi was a fun read and a very cool concept in the water shifting.
9) Black Polnareff by FrozenRoy - Nothing is more exciting to see one of your mains get an awesome moveset, especially from a game that's relatively obscure.
10) Ennard by Smash Daddy - Never expected Smady or honestly anyone else to make a Five Nights At Freddy's moveset but Smady kicked off the series' representation with a great set.


Some thoughts on other MYMers this contest because I love y'all:


Lex Professor Lexicovermis --- You didn't put out as many as 21 but that's for a good reason as all of their energy charged up Aki like a spirit bomb. You're my best friend in MYM (although I consider myself good friends with everyone) and I enjoy hearing your ideas even if I don't have as much as you do to offer in terms of ideas. I'm glad that you can overcome that fear and anxiety and put out great content but more importantly I'm happy that you can be happy with yourself too. Don't second-guess yourself and know I'm always happy to talk. Congrats on Aki's placing! They are much deserved.

FA ForwardArrow --- You were always headed for greatness when I first read those Praetors sets. Congrats on 1st place and your 5th win! Master Xehanort was out of nowhere like Aurelia last contest and I enjoyed Master Xehanort just as much given the goodness in the set and his character. I've always been a huge KH fan and this set actually got me playing the series again. Kyoko and Mina were both great sets for different reasons too, and while I don't know if you have the energy to put out multiple sets again in 23 I hope you do. It's nice to see you flex your skills so casually and blow the competition out of the water.

Froy FrozenRoy --- You are amongst the hardest working MYMers with both your setmaking output, reading + commentary, and encouraging everyone to read. You put out some serious contenders for the top spot just like you did last contest with Ulrich and others, and I honestly thought you had it. I know it's frustrating considering your only win was Sho so I expect this to fuel you to try harder in 23... which means we'll have another really competitive contest. More competition means more activity and quality pumped into the thread so I'm all for it. Thanks for being a good leader and inspiring me and others. Hol Horse, Black Polnareff, Nox, Quilby, Utsuho and more were all great and I'm interested to see how you'll trump them. Oh and congrats on 100 - er, well, 99. But I'll count it as 100.

Smady @Smash Daddy --- You exhibit the good qualities of an MYMer I've listed here while being more laid back and casual about it making it seem too easy. You seem to effortlessly put out these good four-or-so movesets each contest which are so well done that it's not hard to see why people like them. If anything this contest I struggled at first to decide which Smady set was the best as the quality is all equally distributed and everyone has their favorites. I think you pretty much have MYM solved and it's really cool to see how you've gotten to this point since I've known you. You're always helpful and nice to me and it's good to talk to you.

UserShadow U UserShadow7989 --- You also have a lot of presence in the chat and put in a lot of work, particularly the #moveset-previewing channel. I'm honestly jealous and impressed by how efficiently you can create sets, especially OCs which I would probably spend more time on than the months or so it took me to make Kira. Combine that with all the other good work you do for the community and you're an invaluable member of the crew. I know it's frustrating to have vote split when you put care and effort into your sets and make frequent updates and changes to make them better at every commentary and I apologize for the nature of that. With Bleak posted and Lucky Louise soon after I can predict that you're going to go even harder this MYM and I can easily see a win or top 4 from you.

Kupa BKupa666 --- I'm happy to have you back and to see you outclass me with the work you've done. Just like the good ol' days, hehe. You were always in that echelon of people I looked up to (Rool, Warlord, Junahu, Kibble, H_R, Mendez, etc) back in those days and nothing's changed! Vulture, skekSil, Kingpin, and Kritter were really fun reads and while I had a clear cut order of favoritism from them they were all sets I looked over and was like, "Okay, what lessons can I learn here so I can make my own future sets as good as this?" I'm also happy about the praise you had for Kira. That kind of praise coming from you and other people in MYM who I see as better setmakers made me feel validated.

Kat Katapultar --- You got a lot of flak for your eccentricism in the past and I hate that because you're a powerhouse and a great pillar of the community. You always have something entertaining to say and really good insight. You're one of those people I look up to now. Your dedication and enthusiasm for MYM and characters are a blessing and the Dragonmaids project that you and US spearheaded was probably the most iconic thing we've had in MYM since the Cuphead movement. I like the insight you have into people and sets and I'm always paying attention to what you say because I learn from it. Reigen was my favorite set of yours but I could see how much care was put into Dragonmaid Nasary and Dragonmaid Parla which I feel makes them better sets than my own favorite. Kunai was great as well, and Ibaraki which I thought was really cool and all were tied together with love of character. I can predict even greater things from you in 23!

Slavic Slavic --- You're one of the people I can say showed a very tangible improvement over what you've previously created. PaniK and Bakugo were serious contenders after the "big name" sets and Bakugo in particular I had on my SVs until literally the final sets I read. You're such a fun person to hang out with and a good friend. With your surge in productivity and improvement in quality I am definitely looking forward to what you have to offer in 23, especially Shigaraki.


At this point I realize I may be repeating points from my previous post. Oh well.


Bianca Bionichute --- You're much like Slavic for the reasons I listed. I'm happy to have you as a friend and good to see your improvement in Arina and Lord Zedd. I hate to see you struggle with MYM in chat when it comes to the creative process and finding motivation and confidence in your abilities but just know I believe in you! I hope you will put out some heavy hitters in 23 which I know you're capable of. One Piece, MHA, and other media are just calling your name waiting for an awesome set!

IvanQuote IvanQuote --- Robin and your Soldier/Warrior sets were another step up for you. Wow, 22 really helped improve people huh? It's always nice to have you around in the chat and your ideas for what you're working on catch my interest. I feel like you have what it takes to make an even bigger splash when you apply yourself so I'm super hype for you.

WCF WeirdChillFever --- I was expecting another Kilton, but I respect what you did put out for reasons you detailed in your post. Pidgey was a fun read at any rate, and I hope you won't get downtrodden and I have a feeling you won't. I think you have a lot of creative potential and I definitely look forward to what you can create next. Here's to a rebound contest!

Zoey ZLBProductions --- Just like WCF last contest I'm happy to have you join us. You're an ever-positive chat presence and I'm happy you found us. Springtrap and Eevee were good starts and I'm proud of the work you put into Springtrap to improve him, so you show a lot of promise! Xion I know will be a great set. I feel like you've gotten into the groove of MYM quite well so no advice here about adapting, keep up the good work.

Plague plague126 --- In such a short time span you've become another good friend of mine, it's always fun chatting with you every day. You settled into MYM very smoothly just like Zoey and put out the most impressive amount of reading and commentary rivaling like, Froy. God damn, sis. From all you've mentioned doing I'm super hype for what you'll put out in 23 so while I'm sorry Ethan didn't scratch the top 50 I have no doubt you'll be on there next time. Seeing your liveread of JoJo had been very entertaining and thanks for introducing MYM to Epithet Erased too!


And now to respond to things people wrote about me because they make me blush and also happy in ways that are the opposite of looking back at old posts about me and cringing from the praise.


To Kat: "It’s great to see a great set from a returned veteran! Kira was a passionate project and a definite sign of what’s to come from you in the future.

Not many setmakers do research on real things like tarot cards and gambling just to raise the authenticity of their sets! It would be cool to see how you’d fare with a quick set though, as I’m sure you’d do well with say a one-day inspired set for a video game character or something, even if it was a minion or Robot Master. That way we could have more Khold sets! As much as I am looking forward to the very ambitious Overhaul set.

Kira deserves a higher placing just from the sheer love put into him. Honestly, this set was almost a RV+ from me and would have absolutely deserved it (or even a SV), but then Quilby happened. In any case, Kira is an interesting case of a super hyped character being done by an unexpected setmaker, similar to Master Xehanort who Smady wanted Froy to make and he thought I should make him due to Young Xehanort. You never know who will make who; Slavic could end up making Senator Armstrong next contest for all we know."

Thank you very much! It was definitely a passion project because I really love JoJo and Kira particularly. I hope my next ventures are even more impressive. I like to take real world inspiration into my sets because I feel it makes them more relatable and grounded for readers. Like how I draw out and even act out hitboxes, I feel like if the reader can easily visualize it or relate to it they'll enjoy it more. Quick sets I don't think I'd do well with considering I often take weeks to research minor details and am very minutia-focused. When I consider a character, I consume all media I can get my hands on relating to them so I can properly absorb not only the character but what surrounds them. I feel that is the only way to get everything correct and to properly understand a character because if you don't like and understand your character then you will make an unfaithful set. This is why so many of my older sets were bad even by the standards of the day they were posted in. I rushed them out and didn't put any care into them. My set plans do keep ticking up though and I'm always working on something, so more Khold sets are on the way! The closest thing I have to doing "one day sets" is a one day Dodongo (rough draft) of the set while leaving the details to be filled in later after much thought. Overhaul and King Dice will be just as ambitious as Kira due to the nature of what I want to do with them. They also fill the Kira mold of hype characters which I feel is the driving force behind me actually finishing them as I don't want to deprive MYM of sets for them. I appreciate your though on Kira deserving higher as I did put a lot of love into him, but I'm happy with where he is. Every MYMer puts love into their sets and as long as everyone gets a shot at their sets being recognized then that's happy with me. I'm only unhappy when MYMers are discouraged by competitiveness or feel like they're not good enough. I'm totally happy with other people voting over Kira or any of my sets really as long as the set was worth the time they took to read it and they liked it.

To Lex: "Kupa, Khold, it's so wonderful to have the two of you back in action, and to see you both catching up to modern MYM sensibilities incredibly quickly. You both had great sets this contest, and I'm confident you'll both continue to be solid pillars of the community."

I appreciate that, I really do. You're a pillar of the community yourself and I'm super proud of you for overcoming those dark times you've had since I've known you. I'm stoked to see what you can cook up, but even if you never made another set, I'd be happy to have known you and to have you as a friend.

To Slavic: "Speaking of returning veterans (feels like a real EVERYONE IS HERE contest this time around), you did come back last contest of course but you've really made yourself quite the presence this competition. I'm very glad to see Kira taking a top 10 spot. I always worry that I sounded or felt ungrateful or selfish for asking for the non-narrative version of the moveset but a big part of that is because I really did like the set and wanted it to be as accessible as possible. It's one of the most character-love filled sets I've seen for a bit, and it's great that you could get a strong win like this so shortly after coming back. Sorry about Lon Lon Ranch not placing though :/ Thanks for being an excellent chat presence and for taking on a role as someone to occasionally come and clip our memeing over someone or a set because we can get a bit mean-spirited once we get into it."

Thank you! You were absolutely not ungrateful or selfish for providing feedback. I always respect any feedback and you made a simple request which was no problem at all. As I've said before, I'd never want a presentation gimmick to get in the way of readability, something that my mentor Rool figured out a long time ago. Kira's non-narrative version is more accessible and besides, the original is always there for anyone to read if they wanted to. I'm also stoked about placing top 10, it was one of my goals for the longest. Lon Lon Ranch I don't mind at all not placing; in fact I actually went to one of the leaders at one point and proposed disqualifying LLR from voting as I didn't want it taking a vote spot over a much more deserving set as honestly it's a highly evolved ****post. The concepts were made for novelty but the set failed the moment it tried to be a "real" set to qualify. I've had an idea for a redux of the idea so that might get made next Bizarro Day! I'm happy to be a chat leech and MYMcord might as well be hooked up directly into my brain as I'm on it 90% of the time. You all are my friends so I'm grateful to be able to talk to y'all every day. That last thing you said is something I actively think about compared to my old self. I don't want anyone to be impacted negatively by what is said in chat and I initially had opposition to #memeset-hell as I thought someone might by hurt by it but my fears went away. Hell, it's fun to be meme'd on as seen by the legendary Dodongo. I'm always making sure everyone's having a good time basically, so if anyone is down or if I ever post something that impacts someone like that I want to correct myself as soon as possible. That being said, I'm all for spicy memes and good-spirited fun which is the best thing to come out of the chat.

 

[plague126]

I have a migraine so this isnt gonna be long but heres my retrospective

U all did great, u’re gonna do great next contest too. all of u.

 

[FruitLoop]

I have a migraine so this isnt gonna be long but heres my retrospective

U all did great, u’re gonna do great next contest too. all of u.

Yea......

EDIT: I just want to say some words. I get that I went too far with the memes this contest and tbh that's fair. I probably should have known that the Whitehorn schtick was unfunny and it should have been an obvious sign for me to stop. So I just want to apologize on that end. I'll try to better myself on that end and to be a bit more serious next contest for MYM23! I've been in the works typing some more comments and I might be working on my more serious sets (Isaac from the Binding of Isaac as an example and whenever it's a joke character like the Tetris Block i'll try to at least be a bit more serious on that end). I know I wasn't always the most pleasant guy to be around because of all the memes but I REALLY appreciate you guys for welcoming me to the community! MYM22 outside of the ending was really a blast for me and you guys really do have a lot of dedication in the art of set-making!

I also wanted to note the alting for April Fools day. I mostly did it a day or so in advance just out of good fun and I just wanted April Fools Day for MYM22 to be fun, didn't want anything from that joke to be harmful or anything. But I probably should have just not used any alts even on April Fools Day to joke around!

Maybe for MYM23 I'll be less meme-y and try to be more serious on more ends and focus less on my own sets and rather more on the community since this is REALLY a dedicated community and I feel selfish for mostly talking about Whitehorn for most of MYM22. I've generally been more serious on other boards (Besides obvious april fools day posts) and I do have dedication towards Smash as a franchise (ESPECIALLY in its competitive community) so I still want to dedicate some of it to setmaking like you guys do!

I still want to give my thanks to some people in the community:

ForwardArrow: I know you were the one who likely was the most annoyed with my antics and you were probably the only one who actively reached to me regarding the whitehorn stuff. I want to be sorry for not taking your word completely since I thought just being more selfaware with my jokes and staying quiet for a little while was the better alternative but honestly I should have dropped the memes. You clearly have a lot of dedication to the community and I GENUINELY do appreciate the fact that you were the first person to review Whitehorn and to rereview it after its major changes! You probably tolerated me for the longest and honestly you're a good man! Keep helping out everyone and hopefully I can help y'all with making more sets and adding more comments!

Plague: Man, you read almost EVERY single set in this content including mines! I don't think I've actively shown my appreciation towards your efforts in this contest so I think it's time for me to just congratulate you for really making it this far! I know you technically didn't win anything in the contest with either your Ethan or Wobbler set but they were still good reads to me and since we all have to start from somewhere including me I really hope you continue to make sets!

Smash Daddy: I remember around the beginning of MYM when you were reading all the final fantasy sets early in the competition and it was kind of fun hanging around with you! K Rool mains and DDD mains rejoice! It's real fun to talk to other heavyweight mains and honestly I hope my schtick wasn't too taxing for you or anyone else!

BKupa666: I really did take your whitehorn review to heart before it became a meme and honestly you're a great dude! Anytime we interacted or I saw you in MYM chat you were pretty nice and respectful to everyone and I wish only the best for you! You have a LOT of dedication to K Rool and his home series and I really was a big appreciator for the Kritter set for the longest time!

Slavic: I don't know if we talked much outside of the fact that you reviewed whitehorn while drunk but yea if I made it sound like you HAD to review Whitehorn just to fulfill the memes I'm sorry about that. I genuinely just thought that fake praise-talking whitehorn and getting everyone to review whitehorn as a running joke was funny and tbh I took that part way too far, I'll improve from next time to prevent that from happening! But yea man, hope you're doing well!

ZLBProductions: Your Eevee set was the first set I've ever reviewed in MYM and I'm glad that you took some of the things I said to heart to improve a bit on it! Idk if we talked A TON outside of me trying to convince you to read Whitehorn which again I should probably apologize for. Also looking back at it (I Think I said it to Muno as well) I kind of felt bad for the fact that I may have said some microaggressions towards furries? It was pretty ****ty of me and usually I don't want to disclude people. People should be proud of their own hobbies regardless and tbh being part of reddit for a LONG time kind of maybe shifted my mindset from years ago lol. But honestly you were a great addition to MYM and as a newcomer myself I appreciate having more than just me being new to the competition and trying things out! Good luck in future endeavors!

There's WAY more people I have to give congrats and my appreciations towards and congrats on all the winners btw! However for now I'll try to work on some more sets for MYM23 and getting those comments published! Idk if you guys want me back in the discord or not still but starting fresh new and being back on it would be a nice change of pace and also would be helpful for me to get a bit of feedback on the process of when I'm still developing newer and less memey sets (Like i've said with Muno, I cancelled my Sakurai set in fear that it'll just be memes).

I really hope MYM 23 is the best one and I wish ALL of you the best of luck!

 

[BKupa666]

Alright, time to tie this contest up with a bow while it's still relevant (a fixation this K. Rool fan knows all too well). Given my hiatus, I'm not all that able to give a quality user-by-user writeup, given my lack of context as to everyone's modern evolution. That being said, I'd be remiss if I didn't give MYM22 shoutouts when they so clearly are due. Not to beat a dead horse, but it bears repeating, this was a contest for the history books, certainly far beyond the best pound-for-pound quality of any previous MYM I can recall. I personally would have been happy to see basically any set as far down as the Top 20 win the whole thing, and in any other competition, they might have stood a serious chance.

Not even just as far as quality goes, but quantity as well - for FRoy and UserShadow in particular, it's nothing short of astounding that you both were able to churn out eight sets a pop and have all of them be at least -good-, with several standing above the rest in terms of excellence. I'm sure I'm not the only setwriter who wishes they could bottle up that sort of inspiration and harness it for their own works. Smady and Katapultar, it's heartwarming seeing you both continuing to excel all these year later, with the former having melded fighting game conventions into your sets so well (including in my beloved SV+ Rudy), and the latter having come a long, long way from the days of Jason Voorhees with some brilliant, intricately-made concepts, especially for Armie and Nasary. On the flipside, one of the most refreshing parts of coming back has been seeing how much MYM has flourished with some of its (comparatively) new names, who hit or started to hit their stride more recently. . .Lex, Slavic, Muno, Ivan, Bion, ZLB, plague, WCF, bubby and anyone else I missed, it's been a pleasure getting to know you all, and I can't wait to see exactly how bright our contest's future is in your hands. Khold, it's been a hoot getting to get back in the swing of things alongside you (later by one contest but yeah).

Which brings us to FA and Warlord, I'm definitely understanding as far as stepping back or preparing to step back for a time on account of burnout/real life. I certainly wouldn't say either of you have anything to apologize for, Warlord on account of your historic ~150-set output that honestly might never be topped, and Kimblee being relatively underappreciated in the context of this contest. And speaking of milestones that likely won't be topped, five contest wins, FA? Five?? Here most of us are, just casually hoping to produce just one winning set, and there you are, just casually churning them out with consistency across your time and eras in MYM, to the point where you yourself find it a little ridiculous. Xehanort clearly was your best MYM22 work and deserves all the accolades he's gotten so far (you seriously wrote him without being a KH superfan? I never would've guessed you made him just based on research, as you just mentioned in chat). Anyhow, in both of your cases, I hope you take whatever time you need away to get your personal priorities sorted out but retain the creative spark that has earned you your spots among my most-admired setwriters and good friends to boot.

Circling back to myself to close this out, though I would've been overjoyed to actually win, getting the validation that I'm still capable of entertaining a readership with Smash concepts and moves that let people's imaginations run wild is just about as valuable. It was nearly six years and nine contests since my last truly active MYM, with MYM13, but I never stopped envisioning moveset ideas, and thinking over possible character inspirations. I had a few false starts with Skowl and Petey Piranha, and other factors, including a focus on running the Bring Back K. Rool movement and experiencing some of the most turbulent personal years I'll ever go through, got in the way. Ultimate, though, was a bright spark, and it ignited a whole host of new possibilities, which I think manifested in my works this time.

Vulture, whose core concepts I'd been toying with since November 2017, I started refining in the new Smash's engine. Then, not long after seeing Ultimate's heavyweight focus, in February 2019, I saw Spiderverse for the first time, giving me the impetus to rejoin with Mr. Heavyweight Male Antagonist himself, Kingpin. Kritter was more of a spur-of-the-moment idea I had for a contribution to the Piranha Plant challenge - a minion I had in ancient times considered as part of a four-in-one set but only saw real potential now, after MYM on the whole fixated less on flash and more on substance. And skekSil in particular epitomized precisely what has kept me coming back to write sets: becoming familiar with new subject matter (in this case, the Dark Crystal franchise), puzzling over how to reflect the essence (mmmMMMMMmmm) of a great character (typically a villain) in Smash and then piecing together fun concepts as they come to me.

For someone who was far from self-assured in my ability to make modern sets coming into this contest, and given the level of competition I outlined earlier, I'm extremely happy with skekSil's final 5th place ranking, especially as it wasn't always a sure thing he'd even be posted this contest. And I'm excited about the prospect of sticking around as a leader and trying to match or surpass that placement. I'm at peace with MYM knowing that, compared to when I left, I have a ton of fun ideas bouncing around my head and, sometime down the road when life transpires in such a way to where I hang up my hat, it'll be on a higher note, with plenty more great times with you all had along the way. Here's to making MYM23 a continuation of everything that made this one so exhilerating, and then some.

 

[Deleted member]

Smash Daddy's Top 13 Sets of Make Your Move 22​

That's right, we're back again and in celebration of Master Xehanort already becoming half of the votes, it's a positive top 13! Congratulations to all who placed or participated whatsoever this time around in a truly wonderful competition. As in MYM21 this list will be comprised of my SVs and RV+s, but also my top two RVs that didn't get RV+. This will will spoilered again to avoid the thread clutter, enjoy.

Spoiler

13. Kyoko​

Hey this should be easy! I only just commented this set regularly because I didn't get the idea to do a Top 13 before I talked to FA or Roy and they suggested to do one in honour of the Nort winning MYM. Now that I've gone over the set already, I have to find new things to talk about here that are less definitive. Lets talk a little bit about FA's development to get to this point!

I remember a long time ago when you made Kyoko and it got a very negative reception. Back in those days there wasn't a big focus on editing for the most part and if you did do edits, they didn't get the exposure they do now. That set I barely remember anymore but it barely used the whip in interesting ways if I recall, now it's like a totally different person making sets, and not just for the talent behind the set making either. FA has grown to be far more open to criticism over time and matured to take it all on the chin.

What's interesting about Kyoko is how dry it is compared to some of the other famous Madoka sets. Sayaka had that very complex mechanic, Homura was all projectiles and Mami was an interesting take on lingering weapons. Kyoko on the other hand, is almost purely melee, and yet it ends up being by far the best of them all in my opinion! This isn't just because those sets aged, but Kyoko does feel like it could fit right into a fighting game and have almost no issues. It's a great base too if anyone wants to make future Madoka sets.

And yes I know it's predictable as hell I'd use a Kyubey image and not the actual character, sorry!

12. Kunai​

This is another set I've already touched on to a degree in my comment and I've not got a ton else to add to what was said. I will go over some of the more tertiary aspects I like in the set instead. For one thing, that tornado and all its mechanics was just wonderful. The wind tunnel effect was a real winner and I liked all the mechanics involved plsu the intuitive nature of having projectiles ride around inside or hit off the sides of it as a reflector. Just having a hugely powerful and big reflector as a set up move was a very clever decision. Kunai is full of such smart ideas put into effortless execution, and it's insanely stacked with these concepts. It's like an all you can eat buffet of ninja concepts in one set!

As far as comparisons to Shinobu goes I want to point out how the characterisation differs in a subtle but interesting way. Kunai comes across a lot more cocky and sure of herself than Shinobu with her far flashier magic that also has a propensity to backfire on a grander scale. This is compared to the pragmatic Shinobu who thrives on when her spells or attacks do go awry with her myriad of ways to play with her many mechanics just in case. Kunai's the much more straightforward set that definitely feels a touch villain-competent at times. Because protagonists aren't allowed to be competent! That's how I interpreted it anyway, and I look forward to any more ninjas coming our way.

11. Utsuho Reiuji​

Finally to the sets I haven't directly commented! There's plenty to say about this set so lets get right into it. Utsuho is the first in a long time of Roy's long-running Touhou sets, always having a really impressive intro spelling out the many complexities of the Touhou lore pertaining to any characters, the motivations, the appearance, the spin-offs and fighting game moveset where applicable, Roy even delved into fanbase theories, shippings and popularity in his older Touhou sets! Even when not doing those last few things Utsuho is one of the best sets there are for informing you about the character right off the bat.

The set is surprisingly simple considering it's for a nuclear-powered evil yokai. Utsuho can charge up her suns like the Charge Shot and at full charge, unlocks a slew of new specials that are all super-powered. These super powered fusion specials are not that powerful compared to what you might expect as Roy has a firm grip on the balance of the set. It's quite a feat to juggle all of these super moves and the charge shot mechanic without letting it get out of hand, and still making it interesting too, for that Roy deserves a lot of credit in this set.

The set has a big focus on the melee too which came as a shock. I enjoyed greatly the focus on stuff like her elephant foot and heavyweight/zoner focus splitting down the middle. This set does have a lot of projectiles and could be played as spammer, but is intelligent enough to build the melee around it and have the projectiles be balanced enough to allow the melee to go a little nuts in places, without being OP. I will also say it was really cool seeing all the images in this set to illustrate the moves in very helpful ways.

The characterisation here is subtle but good. Utsuho has a focus on raw power and throwing out projectiles all over the place! But... not a ton of control or overwhelming strength, just a lot of bluster and cheap, big hitboxes to abuse. Fitting on a character who is "strong but dumb."

10. Yoshikage Kira​

This and the next JoJo set was a close contest! Kira barely misses out and is still a great set and a strong, RV+ place on my vote list. This set is similar to Kupa's sets, extremely memorable and easy to recall almost every move because of Khold's strong combo of style, presentation and use of iconic imagery in the set. It doesn't need to be said the set looks great as Khold is great at image work and poured a lot of effort into making the set feel right.

Any Kira set has to juggle the ideas a great deal and Khold chose the interesting path of utilizing less of Stray Cat and instead focusing on the bombs! A wise choice that makes it feel incredibly in-character to Kira. Khold is always smart to pick out the right ideas, at least here and in Dead Hand, and gets the right "feel" as well as just about anyone.

The balance of the set was one of the few things I originally criticized and Khold went back to edit it to fix pretty much all of my issues there! The set is now the correct level of speed to work in the current very fast-paced Ultimate meta which I think is the right call. For a set that has a mechanic like Killer Queen that's meant to act as a set-wide buff, you really need mega fast moves to compete if you're going between a nerfed and buffed state. Smash doesn't really have any mechanics exactly like this so I appreciate Khold listening to what I had to say here. It really help the set out tremendously in being viable.

There's not a whole lot new to say here other than it was a treat to read and I look back on it fondly, and it wasn't fun not SVing the set as I really wanted to, along with all the sets on this list!

9. Black Polnareff​

This set is really impressive and another melee focus set from Roy but perhaps some of the single best melees in the MYM. Black Polnareff is your typical set that plays with a double-edged buff that Roy loves to utilize in his sets. For Polnareff, this means losing any of the benefits the stand usually provides in exchange for further offence and buffing certain important moves. What's most impressive here is how much the specials are central despite not being that flashy! The Dancing Blade type move is absolutely amazing in its complexity despite not having any really flashy aspects to it, purely being fencing sword type strikes. It is an amazing experience reading how Roy manages to conjure up new, precisely different types of moves using the Polnareff fighting style.

The other thing that's really good about the set is the balance. Not because it's well balanced alone but Roy tries some pretty risky balance in places giving Polnareff strong confirms, combos and rushdown potential. Thsi is always counter-balanced by a propensity to get massively punished for whiffs and blowing up in general. Like Kira, this feels very correct for the type of game Ultimate has become and for B. Pol as a character. Also credit where it's due here for being one of the first sets in a long time to attempt JoJo and a typical stand before the later MYM22 JoJo sets, setting a high standard for others to follow.

8. Alex​

I made Hugo alongside Alex and while they don't have a ton in common as sets, Hugo does have much in common with Balrog, an old Roy set for the Street Fighter boxer. Like Balrog and Alex, Hugo uses SF inputs (quarter circle down, rotating the stick etc) but has a very advanced meter, while Alex is the opposite approach. He has no meter and instead focuses on soft interactions with hitting the foe's back to get stronger attacks, and some really cool smart applications of both turning the foe around or attacing their back.

What's more impressive than the actual content of the set to me is how well it gets across Alex's SF3 and SF5 moveset/playstyle in Smash form, perfectly translating it from one engine to a completely different one! I never really thought about how Alex plays all that much in Third Strike which I have played a good amount but this set, like many of the great Roy sets, made me stop and think a minute how Alex works as a character conceptually that probably helped me down the line building sets for Ennard and Rudy. There's a lot to be learned from some of the smaller ways Roy got across these ideas.

What many said of Alex and I agree wholeheartedly is it has great presentation getting across the moves/character seamlessly so that anyone, fan or not of Alex or SF, will get the intent. SF is not an easy franchise to understand if you aren't into fighting games and are primarily into Smash Bros, so that's very important! In fact it's super impressive Roy even came up with the meter/SF inputs originally in Balrog, then pretty much mastered it later on, given how Smash tends to avoid complex meter mechanics. But Roy manages to make these difficult concepts seem effortlessly applied to Smash. It's awesome when you consider how much of Roy's stuff this MYM with the SF and JoJo sets was at least partially based on Capcom fighting games!

7. skekSil, the Chamberlain​

Now here is a set that needs little introduction! What's not to love when Kupa is at his best and making a character who is this much of an unashamedly conniving and evil villain? Throw in every possible trope you could attach to Dark Crystal and you get a very fun, viscerally stimulating moveset that just about sums up the whole of the Dark Crystal franchise in a breathtakingly effective way! The essence is turned into a simple meter mechanic that skirts the line of feast-or-famine balance, giving a foot in the door for skekSil to have some more interesting melee than one might expect. The melee manages to be quite interesting for sure considering skekSil's awkward body shape (same goes for all skekSis really, besides skekMar) and this mechanic is crucial to the set's quality.

The other thing that skekSil gets so right is the use of minions, ranging from the podling-like gruenak slaves all the way up to the terrifying Garthim! These intimidating creates are only made all the better when they can be fused together through the other pillar of the set's concepts, the Dark Crystal's own beam that is used as somewhat of a stationary trap for foes, and works wonders into skekSil's playstyle.

What stuck with me about the set most is its direct and indirect approach to the characterisation. The obvious stuff like skekSil being a melodramatic irrelevant irreverent villain that handcuffs the foe and throws his own weight around in the form of his big smash sword is all too satisfying on a basic level. However, the set is eager to talk about its very fun sub-textual playstyle where skekSil has to plan out his use of essence and politick out his plan of attack! It's one of those good old "schemer" playstyles but done in a really tactful and fun way that is not often seen in modern MYM. The schemer is revived here by Kupa in a way befitting the Dark Crystal's heavy usage of immortality and reneweal as major themes.

I would be remiss to not go into some more depth on this set, and as I never commented it, I will say it is not a perfect set - though an SV in this contest is a high mark! The smashes could've perhaps gone to more trouble in being a little different, the sword was fun but I would've liked a bit more on the smashes that got away from the trial by stone, even if it is a difficult character. I was unsure how I felt about the bthrow "releasing" the foe and handcuffing them to the minions. The grab game in general felt a bit less functional than the rest of the set to me despite how fun it is! Sorry to take a short critical interlude in the middle of my praise here, as it is an extremely good set, I'm sure you understand, mmmmMMmmmmm?

6. Naomi Faren​

After last MYM where you barely missed out on SV with Idella I was hoping I'd find you'd made a set worthy of being on my SV list and I found it with Naomi. This is a pretty old set by MYM22 standards, if I recall coming out in the early days (looking it up, the very first set? Wow!), but it was not a huge bone of contention for me whether to put it in SV this time. That's because of the way you weave the water bending-like mechanic into everything that Naomi does while allowing her to retain some of the best elements of your sets like Idella at the same time. Your style definitely stands out as one of the most unique in MYM's repertoire, and I'm glad! It's become a real pleasure over the years watching you get better and better while honing this particular style of sets.

The Jaina image really isn't just for show as this set comes across as one of the best "water elementalist" MYM has had in the vein of ancient sets like Antonidas, but done in a very modern way. The water clones are a really ambitious and well done concept adding to her melee and giving a nice solid follow-up hit to everything she does. I love the visual of how she uses water, giving me some flashbacks to my Jecht set in a very positive way. It's such a seamless integration of water elementalism on a still melee-focused character that's never really been done before and shows how much concepts can still be pushed to their limit in MYM despite all the years we've been around.

Another big thing I think you've improved on over the years is pretty much exactly what I've told you, if I recall I used to complain a little about animations being a bit samey or your smashes not feeling special enough at times. But in this set it's pretty hard to find any remnants of things I may have complained about with 3 really distinctive smashes, a great set of animations on almost every move, you're probably the single best person for taking on board criticism and going back to do mass edits. I especially love the visuals of the geyser and umbrella's uses. Really enjoyed this set's use of props and consistency in general despite being for an OC. You definitely gain something from doing an OC over an established character but it's still not easy when playing with such difficult concepts and it's incredible how many sets, with all these juicy ideas you put out all the time now! More please in MYM23.

5. Armie Buff​

This is just an all around great set by Kat that impressed me and apparently Kupa a great deal despite its low ambitions. It's just a set for a girl in a wheelchair with some tech, and you'd easily miss it was even an Ace Attorney set because her powers are largely unconnected to the franchise. Hell as a character Armie Buff is pretty random and I don't think even appears in court, only in the investigation portion of one case and then largely is never seen again. Anyone who played or YouTubed the game though will remember how much of a nuisance she was once you first discover her part of the game hiding away in her house, at first appearing to be some kind of HMA army colonel before you realize it's just a kid playing with a voice changer.

The set doesn't really get that across in a direct way of course and instead correctly focuses on her eccentric use of tech as well as her wheelchair to get the most material. The tech is really fun, making use of the helicopter as a vague 2in1 mechanic (in my opinion done the best here of any of Kat's quasi 2in1 sets this MYM) and fun stuff like missiles and mines you might expect. The interactions with the wheelchair and tech was all really fun and well executed despite the inherent tackiness of such interactions, especially stuff like Beezwaxing into the air on top of explosive mines. The set had a firm grasp on how to make good melee, as all modern Kat sets do, but is a cut above the rest with the character-driven animations and playstyle.

What blew me away on this set as opposed to Kunai is just the uniqueness of the character and great animations. It's only a girl in a wheelchair, she can barely move, and yet Kat manages to make incredibly distinctive animations for every move that follow all the conventions of good animation you would expect. That is really good key frames (even though a wheelchair is literally an unmovable square facing the camera), follow-through (great motion and momentum on all the moves, described in amazing detail) and standing out from one another (despite again, her barely being able to move). This comes as a result of Kat's trademark tackiness turned to gold approach to these sets adapting a MUGEN style of set making to MYM that is finely balanced.

This MYM felt like a big effort by Kat and he probably won't ever get the credit for his efforts as it was a Herculean MYM on his part despite not breaking into Top 10. Nonetheless, I will always be a huge fan of Kat and always have been, this set is no slouch in showing just how masterful he's become of Smash Bros and game design, even if his sets can be divisive. Even Kat himself doesn't seem too up on this set! That's okay though, so long as you know you're really appreciated Kat and we all want to see more of your sets.

4. Quilby​

Considering what sets I haven't listed yet by you this should alone is a big achievement in my opinon making two amazing sets that got this high on my list. Of course, I'm slightly biased as this set has many allusions to one of my winners, Death, infamously combining a scythe and portals. Death was pretty bad honestly but what it did do well and what led it to victory was the idea of combining something as abstract as portals with an interesting weapon in the scythe, and if you have any imagination you'll realize why if you think about how you'd use a scythe and how portals might work. I've played with this myself in sets such as Shadow Teddie but Quilby approaches it much in the same way as Death while avoiding all the pitfalls. It was very interesting seeing it done in a modern set and you're always one to revive these old ideas in fun ways, and I'm always flattered when it happens to one of my sets. I'm not sure exactly how intentional it was or if it really plays that much into my high opinion of the set, but nonetheless, I'm grateful for the homage.

So this set is not just "lol portals and scythes," there's far more to it than that. Unlike Nox who has a pretty big focus on mechanics Quilby is surprisingly simple. He sets up portals and can set one to be his default portal to do follow-ups, in a far more straightforward/outright far superior way to Death or any other scythe set and goes from there. The set is really your standard villain set in many respects giving you the expected cockiness, magnificently glorious attacks and intimidating power you'd want. The set is full of great animations that make the most of the scythe weapon in ways I've not really seen before and just feels very competent in what it chooses to get out of the character, an easy transition from Wakfu the cartoon to a fighting game.

What felt interesting most to me was perhaps the more experimental grab game. Ironic given Death's lack of one. Quilby has an intended weakness of no combo throw which is really clever as a balancing mechanic, and the way the throws like dthrow interact with him catching his scythe to cancel lag is really interesting. The "execution" style throw has been done many times in the past but really done well here because of all the mechanics at play. The grab game feels most strongly characterised of the entire set despite its simplicity. The set doesn't have too many obviously flashy concepts but is one of Roy's peak sets for execution with its many good ideas and Roy's consistent quality throughout. It was a pleasure to read from beginning to end and I'm glad it got such a positive reception.

3. Fox Butler Aki​

This set was a shocking surprise in so many ways and came out of seemingly nowhere. Inspired by the Dragonmaids, though honestly bearing little resemblance to them as characters beyond sharing a similar mechanic, Aki goes absolutely nuts with the 2in1 gimmick that no one else had the dedication to do in this exact way. That's because to do 2in1 in this way requires an incredible amount of commitment, effort and diligence to drill down on every move making it relevant in the swap the way Aki does it. The set does not fail in giving every transition a unique while still relevant interaction whether into the fox or human form, in an almost unfailing universal way that's already impressive enough on its own.

What makes it truly great aside from the great ideas is the great base of the set. Between the new and improved Eviscerate piling on top of everything else and the knives mechanic, the really well done quadruped fox moves and alike the human moves that are a brilliant combo of sleuthy humanoid ninja-like characterisation with the monstrous fox, it's just all around extremely solid, hard to criticize work in general. Even my criticism of silhouettes being lost in the shuffle is really not that bad considering how 3D Smash really is and the amount of characters you'd see behind the screens at all times. It's hard to find much to fault here at all really. This is by far the most realized of your OCs too and is dripping with character at every possible moment. It's just amazing how you took the basic idea of the DMs and ran with it to this point. It's really deserved seeing how well the set placed and I am very curious to see what else you have in store after this one!

2. Master Xehanort​

My opinion on this set ping-ponged around the place for some time before I settled on it being really good, and I think discussing it some helped to illuminate some aspects of the set I'd personally buried amidst a few quibbles I have with the set. There's a couple of issues I have with the presentation and some other minor things but they obviously pale in comparison to not only what the set accomplishes but how well it blazes a trail for your own progress after last MYM, and overall coming to this point. It's a direct answer to criticisms I've made to your sets above anyone else I feel a lot of the time, and as I am basically your biggest critic in MYM for whatever reason, it's really appreciated.

You could've disregarded everything I said about Aurelia or Mina and had a good shot at winning but you really took everything to heart. Hell even picking this character is very unlike you, and feels like a refreshing return to the kinds of characters you'd do long ago, and I'm really going to miss your sets if this is the kind of thing you'd have been putting out! It's sad this might be your last set for a while but I'm also glad you're able to go out on such a high at the same time.

For starters the specials are all memorable, giving Xehanort a huge new concept each time. This ranges from summoning the 13 and the less ambitious version which is a lot more directly useful, though this is prety obvious. What's less obvious is what you did with the up special and channelling a little bit of Ameno-sagiri letting Xehanort fight using his minions directly, which was not a concept I expected to see brought back in a modern set in a 1v1 moveset. The light/dark mechanics were also well done and gave some much needed complexity to parts of the melee where it was needed. Last but not least the Stopza is about as good as it gets with the Counter down special we all know and love.

The melee is really interestingly done going out of its ways to have some built-in weaknesses that allow for the crazier shades of set up that Xehanort can achieve with both Kingdom Hearts and the full Orgy XIII potentially on deck. Besides having a fairly gimped jab/grab, his set does largely revolve around a small weakness in the move at the same time as being generally a good move too. Unlike what I criticized in say, Elephant, or more relevantly Mina where some moves felt really impractical, you were mindful to make sure every move here was at least going to have some basic usability and is a fun move at the same time. It goes without saying stuff like the smashes is a really fun idea and a bit of a throwback to sets of yours like Don Thousand as a quasi-summon, though I almost wish this was made into its own set it's such a cool idea.

I enjoyed the main references to Xehanort throughout the set, especially on the last move where it's almost a Sephiroth/Hell's Gate like attack, similar a bit to Quilby's one throw too, and I always love your trademark throws with great character moments in them. This is definitely your best set just for great playstyle and characterisation alone, but it is truly impressive how well it's executed too with a heavy melee focus that is pretty competent too. It feels like the best aspects of what you did on Snoke, Aurelia and your past high set up sets like Iguana all rolled into one pretty irresistible package. This is one set to be proud of and I'm happy you got such a definitive win off this too before you take a break. You really do make it all seem so effortless it's hard to not feel a little jealous, but more than that I'm honestly really proud and glad to have been a part of your journey through MYM. And of course, really hope you come back, but I'll be happy for you whatever you choose to do from here.

1. Hol Horse​

Now saying all I said about Xehanort and how it is a wonderful set, I still would've preferred to see this set win. Why? It's just a superbly executed and well thought out set and I can't begin to imagine how you could make a better set for this great character. It not only brings together every aspect of Hol Horse, both his J. Geil and Boingo partnerships, it brings the fighting game moveset from Heritage for the Future into the mix too so Roy gets to show off how well he understands fighting games outside of Smash too, so it's an all around A+ moveset. Roy's at his best for me when he does sets inspired by other fighting games or just generally when he's really inspired by something and this set is much like his great sets such as Balrog and Alex from a fighting game standpoint, but also bring in his great characterisation I recall from sets like Elpizo/Copy X and Quilby, while delivering a set that's really functional on top of its flash.

The Boingo stuff is the highlight of the set for me with Roy's classic "upgrade" style extension to most of the moves. This comes in the form of a sometimes very abstract or simple change to the move when Boingo is active that more than any of his other sets with a similar mechanic, comes across really well thought out as far as giving a straight improvement to the move, while not feeling too OP or UP. The fact you can use these at any time also lends greatly to the kind of pressure Hol Horse has at his disposal without the need for a meter mechanic like Hugo, and feels very intuitive as well! This is in spite of just how much is going on in the set.

The set also has J. Geil in there and his mechanics could easily have justified their own separate set for just this combo but is done so well that it's efficiently packaged on only a few moves, leaving some breathing room. The way it's done is seamlessly integrated from HftF's moveset and works really well into Smash's mechanics of pressure despite just how weird the character is on the face of it. I also appreciated on the same note moves like fsmash that interpret the "shooting the screen" or anywhere the set shoots "glass" to cause it to fall. It was abstract and fun in HftF and didn't need much changing, but again I can't imagine a much better interpretation of all the things Hol Horse does in one neat presentation.

Roy didn't just dumpster dive into HftF and the manga adaptation however as he does come up with some really fun ideas all on his own, for example Hol Horse's playstyle. This MYM had plenty of glass cannon characters but Horse really exemplies the archetype with a super heavy focus on projectiles and pressure, rather than just plain power/damage/projectile dominance. This is a pretty interesting distinction as it gives Hol Horse a really refreshing gunslinger-like tint on his playstyle where he wants to keep foes merely at bay, rather than necessarily completely destroy them, and slowly build to his victory that way. It's a lot more subtle and less flashy characterisation than one might expect but feels all the more fitting from a character all about biding his time.

As with last MYM this ended up being my favourite set and it's a Roy set so I really can't say enough how good this recent un of MYMs has been for you. It's pretty incredible frankly. I might be in a uniquely favourable position to appreciate your sets as a big fighting game and character fan seemingly much in the same way you are, even if we don't have the same taste in characters sometimes. This set in particular is definitely your best though you have a lot of really strong sets, and it says a lot too how you manage to always outdo yourself every MYM. This would've been a worthy winner and I hope you finally earn that second win sometime soon!

Thanks if you managed to read all or some of this list! I'll try to get out a post on my own top 50 thoughts for myself and finally move on to commenting MYM23 sets soon.

 

[ForwardArrow]

Well that was MYM22! Honestly, this was the best contest we've had in quite some time, and its clearly left everyone feeling super good if MYM23's early and incredibly successful start is anything to go by. MYM21 was pretty good too, don't get me wrong, with a lot of people coming back or upstarting and flexing new talent, but this was on another level honestly. I think almost everyone impressed me at least once this contest, from Smady putting out the drier and more grounded but also at times deep and awesome Hugo to contrast the shortcomings some of his sets had last time, to even the "little guys" like IvanQuote punching above their weight class with the surprisingly competent Robin. I'll try to go more into detail as the post goes on, but it was really nice. It was also nice to see people making more ambitious character choices that bring high expectations, I'd be lying if I said I didn't love some of the choices. We got Kira, Reigen, Ciocolatta, Hol Horse, Nox, Quilby, skekSil, PaniK, and Vulture all in the same contest, all characters I either really like or just from what I've seen are enough to have me very interested in their source material. For those who enjoyed last contest's OC chaos(like myself honestly), US is still killing it and Lex put out Aki who has by far the most impressive characterization he's ever done.

To talk about my own sets, well. Its a honor people frequently ranked them so highly amongst such insane competition, particularly with well-characterized sets for character selections people love. I'll be honest I was kinda down on writing sets this contest despite making more than I usually do, but it makes me very happy to see that what I put out apparently excited people so much.

My first entry, Mina Aquila, was definently the one I've come away from this contest feeling the most mixed about. It was pointed out to me by I think Lex or Bionichute/Bianca that I've made a point of hating cutesy mascots and only making sets for them when I am directly trying to subvert them, so a good opposite day choice was "do an unironic one". Slightly circumventing this and including them in the lore of the literal anti-cute mascot spiteful OC I made as a half-joke in MYM20, the end result was a character who I feel went very much against my usual edgy/serious characterization and instead had a love of things I have shunned like Pikachu, Inkling, and Jibanyan. It was fun to come up with, as I've learned moreso lately I actually do like some unironic lighthearted Lightweight Female Protagonist more than I thought I did and honestly, that made the setwriting process pretty enjoyable, especially after poking the idea a bit with Aurelia last contest to see if people would like it if I did that. Boy did they, it turns out, and in spite of Mina being barely a fraction of the set Aurelia is she still amassed a solid following.

In spite of the fun I had coming up with the set and characterization, the end result is not something I think warrants as high of a placing as it got, albeit I'm not about to go around disowning it or anything. I feel its a solid set and I like it more than the couple "detractors" it has(AKA people who thought it was overrated but weren't exactly negative), but I'd describe it as more than a little messy. The set relies heavily on a mechanic that requires Mina to tag alongside a swarm of what are basically projectiles for her moves to have their full impact, and the amount of power this gives doesn't really feel proportional to how awkward it is to set up. Not to say Mina doesn't have some cool tricks(at least I think they're cool) and some quite powerful things she can do, but it feels like a lot of the text I wrote in the set might end up being just fluff because of the impracticality of using a lot of those upgrades. It also just feels a little all over the place in how it uses its mechanics, and the tree/fruit sticks out to me as underdeveloped and flash for flash's sake. For what its worth, I'm actually proud of how I handled Ginny as a combination Luma and petal storage device and I do think I succeeded at giving the set a lot of personality. I also think even if the set wouldn't play entirely how I'd hoped it would, it has all the tools it needs to be functional and would give players plenty of chances to do fun and interesting things both in wacky casual matches and at a competitive level.

As a final tangent, I'll say I feel a bit weird on this set's characterization. Sure, I think the personality comes across clearly, but I think someone paying closer attention(Smady basically did) would notice I was definently making up powers as I went along, and I do feel the character comes across as pretty shallow. This is really because she was basically made on a dare and not given the serious character development period of a set like Aurelia or Metireon, and at least to me, it shows. I think I've made it clear I don't dislike the character I made here, but she definently came out more incomplete-feeling than I would've liked. I'm picky with how I develop OCs, so sue me.

Kyoko Sakura meanwhile was a set I had to keep telling myself to make literally ever since MYM11's version was, to be honest, one of my least favorite sets I've ever made. Like we can talk about how hilariously out of whack Doc Scratch is, or how Vol Opt and Kyubey are completely non-functional, or how Grandmatriarchs was a hilariously overhyped clunky piece of trash, but in a way, I feel like those sets had goals they at least met by the standards of their time. MYM11 Kyoko was a set I made because I really cared about the character, and her playstyle felt absolutely nothing like Kyoko in the show, and in its attempt to utilize terrible MYM11 tropes that were only cool at the time it failed to even use them to do things that were fun by MYM11 standards. Oh yeah let's make the spear an impaling grab hitbox that traps the foe with escape difficulty to uh... pick them up and move them somewhere else, that's about all the set ever accomplished. It also has some of the worst "character feel" I've ever done, with a fast and agile spear-user feeling like someone slowly shuffling the foe around with a big chain too heavy for them to even wield. I think people realized how trash it was at the time too, as in a contest where Vol Opt and Kyubey acquired niche fans, Kyoko never managed a Top 50 placing.

As far as sets I need to fix for the modern day of my old failures, this one always felt the most important to me. But I never quite figured it out until I saw a lot of recent efforts that felt like they were trying to be more direct, simple fighting game translations with a playstyle hook that wasn't a particularly flashy stage control special. And after years and years and years of trying to make some "big concept" for Kyoko work... I kinda just decided she didn't need one. Instead, I'd trying to play her up as a unique zoner/spacer, who sends foes back and forth between her close and long-ranged options in such a way that her best combos require her to use all modes and ranges of her spear. This isn't to say I didn't have any flashy stuff in there, with rewards for complex plays like her simple "Doomfist-style" wall, her "dancing blade" like Side Special which requires a great deal of precision to get full mileage out of, and Forward Smash/Dash Attack as moves that worked as both dumb big finishers while also having more to them than just that. But at its core, it was a set where I aimed to more appeal to people through execution of a particular type of playstyle we don't see a ton of in MYM, without relying on a standout individual attack.

Unlike Mina, who had a fairly breezy development period because, while I wouldn't say I wasn't taking it seriously, I was being very liberal with designing it, writing Kyoko was something of an absolute nightmare. This was the set that convinced me that I needed a break, as it took months longer than I originally planned for it to writing-wise as I desperately wracked my brain to try to keep it interesting. I am not used to working without a core move to fall back on, some kind of gimmick I can safely call upon to make moves more interesting. It was just me trying to figure out how to keep the chain spear interesting for a full 23 inputs, giving her practical moves but making sure to never make it so dull as to lose interest but never so over the top and weird as to come across as tacky or break from the intended playstyle. That was a hard balancing act to do, and I'll be honest, I think the end result does lean maybe a bit too far into the "boring and safe" camp. It clearly failed to hook some people and placed much lower than Mina, and what fans it did have it never quite gave it the honors that flashier works all over this contest got, and I just wish I'd come up with some better but still practical ideas for a few of the inputs.

But honestly, for all the flak I'm giving it, this is a set that unlike Mina I'm genuinely proud of. I think the set, even if not absolutely perfect in its delivery, succeeded at what it set out to do. It was just meant to be the best set for Kyoko I could make, and to fix a mistake that was actually pretty upsetting for me at the time and I still felt a little bad about pretty much until I made this set. And dry as it was, I think I got the playstyle and character I wanted to make across about as well as I really could, I got to make some nice little extras and gifs to show that I still really like this character, and even if it didn't get top marks that was mostly just because competition was really stiff this time around. Honestly, I kind of wish this set and Mina swapped places, because while there's stuff I wonder I could've done better with this set, I feel its a good, polished effort with easily the most personal importance to me of the sets I made this time around. But there are quite a few people who still said it was a satisfying read for them and honestly, that's all I can really ask.

Master Xehanort's increasingly positive reception was honestly kind of surreal for me. Admittedly, I tend to be very bad at predicting when a set of mine is actually something people would be willing to push for a win, but when I was looking around at this contest, I just didn't see it happening. To me at least, Hol Horse felt like the kind of "super frontrunner" that was basically impossible to beat, like a Ribby and Croaks or sets like Dark Bowser/Ameno-sagiri from the past. But as time went on, the appreciation for Xehanort turned out to be just a bit more universal, and I think the point that was particularly eye opening for me on this set was Froy's reading and commentary on it. I'll be honest, someone actually going through and looking at the little things I did in this set, like how I structured Xehanort's summons on the Smashes, the little details to how his melee worked to make it practical but flawed, and the attempt to make his setups more spontaneous and less snowball-y than a lot of his MYM counterparts was a really good feeling. To be honest, part of why I was tired and frustrated with making MYM sets was that I never felt like the nuances of what I did ended up mattering to people, so hearing that it WAS part of what made the set so exciting for some people was immensely gratifying. This isn't just to say Froy was the only one whose feedback on this set was appreciated, I'm really happy to see Smady noticed my attempts to fix what he didn't like about Aurelia and hearing the raw excitement of people like Lex and Plague was also great.

As for the set's development, like Kyoko, it was a nightmare. But kind of for different reasons. As Kupa pointed out, I'm not a Kingdom Hearts superfan, and I'll be honest, the most direct exposure I've had to Kingdom Hearts was watching my neighbor mess around on Destiny Island in KH1 like 15 years ago. I made the character because, well, Kingdom Hearts 3 got a lot of discussion in MYM and Xehanort, a character who I had at least some awareness of and interest in, finally got to be in the limelight. And while his fight isn't perfect, I thought it was a cool way to cap off the whole Xehanort arc and it showed tons of cool ideas for a moveset. But he was kind of a tall ask as far as characters go, and the main Kingdom Hearts fans in MYM did not seem to care about giving him a set all that much. So I figured "I'll do it myself". Which involved a lot of research, checking out boss fights that weren't just his Kingdom Hearts 3 ones, looking up compilations of the character on youtube, and having Froy go over the intro I made for him because his plan is so utterly insane I needed a proofreader to make sure I got the details right even after hearing it explained to me multiple times. And writing the set, I was constantly on edge as to if I was using his potential well-enough. Xehanort has enough for an entire moveset in the final phase of his Kingdom Hearts 3 fight alone, but if I wanted to really maximize it, I'd need to go and explore his other material too.

So this set had a really long design period, with me planning the Specials before I even started writing Mina, and Xehanort was my last set released this contest. There was a lot of deliberating on how Stopza would work, the late addition of the three Xehanort version of Neutral Special to give a more practical middle ground, and figuring out how exactly the buffs/debuffs of Side Special would work. Ironically for how proud I am of Up Special and how well-recieved it was, that move was surprisingly easy to figure out the details of. From there it was a matter of writing out the melee, where I honestly kept wondering if I wasn't flexing Xehanort's power set far enough and if it'd turn out oddly boring. The answer to that was a flat no despite a lot of Xehanort's moves being relatively simple sword strikes plus a Nobody follow up, so hey, its good to know my instincts that not trying to go insane for the sake of it was a good move were right. Then there was the matter of Down Smash, a move I'm honestly surprised everyone liked as much as they did because I spent the entire design period of this set going "how the hell is Xemnas' laser dome ever possibly going to work in Smash" and even at the end I was wondering if what I put out there was a weird and clunky half-measure. I don't know if a single move has ever haunted me quite as much as Xehanort's Down Smash did, but from what I heard from feedback it actually paid off despite me constantly thinking it wouldn't.

I seriously can't stress enough how the overwhelmingly well-written and positve feedback made this set all worth it to me. The commentary I got on this set was unlike any I've gotten in a long time. It made all the stressing I did over the specifics feel worth it and really put a smile on my face, and has made me a lot more fond of this set reflecting on it. Would I say its my best? Yeah, easily. For a while I still wanted to say Aurelia was at the very least my favorite because unlike Xehanort that design period was an absolute blast, but the end result here was more satisfying and I think Xehanort overall is just both more consistent and has noticeably higher highs. Does it have problems? Yeah. I missed out on adding gifs to it(because real life was stressing me the hell out at the time) which made some moves a bit confusing to people who don't know Kingdom Hearts, and I feel like the animations on the Nobodies get pretty redundant. Probably most importantly is a lot of the text of the set is suggesting combos, some of which I think might not actually work. Using Up Smash's massive hitbox to make it easier to combo out of someone taking a large amount of knockback is a cool idea in theory that doesn't work quite as well in Ultimate's mechanics practicality-wise, because knockback taken sends people flying so fast. Its a shame as I like being able to combo off high knockback attacks as a concept but Ultimate's not giving me that luxury as much, but whatever. Even if its pretty impractical or outright doesn't work, I'd say Xehanort doesn't NEED it to be a set I'm very proud of. I can think of much bigger complaints about every set of mine that's not Xehanort, anyway, and if this is how I'm going to fade out of Make Your Move for the moment, its the best way I could've done it.


And yeah, I guess I should now address the elephant in the room. I don't know when I'm going to make another moveset at this point, even if admittedly right now the atmosphere is quite infectious. There's a few reasons why, with one of the bigger ones being burnout. I mentioned quite a bit in this writeup that Kyoko and Xehanort were EXTREMELY difficult sets to make, to the point I think in the former's writing it outright started to show. Its gotten to the point that reading sets is an actual struggle for me, when I used to have a reputation as "being the guy who reads sets at an absolutely absurd pace". In spite of how the reception made it all feel worth it, throughout all of MYM20-22, the only set that was gratifying to me during the actual writing process was Aurelia. She's also a weird exception, because Aurelia's creation process was very different than every other set, as I discussed tons of story stuff for her with UserShadow/Froy/Jamie and spent even more time on the backstory/character interaction/characterization stuff with her than I did on the set itself. There's a reason I started leaning into OCs a lot lately, because I stopped being as invested in just writing sets for movesets sake. I'm not the kind of fan of Smash Bros that other people in this community are even if I do enjoy it a lot.

What compounds the issue is, well, I have a lot of other stuff on my plate right now. I not only have a job, but in this trying time I'm considered an essential worker who has to go in during all this. Its not a job I'm fully happy with, so I want to try and pursue computer programming work instead, even if that's admittedly coming along very slowly. And... well, I have another creative outlet now. I started writing story stuff rather than movesets, and I just find it way more gratifying, and feel like its not just going to all stop mattering after a contest ends. Works created for MYM feel like their value is very temporary, after that just kind of lost to time to either become memetic or forgotten over the years, at best inspiring future works to pick up their ideas and translate them better. Sure, the aging process for movesets has slowed dramatically, but I've felt for quite a long time now that any work I put into movesets will ultimately result in a hollow, temporary gratification that means so much less to me now than it used to. I shouldn't really be saying that after how many kind words you've all given me this contest, I have to say I'm immensely grateful for them, but... that's just how I feel. And honestly, because of the pressure of being a leader and weird personal hangups from times when the quantity of movesets you made per contest was made into a vastly bigger deal, I find it incredibly hard to let myself do the things I want to do that aren't movesets when a moveset is hanging over my head, even if it'd be better in the long term for me to do something else. Remember how I said I found story writing way more gratifying of a writing process than Make Your Move lately? I haven't written anything in nearly 8 months just to read and write sets, despite desperately wanting to on more than one occasion.

So, yeah. I don't think is super healthy for me, and I'm going to need to step back, for a while. Until I fix my personal hangups, until I'm more satisfied with where I'm at with my storywriting, and until my life is a bit more together. I don't know when that'll be, or if what I'm doing otherwise is really worth it. I mean I'm so lacking in confidence in my storywriting I haven't even shown it to quite a few people I consider to be close friends, and honestly looking back at the first stuff I did I outright need to rewrite it entirely. But that's what I intend to do going forward, even if I'm going to still try to read and comment(albeit probably at a greatly reduced pace). As for why I'm staying in leadership despite all that for the moment? Well, I've got a couple bits of unfinished buisness to take care of there(and also Reigaheres just made us that cool banner, let's have it be accurate for a couple months at least). But honestly, if you're interested in a leadership position, please let me know, I'm not going to be here that much longer.


With all that selfish stuff out of the way, I really do owe so many people a shoutout for all the good they've done me, both in this contest and throughout MYM history. So, hey, let's just rip off everyone else's structure while we're here.

FrozenRoy: Well, first of all, good job absolutely killing it for the second contest in a row. I meant what I said about Hol Horse being a "super frontrunner", that set is just absolutely stupid good, and I'm still wondering if I really deserved to beat it in the end. I wasn't expecting you to blow Ulrich Hetfield of all sets out of the water but here we are. Quilby and Black Polnareff are also insanely good, Alex only got cut from SV at the last possible moment in a move I was pretty sad to make, and Nox is the kind of set I could easily see myself Super Voting in a weaker contest. But like, all praise on the setmaking front aside, its also been really good to just have you around as a friend. Its been nice to just be able to talk about basically anything with someone, and you helped me a lot both with some personal issues and also my setmaking/storywriting stuff in equal measures, which I can't emphasize enough how much I appreciate. Its really gratifying to know you've finally gotten your electricity back, the amount of things you did for this community while having to wander in public in search of the nearest internet source is. Well. Frankly unbelievable, we're all super lucky to have you. You've been like a brother to me and I really hope life's got better things in store for you now.

Smash Daddy: From what I've heard, things have been pretty rough on your end lately, and I know sometimes its kinda hard to look on the bright side of things. But frankly, you had a great contest. Looking at Rudy, Hugo, and Ennard, you've cleaned up the slightly cluttered setmaking approach that was holding back your great ideas from shining through and even if its not quite the MYM17 glory days, you trucked on to yet another Top 5. All this while being among the most consistent commenters in the contest, and dropping a fantastic post-contest Top 13 to top it all off. I know it can feel like your results weren't entirely what you wanted them to be, especially in the context of life weighing down on you so much, but this was an insane contest and every single set of yours ended up highly respected. Its fun to watch your style grow over time, and honestly on the leadership front, you've done the same. Your approach to leading has always been measured, not making rash decisions but also understanding when the contest needs to change, and we'd honestly be a lot worse off without you. You've been a good friend too, I've been able to fall back on you a lot throughout my time in this contest and we've had some very fun and humerous media discussions. I really ought to get on watching The Dark Crystal already, I'm sure we'd have a blast talking about that.

UserShadow: I do not entirely understand where this sudden, massive burst of energy you've gotten for writing movesets came from, especially considering its just flat out continued into MYM23. You just dropped a, like, 33k word set on us or something and also I had fun reading it despite my intense burnout. That's ridiculous, and its been fun watching your style continue to just evolve in subtle ways over the past few contests as you prove yourself one of the top setmakers in the community. And on top of that, you're just a really cool dude. You're incredibly relaxed and easy to talk to, I don't know how anyone could take issue with your just generally likeable demeanor and solid analysis on such a wide variety of media. In spite of struggling a bit on the setreading front, you've soldiered on regardless and actually proven yourself quite capable of giving good feedback, and reading the immense MYM22 catalogue while putting out edits to enhance like 5 different sets at once. Conceptualizing all that material for Team ARTS with you was an absolute blast and one of the best experiences I've had in MYM in a long time, so I seriously want to thank you for that.

Professor Lexicovermis: On the subject of much newer people, welcome to the big leagues Lex! I think everyone's said enough how competitive this ridiculous contest was. You got 3rd. We have people like Kat who couldn't break Top 15 despite putting out some really good work(and I really mean no disparagement to Kat, I'll get to him), and on top of that you only missed ONE Super Vote of all the possible ones you could get. And Aki earned it! That is a 25,000 word moveset written on a phone with consistent high quality across an interlocked pair of transformation sets. I cannot emphasize enough how impressed I was with this set when I first read it, and that was before you went back and just fixed like almost every mistake in it. Beyond the massive praise I have for your breakthrough effort(which, based on Prae, gimmicky circumstances or no, I think you've kept the lessons from well enough), its been nice seeing you mature as a person throughout your time in MYM. You've grown up a lot, gotten more comfortable in our community, and honestly become a pretty good friend, we've had quite a few fun conversations recently. Plus hearing about your really bizarre life experiences is a hoot and a half, and I gotta say you handle some of that stuff like a champ. Its been great getting to know you.

Katapultar: As Smady said, I don't think your highest placing this contest reflects how impressive of an effort it actually was. I firmly believe Kunai was a Top 10 level set with some really fun ideas and execution that built even higher on the already great Shinobu, and it just so happens that your only problem was that not everyone agreed on that. Instead you got people saying Armie was a Top 10 quality set, Nasary was a Top 10 quality set, Parla was a Top 10 quality set, hell I'm sure a lot of us would've been cool with Reigen in the Top 10. I recognize I had some harsh words about Nasary/Parla's reading experience and I apologize for that, because I've got nothing but respect for the effort you put into those sets and like, if nothing else they taught you some valuable lessons and caused Aki to exist. Your presense in chat and the community is always really fun, as your observations are often quite fascinating and you write up some very enjoyable stuff. Be that a moveset, useful commentary(I did quite enjoy what you had to say about my sets this time even though you were arguably my harshest critic), or just for fun writeups beyond all that. Your presense in the community will always be a welcome one, and based on what you've done in MYM23 already I know that's not about to stop anytime soon.

BKupa666: You know, back when I ripped into Skowl as much as I did back in MYM15, I really wondered if I did the right thing afterwards. You took the advice in stride once it was formally written out, but part of me worried I really did just discourage you and make you think your style was out of date. It turns out, hell no its not! Your experience with MYM's esoteric ideas and standards actually translates beautifully to the modern age with a bit of time spent playing Ultimate and re-evaluating how you approach sets. All your MYM22 efforts, plus SkekMal now that MYM23's out, were a treat to read and its so satisfying to see you move into the modern setmaking age with grace that few people can claim to have. This isn't even talking about your commentary or the comfort with which you moved back into a leadership role, which have both been exceptional. I really enjoyed your comments on Mina and Kyoko and you've posted some surprisingly insightful stuff elsewhere too, I think you could easily end up being one of the most helpful community members going forward. Having you around to chat with has been fun too, and its been great being a fellow K. Rool fan during this time of celebration for us. Especially after all the work you put in on that front, it was really something to see the dedication you had to getting him in Smash and I genuinely think with all the work you did that you might've had a genuine, influential impact on it. Cheers to escaping irrelevancy!

Kholdstare: Speaking of people making a comeback, uh, this one left me kinda stunned. I hate to bring this up amidst a celebratory post, but you did not have a good reputation before your return, and I'm kinda floored by how well you turned it around. You've proven you can give in-depth feedback and some unique stances on movesets that are actually pretty enjoyable to read, and on top of that, there's Kira. Kira did not end up on my SV list, but its still a really solid set for what might be my favorite villain ever, and you absolutely went out of your way to give him the treatment he deserves. Beyond just a good, solid playstyle with a lot of depth, you also went out of your way to represent his entire arc in the presentation, which was rad. And while you don't seem to want it to get much credit, I'll be honest, Lon Lon Ranch was a laugh a minute and a fun exploration of a completely absurd idea, even if the result wasn't objectively good. Plus you've been a very enjoyable chat presense, I've jokingly said your image editting skills to make memes are the backbone of MYM but honestly that stuff really is fun to have around, and the added maturity has made it a lot easier to have a good, serious conversation with you. Looking forward to what you do in the future man, its pretty inspiring how much you've turned things around.

Dr. Slavic: You know, despite the fact that Kano is not my kind of moveset, you quietly had a really solid contest this time around. The rework of PaniK was quite impressive as it took a set I wasn't too fond of and made it into what I think is your best work ever, and Bakugo was also just a really solid little set that showed you demonstrate much stronger use of melee and mobility. These sets got overshadowed mostly because this was a crazy stacked contest, I kinda wish these sets were in MYM21 because it would've looked quite a bit more eye-opening compared to the rest of the contest by comparison. Still, you've made a point of making your next contst "loud" with the hilariously surreal Exeggcute and now Mami, who, based off everything I've heard, is a set I am quite hype for. Also I gotta say I find getting to chat with you to be a lot of fun when it does happen, and I swear you've taken a joke I made and made it about 20x funnier on more than one occasion by bouncing off it. Plus you're actually a pretty solid commenter on top of all that. Its a bit overdue as you actually caught onto the basics of MYM pretty fast, but I'm thinking we should start watching you some, you look like you might be approaching a breakthrough that'll put you in the big leagues and even now, your sets have a quietly enjoyable charm to them which makes them pretty fun to read.

Bianca (Bionichute): You know, one thing I can say for you this contest is it does feel like at least personally, you've figured yourself out a bit. Even if Arina wasn't my cup of tea, I got the impression you were a fair bit more passionate writing her than you usually are with movesets and it was nice to see you go outside your usual character zone in MYM. I know that was fun for me when I started doing it. Also I gotta say the moments where we actually do end up overlapping in taste on something are a lot of fun, and you've actually shared some pretty enjoyable stuff with me. Also its exciting to hear you pursuing some writing opportunities outside of MYM, I'm really excited to see where they go. And as for MYM, if you're feeling a little down on your own performance, a lot of people did like Arina, Lord Zedd, and Sarcophacurse, its just the contest was so stacked that the people who were fans of them couldn't give them as much stock as in a lighter contest. And hey, with Lex making a big breakthrough and Slavic making a slow, gradual one, maybe you'll follow in their footsteps.

Jamie: You sat this contest out for the most part, but I mean, it'd be a lie to say your presense at least last contest wasn't felt a lot. First of all, I've given Sylvia a bit of flak entirely becuase I don't like it quite as much as some other people do. That does not mean it wasn't good. On the contrary, it being good and other people loving it so much has actually had some not insignificant impact on my sets, I don't really think I would've even tried to make Kyoko without the grounding that a set like that can do so well. Aside from that, you did play a not-insignificant role in the ARTS movement's creation even if Trace isn't out yet, conceptualizing with you was a lot of fun, and its been nice to see you lighten up over your time in MYM. With Prae out, it looks like you're actually doing movesets again, so maybe MYM23 can be the legendary 2 Jamie set contest. I mean, I'd be excited, your style has a unique flair to it that definently sticks with the reader afterwards, if how much fun was had with Magearna's Heart Swap and Sylvia's uh... something, is anything to go by.

IvanQuote: Well, you finally did it. You got me to vote one of your sets, only one contest after I was as insanely harsh on Fark as I was. And it was really cool seeing both Robin and the GUN Soldier/Black Warrior combo this contest to show major steps up in your ability to make cool concepts and playstyles in the former... and just make a really enjoyable reading experience in the case of the latter. I recognize your position in MYM has occasionally been treated like a bit of a joke, which... probably isn't too fun, and I'm sorry if I've been too harsh on you in the past, but you take it in stride, and have actually been making considerable evolution over the past couple contests. You're a good dude and its clear you haven't just been taking criticism lying down, so I'll be interested to see if you can shoot way higher than 34th in the future. I think its honestly pretty possible with a little more work on the post-Specials parts of your sets!

Munomario: Well, you made the decision to kinda move on from MYM, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't get it. The stuff you've been doing in Rivals of Aether is legitamately impressive as honestly, from what I've seen, your sets both stylistically and gameplay-wise feel like they're right at home in RoA, and it must be so satisfying to actually play your handiwork. I've enjoyed your grounded, sensible approach to MYM over the years with the occasional wild ambition like you demonstrated last contest, so I'll just share the sentiment everyone else did that if you ever do feel motivated to try booting up MYM and writing up a set document again, I'd love it. Andrea and Reapress were fun little sets, after all. Plus, while we admittedly don't talk a ton as of late, we've definently had some pretty good times in the past and I hope we get a good excuse to chat at some point in the future, anyway.

Bubbyboytoo: Hey, so congrats on stepping it up quite a bit with Whisper's concepts/edits and Zeraora. You took the feedback Froy gave you and actually made it into a sizeable improvement, which isn't something everyone achieves and I think its pretty admirable. Keep that up, and you certainly will be a hard one to ignore going forward! Also while its more been for other people than for me, you've done some cool little projects for the RoA fans and the Pokemon room, and I think the runes idea you proposed was a clever little thing for hypothetical MYM singleplayer content. And your presense sometimes helps make chat feel a little... lighter, somehow. Keep up the good work man!

Reigaheres: You've kinda dipped in and out of chat, sure, but it looks like you might be back for real this time. That's pretty exciting, and while Tamaki Damo was not necessarily a competitive set, I did enjoy the writing style flair it had as you demonstrate a pretty enjoyable sense of humor. I hear that carries into the Pork Trooper too, gonna have to check that one out soon! That stadium banner you made for us is great, by the way, your artwork's come quite far and has loads of personality. I'm kinda reeling now learning you wrote Undyne when you were like 12, holy crap, once you get back into the swing of things you might be a real monster of a setmaker! I'm hoping to see that pan out.

ZLBPup: You know, good first showing with the continued efforts to improve Springtrap, it wasn't personally my cup of tea but it actually did end up with a few fans. You're still pretty fresh to the community, so you haven't done a lot of setreading or writing yet and its a bit hard to get a grasp of what your style is, but I've grown to enjoy you as a presense in chat if nothing else. You're a very kind, supportive person, and honestly pretty easy to talk too on the occasions we have gotten to chat. Stick around, we like having you here!

Plague: Just gotta say, shoutouts to you for reading every single MYM22 set within like a month after you joined like a couple weeks from the end of the contest. That is a bold entrance you made there and I actually really appreciate it, honestly. Also you seem to have some actual decent knowledge of how Smash works, as Ethan occasionally showed bits where it actually felt you had decent ideas of how these moves would play out in practice that were honestly pretty impressive for someone still so new. Between that and your massive amount of reading, I think you'll adjust in just fine, and its been fun watching you go on the wacky ride that is Jojo's Bizarre Adventure in chat.

Dilliam: While you weren't really a presense in MYM22, just want to say I like where you're going from what I've seen in MYM23. Your commentary is nice and fleshed out, you clearly have a decent concept of playstyle you just need to develop a little more, and despite your irreverant goofy personality in chat its clear you can actually knuckle down and take things seriously on the contest end. I'd recommend people keep an eye on you, there's clearly potential here.

FruitLoops: So this is a little awkward as I did kick you out of chat(twice) and I don't really intend to let you back in. With all that said, let me just be clear as to why, its basically a matter of trust. You didn't stop doing something when we asked, and then you decided to circumvent your ban. But, while we're here, let me just say that I don't think this is necessarily something you can never recover from. Rebuilding trust takes time, and work, but you're still here in the thread and making comments, able to give people feedback and produce your own sets. I won't promise the timeline will be smooth or anything, and you're going to have to make sure to change your behavior, but you shouldn't feel a need to totally count yourself out of our community either. I actually appreciate your kind words about me, I imagine that wasn't too easy to type when I've been less than kind to you in return.

Majora: Hey listen you know what you get a shoutout here too. You might not have been out of MYM for a long time but you're still a really good friend, and possibly the biggest influence and inspiration for my storywriting. Its always great to talk to you, and whether or not you wanted a shoutout in this post, you're getting one!

And that's that, I hope you all know how much I appreciate you and the contest we've worked on together for so long. For now, from a setmaking side, farewell, but I'll try to keep caught up on at least reading the cool stuff you all put out. And as for me... well. I'm not done. Not by a long shot. Once I get thinks sorted out, well...

I have unfinished buisness to do.​

 

[FrozenRoy]

"There is no truth in the Force. But there is truth in you, exile. And that is why I chose you."

"Hesitation is defeat."

"Not underestimating a shinigami would be in your best interest. Even the Celestials fear Death, you know?"

"I see blood and destructioooon! Our elimination because of one man...blood and destruction because of one man..."

"I haven't found anything like that. But I was able to make up my mind. As long as I can't see her getting close to me, I can't stay defensive. I need to attack. I'll nail it! That unbeaten attack of hers!"

"See that? My wish has been granted...there's no way I'll ever regret it!"

"Wild roses...my dream is a world filled with wild roses."

Found in the boiler room with a weapon resembling an ice-pick sticking out of his chest. How presumptuous of lowly furniture like that. / Her corpse was found inside the rose garden storehouse. It seems the side of her head was smashed after her death. Don't worry. Everyone will be revived in the Golden Land.

"I understand. Your only choice is to revolutionize the world. The path you must take has been prepared for you."

"O' Imaginary God, I hereby declare the defeat of human wisdom. Its gaze is old, its limbs are fragile, its knowledge has stagnated. As the last human, I have judged the countless decisions, the numerous frustrations and all of the prosperity to be void."

(I stayed up until 9:20 or so AM because I had to think of a few of these and struggled what to put down, didn't put Pratty down since y'all know she's coming, enjoy lmao. And if you wanna guess, feel free...maybe without Google.)

 

[Deleted member]

So we come to that time again where I reminisce on the previous MYM! A little bit late to the party on this one as MYM23 is in full swing and FA already put out a fantastic all-covering retrospective of his own I can't really hope to match as far as Important Announcements (to my knowledge I'm not going anywhere and I have no big set to advertise) but nonetheless, I'm obligated to give some closing thoughts. For me MYM22 may well be my all time favourite Make Your Move, what with the very hype character choices, the community all coming together and the set quality being at an all time high. The only real negative was that the sets were a little difficult to read in a timely fashion which is nothing new to recent MYMs. Overall this is definitely up there for me alongside 18/20 as what I feel are the all time best MYMs, and I still have a lot of love for 17 and 21 too, as well as many of the MYMs I've been played some part in, which is basically all of them since MYM3.

As far as my own sets I can handily go down in set posting order before I get to my highest placing set, just like last time! So first up was Hugo and this set was a pretty fun and not that hard production. IIRC, I actually completed this a good while before Roy had Alex ready waiting to post them together. I'm glad I did as it only makes the luck of them placing right next to each other on the Top 50 all the more great. This set is notable as my first real melee-only set in many years. It has a complex meter and input system going on, but the attacks themselves are all punches, kicks and wrestling moves. Hugo is a character I've always really loved even going back to the early-mid 2000s when I'd discuss SF3 on various forums and had a friend who showed me how to do his 720 Gigas Breaker super on YouTube back in probably 05. I never even considered a set for him until I saw what Roy did with Balrog. While 16th may not be an amazing placing it's still really good and I'm very happy about how this set was received and how I finished up the set. I totally get why Rog is still by far the best placing of these just because he was so novel at the time and was a very well made set. I'm also really glad I got to do a project like this with Roy who is always reliable to put out a good set, and I did end up SVing Alex, so all in all it went perfectly.

My next set was Ennard and he was produced as part of Bizarro Day. This was a really fun and unlikely sort of event I came up with on the fly at one point because I thought it'd be cool if MYMers made sets they weren't expected to make and led to some really great ideas. Mine was probably one of the more conventional choices you might normally see in MYM if not by me (and it's amusing to me how people like Khold were so shocked by me doing a FNAF set) while Lon Lon Ranch was on the other end of crazy unlikely sets that took Bizarro Day to another level. Every set made for the day I appreciate in making it a success. My idea for this MYM is an "Emote Day" and I'm not going to go into depth on the specifics, but whenever it happens, if it's even half as successful as Bizarro Day was I'll be ecstatic.

All that without even getting into Ennard itself and Ennard was like Hugo actually a very straightforward set to make. I had the idea of the metal wires immediately and the eyes were also one of my very first ideas, with stuff like the Jump Scare coming later. Honestly I really think I hit it out of the park with focusing on fringe stuff like Initial Dash that I've never seen focused on in this way in MYM and having stuff like the obscuring pink gas to cover up what Ennard is doing. The amount of horror subtext in the set was a real pleasure to write and it was awesome talking to US learning about this series I knew very little about. Personally I avoid YouTube stuff like the plague which is probably why it was surprising for other MYMers that I'd touch this franchise, because it doesn't seem bad to me on an objective level. I'm happy if I helped give a bit of a road map for future FNAF sets and who knows, maybe I'll return to the series myself at some point. This is another set I am very satisfied about and a top 10 placing is a huge accolade in such a packed MYM let alone two sets there.

I actually thought Ennard or Hugo could be the highest placing of my sets at various points and I'd have been happy if they were, as unlike last MYM, I had a good time making all of them. Ennard was the one I made the fewest edits to though and it felt satisfying that I was largely able to walk away from the set without having to change all that much about it.

Last but not least Rudy the Clown was easily the most difficult set of my 3 in MYM22 to make, but was probably the most satisfying and set I am most proud of especially now he has attained such a high place at 4th place. I was pretty unsure how well I would do before votes came in. Well you guys were hugely supportive of Rudy! I made Rudy after beating Wario Land 3 for the first time and was so impressed by it I immediately made the moveset to commemorate things and pay tribute to a classic game/character. It gave me a renewed appreciation for Wario in general and Wario Land. I didn't really expect the set to take off as much as my two other sets, as you can actually see in my reply to AC!D!C's comment in the thread. It was wonderful seeing over time everyone get on board of the set's hype train.

What's funny with this set is I didn't even have the most flashy concept of the music boxes until near the end of the set's development. At first, it was mostly focused on the hands. The hands are a big part of the set too but it was clearly the music boxes that caught everyone's imagination and I am really proud of what I managed to do with those boxes. It was not an easy character in general to do being that his boss fight is all the hands, he never summons the WL3 enemies and the music boxes are interpreted in this way entirely for the set. I had to stretch a lot of potential from WL3 to make the set work at all, but in the end it was worth the effort.

I was never really a fan of WL3 in the past, as said I only just beat it this MYM, but I do always remember him being brought up in MYM as a great character. Didn't think I'd be the one to put out a high placing set for Rudy. But I also knew if it wasn't going to me, it would probably never happen, the same mindset FA had when he made Xehanort. I feel like this is a good mindset to have at this point. Don't sit on any hype characters you want to do. We're not going to be doing sets for forever and some of us are getting pretty old, who knows what'll happen in the future! Make sets that'll make you proud. I think we all did ourselves proud last MYM, and I was far happier about my MYM22 than my MYM21. I didn't make that many sets but they were all far more fun to produce and got the kind of reception I wanted. Thanks to everyone who read my sets and supported them for the top 50! All these years later it still means a great deal that everyone appreciates my contributions. It feels like the community is now in a great place and I'm happy to be a part of it all.

Now I'm not sure I can really do justice to the kind of post FA just put out so I'm going to do more quickfire shout outs. First of all, I'd like to thank everyone else in leadership, FA, Roy, Kupa and US. You were all irreplaceable contributors and friends in MYM22. We manage to keep MYM together through thick and thin doing the grunt work that's needed, and while it's not exactly intensive work, it's still necessary for things to run smoothly. Credit especially to Roy for doing a lot of follow ups on people's reading encouraging them to vote, and all you guys for being leaders et al in the community. You're all worth looking up to for the membership at large.

Kat I'd like to give a particular shout out to as one of my longest running friends in the community. It's always a joy reading your sets even when they're 25k words long and I admire your dedication. Similarly US really stepped it up lately, and Lex making all sets on his phone. You guys' dedication to MYM is unbelievable! I'm glad too along these lines, that Khold managed to top 10 with his great Kira set. I'm not sure if it's a thing to be the one big fan of Dead Hand but if it is, I was that guy, and I knew you had it in you to make a set of Kira's caliber. I hope you make a load more in MYM23.

Slavic I had a huge amount of fun reading PaniK and Kano was also surprisingly solid in my opinion, it feels like even though you didn't do Gamagori-levels of great, you quietly massively improved your set making style. I'm now very interested to see what you do in the future and always enjoy having you around, it's always fun talking to you in chat. IvanQuote I always honestly thought you were a pretty interesting guy for your opinions and I get the sense you've matured a lot over the years and made sets like Robin last MYM that were genuinely good and your best ever. We don't talk a whole lot, but I did have a blast reading GUN/Black Soldier and I'm glad you're around. Bionichute you posted some of your best sets and despite that didn't do super well, just because MYM22 was really stacked. I hope you continue improving into MYM23.

Bubby I was happy reading your retrospective and seeing I had some positive impact on your sets. I should really try and be more supportive of you from now on because our ideas about sets are very different, but I respect where you're coming from, I'm also glad to hear you've dealt with some personal issues and that you've found a comfortable spot in the community. Reiga it's great having you back and your art was an amazing addition to the Stadium that I hope I don't have to ask you to change too soon when FA leaves! I'm also hype to see how FPT turned out and for your future sets, I hope you stick around! Jamie you always have pretty unique takes on sets and I definitely like that you're posting them again. We may not see eye to eye on these opinions and I dunno if we'll ever be close but I respect your mindset nonetheless. Who knows, stranger things have happened.

To the chat squad: Borb, Cerulean, It's Tea, it's fun talking to all of you but you should post a set already. Going to get awkward if you don't! Still I enjoy talking to you all.

The newer guys, Plague, Dilliam, Pup, I'm glad to have you aboard and I've also kind of failed with this new generation to give much in the way of support as I have in the past. I'm glad other people have stepped up a bit in this regard, and I'll try to do better in the future. I'm glad you're all here and you all bring a unique new flavour to the community. Never be afraid to ask for help and remember that reading other sets is always the best way to improve at making sets.

So that's that and I hope I didn't miss anyone. If I did, sorry I didn't get to you. This was a tremendous MYM and I would hope MYM23 is half as good. Thanks everyone!