The Tournament of Kikai is another Spin-Off of the classic fanfiction, Ultimate Video Rumble. This story is a Mega Crossover tournament fanfic with many franchises competing to become the champion of the world. However, unlike other spinoffs, this one comes with a unique twist. While the standards of it being a Royal Rumble-style rules are there, it comes with a wheel to spun by the hosts, and whatever the wheel lands on, something good or bad will happen to either the contestant or how the arena will work. Most of these characters come from a good combination of fighting games, platformers, RPGs and cartoons/anime. Also like the UVR and the spin-offs that came before it, the Tournament of Kikai is also a votefic, where the readers vote on which of the thirty (or occasionally, forty) fighters in the ring at a time will survive a particular "Section", and when the arena is filled again, the voting process restarts until only one fighter remains.
This tournament follows this format, with having an arena of fighters to vote on, with an occasional Side Battle that goes on outside the ring. At the same time, there's an evil plot that's going on, and the mission of stopping it falls onto the shoulders of many groups of unusual heroes joining forces to take down the villains together.
An interesting thing of note is that whilst some nodes have made appearances as Mystery Fighters in other UVR spinoffs, this is the first time characters from Disney and Cartoon Network have entered the ring, with video game appearances to their name.
The Tournament of Kikai was inspired by Megamix Tournament, Battle of the Luminaries and Okron Tournament, all three of which are referenced in said fic, alongside the original UVR.
The first Tournament of Kikai, which began on July 2020 and finished on September 2022, can be found here
. Tournament of Kikai 2 which began on May 31, 2023, can be found here.
These stories provide examples of...
- Big Bad: In this tournament, the main villain is Xehanort, as he and what's left of Organization XIII team up with other characters from the franchises represented.
- Big Bad Wannabe: At least it was looking that way at the start... The TRUE Big Bad was Junko Enoshima
- Butt-Monkey: Invoked upon Nack the Weasel by Xero. Ever since Nack eliminated Captain Olimar or in Xero's eyes, Steve, the rabbit had developed an Irrational Hatred for him and purposefully not only rigged the wheel so that Nack would be its first victim, but is currently spending the majority of the tournament going from dangerous elimination world to elimination world. In contrast, Olimar is taken to more tamer worlds.
- Not that Xero himself had a fun run himself. He was the target of many insults and even projectile due to his Pointy-Haired Boss antics which in the ending up with him, Maurice and Junko and Tsugumi. got tied to the fireworks for the end of the show by Olimar and Nack for everything he did.
- Clear My Name: Ichigo is accused of Marie while she was Brainwashed and later Xehanort while everyone were unconscious by Knockout Gas. Fortunately, Kisshu was able to do so for her.
- Denser and Wackier: While the previous UVR-spinoffs are no stranger to absurd situations and eliminations, this one definitely takes the cake. For starters, there is a good chunk of people who got their eliminations by accident whether it was a stray shot or literally being thrown in an unsuspecting people. There are a couple of eliminations where they would get an elimination from someone for touching them last. Like from Mr. Freeze freezing Raven and sent her skidding away towards Zelda However, she thought quickly and vaulted over it and thus it went to Zelda because of that. Mr. Freeze was not happy.
- Disaster Dominoes: Due to the chaotic and wacky nature of the tournament, it isn't any surprise that this trope came out a few times. It happened when a bunch of fighters were trying to face off against the The Dark Queennote At first, they were doing decently. Then, Mario were tossed from another fight into TRON not only knocking him out of the ring, but happened as he was about to throw two of his discs. The first one knocked Zero into Donald Duck's Blizzaga spell, not only freezing him and knocking him out of the ring. The second one hit Hinata and while she didn't eliminated, she DID knocked Ryo Sakazaki into Beowulf and Beast. Beowulf angrily eliminated Ryo thinking that the latter pushed him on purpose and then Beast eliminated Beowulf either because he thought he pushed him down or got angry than Beowulf got rid of an ally for a petty reason. In layman's terms, four people were knocked out of the ring in the span of only a few seconds. Oof... Just Oof...
- Even Evil Has Standards: Junko Enoshima may be the despair-obsessed Sadist as always, but even she is disgusted by Dr. Psycho for his infamous use of a certain word. She is also disturbed by Duke's extremely offensive attire.
- Halloween Episode: Or rather Halloween Section. Xero had decided to celebrate Halloween for one section despite it was being July because there were a lot of Halloween-themed fighters in the ring.
- Christmas Episode: Later on, Xero and Maurice decided to hold a Christmas Section, though unlike the Halloween section as while it is still July in In-Universe, out of universe, it was around the holiday season why the author put up the section.
- Hijacked by Ganon: At first, it seemed like Xehanort was the Big Bad of the story. But then, not only had their plans hijacked by a mysterious force, but he was also killed.
- Hostile Show Takeover: Junko Enoshima had taken over a section after Xero had foolishly signed her up as part of the staff. She, through Monokuma, forced a system where the concept of Big Guysnote is negated and the remaining fifteen people will be forced-strapped to a chair and have to kill each other by voting. However, thanks to Xero's Loophole Abuse, she was stopped, but tried again in the following section where she tried to unleash the the Pink Elephants, but again Xero foiled her plain (albeit by dumping the Pink Elephants inside of the dome and forced Maki and Della to deal with it). Eventually, Xero and Maurice caught Junko, but the former actually made a compromise with her saying that the audience actually loved her antics and had her join in exchange for not killing anyone, but she DOES want a good chunk of snowglobes with screams of despair (though they are just fake). Thus, she more or less became an unofficial third host.
- Instrument of Murder: After being at the receiving end of a cruel "Reason You Suck" Speech by his crush, Ichigo. Kisshu was devastated and wanted to show Ichigo that he could be a proper hero. So he abandoned his sais and took a guitar (Quickdraw McDraw's to be exact.) and entered the arena fighting with it. It should be noted he is one of, if not the only fighter in the entire tournament to fight with a brand-new weapon.
- Irrational Hatred: Xero display intense hatred for Nack the Weasel because he... Eliminated Captain Olimar and nothing more.
- Mai Shiranui has a burning rage towards the Smash fighters. While it is somewhat justified, considering because she didn't get a cameo in the latest game due to her Stripperiffic designnote But she takes it to absurd levels, acting like the fighters themselves get to decide who gets to go in. She even continued her grudge even when she, Marth, and Lucario were fighting off the Slenderman!
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Due to the fact that this tournament takes place after Ultimate Video Rumble, Megamix Tournament, and Battle of the Luminaries, there are big spoilers on who the champions are in those tournaments. Especially with all of them getting into their own battle in section 4 and three of them appearing as mystery fighters.
- Meaningful Name: Kikai is Japanese for "chance", which is a perfect explanation of the theme of the tournament. At the start of every section and after five people have been eliminated, a wheel spun with the fighters' faces on it and whoever it lands on will either get something that will help or hinder them (except Monokuma is in charge then all of the wheel's options will be punishments. Also, at the end of every round, the person with the most votes will get the choice between three envelopes that will making them different.
- Mega Crossover:
- Discounting the Mystery Fighters, there are characters from Street Fighter V, King of Fighters XIV, Super Smash Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Spyro the Dragon, Sly Cooper, Kingdom Hearts, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Mega Man, The DCU, Tokyo Mew Mew, Skullgirls, Battle Arena Toshinden, and Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion.
- The second tournament took out DC Comics, Megaman and Battle Arena Toshinden, swapped Street Fighter V with a series-wide roster that includes every newcomer known to be in Street Fighter 6 at the time of Kikai 2's publishing, and changed the King Of Fighters XIV roster to the one from The King of Fighters XV. The new nodes includes Final Fight, Art of Fighting, Kirby, Pokémon, Disney Television Animation All-Stars, Ehrgeiz, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, The Powerpuff Girls, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl/Universe, Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem, Multi Versus and Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers
- On the subject of Disney Television Animation All-Stars, it features characters from DuckTales (2017), Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, Darkwing Duck, Bonkers, Gargoyles, Timon & Pumbaa, Recess, Pepper Ann, Doug, The Weekenders, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Teamo Supremo, Kim Possible, The Proud Family, American Dragon: Jake Long, The Replacements, Phineas and Ferb, Milo Murphy's Law, Gravity Falls, Wander over Yonder, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Amphibia, The Owl House and The Ghost and Molly McGee.
- The Mystery Fighters for the first tournament include... Super Danganronpa 2, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Game of Thrones, Atomic Betty, Beetlejuice, Double Dragon, Darkstalkers, Hoodwinked!, The Rumble Fish, Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, Shrek, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Earthworm Jim, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Steven Universe, Garfield's Pet Force, Power Stone 2, Final Fight, Samurai Shodown, Naruto, Tom and Jerry, Inuyasha, Art of Fighting, The Hunger Games, LiEat, T.U.F.F. Puppy, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Chrono Trigger, The Loud House, The Muppets, The Angry Beavers, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit/Epic Mickey, The Proud Family, Dragon Ball Z, Metal Gear Solid, Rivals of Aether, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, The Big O, American Dad!, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Sam & Max, Arcana Heart, Kim Possible, The Pirates of Dark Water, Fighters Destiny, Brain Dead 13, Super Mario Bros., Yooka-Laylee, and Crisis Core.
- The Mystery Fighters for the second tournament include... The Rumble Fish, Cuphead, The Amazing World of Gumball, Jazz Jackrabbit, Sidekick, Pikmin 4, Ice Age and Fighters Destiny.
- The security team for the tournament have characters from Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), Crash Bandicoot, Ducktales 2017, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Super Mario RPG Undertale, Scooby-Doo and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers.
- The Mole: There was one in the hero group working for the Big Bad. It was actually Sans from the security team. Except it wasn't him. It was actually Tsugumi Shirogane using her skills as the Ultimate Cosplay to disguise at him using the skeleton's Mii Costume from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
- Mythology Gag: Chang Koehan had made reference to the fact he used to be known as "The Koehan" in the tournament... however, somewhere between there and this tournament, Murray sued Chang for copyright infringement upon Chang using some mannerisms in his persona that the Murray had noticed.
- Haohmaru's quirk of screaming his words everytime he opens his mouth is carried over from the UVR.
- Non-Gameplay Elimination: Pit ended up getting disqualified from the tournament when his goddess, Palutena was doing her guidance as always. Pudding was able to find out due to her friendship with Chowder. Xero angrily made Pit walk up the entrance ramp in shame, making him the first-ever non-winner to enter the tournament and not fall into an elimination portal.
- Not Me This Time: M. Bison who is the usual Big Bad at these UVR-spin-off, is actually taking a break because even he is sick and tired of all of his failed attempts and is on vacation. However, due to his track record, the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits and the security team had mistaken him for the Big Bad and they confronted him and Vega/Eggman respectively.
- Odd Friendship: Mushu and Donkey form this when they meet each other in the ring. Helps by the fact that these characters were voiced by Eddie Murphy.
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Official Fan-Submitted Content: When the first Mystery Reserves choice is picked, Xero asks the viewers to submit suggestions for mystery fighters (minus the first one) and one of the voter's submissions ends up as a third mystery fighter once Mystery Reserves is picked again (The mystery reserve fighters include Kitty Katswell, Dynomutt, Waluigi, Garnet, Arya Stark, Sam & Max and Atomic Betty.) - Once Done, Never Forgotten: Not by the characters (Earthworm Jim even sympathies with him), but by... The Arena. The moment Superman stepped into the ring, it turned into... Superman 64... Basically, the entire arena was full of glitches found in that game. It was too much even for Monokuma Who pretty much rage-quits (Though he DID came back to take control of the FOLLOWING section.) All this happened because Superman entered the ring with one bad game from MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS AGO.
- Once per Episode: More like Once Per Section, but otherwise the story has quite a few instances of this trope. For starters:
- At the start of the section and after each time five people have been eliminated, the titular wheel will spin and land on a random remaining fighter, giving them either a good outcome or a bad outcome. Sometimes It is the other way around.
- Also, after every section ends, the person who has gotten the most votes at the end of the section gets to take a choice several envelopes that will affect the theme of the next round. Though Monokuma sometimes averts this by forcing the theme whether it would be the "Big Guy Blocker" or "Unleash the Despair"
- At least two people, even if they rarely interacted with each other before this tournament would perform a Limit Break
- A minor one, but at least one eliminated person would land in the node of Crash Bandicoot. The only time this was subverted was when something went wrong one section and every fighter showed up in Hey Arnold!. Same node was only to let non-fighters that fall into an elimination portal in.
- Original Character: Unlike previous tournaments where the writers had an Author Avatar and one or two of their friends as co-hosts. But here, the author's two characters, a bunny named Xero and a bull named Maurice.
- Pointy-Haired Boss: There is not a single person that isn't annoyed with the eccentric antics of the host, Xero. Whether it would be his blatant bias or his over-the-top antics.
- Popularity Power: The fights aren't really about who wins realistically.
- "Reason You Suck" Speech: Ichigo has gave Kisshu a huge one after he tried to get her to go on a date with him again, calling him out for doing so even though not only did she made "No" multiple times, but she also had a boyfriend. She also called him out for all of the horrible stuff he pulled as a villain and while he DID do a Heroic Sacrifice, he didn't really do anything to improve himself. This prompt to try to make it up to Ichigo as a better person.
- Red Herring: At first, it seemed like Axel was a target from Xehanort. However, it was just a ruse so Axel would go to the security team and ask them to protect him in hopes of distracting them. Sans even lampshades this trope.
- Another example of this trope was that the villains were kidnapping aquamancers to help him with his plans. However, it turns out that he wanted to lead the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits aside.
- Running Gag: Luigi was about to use his Smash Ball on Agent 9 but the latter outsmarted him and stole it before eliminating him. In the next section, Agent 9 tried to use said Smash Ball on Sticks the Badger but she stole it and eliminating him. This went on all of the way from Section Two to all of the way to Section Twelve before it got knocked right into Daggett's mouth and right down his stomach. There, it was impossible for the running gag to keep going without the Smash Ball being used or he (and his brother, Norbert, as they are chained together.) get eliminated. The former situation happened.
- Sequel Hook: The story ends with someone commenting on the ending of the tournament and saying that they will be the next third host at the second tournament.
- Spin-Off
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: Xero and Maurice's entire relationship is this. Xero is the Rascally Rabbit who is a Cloudcuckoolander who is also lustful towards woman and is very immature. In contrast to Maurice, who despite being a hulking bull is definitely more down-to-earth and tries to curb Xero's antics.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Kim Kaphwan and Chang Koehan are forced to work together to try to stop the villain's plot. However, they clearly had some bad blood after the latter and Choi had betrayed him to go with Xanadu.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After being a victim of Xero's Irrational Hatred and being forced to suffer going through painful and humiliating elimination nodes, not unlike Eddy Gordo at the first Ultimate Video Rumble, Nack the Weasel finally gets a break when he and Captain Olimar ended up in Hey Arnold! where the titular character of said node was able to get Nack to avoid getting up like Eddy and make peace with Olimar. Once they did that, the next node he got teleported to a more peaceful node, similar to the ones Olimar went too. Needless to say, Xero was NOT happy by this outcome.
- Underdogs Never Lose: Penny Proud ended up being the first Tournament of Kikai winning, despite being a normal, everyday girl from a slice-of-life cartoon, as such arguably have the least amount fighting experience out of everyone in the tournament.
- Voted Off the Island: Readers have a say on who stays and who goes. The twist is that for every character that survives a section, they usually get an extra elimination vote.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Crunch Bandicoot is the only member of the security team who not only appeared in a previous UVR-spinoff, but was also a part of the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits group so he knows a lot about what happened. However, this was far from your standard UVR-spinoff as M. Bison isn't even the main villain for once.
