Web Original / Sanctum OCT

This is Sanctum.

Sanctum is a virtual world that you all have been placed inside, created by Lazarus, our head of staff. In order to test the parameters of this world for further use, we must ask you to participate in this tournament we have designed. Such a request might seem fruitless, but believe us, a prize does await you. However, you must remember one thing.

Everything comes at a price.

Sanctum is an Original Character Tournament hosted on DeviantArt, in which sixty four beings are sent into a virtual reality named Sanctum. The contestants' main goal is to reach Sanctum's Inner City, and in turn, its mysterious Pillar.

Now with a character sheet.

Sanctum OCT began in 2013 and concluded its final round in September 2014, with the final results being revealed a week after.

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This OCT contains the following tropes:

• Art Shift: Being an OCT, the art styles differ between opponents. Art styles also change as contestants run low on time.
• Life Meter: All the contestants have one above their heads, which is visible to other players.
  • Mana Meter: Some of them also have a mana/energy bar of sorts to go with it.
• Impossibly Tall Tower: The tower is the main place that the contestants have to reach.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Used twice by Lord Overlord in round 1, once by Wizzle the Clown in round 2 and 3, and another by Salespitch in round 3.
• Oh, Crap!: Happens lots of times in many different entries.
• Robot Girl: Io, Mizzi and July.
• Running Gag: Suzaku being recognized by everybody else as the "Shadow Furry" instead of "Shadow Fury", thanks to a typo he made when he signed up for Sanctum.
• Troll: Vector and Aurora, especially the former.

Round 1

• Beware the Nice Ones: Ruby manages to knock down Gina, with his foot raised. The following page reveals that he stomped off Gina's legs and her arm-blade.
• David Versus Goliath: Atlas' first matchup was against Thorn.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Thomas suffers one against GhostKat, getting a hole ripped in his head and another in his body. Ouch.
• Fate Worse than Death: Lord Overlord gives one to William and Lady after beating them. Said fate is having their hands tied while trapped in a pit ...with an ordinary goat.
• Homefield Advantage: After getting blinded by Suzaku, Wizzle hacks the system and transforms the playing field into the rollercoaster of his amusement park. The familiar terrain allows Wizzle to evade Suzaku's attacks even when blinded.

Round 2

• Armor-Piercing Question: Thresher gives one to Salespitch. While Salespitch feigns by answering No, the Happy Flashback of photos with a girl definitely show that it hit him hard.
  "Nobody's that heartless. I bet even you've got someone looking out for ya, right? Someone in the real world?"
• Brains Evil, Brawn Good: The morally-ambiguous, manipulative Salespitch versus the righteous, stronger Thresher. Sadly, The Bad Guy Wins, but Thresher hits Salespitch with an Armor-Piercing Question before he leaves.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Wizzle vs. Hijinek. The former is a maintenance robot clown, the latter is a shapeshifting, trained bounty hunter with a plasma gun. It doesn't turn out well for Wizzle until he "surrenders" by telling Hijinek a sobstory to buy time for his brothers.
• Disney Villain Death: GhostKat seems to suffer one after Io drops them while in mid-air. Given that GhostKat is back for the third round, it doesn't stick at all.
• Dramatic High Perching: Lord Overlord and Yoichi try to one-up each other on this during their argument, eventually having both end up on top of two towers.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: Wizzle calls in his brothers after a very one-sided battle against Hijinek.
• Failed a Spot Check: Bob tells Hijinek that there's not a contestant for miles from Hijinek's position. Immediately after that, Wizzle appears right behind her. Justified because Wizzle's code allowed him to blend into the environment and made his presence harder to detect.
  Hijinek: You couldn't spot a seven-foot circus clown in a yellow and red jumpsuit?
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Poor Hijinek gets ripped apart by Wizzle's Monster Clown "brothers".
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Lord Overlord v.s. Yoichi.
• I Know You're Watching Me: Vector's monitoring Wizzle secretly via a hidden camera when the clown turns to face it...
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Bonehead's and Lyle's reactions when they see Atlas as their opponent.
• Who's on First?:
  Hijinek: I've taken down your "brother", I can take you down too, Buddy!
  Buddy: I'M SORRY FRIEND, BUT THAT IS JIMMIE." [shows a huge, hulking clown behind Hijinek] I AM BUDDY.

Round 3

• Cool Versus Awesome: Most of the matchups for this round qualify.
• Combat Pragmatist: Salespitch. He tries to convince Atlas to surrender, and when that fails, he fakes weakness to Atlas so that he can retaliate with a cheap shot.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Wizzle and his Bros vs. July. The former are maintenance clown robots, the latter has an Wave-Motion Gun and knows combat. It ends very badly for Wizzle and his bros.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Salespitch (an ordinary man with Hypnotic Eyes, which his opponent No Sells) defeats Atlas (A water god) via willpower and a well-timed grenade.
• Heroic Resolve: This allows Salespitch to break out of Atlas's water and subsequently swim to his briefcase to pull out a grenade.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: It seems that Salespitch has some niceness under his scheming, manipulative ways, considering that he spares an injured Atlas instead of finishing him off. There's also the fact that he cares about Lola.
• Killed Off for Real: Wizzle murders Vector in real life (outside Sanctum) and takes over his place as judge..
• Loophole Abuse: Contestants are not allowed to attack Judges within Sanctum. So Wizzle logs out, and murders Vector in real life, which is outside Sanctum.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Thanks to accidentally merging with GhostKat's virus, Gina is now a part sentient zombie, part cat computer virus.
• No-Sell: Atlas is resistant to Salespitch's Hypnotic Eyes and even gives him a Poke in the Third Eye, to the latter's dismay.
• Oh, Crap!: Vector gets one once he realizes Wizzle's plan ( murder Vector in real life), after the latter logged out and was banned by him.
  • Salespitch also gets one when he realizes that the "robot" he's fighting is a Physical God who can turn into living water.
• Psychic Block Defense: Atlas uses this to No-Sell Salespitch's mind-controlling eyes.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Atlas gives one to Salespitch after he easily overpowers the latter and attempts to drown him.

Round 4

• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Ruby manages to defeat Wizzle, the latter of which took over Vector's administration rights (essentially, becoming a small-scale Reality Warper).
• Back from the Dead: All of Wizzle's "brothers" who were killed off in the previous round got resurrected thanks to Wizzle taking over Vector's admin rights and restoring their coding (although their physical bodies were beyond repair). They're Killed Off for Real after Ruby and Fidele destroy Wizzle and co.
• Brains Evil, Brawn Good: Much more blurred this time, between Salespitch and Oharue. While the former may be a cunning manipulator who employs Mind Rape, the latter's a Blood Knight who has homicidal tendencies against robots, innocent or otherwise.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: Salespitch fires his gun at Vector, who blocks with his arena controls and calls him out for attacking an admin. Salespitch plan was to short out the graphical textures of the arena and the crowd, allowing him to convince Oharue that the audience are "robots".
• Hitbox Dissonance: Literally one of Fidele's "hacking" powers, which allows him to move Ruby's collision box to save him from Wizzle's attacks.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Wizzle uses his arm to impale Fidele, but Ruby comes along in time to use Waddles' foam gun to short Wizzle out for good.
• Killed Off for Real: Wizzle and his bros are all destroyed by Ruby and Fidele.
• Mind Rape: Salespitch uses this on Oharue to defeat her. He's called out on it, of course.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Perkins gets bitten in the arm by Sordjir, getting afflicted with the werewolf curse.
• Rock–Paper–Scissors: Both Haratu and Perkins played this in order to see who could advance. Of course, Sordjir makes his appearance and ruins everything.
• Wound That Would Not Heal: Sordjir's bite gives one to Perkins, marking him with the werewolf curse.

Round 5

• Changed My Mind, Kid: Salespitch saves July from the authorities after he double-crosses her and hands her over to them (then again, she was planning to double-cross him too before that).
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Fidele insults Sordjir (a wolf god responsible for Haratu's werewolf curse) to his face.
  "Oh, will you put a muzzle on already."
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Again, Ruby. This time he takes on Haratu, a powerful Werewolf/Shaman and Sordjir, who's essentially a Physical God wolf responsible for the werewolf curse in Haratu's world. He beats both of them.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: Salespitch has one of these in his bag.
• Hidden Depths: It seems that Ruby really isn't the nice, honest guy that he looks like on the outside. He apparently loves power and "to play king". Furthermore, he technically "cheated" to gain an edge over Haratu and Sordjir.
• No-Sell: For some reason, Ruby is immune to the werewolf curse, even after getting bitten by Sordjir. The permanent scar normally inflicted by it even vanishes.
  • Correction: The scar is still there.
• Villain Override: Sordjir does this to Haratu, turning the latter into his powerful but mindless berserk werewolf form.