Office of the Chief
All-Departments Memorandum
June 30, 2410

After last week's round on ipo.flame, I went through all the records I could find, and based on all the records I had access to, compiled the authoritative list of the Top Twenty Open-Handed Martial Artists in the known galaxy. If you want the math, I'll provide it separately once you can prove you understand quantitative statistical analysis.

1. Kong Sang "Jackie" Chan
2. Kei J. Morgan*
3. Benjamin D. "Gryphon" Hutchins
4. Cassandra "Batgirl" Cain
5. Yuri Daniels
6. Slade "Snake-Eyes" Wilson
7. Steven "Captain America" Rogers**
8. Wade "Deadpool" Wilson
9. Kurt "Nightcrawler" Wagner
10. Katherine "Shadowcat" Griffin
11. Martin "PCHammer" Rose
12. "Batman"
13. "Red Mask" (yes, he's Big Fire; he's also that good.)
14. Sandra "Lady Shiva" Woosan
15. Alison R. "Lady Jaye" Hart-Burnett Faireborne
16. Timothy "Robin" Drake
17. Dashiell "Flint" Faireborne
18. Henry "The Beast" McCoy***
19. R. Dorothy Wayneright
20. Brother Thomas "Neo" Anderson****

Honorable mentions to Eiko Magami Rose, Paige "Spitfire" Guthrie and Cain "Juggernaut" Marko (this is more based on skill, guys; being able to punch the guy over the horizon doesn't do it on its own), and the entire Duelists' Society except Dorothy (open-hand specific).

I hope this settles you guys down a little bit. There are some people I would put in different places, but there's no records of their combat abilities (for example, any member of the Ichinohei ninja clan, or most of the Tomodachi ninja clans), but this is the statistics speaking.

-Vision

* statistically speaking, in her career, Kei still beats the hell out of just about everybody.
** yes, he's that good, even without the shield.
*** he makes the list. No, Susan, he doesn't talk his opponents into surrendering.
**** yes, he's mostly a gun-fighter, but when he goes weaponless, he's that dangerous.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

No surprise here, but still nice to see.

>2. Kei J. Morgan*

A bit surprised to see her as #2, but not totally.

>3. Benjamin D. "Gryphon" Hutchins
>4. Cassandra "Batgirl" Cain

This reminds me that I need to go back and read through the "Bloodties" series to see this ranking in action. (Though, IIRC, that was sword fighting, but still!)

>6. Slade "Snake-Eyes" Wilson

This made me goggle. What a fun combination.

>12. "Batman"

Does Gryphon's time on Kane's World skew this ranking, or would The Chief point out which "Batman" fights were his?

>16. Timothy "Robin" Drake

Always fun to see Timmy rank in these lists.

>20. Brother Thomas "Neo" Anderson****

Whoa! I'm kind of intrigued that he ranks so low, not in a way that I disagree, just trying to imagine what a fight, where Flint beats Neo, would look like.

>-Vision

As always, it's nice to see Vision. :)

John Dougan
"They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind,
And I left 'em sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."

Offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>

Actually, the funniest thing about this one is not that there is an ipo.flame, given the background of the founders way back then it woulda been wierder to NOT have one.

Its that one of the wars got so out of hand that Vision felt compelled to compile the list to end it once and for all!

And at first I was wondering why no Jedi, till I recalled that they, like Neo, tend to do lightsabre more than not, with maybe the exception of Morpheus, and its not like they'd have a lot of qualified battles to judge from.