Late at night I toss and I turn and I host boss battles

Tonight's boss is the Night Owl. It's basically the inverse of Neo-Kamek's Early Bird battle that never actually happened. Basically, instead of 9:00, the fight will start much, much later... five hours later to be exact. This will likely put a huge dent in turnout, but I'm not OVERLY overly worried in that respect. It's a lot easier for people to stay up late than to wake up early. (Part of the reason for this is that I can then spend the evening working on the BOTVGH author database.)

However, it's not like the late starting time is the gimmick. The Night Owl's real gimmick is this: he is always Airborne. (It might not say so in his status, because if I actually add Airborne his CT won't increase. But he'll be airborne nonetheless.) What this means is, about 80% of your attacks won't work. Any attacks, hazards, etc. that miss jumping fighters, will miss the Night Owl. You'll want to employ either powerful Swift attacks, the Aim attribute, or (if you have access to it) Shouryuken. There might be a few other miscellaneous skills and such that will hit jumpers (Hazard Control), but those are the Big Three.

The Night Owl's basic offense consists of Aero, Timber!, and Egg Drop, a barrage of eggs that will hit a fighter up to ten times. Really, he's not much on offense. He'll rely more on status rape. Naturally, he'll have Night... which will miss him because he'll be airborne. He might also have Dream Eater, but since he can't chain spells together, this shouldn't be a REAL huge problem. (He won't be Safeguarded or Deathproof, but barring hazards, it probably won't make a difference.) There's also this one little-used blue magic which can Berserk an entire team. Aim aside, a Berserked team will have trouble hitting an airborne target, so expect to see Moon Flute. Nightmare is also pretty thematic.

SUGGESTED JOB CLASSES: If you want enhanced Swift attacks, Fireball Throwers and Hammer Brothers get a 5x multiplier. (I bet you all forgot that Fireball Thrower even exists.) Hammer Brothers will get more damage out of this, and they have Aim too, but they're also slower. Classes with high Atk, like OffSpec and General, have powerful Swifts even without the multiplier. Aside from Hammer Bros, Archers and Hunters also have Aim (and it can be used in conjunction with X-Fight). For those of you who are Level 4, Street Fighters and VG Fighters have access to Shouryuken, which will seriously wreck the Owl's shit. Defensively, a summoner might be good for Unicorn (given all the badstats that the Owl will pile on you)... remember, though, Berserk is technically a status boost and must be dispelled. Unicorn won't get rid of it.
NOT RECOMMENDED: If you're planning to deal damage, you more or less NEED one of the classes I listed above. If you play as anything else, and expect to do anything but support, you're in for a rude awakening.
RAGE WATCH: Irrelevant. Leap can't be used on airborne units. TOO BAD!!!!!!11111 LOLxh
BLUE WATCH: There's a good amount of blue magic up for grabs here (and Moon Flute isn't exactly a commonly-used spell)... though if you join as a blue-using class, you're going to be stuck with support, since magic won't hit airborne fighters.
PROJECTED DIFFICULTY: Pretty easy, as long as you're smart with your job selection. Enjoy it, because after this I'm going to start making bosses tougher again. >.> I can only hand out easy victories for so long before I get bored, after all.

Entries open at 2 AM eastern time, 11:00 on the West Coast.

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As I said a couple entries ago, I did a little Interruptions Tournament...
There are twelve interruptions hazards total. Psycho Shredder, Trance KamekTheRef, and WaRiOsHaDy were thrown out for obvious reasons. I was going to have a tiebreaker battle for the eighth spot... but the weakest remaining interruptions were Team Game & Watch and the Protectos. Barring divine hazard luck, there is no conceivable way the G&Ws could have beaten the Protectos... they don't even have multi-target attacks! It would have been a very long and tedious match, so I just gave the Protectos the eighth spot. Then I generated random matchups for the first round...

ROUND 1 BATTLE 1: X-Heroes VS. Kukai
The best way to beat Kukai is to try and kill him within three hits, before he flips out and gets all manner of upgrades in all kinds of stats. The X-Heroes were able to do just that... X-Klaw got a Homing Sniper in his opening item draw, and used it. Two X-Zones put Kukai deep into critical, and Meteo finished him off. X-Heroes win, 4 ticks

ROUND 1 BATTLE 2: Protectos VS. Team Mario
At first, Team Mario's plan was to let Paper Mario take some hits and get his trance gauge up, then have him use a powerful multi-target attack like Earth Tremor or Supernova. However, Evil Mario had a better idea, exceeding the MP limit to throw a 40-MP attack. As a result, it targeted everyone, but the Marios had the HP to survive it. The Protectos didn't. Team Mario wins, 7 ticks

ROUND 1 BATTLE 3: Kamek (Final Challenge) VS. the Specialist Squad
This was one-sided from the start. Kamek is a very magic-oriented boss, and even with the change to Runic, it's very tough to put up any kind of magic offense when you're up against five Runic-users. The OffSpecs, meanwhile, kicked Kamek's ass with Meteo. Specialist Squad wins, 17 ticks

ROUND 1 BATTLE 4: Shin Akuma VS. Team FF5
By using a lot of X-Zones and X-Fers, and mimicking those same attacks, Team FF5 put up a relentless barrage of gravity-based attacks and forced Shin Akuma to heal right off the bat. He didn't get a chance to put up much offense, though he did use the Shun Goku Satsu to KO Galuf. It wasn't enough, though. Team FF5 wins, 28 ticks

LESSONS LEARNED FROM ROUND 1:
* The best way to beat Kukai, by far, is within three hits. Gravity attacks = good. Homing Sniper = VERY good.
* If you can survive the backlash, exceeding the MP limit (or using something like Crusader) to beat the Protectos is a solid strategy.
* X-Fer + Mimics = Murder against a single enemy.
* If you force Shin Akuma to heal early, you're in good shape.
* Meteo is your best weapon against single opponents.
* Runic is Kamek's Achilles' heel.

LOSERS' BRACKET BATTLE 1: Kukai VS. Protectos
This got off to a predictably tedious start. The Protectos charged a few times, and Kukai stalled. When the Protectos unleashed their attacks, dealing 50 damage each, Kukai went Oni. He promptly ripped the Protectos a new one with Richter Rumble. Kukai wins, 40 ticks

LOSERS' BRACKET BATTLE 2: Kamek VS. Shin Akuma
Initially, Shin Akuma seemed to have the advantage, with his attacks doing impressive damage against Kamek's mediocre Defense. As Kamek's HP dipped below 1000, he started using Pumpkin Head... he might have even won, but he made a grave miscalculation (and as SSL pointed out, he should have used Auto-Life). Shin Akuma hit trance, and used Shun Goku Satsu for the win. (Shun Goku Satsu, it should be noted, ignores death protection.) Shin Akuma wins, 31 ticks

SEMIFINALS BATTLE 1: X-Heroes VS. Team Mario
This was a rough match for a while. Both Baby Mario and X-Inc went down early on, but were quickly Restored by Dr. Mario and X-NK-with-Dr.-Mario-powers. X-Klaw combined an Antiwhore materia (EXP Rain) and Poké Ball MkII for Poké Ball MkII Rain, which attacked the Marios with various call script characters for damage and status ailments. X-Inc's second Ultima of the game put the Marios in deep shit, so Paper Mario gambled with Clock Out. He lost the gamble, and Team Mario became Stopped, allowing the X-Heroes to wrap up easily. X-Heroes win, 22 ticks

SEMIFINALS BATTLE 2: Specialist Squad VS. Team FF5
Things started off well for Team FF5. Lenna got the first turn of the game and used the Bizen Boat rage to relieve the Specialists of all their MP. The DefSpecs frantically started using Free Goodstat -> Haste on the OffSpecs, who whiffed some attacks and didn't do assloads of damage when they did hit. Butz tried the slots a couple times, and both times he dealt 60 damage to the Specialists... but after that, the FF5 heroes couldn't put up the finishing blows, as their further attempts at Rages failed miserably. Eventually those Free Hastes started adding up, and the Specialist Squad overwhelmed Team FF5 in sheer turn volume. A couple lucky Assassinations sealed the win. Specialist Squad wins, 36 ticks

LESSONS LEARNED FROM ROUND 2:
* The Protectos take a hell of a long time to do any damage. >.>
* You won't like Kukai when he's angry. Especially his Richter Rumble.
* Kamek can be dangerous with Pumpkin Head.
* When Shin Akuma trances, Auto-Life is VERY good.
* Shin Akuma owns single combat.
* Paper Mario's "Clock Out" will utterly bone whomever it hits.
* When it comes to items and their usage, X-Klaw plays it a lot smarter than his counterpart.
* Lenna loses at Rages.
* Butz wins at Slots.
* Never, EVER count the Specialist Squad out, even if they're down to a few 1-HP DefSpecs.

7TH PLACE BATTLE: Protectos VS. Kamek
The fastest and most predictable fight in the tournament. Kamek uses Bahamut, battle over. Kamek wins, 3 ticks

5TH PLACE BATTLE: Kukai VS. Shin Akuma
Both fighters were able to put up some good damage. Kukai went Oni, but even he couldn't get rid of Shin Akuma before the latter tranced. Insert Shun Goku Satsu here. Shin Akuma wins, 28 ticks

3RD PLACE BATTLE: Team Mario VS. Team FF5
In the Specialist Squad fight, Team FF5 at least had a chance to win. That was never the case here; Team Mario had vast statistical advantages and also outnumbered Team FF5. Baby Mario was effective with his items, Mario and Evil Mario got their Flare on, and even Dr. Mario tried to chip in some offense. A Bosses History "Hyper Rasp" hazard, and a Shisu giving Evil Mario Quick, killed whatever slim hopes the FF5 heroes had. Team Mario wins, 36 ticks

FINAL BATTLE: X-Heroes VS. Specialist Squad
The Specialist Squad was in trouble early when X-Klaw gave X-CBY a Counter materia (Auto Counter/Return Magic) and a Metal Box, which pretty much stopped the OffSpecs from spamming Ultima. X-CY attempted a Muramasa rage for happy fun defense-ignoring damage, but like the FF5 Heroes before him, he whiffed the coin flip. Luckily, X-NK copied him, tried Muramasa, and succeeded, putting the Specialists in deep shit... which became even deeper shit when X-UDX paralyzed them with FlashMan (which enabled X-Inc and X-CBY to try some magic spells). X-SSL hit trance, and used Stampede... a few of the Specialists barely survived that, but not for long, because the ensuing hazard (Spekkio) finished them off. X-Heroes win, 9 ticks

LESSONS LEARNED FROM FINAL ROUND:
* Shun Goku Satsu > *
* Shin Akuma is KING of single combat.
* Team FF5's low HP is something of a liability, as they're easily taken out with Flares and such. Since they no longer have any reaction skills, I might raise their Max HP.
* Baby Mario is relatively easy to get rid of, but if you don't, he'll make you regret it.
* The best way to beat the SpecSquad is with attacks that are neither physical nor magical. If you can Paralyze/Confuse/etc. them, their Runic is less effective (since they have to call coin flips for it), and magic becomes a more viable option.
* Metal + Return Magic will seriously discourage enemy magic users.

1st: X-Heroes
2nd: Specialist Squad
3rd: Team Mario
4th: Final Fantasy 5 Heroes
5th: Shin Akuma
6th: Kukai
7th: Final Challenge Kamek
8th: Protectos
9th: Team Game & Watch
(Trance KamekTheRef N/A)
(Psycho Shredder N/A)
(WaRiOsHaDy N/A)

So yeah, the X-Heroes WIN TEH SOOPARBOEL and, for now, are the most powerful non-joker interrupt in the system. >.> This was just for fun, though I might up the HP/MP of the FF5 Heroes.

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Played FF9 yesterday, for the first time in a while... I wanted to watch the ending, so I went and beat the final boss(es), but near the end the FMV started glitching and then it skipped the last few minutes. (I got very lucky on the final boss. His uber statrape Grand Cross only hit one person, dealing Berserk and Death Sentence.) I wiped the disc with a Kleenex (it worked the last couple times) and will probably try again today. >.>