Santa Monica District

A district with Games based off League of Legends and is full of people with really shitty pun names.
Consists of Santa Monica and parts of Los Angeles. 
Part of the AESA alliance system.
Message Xan if you have any questions.
== Important Undead People ==
Main article about people from Santa Monica here.
Producer: Dr. Professor Chemistry Teacher Guy
*Actually qualified to be a chemistry teacher. Has a PhD in Chemistry. Also a botanist. Knows a heck of a lot about poisons. 
Composer: D!0
* Owner of D10. 
* Really relaxed. 
Conductor: AsIn9
* Somewhat of a salty asshole, but a pretty responsible person. 
Current GM Rotation: 
* 1nerd: 1nerd wonnered. But usually not when he's GM. On GM rotation despite having the most losses as GM. He's pretty chill about it. Owner of FSM.
* pota2: Potados. Owner of TRG.
* SAN3: Also goes by 33, 3san, and san-san. A frequent GM on rotation. Infamous for having played in the Tourney as a Player 33 times in a row, placing 2nd every single time. When he's GM, he's pretty all over the place. Usually names the harrier team "Freedom Eagles," or freagles for short. 
* 42gami: Shinigami, SAN3's best friend. They're. Quite the pair. 
* intensi5: Intensifive. He's about a five in intensity, so the moniker is relatively accurate.
* 6theDay: Seis the Day. Also known as Corpus Dime when she's off GM rotation.
* Nina: SAN3 and 42gami want to rename her 27, but she won't have any of it. Despite her relative newness, she's already a mainstay on the GM rotation. 
* Dad: In Chinese, a way to say dad is "ba," which is pronounced similarly to the number 8. No one gets how his name is related to the number 8 except for 2go. They sort of have a bond over it, but Dad still teases 2go for picking such a shitty number pun. 
Other Notable Officers: 
* 2go: tried really hard with his number pun. 2 = er in Chinese, so he's supposed to be "ergo," but everyone just calls him "to go" instead. It bothers him to no end.
* 4da: Shida/Ada. See DeathfieldDragon
* integr8: Integreight. Owns a team called To Infinity (INF).
Other Notable Reapers: 
*Alfalpha: Pro-gamer. Hyper agressive top laner and shot-caller of the team The Lost Continent.
*MemoryIsTheKey: Pro-gamer. The Lost Continent's Mid.
*Biota: Pro-gamer. The Lost Continent's jungler, very farm-oriented.
*DeathrowDemon: Pro-gamer. Support for The Lost Continent. He goes by Monroe in the RG.
*DeathfieldDragon: Pro-gamer. Has way too much time on their hands. Goes by Shida and is sometimes called Ada. Fairly expressionless, but gets really invested into Games. ADC for The Lost Continent. 
*vB: Read as Newbie. Despite his name, he's been around for a long time.
*Necrosis: A relatively new Reaper. A bit of a nervous wreck, but does good work. He's somewhat infamous for his lack of presence. 
*River Stryx: Cross River Stryx only if you want to cross the river Styx. 
== Important Un-undead People ==
*Kyrios: Originally known as Arrow, Kyrios was famous for his macro game. In his final Tourney, he led his team to a flawless victory, not dropping a single game. On the other hand, his micro ability wasn't particularly good, and he was widely regarded as the weakest player on all the teams he was on. In fact, his terrible micro was probably the reason why his first team only barely escaped erasure. The subsequent game put him on a team full of other terrible players, but luck and skill found that team in third. His last Tourney found him on a very strong team, which went on to take down the Composer.
*Hellhound: Originally known as X (chi), Hellhound was famous for his micro game and individual game sense. He lost very few one on one fights, but his teamwork was something to be wished for. He simply didn't trust his shotcaller enough to listen to them. His attempts to solo carry his games were surprisingly successful, though it wasn't until he wound up on Kyrios's team that he was used to his full potential. 
*???: Went on to found the company that would create the MOBA game KeK.
== Notable Teams ==
=== Free Spot Mid (FSM) ===
Owner: 1nerd
A long standing team. Has a rivalry with TRG, but usually stomps all over TRG's faces. In its Reaper incarnation, FSM is usually full of new Reapers and Reapers who typically support, so they generally lose. 
=== Truly Radical Gaming (TRG) ===
Owner: pota2
A long standing team. Has a rivalry with FSM. 
=== D10 ===
Owner: D!0
A relatively new team. They did pretty well for their first couple Tourneys, but they're now in a slump. The current chant is "D10, roll again" because they seem really unlucky these days.
Notable former members: Nina
=== Freedom Eagles (FE) ===
Owner: SAN3
The Reaper team whenever SAN3 is GM. Actually a huge ass meme. SAN3 probably just randomly chooses people to play. 
=== The Lost Continent (MU) ===
Owner: Dr. Professor Chemistry Teacher Guy
A Reaper only team which participates occasionally during offweek Reaper vs Reaper matches. They're also an official KeK team in North America. They're sometimes jokingly called the Greek team because all their names contain a Greek letter. For a list of members, see the corresponding entry under the North America teams section.
== About ==
The primary focus of the Santa Monica Games is to promote communication and teamwork among the Players. This is accomplished through forming teams of Players instead of the standard partner pair. No pacts are struck.
Santa Monica's Game structure is... non-standard, to say the least. Players compete against each other in a tournament to determine who gets to face off against the GM. The only "mission," if you so wish to call it that, is to place 8th or above in the tournament. 
=== The Game ===
Unlike in many other districts, the "Game" doesn't refer to the entire week (or longer) affair which culminates in ultimate victory or loss of the Players. Instead, the Game is a relatively short competition to see who can destroy the opposing team's base. For the most part, Games are Player vs Player battles, in which a teams of 5 Players face off in an arena.
All participants are encouraged to use a pseudonym, similar to an in-game name in MMO's. This tradition started as sort of a way to mock the previous Composer, who couldn't be arsed to remember anyone's names, so arbitrarily nicknamed people. Many do use an alternate name and change it throughout the duration of the Tourney, though there are some who stick with their given name, such as Nina.
The goal is to destroy the opposing team's base. Getting to the base is a challenge in and of itself, and most of the difficulty comes from clashing with the opponent to gain enough advantages to reach the base. 
=== The Tourney ===
The two week span of Games is referred to "the Tourney." They occur once every month, beginning on the first Saturday of the calendar month, except for January and July, during which Tourneys begin on the second Saturday instead. 
The first 9 days are double round robin, with each of the 10 teams facing off against each other twice. During RR, each team plays twice a day. At the end of the 9 days, the 2 lowest ranking teams are eliminated. If necessary, tiebreaker games will be played.
The last 5 days are when the real action happens. Each match-up is a best of 5. Quarter-Finals take place across two days, and Semi-Finals and Finals each take a day, with the Grand Finals happening on Day 14.
During off-weeks, teams can trade Players and pick up new Players. Players have some say in where they go, but the final decisions are made by the team owner. 
The fee of each Tourney is set by the GM for the week, and thus can vary wildly. Fees have ranged anywhere from hair color to mental health, but are always required to leave Players in a state where they're on relatively equal footing with other Players. One GM (coughSAN3cough) took that rule to the logical extreme and made the fee "use of left leg" when a Player who was missing their left foot was in the pool of Players for that Tourney.
==== Ranking ====
* First place: Chance to play vs the GM's team. If they beat the Harrier team, they've won the Tourney. If they lose, they're erased. Team organization remains in the pool, however.
* Second place: Fee is returned. Chance to play next Tourney.
* 3rd-4th place: Fee is partially returned, if possible. Chance to play next Tourney.
* 5th-8th place: Chance to play next Tourney. Fee may be partially returned (though not to the degree of 3rd and 4th place) depending on severity of fee.
* 9th-10th place: Players erased and team relegated.
=== Players ===
There are 50 Players in each Tourney. Obviously, Players play the Game. Each Player is drafted into a Reaper owned team and provided with threads and pins by the team. Players who display strong fighting ability and game sense are prioritized picks. Players may put off the draft for a maximum of three Tourneys when they first enter the UG, and cannot abstain from the draft once they've participated in a Tourney.
In each Tourney, only 10 Players are guaranteed to be removed from the pool. The low turnover is part of the reason why there is a Tourney every month. It's possible for a Player to play indefinitely, provided their team places high enough. However, most Players self-erase or have someone else erase them after several Tourneys with unreturned fees. With up to 40 replayers every Tourney and 20 of them permanently losing their entire fee, the number of self-erasures in the district is very high compared to others.
Winners often have played in more than one Tourney, so there are few winners who win without having lost part of their fee (though there are some notable replayers who retained all their fees, the most notable being SAN3 with his 33 Tourney streak).
=== Reapers ===
The roles of Reapers are rather fluid and tend to change from Tourney to Tourney, or even day to day, so the divisions between Support and Harrier aren't particularly important, or even binding. Most Reapers will take on both Support and Harrier duties during their Reaper career, with most of their time spent doing Support work due to the nature of the job.
It's not uncommon to see officers hanging out with their unranked peers. The Composer frequently spends time in an unofficial role with his subordinates and will even pitch in to help with supporting duties. The Producer doesn't make much effort to hide, though most people aren't aware of his title or role. As such, though there is a hierarchy, it's very relaxed for the most part and often ignored in day-to-day situations. A due amount of pomp is exercised when called for, which are basically situations when the Composer and officers may be acting in an official capacity, but usually everyone treats each other as equals.
==== Wings ====
Due to an incident so long ago that no one remembers what it was, Reapers must have their wings on display at all times while in the Santa Monica District. As in Shibuya, larger wing sizes usually indicate more power and smaller wing sizes usually indicate more experience, with the typical wing reaching down to the hip to waist region.
Wings originating from Santa Monica District come in three parts: the enclosure, the chassis, and the foil. There are some aspects which are similar between all wings, but the district contains some of the widest variety in wing designs. Due to the construction of the wings, they tend to look somewhat mechanical in nature.
Enclosure: The enclosure is the outer casing on the wing, and is the part that's visible most of the time. The design is usually simple and unadorned on new Reapers, and will typically be of a shape and size befitting of the Reaper's chassis. As time goes on, the enclosure can take on different attributes depending on the role and ranking of the Reaper. The chassis and foil are held inside the enclosure when the wings are not in use.
Chassis: The chassis are the frame of the wings. The design reflects the Reaper's preferred in Game role, which matches up with the brand categories, so it's not uncommon to see chassis shaped like weaponry.
Foil: The foil are thin panels which generally take up most of space in an extended wing. They're typically shaped somewhat like the airfoil from which they take their name. The most common shapes are elongated teardrops, quadrilaterals, and triangles, but there do exist exceptions, such as SAN3's hexagonal foil.
==== Support Reapers ====
There are 11 Support Reapers in every Game: 
5 for each side of the map (1 per lane and jungle quadrant) and 1 handling the river and helping out the other Supports when needed. 
Lane Reapers handle spawning noise for minions and structures. Jungle Reapers handle spawning jungle camps. The River Reaper handles spawning river monsters. They are expected to spawn things on time, and update the spawn timers. Time information about major objectives are disseminated to everyone, so it's important that things are correct and on time. 
The vast majority of Reapers in the district could be classed as Support Reapers. It's a grueling job, and those who slack off in their duties are summarily replaced. Reapers who can't keep up with Support duties are usually transferred to a different district, though there are the rare Reaper that has only Harrier duties. The worst slackers are erased on the spot. 
==== Harrier Reapers ====
Harriers have it pretty easy; they are not required to actually erase anyone due to the nature of the Tourney. There are 5 Harriers every Tourney, not including the GM, and they play against the Players in a 5v5 match at the end of the Tourney. Their performance is graded and Harriers with a subpar performance are deducted points while those who do above average are granted points. If their point total falls below a certain threshold, they may be erased. Harriers with high enough point totals can apply for ownership of a team. 
==== Team Owners ====
Reapers who have earned enough points can create a team. There are up to 20 teams recognized at any given time, with teams being shuffled in and out of the Tourney based on performance. Relegated teams (lowest 2 teams) are removed from the Tourney and put at the end of a line, and the next teams in line are put in. 
Team owners' existence is centered almost entirely on how well their team does, so it's to their benefit to help their Players win. The better their ranking, the better pins and threads they get access to, which in turn improves their chances of winning even with the ever changing player roster.
There are rumors that accumulating enough points grants you a wish, but there has not been confirmation or denial either way.
==== Game Master Rotation ====
The Game Master of each Tourney is in charge of creating and training the Harrier team that will be taking on the Players at the end of the Tourney. They also choose the fee for Tourney. To provide some variety, these GMs are drawn from a pool of 8 Reapers who have proven themselves by managing other teams. Reapers are swapped in and out of the rotation at the end of every year based on performance. 
=== Pins ===
Each player (not Player, mind you) in the Game can equip 5 pins of a certain Brand, a Resonance pin, and two special pins: Recall and Respawn. Before each Game, the owners of each team decide which Brands they want to ban for the Game. Then each player can select a Brand to use for that game from the remainder. No two players may have the same Brand in a given Game.
==== Typical Deck ====
* AA: Despite the acronym, this pin isn't typically particularly strong. Reboot time is short, making it the bread and butter for basic damage. 
* Q, W, E: Pins with higher damage and also higher reboot times. 
* R: Any one of high damaging pins, or even global heals. Reboot times are pretty long.
* Resonance: A resonance pin! 
* Recall: Allows Players to return to their base after an uninterrupted channel of 8 seconds (reducible by threads). Unlimited use with no reboot time.
* Respawn: Doubles as the Player pin for Players. A passive pin which activates once lethal damage is taken. It keeps the player at 1 hp and teleports them back to their base when triggered. However, this functionality does not work outside of Games, so it's possible to erase people while they're not in a Game.
==== Brand Categories ====
Pin Brands generally cater to one or sometimes two kinds of playstyles. 
*Marksman: The AA pins for these Brands typically scale well into late game. Most of the pins are long ranged.
*Assassin: High damage QWE pins that deal a lot of damage in a short amount of time. However, the reboot times tend to be longer than Mage pins. Typically short ranged.
*Support: Pins mostly used for utility. 
*Tank: Pins which allow the player to soak up more damage.
*Fighter: Mixed use pins to keep a balance between tanking and dealing damage.
*Mage: The QWE pins for these Brands are generally higher damage and shorter reboot than QWE pins in other brands. Generally ranged pins.
*Special: Mostly unbranded, pins in this category include Role Resonance pins (which boost all pins of a certain category) and Recall and Respawn.
=== Threads ===
Threads often come with some kind of Role Resonance built in, so that certain threads are more effective when the wearer is equipped with a particular category of pins.
== History ==
The Santa Monica Games originated as an annual series of 5v5 team death matches between Players, culminating in the winning team having a chance to take down the GM. 
As the population of the district swelled and more people began to enter the Underground, the Games became more frequent. Eventually, a fresh new Producer decided it might be more interesting if the Players could compete more often, suggesting to the Composer that perhaps the Games could become a proper Tournament. Thus the Tourneys began. 
=== Rise of Fall ===
A player known as Fall made a bet with a previous Composer. "If I survive in the UG for three years, fair and square... Give me a chance to fight you for the title of Composer."
The Composer, thinking it would be amusing to watch Fall struggle and, well, fall, accepted the bet. 
As Fall approached the end of the terms of his bet, the fees grew progressively more costly, in an attempt to sabotage Fall's attempts. Though the Composer tried to rig the teams so that Fall would fail, Fall continually placed second. Finally, at Fall's 33rd Tourney, the Composer decided to try a different tactic: he would give Fall an amazing team, and when the team won, he would force Fall to choose between resurrection or erasure. And so, the strongest team that had ever been formed was created. All the members had competed previously in the Tourney, but hadn't won due to the limitations of their teams. 
Dios Mio was known as a god tier top laner with good game sense. Hellhound's name was well-deserved, as he an uncanny ability to predict opponent's movements and take them down. Ashes had played a few different roles but always crushed her lane opponents. The weakest member was Kyrios, whose fighting ability was not great, but whose shotcalling was unmatched. Fall was an all-arounder, and while he wasn't the best at any particular thing, he was talented enough at them that few surpassed his skill.
Although Fall himself would have had no qualms about sabotaging the team so that he would still place second (and in fact had done so in the past, so surreptitiously that no one ever suspected a thing), he had been in the UG for three months before his first Tourney, thus this Tourney marked the 36th month of his time in the UG. He allowed the team to win. Upon his victory, he reminded the Composer, who had misremembered the bet, what the terms were. Though the Composer attempted to worm his way out of the match and remove the possible thread Fall posed, the producer stepped in and forced the Composer to accept the challenge. The Composer did get one concession, however. He claimed the right to make the rules to the match. 
The match was a Game in the traditional Santa Monica manner. The producer was to be the referee, ensuring that the Composer didn't worm his way out of the terms. It would be a 5v5 death match, between the victorious Player team against the Composer, the Conductor, and a few of the GMs. If any of the Players died, the victory would be awarded to the Composer's team.
Although the power difference looked large, Kyrios and Fall's combined cunning pulled the Players to victory. 
Fall didn't want the role of Composer, however. When pressed, he said that he only wanted to see if he could do it, and was satisfied to remain as a reaper. Composership therefore fell to his teammate, Dios Mio. Ashes took the mantle of Conductor. Despite their previous crippling fee losses, Kyrios and Hellhound opted to return to life.
=== After the Fall ===
The shifting of power did not come calmly. There was much strife within the first couple months, as ambitious Reapers attempted to elbow their way higher into the hierarchy. The new Composer was able to maintain his position despite the numerous challengers. Though he is kind and generally goodnatured, people quickly discovered that he has no qualms about crushing his opponents. 
Dios Mio changed his handle to D!0, and Ashes changed hers to AsIn9 some time after their rise into power. Fall became known as SAN3 and took on GM duties. Though both the Composer and the Conductor are wary of SAN3, they treat him largely the same as they did when they were all teammates - as an ally that could become an enemy the next Tourney.
SAN3 so far seems content to fool around and troll the Game. (You just lost it by the way).
=== D!0's Reign ===
After becoming Composer, D!0 made several changes to the Tourney, making it into what it is today. The Tourney used to be somewhat more brutal for all parties involved, with curve balls thrown on the whim of the former Composer. Individual Reapers could also get away with meddling with Games if they were liked well enough by the Composer. D!0 is a huge proponent of fairness and transparency in his operations, and thus a hefty rule book was drafted, containing exactly how Games should be run. It is quite comprehensive, and though no one is expected to know every nuance, there has not yet been an incident during the Games which the rulebook doesn't explain how to handle. Everyone is subject to the rules placed, and there are no arbitrary rules made on the spot, though there is still a bit of wiggle room for GMs who want to mix up their Games.
== Realground Impact: KeK ==
The Santa Monica Games inspired KeK, a popular MOBA game played all over the world by millions of people. There are two major international KeK tournaments: The Halfway Point (THP) which occurs in May and The Earth's Championship (TEC), which happens in October.
THP is invitation only, and generally invitations are extended to first placed teams in their region. Two wildcard teams are chosen from the joker regions in a set of tournaments known as the Joker Placement Tournaments (JPT).
TWC lets each region select their own team to compete. Of course, this is usually determined by the ranking within the region for that year.
In addition to these two tournaments, there is also a tournament during off-season called Best of the Best (BoB). Despite the tournament name, it's not the best players who are sent. Each major competitive region sends players by fanvote. The smaller regions once again participate in a JPT to determine who attends BoB.
=== Competitive Regions ===
There are five main competitive regions in KeK, with all other regions vying for seeding through a wildcard tournament.
==== North America ====
The NA region may be where KeK started, but the region is fairly weak compared to others, having never won a single world championship. Recently, the Santa Monica Reapers have formed teams breaking into the scene and are having some success. Whether or not this will translate to the international stage has yet to be seen.
The regular season in NA is broken up into two parts: Spring Split and Summer Split. Ranking at the end of each split awards circuit points which are used to determine which teams go on to represent the region at TEC.
Teams
*The Lost Continent (MU): Currently ranked #1 in NA, MU uniquely consists entirely of Reapers. Their bot duo is known as "fearow" (phi rho). Their sponsors include CTH (Cthulu Telephonics), who provides their cellphones.
**Coach: νB
**Top Lane: alfα
**Jungle: Bιota
**Mid Lane: MεmThεKεy
**ADC: DeathφldDragon
**Support: DeathρDemon
==== Europe ====
Won the first world championship. Has a rivalry with NA.
Like NA, the regular season is split into Spring and Summer, with the ranking at the end of each split awarding circuit points to determine which teams will be sent to TWC.
Teams
*Tender Loving Chicken (TLC): The reason why The Lost Continent's tag is MU and not TLC. 
==== China ====
Quite probably the second strongest region. Has yet to win a world championship, however.
Teams
==== Korea ====
Gaming powerhouse. Has won three world championships so far.
Teams
==== Taiwan ====
A promising region that just recently split off from SEA. A Taiwanese team won the second world championship, but they have yet to emulate that success.
Teams
==== Joker ====
Every other region, including South America, Japan, and Oceania.
Teams
== Trivia ==
* There's a limit to the number of times you can change your name over the course of each Tourney and each year. This rule only exists because someone changed their handle like every day and the Reapers got fed up with keeping up with his name.
* The GM rotation's naming convention randomly became a thing after D!0 and AsIn9 rose into power. Most GMs take a temporary name for their role, but some of them like the name enough to stick with it, or their names are shitty enough that no one remembers them as anything else.
* Support Reapers are paid handsomely due to the sheer number of things they are required to do. Some reapers take on supporting duties in offweeek for Reaper vs Reaper games instead of getting an RG job.
** On the other hand, Reapers taking on Harrier roles aren't paid as much since they're less active than Supports during Tourneys.
==Permission For Use==
Former Owners: Xan and Grizz
Category:Districts
Category:Unconfirmed Districts
Category:AESA