6:2 - Rust Cohle vs. Officer Rick Grimes

[UMPIRE]

SEASON 6, ROUND 2

Rust Cohle

Slot: The Team Member at Nakatomi Plaza
Season Wins: 0
Season Losses: 0
Fantasy Team Page
Read more about Rust Cohle at Wikipedia
Official Site: HBO

Officer Rick Grimes

Slot: The Team Member at Nakatomi Plaza
Season Wins: 0
Season Losses: 0
Fantasy Team Page
Read more about Officer Rick Grimes at Wikipedia
Official Site: Image Comics

Battle Terrain
Cops vs. Holiday Horrors: the Thing

[Nate86]

Rust has a deep distrust of people to begin with but a need to save lives whenever possible. He’s good with patterns and would probably figure out what’s happening faster than most. Paranoia is a plus when dealing with The Thing for sure.

[Macklemore]

The Thing is possibly one of the hardest creatures for any one normal person to deal with. I have yet to see a single person in this slot that could be able to defeat it. If I recall correctly, the only reason they beat it (or didn't, depending of how you take the ending. I'm inclined towards the former,), is because it was found in Bumfuck, Antarctica. If it was anywhere in civilization, the assimilation would go far too smooth for anyone to even find out what's going on.

[SSJRuss]

I agree that this is a tough task. But with the goal of having the least dead, I'll give it to Rick. He knows how to keep large groups of people in line and get them to safety. He lives in a time of constant fight or flight and would have some effective strategies for this scenario.

[Fox]

I think this scenario is a real challenge for the deductive and reasoning skills of the detectives more than anything.

I'm inclined towards Cohle on this one.  He is insanely meticulous and obsessive and I think that gives him the edge in spotting that stranger things are afoot.

[Bergy_Berg]

On 12/7/2020 at 11:36 AM, SSJRuss said:

I agree that this is a tough task. But with the goal of having the least dead, I'll give it to Rick. He knows how to keep large groups of people in line and get them to safety. He lives in a time of constant fight or flight and would have some effective strategies for this scenario.

I realize his experience with zombies could be beneficial here. He would probably institute the kind of checks needed to find out who's real or not sooner, he has experience with something that seems supernatural, and may be able to cope with the fact that bullets don't work faster than Cohle can.

[SSJRuss]

11 hours ago, Bergy_Berg said:

I realize his experience with zombies could be beneficial here. He would probably institute the kind of checks needed to find out who's real or not sooner, he has experience with something that seems supernatural, and may be able to cope with the fact that bullets don't work faster than Cohle can.

Also great points. Glad we agree.

[Peypeypeypey]

On 12/7/2020 at 2:17 PM, Macklemore said:

The Thing is possibly one of the hardest creatures for any one normal person to deal with. I have yet to see a single person in this slot that could be able to defeat it. If I recall correctly, the only reason they beat it (or didn't, depending of how you take the ending. I'm inclined towards the former,), is because it was found in Bumfuck, Antarctica. If it was anywhere in civilization, the assimilation would go far too smooth for anyone to even find out what's going on.

Yeah, I gotta totally agree with Macklemore here. The Thing is virtually unbeatable if it gets into a town. It becomes a game of "who holds out longer" rather than "who can beat it." If it was The Bodysnatchers, then I would favor Rust, but with The Thing, neither of them really does well at all. Nevermind the massive amounts of people it could consume, once it starts infecting wildlife, all life on Earth is dead (or assimilated I guess, they're still "alive" arguably). Even if it can't assimilate plants (which it may be able to do), think of birds, bugs, and other small wildlife. We would have to virtually wipe out all life on Earth to ensure the Thing is dead. 

For this matchup, going with who would survive longer, assuming they both survive the initial wave long enough to know somewhat what's going on, Rust is naturally nihilistic and an isolated person. Rick would be much more likely to work on the front lines saving people, which might cost him. Alternatively, that might also put him in a position with the military. The one "drawback" of the Thing is that, unlike zombies for instance, it takes a while to fully infect a host to the point where it can start spreading if memory serves. A large group of soldiers with flamethrowers would be able to effectively wipe out any instances of The Thing near them fairly effectively, until it infects things like ants, mosquitos, flies, etc. If Rick stays with a group like that maybe he'll survive longer. It's sort of a tossup 

[Nate86]

McReady is, just from what we know, the most capable person at handling The Thing. While he still winds up pretty much dying in the cold by the end of the film he uses deduction and a normally unhealthy amount of paranoia that gets him in a last man standing scenario. Grimes is generally an action guy, he comes up with plans sometimes but they go off the rails usually and there’s not much deduction involved. Cohle is built to deduce things and has a real interest in multiple sciences, we even see books on multiple subjects stacked in his apartment. Even in a city where everything could go wrong fast I think somebody with a sharp mind is who you need to corner and eliminate The Thing if not be the last man standing.

[Peypeypeypey]

13 minutes ago, Nate86 said:

McReady is, just from what we know, the most capable person at handling The Thing. While he still winds up pretty much dying in the cold by the end of the film he uses deduction and a normally unhealthy amount of paranoia that gets him in a last man standing scenario. Grimes is generally an action guy, he comes up with plans sometimes but they go off the rails usually and there’s not much deduction involved. Cohle is built to deduce things and has a real interest in multiple sciences, we even see books on multiple subjects stacked in his apartment. Even in a city where everything could go wrong fast I think somebody with a sharp mind is who you need to corner and eliminate The Thing if not be the last man standing.

The problem is that the scenario is totally different. If it were "Who can be the best stand in for McReady," then I totally agree that Rust would work best. However, McReady fought the Thing in the arctic without any other life around. Again, I think a spray and pray methodology would legitimately get fewer people killed. Confirm who you can, torch literally everything else. Animals, plants, humans, etc. That's quite literally the only way I can see surviving this. Using deduction works when there is a very limited pool of people who could have been assimilated. When you're dealing with the exponential threat of literally any living thing being infected, deduction can't save you

EDIT: I suppose, rereading the prompt, that it might be in the same place as the original? If that's the case then Rust probably has the edge, although I think Rick would do decent as well. By "save the town," I assumed it meant it took place in an actual town, and if so, everything I said stands

[Nate86]

18 minutes ago, Peypeypeypey said:

The problem is that the scenario is totally different. If it were "Who can be the best stand in for McReady," then I totally agree that Rust would work best. However, McReady fought the Thing in the arctic without any other life around. Again, I think a spray and pray methodology would legitimately get fewer people killed. Confirm who you can, torch literally everything else. Animals, plants, humans, etc. That's quite literally the only way I can see surviving this. Using deduction works when there is a very limited pool of people who could have been assimilated. When you're dealing with the exponential threat of literally any living thing being infected, deduction can't save you

EDIT: I suppose, rereading the prompt, that it might be in the same place as the original? If that's the case then Rust probably has the edge, although I think Rick would do decent as well. By "save the town," I assumed it meant it took place in an actual town, and if so, everything I said stands

I also assumed, and it looks like everyone else too, that “The Town” means a populated town with an outside population.

[UMPIRE]

Match Final Results

Rust Cohle: 6
Officer Rick Grimes: 5

[SSJRuss]

1 minute ago, UMPIRE said:

Match Final Results

Rust Cohle: 6
Officer Rick Grimes: 5

Damn so close!