The tournament is not going to be god tier. It'll be some form of Tier 2. I will provide details later this week when I make the thread.

By justification for magic, you must mean stuff that makes sense in the context of their universe but not real world physics, which would suck all of the fun out magic battles being that they can't use magic in real life. At some point we have to make something up even if it mostly uses real physics or else it's not magic.

In Naruto, it's completely fine if they move their hands in certain poses and use their chakra to make a giant dragon made out of water pop out. Using this same technique to stop time needs no more justification than any other jutsu out there such as the water dragon example. All they have to do is be consistent with how they're achieving it and have in universe laws of magic even if physically doesn't make much sense in our universe's physics. I assume that's what you're saying, but I'm slightly confused then why you say nobody can explain how time magic works, so maybe I'm missing something. In this Naruto case it would work by doing hand signs and chakra just like any other jutsu. That explains it in their universe.

By justification I mean precisely how you are stopping or manipulating time given that it is a sequence of events. Altering it would be even more difficult given it'd require the precise rearrangement of all states of matter at a given time and include being able to recall all of that information at that instance you wish to go 'back to'.

And yes, you do need more justification for playing with time. Moving water (or even creating it) is much less complex than that kind of ability.

This matters because actually understanding what you are doing provides scope of how much energy something would take and how much time it would take to prepare it. As well, countermeasures can apply to specific expressions of an ability in particular.

But, as I said, this only applies in particular situations. For almost all combat it'd be entirely irrelevant. Few people are going to discuss the mechanics of an ability unless it dips into the realm of incredibly complicated. Most things are in fact very simple.

EDIT: I'm tired and may not be explaining this particularly well.

Code Geass did time stop better (I'm sure you would agree) by actually stopping people's perception of time within a certain radius. Everyone just stops moving because time has stopped from their point of view but things like bullets and such would still go like normal. This "time stop" would be less op as well because people who can mentally block out attacks could likely stop this from occurring. If you are not able to, however, it would still be unavoidable unless you know of this power and keep your distance.

Code Geass did time stop better (I'm sure you would agree) by actually stopping people's perception of time within a certain radius. Everyone just stops moving because time has stopped from their point of view but things like bullets and such would still go like normal. This "time stop" would be less op as well because people who can mentally block out attacks could likely stop this from occurring. If you are not able to, however, it would still be unavoidable unless you know of this power and keep your distance.

Correct (in that it is better). Although that isn't a true manipulation of time. This is also why I generally encourage people to explain the 'how'. Stopping time vs stopping the perception of time are very different things even if they can have the same general effect. There is also the matter though of how the mental influencing it is being done, among a multitude of other factors.

How will always be an important question in combat.

Time is, without going into the highest ends of physics, not a meaningful construct outside of human perception. This holds especially true for text-based combat as the process by which one would "control time" would largely involve knowledge of every state of every fundamental particle in the universe and rearranging them to suit the given pattern they were in at the time you wish to go back to.

This, obviously, is largely impossible because it requires omnipotence and omniscience.

Altering someone's perception of time, however, achieves the same effect with much less malarkey.

In fact, it's easier to restructure reality in a small area than it is to manipulate time - and when you think about it, that's a bit ridiculous. Personally, I've never enjoyed time manipulation because it is A) An unsatisfying way to win, B) Impossible to validate for most characters, and C) Its results are easy to replicate without going to the effort of actually rearranging the universe.

personally, I just avoid time and space manipulators. in the Ranking I won't forbid it. But I also won't fight them. Unless I'm running the tournament. Then it's forbidden. period.

I doubt there will be any time manipulating characters. The player pool here tends to shy away from the extremely powerful characters. I suspect most fights will fall into realistic or powered but not extreme powers.

The power level here does seem to verge on the lower to middle realms of Tier 2. I don't think I've seen anyone cross into realms yet, which greatly pleases me. :L

Unless the tournament is god-level, nobody's going to have time-stop capability. If it is god-level, other characters are going to have the capability to counter it. You're never going to end up in a tournament where Captain America is pitted against Hunter Zolomon.

well as long as we acknowledge that time-stop IS a god level power, and therefore not going to be used in a majority of ranked matches then my point stays made.

WWould it be at all possible to trouble one of you guys for a mock fight? i want to test my phones ccapability. I'll link who I'll be using. It's Kei'Taro. I have more abilities for him that i can post as well

@MelonHead Melon, my good friend, I'm calling you out(Ranked):
I pit my Zai Matsu Vs your Ghoul in the new 'Broken Dojo' stage?

lemme know

@Rilla Im a lowly filthy intermediate but I'll be happy to take you on in an exhibition match....long as I get to chose the stage :P

Dirty scoundrel.

feel free. do you want me to add the rest of Kei's abilities? Or is it fine to test them during the match?

@MelonHead Melon, my good friend, I'm calling you out(Ranked):
I pit my Zai Matsu Vs your Ghoul in the new 'Broken Dojo' stage?

lemme know

Part of the dynamic of my Ghoul character is that he was going to change depending on the time period he fights, obviously because it doesn't make sense for him to still be carrying flintlocks and a steel sword into the modern day.

If I write up his modern day equipment/apparel and add it to his CS I think he would be better matched with your ninja. At the moment I can't see any of his weapons realistically being able to damage your character, even if they do hit.

If you're still cool with fighting modern day Isaac then we can do this, I'll add the adjustments asap.

Also, if you are interested in fighting Isaac still, how much exactly does your character's suit increase his physical capabilities? At the moment I'd say in weaponry, skill and equipment your character has Isaac beat, if he's significantly stronger and faster as well it might be a little bit of a non-contest.

Dirty scoundrel.

feel free. do you want me to add the rest of Kei's abilities? Or is it fine to test them during the match?

oh please add, I want to know what I'm getting into before I lose gracefully. Oh and I changed my mind this isnt an exhibition its a training match, I dont want my ass handing to tarnish my respectable record.

@MelonHead he can still have his sword, thats no problem, and maybe you can make his flintlocks into badass modern day custom musket style pistols or whatever. and Zai matsu isnt ridiculosly strong with the suit, Id say 2.5 strength and speed of his normal human body, he is technically super human but still very mortal.

Kei

Kei taro is a BEAST I'm gonna need to use Regan my Summoner for this. I don't think my monk can handle all those animal forms.

I wasn't going to add it to my record anyway. Lol.

And I did. Link above. only add three. strike. Coil. ivory.

You can post the arena when you are ready.