First appearance: Playtest 1 (Pre-Launch) — Silky Slim v Escanor the Echo · watch it on YouTube
The Floating Grandstands are where The Acolytes watch the Deathmatches. They hover above whatever battlefield the arena has become that week: a generator, an asteroid, a tavern whose ceiling has turned transparent. The crowd in them is enormous, rowdy and rarely sober. Whatever happens on the field, the grandstands can be counted on to answer with noise, popcorn and violence of their own.
Description
The grandstands hold a crowd of thousands, maybe millions, made up of “every imaginable type of life.” They float over the fighting and follow the arena wherever it goes. They have hung in the clouds, hovered over the depths of space, and floated above a tavern whose ceiling had turned transparent so the crowd could look in. The Acolytes reach them through portals opened by The Arbiter, who often flares his white wings and rises up to the stands to address the crowd before the blood starts flowing.
Being there is loud. Acolytes scream the champions’ names and chant whatever has caught their fancy, from “CHAOS!” to “Beans!” They throw popcorn and blue slushies, spill beer, tear off their shirts and swing them over their heads, and punch one another. The seating is not purely primitive. At least once the stands were “4D,” with air jets and water spritzers, and the Acolytes wore 3D-style glasses to see through magical darkness.
Seating has a pecking order. Honored guests can be moved to the front row, and even the most devoted Acolytes can be bumped back to make room for them.
History
Playtest 1 (Pre-Launch) — Silky Slim v Escanor the Echo
The grandstands were there from the very first fight, between Silky Slim and Escanor the Echo. The Arbiter greeted a floating crowd of thousands, maybe millions, gathered from every kind of life imaginable:
The Arbiter: “You crowd! You have come! For dungeons, and dice, and deathmatches. And you, the acolytes of the double ampersand. Loyal servants to our Grandmaster.”
S1E5, The 2v2
Before Chuck Solid Gold Dragon Biff and Richardo faced Steely Dan and Thass’Lok, the Arbiter turned to the grandstands with a promise: “Acolytes of the Grandmaster, you have come for dungeons and dice and deathmatches, and you will have blood.”
S1E11 — Gift Horse — Cosmonius v El Hada Rocha
For the fight between Cosmonius and El Hada Rocha, the floating grandstand was magically placed above a generator. It was “dollar hot dog night in the Dread Fortress,” and the crowd behaved accordingly. They screamed names, threw popcorn and spilled beer, and drunks who had come straight from the tailgate picked fights. Above it all rose the chant of “CHAOS!”
S3E5, Edge Lords - Captain Fable v Verryn Ruth
When Captain Fable met Verryn Ruth, the grandstands got an upgrade. They were “4D,” complete with air jets and water spritzers, and the Acolytes put on 3D-style glasses so they could see through the magical darkness on the field.
Season 6: The Ether Drifts and Tip to Tip
In Ether Drifts Part 2, the Arbiter’s sound wave opened a portal to The Ether Drifts. Atlas, Robbie Clark and the Hunger and Copycat fought on an asteroid beside a large gaseous planet, where gravity was lower than at The Dread Fortress. The Acolytes watched from a floating grandstand overhead.
In Tip to Tip Part 2, the grandstands hosted government. The Grandmaster clapped, and twelve mustachioed Chinchillas paraded out as the Chinchilla Parliament. “It’s the Parliament! Our government is being run right before our eyes,” marvelled Richard S. Skelman, while Richard Knottley offered a respectful “Senator.” The chinchillas had been on their best behavior, so they were given the front row. The top Acolytes, Robey, Epic, Rickroll, Cookiemon, Steve, Gator and Scribbr, were pushed back a couple of rows to make room. “When government officials are in town… we must make space,” Skelman explained. The Arbiter then rose above the stands on his white wings and asked, “Acolytes! Are you ready for some blood?”
The season finale, The Hunt for #2 Part 2, put the field inside a tavern still wrecked from a werewolf fight. Nobody had cleaned up the drunks, the passed-out patrons or the pools of dried vomit, and Emmery was wiping down the bar. The ceiling had become transparent, and through it thousands of Acolytes in the floating grandstands screamed names, threw blue slushies and punched each other. Below them, Frigidoom, Bob the Barbarian and The Duke fought it out.
The Wounded Warrior Project crossover
At the Capture the Flag charity crossover, the roof was simply gone. A floating grandstand of Acolytes hung overhead, chanting names, tearing their shirts off and spilling beer. The Arbiter set the stakes plainly: the food had to be gone before anyone moved on, because “The Acolytes came here for one thing and one thing only, and that’s to watch a duck eat.” The crowd answered with a chant of “Beans!”
Season 7
In S7E2 — Under the Oil Tree — Big Business v Bog Boy, the grandstands floated in the clouds above Big Business and Bog Boy. During a break in the fight, the Arbiter reported that the Acolytes had gotten into fights, ripped their shirts off and swung them around their heads, and thrown their grandmothers onto the field of battle.
For S7E3, Chinchilla the White, the Arbiter flared his glowing wings and reality shifted into the depths of space. Akumu and Jinx stood on an asteroid in front of a large planet. Overhead, “maybe millions” of Acolytes filled the floating grandstands and were already throwing blue slushies, ripping their shirts off and chanting the champions’ names.
In S7E6 — Bone Force — Jerry Bonesman v TD, the Arbiter flew up to a grandstand of “hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Acolytes.” They were drenching each other in blue slushies, and in honor of Father’s Day, they had all brought their fathers. “Acolytes! Are you ready for blood?” he asked, while the Grandmaster watched from her throne with popcorn and Doug the Pug at her side. Below, Jerry Bonesman and TD got ready to fight.
Notable Figures
- The Acolytes: the residents of the Void who fill the stands every week.
- The Arbiter: opens the portals that bring the crowd and regularly rises above the stands to rally it.
- The Grandmaster: the ruler the Acolytes come to serve and cheer for.
- Chinchillas: the Chinchilla Parliament once earned front-row seats for good behavior.