I think it’s fairly debatable if that’s a foul, and would be depend on the ref. As we can see aplenty in real sports, what a foul is highly dependent on the ref. Distractions are clearly allowed, and even if you consider it an attack, the ruleset as presented was “directly attack” and it could easily be argued that this was an indirect attack such as it was an attack. I would suspect there may be a precedent against more ‘aggressive’ or damaging distractions in the sport though.

We’ll see a little more detail on next page, but it was particularly effective against Naomi…

Either way, Naomi seems to have decided to not call it.

I think I’ve used swear words before, though I use them rarely (usually I use the slightly different sets of vaguely historical references as swear words depending whose swearing rooted in- nevermind, it’s complicated… πŸ˜› ). I gave it a far amount of thought, but decided it was appropriate here; particularly as I try to distinguish the vocabulary of the different characters, and part of that is Naomi typically using far less convoluted terminology then Peter or Mium.

I will note that Peter never did tell Naomi he didn’t expect her to win. But I also don’t think it’s unreasonable she’s reached that conclusion given his flippancy on the matter and her general ability to decipher his antics.

If it’s not clear, in panel 6, Naomi is shaking her head. I’m not convinced that would be helpful, but it seems like a Naomi thing to do.

PS: Passed my certifications, so we’ll celebrate by having three comics this week. Maybe even a new vote incentive as we’ve dropped out of the top 100, but no promises yet πŸ˜‰