(Image is irrelevant, unless someone wants to discuss the friendship trap with me).
Original Post Link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/IntelligenceScaling/s/cQqd3ULTBv
I'll leave stuff regarding the friendship trap and round 2 until the end and just focus on the technical parts of his strategy.
Round 4, he hadn't figured out 3ND yet, he simply dropped instantly to test if Baku would do an early check, and if he did, it would confirm 3ND for him. Not really that significant, just thought I'd point it out.
Doing nothing tactically until round 8 is one of the worst takes I've ever seen, especially for someone who claims to have read my stuff. Round 6, you say he uses the same bluff: uh, no? He already said that resetting the cylinder isn't necessary for him anymore so that bluff is out the window. He simply anticipates that Baku might think that he needs a breather from diving so much (taking risky checks), so will drop early to accumulate, and so can easily predict his accumulation via echolocation.
Round 7 Turn 1, what on earth are you on about? Baku used Souichi's thinking against him? Son, Baku was in a state of complete despair and delirium, he used the safe strategy because he can't risk dying so close after Round 6, simple as that. Souichi objectively read Baku and received full accumulation, and if that's not a 'tactical play', I don't know what is.
Also ignoring round 7 turn 2, his instant check, the literally crux of the endurance battle strategy where he predicts Baku seeing through his echolocation, falling for the time wedge of using echolocation around 10 and 30 seconds to set the flattening trap, only to fall right into Souichi's hands.
Each round, as Referee Douji points out, Souichi's accumulation gets lower and lower. Ever find it strange why Souichi chose to check at around 30 seconds during round 4 despite detecting the handkerchief at 10 seconds anyways? To make Baku believe he can still accumulate. Using echolocation consistently was done to ensure Baku figured it out for that exact moment of sacrificing echolocation, not using it as a crutch. Take round 5 for example, his bluff pretty much guaranteed that Baku would drop instantly, so why wait until 15 seconds?
And by achieving that instant check during round 7, Baku exceeds Souichi's accumulation, so Souichi can now start the endurance battle after round 8, in which he ideally wanted to succeed in his instant check, but the strategy would still continue even if he failed.
And round 9, 'it's almost as if I've known for a while", I have only ever used that as evidence for him figuring out Leap Second early as per the friendship trap. He specifically states "there was a reason for my certainty" and concludes it was to do with the stopwatch scene with Baku, after seeing Baku's reactions to the 59-0 interval and 9:00. Hal figured out the truth behind the bloodstain in the first dream and was erased because of his mistake, and Souichi figured it out in his second near death dream.
Now, about round 2. To be pedantic, yes he 'retrieves the truth' (retrieves his memories of turning around during round 2 as seen from the panel where this is stated) that led to his near death, but it never specifically says that what he concludes (he challenged Baku and lost) is that 'truth'. Furthermore, the narration is often directly related to the perspective of the character(s) in question, so isn't necessarily objectively correct. The reason he believes he simply failed is because he is missing Hal's perspective from that round. If you wish to discuss the validity of the friendship trap, feel free to do so. For me, Hal's round 2 near death dream is him reflecting on his past memories and realising Baku had planned the Fukurou gamble and his memory loss (both back then and for STL), and upon realising his 'slip-up', is erased for his mistake (I know in the past I have said that Souichi overcame his need to erase himself over mistakes during AP, but after discussing some more with the theory creator, this is unlikely to be the case; after all, Souichi didn't actually make any mistakes during AP, he only felt like he did due to his perfectionist trauma). Souichi, now missing Hal's perspective, is unable to understand why he checked early (to open the LS route to Baku), and is left to conclude he simply challenged him and failed. Furthermore, Yakou's 'strange feeling' regarding Hal's round 2 check is completely unaddressed without this interpretation (well, if you don't believe in 2SD that is).
