On Camera, For Once

ON CAMERA, FOR ONCE A Statement to the Federation Record, Filed by Evan Morse ("The Doctrine") Format: Video Recording, 4:32 Runtime Federation Site Publishes: Recording + Transcribed Text Below ———————————————— [The video opens on a tight medium shot. EVAN MORSE seated in a wooden chair, plain off-white wall behind him, slight side-lighting from camera right. He is in a dark grey crewneck sweatshirt — not his ring attire. His hair is the same close-cropped clinical cut as on-broadcast. He is holding a piece of paper folded once, in his lap, with both hands. His expression is the same blank-affect register he carries to the cage. He does not look at the camera at first. He looks down at the folded paper. After a beat of approximately two seconds, he looks up. When he speaks, he speaks at a measured, even cadence. He does not perform. He does not adjust for the medium. The only concession to the camera is that he speaks slightly more slowly than he writes.] ———————————————— [00:00] MORSE: This is Evan Morse. I compete in the STRIFE federation under the name "The Doctrine." I am filing this statement to the federation site via the video format, for the broadcast record, in advance of my Behind Closed Doors 8 match against "Simply" Shawn Cortez. [00:14] MORSE: I have not previously filed video material to the federation. My filings have been typed documents. There is a reason. The typed document is a controlled format. The author selects the words. The author edits the words. The author is not visible while the words are being produced. The reader receives the polished outcome. [00:35] MORSE: This is not that. [Brief pause. He looks down at the paper for a beat, then back up.] [00:42] MORSE: Mr. Cortez has, in the past forty-eight hours, filed a scouting document to the federation site regarding my work. I have read the document. It is, in my professional assessment, the most accurate single-source breakdown of my federation tendencies that has been produced by any opponent or observer in the time I have been a competitor at this level. [01:08] MORSE: I am not paying a compliment. I am stating an observation. The document is correct on six of the seven specific tendencies it names. It is correct on the centre-cage percentage. It is correct on the methodical grip. It is correct on the five-strike Crossroads setup. It is correct on the structural absorption of contact. It is correct on the half-second reset. [01:36] MORSE: It is correct, finally, on the differential treatment of honest versus dishonest frameworks. That observation is not one I had previously identified about my own work. Mr. Cortez has identified it for me. I will be taking it under advisement. [Brief pause.] [01:54] MORSE: I am filing this video, rather than a written reply, because Mr. Cortez has named his intention to engage me at centre, to interrupt my reset, and to declare his opening before the bell. He has filed his work in the most exposed format he could choose. He has handed me his preparation in advance. The professional response is to match his disclosure with my own, and to do so in a format that strips away the editing his document was, by its nature, polished through. [02:25] MORSE: I am on camera so that he can see whether what I say corresponds to what I think. [Brief pause.] [02:33] MORSE: My reply to his three principles, in order. [02:38] MORSE: First. Centre control. I accept his framing. The match will be at centre. I will not vacate the centre, and I will not draw him to the wall to win position by structural advantage. The match will be the match it claims to be. [02:55] MORSE: Second. Reset interruption. He has identified the half-second correctly. I will not be modifying it before the bell. To modify it would be to concede that it is a vulnerability, and the framework I am amending does not yet permit that concession. I will work inside the half-second knowing he is at my shoulder. He may make of that what he will. [03:24] MORSE: Third. Honest declaration. I will receive his pre-bell statement. I will reply, on the canvas, with one of my own. The exchange is the right one to have before a framework match. We will conduct it. [Brief pause. He folds and unfolds the paper once, then sets it down on his knee.] [03:47] MORSE: One additional matter, for the broadcast record. [03:52] MORSE: I have, in my filed after-action of three weeks ago, named that I have identified other work in this federation that has been left unattended for too long. I declined to name the work in writing. I will not name it on video either. I will, however, confirm — for Mr. Cortez specifically and for STRIFE Nation generally — that the work continues. It is not a project I have abandoned for the duration of this assignment. The two are parallel. The match against Mr. Cortez is concurrent with the other work, not in place of it. [04:25] MORSE: I look forward to the work. Both of them. [Brief pause. He looks down at the paper one more time, then back at the camera. He does not smile. His expression has not changed since the recording began.] [04:31] MORSE: The match will reveal what writing cannot. [The recording ends. Final frame holds for one half-second of black before the federation's archive watermark appears.] ———————————————— End of recording. Transcribed by federation media services for the broadcast record. — Evan Morse / "The Doctrine"