the Feral Prodigy script: justifying your seed
Here is how to handle being seeded at tournaments, signifying that seeding committees composed of old big-armed men publicly expect you to reach a certain round. Reaching at least the round you’re supposed to is known at tournaments as ‘justifying your seed.’
Context
The ranking apparatus as public expectation: to be seeded is to have "seeding committees composed of old big-armed men publicly expect you to reach a certain round," and merely meeting that expectation is called "justifying your seed." The body is assigned a fate in advance by committee and then measured against it — success is only ratifying the old men's prediction, and the prodigy's defense against the pressure is to repeat the phrase until it decays "to an empty series of phonemes." The seeding is destiny handed down, and living up to it is the floor, not the achievement.