30% Iron Civer Tournament

[Rommel2D]

Re: Re: Re: The Iron Civer Open

Originally posted by McMeadows
Organising 2 player rapid sessions can be easily arranged among any 2 players anywhere towards the end of any game. That's not what we have been discussing. Iron B didn't have a session among the 4 or 3 players.

My original point was that the speed of the current round of this tournament has benefited greatly from intensive sessions due to grouping together players who played at similar times. Actually, I don't recall if Coliseum D had any, but without these sessions Col A would probably be somewhere around the finishing point now, B would be days away from finishing, and C would be months from completion, rather than weeks or maybe even days.

The bulk of Coliseum C's sessions were done on weeknights. If we had used a slot structure for this round, the beginning of the championship round would now be nowhere in sight.

The succes of the current IC tournament is clear. The very reason we are discussing at the moment is just because the epic games we have been playing gained interest from more players and we want to share the fun with anyone who's interested. The question is just merely how can we keep the format and add people without losing speed?

I don't see how the internal structure of the games would be what generates outside interest. To me it would seem to be the idea that a large number of players enter into the same contest and ultimately only one of them is declared the victor. But everyone gets an equal shot at it. By exceeding the normal 8-player limit, we can move beyond the boundaries of the default PBEM format.

The first tournament being 2 discreet games of similar structure was a good simple format to use as a starting point, but any tournament has to be viewed as one large game. Increasing the qualifying round and finals symetrically will geometrically increase the total length of the tournament.

By my judgement, this round was already streching the limit of sustainable interest. Once the final game starts, it should sustain itself, but I feel we need to shorten the average length of the first round games since we need to accomodate more of them. If we have more than 6, taking the first ones to finish will greatly help this. Another option would be to create a deadline at 6 months and determine survivors at that point somehow.

Once the final game starts, it shouldn't matter how many turns it goes. A normal victory condition game would be preferable at that stage IMO. Having both rounds elimination would needlessly cheat the second round out of a traditional structure, while I anticipate both rounds as epic games would delay the second round beyond the interest of some participants. Therefore, I'm looking for pallateable options to shorten up the qualifying round...

[punkbass2000]

What would be ideal would be to create slots that are near enough to each other to still create the likelihood of rapid fire session while still ensuring that a full round will be playable every day (or close to that, anyway). Something like '5-6, 6-7, 7-8, 8-9' (all of the same time zone, of course), or even overlapping times, '5-7,6-8,7-9,8-10'. I think you see where I'm going with this, anyway.

[Rommel2D]

Originally posted by Aqualung71 I would like to see more than 4 players though....and I think 5 is a good number if we can still stick to the "turn-a-day" rule.

With the 24-hour rule, the average 4-player turn could be expected to take around 2 days. With 5-player games, this becomes 2.5 days. The extra player is also a 25% greater chance everyone won't be able to make a rapid session, as well as less turns completed per session.

This is where a slot system would make sense, encouraging 5 or 6 players to get an entire turn in one day. However, one-turn-a-day becomes like the speed of light- you can approach it, but don't expect to exceed it. I think we'd loose alot of time in the early game this way, even if everyone was willing to commit to it.

[Aqualung71]

What's the ETS for the final Rommel? Any idea when Moonbars will finally kill Andy?

[bongo]

Just some (more or less) random thoughts.


The final is obviously getting closer, after 7-8 months of playing in the first round. If we want a new tournament, we are already too late for 'Ironciver 2005'. How about kicking off 'Ironciver 2006' in the spring? Then we can get 3 rounds and finish the final in 2006(or early 2007)

First round: Many players, of which 16 will qualify for the 2nd round.

Second round, the winners of first round of course

Third round is the final.

First round is stopped after some period (9 months?), second and third is allowed to reach the end.

How we organize depends on the number of interested players.

A 3-round tournament can easily accomodate up to 150 players, provided we allow up to 5 players in 2nd and 3rd round and stop the first round after some preset time.

If the number of players are in the 25-64 region, we can allow some people to play in 2 first-round games, or give some players free passes to the second round.

With 25 or below, we keep the current 2-round structure.


By holding annual tournaments, there will always be a competition beginning 'soon' meaning if you missed the previous one(or were eliminated) you won't have to wait too long before a new one start.

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by bongo
A 3-round tournament can easily accomodate up to 150 players,

Methinks our esteemed Bongolian is getting a little carried away

Any more than 30 and you won't get the round finished before several of us die! By the way, how many regular PBEM'ers are there at Poly? Can't be too many more than that anyway!

[Aqualung71]

Hey, you gonna remain a Bongolian for the final, old chap?

[bongo]

Dunno, I really hate having to chose btw. I much prefer random as it gives me the opportunity to ***** about bad luck should I lose

Seriously though, I prefer random cause it forces me to be creative when the game start rather than plan half the game ahead.


The biggest problem with a 150-player 3-turn tournament is *not* players dying, it is civ4 coming out. When it does, only the most dedicated will bother to finish any ongoing games. Unless civ4 is crap of course(which I hope it isn't)

[Aqualung71]

Anyway....I think the time is approaching for Rommel to get the final cranked up....I think he may have already done the map and starting positions.

[Rommel2D]

The map for the Final is indeed waiting for a set of hapless warriors to occupy it. Once Coliseum C has achieved it's conclusion, the Final's parameters will be revealed and contestants expected to choose their tribes subsequently.

The ceremonies continue here.

[Ming]

Yep... over 500... use the new thread.