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Post by Admin on Jan 15, 2014 18:56:07 GMT
Hello everyone.
When I first designed the Challenge Series I knew that there would be obstacles to overcome. From players not showing up to an event that took weeks to complete, to US and EU players having a hard time meeting the strict two day per round schedule, to the backlash from players given losses that they felt were unjust. All of this on top of the bugs of just playing the game makes for a lot of headaches and lost sleep. But for me, it's worth it. The community for this game is very strong and very lively. I feel like we've overcome many of the issues so far that have presented themselves and I'm very much looking forward to the future of the Challenge Series.
What I would like to propose today, and would like feedback on from everyone, is the proposition of holding the February Challenge Series event in one day. Now, here me out before you think that idea is just senile. Once the client can support it without an outside source, ALL the events will be held during the course of one day. What I want to try is doing it outside of the client. The challonge.com website has amazing software that allows players the ability to enter in their own match results. It has everything that we could ever want to organize an event of this magnitude. What this allows us to do is cater to as many players as possible in order to complete an event in a timely manner and give people the impression of what the events will be like in the future.
We gain a lot from this and lose very little. There are some details that need worked out still but the overall idea is to have the swiss rounds on a Saturday starting at 9:00 AM EST (14:00 GMT / 15:00 CET) and the top 8 on the following morning. So let's assume another 8 round event. The pairings will go up at 8:55 am and round 1 will start promptly at 9. I will be keeping a timer on the round and will have every round last 50 minutes. Give some time to pair the next round and we can expect an 8 round event to last approximately 8 hours, give or take a few minutes. For you Europeans that means that you will be done with the entire event by 10 PM GMT and that's on a Saturday so it shouldn't be too late.
What I want from you guys is your feedback. What do you feel like the major pitfalls of this will be? I think the pros outweigh the cons but I'm open to suggestions. If you cannot make the event regardless, please still be honest with your opinion.
Thanks!
- John
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Post by htpkroan on Jan 15, 2014 19:03:29 GMT
I would make sure that there is an hour break in there somewhere for lunch / dinner / whatever. Otherwise i'm all for tbh. Would be fun, I am sure of it!
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Post by htpdisordia on Jan 15, 2014 19:12:08 GMT
I would much rather play in a tournament that spanned the course of a day rather than two weeks. I'm worried about people not actually having a timer to look at and know how much time is left in the given round. Oohh actually you could just leave your stream up showing the round timer so everyone can go off the same clock. Then with like 5 minutes of grace time to record the match and start next round. It could work.
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koci
New Member
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Post by koci on Jan 15, 2014 19:18:10 GMT
I don't mind having to play it all in one day, but the only worry is the amount of people able to participate I guess. More input and seeing who joins the tournaments after a change is the only real way of seeing that though. Personally, I prefer a day where you have to slug it out because then it doesn't seem as daunting or as involved with us having to keep scheduling with people over and over on when to play etc. By sticking to a strict schedule it is easier to get it all out of the way and I think would actually enable more mini-tournaments, if you wanted to, occur rather than one big one over the long course of however many weeks it would take to set up and complete each time.
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Post by htpFlyingMeatchip on Jan 15, 2014 19:19:17 GMT
Sounds interesting...but being a global community there are going to be issues. It can be done but you might lose some of the community members unable to commit an entire day.
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Post by htpmythicfishmom on Jan 15, 2014 19:27:20 GMT
I like the one day to sign up idea. Makes it more like true to life. With some auto invites like top 16 of last tourney perhaps
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Post by htpFlyingMeatchip on Jan 15, 2014 19:27:55 GMT
Also, what would happen if the servers start having issues on the tournament day? Like last Saturday...would it just be bumped up a week or two?
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Post by soelbaby on Jan 15, 2014 19:30:31 GMT
I love the idea of it. It's worth an attempt because like you said most tourneys are done in a 1-3 days max depending on people (20-3000 players). I personally would like to participate but at that time I will be at work and unable to... BUT that doesnt matter no matter what theres going to be people who cant play. If you get this one up and running people will see how it works, then the next time it will go smoother and so forth for every tourney afterwards which will lead to more tourneys altogether and then people will have more options of times they can show up too. The worst thing that could happen is you scrap it and go back to the other way. The pro is that it runs smoothly and leads to more tourneys and more fun.
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Post by vengus on Jan 15, 2014 19:41:43 GMT
I like the idea and was actually thinking of the same thing. The only thing I am worried about is that some players who live in a different timezone than the US or EU are going to have a hard time to participate. However with the current setup that issue exists aswell. It can be really hard to schedule a match when the opponent lives on the other side of the planet. For that reason I like the idea of doing it all on one day a lot more than the current setup which sometimes makes me want to pull my hairs out.
On the commitment issue I don't think it should matter much. This is how tournaments work in real life aswell, and nobody complaints about it. This tournament will be held on a monthly basis right? So there's plenty of opportunities for players to play altough they might lose their chance at the special top 16 tournament. Besides, like you said once the client can handle it this will be how every tournament goes from then on, so sooner or later players will have to get used to it.
Another big advantage of doing the tournament the way you propose it is that we can actually help CZE by putting some stress on the server.
Btw while I agree with Kroan's idea of having a break, it could get pretty difficult to arrange a good moment for it due to all the different timezones.
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Post by htpdisordia on Jan 15, 2014 19:49:07 GMT
You can just set a break at the halfway point then. Also makes use of the timer on the stream. Just have a caption saying which round it is or saying that it's lunch break or whatever so people will easily be able to know how much time is left in the break or round.
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Post by Admin on Jan 15, 2014 19:54:16 GMT
The event will be announced several weeks in advance so that players can make themselves available. The availability of players isn't the issue. This emulates a real life event that you'd travel to except that you get to play it from the comfort of your home.
Regarding the time issue, there's of course no time possible that can be created to make it so that every single person can play comfortably. I felt that 9 am EST gives the best time for everyone as it isn't too early for CST and EST US players but also reasonable for EU players. US West Coast players as well as APAC players will have to make a sacrifice to play but again the time will be announced well in advance.
Thank you all so much for the feedback and please keep it coming!
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Post by phoenixforgehex on Jan 15, 2014 19:55:09 GMT
I like this idea, but I think there will have to be a few break in between matches.
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umaro
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Post by umaro on Jan 15, 2014 19:59:51 GMT
Gonna make me wake up at 6:00 AM (PST) on a weekend. T___T I do like the idea of having the whole tournament in a day, but at the same time I have nothing negative to say about the current set-up. I think flyingmeatchip has a good point about server stability. Server activity spiking up all at once (presumably another 100+ people, possibly lower than January due to a more demanding schedule) could be problematic. Remember that they're still hosting on a junker PC for stress load debugging. Just my thoughts. My opinion is this: I'll join for it either way, so long as I'm free.  The difference here is that we're not traveling. If I traveled to the east coast for a tournament, I would still be waking up at 8:00 AM to get to a 9:00 AM tournament. Playing from home, I'd be waking up at 5:00 AM to make a 6:00 AM tournament. Never discount the waking power of sunlight.  I agree that scheduling for global players is difficult. Please don't think that these quote responses are complaints at all. I actually had an idea regarding this, but I know that it will put extra stress on you. Consider this just a thought for the future: What if you hosted multiple challenges a month on different time tablesand restrict participants from entering more than one? Basically, First Saturday in a month, start tournament at 9:00 AM PST. Second Saturday in a month, start tournament at 9:00 AM EST. Third Saturday in a month, start tournament at 9:00 AM GMT. Basically, region-specific tournaments. I know that you're looking for people to help with organized play and such, so maybe in the future when you have enough of a staff as it were to host multiple a month you could consider this as an option. Obviously I'd need to put some more thought into that to make it flawless, but like I said, it was just a thought. You're welcome. |
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raith
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Post by raith on Jan 15, 2014 20:00:32 GMT
Good idea. It's a lot easier to predict availability for a one day tourney than your time every other day for 3 weeks.
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Post by caerbannog on Jan 15, 2014 20:06:12 GMT
It sounds cool. I just hope I'll have the days free of other obligations.
A lunch/dinner break will be necessary as Kroan points out.
Only negative is that it'll be over too soon and then you'll need to wait an entire month to play in it again!
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