MArcomage

I'D really really like to have a Marcomage tournament.

Everyone is allowed to sign up and all you need is a deck but each player may just participate with one of his decks. ;)

I don't know whether there should be any card restrictions or special tournament rules but we may discuss that right here.

After the sign-up deadline has passed the participants will be put into groups of four and every player of each group has to do a match against every other player in his group. Depending on the outcome victory, draw or defeat each player gains points. The two players with the most points of their group climb up to the next round.

What do you think about it?

thanks for listening :)

This is relevant to my interests. However, it will most likely have a huge problem with timing, due to the way people often play arcomage peice by peice, I know some of my games are over in 10 minutes, and some last 4 months, the best solution to this, in my opinion, would be to somehow put some sort of capability of tournament hosting on the site, with time constraints on turns/games, but even then, it's sounding pretty tricky, while I'd love arcomage tournaments, maybe each player wagers some EXP, or something, and higher positions win a portion of this entry wager, I'm not sure it's achievable, with this playerbase and system.

I think this is a good idea too. And even if no tournament system is put in place on the website, I think it's something that players can regulate themselves, according to rules laid out by whoever runs the tournament. To keep rounds from going on too long, there could be:
- A latest date by which matches would have to start for each round. If someone didn't accept a challenge by that date, it could count as a loss.
- A maximum amount of time between moves. I don't know what would be reasonable. Maybe 24 hours with provisions against obvious stall tactics?
- A date by which all matches in a round would have to be concluded. If there were still matches open at this time, winner could be determined by the game's precedence for timed out matches (tower > wall > facilities > resources).
(cont'd since apparently I've reached the character limit)

I don't think there would be much trouble with this kind of self-regulation since the Marcomage community is quite friendly, but disputes could always be solved by screenshots. Anyways, put me down as interested. (And I apologize in advance if the forums' weird formatting turns my post into a huge, indegistable block of text).

Cassiraa suggested "minitournament". Players would have an option to challange someone to a minitournament - i.e. between two players only. These two players would play three games in a row with same decks. The winner would be the player who scored two wins. The reward would be more victory points / more EXP points then ordinary two victories. A real official tournament is a good idea, but needs to be more deeply analysed and designed. Now to the issue of post formatting. For some reason end-of-lines are ignored, so whole text is put to one long line. We will try to fix it ASAP.

great idea!!!

I play chess on a site with a comparable system, as in: you have days to play a single move. They already have a tournament system which goes as follows:

Small tournament:
1 player starts a small tournament and 3 other players can join. This player also sets the maximum nr of days a turn is allowed to take. Take too long = loss. As soon as it fills, it automatically starts 8 games per participant, so you play two games against each opponent. In one you start, in the other your opponent. This is good for Arcomage too, since the starting player has an advantage.
Win : Draw : Loss is 2 : 1 : 0 points. (Naturally, the player with the most poinst wins.)

Big tournament:
Same as above, with the following differences:
It's for 16 players and when it starts, it starts 4 small tournaments. the winners of these tournaments advance to a deciding small tournament.

At the chess site winning a tournament is rewarded with a medal. Others can see that when looking at your public account info. Aside that you just get normal rating in / de creases for the played games.

Hmmm, yes - team games, tournament games - these are good ideas, but need to be designed carefully. If something more then ideas will be ready (some more detailed description - how should it work), I will post it to Development section.

That's a good idea. I'm not sure if it's technically possible. Restricting time between move is a must. Some player may play one card per day. That makes the game very long, and a tournament will take one year or more to finish.

You can't demand more of players, since most of them have a life outside Arcomage. ;-)

Two elements are required: Max time for the whole game; Max time between move. If the tournament takes too long to finish, players will lose interest.

With the gold system implemented, there are many new possibilities. I went through all the threads that discuss tournaments and wrote this summary about the new tournament engine:

Tournament types:

card usage
- all cards can be used
- limited - tournament initiator picks cards that can be used in the tournament

elimination type
- elimination in rounds (players will be paired to games, the winner goes to next round)
- guild wars (two guilds or groups of players eliminate each other in games and group that has some players left wins)


Features:

- the initiator is either the admin or a guildmaster who should probably pay setup fee

- the initiator specifies the prize for the winner(s) (can be 0)

- the initiator specifies the entrance fee (can be 0)

- the tournament games do not carry same limitations as normal games (maximum number of games)

- maximum time for one turn is set by the initiator

- maximum time for one game is set by the initiator

If maximum time for one turn is up there will be a standard abandon victory?
If maximum time for one game is up there will be a standard timeout victory?

Any suggestions for improvements are appreciated.

More detailed specifications:

There will be new section Tournaments. It will contain
- list of all tournaments (both active and already closed)
- tools to setup a new tournament and edit it's data
- tools for players to join/leave tournament

Referee setups a Tournaments by specifying tournament data:
- Name
- Description
- Game time limit (in hours)
- Prize (which will be split between 3 best players in ratio (15%, 29%, 56%))
- Game modes (that will be applied to all games within the tournament)
- Entry fee (in gold)

Once the Referee has finished editing the data he "publishes" the tournament, which will make it visible for other players and they will be able to join/leave.

Once the Referee decides it is time to start the tournament, he will do so. This will make joining/leaving tournament impossible for players.

When player joins the tournament, he must pay the entry fee. If he leaves, he will get his entry fee back. Player chooses one deck which will be used for every game in the tournament.

After the start, the system declares first elimination round and will make player matchups. Matchups are created this way:

- players are ordered by Level
- list is divided into two groups:
Group A contains top half of the list
Group B contains bottom half of the list

Matchup is created by selecting two random players one from group A and one from group B. If number of players is odd, the player with no matchup will be paired with an AI which will use player's deck.

Games for these matchups are created. These games do not occupy game slots and are visible in the games list (they will be always on top of the games list and will have a tournament icon). Players are notified about new round start by PM.

When a tournament game finishes the tournament participants data will be updated. The loser will get information about the round in which he was eliminated and who did eliminate him. Winner remains in the tournament and awaits next round.

If the game exceeds the game limit specified by the Referee, standard timeout victory procedure is called. In case the game ends in a draw, a new game is created in it's place with new timeout counter. Game replays of tournament games are not accessible until the tournament is finished.

If the last game of current round is finished, the remaining players proceed to next round. The upcoming rounds differ from the initial round because the players are already matched up. Instead the new matchups are created from the winners of old matchups. If there is an odd player, he is handled the same way as previous round.

Once there is only one player remaining, the tournament winner is declared and prizes are sent to their new owners.

Tournament data for reading:

- tounament data (name, description, prize, referee username, start date, finish data, game limit, game modes, entry fee)
- list of all participants and their data (username, current round he is in, eliminated in round, eliminated by)
- matchups for each round with links to the game replays