Greeting,
The GoL community isn’t as active as it used to be lately. I hope that, while our dear devs are busy planning the future of the game, at least we could still do something without their participation. That is, for example, organizing some matches weekly or monthly with some tournament-liked guidelines. In order to even make this idea possible, a series of analyses of the rules is necessary.
Introduction:
This article is intended to discuss and propose some ideas relating to the undetermined tournament. I will argue some concerning issues that might influence the design of the rules (I), how I observe those issues (II), and some possible formats based on the first two parts.
I. Concerning issues
The order doesn’t show nor imply the importance of these questions. I just add them whenever they come to my mind.
(1) Unlocked Faction
Shall the players have at least a certain amount of faction in order to join the tournament? In other words, will a player suffer from a disadvantageous starting point simply because he/she doesn’t have enough variation in terms of race? Will this rule discourage potential participants since most of us do not have all 4 races?
(2) Going first or second
Is there any difference between these two positions? Shall we design something to compensate for the possible inequality?
(3) Ban / Pick
Shall both players or one of them be able to ban at least one faction for his/her opponent or for both players? Shall the pick part be made in order, that is, shall the second player know which choice his/her opponent makes? Can a player use the exact same deck throughout the tournament, or that deck shall be discarded once it wins a game?
(4) The length of the competition
Bo1, Bo3, Bo5 or even Bo7?
(5) Supervision
Shall we need a third person to oversee the games? Or the tournament can be done between two participants, as long as they have an agreement?
II. Assumptions
(1) Unlocked Faction
Having all 4 races might be a little bit excessive, but I do believe to make the whole system work, at least 3 factions are necessary. If we add the ban design in the game, your opponent’s choice would be too obvious if you know he/she has only two factions (not to mention how the ban design works if a player has only one to consider).
(2) Going first or second
I believe that this will not give you an advantage in terms of win rate, but introduce the strategical difference. Therefore, we do not need compensation but to give players even ground to execute their plan.
(3) Ban / Pick
I quite like the idea to make two players into different situations: the first player will pick first and display his/her choice, to compensate for this, he/she can ban one faction from the opponent. To make the competition more dynamic, players cannot use the same deck with which he/she has already gained a victory. This also should force players to try new strategies for each faction.
In the case of having fewer than two factions, the ban part should be ignored.
(4) The length of the competition
Suppose each game will last roughly 10 to 20 minutes, I think Bo1 seems to be a great starting length when there are a lot of competitors. We could change to Bo3 when it comes to the semi-finals and Bo5 for the final.
(5) Supervision
Since there is no observer option implemented in the game right now, we might have to design a rule that can be fair enough even without a supervisor.
III. Format
Based on the discussion above, I propose two formats of the rules: one for Bo1 and another one for Bo3 and Bo5.
Rules:
-Each player brings six decks from three factions or eight decks from four factions. Only two decks can come from the same faction. One deck shall differentiate itself enough from the other deck that comes from the same faction: such as not having the same guardian and hero. The difference shall be obviously recognizable even without the intervention of the third.
-All decks should be anonymous before the game.
-Decks can no longer be used during this section after it wins a game.
-Flip the coin to decide who is player A and B.
Procedure:
For Bo1:
-Player A picks one of his/her decks, displays it to the opponent, and then bans one faction from the opponent.
-Player B picks a deck.
-The game starts.
For Bo3 and Bo5 :
-Player A picks one of his/her decks, displays it to the opponent, and then bans one faction from the opponent.
-Player B picks a deck.
-First game.
-Player B picks a deck that hasn’t won a game yet; Player A picks a deck that hasn’t won a game yet.
-Second game
…(continue the process until one of them wins this section)
Conclusion:
In this article, I was trying to provide some ideas about the future tournament. Since we don’t have any guideline from the devs, nor do we have any experience relating to the this, I’m pretty sure there are lots of things that I overlooked or misunderstood. Future experiments will, of course, be essential to refine current formats. If possible, I would try it and see if I can review this setup in the future. As usual, please feel free to ask or join this discussion down below or in the discord. It would be fun if a regular event can be carried out since GoL does need some sort of stimulation right now.