One of Conquer Club's biggest, most important demographics at the moment is the population of competitive players, whether it's tourney's or clan wars. This is something, another option, to entertain and accommodate these players. Conquer Club has been needing this for a long time. A few different parts will go into this, and almost warrant separate suggestions, but I figured I'd just keep it to one.
Matchmaking- Yep, for this CC will NEED a matchmaking system, either that or improvements on the current Requests System used for scenarios. Matchmaking will automatically seed players within it's own system to place them, this seeding will also decide who moves on to the next round. Matchmaking will be used to determine match-ups, initially based on ranks and experience with the maps and settings. Though after games have been played seeding will heavily weigh on the results of previous games and where the opponents now seed, and eliminate the other factors to tie-breakers. It will also make sure players face off against new players each round. The math of how to contemplate all those things into a fair system will be a tough game to play.
Ghost Players... A new setting that I have been meaning to suggest for a while... This is a simple idea to simply hide player names, rank, and rating during a game, and simply just having colors. This eliminates the possibility of secret diplomacy and making judgements based on previous knowledge of players or their ranks. Team games will just show you and your teammates names. Ranks and players will show up after the game is completed, or in the case of this competitive system, after all games in a round are completed.
The competitive system will initially have three types to chose from: Solo, Team of 4, Clan only- team of 16-24
Solo: Seasonal maps/options will be voted on in the forums before each season of competitive play. There will always be one poly game setup, one 2 player game setup, one 4 player game setup, and two 6 player game setups. Each season's exact layout of games and rounds will be different based on players joined. Though rounds will always consist of two games on each setting with all different players. And eliminations will only start after round 3. Before each season actually starts, their will be a game on each map/setting for each player used as a qualifier. The results from this + rank + games completed + Experience on the maps being played + Previous competitive finishes and placements will all be factored into which league players are placed in. The lowest placed 20%ish will join the training league. The only prize in this league will be an achievement medal and yellow inventory for the winner. Doing well in the training league will probably move you to the Amateur League in the next season. The majority of players will be placed into the amateur league, about 65% of entries. Winner of the amateur league will win 500CC credits, a green inventory, and an amateur champion medal. The final 6 will all receive Yellow inventory and 50 credits. Doing well in the amateur league will give you a higher chance of making the champions league next season. The top 10- 15% of qualifying players will form the champions league... we are looking for at least 18 players here, with a max of 32. If not enough players join competitive in a season, champions will not start. The finals, (with the final 6 players) will be played in a scheduled Real Time Speed Game session. All players must agree on a time/date, and allow 3-4 hours for the event. The winner of champions will win a red star, 1000 credits, a CC Champion Medal and a diamond-colored rank until the next champion is crowned. The final 6 will each receive Blue inventory and 200 credits. Qualifying for the champions league for the first time will also earn you a competitive medal. Seasons will only start 3 months after the last if enough players have joined... at least over 124...If not enough players join after 6 months the season will start without a champions league. Players will be randomly placed into ghost matches using matchmaking throughout this tourney, each game will have players of a similar calculated skill. So winning lower seeded games will usually be less valuable than higher seeded games, but will definitely seed you higher for the next round.
Team of 4: Team of 4 competitive will be a much smaller, and simpler version of competitive than solo. Team of 4 will be exclusive to team games, 4 player doubles and 8 player quads only. You will enter your desired team of 4 at the start of the season. There will only be two leagues, Amateur 2000< and pro 2000> score. Both will be run as two separate tournaments and start immediately once start once 32 players have joined (8 teams), not necessarily at the same time. Winners of the Amateur will win only a GA Medal. Winners of the pro will win a green inventory and a competitive medal. Games will be ghost and this will only use matchmaking to seed teams, after it will be run as a bracket style best of 7 (1 dubs, 6 quads) series with all the quads being random maps and settings, and the dubs being on the tournament's chosen map and settings.
Clan only- team of 16-24-... Well, we can let the clan organizers design this one. Most likely we will want to vote on competitive maps and settings similar to the solo. The idea here to make this unique to other clan events is to use the ghost and seeding matchmaking systems. clans can be seeded, and players within clans can be seeded as well. Teams can be chosen by matchmaking, choosing players and clans of similar seeding. 8-12 clan can join this, and the winning clan should get a cool colored clan tag next to their name and competitive medals. There should also be a real time speed game final for this between the final two clans.
Watching Games: The Real-Time Speed Game finals of the competitive solo and clan series are meant to be CC wide events. With any member on the site being able to tune in and watch the games, always 30 minutes behind being live. Competing players' profiles will be blocked from any communication. Fog of war games will only be able to be watched after the game is already completed. Observers will not be able to see the fog, they will see the full game nice and sunny. Watchers will also see player names upon game start, as before the event gambling CC credits on the winner will be encouraged. Maybe in the future we can even introduce mic chat for team games during this final, so teams can better communicate, and players can get to know competitive finalists better and hear their strategies. To encourage involvement and watching this event there will be some sort of bonus for watching the event.
How this will benefit the site and/or other comments:
It will bring the community together by having site wide events to look-forward to. It will be a fun challenge for elite competitive CC players to win CC Champion. It's a fun, new kind of tournament that I think will have a ton of popularity.
D44/Dom
