PREMIUM IS REQUIRED.
Greetings! Welcome to the second installment of the hopefully ongoing Five Elements series...
Note: This looks complex. It is, to organize. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS: Send me a map and settings (see below), then play the games I send to you. I'll be sending each player ONLY the games they need to join, as autojoin links.
[spoiler=Credits-Inspiration-Rationale]Originally Inspired by: The 3456 League, which was made to 'battle' the slew of 1v1 tourney formats. nothing wrong with 1v1 tourneys, I'm in a few, but first move and drop means a LOT in 1v1. The problem with that tournament was you didn't get to play on your home map against the various possible permutations of opponents. Props to pjdonald for running this, and giving me the eventual seed of the Five Elements, which sat around over a year before I decided to make it a reality.
The Five Elements addressed this by reducing division size to 5, permitting all permutations to be played in a reasonable number of games. It still had the problems of 1> being moderately long; and 2> people getting REALLY sick of the same opponents after 10 weeks, a hazard in ANY "league-style" tournament.
So first I thought of accelerating the 5E format, 5 weeks, cutting the redundant doubled 5-player games. This was followed, late one night, by the thought of the bastardization of the format that will blow the TO's mind that I've dubbed "Shuffle"... see below for details.
Minor note: The first "Five Elements" used the classical elements of Greek Philosophy, with the relatively modern addition of "Plasma". This edition of the tournament, I have chosen to use a Far Eastern interpretation of the elements, which included "Metal" as a distinct element, not considering it a fusion of Earth and Fire, as the Greeks did. The next incarnation of the tournament will probably rename the 5 divisions in yet another fashion.[/spoiler]
Format: 25 Players, 2 rounds. In the Elimination round, you play games against 20 of the other 24, while your score is compared to the 4 you did NOT play... that's right, you're each being ranked based on your performance against the same pool of 20. Top score in each Division advances to the finals.
In the finals, the scoring will repeat, format changes only to lose the "shuffle" aspect/all games are among the remaining 5 players.
Each Player will play, over the course of five weeks (starting time):
5 5-player games, having Home Advantage once.
16 4-player games, having Home Advantage four times.
18 3-player games, having Home Advantage six times.
In the Elimination round: All Games are Standard, Sequential. NO SPOILS is not permitted, in the interest of keeping the tournament moving. When you sign up, I need the following: "Home Map", and settings for spoils, fortifications, and fog of war.
In the Finals: the 5 players who advance will be permitted to re-select all settings, AND "No Spoils" become legal. All games in the Finals will still be Standard, Sequential.
For those interested in the stats, there are (in the Tournament):
275 games in the elimination round, 55 per week, 39 games per player.
55 games in the finals, 11 per week, 39 per player.
See the Scheduling post for a link to the full tournament schedule.
The Elimination-round Games will be started/created on 5 successive Thursdays. Each player will get 7 or 8 games each week.
*****
Week 4 games will now be sent out on Monday, 27 July.
Week 5 games will be sent out on Thursday, 6 August.
Scoring:
5 player games: 18 for the winner, then 12, 7, 3, 0 in reverse order of elimination. 90 points possible.
(i.e., 0 points to the first player eliminated, 3 for the second eliminated, 7 for the third out, 12 for the last player out, and 18 for the winner)
4 player games: 6 for the winner, then 3, 1, 0 in reverse order of elimination. 96 points possible.
3 player games: 5 for the winner, then 2, 0 in reverse order of elimination. 90 points possible.
**Note: individuals who "go out" in a tied position due to end of game (victory conditions) will split evenly the points for the positions they would have gotten.
25 players accepted, seeking up to 5 reserves. I will only be participating as a reserve player, if needed.
Random.org will be used to sort players into the 25 spots.
Questions will be gleefully accepted.
EDITS:
6JUN: Typos, formatting. Clarifications of Settings, Complexity, and Division Sorting
10JUN: Edited to hopefully clarify and simplify the DESCRIPTION of the tournament. Format is unchanged.
16JUL: Scoring Clarified in 'tie games'
