Summer Syntech Polling

[Karl Jak]

Next month, the Dante Verse will host their fourth annual Dante’s Abyss – a premiere event that showcases the best of the Omniverse vying for the title of Grand Champion.
 
The preshow facility will open in the first week of June, and the First Round will commence the 2nd weekend of June.
 
In sticking with my original plan, outlined back in August 2015, this is an even year and the plan is to do an event that is “meta-lite.”  While it can be entertaining to have x-factors and wild card and unforeseen twists of fate, it’s also nice to not have to deal with… the other – I’ll just call it “stuff” – that is common with our more framework- and rules-heavy events.
 
This summer’s Syntech event will thus be a tournament.
 
What type of tournament?  That part, I’m going to leave up to you people.  You have three options, and I’ll explain how they’ll work to the best of my ability down below.
 
Single Elimination – Think NFL playoffs.  You don’t know sports?  This is just your classic tournament, like the Camelot Colosseum that was run a few years ago (or the DBZ World Martial Arts tourneys).  You lose one fight, and you’re watching from the sidelines.  The only exception is the losers of the semi-finals will have a bonus fight for the third place prize.  This will be the highest stakes version of this event, as half the contestants will bow out every round.
 
Double Elimination – In a double-elimination tournament, there is a winner and a loser bracket.  When you lose, you drop down into the second bracket.  The winner of the loser’s bracket face each other for the championship (before anyone asks – if the winner of the winner’s bracket loses to the winner of the losers bracket, there is a rematch – that’s how every double elimination bracket goes]).  This version will take longer than a single elimination, but the ‘redemption’ angle will likely be great to read, as those who are eliminated vie to make the final.
 
Round Robin – In a round robin tournament, everyone will compete against everyone.  At the end of X rounds, the combatant with either the best cumulative score or the most wins will be the winner (if you vote Round Robin, please specify which you think would be more fair).  A round robin tournament would take the longest out of any of these formats, because everyone who have a chance to throw down with everyone (if we have 20+ people… you do the math), but this format also eliminates any bad luck from matchups.  You drew *Insert Token Great Writer* in Round 1?  As long as you write your best, you are still just in the thick of it as someone who drew *Insert Token Less Revered Writer*.
 
Misc things for all formats.
 

èWord Limit: 750
Posts: 3
Time Limit: 48 hours
èWith the exception of Round Robin and the ‘winners bracket’ of a Double-Elimination, losers risk gruesome death with defeat.
èBounties may be collected by defeating a wanted character.  Banishment Circles will not work for this event, though (but since none of you are Alex, I don’t foresee this upsetting people)
èEvery contestant will get “3 strikes”, which allow you to add 24 hours to your deadline for a post.  If you use up your 3 strikes, you will miss your post and lose a fraction of your score.
èSP loss and Damage points are restored between rounds.  SP use does not factor into judgement in a quantitative way.
èI will be using the same judge card as the Camelot Colosseum <http://omniverse-rpg.com/showthread.php?tid=8065> with feedback after rounds reflecting the number of fights (ie – I can’t write you a four-hundred-word reflection in the first round, when I’m dealing with several bouts)
èInitial seeding will be based on Earned OM.  “Seeding” refers to your slot on the bracket, with top seeds often facing off against the lowest seeds.  In a single elimination, I may split apart the bracket into different ‘divisions’ to disperse higher-seeded players.  It depends on the number of people.
èFights will take place in various locales in the Dante Verse.  These locations may have extra goodies that will serve as combat fluff.
èThere will be no Power or Move limitations.
èItems may be brought and used as you see fit but will provide no quantitative advantage
èArtefacts may be brought and used as you see fit but can be lost if you are defeated.
è1st, 2nd, and 3rd place will receive prizes similarly to last year's event.
èEverything will be managed through the Challonge online platform, which will provide up-to-date brackets and matchups throughout the event
Writers may join as their prime, or a pre-approved Prime NPC that is the same level or lower than the account it is bound to.

Feel free to ask clarifying questions.

[Handsome Jack]

I like Double Elimination. One bad match-up won't be the end of the world, but it also shouldn't take a year to get through 3 rounds of a fight. (3 days x 40 people x 3 rounds = 360 days, assuming everyone takes the maximum amount of time)

[Handsome Jack]

One question though: if you're dividing the seeds up by Earned OM, then why are you facing the "top dogs" up against the "pups", instead of pitting seeds against each other first?

[Clownpiece]

Maybe for Round Robin rounds, everyone in specific rounds go simultaneously? That way it doesn't take forever. But that also opens up its own issues soooooo...

[Handsome Jack]

Even simultaneously, you have to allow people the chance to write. If we got 40 folks (which we've had before), each person needs to be able to read what's going on and have time to write the best response they can. Which can take literally forever and is why I pulled for Double Elimination. Each round is 1 on 1, so you can do 20 fights at the same time, instead of a free for all where everyone is in the same fight.

[Handsome Jack]

One more question: is it possible to maybe change the format to 2 person teams fighting against each other? I DO enjoy me some teamwork, and it'll make it a little different from the Camelot deal.

[Dane Regan]

^Not everyone has a bro, I guess. But I'd totally prefer there to be something to spice it up, rather than just a bunch of 1v1s.

[Clownpiece]

Round Robin style would still be 1v1s
Just a whooooooole lotta 1v1s. I was suggesting like, 20 simultaneous 1v1s scattered all over DA. People wouldn't have to read all the other competitors' works to write their own 1v1. But also that opens up a metric fuckton of work for the judges, and it'd still take longer. So yeah, double elim would still probably be better >_>

[Handsome Jack]

That's true. That's why, instead of the teams being double bros, Karl randomly assigns you a partner.

[Victor Wolfe]

agreed, I think even I someone who has a dislike for writing fights would probably be up for a 2vs 2 format.

[Clownpiece]

That'd be pretty sweet. Maybe ya gotta learn to work with someone you absolutely hate IC. Lotta writing potential there.

[Handsome Jack]

This is how he explained the Round Robin:

In a round robin tournament, everyone will compete against everyone. At the end of X rounds, the combatant with either the best cumulative score or the most wins will be the winner (if you vote Round Robin, please specify which you think would be more fair). A round robin tournament would take the longest out of any of these formats, because everyone who have a chance to throw down with everyone (if we have 20+ people… you do the math), but this format also eliminates any bad luck from matchups. You drew *Insert Token Great Writer* in Round 1? As long as you write your best, you are still just in the thick of it as someone who drew *Insert Token Less Revered Writer*.

But maybe I misunderstood. Is it just "Hey I wanna fight this guy" and he agree and that's the 1 on 1 fight instead? Or am I missing something here?

[Handsome Jack]

The pairing in the 2v2 could even be based on seeding. You pair a top OM Earner with a lower guy in each team, still randomized to give it flavour, and I think it'd be perfect.

[Dane Regan]

It's probably, if there's 40 people, you do 39 fights (one against every other dude). And then maybe some extras at the end. So, yeah. That'd take a while.

[Handsome Jack]

Ugh. Yeah. So, it'd still end up being like 360 days of fights (assuming it goes to the end). No thanks.

[PepsiWhirda]

Single elimination sounds best to me. High stakes means everyone is bringing their best, and the least time consuming option mitigates the risk of *ahem* people leaving in the middle of events, or burning out and losing enthusiasm.

But it can also be annoying to get a bad match up and lose in the first round - that's true of any game. So what if you had a concurrent consolation tournament run similar to normal Dante's Abyss? A (slightly) more casual free for all, where new contestants can choose to enter only after they've been eliminated from the single elimination tournament? This also has the added benefit of giving the players who last longer in the single elimination tournament a natural advantage in the consolation tournament, because they enter later. It would function like a loser's bracket but run concurrently and be less heavily moderated so as to be less time consuming, and it can have its own winners with smaller consolation prizes? Just an idea.

[Clownpiece]

There's also the problem of not many people want to write like, 30 fights in a row lol. It'd lead to fight fatigue pretty dang quickly.

[Dane Regan]

Double elimination is definitely the best since you're less likely to be 'unlucky', and it doesn't last forever.

A more round robin hybrid thing could work, with all the fights within smaller partitions of the main group. Then grab the top 3 from all the mini tournaments and shove them together. But it'd still take a while. Not as long, but still a while.

[Victor Wolfe]

2vs2 would also cut down on the number of fights needed to write and be judged.

[Clownpiece]

That they would. And it'd be pretty exciting I think.
casts vote for 2v2s even tho there's no vote for that