Tournament for Dockside

[Deluthan]

Honestly, I think the alliances are what make this sort of event interesting. I remember the Ganderfald Affair a few years back, and while my character got ganged up on from the get-go and was knocked out after only the second round or so, I have to say at the time I found the whole thing flattering.

[Sylus Kurgen]

Why is that?

There's nothing that makes it illegal for you to get the most wins in the next four weeks, or the most duels. Give it a try.

1) I know my own skills and how I compare to a lot of the other WLs who will be going after this.

2) Like you stated in your post, the alliance issue. Being one of the "new guys" I'll be on my own. Cuz of bad choices in the beginning of my dueling career Sy's one of the guys people love to see lose and hate to see win. Frankly I don't care about that.

3) It was like hell froze over the night Sy made Warlord because the previous 5 duels up to that point were all warlords. Someone didn't want him to make it.

These are just my impressions on the situation, though I have been wrong in the past, and I could be again. I get along with a lot of people OOC but IC it's "You look at me wrong and it's on like Donkey Kong"[/quote]

[Billy]

My initial reaction to the targetting rule is that I'm not in favor of it. A rule like that wouldn't affect alliances or OOC communication at all, it would simply affect targetting and I think that has a negative impact on RP potential.

The example I'll use is if Magnus and Drachen were both participants in the brawl. The characters would no doubt want to go after each other until one is eliminated. Forcing a break in that fight every other round I think hurts that element of the brawl as well as hurts the realistic aspect of it. If you watch a baseball brawl, there are always those two players going at it regardless of what's happening around them and I would hate to force them to have to turn and slug someone else.

From a logistical standpoint, I also don't think it's bad that a few participants are eliminated quickly. If all ten fighters hang around for the first ten rounds, the tournament is going to craaaaaaaaaawl along very slowly. Yeah, it sucks for the ones getting beat on, but that's also the nature of a brawl, imo.

I have some other reasons as well, but those are the easiest to put out there.

[Farek]

Has the era of double elimination, standard format tournaments come to an end or have the formats of the last two tournaments (WLT, this one), been exceptions to the rule?

[Billy]

Mid cycle tournaments tend to always be an exception to the rule. If I have a ring free up early in the cycle I like to add a different style tournament to break the monotany. You'll never see a King of the Ring or tag team tournament as a WLT and rarely will I ever hold a regular double elimination tournament mid cycle.

As for the WLT, it honestly depends on who's running it. I prefer the double elim, standard format for WLTs, but the tournament director is free to mix in a single elimination, or round robin based on entrants and/or interest.

Talon of Redwin will always be single elimination, standard format.

[Harris]

I'm somewhat torn in regard to what Cassius brought up. I think it boils down to what's more important between the actual dueling and roleplaying aspects.

Like Billy said, allowing the rule to be implemented takes away from roleplaying while evening things out from a dueling perspective. But without it you do end up with a more realistic feel as to how something like this would go. Granted, if this particular tournament format was used on a regular basis I'd side 100% with Cas, but as a MegaBrawl/King of the Ring tournament only comes around once in awhile I don't think it's necessary.

Certainly it leaves a bad taste in your mouth to be ganged up on due to powers outside your control but I do think it adds an interesting element to the format. And in most cases, these alliances are generally formed on the fly based upon the characters involved and the way the duel is turning out rather than being some premeditated OOC player to player strategy.

[Skyler]

Okay, I'm not familiar with this style of tourney. But basically, from what I can gather, everyone's in the ring at one time, you send your move with the name of the person you're attacking, and that's it? Then your oppenent scores if their move beats yours, regardless of who they targeted? What if Dueler A attacks Dueler B with a thrust, and Dueler C attacks Dueler B with a low cut, while Dueler B has parried? Does Dueler B get two points that round?

[Goldglo]

What if Dueler A attacks Dueler B with a thrust, and Dueler C attacks Dueler B with a low cut, while Dueler B has parried? Does Dueler B get two points that round?

*If* this works like Megabrawl, here's what would happen; the dueler sends a primary and secondary move (like, Thrust <target>/HC). The Thrust<target> is the attack they're leveling against another character; the secondary move is the counter to someone's attack. So, for the example Skyler used:

Dueler B has sent (CP<Dueler A>/HC) for his move(s).

Dueler A attacks Dueler B with a thrust, and finds it circular parried. .5 to Dueler B.

Dueler B is also attacked by Dueler C, who LC. Dueler B fires off a counter HC, and both score.

Now, let's also assume that Dueler D sees B as a prime target this round and attacks as well. Dueler B can only fend off one person at a time, and after parrying Dueler A and highcutting Dueler C, can't defend against Dueler D (and any subseqent attacks that round) as well.

So, theoretically, in a 10 person brawl, if Duelers A-I ganged up on Dueler J in one round, Dueler J could eat 8 or 9 points.

If that didn't make sense, I can try explaining a different way. If this tourney's using modified Megabrawl rules, I'll shut up.

In a nutshell, Megabrawl-wise, a dueler can

[Billy]

I'll be posting the rules in a week or so (doing some fine tuning to them for DoS) that'll explain how the tournament works. It will also have a few mock rounds so you can see how everything works.

[DUEL Chris Graz]

1. This tournament is an invitational. There will be ten slots.

2. From the ten entrants in the tournament, a random order will be chosen. This is the order in which the moves will be looked at (to be explained in the "During the Fight" section).

During the Fight

1. The order set before the Brawl will determine the order in which the moves are considered to have been performed. The first round will go 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, the second will go 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-1, etc. This will determine, in the case of more than one person attacking a single dueler, who swings first in the round.

2. Each player will send in two moves- one primary move and one secondary move. The primary move must also have a name sent along with it- that is the person the move will be directed against. If a different person than the one sent attacks the fighter, the secondary move is used on that person. Any other attacks on that dueler work automatically, as it is assumed that the attackers are coming in from too many angles for the attacked to be able to try and stop them all. Note: If two fighters direct their attacks at each other, then it's figured out like a normal duel- match the moves on the matrix, one falls down (or both, or one sidesteps, ducks, etc.)

Example- Cletus, Bode, Magnus, Chris, Drachen, Charlie, Jaycy, Ria, Ramsus, Neraster

1. Cletus- TH(Chris)/SH
2. Bode - HC(Chris)/CP
3. Magnus- TH(Drachen)/SH
4. Chris- LP(Ramsus)/LC
5. Drachen- TH(Magnus)/LP
6. Charlie- HC(Cletus)/Duck
7. Jaycy- HC(Ramsus)/Dis
8. Ria- LC(Cletus)/SH
9 Ramsus- TH(Ria)/LC
10. Neraster- SS(Ramsus)/TH

For example, the call would go something like this: Right out of the gate, Magnus and Drachen go after each other, both landing thrusts. Cletus and Bode set their sights on Chris. Cletus' Th pounds in over Chris LC, hitting and leaving Chris wide open for Bode's HC. Ria and Charlie see Cletus attacking Chris and go after him. Charlie starts it by landing a HC over Cletus' SH then Ria gets her licks in with a LC. Jaycy goes after Ramsus, trading HC with his return LC. Reeling, Ramsus turns around and finds Ria there to attack but his thrust gets caught up in her stop hit. Neraster kind of hangs around while Chris just gets pounded on.

Points scored against:
(Cletus-2, Magnus-1, Chris-2, Drachen-1, Jaycy-1, Ramsus-2)

3. Offensive or defensive moves can be used as either primary or secondary maneuvers.

4. After a move is selected, two more must be used before the first can be picked again. Thus, if a thrust is used as one's primary attack in a round, it can be used as a secondary attack in the next (i.e. Round 1- Thrust/Highcut, Round 2- LowCut/Thrust is acceptable). However, if it is used as a secondary attack, a full round must pass before it can be used again. Yes, this means that a round consists of two moves. The only exception to this is that a disengage may be used multiple times in a row.

5. You will have sixty seconds to decide your move for the next round and send it in. This rule will be enforced as well as possible. The reason for this is that it isn't a round-to-round fight, per se, where the fighters hit, reset, hit, etc. This is a battle of pure kinetic energy, where everyone is pretty much in motion for the whole duel; to take five minutes between moves would slow the Tournament to a crawl, especially considering that it will take the caller a minute to tally up the scores and start the call.

6. Each character will have eight points to start, their stamina, so to speak. Each hit takes off one point and blocks take off a half point. Once a character loses all their points, they tire to the point where they can be thrown out of the ring. **Important**- The next hit does NOT automatically knock a dueler from the ring! There are certain ways to eject someone from the ring- stop hit, slash, thrust, high cut, or by scoring a point on a fancy. Matching strikes will not throw the intended victim out of the ring.

7. Characters cannot reach their 8 points AND be eliminated in the same round. Thus, if a character reaches their 8 points in round ten they cannot be eliminated until round eleven.

8. One fancy per player to begin regardless of rank, an adrenaline burst for the character (or whatever else you want to have them call it). Not only is this rule in place to make things fair and a little more interesting, I find it reasonable to think that it would be difficult to pull off such maneuvers consistently in a ring full of people, and that the fighters will be a little too tired to do them over and over once the ring empties, as the Tournament will have been going on for awhile. I'm sure there are characters with enough stamina to do it, but that's the logic I'm sticking with anyways.

9. As a little added incentive, a player can receive an additional fancy for every two characters their character eliminates. This means that the player must perform the finishing move (SH/TH/HC/SL or fancy that knocks someone out of the ring) to receive credit for the elimination. Only one person will receive credit for each elimination.

10. Once the fight gets down to the final two duelers, it will work just as a normal duel with regards to hits and moves sent- one move per round (why have a secondary move with no one else in the ring), fancies work exactly the same, etc. All that remains unchanged is the conditions for victory and how it can be achieved.

11. ALL moves, if fancied, are capable of throwing an opponent out of the ring. That means that a fancy defensive move will knock someone out. A fancy offensive move will knock someone out too. This is in addition to the four power moves (SH,TH,HC,SL). In keeping with rule six, a fancy attack has to hit cleanly in order for this to work; a fancy lowcut/highcut combo, for example, will simply prolong the fight.