Awarding Prizes At Tournaments

[Bailey Raptis]

First of all, I want to preface this by saying that I love the duels in general, Duel of Magic in particular, and that this all comes from a place of love. DoM dueling provides me with an enjoyable opportunity to flex my competitive and creative muscles, and the All Ranks Tournament is one of my favorite events hosted among the dueling venues. With that said…

I have sat on this and thought about this for a few days, and I know that it has been addressed in an OOC addendum following the announcement of the results and prizes for the most recent All Ranks Tournament, but I still think it is worth mentioning and discussing in its own thread, for full transparency’s sake. During the tournament, the key to the Tower of Earth was retired. I can’t speak with any certainty for anyone else, but I know that I was not paying attention to the message boards while in the middle of the tournament, and I suspect most of the other players weren’t either (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, though). Only at the end of the tournament, when prizes were selected and rewarded, was it revealed that the EF gem prize would actually be the key to that Tower.

I understand the desire to have an IC surprise (heck, that’s what the mystery box prize is for!), and I believe there was no intent to slight participants with this surprise, but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the issues I see in this, even if they are issues that will be addressed/are being addressed moving forward.

From a meta-game perspective, a prize like a Tower creates a significant shift in power. A lot of things would have changed, I feel, if people had known there was a possibility of winning a Tower going into the All Ranks tournament. I can speak from personal experience that Bailey’s participation in the Winter 2015 All Ranks Tournament (pre-lossless, so anyone above apprentice could hold Towers) was at least partially because I knew, going in, I’d have a shot at that title. Personally, if I had known the Tower of Earth was a possible prize heading into this All Ranks Tournament, I might not have put Jay in there, since he has no interest in that title (and I have no interest in him holding DoM titles). Other players/characters might have shown up as well with that potential prize announced in advance.

Additionally, I believe people’s prize selections at the end of the night would have changed if they had known the key was in the mix. Jay wouldn’t have had interest in it (but again, I probably would not have dueled as Jay if I had known the key was available) but I suspect there were some other players/characters who would have gone for that prize first, had they known it was available.

At the risk of being presumptuous, I would ask that if prizes as significant as Tower keys are going to be awarded in the All Ranks Tournament, that this be announced in advance of the tournament, and not in the middle of the tournament, when participants typically aren’t browsing the boards.

Thank you for listening to my concerns, and I look forward to continued participation in the duels and DoM.

[Claire Gallows]

Hiya, thanks for taking the time to voice your feelings on the matter. As I mentioned in my wrap up post on the tournament thread, I wholly welcome this sort of feedback so I appreciate you laying this all out. You're echoing concerns that others have voiced and at the risk of sounding redundant, I hear ya. I hear you on all of it. My intentions were pure but my execution sucked majorly. The retirement came late, yes, mostly due to some real life sick kid issues I was dealing with. Otherwise it would have gone up earlier. Alas, life, you know?

That said, it was a poor call all the same without nearly enough forethought required when it comes to things like our titles. If I were to do things differently, I likely would have announced the key at the beginning of prize selection so at the very least those who did enter the tournament knew the extent of all prizes. Needless to say, this has been a learning experience, not only for me but for the rest of the staff, who have helped me work through the problems in this and helped formulate how to improve situations like this going forward. I just want you (and everyone else who entered) to know that I appreciate your participation. You all are why we continue to run these, so I'm sorry for the poor execution and that anyone felt slighted by this decision.

For those reading, feel free to add your thoughts to this thread or fire them off via PM or DM on discord (Claire#2278). I'd be glad to listen.