Stories from RhyDin & The Rings

After running two distinct types of tournaments I'm interested in feedback on what people prefer. Feel free to vote and also comment below in reference to anything relating to the Golden Apple Grab Tournaments. Time, prizes, format, personal feelings, pros/cons, etc. This will directly influence the type of tournament I run next cycle. Thanks!

Alternate the two?

The first one was good week long because it brought folks out to either join or enter.

The one night, 5 round was good for this week because of IFL.

The first one burned me out on dueling for a while. Immediately afterwards I didn't duel for quite a long time.

I didn't duel in this one but I did watch. I don't think anyone in it learned or grew any as a dueler, and though it's too soon to say if anyone will come out to duel again because of it, I would hazard a guess that only Jewell will be more apt to show up for fists.

Alternating is a thought, but I'd shorten the first one to 3 days. I'd increase the prize pool of the second one to entice people in 2nd or 3rd place to show up again. Obviously, some kind of minor rule tweeking might be needed to prevent so many second place winners.

Easy fix for the second place issue would be to go by point-values from past duels if there's a tie.

Person A and person B tie at 4 Tournament points each. Person A had two wins, one loss with 3-1, 3-2, 2-4. Person B had 3-2, 2-1, 1-4. Person A wins second place due to having 8 duel-points gained compared to B who had only 6.

Prizes seemed fine. This one had the better prize, IMO. If I'm correct, a player who won this could use this week to gain ruby status, then use the boost from the Golden Apple tournament win and auto jump to sapphire. That's an easy 10 WoL for only 5 WoL worth of work.

As for the week long. I wasn't involved, but it seemed less demanding than multiple week tournaments like Hydra. Could easily just cap the first 3 or 4 duels and say anything else isn't worth points if there's a burnout issue.

Swiss-style with 5 rounds each gave a lesson as well. Easily showed if anyone spotted it that normal-defense usage could be key in drawing out your opponents moves, nulling their fancies, and dragging things out to a possible win. While this can't be used in normal dueling, it's a way to show newer players that if they are in a hole 4-1 and it's almost round 15? You can juke around and try to drag it out into a tie. Learning defense fundamentals and not simply relying on fancy defenses as a crutch is something that should be learned at a new level when it comes to DoF.

I think both were fine, having competed in both. My one issue is not with the format, just the timing.

I think that during the times when regulation dueling is going well, it should be a one night thing. I just wonder, and this is an honest question, would it have been nice to do a week long thing during Iron Fists in hopes of letting those who were not competing or had free time when not fighting some people to fight on the regulation days?

Either way, I enjoyed both of them. Keep it up!

King wrote: Prizes seemed fine. This one had the better prize, IMO. If I'm correct, a player who won this could use this week to gain ruby status, then use the boost from the Golden Apple tournament win and auto jump to sapphire. That's an easy 10 WoL for only 5 WoL worth of work.

I agree about the prize. For sure, 5 WoL is a better prize than going to Emerald for a week.

King wrote: As for the week long. I wasn't involved, but it seemed less demanding than multiple week tournaments like Hydra. Could easily just cap the first 3 or 4 duels and say anything else isn't worth points if there's a burnout issue.

I can only comment on my own experience. I did 2-4 duels every night for 6 days straight. Other players commented on being a bit stretched thin by going out every night.

I think you have some valid points about learning from the experience, though.

I enjoy the single night formats because the room is just buzzing and there's lots of energy. Also, as someone else mentioned, a single-night format works during IFL. Honestly, this could have gone either way if a lot of IFL duels were planned for the same night, though.

The week-long format is also nice because it encourages people to show up for regulation duels. However, it takes a level of time dedication that I just don't have (personally). I can't be on several nights a week putting in multiple duels. It's hard enough giving one night a week to multiple duels (like last night). If you capped the number of duels that counted during the week, that might work.

I am kind of with Rena here, planned or not the two tournament types were ideal for other things that were happening in the Fists community. IFL and events like it take large bites out of the week and for some take a great deal of energy leaving little for week long tournaments.

In the spring, and summer there seems to be a lull in Fists. I don't need a search for how factual it is. I do think that it could just be we sometimes need an influx of new faces. Take a look at what we gained with the last week long Golden Apple Grab. Blue rose through the ranks to become an opal holder. There was a surge in rank gaining for fighters.

My personal opinion Harris would be both are good for the season you put them in. Fantastic inventions both of them.

The two formats served different purposes.

The week long event was meant to be a teaching/learning experience for the lower ranks by pitting them against one another as proof that fighting at or around your rank makes it easier to progress. Blue was obviously the success story in that endeavor, as he made Emerald in the event and went on to finish 2nd in the most recent DQ as well as win an Opal. Several others also made rank during the week and it gave DoF a shot in the arm, overall. However a vast majority of the participants did not continue to duel in the weeks/months afterward.

The single night event was meant to cater to the people that couldn't dedicate the 5 or 6 days required to truly compete in the week long event. It was also focused around the idea of using a format other than the single elim/double elim/round robin that most tournaments have. Unique tournament types are nice, but with the IceDancer tournament in July, FireStar/Panther's Claw tag team in August, and the ShadoWeaver Blackout tournament in September, there have probably been enough specialty tournaments to go around.

My preference is for the week long event, as I think it's more beneficial to the community as a whole. It's likely that I'll shorten it to a weekend event instead (Fri, Sat, Sun) to help minimize potential burnout and act as a middleground between the two types. It's a better learning experience and casts a much wider net in regard to individuals potentially advancing in the sport since it takes place during regulation. The timing of the tournaments in relation to what was going on in the sport at the time was simply fortuitous and not really intentionally planned.

This by no means is an end to the discussion. Keep talking!