TTO2 Tourney Format Discussion

[Blink]

TTO 2 IS going to happen early or mid 2012, so I thought we should get a head start and figure out the tournament format.

I am planning on hosting it on Tetris Battle Arena mode when it's out and polished enough to have a tournament on.  This game has the most players of any Tetris game right now.

Last year we capped it at 256 players, should we increase it to 512 or higher?

Do you guys like last year's one match per week format with players choosing 2 of 3 days they can play on?  Should we change it to make it faster pace?

What do you think about seeding by TTO1 results, and then 40L thereafter?

How should we handle and improve on commentary?

Any other comments or things you'd like to see?

I'll take into consideration everyone's opinion before finalizing a ruleset.

[B1ink]

is there going to be a way to give all players the tuning settings to make the playing field more fair? also tb 40 lines time or any game 40 lines time? I dont think tb is currently recording 40 lines.

[jkwon23]

1) yeah because there will probably be a lot more tetris players than there are now.
2) yesh it should go at a faster pace... maybe scheduling between players or using some time schedule table might help
3) i dont think it should be seeded by tto1 results because some of the players that dropped out early there might just turn out to be the great players of tto2. i think the players should be seeded by 40L alone and there should be a double elim in case some of the best players match up a long way before the finals
4) commentary should be more in-depth and with energy. not just like," oh a tsd. a tetris. tsd tetris".  i think the players' strategies and style should be analyzed  so that everyone can benefit just by watching the matches. tetris should be commentated like it's a popular sport

[coolmaninsano]

As most of you know, I think the hybrid of single and double elimination is fucking stupid. There's the chance of the worse players being as or more committed to getting matches done, and there's also the possibility of two of the top players being matched up in the round of 128. 

I don't even think 512 is enough, considering the Taiwanese TB community is absolutely massive (bigger than here). But there are two importan barriers with them, one being the obvious language problem, and pertaining to matches getting played, there's the time difference. 

There really isn't a perfect way to schedule, but the two of three system seemed to work OK last year. Another problem though is Taiwan being UTC+8 (PST+16), so while it's Saturday here it's mostly Sunday there. 

Seeding...bah. 40L because it's easiest. 

Commentary last year was either an off-topic discussion, or a complete clusterfuck of multiple people trying to talk over each other at the same time. Most (good) sports broadcasts only have TWO commentators, and if Holy Henk wants Tetris to be a sport we should treat it as such.

Another concern is, correct me if I'm wrong (I have yet to play TB Arena) but is it done by Facebook name or are there usernames? What if I wouldn't want to give my personal information to a random Tetris player, or what if there's 100 different John Smiths on Tetris Battle? This could be a major problem (although I don't know about the usernames and such).

[sarcasm]Can we do it on NullpoMino and say we did it on TB?  [/sarcasm]

EDIT: Can/will they unlock FREE FULL DAS for everyone during the tournament like they did last year with the URL?

[Paul676]

There is currently the obvious problem with tb on facebook that you can't make a room to play in. Unless something happens, it can't be played on tb facebook :/

I like blink's idea of seeding and Aaron's on commentating. I think single elim - Tetris is a predictable game anyway, we don't want the finalists to be too predictable. If we make it single elim, if 2 people come against each other in an early round, then it makes it even more fun and competitive. Screw extra chances this is a tournament. With 512 players possibly, it's the most simple and clear way to run it. If you win, you're in, if you lose, you're out. Single elim is just far more exciting, because there's more to play for.

1 game a week sounds good. For people with busy schedules, sometimes there is only 1 day they might have a bit of free time to play.

[Rosti_LFC]

Seed a top 64 or something (like they do in most professional single-elim formats). It'll give a good mix of matches in the early rounds, but it'll ensure that the top players don't go out really early.

Either way don't full-seed and have double-elim, because that's overkill and it's a totally retarded way of doing it. They both achieve the same goal in different ways, and there's absolutely no reason to have both.

I'd say make it 512 or larger. As big as possible really - IMO what made it so awesome last time was the absolutely enormous bracket.

I think there should be consideration, at least in the latter stages, for timezones. There are time slots that are convenient for NA-EU, NA-SEA and EU-SEA, and none that really cover all three suitably. Schedule the matches for the players, but choose a time slot that considers the time zones of each player.

[Ravendarksky]

Could you not make a facebook group for it. Opponents can friend each other - find each other through that page, then invite to play on Tetris Battle 2P

[ohitsstef]

Could you not make a facebook group for it. Opponents can friend each other - find each other through that page, then invite to play on Tetris Battle 2P

i thought you had to be friends on fb for that to happen

anyways, double elimination sounds cool but if we have more players than we did last time maybe single elimination will be better.. so the tournament doesn't take 3 months to finish.

seed with 40 lines times

we should have 2 commentators for the matches.. i think anymore would be too much. and these two people should practice beforehand! like know what music they're going to play, who is going to watch which field etc etc.

[XaeL]

I believe tetrisbattle.com will be a clone of tetrisfriends.com except better and hence should be easy enough to set up games...

Bracket: as big as possible - Double elim seems like a good idea/nightmare

Seeding: 40L or combination of TTO1 + 40L.

Timing: 1 match a week is suitable because you have to remember that
there are over 256 players.

[Wojtek]

I believe tetrisbattle.com will be a clone of tetrisfriends.com except better...

yeah, right...

[XaeL]

yeah, right...

If they copy paste tetrisfriends and implement 1 or 2 new features its better already.

Tetris Friends is lacking heaps of features.. i dont see it as something TOO hard to do.

[Wojtek]

I hope you just trolling. They stoped to work on tf.com to start tb tb which is actually small subset of tf.com, and new desing decisions made lot of things worse actually, look for example how arena gameplay got totally ruined, and all those farmville like crap. since when official tetris games move forward? i dont see making tetris games that dons't lag on multicore core multi ghz cpu and gigs of rams as something TOO hard to do, you know.

anyway i don't see how currently we can even think about making tournament on tb arena, there is number of reason why it's impossible:
you can't make 2 players room or you can't make private room
you can't join room you want or play with specific person
you can't turn maps off

i think currently battle 2p seems more suitable for any competition (live version of it that is), but there is still issue, you can't play people far from your rank and if ranks are even bit diffrent autohandicap is forced. but gameplay wise it's almost same as arena, except of bombs instead of real garbage.

anyway both modes will probably end as st-stacking race on high levels so results may be quite suprising.

[coolmaninsano]

Oh uh, can you make a 1v1 room, a private room, turn off maps, or have enough energy for a full match…?

EDIT. Wojtek beat me to copying him from IRC earlier. Still holds true, though.

[Paul676]

oh yeah, energy lol

May be worth waiting for tetrisbattle.com to come in order to make a tourney

[Wojtek]

But i have idea for competition which is more in tetris battle spirit. every player submit replay and we somehow make them fight with each other. and this solve scheduling too. enjoy power of "improved multiplayer" (as acemagic calls it) ;-P

and yes, i forgot energy, full energy lasts for about 15-20 consecutive games, which my be issue if player is low on energy refills and want warmup before match.