The Five Elements [Winner: EnricoPalazzo]

by **wolfpack0530** on Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:23 pm

wolfpack wins round 5 5,3

by **Kinnison** on Sat Apr 18, 2009 2:18 pm

Whew.

Round 8 made and sent.

This week gave me a lot more trouble than usual. Not quite sure why. Not just the change in game labels... Maybe I'm just tired today, but I kept making a lot of little errors in trying to get everything formatted right. And one huge error that sent the earth passwords out to fire division, which worked so usefully. At least I caught it myself as the first PMs were coming back telling me they were wrong. :/

ANYWAY... Good Luck, everyone, enjoy the week 8 games. 2 more weeks until the preliminary round has all been started... and then a bit of time for results to trickle in.

Five Elements Shuffle will NOT be starting AT LEAST UNTIL the prelims here are *finished*. Also, I need to get my computer/computers running PROPERLY, which I still haven't managed. I'll keep you posted.

by **The Chosen** on Sat Apr 18, 2009 4:17 pm

Hey K.

I just want to say how I appreciate how well you are running this tournament.

On behalf of all of the Water Division - Keep up the good work. =D>

TC.

by **topper** on Sun Apr 19, 2009 2:30 am

Game 4514334
is complete

by **topper** on Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:48 am

Game 4663445
is complete

by **topper** on Tue Apr 21, 2009 7:31 am

Game 4607547
is complete

by **wolfpack0530** on Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:58 pm

wolfpack wins 5E - PLASMA - Round 6 - 3,2

by **topper** on Tue Apr 21, 2009 11:33 pm

Game 4663443
is complete

by **plurple** on Wed Apr 22, 2009 10:23 am

how many rounds is there going to be

by **Kinnison** on Wed Apr 22, 2009 3:21 pm

plurple wrote:how many rounds is there going to be

10 'waves' or rounds of games. That makes 60 per division, 44 per player. The possessor of top score in each division then advances to the finals.

by **Kinnison** on Wed Apr 22, 2009 4:16 pm

Scores Updated. 2 rounds left to start, about 3.5 rounds to run until the eliminations are final.

Fire division is trying to make it a 4-way tie for the lead... and Water seems determined to beat that, working on closing up to a 5-way tie.

However, with 3.5 rounds to run, there's AT LEAST a 32-point swing left to play out, so no one can truly be said to be eliminated yet, no matter what it looks like.

With only one division that anyone sane would be willing to hazard a guess on at this point, and personal CC points at stake, keep up the hard work, everyone! You're all doing great. I know it's a weird format... and, as I've said earlier, I have some thought on how to improve matters, both in diversity and length of schedule. I deeply appreciate you all sticking this out.

R1-5: Complete
R6: All running, 25/30 (Air, Water Complete)
R7: All running, 15/30
R8: All running, 2/30
R9: Starts Saturday, April 25, 2009
R10: Starts Saturday, May 2, 2009

I anticipate being able to crown division winners in late May... But with how tight some of the divisions are running, we may have to grind out the very last game before moving on!

by **wolfpack0530** on Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:36 am

wolfpack wins 5E - PLASMA - Round 8 - 3:topper

by **Boss_oss_ss** on Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:20 am

i won Game 4706218

by **Kinnison** on Sat Apr 25, 2009 1:37 pm

Whew... Round 9 of the eliminations is started...

Now we see if I got them all right.

It's not likely, but hope springs eternal, and all that jazz.

Four of the Five divisions have first and second place within three points of each other. Two of them currently have a TIE for the position.

Yowza!

Play on, I say... PLAY ON!

by **topper** on Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:12 pm

Game 4663447
is complete

by **Kinnison** on Sat May 02, 2009 11:59 am

Oh, my aching head...

No, no hangover. Just trying to keep this tournament straight, even with Excel and the like, is rather harder than I had expected when I began. I can't WAIT </sarcasm> to give 5E shuffle a try... I'm gonna have to make some better tracking tools before that.

Okay, the final Elimination-round games have been made and sent!

Only 2 games left in each of Rounds 6 and 7... 1 each for 2 divisions. 8 is about half done, 9 scratched, and 10 sent out. Or, to put it another way: 75 games to run out of 300. So we're 3/4 of the way there... varying slightly by division, and precise games completed.

Play is slowing down as we hit the end, people trying to be careful of every tournament point. I expected this, which is why I forecast the finals to not start any earlier than June. by then, my new computer should be up and running, and right now, I have time to devote to planning 5E-shuffle... so it MAY be starting by then.

In the meantime, I'd like to say I appreciate all your support through this. And I'd like to ask for opinions on this format, and any suggestions for changes. Feedback here OR by PM is greatly appreciated!

by **Kinnison** on Sat May 02, 2009 1:02 pm

There were a few things that came up as thoughts during this tournament, some mentioned by me in this thread, some tossed in or nodded gleefully at by players, and some I've kept under my hat. In future versions of this tournament, i'd expect some or all of these changes to appear in some form.

1> Noting who is "home" in each match description: ADDED in this tournament, after I accidentally swapped two sets of settings in a round *blush*. Air division overwhelmingly decided to just let the error lie, since it obviously hadn't disturbed anyone... since no one had noticed until *I* saw it, recording scores. Still, I changed the way in which I made and labeled games at that point.

2> EXCEL record keeping: again, Added. Now, I'm not sure how I survived without it. For a "shuffle" format(see below), it will require SUBSTANTIAL modification... and be freaking HUGE!

3> Map Limitations? : There have been a few comments in various games about maps, and I've been pondering the matter as well. The problems seem to fall into a few distinct areas.
a> Obscure maps. Sorry, I can't see doing anything about this one, unless the map falls into one of the other problem categories. Mastering a 'rare' map is a neat trick for tournaments that allow home settings. Also, learning a new map, even the hard way, is fun!
b> Duplicated maps. With over a hundred maps, and 25 players, what would any of you think about a 'first come, first sever' restriction on maps in the tournament? No more than one player on a map? I've seen this in some "sports league" tourneys, the purpose is much the same... variety. We only have one case of duplicated maps within a division, but could have 9still could) end up with as many as 3 of a map in the finals, or a couple of pairs.
c> LARGE maps. This was actually brought up in game chat by the player who PICKED the map. =D>

Perhaps a simple list of a few maps that cannot be selected?

4> scoring. Modify to place slightly greater emphasis on coming in FIRST in a game.
3 players: 0, 2, 5 still 30 games, 18 per player, 90 points possible per player
4 players: 0, 1, 3, 6 still 20 games, 16 per player, 96 points possible per player
5 players: 2, 5, 9, 14, 20 cut to 5 games. 100 points possible per player

There are a few other possibilities, but the attempt to keep the TYPES of games FAIRLY equal in overall value is central to the tournament concept. This is actually easier to do with some half-point values, but that I believe that would get unnecessarily baroque.

4> SHUFFLE. Some folks commented on (and I've seen it firsthand in other tournaments) playing the same folks OVER AND OVER. That's part and parcel of some "league" formats, but i do see the concern. I'm just worried the solution may be worse than the disease... at least, for the organizer.

Format would still be 5x5... sort of.

Code: Select all: a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 e1 e2 e3 e4 e5

Here's your basic grid for week 1. this would be a highly-compressed format, 5 weeks instead of 10. It COULD be run as 10, I suppose (muses)... The big change: while a1 is PLAYING b1, c1, d1 and e1... they are COMPETING against a2, a3, a4, a5. only one of the "a" players will advance, one "b" and so on.
THE REASON:

Code: Select all: a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 b5 b1 b2 b3 b4 c4 c5 c1 c2 c3 d3 d4 d5 d1 d2 e2 e3 e4 e5 e1

Here's the week 2 competition grid. The divisions shuffle each round. By the end of 5 rounds, each "a" player will have played ALL TWENTY b, c, d, and e players, one week each. So now, rather than advancing people based on their performance against EACH OTHER, we'd be advancing people based on their performance against a pool of TWENTY OTHER IDENTICAL PLAYERS.

Code: Select all: a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 b4 b5 b1 b2 b3 b3 b4 b5 b1 b2 b2 b3 b4 b5 b1 c2 c3 c4 c5 c1 c5 c1 c2 c3 c4 c3 c4 c5 c1 c2 d5 d1 d2 d3 d4 d2 d3 d4 d5 d1 d4 d5 d1 d2 d3 e3 e4 e5 e1 e2 e4 e5 e1 e2 e3 e5 e1 e2 e3 e4

Here's the other 3 rounds, as proof the shuffle works from the standpoint of all divisions, and no one duplicates an opponent. (c2, for example, plays: a2, b2, d2, e2; a4, b3, d1, e5; a1, b4, d5, e3; a3, b5, d4, e1; a5, b1, d3, e4. It checks)

Problems with the shuffle: the schedule will need to be fully noted in advance, needing just random.org to slot the players in. The score sheet will need all 25 players listed on the same page (possibly a page for each week, although cumulative score then have to forward from sheet to sheet), and detailed notes on exactly WHO belongs in EACH game.

Feedback on any of these would be appreciated, as well as on this tournament in general. I know the most-mentioned problem seemed to be in the format of keeping score. I'd appreciate any advice along those lines, while keeping everything obsessively organized and neat. Screenshotted/graphical score charts, perhaps?

by **plurple** on Sat May 02, 2009 3:39 pm

i just want to be part of it when it happens as i have enjoyed this tournament greatly.

by **wolfpack0530** on Tue May 05, 2009 3:58 pm

wolfpack wins 5E - PLASMA - Round 9 - 4:topper

by **topper** on Wed May 06, 2009 12:54 pm

Game 4755315
is complete

by **Kinnison** on Wed May 06, 2009 5:07 pm

Okay, 10 more games down!

ALL scores and order of eliminations will be checked in the upcoming week (ugh). I want to be sure there are no scoring errors...

UN-official scoring race updates:

Air Division is now unofficially down to two contenders. Dbandit70 and jgazaille are scrabbling for every point. jgazaille has a 4-point lead, but DBandit70 has 3 more possible points in the elimination round to earn. This one is going to the wire.

Earth Division is holding steady, as they are probably all seeing if they can pass EnricoPalazzo SOMEHOW. For the record, it's possible. Not LIKELY, maybe, but possible for almost anyone in the division to win.

Fire Division still seems to be playing 'chase the leader', with a number of contenders baying closely at The Chosen's heels. This one is open for anyone to win, still.

Plasma Division has a new leader! wolfpack0530 has fought his way into first, taking the lead from topper... but not by much. This division is also still open to anyone, even newcomer (reserve) zissou2, coming strong out of a hellish position he inherited.

Water Division scoring resembles Fire division, with a tight pack of players... well, actually, the whole division closely chasing the leader, The Chosen (appropriate, no?). This division is still also open to all contenders.

Next week, the races should have tightened down a bit. Also, please don't take anything said here as an endorsement or slam of any player. You've all done wonderfully, and I've had a good time running this first round... I'm just trying to have a little fun with it. If you don't believe me, go find my posts in the OHL tournament thread (original, not the current one). All the way through the playoffs, I ended up describing EACH GAME in individual hockey terms, as after-action announcer. Now THAT was nuts. but fun!

GL to all, see you back here on Saturday for the next score update.

by **wolfpack0530** on Wed May 06, 2009 6:03 pm

wolfpack wins 5E - PLASMA - Round 9 - 3:wolfpack0530

by **slickstick** on Sat May 09, 2009 1:42 pm

Game 4706032
won by slickstick

by **Kinnison** on Sun May 10, 2009 12:40 am

Sorry, no weekend score update this week. I will catch up on Monday evening, but my schedule is eating me right now. We still have over 40 active games right now, so we're not missing any final decisions just yet. :/