Powers of Three [TPA] [WINNER = sonicsteve]

[Kinnison]

snowoceran and top banana are in. almost there. I'll also be looking for 3-9 reserves, based on past history.

Depending on when this fills, I expect games will be made for the three groups on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of each week; however, the first round games will go out as soon as possible, and then transition to those days. Given my working schedule, if this fills up on the weekend, M, T, W, WILL be the first possible days.

[anamainiacks]

anamainiacks ... I'll tentatively hold slot 81 for you. If it fills before your premium starts... sorry.

Premium just came (: thanks for holding!

[Wildcat57]

Wildcat57. In please.

[danalan]

Read... intro.
Brain... hurts.
In... please.

[Rih0]

I'm in!

[Rakuten06]

I'm curious, is it a requirement of the TPA to have three open spots for this tournament? If so, then I'll join in the tournament directly or as a reserve. Whatever works better for me.

[IWearRed24]

in please

[Kinnison]

anamainiacks ... I'll tentatively hold slot 81 for you. If it fills before your premium starts... sorry.

Premium just came (: thanks for holding!

You're welcome, but I didn't have to do much... it hadn't filled yet.

And for some reason, I didn't get a notice of replies to this thread, so quick update:

I'm curious, is it a requirement of the TPA to have three open spots for this tournament? If so, then I'll join in the tournament directly or as a reserve. Whatever works better for me.

I'm sorry, the TPA makes no requirements, it leaves the conditions of the tournament up to each organizer, based on their scheduling. I've had to design this tournament for premium players only, due to a minimum requirement of 11 games at once, possibly more. My apologies.

anamainiacks, Wildcat5, danalan, Rih0, IWearRed24: you're all in. We need a minimum of 2 more premium players, and I'd like 3-9 reserves, as I've said before. Almost there. Games can be expected this Monday, if it fills by then.

[Rakuten06]

Its all right, thanks anyway. TPA is a league of premium players

[Rih0]

Does this tournament will end before september 2nd? After that I wont be premium anymore.

[Kinnison]

Does this tournament will end before september 2nd? After that I wont be premium anymore.

Any games you have in progress can continue, even if you lose premium. ...but no, it will not be finished. The first round should be, and the second might be underway, but there is no chance all of it's games will have even been started by that date. The final round will have DEFINITELY not begun.

I assume you are not planning on renewing?

[Rih0]

no

[Kinnison]

Then you can withdraw now, or when your premium runs out. If you make it out of the first round, you'll have to be replaced by the... well, the 28th player from that round. Basically, the next-best player would advance in your place.

Look on the bright side... you might be eliminated and not have to worry about it!

[Rih0]

Ok... Im in

[poguemahone]

In please, or will be a reserve if full.

[thunderhue]

in please

[Kinnison]

poguemahone and thunderhue are in. that's 81. will shuffle the list today, update the schedule tonight with names, and send out the first games tomorrow! (assuming privs are granted by then, which they should be)

[Lufsen75]

I sign in as a reserv.

[Kinnison]

I sign in as a reserv.

Thank you, accepted and logged.

[Kinnison]

Okay, I was about to send out the first wave of games, when I found a bug in the schedule I hadn't noticed. It's not a CRITICAL bug, it just affects the pacing. the intent was to have 10 or 11 games per player per week. the bug causes things to lump up, so that you have much shorter and longer weeks, while still having 31 games in 3.

I'm going to look at this for about 10-15 minutes and see if I can address it SIMPLY. If not, we'll have to run with the "lumpy" schedule. I apologize for the delay, for not spotting this SOONER, and for the possible annoyance of getting possibly 16 (worst I've identified yet) games at once.

Updates to this post shortly.


--UPDATE: Okay, I've found the problems. They are solvable without a total schedule rework, but the effort is nontrivial.

Alpha division games will still go out tonight, but it may be a couple of hours (they're all made). Bravo and Charlie games MAY go out tonight, depending on how long the schedule fix takes. If not tonight, they WILL go out tomorrow. All the 8- and 7-player games for B and C this waves have also been created already. A large part of the delay is being darn certain I don't manage to mix up my game numbers and passwords as I shuffle them around, and making sure the sort is CORRECT this time. I'm still not certain I can get it to 10-10-11 (I think I can), but I can insure no week will be worse than 12 games.

Okay, after some struggling... I can't guarantee 10-10-11 for everyone. I've smoothed it out as much as I can, but you could see anywhere between 8 and 12 games in a week. If there's a way to do better, while assuring an even distribution and everyone playing the other 26 in an ORGANIZED fashion... I can't find it.

Games going out NOW to Alpha.

[Kinnison]

Alpha Group games are all sent out. I'll fix the schedule for Bravo and Charlie to match the "flattened" Alpha schedule, post that up to google docs, and be done for the night.

Bravo and Charlie group games will be PMed out tomorrow. Future weeks, I may manage to do all 3 groups in one day. The schedule issues (finding it was wrong, WHY, finding out I couldn't fix it perfectly, and then fixing it as much as possible) took a fair amount of time from today.

[Kinnison]

ALL Round One, Wave 1 games are now sent out.

I currently EXPECT to send out games for all three divisions next Tuesday. If there is a noticeably low completion rate after a week, I may move the schedule to a wave every OTHER week. I don't really want to, but with the 7- and 8- player games, I don't want people to become overloaded. It may be possible to send out wave 2, but have to delay wave 3.

...we'll see how it goes. Right now, I think we can maintain the weekly schedule, with 2/3 of the total games (half per player) being 4-man games.

[Kinnison]

Note that we HAVE been approved for a way to win a General Achievement Medal. No, it's not gonna be simple. And if, by some bizarre chance, multiple folks manage it, only the FIRST person will actually get the medal.

To win it, you simply have to sweep all of your games of a specific 'size' during a round. That's right, just win 8 8-player games... or 7 7-player games... or all 16 4-player games, and a shiny new medal is yours!

[Kinnison]

Well, first hitch discovered. Out of 162 games sent, I did screw up one set of 3: Bravo7-7, Bravo7-8, and Bravo7-9. A group of players who was supposed to each get invited to one of them each got an invite to TWO. This had the effect of trying to put 8 players into a 7-player game... and of course, the 'right' combination did not occur. Further, the combination of players that did get in is NOT supposed to happen...

As such, I have to rule games 7406752, 7406753, and 7406754 dead for tournament purposes.

I'm creating 3 replacement games now, and I'll be sending out direct invites to the games.

This was MY fault strictly, and no blame attaches to any player who did what I told them and joined all the games they were sent.


Please, if you see anything wrong with your games, or cannot join a game I've sent you because it is full already, let me know IMMEDIATELY. It's hard enough to make them all and send them out, I CANNOT triple-check 162 games each week, particularly since I can't determine if they're right until everyone has joined them. I do know exactly how this mistake occurred, and will do my best to avoid it happening again.

[Kinnison]

UPDATE:
johnboss13 (Bravo Division, A7 seed) has not opened his mail or joined games. Further research indicates he has not been on-site since the 27th of July and has dropped to cook. (ouch)

48 hours after the initial message, I'll send him invites and a reminder message. after those time out, he'll be dropped, and our one reserve will take his place. I'm opening a thread to recruit further reserves.