[TPA5] Tournament Players Association

by **sempaispellcheck** on Thu Aug 14, 2014 3:51 pm

Welcome to another year of the TPA!! Rules and setup and pretty much the same as every other year. Details can be found below. Additionally, the Tournament Directors want to thank barterer2002 and DaveH for the great quantity of work they have done in the first three years of this event, and I want to personally thank chapcrap and elonpuckhog for spearheading the "officialization" (if I may coin a word) of the TPA last year. With them and all of the amazing tournament organizers we have something truly fun, and hopefully we can keep it that way. Thank you all.

TPA Commissioner: sempaispellcheck - In charge of scoreboard, general inquiries, and assisting with TPA5 schedule.
TPA Asst. Commissioner: mcshanester29 - In charge of TPA5 schedule.
TPA Asst. Commissioner: Clive - Main tournament rescuer.

The TPA5 scoreboard can be accessed by clicking this button:

show: TPA5 Regulations

show: TPA5 Prizes

show: TPA5 Images

show: Yearly Schedule

show: All-Star Event

show: Tournament Types and Breakdown

show: Scoring System

show: Sanctioning

show: Joining Tournaments

show: Exemptions and Reserves

by **sempaispellcheck** on Thu Aug 14, 2014 4:06 pm

First topic of discussion for those interested in the TPA: The possibility of an All-Star Event.

chapcrap had promised that there would be one as part of TPA4, but due to real-life issues, he was removed from his post as TPA Commissioner before it could be set in motion.
I attempted to pick his brain, but was unsuccessful.
I then attempted to come up with ideas for one myself, but was even less successful.

So, I ask if any of you have any suggestions. To perhaps guide you a bit, these are the 2 main questions I was unable to answer in attempting to brainstorm an All-Star event for TPA4:
1. In the NHL, NBA, and MLB, the All-Star game takes place in the middle of the season, and is played by the best players from the first half of the season.

When is the middle of the TPA season?
If we judge the season by the start dates of the tournaments, and start the All-Star Event in mid-January, not enough tournaments will have finished for the "best players" to have distinguished themselves.
If we judge the season by the end dates of the tournaments, and start the All-Star Event once half the tournaments have finished, the Event may not start until after the start of next season (right now, with the start of TPA5 2.5 weeks away, only 12 of the 36 TPA4 tournaments have finished - and not even a week has passed since the completion of the last tournament of TPA2.
Another drawback to this second option is that a Standard tournament from Set 3 is almost certain to finish before the Major of Set 2 - a player should probably not be judged one of the best players from the first half of the season for winning a Set 3 tournament.

2. What format would be best? How many players, what types of games, what type of tournament (round robin, bracket, etc.)?

Thoughts? Suggestions? Comments?
sempai

by **Dukasaur** on Thu Aug 14, 2014 4:32 pm

There's a few things I would like to discuss, and as promised I have some ideas about the All-Star event which I will share with you when I get a chance. However, there's something even more urgent I want to set in motion.

First off, the "Click for Scoreboard" button. It's ambiguous, and misleading. I've known of several people (including myself, back during the second season when I was new to this) who would click on that button expecting to find the Scoreboard for the tournament they were in. Ask Dave, he had a long drawn-out routine this year with one of his players doing that. I think the button should be redesigned. It needs to say something like "Click for Season Standings" or "Click for Overall TPA 5" or "TPA 5 Season Standings". Anything except "Click for Scoreboard" ... a phrase which, if anything, should be reserved for the scoreboard for that tourney. And while it's being redesigned, maybe the cup for that season should be included in the "Overall Standings" button.

(Obviously some differences would be noticeable if that demo was done by someone with actual graphics skills.)

Since the Cup contest is just getting underway, maybe we could ask contestants to also include a new "Click for Season Standings" button. Not as a mandatory part of the contest, since the rules have already been published, but voluntarily. I can't see most of them saying no, especially since they'll already have their TPA artwork fresh on their clipboards, it should be a fairly simple matter to schrink the cup down, add a big ellipse to the right, and insert the appropriate words.

by **Dukasaur** on Thu Aug 14, 2014 5:37 pm

Okay, on to the TPA All-Star Event.

I think if you look at the NHL or MBL All-Star Events, they are composed of

1 main exhibition game. This game (note -- 1 game, not a full tournament) showcases the best talents in the league, but it doesn't attempt to be statistically rigorous in selecting the "best", but rather to reflect fan popularity, and to some degree the choices of the coaches and players' associations, and in former years the opinions of sportswriters. It makes no pretense at being a Championship, but rather is clearly an Exhibition, something for fun and for showing off.

plus
an event. The event is composed of a wide variety of things. In the NHL there's the skills competition, with things like the Hardest Shot challenge, the Fastest Skate challenge, the Puck Control Relay, and so on. There are also events for the fans to compete in: the Ice Carving contest, the Skate With a Star event, the street dance, and so on. In baseball, the event is not as complex, but there is the Home Run Derby, and the Legends & Veterans game, and so on. In both there are Junior tournaments for young players to showcase their talents.

So, what can we apply to our own situation?

I think there should not be anything like a full tournament for the All Star event. The main exhibition game should be either one game or a very small mini-tournament. The lineup for it should be voted in by a limited college:

Every member of the Tournament Organisers usergroup gets one ballot.
Every TD gets an extra ballot.
Every TO that has posted a tournament in the current season gets an extra ballot.
Every player who has placed in the Top 10 in completed previous TPA seasons gets a ballot.

The current TPA season points leaders are made captains. If either of them declines the honour, they are replaced by the next person on the scoreboard.

No pretense should be made that this tells us who is "the best player on the site" or any such nonsense, but rather "a bunch of the best players on the site getting together for some fun."

The rest of the event can be made up with a bunch of not-too-serious events in the style of the old Entertainment Team. These events would be open to anyone who is currently playing in any TPA tourney.

The Home Run Derby and the NHL Skills Competition can be approximated by a bunch of specific-task events. For instance, in the Stacking Challenge, we could set up Sunny No Spoils Speed games on some bonus-heavy maps like King's Court II or Supermax. Whoever builds the biggest stack by the end of the game wins. In the Sweeping Challenge (Similar to the Home Run Derby), we set up some Sunny Escalating games on the traditional 42s. Whoever completes a perfect sweep (kills all 5 opponents in the same turn) in the shortest number of rounds wins. (Tiebreaker to be determined.) In the Passing Competition (similar to the Puck Control Challenge) we set up a Quads game on some map that is really linear, like Route 66 or Alexander's Empire. Whichever team forts a stack from the eastern edge of the map to the western edge of the map in the fewest rounds wins.

For the fans, there could be "predict the winner" events and "write a limerick about the TPA" events, and so on. Approximating the Junior Skills competion, there could be a mini-tournament that only players below the rank of Private could enter. But the point is that all of them should be short and sweet, not to make this a big drawn-out affair but one that can be completed in a few days. Preferably everything except the main exhibition game should be a brief Speed Game event that lasts a few hours.

by **elonpuckhog** on Thu Aug 14, 2014 7:33 pm

Pretty much what Duk said. I think he has a great idea and this could be used to "showcase" the TPA to the rest of the site if marketed correctly.

Only thing I would change is the captains. I don't think there will be many tournies completed by that point. We could take the top vote getters instead.

Other than that, great idea as usual Duk.

by **sempaispellcheck** on Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:17 pm

I agree that there is ambiguity with the Scoreboard button, but I'm not sure it really merits a full redoing - a simple rewording should suffice. In fact, I may be able to do that myself.
We would want it to not make reference to the particular season so we don't have to redo it every year.

Duk, that's a really good way of looking at it - an idea so simple, it's absolutely brilliant, and I never would have thought of it.
I'll take it point by point, in my usual fashion.

Dukasaur wrote:I think there should not be anything like a full tournament for the All Star event. The main exhibition game should be either one game or a very small mini-tournament.

Agreed. This makes it easier for us, too, as it means we don't have to worry about trying to pull 32 or 64 players when only 10 tournaments (max) have completed.

Dukasaur wrote:The lineup for it should be voted in by a limited college:
Every member of the Tournament Organisers usergroup gets one ballot.
Every TD gets an extra ballot.
Every TO that has posted a tournament in the current season gets an extra ballot.

I don't agree with the idea of extra ballots - I strongly believe it should be one ballot per person.

Dukasaur wrote:
Every player who has placed in the Top 10 in completed previous TPA seasons gets a ballot.

Only TPA1 and TPA2 have completed. Most, if not all, of the TPA1 top 10 have already left CC. I propose adding the top 10 players on the scoreboard for each ongoing TPA season prior to the current season (so, for TPA5, we'd be adding the top 10 from TPA3 and TPA4) as of the moment balloting begins.
Of course, we would have to add the caveat that a player cannot name themselves on their own ballot.

Dukasaur wrote:The current TPA season points leaders are made captains. If either of them declines the honour, they are replaced by the next person on the scoreboard.

If we're going to make it just one game or a mini-tournament, I don't see a need for captains - this isn't a team sport by necessity.

Dukasaur wrote:The rest of the event can be made up with a bunch of not-too-serious events in the style of the old Entertainment Team. These events would be open to anyone who is currently playing in any TPA tourney.

The Home Run Derby and the NHL Skills Competition can be approximated by a bunch of specific-task events. For instance, in the Stacking Challenge, we could set up Sunny No Spoils Speed games on some bonus-heavy maps like King's Court II or Supermax. Whoever builds the biggest stack by the end of the game wins. In the Sweeping Challenge (Similar to the Home Run Derby), we set up some Sunny Escalating games on the traditional 42s. Whoever completes a perfect sweep (kills all 5 opponents in the same turn) in the shortest number of rounds wins. (Tiebreaker to be determined.) In the Passing Competition (similar to the Puck Control Challenge) we set up a Quads game on some map that is really linear, like Route 66 or Alexander's Empire. Whichever team forts a stack from the eastern edge of the map to the western edge of the map in the fewest rounds wins.

I can dig that - we might consider doing something in the style of the CC Olympics, too, where players compete to earn points for the tournament(s) they are participating in, with some extra prize to then be awarded to the winner of the highest-scoring tournament, or the player who meets some other criteria determined by the TO - like an additional GA Medal, perhaps.

Dukasaur wrote:For the fans, there could be "predict the winner" events and "write a limerick about the TPA" events, and so on.

I like that - those would only be open to players not participating in any TPA tournament.

Dukasaur wrote:Approximating the Junior Skills competion, there could be a mini-tournament that only players below the rank of Private could enter.

I don't know that I like the idea of that being based on low score - it's about good young talent.
What about the highest-ranking TPA players who have been on CC for a year or less as of the start of the TPA season?

Dukasaur wrote:But the point is that all of them should be short and sweet, not to make this a big drawn-out affair but one that can be completed in a few days. Preferably everything except the main exhibition game should be a brief Speed Game event that lasts a few hours.

I see your point, but a few days is too short - especially given the problems inherent with speed tournaments (availability, time zones, etc). I think it would be OK for this to last a few weeks - the Winter Break has been extended to the entire month of January (it was only 3 weeks last year), so we would probably start it sometime in there, and if it ran into February or even March, no big deal.

Thoughts on that?
sempai

by **sempaispellcheck** on Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:35 pm

OK, so I spent a couple of minutes with the button in GIMP, and came up with this:

Good enough?
sempai

by **Dukasaur** on Fri Aug 15, 2014 4:53 am

Button looks good.

As for the All-Star Event, I agree with most of your points. A few minor quibbles:

I don't personally worship at the "one man one vote" altar of radical democracy. I think if one qualifies for a ballot for more than one reason, one should get more than one ballot. But it's not enough of a disagreement that I would waste a lot of time on it. If the consensus is one ballot, so be it.

I think even if the winter break is almost a month long and you can spread out the All-Star events over a month, there should still be one day or one weekend where the excitement level rises. Yes, I know the difficulties of getting people together with different time zones and stuff, but there is a lot to be said for the intensity of having to do something on a short time scale. Speed game mini-tournaments could be run, perhaps 8 hours apart over the course of the first 32 hours, and then something else on the last day.

I've really gotten fired up by my idea for the Puck Control Relay, by the way. I think it would be a really cool test for the tacticians to challenge themselves on juggling turn order plus intervening enemy units to pass that stack across the map!

by **DaveH** on Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:15 am

The concept of honouring the leaders of TPA is excellent and there are, as usual, very good comments and ideas put forward.

However, you are proposing something that is specific to American Football which is not something me and many CC players in other countries know much about. The game ideas are good though, so why not make them just specific to CC?

As for the participants I had thought that you could run the All-star event or whatever it is for the previous year, when a larger number of tournaments had completed, so run an TPA4 All-Star event this year etc.

Having said that though, TPA2 has only just finished and I think that it must be a bit of an anti-climax for those leading it; just as it seemed when TPA finished.

So, you could always take the leading players (who are still with CC) from all the previous TPA's and have like a Champion-of-Champions event instead or as well.....

I also like the idea of something for those players who have entered many of the different tournaments without actually ending up on the leader board.

by **sempaispellcheck** on Fri Aug 15, 2014 10:39 am

DaveH wrote:you are proposing something that is specific to American Football which is not something me and many CC players in other countries know much about.The game ideas are good though, so why not make them just specific to CC?

The concept of an All-Star game is not unique to American football - nor even, in fact, to America. All-Star games are part of the seasons of professional leagues in several sports in several Asian countries.

DaveH wrote:As for the participants I had thought that you could run the All-star event or whatever it is for the previous year, when a larger number of tournaments had completed, so run an TPA4 All-Star event this year etc.

It does not make sense to me to run the TPA4 All-Star event during TPA5. There are certainly arguments for having it at the end of the season (meaning following the start of the last tournament), but that is the latest I would consider holding it.

DaveH wrote:Having said that though, TPA2 has only just finished and I think that it must be a bit of an anti-climax for those leading it; just as it seemed when TPA finished.

So, you could always take the leading players (who are still with CC) from all the previous TPA's and have like a Champion-of-Champions event instead or as well.....

The problem with that is that you would have the same players guaranteed to take part every year, and the event would gradually grow larger and larger as more players became eligible. With a vote on the current pool of players, we can keep the size of the event constant (or control its expansion, if we decide to expand it) and no one is guaranteed a spot.

DaveH wrote:I also like the idea of something for those players who have entered many of the different tournaments without actually ending up on the leader board.

That's what the Skills Competitions are for - they will be open to all players participating in a TPA tournament in that season.

sempai

by **sempaispellcheck** on Fri Aug 15, 2014 10:58 am

I have created a spoiler for the TPA5 All-Star Event as I envision it now in the OP of this thread.
The schedule indicates that it will be held in January, but I would consider moving it to June in order to open it to those who participate in Sets 3 and 4, but do not participate in Sets 1 and 2.

As always, let me know your thoughts.
I may not agree with you, but I will listen to what you have to say.

sempai

by **Dukasaur** on Sat Aug 16, 2014 6:43 am

Looks good.

I very much agree with January rather than June. Of course people will vanish at any time of year, but it's much worse in the summer with vacations and stuff.

by **Silly Knig-it** on Sun Aug 17, 2014 7:24 am

I'll take the Sept 15 premier. "Escape from the Islands".

Separate pm sent to Mc spelling out more details.

by **sempaispellcheck** on Thu Sep 04, 2014 3:10 pm

I have edited the "Scoring System" spoiler to provide some clarification (mainly for myself).
This editing did involve a slight change in the scoring procedure in the interest of keeping the tournaments in proportion.
The updated scoring system can be expressed thus:

Major tournaments will have 2,000 points for 1st place; Premier, 1,000 points and Standard, 500 points.

For all other places, the number of points earned (P) will be determined by the following formula which includes the number of players/teams (n) and the player's position (x). Points will be rounded down.

For Major tournaments
If n>128: P = 2000n/128x
If n<128 or n=128: 2000/x
For Premier tournaments
If n>64: P = 1000n/64x
If n<64 or n=64: 1000/x
For Standard tournaments
If n>32: P = 500n/32x
If n<32 or n=32: 500/x

If players are tied then they will each receive the average of the total number of points they would have received had they not tied.

sempai

by **elonpuckhog** on Thu Sep 18, 2014 10:22 pm

Jack of All Trades tourney needs one more player to get started.

by **Swimmerdude99** on Tue Sep 23, 2014 7:58 pm

Has the TPA event for this week been announced?

by **sempaispellcheck** on Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:59 pm

swimmerdude99 wrote:Has the TPA event for this week been announced?

Not yet, no. mc29 and I have both been very busy of late. I'm hoping he can get his up tomorrow.
I'll have the first major up next Monday, no question.

sempai