Masters of Standard [TPA4] [Winner: LittleMao]

by **elonpuckhog** on Thu Oct 30, 2014 9:43 pm

Tourney still active

by **anamainiacks** on Sat Nov 08, 2014 10:03 am

Update

Set 1 of Round 3 is drawing to a closer, and Set 2 has been sent out.

Despite earning only 20 points in the set, LittleMao maintains his spot at the top of the leaderboard with 185 points - which just goes to show the sheer size of the lead he currently still holds over the rest of the competition. Things didn't go too well for Great-Ollie either, who only earned 21 points, but still maintains second place with 168 points, 17 points behind the leader. Donelladan also keeps his third place position with 161 points (and still 1 game to be completed), while behind him, ckyrias jumps from 11th place to 4th place with 160 points. Overdsky rounds out our top 5 with 159 points (and is likely to jump to 4th by the end of Set 1, with 1 game still to be completed), jumping from 15th at the end of Round 2 to where he sits now.

Of the 10 that were in danger of elimination at the start of the round, only 1 player has managed to find his way out of the danger zone - ckyrias climbs from 16th place to 6th. The rest have more work to do in Set 2 if they wish to stay in the tournament! Good luck!

by **iAmCaffeine** on Wed Dec 03, 2014 10:17 am

Self note; 189.

by **anamainiacks** on Mon Dec 22, 2014 7:45 am

Update

After an error in the creation of games caused the 20 Round limit of games to be left out, Round 3 Set 2 finally draws to a close. I'd like to apologise again for any inconvenience caused, and sincerely thank everyone for their cooperation in sending in their troop counts for fog games that ran past Round 20! I know it also relied a lot on trust, so thanks to everyone for your integrity (I hope), and for trusting your fellow players!

With Round 3 complete, let's take a look at the scoreboard again. As before, LittleMao sits at the top with 219 points and a 13 point lead. It's slightly less than the 17 point lead in the middle of the round, or the 18 point lead at the end of Round 2, but it's still a very sizeable lead going into Round 4, as the opportunities to catchup start to wane. The fact that his lead was only barely lessened despite his poorest performance in the 3 rounds could perhaps indicate a lack of an opponent consistent enough to threaten his position. He earned only 54 points this round, compared to 75 and 90 in Rounds 1 and 2 respectively, which is tied 9th highest of the 25 players this round.

Behind him, Donelladan climbs from 3rd to 2nd with 206 points, including 68 points earned this round - the third highest for Round 3. Great-Ollie trades places with Donelladan, falling from 3rd to 2nd with 198 points after a less-than-average performance this round, earning 51 points (16th for the round).

Following closely behind, we have Overdsky with 196 points in 4th place, jumping far up from 15th at the end of Round 2, and in danger of elimination at the start of Round 3. This comes after earning 80 points in Round 3, the highest for the round, and showing that anything can change in this tournament.

ckyrias rounds out the top 5, jumping from 11th to 5th place, with 195 points including 73 points for Round 3. The score is the second highest for the round, and he even earns the honour of most improved player from Round 2 to 3. His recent performance sees him coming back to the form he first displayed in Round 1, that took him to 2nd place. Perhaps we have a contender for the tournament win if he keeps this consistency up?

andypl0nd0n also deserves special mention with a close 6th place with 194 points, after posting consistent scores between 62 and 67 for all 3 rounds so far.

Outside of the top 6, the rest of the field sits a sizeable 9 point difference away from the top of the pack. This includes previous 4th and 5th places of Round 2, ItzPetey and JPlo64, who sit at 8th and 11th in the field after posting the 5th and 3rd lowest scores in Round 3 respectively.

Another 10 players will be cut at the end of Round 4, which will be more than half of the remaining field. It's time to pull out a better-than-average performance to fight for your place in the finals!

by **anamainiacks** on Thu Jan 22, 2015 12:57 pm

Update

Set 2 of Round 4 was sent out a while ago, but Set 1 has only now come to a thrilling finish. So, as we always do, let's take a look at how the scoreboard has changed since the previous round.

Collectively, the average amount of points earned in this set was significantly lower than usual, largely due to the poor performance everyone had in their home games. Only 2 players, andypl0nd0n and shoop76, managed to score wins on their home map, while only 1 player managed to place 2nd on his home map. Whether there was a case of players consciously targeting the home player for each map, or if it was just a coincidental streak of bad luck for everyone, it's hard to tell at this point.

The home map wins certainly helped andypl0nd0n and shoop76, as they scored the most points among players for the set with 37 and 42 points respectively, giving them both a boost into the top 5. They jump 6-3 with 231 points, and 9-4 with 224 points respectively.

Donelladan barely keeps his 2nd place position on the scoreboard with 232 points, with his previous 8 point lead now reduced to just 1 point. He still has cause for celebration, however, as tournament leader LittleMao sees his lead reduced from a lofty 13 points, to within striking distance at 7 points ahead with 239 points. The one-horse race has just become a hotly contested one; but if LittleMao returns to the form of his prior Rounds, he should have no problem holding on to pole position.

Elsewhere on the scoreboard, Great-Ollie falls 3-5 with 220 points. ckyrias (5-6) and Overdsky (4-8) fall out of the top 5, with 219 and 217 points respectively, while iAmCaffeine holds at 7th with 218 points.

As you can tell, the competition for the final 5 spots is still extremely close, with mere point differences at this point. Mathematically, all players still stand a chance to slip back into the top 5, and make a bid for the tournament win, so it's still wide open. Time to claw your way to victory!

by **redspyder** on Fri Feb 13, 2015 12:06 am

Pretty shitty move...

Game 15246797

by **iAmCaffeine** on Fri Feb 13, 2015 6:30 am

Don't cry.

by **anamainiacks** on Fri Feb 13, 2015 8:28 pm

While I do find the logic and strategy behind the move highly unorthodox, the move was ultimately a legal one, so I won't be taking any action.

by **anamainiacks** on Tue Feb 17, 2015 5:19 pm

I am currently overseas, and as such won't be updating the tournament scoreboard or sending out the games for the finals till I'm back on Thursday night / Friday. I'm also looking into the results of the final game, which ended with unforeseen circumstances. Thanks for your patience, the finals shall begin soon!

by **anamainiacks** on Fri Feb 20, 2015 8:13 pm

Update

Round 4 has finally ended, and we now have our 5 finalists.

LittleMao still maintains his lead at the pack, as he has done since the end of Round 2 Set 1 (4th - 1st - 1st - 1st, at the end of each round), with 269 points. However, his lead has now been cut down to 2 points, after average performances in the past two rounds. His exceptional performance in the first two rounds still keep him above the competition for now, but he'll have to fight hard for these last 5 games if he wishes to hold on to first place! It'd be a shame to lose the pole position at the last moment!

Closing in quickly on our leader, we have Donelladan in 2nd with 267 points. His placing has been improving consistently at the end of each round (5th - 3rd - 2nd - 2nd), aided by his consistently strong play in each round, and has succeeded in closing the gap between that stood between LittleMao and the rest of the pack for the longest time. Perhaps this will be the time he makes the final push to the top? The top 2 have a comfortable 10 to 20 point buffer over the rest of their competitors, but as previous rounds have shown, anything can happen.

Our next 3 finalists snuck in over their competition after an intense and extremely close competition that ran till the round's end. ItzPetey (1st - 4th - 8th - 3rd) returned to the form he displayed in the first round of the tournament, collecting the most points for the round with 73 points and jumping 5 positions from 8th to 3rd with a total of 257 points. shoop76 (15th - 13th - 9th - 4th) followed in his footsteps, gaining the 2nd most points for the round with 70 points, and similarly jumped 5 positions from 9th to 4th with 252 points. Finally, andypl0nd0n (8th - 8th - 6th - 5th) snuck in with 249 points, aided mostly by the poor performances of the previous 3rd to 5th placed players, thus lifting from 6th to 5th.

Of the select 5 players that managed to win their home games in either of the sets during Round 4, 4 of them managed to qualify for the finals, showing once again the importance of those home map points, especially in the finals where it's time to pull ahead of the others.

Interestingly, 4 of the 5 finalists have played together recently in one of the tournament games. Game 14900132 was played on LittleMao's home map with all finalists aside from shoop76 - Donelladan won the game.

Just for fun, let's take a look at how each of the finalists have fared on each others' home maps throughout the tournament so far.

LittleMao (Salem's Switch) has played just 2 games with any other finalist on his own home map (including the above mentioned game), but won neither of those. He has also played 7 games on other finalists' home maps, but won none of those games.

Donelladan (King's Court) has played 5 games with any other finalist on his own home map, and won 2 of them. He has also played 7 games on other finalists' maps, and won 3 of them - 1 on LittleMao's, 2 on andypl0nd0n's.

ItzPetey (Feudal War) has played 3 games with any other finalists on his own home map, and won 2 of them. He has also played 5 games on other finalists' maps, but won none of them.

shoop76 (Treasures of Galapagos) has played 4 games with any other finalists on his own home map, and won 2 of them. He has also only played 1 game on other finalists' maps, LittleMao's home, but didn't win it.

andypl0nd0n (Battle For Iraq!) has played 5 games with any other finalists on his own home map, and won 2 of them. He has also played 6 games on other finalists' maps, winning 2 of them - both on Donelladan's.

Looking at these, it seems that shoop76 is the most disadvantaged with the least experience of other finalists' home maps prior to the finals, though prior CC experience should kick in. Donelladan and andypl0nd0n seem most capable of snatching victory from their opponents on their home maps. If it's of interest to anyone, all finalists have won on their home map at least 3 times; only Donelladan has won 4 times.

I'm really excited to see who wins this, so let's get the finals started!

by **Donelladan** on Sat Feb 21, 2015 2:17 am

Yeah ! Awesome to be in the finals. And very nice tournament anamainiacks, I like how you give us some summary at the end of each round.

Good luck to my opponents.

by **LittleMao** on Sun Feb 22, 2015 12:39 pm

Yeah, thanks for running it, has been a classy and well-organised tourney - & been interesting trying out everyone's fave settings (will be happy if I never play Nuclear Monsters again though ...)

btw, I am rubbish at conquest maps, so will be very surprised if I'm still top after the finals!

by **anamainiacks** on Sun Feb 22, 2015 6:11 pm

LittleMao wrote:btw, I am rubbish at conquest maps, so will be very surprised if I'm still top after the finals!

Isn't Salem's Switch a conquest map too?

But wow, I just realised 4 of the 5 finalists' maps are conquest maps... interesting.

Glad you guys have enjoyed it! I myself have enjoyed hosting it. Turned out better than I'd expected.

by **LittleMao** on Mon Feb 23, 2015 3:47 am

I dunno, I'd call it semi-conquest - lots of neutrals, but you're often in direct conflict with your opponents from round 1 (unlike Feudal, Clandemonium etc)

Think I chose it cos I wanted an obscure map that no-one else could play, but forgot that I was rubbish at conquest!

by **anamainiacks** on Wed Mar 25, 2015 6:50 am

Update

At long last, we have come to the conclusion of the tournament, and what a finish it was.

There was some shuffling on the board, as shoop76 and andypl0nd0n managed to leap over their competitors to clinch 2nd and 3rd place with 285 and 282 points respectively, despite having a point gap as large as 18 points between them and 2nd place initially.

Unfortunately for Donelladan and ItzPetey, this meant that they had to relinquish their 2nd and 3rd berths to finish 4th and 5th with 280 and 274 points respectively. Donelladan's lack of a win in this final round was ultimately his downfall, as a win on any of his games would've given him enough points to at least stay in 2nd place.

However, amidst all this shuffling, one player stayed secure in his spot - the same spot he'd been holding since Round 2 of the tournament. LittleMao delivered yet another strong performance to defend his pole position, finishing with 298 points and a comfortable 13 point lead over his closest competitor. Thus, it is truly a deserved victory as I declare LittleMao the Master of Standard.

=D>