Table of the Week? Tournament of the Month!

[shutyertrap]

This seems like a fun idea. I've been waiting for DX11, but I might dust the game off for some fun competitive play. I'm a bit worried about how grindy it'll get though. If there are EMs or difficult tables in general that'll just extend the time you have on the forever slappers in the 12 hour window. There's no real way to constrain time by table though so I guess it's all fine and good.

My hope was that by everyone only playing each table twice, the grind fest wouldn't be so major. I don't know about the rest of you, but even the tables I am really good on, I'm not that good on every single time I play. We'll see how it goes this first time and hear what everyone has to say. I'm toying with the idea of next time, since Black Hole will be in the mix, of asking everyone to just plunge and not flip any extra balls. It's one more non enforceable thing to add, but if everyone can be honest about it then that would completely kill the majority of grinding.

Sign up sheet will be posted Wednesday the 25th, and closes Friday at 10pm PST (-8 GMT). Tournament will start Saturday at 10am PST. I'll try to have everyone's table groupings (so you know who you are up against each heat) before the tourney starts.

 

[Kaibun]

Sounds cool. I'm joining in, for sure. Unless it's for a Goin' Nuts tourney.

 

[Crepello55012]

I will join please.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

How about requiring all EBs to be tilted and drained? I say tilted because some games - AFM in particular - you can gain significant points just by plunging the ball; such as 250x Bonus carried over on AFM, even if you plunge and drain, can net you tens of billions of points.

Keep pushing for FS to come up with "Tournament Mode" settings!

 

[Crepello55012]

There are too many rules though. The only way it will work properly is if it is done like a tournament on the ps3 or whatever. Don't do this pretend you never got an extra ball don't do that, put the word up on your screen and photo it do you know how to download the picture? Do you know how to take a screen shot? It's 10 am in the USA but only part of the USA and it's a totally different time everywhere else . It's a different thread to register. It's a different thread to post your score. It's a different thread to ask someone to post the word of the day and prove their score, it's a different thread to point out that anyone on a pc could cheat and still prove their score.
. Don't lie and believe everyone else isn't lying. Remember it's for fun. Only do it twice. Don't complain about the game.

 

[shutyertrap]

There are too many rules though. The only way it will work properly is if it is done like a tournament on the ps3 or whatever. Don't do this pretend you never got an extra ball don't do that, put the word up on your screen and photo it do you know how to download the picture? Do you know how to take a screen shot? It's 10 am in the USA but only part of the USA and it's a totally different time everywhere else . It's a different thread to register. It's a different thread to post your score. It's a different thread to ask someone to post the word of the day and prove their score, it's a different thread to point out that anyone on a pc could cheat and still prove their score.
. Don't lie and believe everyone else isn't lying. Remember it's for fun. Only do it twice. Don't complain about the game.

First off, welcome to the forum.

Now then, too many rules? Maybe you'd like to see the 3 pages of rules the league I play in has! there's a whole section on tilts vs slam tilts. Let me break it down for you. We have no way of running a tournament like FarSight does, as we can't set up within the game an actual tournament. So right off the bat, we are asking people to play on the honor system. All we are asking this time around is for people to only play each table twice, not to grind for a score. That version of a tournament is readily available from FarSight, so why would we do our own?

This is also our first attempt at this. There are going to be kinks that need working out. How 'bout giving it a chance? You wanna know why it starts at 10am PST? Because that's my time zone and I'm running this thing. You'll notice I also put it as -8 GMT. I'm more than well aware this game is global, but I can't possibly know everyone else's time zone. You know who else posts times like that? FarSight when they run a tourney. And guess what time zone they are in? I'm not a computer program running this, so like it or not, things are going to run when they are convenient for me.

News flash, registration and score posting are NOT going to be done via a thread on this forum. Why? Because some players aren't members of this forum. I've been advertising this on the @BlahCade Twitter account too. Where you are getting "a different thread to ask someone to post the word of the day and prove their score, it's a different thread to point out that anyone on a pc could cheat and still prove their score" I don't know. I'm not saying this isn't going to be a bit messy, but if you have a different solution, speak up.

Or maybe this tourney isn't for you? I don't know. If you don't like the way I'm trying to run it, don't play. If you have a problem with being asked to only play a certain number of times, within a 12 hour window, and to be honest, well I don't know what to tell you. I hope you do give it a chance and play. I hope you see I'm trying to make this as fare as possible for everyone. All I ask is you recognize the limitations we are up against running something over the internet as opposed to in person or even via Twitch.

 

[Heretic]

im ginna cheat like a mofo just sayin!

seriousky tho as hollywood said this is for fun and for honest non cheaters.

ill happily bring uo the bottom third of scores

unkess bh saves me

i hope all the regukars are their so i can trash talk you all

this is a no oressure thing thing please enjoy

 

[Crepello55012]

I'll play it, my first post on this forum was in support of your idea. I think I'll have time just about in a dinner hour.

 

[shutyertrap]

^^^ What he said.

 

[mpad]

How do the tournaments work on the other platforms?
I too am stuck on the PC without tournament, but would definitely be nice to have some from time to time (zone).

 

[shutyertrap]

How do the tournaments work on the other platforms?
I too am stuck on the PC without tournament, but would definitely be nice to have some from time to time (zone).

You mean FarSight's tourneys?

They give you a week to play 8 tables as many times as you wish. Top scorer scores 100 points, 2nd 90, 3rd 85. Everyone else's points vary from that point, depending on how many are actually recording scores. You wind up with things like 65.2 and bumping up to 67 points requiring you to best your own score by quite a lot. It's a slog fest. The top 5 people overall always seem miles ahead of anyone else, which really kills the fun.

Then FarSight put in 20 minute time limits on tables, which helped stop the crazy high scores for people who could spend hours on one play through. Still, there are those that know the tricks to getting quick scores, and they still had a week to grind for it.

One other thing FarSight tourneys do is separate everyone into three tiers; gold, silver, bronze. This was based initially off the first tournament, top 25 going gold, top 100(?) going silver, everyone else being put into bronze. Thereafter, bottom 10% of gold would fall back into silver while top 10% of silver would join gold. I don't know what it was for bronze. My own personal experience, I got into gold on the PS3 first time. Playing against only 25 other people was great, except I quickly realized I was never gonna vie for the top spots. Instead it became all about not losing my position in gold. I played 3 or 4 more tournaments before I just didn't find that fun at all. By proxy, I heard of how fierce it was in bronze and silver to move into the next tiers. The top scores in silver were often much higher than those posted in gold.

I had fun with the first few tournaments, and if they finally come to PC, I'll probably do a couple. It is nice having the game keep everyone in line with the rules of play.

My reasoning for how the BlahCade Tournament of the Month is being set up is to encourage maximum fun. Point totals will never feel completely out of reach, especially when you are essentially only competing with 3 other people in your heat. I like the idea of winning small, because it promotes more winners, which keeps everyone feeling good. You may not have won that table outright, but you still scored as many points as the person that did. If you tie with that person across all the tables, well they will be the overall victor for their higher tables scores. But they don't seem out of reach, do they? Better yet, with only 2 plays per table, they might completely bork their turns, and suddenly you can leap over them. It's my favorite thing when I play in my monthly league. My league actually goes one step further...

Our top ten players are assigned an 'A' categorization with everyone else being 'B'. If you beat an 'A' player, you get an extra point. Just last month there was a guy that had a terrible game and came in 4th in our heat, so the other 3 of us all scored an extra point. That's what keeps you coming back. Actually no, it's the pinball but still. In the grand scheme of the season, I have no prayer of catching up or even making the top 10. But it sure felt real good to know I was able to topple a guy once.

So this is why I keep saying, have fun, don't get crazy competitive, be honest. There is plenty of victory to go around!

 

[superdan]

Always learning from u shutyertrap. I'm in and won't cheat because of three reasons: 1. I don't have time to cheat and 2. My scores will surely prove I'm not cheating lol and 3. I pinkie swear odds of somebody not following the rules? I give it 99.99%...but not me. Perhaps this can be a start of more organized and enforceable tourneys in the future? Be fun at any rate. Awesome stuff mate!
~Dan

 

[shutyertrap]

Here's the sign up sheet...

http://goo.gl/forms/zl0GRrL8w9

See you all Saturday!

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Just to point out that I use my email address to login to PinballArcade.com and in TPA itself; maybe make it clearer you want the screen name since that's what is shown on the leaderboards.

 

[Heretic]

just your user name here and the one thats on farsights leadboards man

unless its a really celver plan to sell your email adresses to the highest bidder

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

I'm going to make a Google form that quite transparently asks people for their email addresses so I can turn around and sell them.

Plus a few other choice bits of personal info.

Just as an experiment, you understand - I wouldn't really do it. Unless I got like 10,000+ responses, then I might be tempted....

 

[shutyertrap]

Just to point out that I use my email address to login to PinballArcade.com and in TPA itself; maybe make it clearer you want the screen name since that's what is shown on the leaderboards.

Thank you. Changed it to ask for your screen name. These are the kind of kinks we need help working out!

 

[Locksley]

Hmm, reading through the posts I am hoping that maybe there maybe will be some incentive to Fairsight to program a Tournament for Pinballarcadefans.
I have not checked if the "tournament setting" works in the Pro-menu but that would be great to be able to use that, even for those who don't own Pro.
What I am saying is that I wish there could be a controlled tournament such as Farsight puts up for some platforms.

Anywho... The "play only 2 times" should be enforced in all tournaments! Farsight should really code a new Tournament environment. Grinding has no place in competition, that is what practice is.

Enough dreaming. Looking forward to the tournie

 

[jaredmorgs]

Hmm, reading through the posts I am hoping that maybe there maybe will be some incentive to Fairsight to program a Tournament for Pinballarcadefans.
I have not checked if the "tournament setting" works in the Pro-menu but that would be great to be able to use that, even for those who don't own Pro.
What I am saying is that I wish there could be a controlled tournament such as Farsight puts up for some platforms.

Anywho... The "play only 2 times" should be enforced in all tournaments! Farsight should really code a new Tournament environment. Grinding has no place in competition, that is what practice is.

Enough dreaming. Looking forward to the tournie

+1

Perhaps if this format is successful, FarSight might look into it.

Adapt Challenge Mode and code the Tournament to give you 10 credits across 5 tables. How you use the credits is up to you...

 

[shutyertrap]

Don't forget to sign up for the tourney. You have a little less than 11 hours to do so.