[Format discussion] 2v2 weekly showmatch - The Commanders of Calypso

Ok coming back to you with more details. I'll create a proper thread for people to register, with the lore and all rules later, this one is just a discussion thread for now.

General

• Weekly matches. Sundays, 3pm Paris time (should be playable for Aussies and West America ?).
• Champions need to win 3 times (so 3 BO3) in a row in order to enter the Pantheon of Calypso. As Challengers, beat the champions to take their place and try to ascend to the Pantheon !
• There will be two pools with different rating limits.

Format

• Normal weeks : 2 BO3 are played (one for the pro pool, and one for average joes)
  • 1st game is a 2v2
  • 2nd game is a shared army game (that could be fun, what do you think ? )
  • 3rd is a 2v2 on 10x10 mapgen with 1 vetos for each team
  Draws are counted as challenger wins. No faction ban.

• All maps are chosen by the challengers. No 5x5 or 40x40. They submit their choice to the TD at least one week before for validation. I haven't thought (yet) of many rules for what is a valid 2v2 map, except "no obvious cheat map". I really want it to be quite open. If the challengers want astro and dual gap, why not :))

• Rating limits : 4000 (highest ratings among the 3 at the time of register) for the Kings of Calypso and 2800 for the Admirals.

• Share until death or Full Share ? I personally like the idea of giants falling to a coordinated and prepared cheese snipe. Games would also be shorter with share until death (which is less work for the streamers ...), since one ACU death will often be game over. But i don't want people to just hide in their base in fear of snipes ... So i think full share is a more reasonable option for more quality of gameplay. And it can lead to interesting 2v1 games too.
  To be discussed more

Additional rules

• Managing player registrations : registration is always opened. First to register is first to play. If more than 4-5 teams are registered, the TD can choose to organize a special event where several teams will play (see below). This is to avoid much waiting for the next teams who want to register. Main idea : if you register for Calypso, you’re sure to play your game in the upcoming month. If there is more than a month of waiting, we organize a special brawl. This kind of event shouldn’t happen more than once a month/two month.

Special events : BO1
Specials events are sundays where many challengers can participate. Instead of the normal BO3, we have fast BO1, 2v2 with map selected by the challengers.

A win in this special event would count as half a win for the champions, since it's only BO1.

I plan to open the whole Calypso tournament with such an event, in order to select the first champions (if enough players register).

• Challengers can substitute another player (within the rating limit), but once the duo is champion they have to keep playing together !

• To accomodate players (champions would have to be there every week ..), champions can delay a match once. Games would then be played at another time and the replay will be casted instead of the live game. We want to avoid that if possible, and do as much live casting as possible, but we also want to avoid player no show that would end up in no live at all. The idea is : every sunday there is something to cast, no matter what.

• Once in the Pantheon, you can’t play anymore … But there will be showmatches between members of the Pantheon later !

Needs
Streamer/caster/TD every sunday.
That's a tricky part. For casting, it should represent 2-3 hours every week. I am currently not very familiar with casting stuff on twitch. I can comment the games and be the hype guy, but i would need an experienced FAF co-caster at least during the first month of this for technical purposes and commenting support.

The management of the registration, i can deal with, but having one or two people as back up in case of emergency would be great. This would be very necessary to maintain this event during a long time. I might be available this summer, but i'm not sure i can maintain this whole event for more than a month and a half. As i remember, the TDs in 2007 were just 2 or 3 people, and the calypso was active for a full year between september and july, with just small breaks on holidays. Not much manpower is needed, but 2-3 people seem the minimum to me

Of course, registration can be closed for a period of time so the tourney can take "a break" if not enough people are here to play or to organize it.

I might have missed some stuff, but i've been writting for an hour straight now and i need to go. Don't hesitate to comment on the format right below !

@Auricocorico I understand that you propose 2 games played at Sunday 3 pm Paris time?

Only the challenger team plays against the sitting team (king/admiral), other teams sit and wait for their weekend?

Exactly.

Wait, so what happens if the champions are on holiday/vacation one week? Do they lose out and are booted from calypsos?

I think draws are rare enough in 2v2 that this won’t be an issue, but on certain maps you will start to see this used often: eg astro crater which is more like a 5x5 rather a 10x10.

Other than that, this looks like a nice revival of 2v2 wwpc with a twist. Nice job, Aurico.

I'm Auriko not Autisco edit : ok you eddited ^^
Champions used to have the right for one "joker", delaying the next match for one week. But I don't like this, because it means no content for that sunday and delays matches for all the challengers. I'm offering an alternative to that : instead of delaying for one week, we would allow the teams to play another day that is more convenient to them, and cast the replay on Sunday as scheduled. That way there is content to cast every sunday.

You're right about draws, challengers could pick maps where you have intense acu fight and high risk of draw to abuse the rule. It would lead to very aggressive gameplay, and force champions to adapt, which i like. This draw rule is here to say "champions, you have to win, drawing isn't showing your strenght !"

@auricocorico that is a bit weak, you need a real solution.

Like perhaps resolving a draw as a score victory. If score miraculously draws then coinflip literally.

@auricocorico said in [Format discussion] 2v2 weekly showmatch - The Commanders of Calypso:

I'm Auriko not Autisco edit : ok you eddited ^^

Yeah sorry my phone auto correct picked a rather imposing nickname hahaha.

Champions used to have the right for one "joker", delaying the next match for one week. But I don't like this, because it means no content for that sunday and delays matches for all the challengers. I'm offering an alternative to that : instead of delaying for one week, we would allow the teams to play another day that is more convenient to them, and cast the replay on Sunday as scheduled. That way there is content to cast every sunday.

Hmm, well, fair. I know myself at least enjoy going on week-long or more vacations, although that is at most 2 times a year? I am certain others do as well so it might be tough to do this weekly. It is your call - of course - but do know that adhering to so many schedules gets to be impossible.

I guess we can find solutions on the fly as the situation arises. Ultimately it's the the responsability of the TD to discuss with the players to find the best solution. I'm thinking of potential solutions right now because it used to be recuring problem for the Calypso (remember it used to run for the whole year !), but truely, i'm sure we would find a way to accomodate everybody

@auricocorico said in [Format discussion] 2v2 weekly showmatch - The Commanders of Calypso:

I guess we can find solutions on the fly as the situation arises.

That is a bad idea, please don't settle who wins on the fly.

If people know the rules in advance then they will agree on the result and accept it. Otherwise both will think that they have won based on their appreciation of the situation and you will piss someone off.

I would totally do this-what do you guys consider average joes? around 1k rated on global?

Btw i'm on holidays, so i'll probably get back to this tourney idea in august/september.

The goal for the "average joes" bracket is to have people around 1000-1500 rating ladder or global

I will join some day as u said

The event will start soon ! Registration and rules on this thread.

Discuss about the format and ask questions on here.

Needs :

• I will need a backup caster for the first weeks. Someone with experience streaming on FAF Live and who can show me how it works (so i can cast on my own later in the year ...). It's on sunday, but it's only a few hours, likely between 1h30m and 3h.

• Addition to the newshub would be great

I hope it gets popular and if we can hold this event for many weeks, like in the old days of GPG and WWPC !

Based on the times proposed I can sadly not participate, I already informed Jip.

Maybe another time

@auricocorico said in [Format discussion] 2v2 weekly showmatch - The Commanders of Calypso:

Champions used to have the right for one "joker", delaying the next match for one week. But I don't like this, because it means no content for that sunday and delays matches for all the challengers. I'm offering an alternative to that : instead of delaying for one week, we would allow the teams to play another day that is more convenient to them, and cast the replay on Sunday as scheduled. That way there is content to cast every sunday.

I think this all sounds great but my main concern/criticism is since it is not a 1 day tournament and more of a weekly league/challenger competition that having a set time is bit too restrictive. One week a team might be able to play, but next week they won't be able to or only in the evening on Sunday.

My gut feeling would be better to give bit more flexibility and freedom for the teams who are organised to play that week(end) can organise a time that suits them and just cast the game at a set time each week? If Saturday night works better for both teams involved then why shouldnt they be allowed to do that and if no one can cast it then, you just cast it on the designated cast time of sunday afternoon.

Also you had it that the challangers were picking the maps not sure if that changed? but If you wanted a joker card to exist why not just give the champions a one time card that they can chose the map instead of challangers (single use per champion)?

Just an idea!

The challengers have a joker card so they can play 1-2 matches out of 5 on another day than sunday. That way you just have to be there 2 Sundays and a day of your choice to actually win and go to the Pantheon.

The fear I have is : casting a replay on faflive doesn't have the same touch, you can''t set bets, half of the viewers already know the outcome ... I don't want too many of replays, live is much better. If the rules are loose, will people actually play live on sunday, or will they just be "whatever i'll play whenever i want"

For now i think i'll just stick with this rule and see later if i need to change it.

A joker for the champions, why not, if we see it's too difficult to win 4 times in a row on maps you have chosen ^^

Right now i'm more concerned about people not registering and not discussing about it. I know there is another 2v2 tourney right now, so i expect people to pick some interest to mine after this is over .. but still.

Maybe i should move the first sunday to the 26th, so it's not right after the other 2v2 tournament.

I'd like some feeback : do people just register late, is the text too long and people don't read it, are the rules too complicated, or is it because sunday evening is not a good time ?

I assume there not being prize money also plays a role. And that it's weekly, so more of a commitment. But normally sign ups happen pretty late, so maybe it's just that.

In terms of prize, i'm thinking avatars

I'd only award prizes for champions who win 5 games and ascend to pantheon.
For avatar, i like the idea of giving old avas, since it's a revival of an old format.
(for pro league)
(for average league)
I just think those are so cool, because they were the coolest thing around back in gpg.


Old 2v2 WWPC ava would do otherwise

Regarding money, i'm a bit against money as a way to bait people into playing it. If they don't find the tourney fun, money isn't going to help. And if no money is involved, people are less likely to argue about rules.

hands off my wwpc avatar!!