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FFG Organized Play - Time For More?
Posted by
darknoj
,
25 February 2013
·
1,237 views
Game of thrones AGoT Darknoj Blog LCG
So every time I look at FFG's organized play I think to myself that it can be better, so much better. I asked my self if I was the new lead of organized play for AGoT what would I do? Well the below streamed out of me and I though I would share. It is most likely not the best idea or even a good one but I believe it would be better then what we have right now. What do you think? What would you change or add?
If you think FFG needs to do something at least give this blog a like so that we can have an idea of the competitive player base out their that wants change, that wants a better supported organized play environment.
Nationals and Worlds: Bothwould be invitation only events. Players must be of a minimum rank or have won a regional event to participate. The requirements for Worlds will be higher then that of nationals. All tournament points pools will be multiplied by four at a national or world events. (see below for more details on specific calculations)
Regionals: will now change to be a single event during regional season in each region. A region is designated as a state or province. Since there is only a single event in each region preference will be given to those stores who have held the most sanctioned tournaments in their region that year. All tournament points pools will be multiplied by 2 at regional events. (see below for more details on specific calculations)
Sanctioned Tournaments: Any store or individual can hold a registered AGoT tournament by simply buying a tournament kit. Only events where someone has purchased a tournament kit would be considered a sanctioned event and only in sanctioned events can players earn points. Tournament Kits would contain a unique ID used to stop people from using the same kit more then once.
Tournament Kit: For the cost of $X, lets say $80 for now, you get 1 of 7 unique tournament kits (one for each house) which contains 1 Full-color A Game of Thrones: The Card Game playmate, 2 Sets of Custom Power tokens and the opportunity for players to win and then use player points in FFG's new player point auction house. Note: Used player point will continue to effect a players overall rank.
New Organized Play Web Site: Their will be several new sections to the current site:
Number of Swiss rounds; 9-16 Players: 4 Swiss Rounds, cut to Top 4 Single-Elimination, 17-32 Players: 5 Swiss Rounds, cut to top 8 Single-Elimination and 33+ Players: 6 Swiss Rounds, cut to top 16 Single-Elimination
Tournament point pool calculations: Each player in a tournament has a point value calculated as 2 + (rank of player) x 2. The over all points available to be won in any given tournament is equal to the point total of every participating player add together.
Tournament Point Payout Structure
Players........1 to 16........17 to 32......33+
1st................50%.............40%............29%
2nd...............30%.............20%............15%
3rd & 4th......10%.............10%.............10%
5th to 8th......0%...............5%...............5%
9th to 16th.....0%..............0%...............2%
Ranking: Each player has a ranking starting at zero which increases based on the total points they have earned to date as follows:
Points - Rank ; 1-1, 3-2, 6-3, 10-4, 15-5, 21-6.......61-11, 72-12, 84-13, 97-14, 111-15...ect...
Players rank consists of all points earned in the last two years. Spending points won at the auction house does not effect a players rank. Players ranks will only diminish (they will grow through out the year) at the beginning of a tournament season. For example; Player X plays in Season one where she accumulates 28 points giving her a rank of 7. Next seasons she retains a rank of 7 when she signs up for her first sanctioned tournament event. By the end of that year the player now has accumulated another 50 points giving her a total of 78 points or a rank of 12. However at the beginning of the next season her total points to earned is reduced by the 28 points, the ones she earned in season 1. Her player profile would therefor only have 50 earned points associated with it giving her a rank of 9 at the beginning of the new season.
If you think FFG needs to do something at least give this blog a like so that we can have an idea of the competitive player base out their that wants change, that wants a better supported organized play environment.
Nationals and Worlds: Bothwould be invitation only events. Players must be of a minimum rank or have won a regional event to participate. The requirements for Worlds will be higher then that of nationals. All tournament points pools will be multiplied by four at a national or world events. (see below for more details on specific calculations)
Regionals: will now change to be a single event during regional season in each region. A region is designated as a state or province. Since there is only a single event in each region preference will be given to those stores who have held the most sanctioned tournaments in their region that year. All tournament points pools will be multiplied by 2 at regional events. (see below for more details on specific calculations)
Sanctioned Tournaments: Any store or individual can hold a registered AGoT tournament by simply buying a tournament kit. Only events where someone has purchased a tournament kit would be considered a sanctioned event and only in sanctioned events can players earn points. Tournament Kits would contain a unique ID used to stop people from using the same kit more then once.
Tournament Kit: For the cost of $X, lets say $80 for now, you get 1 of 7 unique tournament kits (one for each house) which contains 1 Full-color A Game of Thrones: The Card Game playmate, 2 Sets of Custom Power tokens and the opportunity for players to win and then use player points in FFG's new player point auction house. Note: Used player point will continue to effect a players overall rank.
New Organized Play Web Site: Their will be several new sections to the current site:
- Sign Up: Each player that wishes to become ranked must sign up online. They will be issued a unique Player ID which they will then include in the registration for any ranked tournament or regional event.
- Tournament Update Page: This is where tournament organizers report the standings after their tournament has been completed. Including the placement of each player and their players IDs if they have them.
- Ladder: The web site will have a listing of all ranked players by total points to date (updated monthly). Letting anyone see who is currently the best ranked player in the game as well as where they stand.
- Player Profiles: The web site would have profiles of each player who is ranked accessible through clicking their name on the ladder. Their profile would give a short bio, their total points and any regional, nation or world event they would have ever won since the site started.
- Player Point Auction house: This online auction allows players to bid on an assortment of items which appear online at the first of each month. Items range from free entry to major events like nationals or worlds, art prints, booster packs and costume card carrying cases all the way up to larger items such as lodging at the world tournament or the ability to become immortalized by designing a card for the game you love. Note: many items will have a minimum big associated with them.
Number of Swiss rounds; 9-16 Players: 4 Swiss Rounds, cut to Top 4 Single-Elimination, 17-32 Players: 5 Swiss Rounds, cut to top 8 Single-Elimination and 33+ Players: 6 Swiss Rounds, cut to top 16 Single-Elimination
Tournament point pool calculations: Each player in a tournament has a point value calculated as 2 + (rank of player) x 2. The over all points available to be won in any given tournament is equal to the point total of every participating player add together.
Tournament Point Payout Structure
Players........1 to 16........17 to 32......33+
1st................50%.............40%............29%
2nd...............30%.............20%............15%
3rd & 4th......10%.............10%.............10%
5th to 8th......0%...............5%...............5%
9th to 16th.....0%..............0%...............2%
Ranking: Each player has a ranking starting at zero which increases based on the total points they have earned to date as follows:
Points - Rank ; 1-1, 3-2, 6-3, 10-4, 15-5, 21-6.......61-11, 72-12, 84-13, 97-14, 111-15...ect...
Players rank consists of all points earned in the last two years. Spending points won at the auction house does not effect a players rank. Players ranks will only diminish (they will grow through out the year) at the beginning of a tournament season. For example; Player X plays in Season one where she accumulates 28 points giving her a rank of 7. Next seasons she retains a rank of 7 when she signs up for her first sanctioned tournament event. By the end of that year the player now has accumulated another 50 points giving her a total of 78 points or a rank of 12. However at the beginning of the next season her total points to earned is reduced by the 28 points, the ones she earned in season 1. Her player profile would therefor only have 50 earned points associated with it giving her a rank of 9 at the beginning of the new season.
One of the draws I feel that the LCGs have is that they are very casual friendly and are friendly to the casual tournament player also. When you start putting limits on who can participate in Worlds and Nationals I think you are removing a large part of the draw of the events. Additionally for those of us who don't have a large meta (or any meta at all) or those of us who don't have the time to attend regular tournaments (even if they existed), we would be effectively shut out of the events.
What they need to do is encourage more casual play and attempts to turn that into thriving tournament metas.
So that being said I think The tournament kits you suggest need to come down in price drastically. You want to encourage more tournaments, not less. At $80 only established metas will be able to justify the cost of a tournament. Most game stores aren't going to shell out that cash for each (non regional) tournament and small metas will be discouraged from playing. Kits like what you describe need to be as close to cost as possible. I could have something like what you describe produced for less than $20 (perhaps less if buying in bulk). At $20 a store could take a risk and perhaps even make a profit if enough people turned up and they had a fee to play. And this is close to what FFG has going on now, they just need to make it easier for the stores to get the kit by having a pre order system so they can estimate demand and produce enough whithout having lots of time during a season where a store can't get a kit because they are sold out.
I think your OP website is a good idea but I would take it in a slightly different direction. A ladder and tournament running/reporting software is great (and needed) but such a website would do better leveraging some game theory itself. I know alot of people don't care for them but achievements I think would be a great way to encourage participation. Give people small milestones to strive for in official tournaments or league play and you'll retain interest much longer and from a much wider audience than just putting emphasis on tournament performance only.
Have these achievements span tournament play, league play, and activities on the website. And collecting specific sets of them would then unlock various rewards both virtual and physical. From this base you can reward all your player types and encourage sales through new achievements tied to new cards/sets.