The Annals of Castle Black
The Annals of Castle Black is a repository for AGOT tournament information dating back to FAQ 4.2. Inspired by 2C1C's regional data collection and L1b3rtine's attempts to get a google spreadsheet to faciliate the process in 2013, I launched this project in early 2014. In its inaugural 'season', ~1700 data points across 85 tournaments were gathered.
As a user, the Annals allows you to browse current and historical data for tournaments throughout the world, as well as meta-data for individual FAQ 'seasons'. These data can be very useful for analyzing the meta-game – player choices of decks and decktypes. However, the data are only useful if they continue to be robust. This is entirely dependent on continued community participation in submitting tournament data.
Where is it:
The current version (FAQ 5.4) can be found here.
The next version (FAQ 5.5) can be found here.
Archived Versions can be found below:
FAQ 5.3.1 (October 2014-February 2015)
FAQ 5.2 (August 2014-October 2014)
FAQ 5.0-5.01 (April 2014-August 2014)
FAQ 4.2 (Nov 2013-April 2014) / An article restrospective / Podcast explaining the Annals
Instructions:
For all events you attend, check to see if someone's already started a spreadsheet. If so, edit that sheet, if not:
1) Pick a blank "Input X" sheet, or duplicate an existing sheet (right-click the tab on the bottom, select 'duplicate')
2) Fill in the sheet, starting with section 1 (top left, yellow box), then 2, then 3. If you have any doubts, check out the FAQ below
3) [Optional] Rename the sheet (double click on the tab at the bottom) to "Name Day Month", e.g. Montreal 7th April
If you are a tournament organizer, filling in the standings after the swiss rounds will allow the spreadsheet to sort out your pairings automatically, something existing tournament software like Tourney Magistrate doesn't do.
While using player names can be useful to serve as a frame of reference and help other players fill in their information, refrain from using full last names. After a while a sheet will become "locked" to prevent further edits, and player names will be removed. If you need to edit a locked sheet, submit a request to me (see contact info in faq).
What's New in 5.3.1?
- Updated for new Restricted List and typos (Game of Cyvasse)
- Removed the non-functional "Winners" sheet.
FAQ:
1. Entering Data
- I only know the top cut, but not the standings of swiss ranked players - what do I do?
The rankings of swiss players outside the cut won't be used in any of the data collection; just list all the other house/agenda/restricted in any order you like.
- I don't know the House/Agenda/Restricted for a player - what do I do?
Enter them as "unknown"
- My tournament was really small, should I bother adding it?
Yes
- If a deck was no agenda, included a chargenda but wasn't built around it - like a 1x Aeron Damphair, should I label it a chargenda or nochargenda deck?
There's not really a right answer to that - I realize it'll vary a lot from person to person and that a lot of tournaments won't collect chargenda statistics. My preference is to label it a chargenda deck when the chargenda is expected to surface and the deck is built around it; Kindly man decks are a typical example. A reasonable threshold would be if the chargenda is included at least as a 2x.
- What if we didn't use the same pairings in our cut as your sheet suggests?
You can overwrite the existing pairings by writing in your own (1 Wins vs 2, for instance).
- What about Melee, and/or other alternate formats?
The data collection for those is more complex, and (in many cases) generates less meaningful statistics for the community at large, and aren't supported by this sheet.
- Our cardpool differs from the typical tournament one (either missing CPs, localization efforts, self-imposed restrictions)
That's not really a question! Still, just make a note of it in the "Most recent CP" dropdown menu in field one; you can write as much as you like to describe your cardpool in that field.
2. Using Entered data:
- The metadata sheet/house-specific sheets haven't updated to take into account the tournament I just entered!
Unfortunately, the script that pulls data from new tourney data only runs a few times a day.
- There's a feature I'd like to see, how do I get it incorporated?
Contact me directly here on the boards, or email me here.
- What if I want to use the data you've collected?
Go ahead; the data is for the use of the community. If you specifically need access to the spreadsheets as an editor, contact me directly either here on the boards, or by email here.
Wishlist: ​
Add "Regional" tags so metadata can easily be separated by region (eg, "Europe, Asia, Australia, North America")
Group sheets by local tournaments, so you can get metadata for one meta over time
Find a way to clean up the otherwise clunky collumns AZ to CB, which are used for the house specific sheets.
Bug Fixes: