Introduction

I wanted to put out some guidance and explain my reasoning behind the event long gaming competitions because there are some changes from last year and I’m bringing back a bracket tournament to the gaming space.

If you haven’t already be sure to review the Rites of Combat which will govern all gaming competitions during the GJW.

Event Long Cluster Race

The Event Long Cluster Race Series will operate similarly to how the cluster races functioned last year with a few twists. Just like last year there is no cross-clan requirement so you can submit games from only one clan IF you followed the procedures for creating and announcing gaming parties in #gaming-matchmaking. When creating parties on Discord you must specify the game you are playing; do not create parties that list more than one game. Decide what you are playing then create the party. I will be verifying cluster submissions against the discord logs to ensure that the rules are being followed so the name of the group in #gaming-matchmaking must be clear and list only one game. No “SWTOR, Battlefront or Overwatch” type party names. If I see them I will give you a warning, close the party and ask you to re-make the party with the actual game you are playing. To prevent confusion on my part and the part of people who might want to join be clear about what game you are playing. You can ask in matchmaking or gaming chat if people are interested in X,Y or Z game but when you make a party just pick one.

There are two big changes from last year. First, the competition is broken up into weekly sub-competitions (only no cluster race during the rest week). It’s still one competition for bin participation and novae purposes just that placement in that competition comes from placing in weekly cluster races. The scoring on the cluster race container comp is set up grand prix style so placement in the sub-competitions will net you a certain amount of points. A valid gaming submission to any of the weekly cluster race sub-comps will get you participation in the container (and the event gaming bin). As a former wartime Consul I get the importance of participation tracking so I will try to update the container comp with participation as gaming submissions come in.

Still with me? The second change this year is the implementation of a platform cluster cap to the cluster race comps. Each weekly comp will have a cap of 210 clusters per platform (which breaks down to 30 clusters per day per platform). Every supported game counts as a platform and all of casual queue counts as a platform. For example, if a member submits 200 clusters worth of Battlefront and 200 clusters worth of SWTOR to a competition they would get 400 points in the competition. If another member submits 400 clusters worth of Squadrons to a competition they would get 210 points.

Something I noticed with last year’s event-long cluster races is that a handful of people ran away with it very quickly playing one or two platforms. The intent with the changes I’m trying this year to keep things competitive throughout by breaking the cluster races into weeks and making it so that if you want to win you have to play a variety of games. All of casual queue counting as one platform regardless of what games you submit to it is the result of a technical limitation. Because submitters input what casual queue game they are playing into a textbox and thus might use various names and shorthands to refer to the same game there wasn’t an easy way to apply a per-game cap to those on the backend. James is already amazing for implementing my crazy cap idea. I’m okay with the casual queue limitation as is because ultimately it will encourage people to try to get their games supported for future events. Cluster race caps are a site feature available to all competition organizers going forward.

Event Long Pazaak Tournament

Alright, the tournament has been seeded and the Pazaak tournament is officially underway. I will try to get the competition bracket on the DB site updated by the official standings can be viewed at https://challonge.com/GJW16.svg.

The tournament will be played on the https://pazaak.parsely.io/ website.

Rules to be aware of:

• Games must be played using the "Basic" card rules. Any cards in the basic set are allowed, including +/- cards.

• Tournament matches will be coordinated in the #gaming-matchmaking channel on Discord. Participants will be expected to create a GJW-Pazaak-Member1-Member2 room when they play their match for record-keeping purposes.

• Tournament participants will be expected to coordinate with their opponents and complete their matches in a timely fashion. The tournament organizer will send a match warning 24 hours prior to the match window closing; any player that does not show up ready to play in the tournament organizer-created discord party at or before the appointed time will forfeit their match. Basically, if I have to send you a match warning I'll give you a time to show up on discord one hour prior to the window closing and I will create the room for you. If you do not show up you will get a loss and possibly not receive credit for the competition if you did not complete a match. If one player shows up at the warning time and the other does not then they advance as normal in the tournament.

• Tournament participants must report the results of their matches to the match organizer promptly after completion via email.

• Tournament participants must complete at least one match to receive participation credit for the tournament competition.

• For the purposes of this tournament a match will be "best of five" games of Pazaak. Do not confuse a hand of pazaak with a game of pazaak. A completed game of pazaak will show "You Have Been Defeated" or "You are Victorious".

• Tournament matches may be submitted to the Casual Gaming Queue for clusters but not to any GJW cluster race competitions as that would constitute double-dipping. Discord logs will be cross-checked. Practice matches outside of the tournament may be submitted to casual queue and any GJW cluster race competitions in accordance with the Rites of Combat and rules of those competitions.

If you have questions about the tournament please contact me.

SWTOR Conquest Marathon

The SWTOR Conquest Marathon is a variation on a type of competition that has been ran in the past. Basically, instead of you submitting your highest weekly conquest score you are submitting your highest conquest scores from the relevant conquest weeks. There’s a reason I called this competition a marathon because it’s a marathon not a sprint.

Only conquest screenshots from the following weeks will be accepted for this competition:

• 8/29-9/5
• 9/5-9/12
• 9/12-9/19
• 9/19-9/26

Conquest screenshots from any of the weeks is valid for participation. If you have any questions about the SWTOR comp or any issues combining your screenshots please contact me, preferably with plenty of time before the competition closes.

Closing

I took some risks with these changes and I know that not everyone will like them. I tried to explain my reasoning in this update as best I could. Please write down any feedback you have and submit it to the post-war survey when it comes along. I can assure you that we read those surveys and that will help us improve future events.

The intent of all of these changes and bringing a tournament back is to inject some fun and competition into the event-long gaming. Above all else remember to have fun! None of these competitions should be painful or feel like work.

Good luck and have fun,

Rajhin Cindertail aka Turel

Fist of the Brotherhood