Introduction

Greetings Dark Jedi Brotherhood!

I received a lot of feedback on the state of PvP within the Dark Jedi Brotherhood between the recently completed Great Jedi War and the Pro Bowl events. After working with Mav, Evant and Bubba, I believe we have come up with some adjustments that will allow members to schedule PvP activity with a little more control but not turn our PvP system into one where people only play members of their distinct choosing.

Additionally, we have support for the new Heroes of the Storm All Random All Mid (ARAM) mode.

PvP Announcements in DB Gaming

We are ending the prohibition on announcing PvP queuing (or the intent to queue at a later time) in DB gaming only.

Here are a two examples on what is now allowed in DB Gaming:

1. I’m queued up for JA, anyone want to play a few rounds?

2. Looking for some Hearthstone matches at 7p EST if anyone is interested.

A member may also add if they are looking for PvP activity tied to a specific competition (ex: a clan level competition).

It is important to note that these announcements do not replace Fister Roboto and should only serve as additional advertisement that you are looking for 1v1 activity. Any matchup must still go through the bot to be valid. The intention of this change is to increase the chances of finding general 1v1 PvP activity not to replace current means of matchmaking and reporting.

Any coordination through DB Gaming does not mean that another member who has not responded is prohibited from also queuing in at that time. If two members agree publicly in DB Gaming to queue in for a match at a specific time it is completely valid for a third person to be queued in at or before that time. The bot always takes precedence over any chat activity. Nothing done in chat supersedes the bot.

Additionally, this change does not mean that members may use other communication channels to coordinate PvP activity. The Fist staff will still be on the lookout for activity that may have been arranged outside of Fister Roboto and/or DB Gaming.

As with everything, I look forward to all feedback on this change and will continue to monitor the 1v1 PvP state of affairs.

Rites of Combat Changes

In order to allow for 1v1 PvP announcements in DB Gaming a few updates had to be made to the Rites of Combat.

Section 2.2(d): Members are permitted to announce their intention to queue for 1v1 PvP or that they are currently queued for 1v1 PvP but only in the DB Gaming channel. Matches cannot be set up in any other chats or by PM.

Section 5.3(c). 1v1 PvP queue announcements are only allowed in the DB Gaming Channel.

JA Ladder Test

The tournaments that are run during a Great Jedi War tend to be very popular. While I do believe that some of that is due to hitting participation requirements I have also received feedback that members like being able to schedule PvP activity. The catch is that these tournaments are very labor intensive to run, especially if they are intended to be completed within a restricted time frame.

I want to try a format that can give us the benefit of more structured PvP activities without the stressed timescale of a Bracket style tournament. I am going to refer to this format as a “pyramid tournament”. The image below is an example of the structure that this format takes.

To seed the pyramid above, we will use the final rankings from the GJW XIV JA bracket which will then determine which tier each member falls into. Once seeding is complete and the tournament is live a member may directly challenge anyone ranked higher than them in their own tier or anyone the tier above their current tier. The only exception to this is the top seed, who does have the ability to challenge either of the Tier 2 seeds.

Ex: I am Rank 12 which puts me in Tier 4. I can challenge anyone above me in Tier 4 (Ranks 8-11) and also anyone in Tier 3 (Ranks 4-7).

Unranked individuals enter into the tournament at any time but they can only challenge someone in Tier 5. If an unranked member defeats a ranked member they swap places just as two ranked members would.

Ex: I am unranked, I challenge the Rank 19 member and win. I become the new Rank 19 member and the member I challenged becomes unranked.

From the moment that a challenge is made there will be a one week deadline to schedule and two weeks deadline to play said match. The burden of response falls on the person receiving the challenge. If the challenged member does not respond or stonewalls, the match is considered forfeit and the challenger swaps places with them. Additionally, there can only be one pending challenge per member. Neither member involved in a challenge will be eligible for another match until the current challenge has been resolved. The Fist will arbitrate disputes as is done with bracket tournaments.

I am going to run this initial tournament for three months. At the end, crescents will be given out to the top three members on the pyramid that have also played at least one set of matches. This means that the top seeds can not just sit in their spots and get free awards. Nobody on the pyramid will receive participation credit or a crescent without playing at least one set of matches. Forfeited matches do not count for participation or placement credit for either member.

Ex: Ranks 1, 2 and 3 do not play a single match. Ranks 4, 5 and 6 have played multiple matches. Ranks 4, 5 and 6 earn the top three crescents.

Once the competition on the site reaches its end, it would be closed on the site and a new one created based on the final seeding of the completed tournement. Since this is a test I will not be including it in the GMRG calculations but if successful it is something I will consider for future tournaments.

I am going to begin setting this initial test up but I want to also hear feedback from our gamers on this concept before it goes live. Look for the official test pyramid tournament to be live by the end of the month.

Heroes of the Storm - All Random All Mid (ARAM)

ARAM is an acronym for "All Random All Mid".

The ARAM match style has initially been seen in DotA and has since spread to MOBAs such as HotS. The play style encourages constant skirmishes by funneling players into one area and trimming the fat, so to speak, from other activities. It also adds an element of unpredictability via the “random” hero choices. Each player is given three random heroes to pick from and it does not restrict that selection from offering duplicates on a team.

To this point with Heroes of the Storm, players have had the option of running ARAM custom matches or playing them in the weekly brawl. Blizzard has seen that players have been enjoying this mode and have now created a permanent queue for ARAM mode that rotates between their different one-lane maps. This is a PvO mode, there is not a PvE version of this queue.

I have run a good set of these matches since the new ARAM queue became available and the match length has varied widely. This mode seems to be more prone to complete blowouts than Quick Match as players may be playing a hero they are less familiar with due to the nature of being restricted to three random choices. With that being the case, and taking the general match length average, I have set this new mode with a base rate of 3 Clusters of Fire.

Competition Spotlight

Want to see your name here? All you have to do is host a club-wide gaming competition.

September 2020 GMRG Competitions hosted by the Fist office.

Helpful links

[DB Gaming on Telegram - Log in to view join link] on Telegram. Come be part of the discussion in the one and only official gaming channel of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood!

Send us an email at [Log in to view e-mail addresses].

Regards,