Jensen wrote:Hi everyone,
To be clear, we are not changing the scoring system for the medal round. I don’t agree with changing rules mid tournament, and it would be inappropriate to make changes based on opinions of players who are still live in the tournament. Regardless of the scoring system employed, each option will favour or not favour different players from both a points / victory perspective as well as an enjoyment perspective. So it is not tenable for a tournament director to say “I agree with X, we’re changing to their suggestion” regardless of how logical or convincing their argument is.
That said, the discussions and opinions shared here are valuable because the main stakeholders in these tournaments are the players themselves. So of course this community should run tournaments that increase the participation and enjoyment of players and the best way to achieve that is to share our thoughts. But changes and improvements are for next time, not this time.
I do have some questions and commentary, based off the comments from Pootleflump, Tanjian and Conq.
Do others support the clean slate philosophy? Personally I think those who qualified in a higher position should gain an advantage in the final. It needs to be an advantage greater than mere power preference but limited in that 7th place can still win. Our current ODC rules fit this condition as even 7th place can win the tournament regardless of the qualifying points.
In the clean slate scenario, who wins in the case of a draw result? If 1 player has more SC’s, arguably them. But if that’s the rule, players would aim for an equal SC draw, in which case, how do you split them? Is it a tied victory or is it the higher ranked qualifier? If higher rank, the victory requirements are somewhat reduced to the current ODC situation. In order to win, players can only afford to draw with those ranked lower than them (unless SC count is sufficient different that you can leapfrog someone on Sum of Squares points).
Tanjian, we are effectively using the method you suggest for power preference with the exception that players can elect to drop down the ranking order if they want.
Conq, it’s effectively a blind Paris method since players must choose their selection order without seeing what those before them have chosen. In Super Pastis 2019 there was also the extra rule (and I don’t know if this is part of the Paris method or used in conjunction with it) that in the case of a tie, whoever picked later, wins. Personally I don’t like this rule because it does not necessarily follow that whoever had a more limited choice of power played the better game.
Cheers,
Jensen
I've never played in a tournament that did not make the winner of the top board or final board the champion of the tournament. In World Diplomacy Championships, the top board winner is always the world champion. In main tournaments such as Nexus and all past ODCs, the winner of the top board has always been the champion.
The problem with not doing it that way is that the final board becomes so much more about identity hunting and disadvantaging higher-ranked players. It can actually be a disadvantage to come into the final with more points. I understand this is how it played out when Playdiplomacy ran a Versailles tournament circa-2013 or 2014. The players who made the final with more points were all ruthlessly hunted down and eliminated, and it created dynamics that were unexpected and generally disliked.
I share your disdain for changing rules after a tournament has begun. Though, it seems like this rule hasn't received much consideration until now. Perhaps the right way to address it would be to change it if and only if all players agree.
As for breaking final board ties, there are effective ways to do that: (1) The Paris Method for power selection includes a tie breaker. (2) You could also use a system where, between two powers who tie, you look at the prior year's center count, and you keep going back a year until one had a higher center count than the other, and that power wins. (3) You could also use a system where a higher ranked player wins a tie.
