A new FFA format proposal

[Seksi]

Hi, first off I'd like to say that the current system(s) in place are very good.  I like them very much, this is merely a new format idea borrowing some of the current aspects in FML and combining them with some pieces of successful sports models as well as my own tournament logic.  I tried to be as concise and clear possible, albeit lengthy.   

- The current scoring system would be used (+25/+10/+10/+5).  Any change within the point distribution (like the upcoming +4 for top score) would be also be upheld. 

- 6 game regular season.  The regular season would work in the same swiss-style format, however the first round would be completely randomized and not seeded whatsoever.  I believe this will promote the most fair and equal opportunity for all.  One of the benefits that a 6 game season provides is that even if 2 or 3 of the best players end up randomly matched against one another in round 1, there are plenty of rounds to gain back ground in the standings.  The swiss-style format plays into this.

- After 6 games, the seeding and spread in the standings should be mostly accurate based on ability.  A larger sample size of games should best reflect this.  Of course some may have better performances and achieve greater then expected (and vise versa), but that is true in any tournament and adds to the competitive excitement.  Some favorites go down, and some underdogs rise up. 

- 32 players would be accepted into the regular season.  At its completion, the top 16 (out of 32) players in the standings would then make the playoffs.  These players would be seeded accordingly (1-16).  In the FML, the top two finishers in the regular season recieve a bye in the playoff and thus an automatic bid into the Final.  By no means is there anything wrong with this system,  it works well and has been widely successful.  Rewarding the top 2 players in a season makes sense.  However, I believe that even the top seeds should have to win in the playoffs to make the Final, much like successful sports models. 

- The advantage of winning the regular season consists of two benefits.  First, is an easier path to the Championship, based on seeding.  Second is home court advantage.  A simple comparison is the NBA.  The Lakers being the #1 seed are rewarded by getting to play the bottom seed to begin their tournament.  They also have home court advantage.  Home court advantage in terms of wc3 would be the choice in map.

- With this logic, there would be 16 players vying for 4 spots in the Final.  Similar to the FML's current system, Semi-Final games would be played.  However, instead of 2 games using the (3-10) spots in the playoff, there would be 4 games using all players in contention (1-16). 

- The benefit to having more players in the playoff is evident.  First, it promotes greater competition between all of the top players.  If you look at the NBA model again, 8 teams in each conference make the playoff for a total of 16.  This allows room for nearly all of the skilled (playoff worthy) teams.  If less teams made the playoff, we would never see the upsets or young start-up teams get a chance to perform well at the highest level of competition. 

- In wc3 terms, players like Renaud or Eshan who are talented enough to compete, most likely would've gotten a shot.  In most other cases y.z and w8man would be in the top 16 also.  A counter argument to this is that if these players performed better, they would be in the top 10.  This is true, but still does not cover the fact that ultimately having all of the playoff-worthy players (or close to it) making the playoff ensures the highest level of competition.  I think it is safe to say that no one would dispute this.  Being in the top 16 is still an accomplishment, as only half of the field would make it.

- Another counter argument is that if so many players make the playoff, it does not give the highest seeded players much reward for finishing quite a bit above the bottom seeds.  This answer to this is that it does based on the seeding system and home court advantage explained below:

Top 16 players enter the playoffs, seeded as (1-16).  There would be 4 Semi-Final games to include each of these players.  The winner of each match (4 total) would then go on to play in the Grand Final.  The highest seeded player in each Semi-Final game would have the home court advantage (the choice in map out of the map pool).  This seeding would give more benefit to the higher seeds, as it should be.

Semi-Final Games:
Game 1: Seeds 1 vs 14 vs 15 vs 16
Game 2: Seeds 2 vs 11 vs 12 vs 13
Game 3: Seeds 3 vs 8 vs 9 vs 10
Game 4: Seeds 4 vs 5 vs 6 vs 7

Seeds 1-4 would get their choice in map, respectively.  This format should promote the fairest competition and placings based on seeding.  As in any competitive sport, the playoffs start a clean slate and a new season for everyone involved.  Anything can happen, however there are still distinct advantages to those who have the most successful regular seasons.

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- A second and seperate idea that is proposed could or could not be used in conjuction with the first.  This would be in addition to the 16 player playoff explained above.  It would add a secondary goal to the playoffs; a secondary championship.  The players that made the playoff but did not win their Semi-Final game would still have a shot at success, a shot at winning the secondary championship.

- Only the Grand Final would deem one a season champion.  This secondary goal would essentially be only for fun, but still uphold the competitve excellence that is apparent in the playoffs.  In a form of "double-elimination", players who lost their Semi-Final game would still have an opportunity to win the secondary championship, if for nothing else then respect or redemption. 

- The 12 remaining playoff contenders that do not make the Grand Final would be able to compete in a "BIG FFA Qualifier" hosted on Divide and Conquer w/ taverns. The top 4 finishers in this game would then go on to play in the secondary Final.  The winner of the qualifier would get to choose the map for the secondary Final.  Map choices for this final would be limited to the 'top 3' (Marketsquare, Twilight Ruins, or Silverpine Forest). 

- If nothing else, this addition would ensure 2 more great FFA games for the community.  All 16 players that would make the playoffs would be respected players, maybe even top players that had unfortunate results in the Semis.  A "BIG FFA" with all of the remaining playoff contenders would be simply awesome, and a secondary final with the top 4 finishers from the "BIG FFA" would also be high level. 

- "Playing for 4th" instead of playing for the win in a "BIG FFA" is much less effective in comparison to a 4 player FFA, playing for 2nd.  Reason being is that with so many players, if you finish in the top 4 undoubtably you played well and either took out some opponents or survived many.  In nearly all cases, if you finished in the top 4 of this game, you rightfully deserved it.  In any case, the secondary Final that would come out of this would be nearly as skilled as the Grand Final.

- A problem arises of course with this idea in scheduling such a large FFA while attempting to accomidate everyone's needs.  My solution to this is simple.  There would be a 2 week period (same as other games) to schedule, and the time that allows the majority of players to attend would be used, most likely a Sunday.  Regardless, it is likely that some players may not be able to attend.  For them, oh well. The true prize in the tournament is to play in-and-win the Grand Final, and for these players that chance has come and gone anyway.  This idea merely provides a secondary goal to keep players interested and competition at its highest.

- If all 12 players cannot make the "BIG FFA", the game will go on with however many that can attend.  DnC w/ taverns is a great map, and arguably even better with 8 or 9 players to free up some gold mines.  The top 4 would move on to the secondary Final and provide another potentially epic game. 

- Time-wise, the playoffs would only be extended 2 weeks for the secondary Final to be played. 

Love the ideas? Hate the ideas? Have some of your own? Please comment in support, question, or argument and share your thoughts!  A lot of thinking and tinkering went into this to solidify a reasonable collection of ideas.  Thank you for taking the time to read.

[FML|Renaud]

I'm scared the the 16 player playoff, because
1) having the top player on his favorite vs the 3 lowest is almost asking for him to be teamed.
2) i like having the top two auto making the finals, because anything can happen in ffa.  Everyone has a game where he screwed up, or where they are surround, or they happened to be rushed.  What if that game happens to be the semi final? 
3) it gives even more reason for the top players to actively aim for the top spot.

On the good side, using that system would mean the two finalist don't have to wait during the semi finals

In my (humble) opinion, if we do 16 player playoff, then
1) the number of round should be 5 instead of 6
2) the game should be slightly more balanced.  Because i would much rather be in 13-16th place than in 5-7th place (and also to avoid mass teaming)

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The second finals for the losers sound nice in theory, but like you said, getting 12 player at once would be hellish, and considering how the game might be long, i'm guessing most player wouldn't be able to play the other ffa right after and we would have to schedule it for another day? :S  But it could be worth a try

[Ugrilainen]

Just read idea 1. There are pro and coins. I like the 4 semis format but yes then we need less round 4 or 5 imo.

Also seeds should be

1-8-12-16
2-7-11-15
3-6-10-14
4-5-9-13

Because in your system it's better to be 11th than 7th and as renaud, I fear teaming issues.

[y.zenchenko]

admins.  can we use new maps for new season?  some from here - http://www.ffareplays.com/maps   

[FML|Renaud]

any suggestion?  I played some of them, and that market one for example was crazy, we would have needed to team the creep

[Seksi]

I'm glad you guys like the 4 semis idea.  As far as seeding, Ugri's idea of seeds would work well.

I don't neccesarily agree with you guys that it would be better to be the 11th rather then the 7th seed however.  I'd prefer to have more good players (4/5/6/7) in my game rather then 1 elite player and 3 lesser players.  Without other top players, it is tough to go any route other then focus on the top player from the start.  I'd like my chances moreso as the 7 seed rather then the 11th.  See my game vs Daselend round 1.  But there is still a point there, if not we could go with Ugri's seeding with the format I explained. 

As far as anything can happen in FFA, I agree.  That is the fun of it though.  Players should have to win in the playoffs, cuz that's where it counts.  The regular season is just that in all sports, its preperation for the final tounament (playoffs).  The Final is only 1 game and someone could get screwed in that too.

The incentive to finish in the top 4 spots in the regular season would still be there, for one they get to pick the map, and more importantely they get to NOT be matched up with the other top 3 players. 

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haha well...  I was thinking that it would be another scheduled thing (2 weeks), not a game directly after.  With this concept it could work for sure even if all the remaining playoff players could not make the BIG FFA.

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Also, 5 rounds sounds good as well.  But why would a 16 player playoff be better with less rounds? I'm not sure the reasoning for this 1

[Seksi]

Yeah, this sounds like a good improvement

1-8-12-16
2-7-11-15
3-6-10-14
4-5-9-13

Keep in mind however even the 15 and 16 seeds will be good players.  It's not like it would be 3 noobs who have to team seed 1 in the 1/14/15/16 format.  14/15/16 this season would oe been like Sparkle/Renaud/w8man for example

[Ugrilainen]

if half of the players go into the playoffs, there are no more need to do a longer season to get the best of them

[Seksi]

There would be no disadvantage of a longer season either though, although not needed as you say.  Makes sense.

I like the idea of a 5 game season then, with the 16 player playoff format I explained, with an improvement to the seeding that you contributed.

thoughts?

p.s. the secondary championship could still def work what do you all think of that?  It would be for fun and add only 2 more games to the season.  We would get a couple great games if nothing else.

[FML|WorpeX]

I'm not really too big of a fan of the 16 player playoff idea. Thats just far too many players. Truth is, after 5 weeks of playing FFA the amount of people who continue to be active from the original 32 quickly falls to a much smaller number of 20-25. At that point, you might as well just have everyone in the play-offs. Almost no reason to have the regular season in the first place. Sadly, its completely unavoidable to have a season where all 32 players remain active the entire time.

For example, in this season we've lost/replaced almost 10 people. Granted, this is a larger group, but even if we only lose 5 people in a 32 player tournament... thats only 11 players not getting into the playoffs who are still active and want to be in. Completely loses any prestige that it had in the past if more than half made it.

[y.zenchenko]

2Renuad.      see these maps  http://www.mediafire.com/?o0mmamt2exj0e6v