During the last public meeting on IRC's #marp channel, one of the topics was the regular MARP tournament. It seemed like there was a lot less interest in T5 than there had been in T4 and T3. It may have been coincidence or simply that the games were, generally speaking, less interesting than those in previous tournaments, but, nevertheless, it won't hurt to try and make the MARP tournaments more enjoyable.

The main issues raised during that public meeting were: (1) The tournament lasts too long. (2) Too many games. (3) Not enough time in between tournaments. (4) Interference with KoA.

I know that not everybody agrees with all these points, but I think that the attendants in general felt more or less that these were the most important issues.

Since there are going to be some KoA meetings on IRC next week, I should like to wait and see what comes out of those, so that we can make sure that regular MARP tournament decisions won't interfere with the KoA tournament.

So after those meetings, I should like to get people's opinions on frequency of MARP tournaments, number of games, etc., because it would be a shame if the interest in the tournaments kept dwindling. With everybody's input on these issues, and seeing how we have gained quite a few new MARPers recently, I have good hopes that T6, T7, T8, etc. will be successful.

Cheers, Ben Jos. (In his opening speech as MARP Tournament Coordinator.)

-- Ben Jos Walbeehm (walbeehm@walbeehm.com), January 06, 2001

Answers

Well first I must welcome Ben Jos MARPīs new tournament c.

here is my view of a better tournament:

1. I think there should be about 4-6 games instead of 8

2. Two month is too long, letīs cut it to one month instead.

3. Maybe she time between tournamnets should be 1 month instead of two..Iīm not sure about that. I let the majority chose that:)

Just my two cents (or "ören" in swedish:)

regards

QRS

-- QRS (qrs@telia.com), January 07, 2001.

do you think the value of difference between top and second is same as 13th and 14th??
Cullent system is reasonable when only very very highlevel players gather.
not enough now.
in other word,MARP tournament is not competition of world championship.(you know)
period.


-- Rank-55 (weavuspert@yahoo.co.jp), January 07, 2001.

Maybe the games of T5 were not so interesting. IMHO 2 months is too long time between tournaments. If you skip a tournament, because games chosen are not good enough, with current system you'll have to wait for 6months untill next tournament!!!!! Sucky :( Maybe 5 games would be good for 1 month, and month between tournaments.

Hisa, Surely MARP tournament is not a Worldchampionship, but there are many very good players anyway. Maybe you're right, maybe 1st spot at a game should earn more points than rest, maybe 5? I had 3 first spots at T3(a bit luck of the games chosen :), and finished 4th, I had about 3 not so good placings too, at games I didn't like much.

Hisa, maybe you'll join next tournament, I'm sure you'll find some good competition there/here. The variation of gametypes is also a factor. I'm sure not even you can't get "finished, all clear" at every game you play...

friendly, Tommi

-- Tommi (tiihoto@hotmail.com), January 08, 2001.

It seems everyone wants to play less games, and i'm continuously in the minority, this time thinking more games the better. There is a big disadvantage of having less games, the winner doesn't have to be good at a very wide variety of games. Anything lower than 8 games, would simply turn into a free for all for a limited number of players. The more games you have the better the competition will be, more chance for non BBH's to win a tournament. Heck if there were two more game in the last tournament, Brian might NOT have had such an insurmountable lead.

Of course there is the boredom factor, of playing too many games (cry me a river.) Anyone who can enjoy playing 10 games and do relativley good at all of them deserves to be a champion more than someone who wins a 6 game tournament because they wined about playing 8 in the last.

-- Chad (churritz@cts.com), January 09, 2001.

ummmm, nothing BUT non-BBH's have won past tournaments. :) and yes, I agree that the more games the merrier.

-a BBH

-- BBH (lordbbh@aol.com), January 10, 2001.

It should have been 10 games - two months from the start actually. Yes - it's the same number of games as the MAME decatholon, but it definatly avoids a lot of "burn-outs". Get down to 6 games and it'll start being a specialty tournament. Even with the one game / genre rule. It should be 10 games, no more than two per general genre (shooter, puzzle, etc., not horizontal shooter, vertical shooter, etc.)

-- Gameboy9 (goldengameboy@yahoo.com), January 10, 2001.

Put me down in the camp for having 8-10 games.

As Chad said, any less than 8 and it's not a true reflection of across the board gameplaying skills.

Also, I think part of the reason less people are taking part is more due to the frequency of the tournaments. I personally found T1 very draining particularly in the last couple of weeks and Deca2000 was even worse - not that that's a Marp Tournament of course.

So, while the length of the tournament could perhaps be shortened, if you really feel burnout on the games is a problem, remember that people who don't know the games do need time to get into them properly in order to be able to truly compete against someone who already knows the game well. I guess those of us who would prefer a longer gap between tournaments can simply skip a tournament (or several if they're that frequent).

BeeJay.

-- BeeJay (mamester@i4free.co.nz), January 10, 2001.

hmm, that is true: BBH's haven't actually won in past tournaments, so i guess the non-BBH's do have a chance! :)

Hisa: the MARP tournament and DECA are not a world championship for one game, they are world championships for game players. I think the scoring system is wonderfull in the marp tournaments, and i think it might even provide a challenge to you Hisa because even if you can beat everyone by millions in one game others can still beat you by one point in two games and they'll beat you in the tournement! It rewards people skilled in many facets of game play.

-- Chad (churritz@cts.com), January 11, 2001.