[Tournament] eXperimental Codex Asyncronous sPring Swiss 2019 (XCAPS19) - Draft Tourney!

Codex
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The Codex Asynchronous Spring Swiss tournament for 2019 is now taking signups!

Per our tourney format poll (and a coin flip I did on random.org), this will be a Draft style tournament (yes, the game doesn’t need drafting, we’re just trying stuff out).

This will be a swiss tournament, one match per week, with a grace period if your match doesn’t finish on time.

First matches will be paired on the Spring Equinox, Wednesday March 20th, at 10am CDT (UTC-5) in this thread! Please set the thread to “Watching” below to ensure you are notified of new pairings

Nit picky details of how pairings will work

Each round, pairings will be assigned as follows:

  1. If a match between two players who each have two losses is not completed when the next round is paired, a proxy of “the winner of x vs y” will be paired for the next round in lieu of either participant.
  2. When the delayed match completes, the proxy will be replaced by the actual winner. This proxy is considered to have the combined opponent and bye history of both players, for purposes of making pairings.
  3. Deliberately delaying a match in an attempt to affect your pairing for the next round is considered Cheating, and is punishable by being disqualified from the tournament. Yes, this is technically “not enforceable” but it’s still illegal. Don’t do it.

If the number of players is odd, a bye (which counts as a win) will be assigned to the player who:

  1. Has had the fewest byes in the tournament (normally zero)
  2. Has played against all other players, or so many of the other players that a bye is needed to avoid a re-match elsewhere in the tournament (probably won’t happen)
  3. Has the most losses
  4. Has played against the fewest remaining players (this helps minimize re-matches, while also keeping more players in the tournament longer)
  5. Was picked randomly from among players tied for criteria #4

Each player will be paired with another player who

  1. They have been paired against the fewest times (normally zero)
  2. Has the same number of losses
  3. An unfinished match is not counted as a loss for players with fewer than two losses Is randomly selected
    I reserve the option to hand-craft pairings and/or the bye if necessary to minimize the number of re-matches. This manual manipulation will not result in someone getting a second bye unless all players have had a bye.

General Rules / TLDR of How Things Work:

  • The player who goes first in each round will be pre-determined
  • If one player has gone first fewer times in the tournament (not counting BYEs), that player goes first, otherwise, the first player is decided randomly.
  • The SECOND player is responsible for creating the game thread, as they are drafting first (see draft rules below).
  • Tag @FrozenStorm when a winner has been determined.
  • CAS tournaments use a “three strikes” rule - any player who has three losses will be automatically dropped from the tournament. Players may also drop at any time.
  • There is no “cut” - the last player standing wins the event. Thanks to the “three strikes” rule, the field should narrow towards the end, and culminate in an exciting final few matches.
  • Matches are 1 game.
  • The default will be to play all matches as play-by-post within the forum, but a match may be played in an alternate format (in person, on an alternate platform, via snail-mail, whatever) by mutual agreement, until the field is reduced to four or fewer players.
  • I am accepting volunteers to help Judge the event. You could be an authorized judge! @zhavier has been authorized
  • If any rulings are necessary, any single Judge who is not participating in that match may make a ruling.
  • Rulings are subject to appeal only if the judge making the ruling is wrong about the facts of the game (eg, forgetting that a Building Inspector is in play, or the Shrine of Forbidden Knowledge only makes Demons unstoppable by units) or the rules/FAQ as noted at rules — Sirlin.Net — Game Design and/or the Rulings thread.
  • Please note the forum suggested post formatting, and include hand, tech and worker decisions either in a spoiler, or in a linked source that I can get to. For games involving me, you can send a private link to a different judge if you so choose, but as with all PbF games, honor system is in place: don’t peek at your opponent’s spoilers!

Special Rules for Drafting Format

  • Player going second will select 1 spec & their starter deck as the opening post in the thread. The starter color need not match the selected spec color.
  • Players will then alternate picking 2 specs + starter, then 2 specs, then 1, to make for a 3-spec deck per player, with already selected specs and starters eliminated from the available pool of selections
  • Once both players have selected all three specs and starter, Player one will take his/her first turn.

Example: @zhavier P1 vs @FrozenStorm P2

  1. FrozenStorm posts forum topic and selects Black Starter + Anarchy as their starter + first spec (you do NOT need to select a starter that matches your first spec)
  2. Zhavier then posts a reply, selecting Red Starter, Blood, and Necromancy (being unable to select Black starter or Anarchy)
  3. FrozenStorm then replies with his final two specs, Demonology and Finesse (again, Blood and Necromancy are not an option)
  4. Zhavier replies to select Fire as his final Spec, as well as his first turn (now that the matchup is set at [Blood/Fire]/Necromancy vs [Demonology]/Anarchy/Finesse)

If you have clarifying questions about the Draft format, please do not hesitate to ask them before the tournament starts!

New pairings will be posted roughly every Wednesday. Matches that are not progressing may be given an adjudicated result.

Details of unfinished match adjudication
  1. Matches where Player 1 has posted their 5th turn by Wednesday will not be adjudicated until the following Monday
  2. Matches where Player 1 has posted their 10th turn on that Monday (11 days after pairings) will not be adjudicated until Thursday.
  3. Matches subject to adjudication may have a Win declared for the player who is, in the judgement of the Judges,
    a. “going to win” (having clear hand/tech spoilers is helpful for determining this)
    b. Less responsible for the delay of game, OR
    c. For no-one, if prior arrangements were made, or the match result isn’t critical for making the next round of pairings, or if a “catch up” week is coming up.
Nit-picky details about correcting game errors

In the event of a game error, one of three fixes will be implemented:

  1. If a unit, hero, or building took the wrong amount of damage, and changing it to the correct amount does not cause anything to leave play or not leave play, then the damage will be corrected.
    a. If not enough gold was spent, and the excess was floated, the gold total will be corrected. If too much gold was spent, the excess will be refunded. The possibility of theft (red starter, Anarchy, or Law) does not impact this, as both players are responsible for maintaining the game state.
    b. An actually executed theft (or failure to steal after taking the appropriate action) forecloses this remedy.
  2. The game will be backed up to the turn of the error. In this case, having the decisions / game state noted is important for re-constructing things. Any random events that are undone (eg, drawing cards) must be re-randomized, regardless of the size or type of error. Normally the entire turn containing the error will be backed up and re-done, but if knowledge has been gained, or cards drawn, and the error occurred after the new information was gained, the Judge must only back up to the point where new information was revealed.
  3. If neither of the above apply, or if I feel a backup cannot be performed, the game will be left as-is. (For example, an error occurs on Turn 2, and it is now Turn 4, both players have made decisions, reshuffled, etc. based on the incorrect game state).
  4. Regardless of remedy, players should feel free to use any information disclosed by their opponent’s error in making gameplay choices. For example, an opponent’s tech choice revealed via a card illegally played and then returned to hand.
  5. In the case of repeated errors, or errors where the gamestate cannot be recovered, a game loss may be given if the error was substantial.

I will endeavor to post new pairings every Wednesday, but the “tournament week” is considered to be from one round of pairings posted to the next (so possibly more or less than an actual calendar week).

Late signups will be accepted without penalty until the second set of pairings are made. Signups after that may occur, but will be given one loss for each full round / “tournament week” that has elapsed. No need to submit decks since they will be on the fly each round, simply PM me or reply to this thread to sign up!

List of players participating:

  1. FrozenStorm
  2. EricF
  3. CarpeGuitarrem
  4. zhavier
  5. charnel_mouse
  6. Bomber678
  7. Dreamfire
  8. bansa
  9. Nekoatl
  10. Marto
  11. James
  12. Shadow_Night_Black
  13. codexnewb
  14. bolyarich

You can find the current standings on the “Tracker” tab of this spreadsheet!

4 Likes
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Do you need to eventually pick a spec that matches your starter, or could you pick something like Neutral/Past, then Anarchy + Peace?

Also, signing up

3 Likes
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This should probably be “second player”, since the second player has to make the first decision (oh who to draft).

1 Like
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Agreed, good catch, fixed.

Honestly I’m game for either way? I don’t know what’s going to play out as good / broken drafting strategy (anyone want to do some trial drafts with me just to see how matchups look on paper?), I’m inclined to say it doesn’t need to match but that likely you’ll want one to match (for spell cost penalty reasons)

Anyone feel strongly?

5

I don’t feel particularly strongly, but given the method of choosing specs, player 1 could be locked out of choosing a matching spec if player 2 chooses to do so, as follows.

P2 chooses red and growth

P1 chooses green blood and anarchy

P2 chooses Balance and Feral

Based on that I would recommend 1 spec has to match. P2 is being given the power to force certain choices for player 1 either way, but it seems more fair to just force matching.

3 Likes
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I’m not nearly creative enough to do cool stuff with drafting, but I gotta get more Codex in. Sign me up.

1 Like
7

To block P1, P2 would have to pick 3 specs that don’t match their own starter, and are all the same color.
I think not needing a match would open up some cute combinations (and make Neutral starter pretty common?)

2 Likes
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Like I said, don’t feel that strongly, just pointing out the edge case.

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My main off-the-cuff theorycrafting impression is not needing to match will definitely give some higher priority to Neutral starter, yea.

Yea I’m kinda with @EricF the more I think about it @zhavier, I don’t think it’s a problem that P2 can lock P1 off matching a spec / starter combo, as like he said, they’d be walking away from matching up themselves, and having picks be eliminated from the pool is doing some of that “counter-drafting” anway.

I’m going to leave it as “need not match” with no other caveats, as I think that will be simpler to run logistically. It’s non-standard but so is this whole format :slight_smile: We’ll just have to see how epic / degenerative “draft strategy” ends up becoming!

You in to play @zhavier?

1 Like
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Of course :slight_smile:

1 Like
11

Another interesting wrinkle of this particular draft format is that the players know if they are Player 1 or Player 2 when making their picks - I predict an above average amount of Player 2 Strength drafting, and no Player 2 White Starter drafting (plus other similar deviations)

3 Likes
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Count me in! Hoping the draft helps with my matchup data woes.

1 Like
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Alright yeah, let me in. I’m gonna be slow for the first week two weeks while I’m still in murica (back home on the 2nd)

2 Likes
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Might have to do some real thinking about the possibility of particular starters with any three specs allowed.

15

I don’t feel I have the breadth to be very good at / enjoy drafting each round, so I’m going to sit this one out in spectator mode

* gets popcorn *

1 Like
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For a first pass at unrestricted starters, check out the ratings Card Ratings: the Starter Decks, but consider spell costs increased by 1 (and therefore down ~1.5 letter grades).

Neutral stays the same, since it doesn’t suffer the spell penalty
Purple is the same, since it’s spells aren’t useful without other Purple spec support
Red, Green, White, and Blue take a hit, as their spells aren’t really worth it at +1 gold cost, and their spells are kind of important to the starter deck power level
Black comes out OK - Deteriorate at 1g and Sac the Weak at 3g are still just fine.

3 Likes
17

Neutral is undoubtedly the best starter in this format, and I expect it to be picked first every round

18

I don’t know about that, you could still have the traditional strong picks in Red starter + Growth, Purple + Peace, or just Black + Vandy.

Edit: also, if you pick Neutral + whatever (say Strength), your opponent can immediately block you off Finesse by choosing it, so we might actually see some Bashing codices?

Edit 2: forgot you don’t actually need a spec to match your starter :sweat_smile: I don’t expect a lot of Bashing then…

@Frozenstorm Count me in as well, please.

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I’m in! Thanks for organizing the tourny! @FrozenStorm

1 Like
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2nd player takes Neutral+Finesse, then Bashing+whatever the 3rd spec is of opponents color = 1st player forced to have a Multicolor penalty.