Now, what is the Masters? The Masters is one of the oldest tournaments on the site, and has routinely pitted the top talent of the site against each other. It is one of 7 games and 43 contestants, where you play each country once and each other participant once. It also features WTA scoring - you get one point for a solo, and zero for anything else! For past iterations of the Masters, please check out the tournament site (although it hasn't been updated to reflect a few new twists this time around).
Now, for some of the nitty-gritty details
Q: When will the tournament start?
A: I am aiming for a November 1st start date.
Q: So why is it called the 2020 Masters?
A: Since you'll be playing the bulk of the games in 2020, you'll thank me then.
Q: How do I sign up?
A: Just post your interest right here in the thread! I will be ordering the list based on the October DSS/SoS Classic Map GR or your latest available GR, so we can ensure the best get priority.
Q: I'm interested, but I don't think I'll be available in November.
A: Please indicate your interest anyways. As the tournament will inevitably require subs, it will good to have a stream of people available and ready to go.
Q: What are the game specifications?
A: All games will be 36 hour phases, DSS, 5 point bets, anonymous, and ranked. You're going to have skin in the game on this one. If you'd rather have the tournament at 48 hours, please voice your opinion.
Q: Wait, 43 players? But only 42 can play in a round.
A: This is correct. You need 42 opponents across 7 games, for 43 participants in the tournament. However, only 42 can play at once. This means that during each round there will be someone who is "on bye". These 7 players across rounds will then play each other in a "bye round" that I intend to have towards the beginning of the tournament. If you think that you could benefit from having one of these "bye rounds" later on in the tournament (due to a planned vacation or whatnot) then let me know and I'll try to accommodate you.
Q: Only solos count? That seems a bit harsh.
A: It is, but it leads to a unique experience throughout the tournament. To keep things interesting for everyone, though I am introducing a new scoring rule this iteration. Board tops will be the first tiebreaker. In the event that multiple people have the same SC count for a board top, you'll be given partial credit. The traditional tiebreaker, Strength of Schedule, will be moved to the second tiebreaker. Strength of Schedule is only a factor if you have solo'd a game. It looks at the collective number of solos of the enemies you defeated in your solo, thus rewarding you more for defeating better opponents.
Q: This tournament seems long.
A: Yes, it is. As such please only sign up if you can reasonably believe you won't have to step away from the site for a while. Your game load from the tournament shouldn't be overly burdensome, but generally I will try to follow a schedule of starting a new round every 4-5 weeks. To kick-off the tournament I intend to start off rounds 1 and 2 simultaneously. I will similarly end the tournament with rounds 6 and 7 starting simultaneously. Therefore you should anticipate being in as many as 3 games at once, for short periods of time, but your average should be 2 games at once. Tournament length was one of the largest complaints from previous iterations, and this is my attempt to shorten it by two months. Hopefully with this schedule all games should be done by July. The schedule will therefore tentatively look something like this:
- Round 1-2: November 1st
- Round 3: December 6th
- Round 4: Mid-January
- Round 5: Late February
- Rounds 6-7: April 1st
A: You will receive 2 days of pause time per round of the tournament, for 14 days total. Any more than that is not guaranteed. You may have a sitter for parts of the tournament. All games will be set to 3 excused delays. Upon the third excused delay in a game you will be removed from the tournament.
Q: Gold, your tournaments tend to be controversial with metagaming.
A: Yes, they have been. However, I see no such problems in this tournament, given the WTA nature - the scoring just doesn't incentivize the targeting of someone with a solo, because you should always be aiming to prevent a solo no matter who it is. But, nonetheless I will disclose here that making use of anothers identity is not a valid strategy in this tournament. By the end of the tournament, you (and everyone else) will be able to figure out *exactly* who is who. With some work, you may even be able to do it as early as round 5 (which is how I was able to finish out an abandoned iteration of this tourney in years past). But it really won't do you any good, because at the end of the day if you don't solo you're not going to win this tournament. Just don't be stupid, and use your common sense. I'm starting the last two rounds concurrently to try and combat identity-breaking factoring in to early negotiations.
Q: What do I get for winning?
A: A whole lot of pride, for winning perhaps the toughest tournament on the site. One that The Hanged Man and TheWizard have pretty much dominated historically. And 1000 points.
If there are any other questions, please ask.