Presumably tournament players should also not be allowed to say that they are not in the tournament either.

Yeah I'm not sure I'm okay with opening the games up to the public knowing that they have nothing to lose by just throwing the game. I realized that these games are unranked and you get all your points back, and it doesn't count towards GR

It messes with the dymanics of the games. Like for game one, there were a lot of threats of throwing the game, which is normal, but since they care just as much about the game as you do, then you can safely assume that they are willing to negotiate a little with you.

Opening the game to the public throws the balance of interest off, and you have a bunch of people who don't really give a shit about the tournament threatening to throw the game, and you basically have to do what they say, or they will, because what do they have to lose?

@ Yoyo

I would argue that the balance of interest is a myth. Most of the people in the tournament are yet to play a game. As we get to weekend 3 there will already be people who are essentially out of the running playing against others who are front runners and others who have only just started. The balance that is real enough in game one degenerates rapidly and simply doesn't exist by the end of the tournament. This is true of pretty much all tournaments to a greater or lesser extent.

My fear is that if we keep things as they are the one game per weekend theme is likely to continue. That doesn't leave enough space for everyone to get their game quota in, and the chances are this will turn into a tournament of the original seven with the rest of us acting as little more than a subs bench.

Any thoughts on one game starting at 3 PM EST and another at 6 PM EST?

I think it's well worth a try.

Let's try it and see how it goes.

Oh wow, both games took off this week. Looks good :D Even though I have yet to procure a point in this tournament, I've been having a blast playing live games again and diplomacy overall... Good luck to those in the current game.

Who's leading the scoreboard right now?

Pretty sure it's bo.

I don't think that's what he meant.

Who's leading the scoreboard right now?

I choose to believe that it is exactly what he meant.

Game 1 - gameID=182770
Game 2 - canceled
Game 3 - gameID=182968
Game 4 - gameID=182972

For clarity's sake, I am counting survivals as defeats because they are, in fact, defeats.

Current scores:

1.) Valis2501 - 71 - 1 win/2 draw/0 defeat - 45 SCs
2.) wpfieps - 13 - 0/1/2 - 12 SCs
3.) Gerry - 10 - 0/1/1 - 9 SCs
4.) Zybodia - 6 - 0/1/0 - 7 SCs
5.) Yoyoyozo - 5 - 0/1/1 - 7 SCs
6.) arj11 - 2 - 0/1/0 - 4 SCs
7.) HappyThoughts - 1 - 0/1/1 - 16 SCs
8.) eliwhitney - 1 - 0/1/1 - 1 SCs
8.) The Czech - 1 - 0/1/0 - 1 SCs
10.) achillies27 - 0 - 0/0/2 - 0 SCs
10.) brainbomb - 0 - 0/0/1 - 0 SCs
10.) Dariusz - 0 - 0/0/1 - 0 SCs
13.) peterwiggin
13.) Octavious
13.) ckroberts
13.) guak

Some reminders:

• You must play in 3 games out of 10 to score in the tournament.
• After SoS scoring (as rounded up by the game), SC count is a tiebreaker. As such, HappyThoughts is currently in 7th place despite having the same number of points as the two players tied in 8th place. Further tiebreakers would be determined by calculating the exact SoS scoring, but that's no fun and I'd probably make Valis do it.
• Solos are huge! 35 points could be awarded in a single game for soloing. If you have a shot, take it.
• Any and all feedback is completely welcome in this thread or sent to me personally.

It was great to see both games fill today. How did the start times work? I'm willing to move it around a little bit but it looks to me like staggering them three hours apart might work really well for the future.

Scores at the end of the tournament will be averages, correct?

The only problem we had with the games today is that the second one almost didn't start because somebody left after we had seven, but fortunately The Czech was on top of it.

Yes, the score at the end will be an average. I'll probably start adjusting it that way at some point, but for now, totals make the most sense.

Also, yes, if someone leaves after there are 7 players, the game might break. It's an easy fix if you contact the mods.

Did you open game 3 and 4 to the public?

No, both filled among tournament participants.

Valis has proposed to me that, rather than averaging out scores from the entire tournament, I take the best 3 games as your score and eliminate the others. This essentially eliminates players not playing because they are either way ahead or way behind, i.e. Valis, despite kicking everyone's butt so far, still has reason to play, and those of you down at the bottom with 0 could still make a miraculous comeback without having to worry about those games affecting your score. Any complaints about that?

None here.

Well no shit.

:(

The guy who's topped three boards wants to just take the top 3 scores? :o

I have selfish reasons for not liking it, but nothing really legitimate.

Well, if we do average, his score is the exact same as it would be taking the top three. The difference is that he and players on the other end of the spectrum don't feel like it's not worth playing.

(taking top X scores is pretty normal.
Worlds for example was 5 rounds, take top 3 scores)

Boston F2F tournament is next Saturday so I'm out of the next round either way

No explicit complaints = bo is god

Who made bo a god?