2 replies to this topic

[Felix Reynolds]

Hello all-

Just to preface, I'd like to congratulate all who have already been racking up some absurdly impressive scores in this tourney, and all those who will over the course of the next week. I say this as I am sure some will take this suggestion as an attempt to claim they've just 'been able to grind their way to the top', and that isn't true- dropping 1000 times per day won't mean much if you don't have the piloting chops to pull some amazing drops out of those.

Now, the suggestion-

Change the nature of the 'Opt-In' button from a global effect to a match-limited specific effect with a hard cap on the number of matches allowed to be counted for tournament scoring. Barring better statistics to look at, five or ten times the number of 'best' matches being counted for scoring purposes is a good starting point.

For instance, in this weeks tournament, every day you have an 'Opt-In' button that you will have to press. When you do, your next 50 matches per weight class are counted for scoring purposes. After those 50 matches, any further matches you play that day are just for fun. When the new day ticks over, you can once again press the 'Opt-In' button, and have at it with another 50 matches.

Why do this- currently, the way the scoring functions is highly preferential towards skilled players who have the time and the will to grind out as many games as possible. While I know that they are also incredibly skilled pilots, due to the random nature of dropping with 7 other PUGs (unless you're cheating the system by sync-dropping) dropping more often gives you a higher likelihood of being able to pull off that 1000+ damage, 6 kill 2 assist match than dropping less often.

A change to a 'hard limit' of matches counted levels the playing field with regards to 'time sunk into the game' and instead rewards to a higher degree the actual pilot skill involved.

Added bonus- for those who DO have heaps of free time and will to really just sit down and play match after match, this system would allow you to spread that time out over a higher number of weight classes/chassis without having to gimp yourself in any single one of them on account of no longer having to 'rob Peter to pay Paul' (unless you're Koreanese and Paul and Peter both already owe you their firstborn children )

Now, I am sure there will be plenty of people who show up to post that they've hit a spot on the leaderboards and only played "like, 10-12 games, tops". However, I'm sure you at PGI possess plenty of raw data on the tourneys, and I, and I am sure many others, would love if you would release some kind of 'statistical breakdown' of one of them. For instance, the average number of matches played by the 1-5 spots on the scoreboards compared to the average number of matches played overall by those who opted in, the average score per match of any player, etc etc. This would be highly illuminating of both the involvement of the community in these tournaments, and indeed how the 'average' player stacks up against the best of us with regards to time and score.

Thanks all, and best of luck with today and the rest of the week.

Tl;dr version - Create an upper limit of matches used to score future tournaments, which begins when you click the 'Opt-In' button- only the best X matches from those played within the limit are counted towards score.

Edited by Felix Reynolds, 29 April 2013 - 09:45 AM.

[RenegadeMaster]

After being in the last few tournaments that score the top X number of all matches during a period...
This suggestion is the best way of helping give more of a shot to players who don't play a large number of matches during tourney periods. Please post this to the official tourney feedback thread if you haven't already.
Scoring "the best X matches from your next Y matches" where X<Y addresses the following tourney concerns:

• The "luck" aspect of a player griding until they go up against just enough poor teams that they get high tourney scores.
  
• With varying team & enemy skills but all other things being constant, playing a larger number of matches results in an increased chance of having better top X matches than someone playing a small number of matches.
  
• Taking scores of only a specific number of matches after pressing Opt-In without "the best X matches from your next Y matches" does not allow leeway for game bugs that can impact tourney performance:
  
  • HUD & minimap bugs, significant graphics issues, crash to desktop, etc.

If "the best X matches from your next Y matches" were implemented, I think it would be best for Y=X*2 and 10<X<20. Another option would be to use the in-game year of 3050 so that X=30 and Y=50, which might have broad appeal for a week long tourney, but not as much for a weekend tourney.

The only potential drawback I can think of is that players shooting for the leaderboard may do their tourney matches only during off-peak times. This would be an attempt to drop against pilots with lower ELO because when less people that are online, that this when someone is more likely to get matched with someone that has significatnlu different ELO (higher or lower).

[Kageru Ikazuchi]

I agree completely. The scoring method of every tournament to date has been weighted towards those who can play the most games possible in the allotted time, either because the scores went up with each game played, or because the statistical likelihood of an exceptionally high scoring game goes up with the number played.