WDS Tiller Operational Campaigns Tournament News

[HMCS Rosthern]

I have received some feedback on the tournaments. I very much appreciate it.


There are a lot of issues with the Tournament Rules impacting overall tournament fairness:

1. Drop-outs: unless we get lucky and find a replacement, an entrant drop-out forces another entrant to drop out. We’ve also had existing entrants filling in for an entrant drop-out until we find a replacement. And if an entrant is forced to drop out, they are still eligible for the Random Draw.
   
2. Early Termination: I believe we have this covered: we simply don’t award bonus points when Early Termination is in effect.
   
3. Game Resignations: Resigning early so that their opponent can’t fight for more Tournament Points.
   
4. Game Delays: Slowing down the turn rate until the Round End Date so that their opponent can’t fight for more Tournament Points.
   
5. Round Pairing Selections: It is possible for a strong entrant to be paired with a series of weak opponents, thereby giving the strong entrant an unfair advantage.
   

There are other issues impacting overall tournament fairness:

1. Scenario Balance: It is really difficult to select a balanced suite of scenarios that give the Teams equal attack and defensive roles over the Tournament Rounds, while ensuring all entrants have an equal chance of obtaining Tournament Points.
   
2. Real Life: Entrants have lives, and life events can impact their ability to play. If an entrant claims a life event causing a drop-out, game resignation, or game delay, the tournament organisers must respect that. Every tournament has had impacted entrants, and the Tournament Rules must account for these eventualities.
   
3. Late Starting Games: This results in less real time to complete a game.
   
4. Incorrect Round Games: There have been cases of entrants not using the required Optional Rules thereby possibly impacting scenario balance.
   

Given all of the above I conclude that it is more likely that a Tournament will favour one Team over another. The consensus is that these tournaments are nominally a competition, since there are some randomness and biases impacting which entrant will eventually win. Some entrants like these tournaments because it gives them an opportunity to meet new gamers. It is that spirit that I organize these tournaments.

Proposed Tournament Rules Updates (Please provide feedback)

When designing the Tournament Points calculation, I envisioned entrants completing the games, battling over Total Points in the scenario to maximize their Tournament Points. I did not account for some of the above issues.

The tournament organizers must award Tournament Points once the Round End Date has been reached regardless of the state of the game (see above). Tournament Points are awarded based on the Total Points of the last completed turn agreed to by entrants in the pairing. If there is no agreement that last sent turn is used to calculate Tournament Points

The Tournament design requires that all games are completed. Going forward conditions of entry into the Tournament are:

1. Entrants agree to complete all scheduled games. Resignations are highly discouraged unless there is a Real-Life event.
   
2. Entrants agree to keep a reasonable turn rate. The Round length gives sufficient time to complete a game, 3 days per turn plus 10 days. Entrants can complain to the Tournament Organizers if they feel their opponent is delaying unreasonably.
   

Game Completion Bonus Tournament Points

In addition to the existing Tournament Point calculations, 100 Game Completion Tournament Bonus Points are awarded to each entrant that completes the game in the Round pairing.

• If an entrant in the pairing claims a Real-Life event causing them to resign the game or drop-out out of the Tournament, the other entrant in the pairing is awarded 100 Tournament Points.
  
• If the Round End Date is reached and the game is not complete, Game Completed Bonus Tournament Points are not awarded.