ikildkenny

Guys, again, it's not about what is "preferred" or "nice" or "fits the layout of the venue". You write "World Cup" on the tin, this infers a certain standard of competitiveness and more importantly curtailing of alleys of abuse by bad actors. All you have provided so far, and I am very sad to say so, are excuses on why you don't want to address the issues mentioned. And that is everything but the basis for and event calling itself the "World Cup". And before the N-th person posts "this is their tournament, they can make the rules how they want..." - you know what? No! World Cup not only implies a certain level of play and a certain level of competitiveness but also some "meeting in the middle" with the wants, needs and expectations of the worldwide playerbase (ok, likely europe-based in this cas)... you know ... caus "World Cup" As mean as this will sound, but any address of any critique/feedback/suggestion you have provided so far boils down to "I don't like it so I'll ignore it", nothing in here even approaches an honest engagement with the points presented.

The fact that a notable number of ppl assumed clocks at the world cup and where surprised there weren't, in fact they expected it should tell you something. And let's be franc - this is not about what makes players happy (well ... primarily) but what tournament pack creates the fairest and most skill focussed enviroment. In other words, what format would make this event worthy of the title "world cup", since that is the bar the TO has set for themselves. The Rulespack as it was allowed for too much abuse by bad actors, and this was (from what I've heard) not only pointed out beforehand but was very evident afterwards. This discussion wouldn't happen if this wasn't the case. If the new rulespack reliably fixes these issues, then fair enough. Though honestly, I do have my doubts (or rather - my imagination is not good enough to find a satisfying way out of this). 4 Players in individual wins will make "that draw" possible, one would just have to "hide" it better. No chessclock does enable slowplay and diffenciating malicious slowplay (which is what would have to be done...) from genuine "I had to think a lot in this game" is basically impossible. Again, I look forward to the ruleset and I am very eager to have my mind changed, I just don't see an elegant way out of the issues that were present last year other then some radical changes as of now.

Just out of curiousity - what exactly makes Longshanks a necessity with regards of SoS? Would some coding in Bag o Tools not make it perfectly capable of covering that variant? I was honestly convinced that that would be the smallest issue. And I do see, that from an esthetics standpoint, Teams of 4 do have their appeal. But shouldn't an event that strives for the highest level of competitive play prioritize the reduction of ways for abuse and fairness over simple esthetics? Regarding the pre-publication of pools, there is the added factor of time during the round. Teams having the opportunity to discuss how to approach each round and "pre assign" some encounters will make the procedure at the table quicker and (assuming chessclocks are still out of the question) reduce the amount of uncompleted games. Obviously this is not necessary by any means, I just want to stress the level of competition you strive for and the evident advantage you assign to ppl being in a logistical position to bring a larger bench. Oh, and all the best and have fun for your kids!

Hey @ScottishMetaLew! I'm a bit surprised you didn't feel the need to take some time out of your weekend to address anything above. I would have hoped that you guys are open for constructive criticism or at the very least have some thoughts besides the implyed "don't like it don't come" ...

(made an account just to chime in....) 1) glad to hear you are changing the pairing system ... though teams of 3 would make that part or your life easier, reduce the chance or draws (and the subsequent abuse of that we've seen this year ... ... ...) and more importantly would enable more teams at the event, which just makes the whole thing more interesting. 2) ok ... realtalk ... regardless whether these screenshots exist or not BUT... if you have a system that can be abused in that manner, your first reaction should be "well maybe the system is not that good" and not "we found a roundabout way for this system to be slightly less abusable". It's less about "fairness" per se, it is mostly about avoiding (allegedly) bad actors creating negative play experiences at the event itself and ruining the awesome vibes. I know that getting your hands on the necessary number of chessclocks is a big ask, just from a purely logistical standpoint. You do have a community around you though (*looks at the WM and (former) GB community*) so that could help. And I also have the suspicion, that chessclocks haven't quite made it "over the channel" at this point in time, but I STRONGLY urge you to give it a shot. I know it is a feelable change to how the game is played and it does slightly shift the meta but it nevertheless at the very least makes games "feel" more fair then without. 3) I feel you bro ... been there, cursed that... depending on the number of attendees you might be able to haggle for some advantageous considerations on the side of the venue. As you might notice, my feedback is less a "what you did / plan to do is bad just caus" it is more a "look, this was great, it does open up some routes to abuse though that you did not forsee last time that are evident now". I have my fair share of experience on both sides of the registration list, so this comes from a place of experience and not salt or anything negative. We all want this event to turn out great and more importantly to have players look back at see the cool time they had and not the sorespots that stuck out. I also do realize, that sometimes we as TOs tend to be a bit stubborn regarding our ideas, but never forget, you are doing this not for the exploration of your cool ideas, but for the enjoyment of your (paying!) guests ;). But to not just be contrarian - I do have some additional suggestions aswell: A) Encounters - please publizise them like (half) a month in advance. Yes, Malifaux is a game of "bring all you want, react well to the challange presented and do your best", but given that a significant number of teams will have to take flights, space for mini-packing is an issue. e.g. I own the whole Neverborn faction (and for the flex have taken them to events just caus) but I do have to somewhat carefully consider my luggage and therefore the minis I bring and still leave some space for my undies in my suitcase. Knowing what to "prep" for and testing some encounters would give ppl an informed decision point regarding "tech piece A or B" etc. B) Strenght of Scedule - another one of those "continental oddities" we here use as a first tiebreaker. There are good arguments for either "individual wins", "MOV" and "SOS" as tiebreakers, but I will focus on SOS for the sake of space (this post is a monster already). The short version: SOS rewards you for playing against strong teams, Individual wins rewards you for beating weak teams. Again - this is more to make the event "feel" more rewarding then punishing, regardless of how you did in the end. Apart from the top3, noone really cares about how well or badly they did, but knowing that you were at least "not punished" for having been paired against the winner of the event (but in fact rewarded) gives better vibes. As an added bonus, it makes the "final table" more likely to result in "winner and runner up", which is somewhat what you want for this event. Finally, it does curtail "we do a draw" abuses that became infamous caus it does incentivise trying to not draw ;). Again, none of these are "do this or you do bad event" type suggestions, this are all just the results of 2 decades of TOing in multiple systems and are solely focussed on making the end result feel more awesome for everyone (and yes ... curtail abuse as much as possible). If you want to pick my brain, feel free to hit me up via DM or discord - happy to chat!