Best Blind Round?

[Yore Huckleberry]

Setting rounds out pre-tourney helps people prep and start rounds quickly ... but I’ve been thinking, if you were to make one round “blind” in the sense of doing a day-of flip for it, what’s the best structure? My notion is that one player skill is quickly analyzing a scheme/strat pool and applying your knowledge base to it. I also think there’s a more immediate and organic feel to some of those games. It’s a bit like music auditions including both prepared pieces and sight reading.

I think I like the idea of round two or three being blind (in a three round tourney). This allows round one to be fairly planned and keeps a gentle settling of player skill without an odd upset from inexperience with a given crew’s ability to surprise you on some sudden scheme that you haven’t fully prepped. Round two would allow for something like announcing it and giving people lunch time to prep (though that might stop a lot of camaraderie). Round three seems a bit ideal: games that aren’t as significant are a bit more rough-and-tumble and allow some experimenting, while top tables have to add the additional analysis layer on their way to the podium.

Thoughts?

[Myyrä]

I'm not sure one round is better than another, and you could do this for a whole tournament if you wanted to. We have also ran full tournaments where schemes were only revealed at the start of the crew creation while deployment and strategies were available beforehand.

[Adran]

Do you find that if you have a list of the games before and that you will prepare all the lists in advance? I know I don't and typically I think over the past few years most of my opponents don't.

If you want a short notice to the game set up, then you might not want to do it before lunch and instead only give it to people at the table.

I don't think any particular round is better or worse. The later on in the day the more balanced the match ought to be, but it is nearer to the result and can seem to have more signifigance

 

[Yore Huckleberry]

2 hours ago, Adran said:

Do you find that if you have a list of the games before and that you will prepare all the lists in advance? I know I don't and typically I think over the past few years most of my opponents don't.

If you want a short notice to the game set up, then you might not want to do it before lunch and instead only give it to people at the table.

I don't think any particular round is better or worse. The later on in the day the more balanced the match ought to be, but it is nearer to the result and can seem to have more signifigance

 

I think most people at my last two tournaments had practiced each pool at least once and had a general idea of what master and crew they would take. I do think the lunch-hour idea is the worst-of-all-worlds, because that's such a great time for players to connect.

The more I think of it, the more I like the idea of it as a final round reveal, maybe with an extra five minutes at the start, or something. I do like the idea that your first 2-3 games are proving your mettle against challenges you've anticipated, while the last is a bit more of a surprise. I suppose you could wind up with a situation where the pool really allows one build to dominate, but I think things are mostly well-enough balanced that you can avoid that.

[Nikodemus]

I don't mind either way once I'm at an event. But discussing strats & schemes on the few hours/overnight travel to the venue with friends makes for fun geektalk, and I miss that when travelling to blind tourneys.