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The NeoGAF Hearthstone Superstar Open Challenge Season One

Fixed1979

Member
Good tournament so far. I hope the next one starts up shortly after this one finishes.

Would the swiss style tournament be a good fit? Or maybe a different format.

I looked at the swiss but I thought it might be a little complicated and I don't think the swiss point structure lends itself well to HS. I really like the idea of a best of 5 round robin, it can run sort of as a season, and if we get anywhere near the same amount of players I can double payouts for it and start it as soon as this one is finished. I'm not entirely sure how long that will take, but I did think about doing a single elimination tournament while the round robin was going on. That might be too much HS for some people though... We've had 3 GAF double elim tourneys so far, definitely can't hurt to mix it up a bit next time.

I wish Blizz didn't separate regions for this, disappointing that not everyone can play together.
 
I looked at the swiss but I thought it might be a little complicated and I don't think the swiss point structure lends itself well to HS. I really like the idea of a best of 5 round robin, it can run sort of as a season, and if we get anywhere near the same amount of players I can double payouts for it and start it as soon as this one is finished. I'm not entirely sure how long that will take, but I did think about doing a single elimination tournament while the round robin was going on. That might be too much HS for some people though... We've had 3 GAF double elim tourneys so far, definitely can't hurt to mix it up a bit next time.

I wish Blizz didn't separate regions for this, disappointing that not everyone can play together.

Round robin sounds good too. I think swiss is similar but round robin has more rounds.

Either way sounds good to me tbh.

The regional thing is a shame, yeah. I'd probably still sign up for an EU tournament and just run mostly basic decks though lol.
 
Depending on the amount of players, you can separate players into groups. Lets use our pool for example: there's 24 players total. You can make 4 groups of 6. Take the top 2 leaders of each group and make a 8-man single elim bracket at the end.
 

Fixed1979

Member
Lower Bracked round one is now complete.

I'm sending out PM's now when new matches are posted. Hopefully it doesn't get annoying to anyone.

I was also going to PM everyone who played when signups for the next tournament goes up (though we're still a ways off from that).
 

Slashlen

Member
Well, since paperboywriter and I are the last game left of Losers round 2, I figured Fixed could probably use a status update. Not calling out, just giving an update.

We've friended each other on Bnet and just haven't been on at the same time for long enough to play. I've given him the hours that are good for me a couple days ago(6-10 eastern), but didn't run into him yesterday evening and today's not looking good. We did run into each other this morning when I logged on for a minute to check and reroll my daily, but I didn't have time as I needed to get ready for work.

That's where we are on that game right now.
 

Fixed1979

Member
Well, since paperboywriter and I are the last game left of Losers round 2, I figured Fixed could probably use a status update. Not calling out, just giving an update.

We've friended each other on Bnet and just haven't been on at the same time for long enough to play. I've given him the hours that are good for me a couple days ago(6-10 eastern), but didn't run into him yesterday evening and today's not looking good. We did run into each other this morning when I logged on for a minute to check and reroll my daily, but I didn't have time as I needed to get ready for work.

That's where we are on that game right now.

Thanks, for the update, no worries yet, your match was posted ~14th so we're all good.
 

Fixed1979

Member
First match update in awhile.

I've PM'd Paperboywriter and Shlashlen and requested they complete their match by the end of day Sunday.
 

ZZMitch

Member
ZZMitch over Slayn 3-2!

Super exciting games at the beginning, adrenaline still pumping from the first couple heh. That puts me in the finals I believe, didn't see that happening at the beginning lol. Maybe I should try to push for Legend next month if I can keep this going :p
 

Fixed1979

Member
ZZMitch over Slayn 3-2!

Super exciting games at the beginning, adrenaline still pumping from the first couple heh. That puts me in the finals I believe, didn't see that happening at the beginning lol. Maybe I should try to push for Legend next month if I can keep this going :p

Congrats on making the finals!

Shindoku21/Pillowknight, any idea one when you guys are playing?
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
ZZMitch, I haven't seen you online in a while (granted, I've been off playing P4AU myself...)

When you wanna finish this?
 

Fixed1979

Member
Just updated the brackets. Sorry for the delay, I was out of town.

Hopefully you guys can finish this off on the weekend.


Slayn
ZZMitch
manhack

PM or post your PayPal account for payment.

GL to you two!

Good games Slayn!!!

I went ahead and recorded the videos with Slayn's permission.

They can be seen here:

The NeoGAF Hearthstone Superstar Open Challenge Season One

Oh! Forgot to mention I didn't record game 3!

Thanks for posting!
 

ZZMitch

Member
ZZMitch, I haven't seen you online in a while (granted, I've been off playing P4AU myself...)

When you wanna finish this?

Yeah sorry man! I have been super busy with school (started my internship last week so thats 8 hours a week where I could be doing work gone), it being my graduating year! I am flying home for the long weekend tomorrow but I should have some time to play during one of the weekend evenings. Monday is also good since I have no school due to Canadian Thanksgiving.
 

ZZMitch

Member
ZZMitch over Slayn 3-2!

Game 1
My priest > his hunter

Game 2
His handlock > my priest

Game 3
My hunter > his handlock

Game 4
His control warrior > my hunter

Game 5
My priest > his (other) warrior

Exciting back and forth match! Slayn switching his warrior deck up between games was smart but he had a tough draw, didn't get any weapons. Meanwhile I thoughtstole 3 Fiery War Axe and a Death's Bite :p

Can't believe I won it all, did not expect that to happen!
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
ggs,

as for the money, I don't have paypal and don't care about the money. Just donate it to Child's Play I guess.
 

Fixed1979

Member
ZZMitch over Slayn 3-2!

Game 1
My priest > his hunter

Game 2
His handlock > my priest

Game 3
My hunter > his handlock

Game 4
His control warrior > my hunter

Game 5
My priest > his (other) warrior

Exciting back and forth match! Slayn switching his warrior deck up between games was smart but he had a tough draw, didn't get any weapons. Meanwhile I thoughtstole 3 Fiery War Axe and a Death's Bite :p

Can't believe I won it all, did not expect that to happen!

Congrats ZZMitch!

ggs,

as for the money, I don't have paypal and don't care about the money. Just donate it to Child's Play I guess.

Very nice of you, I'll make a donation on your behalf.

Payments will be made tonight.

Grats to ZZMitch. I will be sure to gun for you when the next tourney is held <_< since I will actually be able to participate next time!

Gonna give it a week or so to regroup and figure out how we'll run the next one, when it's time to go I'll PM those involved with this tournament (who didn't drop out). I would love some input or ideas from anyone involved, if you have something to say (negative or positive) then let me know, you can post here or feel free to PM me.


Here's the points total after the first tournament

1 ZZMitch 2500
2 Slayn 1500
3 manhack 1000
4 PillowKnight 750
5 JesseZao 525
6 shindoku21 525
7 paperboywriter 437.5
8 xanathus 437.5
9 Ashodin 362.5
10 centracore 362.5
11 LiveWire 362.5
12 Special C 362.5
13 Blu(e) 285
14 Dart 285
15 RazorbackDB 285
16 Slashlen 285
17 FutureZombie 260
18 Hutna 260
19 KingKiller 260
20 lawlohwhat 260
21 Mobius and pet octopus 260

Spreadsheet
 

ZZMitch

Member
Thanks a lot for hosting this. Are you paying the prizes out of your own pocket? Super nice of you.

In terms of the tournament, I like the format. The only issue I have with it is that it feels like the person who wins the first game (which is a blind pick) has a pretty big advantage due to the fact that you can use any deck. So for example in the championship I beat Slayn in the first round. He brought in the perfect counter deck to the deck I won with. I did the same in the next game. It just went back and forth like that until the 5th game where I had the advantage since I knew what hero he would have to play and I could play the best hero to beat it. He switched to a different deck with that same hero (which is very smart in this format), and maybe that is what makes this strategy work (having multiple decks with the same hero in order to trick your opponent).

The only improvement I could think to make would be to limit each player to maybe 3 heroes? Although that might be hard to work out logistically and could be a bit of a pain to manage. I am fine with keeping it as is as well, having full use of every hero has advantages too and is less restrictive (and more fun imo).

Good job!
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
I think I would prefer a format closer to the standard hearthstone format where you have 3 pre-set decks and when you lose with that deck it gets knocked out while the winner has to stick with the same deck.

In order to prevent secret card switching, I would propose that everyone has to email their 3 decks to the tournament organizer at the start of the tournament. When PMs go out to inform people of their next match, the deck lists could be included or posted in the thread.

Then each player knows the others deck list and verification can be self monitoring. So if I'm playing handlock and my opponent pulls out a big game hunter I can check their list and make sure they really did have it. This places the burden of monitoring shenanigans on the players instead of the tournament organizer.

This does mean each player will know the others exact card list. I personally don't really see that as a good or bad thing but others may feel different. But I propose it because I think putting all deck verification on the shoulders of the tournament organizer to be unreasonable.

I don't have a strong opinion on whether it should be 3 decks or 4 decks + veto as has become more standard.

edit: if others wanted to keep the deck switching, or strongly dislike knowing full card lists, then I would say instead of bringing 3 decks to the tournament you bring 3 heroes and if that hero gets knocked out you can't use it again while the winner has to stay with the same hero. Both players would know the 3 heroes available to their opponent at the start so that they can pick what they think is the strongest hero against their opponent's heroes instead of being completely blind.

The main goal of either option is to introduce some element of strategy in initial deck selection instead of double blind pick.
 
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