Fortress-For-All - Discussion

[Ratchet]

The very first Fortress-for-All is in the works.

With that being said, what in the world is a Fortress-for-All? I've never even heard of that!
The Fortress-for-All tournament is a Fortress competition inspired by the Fortress Brawl, Ladle, Spoon, and "pickup" games. The idea is to get players who don't always have the opportunity or the will to play in the Ladle to experience the intensity and excitement that comes along with it. Frequently, in the Ladle, a team will sign up with well over 6 players (the minimum required to have a team) and only 6-7 of those players actually get to play. The others are forced to spectate with stars in their eyes wondering when they'll be able to play on the big stage. Well, that's what the point of this tournament is. Anyone, whether you have a clan/Ladle team or not, is encouraged to participate in this tournament. There are *NO* previous requirements to sign up.

Who can sign up?
Anyone can play! This tournament will have 72 spots to sign up, much in the way you sign up for an event like the SBT. Any extra players that just-so-happen to be late for signups, can sign up in the 12 Substitute spots. This is specifically for allowing extra people in that will readily be available to play. If someone resigns their spot as a player because something comes up, the first substitute will be bumped up to the "Players" signups and a new substitute spot will be made available.

Sooo, how does this work exactly?
Of the 72 players, 12 people need to volunteer to become a Captain. Captains must sign up in BOTH the Player and Captain areas. The 12 Captains will meet in the IRC chat room #armagetron.tourneys on Saturday, May 18th, to pick their teams from the pool of players signed up. After all players are drafted into teams, the 12 "Substitutes" will be drafted and thus each team will have 7 members. The teams and brackets will be posted on the wiki so preparation/practice may begin for the next day. On game day, brackets will be played out just like the Ladle. Basically, it's a Ladle with pre-signed up pickup teams


When is this thing? I'd like to give it a shot!
The Fortress-For-All will be hosted on May 19th, 2013. This is the third Sunday of May. It will be 2 weeks after the ladle, which is approximately right in-between Ladles. If enough attention is garnered, it may become a monthly installment between ladles. We'll hold that decision for later, though!

When can I sign up?
April 28th - May 17th will be the signup dates. I will make a thread on April 28th announcing that sign ups have opened. No one can sign up before those dates as this is still in beta phase.

Who's going to host the servers/organize this thing?
I intend to request Ladle server operators to grant me access to 4 servers, minimum. The more the merrier, but 12 teams can fit in 4 servers. I will be organizing things, with the help of anyone who'd like to contribute.

What are the rules/gameplay settings?
This tournament was formed mostly in the mind of having a pickup-style Ladle, so I'd like for the game settings to be the updated version of the Ladle settings. I will have an alternate Auth file for server admins with Captains being "Team Leaders". As for "Rules", I just ask that people sign up being 99% sure they will be able to show up. The ONLY thing that I'm truly concerned about is having a big mess because people don't show up.

****Important Update****
Rather than having an IRC bot to sort the teams, we will be using a Google Docs Spreadsheet instead. These spreadsheets are instantly updating and will be a *lot* easier to manipulate and organize. The Spreadsheet can be found on this page. I will require captains to PM me an email that is linked to Google. This will allow me to add only those emails as editors of the document. We will still meet in the IRC room #armagetron.tourneys. This will allow me to ping players in case they forget it is their turn, and we will be able to hold side conversations/ask any questions/generally communicate.


**Special thanks to sine, dlh, and kyle for suggestions/feedback during the initial phase of idea development.

Questions/Feedback/Suggestions welcome! Kgo!

[Fippmam]

Looks awesome. It's like the spoon on steroids.

[NecroToast]

I like this idea, I hope it works out

[Renegade]

Aww, too bad it's not random team with random captains, that would be interesting


I support this , I'd like to pley more fort in the future

[Thump]

I too think 100% randomization would be pretty cool. Captains choosing teams might make it one sides but... we'll see . Im all for this though, great suggestion!

[epsy]

Completely random 6v6 teams were tried once in pickup and never again. It was terrible.

[Bytes]

To stop it actually becoming ladle, you could set a max number of clan members in a team, say 2 of any clan, to make sure the teams have some variety. Kinda like ISL did.
Unfortunately I think I'm away for this but you kids have fun!

[Monkey]

This could be a really good tournament, especially if it happens regularly over the summer, seeing as the Ladle is not on during the summer. I think it will attract new people to fort also.

I agree with you Ratchet about your concern with people showing up.

By the way, I didn't see any time for when the teams are going to be picked on the Saturday before the event.

One more thing, the table of times is in winter times, not summer times (daylight saving times). That may cause some confusion and might want altering.

All in all, great job Ratchet.

[Venijn]

Well done Ratchet for a good idea. I'll certainly try and take part, although I'm not sure if I'll be around.

There needs to be a System there to avoid (as Bytes correctly hinted at) clan-dominated teams, as well as a system to determine the order of picking. We wouldn't want to have a few super teams, and some not-so-super.

Perhaps randomise the captains to determine the picking order, allow one pick at a time (like Pickup) and limit teams to how many same-clan players are in each team? Also, what happens if a Captain doesn't show up?

[Gonzap]

Nice idea, I'd sign up.

[0000]

Looks great!

If we are debating captains vs randomly selected teams, can we consider a third option? Form a "committee" of 1-3 unbiased, knowledgeable players and let them choose and balance all the teams the day of the tournament. To avoid bias, these should be people that don't want to play in the tournament themselves.

This should eliminate most of the demoralizing 100-14 type matches. And it would force people to mix rather than having captains picking members of their clan or friends. There is very little downside to this method.

[Thump]

Looks great!

If we are debating captains vs randomly selected teams, can we consider a third option? Form a "committee" of 1-3 unbiased, knowledgeable players and let them choose and balance all the teams the day of the tournament. To avoid bias, these should be people that don't want to play in the tournament themselves.

This should eliminate most of the demoralizing 100-14 type matches. And it would force people to mix rather than having captains picking members of their clan or friends. There is very little downside to this method.

Actually, that isn't a bad idea. Get a small group of say.. "judges" together who know the majority of active fortress players, who would have an idea for "great match-ups" Have them select team captains (of those who volunteer) then pick equal teams.

I play flag-football on saturdays, and something we do to even teams is: Pick a player, then find somebody who is a good match-up to said player, and separate them, do this until our teams are set

[Hoax]

This is fine as it is
Fortress BRAWL is a perfect candidate for seeded random teams..
& Monk welcome to this decade, where the ladle is on during the summer

[Thump]

Monk welcome to this decade, where the ladle is on during the summer

lol%. Thank you for clearing that up.. I was confuzzled after reading his post.

[Titanoboa]

Maybe thought so because the Bowl season ends in April and doesn't start until this fall. There'll still be ladles, they just won't be part of a "season". They'll be post-season/pre-season, whichever you prefer.