the current state of competitive tron and how to improve it

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Olive
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the current state of competitive tron and how to improve it

Post by Olive »

Hello,

It's lockdown season in Amsterdam again. Bars and clubs are closed and the unceasing rain has relegated me to spending this Friday night having sips on the sofa instead, with ample time to work out a suggestion that nobody really asked for.

Tron caters to a specific audience whom appreciate the simple yet sophisticated core game mechanics and it's potential for hypercompetitive gameplay. I bet you all vividly remember the days when you could login at any given time of the day to find several fully populated grids, frantically bashing the refresh key to see if a spot opened up in your favourite server. Eons ago, this drive for competition regularly culminated in an epic clash of prepubescent egos. The ladle was the focal point where the (mostly) friendly rivalries could be settled. A month would consist of 29-30 regular days and one ladle day. Christians have Sunday, Jews have shabbat, we have ladle. The ladle - and by extension the competitive atmosphere - was sacrosanct.

However, religious fervor always bleeds out. Besides one intermezzo where community-wide efforts allowed ladle 100 to reach a nostalgic number of signups, competitive tron would never reach its former glory days again. More and more friends were moving on, either to new interests or the next chapter in their respective lives. Some players were raising children and bailed as they realised they could not handle the burden of parenting both off and on grid. Some players convinced themselves that they preferred the toxicity of Summoner's Rift to Liz's banter. Regardless of motivation, interest in competitive tron was fading. (Full disclosure: Soul, I'm sorry for missing that one ladle where I used my internet as an excuse, I was attempting - and repeatedly failing - my plat promo's.) While the grid was virtually deserted besides the few cosplayers treating sumo bar as their hyperbolic time chamber. Seriously though, it did not feel good to get donkey punched and LOL’d at without consent upon returning to the grid.

You might be thinking: "Yeah, yeah. Olive, we heard this doomer soliloquy before. Get to the point".

Almost there, bear with me.

In today's climate, the day-to-day grind is kept going by a small, yet always evolving core group of players. They lowkey stalk any unsuspecting Tronners who dare to venture on discord without hiding their online status. While on the surface this might seem rather pathetic, in reality it's actually quite remarkable. After eating thousands of corners, dying a million times sliding mid-kult, and having Andrei, Johnny and Noodz lagging you to your demise more often than the number of cigarettes smoked by Stereo in his lifetime, you are still passionate about this game. You are also not alone. To this day there are still veterans lurking in the shadows – lacka senpai notice me notice me - to see how rapid the arthritis of their vitamin-d deficient brethren is developing.

I know there's plenty of players that want to regularly participate in tournaments, even though recent attendance numbers might suggest otherwise. Many players are not invested enough to prioritise tron over other commitments. Furthermore, the main intrinsic motivation in many players has shifted from craving wins to participation per se. This is not anything new in itself, there have been numerous discussions and suggestions, some more radical than others, to tackle this issue of perceived indifference.

My suggestion is as follows: I want to discuss a framework that accounts for the wishes of both competitive as hypercompetitive players.
The current organisation is very ad hoc and the success of a tournament relies completely on the availability and willingness of a few key individuals (hi deso) to engage and hype up the community. Tournaments often get rescheduled last-minute, undoubtedly causing frustration for the hosts. Teams drop out because they cannot complete a roster or sometimes, they play on whilst being a man down, which is inherently un-fun for both teams in a competitive environment. One proven solution to this problem would be assigning teams on the spot, instead of signing up as a team in anticipation of a tournament. In addition, potentially interested players are sometimes unaware of the scheduled tournaments. I do not wish to change the ladle, that would be blasphemous heresy. It would also be wildly unfair to Wolf, as he's finally familiarising with the taste of ladle domination. However, I am convinced that promoting a tournament that specifically lacks the history of ladle can grant us the tabula rasa to redraw the competitive tronic landscape. I am naming it Spatula, in accordance with the tradition to name tournaments after KitchenUtensilz.

Success is often tied to predictability. How about having one fixed calendar for the year that fixes the possible tournaments and dates for the upcoming year?

For example:
First Sunday: Ladle
Third Sunday: Spatula

Well, I am all out of juice. If anyone feels compelled to reply, please do send me a message on discord, so I can in turn ask you to !add.

-xoxo-
Olive a.k.a ZeMu, MoonFlower & chicken.
Vogue
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Re: the current state of competitive tron and how to improve it

Post by Vogue »

" Some players convinced themselves that they preferred the toxicity of Summoner's Rift to Liz's banter"

Impossible. I'm still far more toxic than anyone in LoL!

Real talk, what's the pickup fort discord? I'm feeling the christmassy tron vibes. :stubble:
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sinewav
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Re: the current state of competitive tron and how to improve it

Post by sinewav »

Olive wrote: Sat Nov 27, 2021 4:27 amI am convinced that promoting a tournament that specifically lacks the history of ladle can grant us the tabula rasa to redraw the competitive tronic landscape.
I agree, more than you might imagine. Not only should there be a new tournament dedicated to the hyper-competitive, this "framework" should have a way to answer fundamental questions about what it means to be good at Tron. I've long thought that Arma is no longer a team-orientated game and is now centered on individual achievement. However, the most popular games are still team games for some reason?

Really, you need a new server that focuses on satisfying gameplay for the increasingly small number of players. Team games like Fort and TST allow really good players to carry weaker ones, meaning you are defined by how bad your teammates are, not how good you are. Whatever this new server is, I imagine, will probably feel a lot like Sumobar, maybe something that allows you to fight and win outside the zone(s) while simply getting a sensible amount of extra points from being inside?

Also, this new server should keep stats (armarankings). Also, it should allow for ad hoc play, meaning anytime X number of players agree to have a tournament they can just go play, any time of day. Kind of like Sumobar League. I've brought up Sumobar twice, but I can't say that game mode defines what good at Tron means. That's for the hyper-competitive player to decide. I'm not hyper-competitive or even very good. I'm the perennial mid-level player (which is where I want to be and is the best position to be in any game).

What kind of challenge are the hyper-competitive players looking for? Can you turn that into a game mode that collects stats we can determine definitely who the best Tronner is? This is the question.
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Kronkleberry
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Re: the current state of competitive tron and how to improve it

Post by Kronkleberry »

Vogue wrote: Wed Dec 01, 2021 4:04 pmReal talk, what's the pickup fort discord? I'm feeling the christmassy tron vibes. :stubble:
we've missed you! here's the link: https://discord.com/invite/M49egbF7
Olive
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Re: the current state of competitive tron and how to improve it

Post by Olive »

Vogue wrote: Wed Dec 01, 2021 4:04 pm Real talk, what's the pickup fort discord? I'm feeling the christmassy tron vibes. :stubble:
https://discord.gg/YhAZnayZEs !!! No Secret Santa this year though :(
sinewav wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 1:03 am I agree, more than you might imagine. Not only should there be a new tournament dedicated to the hyper-competitive, this "framework" should have a way to answer fundamental questions about what it means to be good at Tron. I've long thought that Arma is no longer a team-orientated game and is now centered on individual achievement. However, the most popular games are still team games for some reason?
While I agree that sumo favours exceptional individual achievement over team performance, the same cannot be said for fort. Granted, individual players can carry rounds, but it's nigh impossible to keep up the performance for an entire match, let alone an entire tournament. There's too many variables that impede individual players' impact. To me, this is the hallmark of any competitive sport. Shitty teamwork is detrimental, but any player that plays out of his league can still influence the outcome of a match.

I will bug Nanu to reinvigorate the AFFA. I really enjoyed the dynamic of having pickup-esque fair matchups in a more serious environment.
Olive a.k.a ZeMu, MoonFlower & chicken.
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Goose
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Re: the current state of competitive tron and how to improve it

Post by Goose »

Would you consider changing the game modes of Ladle sometimes? Because it might be difficult to get a six-team squad together created from scratch. I have a couple of old school computer enthusisasts ready, who delightedly found out that current Armagetron works on their Windows 98 and XP machines. What about having a 3-player-team tournament? Or even an individual tournament once a while? Lowers the bar to enter a competition, I'd say!
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Desolate
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Re: the current state of competitive tron and how to improve it

Post by Desolate »

Goose - if your friends and you have not already joined the discord, I recommend joining that to have more up to date news and communication with our community (https://discord.gg/dcpaauj).

The Ladle has traditionally been a fortress tournament and will remain so, but we host tournaments for other game modes in between ladles. These include sumo game modes, capture the flag, and variants on fortress, and you can easily set one up via the wiki and discord. Let me know what you have in mind / if you need any help.

The Ladle has traditionally been a fortress tournament and will remain so
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Goose
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Re: the current state of competitive tron and how to improve it

Post by Goose »

Let's see what the future brings. Sometimes the timing is just not right, but I definetly want to participate one day in a competition. Now I see, that there are dozens of modes available in Armagetron, even racing and soccer servers exist. Thanks for clarifying.
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