Dota2's The international tournament ended recently and it got me wondering if an eu4 could feasibly be used in a tournament setting.
Here are some thoughts about the problems and rules that would need to be hammered out, with some alternatives. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Maybe we can make this work?
Now, in no order:
Series setup:
EU4 is a long game. Too long to play best of 3 or a best of 5 for a grand final. All series would have to be best of 1. However, games are so long that they should 'even out' over the course of a single game to encompass the skill of the players.
An alternative could be using a single game with 3 to 5 score date checkpoints. At each checkpoint the team with the highest score gets a point. 2 out of 3 wins (or 3 out of 5, etc) .
Format:
I'd love for it to be double elimination. However, this is a longer bracket AND would need a group stage to seed the bracket. This means the teams would play 8 to 14 games each.
Single elimination means only 1 to 4 games would be played for each team.
The shortest method would be each team plays another team. Highest score from any game wins. Each team only plays 1 game. However, the different RNG for each game may seem unfair.
Team size:
1v1 is the easiest to get organize but may be boring. Even with bans, I can't help but feel the same tags would be picked every time with the same strategies used. (ottos vs france)
5v5, now that is interesting! The various different ways that 5 nations could help each other is much more varied. Also, this would allow a dota style draft which is ban(2 each),pick(2 each),ban(2 each),pick(2 each),ban(1 each),pick(1 each) which would lead to more dynamic team setups and an importance to drafting. The only way I know that people will pick the same countries each time is the honor code.
However, 16 teams * 5 people each = 80 brave people with a lot of free time willing to try this.
Other ideas include 3v3 with a choice of a preset groups of nations to play.
Scheduling:
This tournament will take a long time. There is no way around it. Hopefully the games can get together at least once a week. The teams would have to work out a schedule on their own and self-host the games. In my old CS days each team would send in an ending screen shot to the tournament organizers as a way to prevent cheating. That could be done at the end of each session or just uploading the save game itself to a tourney dropbox which they d/l and use.
Victory:
The two most obvious victory conditions are total elimination of a team or the highest point total at the end of the game. If a country gets released they should be able to rejoin.
Speed:
I don't have any good ideas on how to regulate the in-game speed. I can only hope a consensus or vote can be reached in game which allows for things like pausing during a peace deal or when to speed up and slow down. How many petty jerks would be in a eu4 tournament in the first place? A game of eu4 on speed one will take about 76 hours (1821-1444=377 years * 365 days * 2 seconds a day) so an increase in speed will have to be used unless both teams are very very patient.
Prizes:
If a buy-in is used it self funds the tournament but may also be a barrier to getting people to play. Not relying on a buy-in may get more people to play but relies on sponsorship and/or self-funding.
Have I overlooked anything? What do you think?
Here are some thoughts about the problems and rules that would need to be hammered out, with some alternatives. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Maybe we can make this work?
Now, in no order:
Series setup:
EU4 is a long game. Too long to play best of 3 or a best of 5 for a grand final. All series would have to be best of 1. However, games are so long that they should 'even out' over the course of a single game to encompass the skill of the players.
An alternative could be using a single game with 3 to 5 score date checkpoints. At each checkpoint the team with the highest score gets a point. 2 out of 3 wins (or 3 out of 5, etc) .
Format:
I'd love for it to be double elimination. However, this is a longer bracket AND would need a group stage to seed the bracket. This means the teams would play 8 to 14 games each.
Single elimination means only 1 to 4 games would be played for each team.
The shortest method would be each team plays another team. Highest score from any game wins. Each team only plays 1 game. However, the different RNG for each game may seem unfair.
Team size:
1v1 is the easiest to get organize but may be boring. Even with bans, I can't help but feel the same tags would be picked every time with the same strategies used. (ottos vs france)
5v5, now that is interesting! The various different ways that 5 nations could help each other is much more varied. Also, this would allow a dota style draft which is ban(2 each),pick(2 each),ban(2 each),pick(2 each),ban(1 each),pick(1 each) which would lead to more dynamic team setups and an importance to drafting. The only way I know that people will pick the same countries each time is the honor code.
However, 16 teams * 5 people each = 80 brave people with a lot of free time willing to try this.
Other ideas include 3v3 with a choice of a preset groups of nations to play.
Scheduling:
This tournament will take a long time. There is no way around it. Hopefully the games can get together at least once a week. The teams would have to work out a schedule on their own and self-host the games. In my old CS days each team would send in an ending screen shot to the tournament organizers as a way to prevent cheating. That could be done at the end of each session or just uploading the save game itself to a tourney dropbox which they d/l and use.
Victory:
The two most obvious victory conditions are total elimination of a team or the highest point total at the end of the game. If a country gets released they should be able to rejoin.
Speed:
I don't have any good ideas on how to regulate the in-game speed. I can only hope a consensus or vote can be reached in game which allows for things like pausing during a peace deal or when to speed up and slow down. How many petty jerks would be in a eu4 tournament in the first place? A game of eu4 on speed one will take about 76 hours (1821-1444=377 years * 365 days * 2 seconds a day) so an increase in speed will have to be used unless both teams are very very patient.
Prizes:
If a buy-in is used it self funds the tournament but may also be a barrier to getting people to play. Not relying on a buy-in may get more people to play but relies on sponsorship and/or self-funding.
Have I overlooked anything? What do you think?
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