Some time during my absence an odd thing happened. You know what I'm talking about, the fact that the details of an edit are not only known, but the TWA is handed out before a Tournament for the teams to practice on.

I'm told that Boo Inc. started this tradition. When I first heard about it I thought it was totally crazy!

I know that creating a balanced edit is a skill, and we do miss SG and his HHT's. But what do you all think about only the Tournament host knowing the details of an edit, and the teams get to see it for the very first time together, and get to examine and figure it out and determine the best strategy to use at the same time? Not during some pre-tournament practice, but in the actual tournament it's self.

I dislike the idea, and second SG's HHT edits were everything but balanced!!!

That was SG for you. I rather had fun in a couple of the HHT's that I played.

Sure the edits may have been unbalanced but that's what made it fun.

I agree some were better then others, but in a situation like that, SG wrote the edit and also played in it. If you were to do like cruncher is suggesting, the writer of the edit and his corp would have a huge advantage over the rest!!! Thats why I think its a bad idea, 95% of the past tournaments (biggames/drafts/HHT's/Dupe chess and so on) the people that wrote the edit also brought a corp, thats why I dont think it will work!!

No, what I'm suggesting is since the host of Tournaments never play the game, that the host decide on the edit.

No one playing the game gets a preview.

Since I don't play winter tournaments, I'm too busy this time of year. I could come up with an original edit and host a game. I've been offering a tournament mode game that has edits as close to the '98 BOTE as I could get with TWGS. However, on my server this tournament mode game does have some delays on for players who may appreciate them.

I'm talking about an original edit, I won't play, and all delays will be off, with exception to ship movement will be set to 100ms for data stability.

I do not recall that Space Ghost started the tradition of posting the settings before the bang. To the contrary, my recollection is that he did not.

He might have in later years, after others had done so. I remember that he invited comments on game settings before a bang; not quite the same.

I agree with Cruncher: Posting the TWA just panders to the script kiddies.

Kavanagh

Im not playing in any tourny, but I also agree that I think keeping game settings hush to players until the game starts adds a bit more challenge.

There would only be a handfull of sysops that I would trust enough to keep the edit out of the hands of "their buddies". The way we have been doing it the last few years by handing out the edit in advance is the ONLY sure way to keep the game fair and above board. Also you are taking out the advantage of team preparation. If you are too lazy to study an edit in advance, then you don't deserve to win.
So No, I wouldn't play a tournament set up this way.

It might be interesting for a tournament to use a brand new edit that none of the players have any experience with. But in any case, the TWA should be available to all the players or none of the players. I dislike edits with "hidden" ways to make easy money (extremely valuable escape pods, etc.) and I don't think they're ever appropriate for tournaments.

If its on V2, we arent play! Second like ICE, HHT and so on, players always made the edit and asked a server to host it!!! Next time your trying to get a point across use the right example!!!

Yeah I agree. Tournament games should be close to stock, nothing too crazy in the edit, but just some "tweaks" to make you think a bit about just how you're going to accomplish something.

I'm just longing for some of the earlier games. We knew just a few basics going in, sectors (always 5k then), number of corp members, and turns and time limits. And that was about it. Everything else you had to discover on your own as you played the game.

I can host one, but I'd like to play one too, in the summer when I have more time. So maybe RP or another host who's "trusted" by all can host a game like this.

I just have to ask...

What's the difference between a tournament and a regular game? Seems like these days all someone needs to do is give it a name like "ABC Tournament" and just like that, it is a tournament even though maybe just 3 or 4 teams show up.

To me, a tournament is not a tournament unless there are several teams, not just 2 or 3.

Here's a thought. Why not have those who are active in the boards I.E. Timberwolve, Micro, Kav, Mob, or T0yman make a edit (Providing they would volunteer to do it) who are active in the board who really don't play games on a regular basis make a edit. Those who were mentioned above I do believe do not have any REAL affiliation with any one designated corp. That would make it fair and balanced IMHO.

A tournament is in tournament mode, death limit game. At least that's how I see them.

And I agree, it would be nice to see more organized teams playing. There are probably 4-5 teams that I know of right now, but I've never seen them all in the same game yet.

Tournament games usually attract the most competitive and aggressive players, not for the casual crowd.