THE CUP

From Armagetron

Ideally, 1,000,000 players congregate on servers dotted around the planet, competing in Fortress teams, until the winning team wins THE TRONIC CUP. How it all goes ahead is determined by players contributing ideas here, and there are different ways of arranged these thought; what follows in one way, but feel free to add your own. Make use of the discussion options for each page, and use the forums to voice ideas before committing them here.

preparations

At this stage (TRONICv1.2), it is too early to be precise with any plans, however the long-view thinkers amoungst us may have some vague notions of how such an event may be realised. Most of the work shall be done in preparation so that the event on the day may have the chance of running smoothly.

initial individual registration

Players can do this now. By investing their £1 now, the set the ball in motion. Click on the paypal button to register your ARMAGETRON name, and remember to include a note of your name in your entryfee.

£1 €1 $1?

team registration

Players first have to organise themselves into teams. Perhaps players have the chance of playing on different teams... and as the day of the CUP draws near, they have to make decisions on which teams they play. Perhaps players have the option of playing on different teams. When it comes down to it, the teams need to be registered so that on the day, team-pairing is easy and records of wins and losses are easily tabulated.

finding your team

server allocation

Stuff to do with PING so that players have reasonable, acceptable PING. If there are enough players and hence servers, players will tend to play others nearby so that PING is roughly equivalent. Towards the end of the competition, neutral, recommended servers, are used to home the finals.

standardised fortress settings

Probably as they are on CVS Test Server. Although different servers and clients may translate them, this should as much as possible be standardised. Any variation between servers can be a matter of more popular, recommended servers.

reaching 1,000,000 players

Something like a marketing strategy. Is it through word of mouth... through advertising.. can players encourage others to join by posting invitations in other game forums. At the root of it all, however, is the game itself. It is essential that the first experience a player has of the game is a pleasurable one, and hence some thought must be paid to how new players are treated. If the growth is exponential (as things seem to be on the net), then at some stage it may be possible to have noob-only servers.

word of mouth
entrancing the noobs

the day

The big day. 1,000,000 players, perhaps up to 64,000 servers, and a lot of sweat.

feasible round-period timing

How is each round run? Can we play 64,000 games simultaneously? Can we spend as long as 1/2hour to determine the result of two teams competing?

basic 1/2hour rounds
Five minutes warm-up, then 15 minute sets where teams battle it out to find the best team out of 3 matches. Additional time is used to rest, and to organise and prepare for the next match.
If there are enough servers, 64,000 games can be played in the first half-hour, then 32,000 games in the second half-hour, etc, with a break of 1/2 hour after 3 hours, then another 1/2 break after 3 hours, then one more break after 2 hours, and the final set. A total of 10 hours from start to finish, the winners having played 4 hours and 15 mins or there-abouts, which players do regularly nowadays!!!!!

tagging team-pairings

What is the system that keeps a tag of the teams and results? How do teams pair up in the first place? Is this all determined before the day? Or can this be determined on the day in a close-to-chaos self-organised way? Is there a strict order of play sequenced play as most tournaments are organised, or is the first-come first-serve matching of teams organised by themselves?

traditional knock-out
Teams have been registered before hand, and times have been set, and servers, so that everyone know who they are playing, and who they may play. This has been done randomly, with the option of seeded teams from THE BOWL (or they might be seeded from a previous CUP competition).
self-organised pairings
If teams have their own credit system, and there is enough time, teams can organise to play other teams who are available, negotiating which servers they play on. There is no need to determine before hand who is to play who, or who will play who, but a system is required to record results. As teams drop out, so the process of pairing teams becomes more skillful as dgo teams avoid playing each other awaiting their first confrontation to be the final of the entire competition.

money distribution

How is the money reallocated? What the percentages to players, developers, designers? Since this is not a major incentive for the original designers, and since the game has been developed through free open-source philosophy, money MUST NOT BE ALLOWED to make the game heavy. The flow of money should be simple, clean and clear, with no aggregation in any body or collective. It is a matter of redistribution of money from individuals to individuals, with no residue, nothing to clogg up our enjoyment; merely a way of redirecting money to those who deserve it (primarily the designers for their vision, the programmers for their work, and the players for their evident skill).

40
40:20
40% goes to the players. This is distributed as £16k to the winning team, and then various percentages to those they beat, so that even the first team they beat on the first round, may win something.
40% goes to the programmers and servers.
20% goes to designers and inspirers whatever their contribution has been.
trust those who do not ask for our money
The money is collected and entrusted to someone, perhaps z-man or Tank Program. They make use of the funds as they see fit through the development of the year. If the competition goes ahead, they should have enough funds to distribute as agreed on this wiki. If not, I trust them to use the money well... to continue making improvements to the game, paying for server and net-time, etc.
credit
Each person will be granted with 1 Credit when they register, so that in THE BOWL, their credit is a useful simulation of what will happen to the money in the real event of THE CUP. It may be that players accrue Credits throughout the competition, round after round, or they only get their winning purse at the end.