How do rulesets work for competitive shooters?

[The Apple BOOM]

My real concern is how loadouts will be handled. If it's a bring your own console event or online tourney, everything is fine, but if it's a laid out venue like a Smash or FGC event, there needs to be some rules about equipment.

 

[Lyn]

Just brackets, and the game is generally played normally. It really depends on the Tournament Host.

 

[Cloudy]

Having this sort of discussion when custom matches won't be a thing until August is odd but early rulesets will be chosen once dedicated players get the hang of ranked matches right?

 

[JBtheHunter]

It varies from shooter to shooter, of course. Just like for any other genre. But let's be clear that Smash and Splatoon really have very little in common, so it wouldn't make sense to pull anything from Smash.

For other shooters, here's how it works: tournaments establish a number of "gametypes" that can be played during a match. A gametype is a combination of a multiplayer mode and a map. So, for example, Turf War on Saltspray Rig would be considered one gametype.

Then, the organizers essentially plan out which gametypes are played for which game and during which round. So, for example, a gametype list may look a little like this example:

Round 2 (Winners Bracket)
Game 1: Turf War/Saltspray Rig
Game 2: Tower Control/Urchin Underpass
Game 3: Splat Zones/Walleye Warehouse

In this example, two teams are playing a best of 3. These are the gametypes for each game. There's no counterpicking or stage striking like in Smash - everything is laid out beforehand.

Everything else is pretty simple - certain amount of players, they pick their sets, they play their matches using the gametype's win conditions.

If that's the case then I hope Splatoon tournaments just do it semi-Smash style, with stage striking and counterpicking and keeping the modes separate. Ideally, the different modes should be different tournament events. I'd love to watch a Turf War only tournament with every stage legal. The strategies I'm imagining are mouthwatering.

 

[DNE]

How short Splatoon's game modes are duration-wise reminds me of Counter Strike. Competitive Counter Strike uses 1 game mode in tournaments which is a bomb arming and defusing mode; I believe it is done this way to 1 keep the competitive community unified and because it has the most interesting gameplay from a spectator standpoint. Matches are generally best of 3 or 5. Each of these games takes place on a different map. Within each game teams go back and forth playing first to 15 round wins, and after the first 15 rounds teams switch their roles on the map. A single game generally lasts somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour. So full matches can be quite long.

Regarding some people commenting on spawn camping and what not on certain maps, I think the point is that rounds are supposed to be fast and decisive; there is completely the possibility that a team will get shut out of a round, but that's okay because they're short and you can just look to not let it happen next round. It seems to me with how fast-paced and decisive Splatoon's game modes are, some sort of format like the CS format where you play many rounds on a single map for each game would be best.

First to 15 for each game and then having to do a best of 3 or 5 beyond that may be too long for people in this game so of course we'd have to experiment with the specifics, but I like the idea of this kind of format.

 

[HaDeeZ]

(game likely won't have any)

I mean that sub weapon that we saw in the Direct that makes you temporarily invincible looks like it will need to go. as will the locator stuff.

 

[TheRapture]

I mean that sub weapon that we saw in the Direct that makes you temporarily invincible looks like it will need to go. as will the locator stuff.

Until it's somehow abused to win tournaments, it's not necessarily worthy of a ban imo

 

[The Apple BOOM]

I'm with Rapture. It shouldn't be banned unless proven to be a detriment to competitive play. I'm especially a fan of how Smogon handles this.

 

[Agosta44]

I'm with Rapture. It shouldn't be banned unless proven to be a detriment to competitive play. I'm especially a fan of how Smogon handles this.

By banning things with multiple sets?

 

[The Apple BOOM]

By banning things with multiple sets?

By testing things out for a while and then having the best players that tested discuss it and vote.

 

[RespawningJesus]

I mean that sub weapon that we saw in the Direct that makes you temporarily invincible looks like it will need to go. as will the locator stuff.

I think you are talking about the Echo-locator, and the Bubbler Special Weapons. Sub weapons are grenades and whatnot. Anyways, the Echolocator, has only 5 seconds worth of time on it, much like the other Specials. It will also be most likely canceled if you can kill the Inkling who has it active. And the Bubbler is balanced, since if you take a hit when it is on, then you get bounced back a little, depending on how powerful the attack that hits you is. You also need to be pretty close to your teammates for them to receive the bubble as well. Like the Echo-locator, the Bubbler also lasts only 5 seconds.

 

[Setu]

Nothing should be banned unless there is a clear advantage that is present by a large margin. Banning the locator weapons will make it harder to counter spawn camping, as previous stated.

 

[Aweshucks]

I find it funny how quickly this thread deteriorated into trying to ban things, especially since it was right after someone warned about the dangers of being ban-happy.

If that's the case then I hope Splatoon tournaments just do it semi-Smash style, with stage striking and counterpicking and keeping the modes separate. Ideally, the different modes should be different tournament events. I'd love to watch a Turf War only tournament with every stage legal. The strategies I'm imagining are mouthwatering.

I disagree. I think diversity among modes during competitive play will help keep gameplay fresh and interesting for both competitors and viewers. Not to mention, it requires greater skill and knowledge to be better at all of them. An example of a community that does this would be TF2, I believe. I haven't followed it in a while, but I think they play multiple modes.

 

[DNE]

I find it funny how quickly this thread deteriorated into trying to ban things, especially since it was right after someone warned about the dangers of being ban-happy.

I disagree. I think diversity among modes during competitive play will help keep gameplay fresh and interesting for both competitors and viewers. Not to mention, it requires greater skill and knowledge to be better at all of them. An example of a community that does this would be TF2, I believe. I haven't followed it in a while, but I think they play multiple modes.

Multiple modes works, though each mode needs to not be in any ways unbalanced of course. And it being better for viewers depends primarily on how interesting each game mode's meta is, but that isn't something anyone will be sure of for a while.

 

[RespawningJesus]

Multiple modes works, though each mode needs to not be in any ways unbalanced of course. And it being better for viewers depends primarily on how interesting each game mode's meta is, but that isn't something anyone will be sure of for a while.

Good thing we have until August to try out these things, and figure stuff out.

 

[Aweshucks]

Multiple modes works, though each mode needs to not be in any ways unbalanced of course.

Obviously we can't say anything for sure, but everything so far seems pretty balanced if not just because everything is symmetrical. Each team has the same resources and objectives

 

[Kayeka]

Obviously we can't say anything for sure, but everything so far seems pretty balanced if not just because everything is symmetrical. Each team has the same resources and objectives

Another way the game could be unbalanced is by making an having a team ready to completely stomp the rest of the match once they've got an early lead. Though that too doesn't seem to be a real concern for Splatoon, or at least Turf Wars, considering how often turnabouts happen.

 

[Whisp3r]

It varies from shooter to shooter, of course. Just like for any other genre. But let's be clear that Smash and Splatoon really have very little in common, so it wouldn't make sense to pull anything from Smash.

For other shooters, here's how it works: tournaments establish a number of "gametypes" that can be played during a match. A gametype is a combination of a multiplayer mode and a map. So, for example, Turf War on Saltspray Rig would be considered one gametype.

Then, the organizers essentially plan out which gametypes are played for which game and during which round. So, for example, a gametype list may look a little like this example:

Round 2 (Winners Bracket)
Game 1: Turf War/Saltspray Rig
Game 2: Tower Control/Urchin Underpass
Game 3: Splat Zones/Walleye Warehouse

In this example, two teams are playing a best of 3. These are the gametypes for each game. There's no counterpicking or stage striking like in Smash - everything is laid out beforehand.

Everything else is pretty simple - certain amount of players, they pick their sets, they play their matches using the gametype's win conditions.

I think that this sort of rule set would work really well with splatoon. I think variety of game modes is good because it means that players have have to be good at all game types and stops them from only practising one thing. It's not like in smash where the other modes don't do a good job of differentiating the skill of opponents or have too many random elements (time match, items). It seems to me that in all the game modes the better team will probably win as there is very little luck involved and all the modes have pretty much 0 bias towards one team or the other. Unless a mode is really bad I don't see why we shouldn't play them.
I do think it would be interesting to have some sort of map picking process, maybe similar to CS:GO's system, but this would be hard to balance if game modes were already chosen as it could be more beneficial to choose the map for one game mode than the other.

 

[thefro]

The only caveat to map-picking is you'd want some sort of pre-set list for each tournament. Strategy and good roll-outs matter and I wouldn't expect every team to practice every map/mode (especially if we get up to 20+ maps for the game after a year or so).