scarth
Senior Squid
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2015
- Messages
- 74
Splatoon's competitive scene currently has a number of major issues. This post seeks to describe these issues and offer a solution that maintains the core idea of tournament gameplay while making it significantly more enjoyable and accessible to teams of all skill levels or flexibility of playtime. I apologize in advance as my writing is definitely influenced by playing 2 tournaments this weekend just past, which probably wasn't the best decision
Currently, there are tournaments every weekend. This past weekend had 2 one-day tournaments which while organised, is too many. Being obligated to play in a ~5 hour tournament every week is stressful and eventually simply not enjoyable, for both high level and low level teams, due to the power gap. I made the mistake of being too keen to play in both of them, but that's my fault, however I can imagine for teams of 4 or 5 that it's hard work for them. Very often rounds that I play end in 10-15 minutes then we're left to sit around for the next 35-40 minutes waiting for the next round. It's noones fault, just that there's a difference in skill that lets us win quickly and makes the opposing team feel bad and us feeling unfulfilled, I personally feel a bit bad about denying these other teams a chance for fun and fair competition.
For example, in the Nintendome 10k tournament, my team was matched against a team who failed to fully show up and ended up fielding only 3 players. After the first game we found these players were about B+ or A- average, and because of that we were easily able to beat them. I'm sure they had no fun being cannon fodder and we didn't enjoy ourselves playing against them.
What I propose:
A number of other shooter games use a league system such as TF2 and CSGO. This system stretches out tournaments so that instead of funneling 8 hours worth of games into one day, the rounds are spread over a period of time and can be played at the discretion of both teams. This has a wealth of benefits which I'm sure are obvious, but to list a few it helps people who have work on the weekend, who attend church on Sundays or have other commitments that mean they can't play. It also helps alot with time zone differences, for example my team is mostly European meaning they often stay up until the early morning, while I wake up at 5-6am for tournaments.
Another feature of leagues is the use of divisions. As I said before there's a big power gap between the top teams and those below them, further, group stages often feel like a chore, with top teams bullying out lower skilled teams and scaring them off from tournament play. Having divisions in place is just more fun for everyone, and encourages more entry level or experimental teams to have a go at the game they love. Divisions could be constructed from taking a team's average rank, or their past tournament performance.
At the end of the 'season' whether that's a month or 6 weeks or something, a finals day could be held that pits the top scoring teams from each division into a single or double elimination tournament. This would create a nice climax to the league and makes it feel alot more special than having tournaments every weekend and would get more eyes on streams, which I know you all want.
tl;dr
Oversaturation of tournaments makes playing them less enjoyable for everyone when lower skilled teams are forced to play against higher skilled teams if they want to compete
Proposed solution: League system that stretches out a tournament over a couple of weeks allowing people to play games at a time that suits both teams. Skill divisions. Finals day that has the top scoring 1 or 2 teams from each division play in a single or double elimination format.
Thanks to Lem
Currently, there are tournaments every weekend. This past weekend had 2 one-day tournaments which while organised, is too many. Being obligated to play in a ~5 hour tournament every week is stressful and eventually simply not enjoyable, for both high level and low level teams, due to the power gap. I made the mistake of being too keen to play in both of them, but that's my fault, however I can imagine for teams of 4 or 5 that it's hard work for them. Very often rounds that I play end in 10-15 minutes then we're left to sit around for the next 35-40 minutes waiting for the next round. It's noones fault, just that there's a difference in skill that lets us win quickly and makes the opposing team feel bad and us feeling unfulfilled, I personally feel a bit bad about denying these other teams a chance for fun and fair competition.
For example, in the Nintendome 10k tournament, my team was matched against a team who failed to fully show up and ended up fielding only 3 players. After the first game we found these players were about B+ or A- average, and because of that we were easily able to beat them. I'm sure they had no fun being cannon fodder and we didn't enjoy ourselves playing against them.
What I propose:
A number of other shooter games use a league system such as TF2 and CSGO. This system stretches out tournaments so that instead of funneling 8 hours worth of games into one day, the rounds are spread over a period of time and can be played at the discretion of both teams. This has a wealth of benefits which I'm sure are obvious, but to list a few it helps people who have work on the weekend, who attend church on Sundays or have other commitments that mean they can't play. It also helps alot with time zone differences, for example my team is mostly European meaning they often stay up until the early morning, while I wake up at 5-6am for tournaments.
Another feature of leagues is the use of divisions. As I said before there's a big power gap between the top teams and those below them, further, group stages often feel like a chore, with top teams bullying out lower skilled teams and scaring them off from tournament play. Having divisions in place is just more fun for everyone, and encourages more entry level or experimental teams to have a go at the game they love. Divisions could be constructed from taking a team's average rank, or their past tournament performance.
At the end of the 'season' whether that's a month or 6 weeks or something, a finals day could be held that pits the top scoring teams from each division into a single or double elimination tournament. This would create a nice climax to the league and makes it feel alot more special than having tournaments every weekend and would get more eyes on streams, which I know you all want.
tl;dr
Oversaturation of tournaments makes playing them less enjoyable for everyone when lower skilled teams are forced to play against higher skilled teams if they want to compete
Proposed solution: League system that stretches out a tournament over a couple of weeks allowing people to play games at a time that suits both teams. Skill divisions. Finals day that has the top scoring 1 or 2 teams from each division play in a single or double elimination format.
Thanks to Lem
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