Best way to do playoff matches?

[Ikrit]

Ok, just looking for a bit of input here on how to make the playoffs fair to all competitors since I know many people will have different work schedules or are in a different time zone than their opponent.

A couple of ways that have been mentioned so far are:

1. A system where every hour you can PM the bot with !here and the player with the most !here's counted by the bot when the alotted time for that specific match is up wins. Possible factors in the !here thing are like being required to be there for the entire hour and if your opponent shows up when you're gone you lose a large number of your !here's or just flat out lose the match... you would be able to do !nothere or whatever to lose the point if you know you're going to be gone.

2. Match scheduling through bot... two players agree on a time and if one player doesn't show up, he loses.


Anyway, if you have an idea, please post or comment on these two possibilities.

[Mutton]

Problems with:

System 1) It's possible to game the system to your advantage if you simply have more time on your hands than your opponent. Many of the best players have jobs and limited time to play tw, so an opponent with more free time than skill can beat them by purposefully avoiding a duel.

System 2) This system is nice, but it will require a fair bit of work and still doesn't address the situations when both players don't show, or both players can't agree on a match time.

IMO, the automatic duel adjudication system should be designed such that:

1) For both participants, actually holding the duel is always preferable to avoiding it.

2) It needs to provide a clear and fair way to resolve matches that do not take place.

3) Automatic resolutions should be weighted by metrics that are relevant to the probable outcome of a duel, if it were held (e.g., based perhaps on rating, but not on the amount of free time someone has to idle in tw).

4) It should be simple and straightforward to implement. This will allow us to avoid buggy implementations and requiring too much of Ikrit's time.

The best method that I can think of right now would be randomized selection, weighted by your rating and duel history if the participants have dueled eachother previously.

Implementing such a system is simple and gives you a compelling incentive to show up for a duel. There is no way to effectively game the system such that avoiding a duel gives you a significantly better chance of advancing than actually dueling. While rating isn't a terribly reliable approximation of skill, and therefore not a metric with which you can accurately determine the odds of a duel, it's probably the best thing we have to work with.

[Ikrit]

Well, right now we're looking at 128 player wb, 128 player jav, and 64 player spider... so we could have the !here thing and then I review those cases where the match does take place and pick a winner or d/q both... it'd only be 160 matches first round and I don't think that too many will have a problem having the duel if there is like 2 weeks for first round.

[Mutton]

Since the goal has changed from an automatic system to a system that will help you resolve un-held matches on a case-by-case basis, how about simply basing your decision on matches held vs other playoff participants? You won't have to code any additional features into the bot, and a player that can participate in many matches vs other people in the playoffs is very likely to be able to make his duel match in the next round. In case both players are able to have matches with other playoff participants (but not their opponent for that round), the matches will give you good recent information on which to base your decision. If both players are unable to have matches with any other playoff participants, you'd probably want to d/q both of them, as it's probable that neither will be able to participate in the next round anyway.

[Jones]

a solution would be you logging into the site and suggest some times you will be online. like when 2 capts negotiating a time for their twl game.

how will the duels go? best out of 3 or only 1 to 10.

also some peoples ratings have dropped since sept. its almost december now fyi.
not many people may have that problem though.

oh and as a last thing to notice i am 3 positions from spider playoffs after 5 games, that sucks :/

[Ikrit]

Ok, the way that I think it's going to happen is what 2d came up with. Every hour the bot will PM every playoff player and they have 5 minutes to go and pm the bot with !yes # to get credit. If their opponent shows up to duel in those 5 minutes and does the !yes # thing the duel starts. Everytime you do the !yes # you get a point and the player with the most points at the end of the round time limit thing wins if the match hasn't taken place. You can also arrange your own match times with your opponent and do !tchallenge # and they do !yes # to get the match started.

The main reason for going with this system over advancing the "better" player (higher ranked) is that we need people that are really active so we don't have 20 matches in the second round that don't happen :P.

[RATTY...]

I didn't get the first part, but it sounded retarded.