Awq's Pet Battle Tournament ~ 1 Feb 15:00 EU

[Awq]

Awq's Pet Battle Tournament EU
I am setting up a pet battle tournament!
I have always enjoyed the previous tournaments that I entered. Sadly these tournaments are rare, that's is why I am organizing my own tournament.

What is the Tournament?
It is a bunch of people who will do pet battles with each other.
The tournament will follow a specific format. There will be some rules, rules are needed to make this competition fair. I do believe that a friendly competition can be lots of fun. I hope that you will agree.

For who is the Tournament
The tournament is for players who play on the EU servers. Else we can't invite you.
This tournament is hosted for people who enjoy pet battle pvp. If you are relatively new to pet pvp, this is no problem. I am sure that there will be other players without much experience. There however will be players who do have experience.
It is recommended that you have at least 9 level 25 pets.

Where?
Silvermoon-EU Alliance. Darnassus.
It does not matter if you do not have a character on Silvermoon. You can always make a level 1 Night Elf on Silvermoon.*

When?
1 Feb 2015
15:00 Game Time

How do I join?
You submit your 3 teams @ awqxyo@gmail.com
The deadline is: Friday 30-01, 23:00

Example
Name: Awq
Team 1: Gold Beetle, Rabbit, Mulgore Hatchling
Team 2: Darkmoon Tonk, Warbot, Pet Bombling
Team 3:Tiny Snowman, Father Winter's Helper, Winter Reindeer

Rules
Players must play on the EU.
Players must submit 3 teams before 23:00 on Friday 30-01(e-mail me awqxyo@gmail.com)
Players must use these three teams throughout the tournament.
Players can use a pet only once throughout their teams.
Players must have 6 unique pets near max level.
All pets, minus Egbert (:D), are allowed.
Players must keep a friendly atmosphere. It is about everyone having fun.

Format
The battles will follow fixed rules.

Matches
Your three teams will fight another players three teams.
It will be a best of three, the first person who wins two matches has won the match.

You can pick any of your three teams as starting team. Your team keeps fighting until it loses a fight or wins the match. After you have lost a fight you have to use a different team.

I can best describe it through an example:
Team 1 Darkmoon Ape, Darkmoon Cub, Crystal Spider vs Team 2 Gold Beetle, Rabbit, Mulgore Hatchling (Team 1 wins the fight)
Team 1 Darkmoon Ape, Darkmoon Cub, Crystal Spider vs Team 2 Brown Marmot, Stone Armadillo, Peanut (Team 1 wins the fight)
Team 1 wins the match.

Team 1 Darkmoon Ape, Darkmoon Cub, Crystal Spider vs Team 2 Gold Beetle, Rabbit, Mulgore Hatchling (Team 1 wins the fight)
Team 1 Darkmoon Ape, Darkmoon Cub, Crystal Spider vs Team 2 Darkmoon Tonk, Warbot, Pet Bombling (Team 2 wins the fight)
Team 1 Arcane Eye, Mana Wyrmling, Mini-Mindslayer vs Team 2 Darkmoon Tonk, Warbot, Pet Bombling (Team 2 wins the fight)
Team 2 wins the match.

If a fights lasts 100 rounds, it will count as a loss for both players. In the case that such a loss occurs at 1-1, both teams will technically have lost.

Tournament
There will be a group phase. The players will be divided in 2 groups. Everyone will fight the other players in their group. The top 2 of a group, as in the people with the most wins, will move on to a knock-out system.
In case of a tie the person with the lowest number of losses moves through.

Then the players will enter a knock-out system.
Match 1: #1 of Group1 will fight #2 of Group2.
Match 2: #2 of Group1 will fight #1 of Group2.

Winner Match 1 fights Winner Match 2 for First & Second Place
Loser Match 1 fights loser Match 2 for Third & Fourth Place

-The numbers of groups, and the number of players in the knock-out phase can change, it depends on the number of players that participate in the tournament-

Rewards
There will be pets for the players who rank the highest in this tournament (top 4). It won't be anything major, it will be a nice memorial.

1st place: Blackfuse Bombling
2nd place: Frostwolf Pup
3rd place: Weebomination
4th place: Teroclaw Hatchling


Additional Info
I have always really enjoyed these tournaments. I hope that there is enough interest.
If you have any questions/comments; feel free to ask it in this thread or else you can email me.
I'll gladly answer any question that you might have. If you have any ideas, or feel like giving your feedback, please do so! This is the first time that I am organizing a tournament, and I am sure that I am making/will make rookie mistakes.**

Contact info: awqxyo@gmail.com

*I do not have the room to accept all Battle tags. If someones is willing to invite others through Battle.net, this would be great. I however strongly recommend making a level 1 on Silvermoon.

**When there isn't enough interest I will cancel this event.

[Awq]

Start
We all arrived in Darnassus. Most of us came on level 1's! We all arrived on time. People brought out their pets, their biscuits and their toys. The chat felt very relaxed, there was a great atmosphere. We talked a lot about pets/pet battles and we learned that most of us don't visit Darnassus frequently.
Sadly there was one person who didn't make it, since he/she was confused about the date.

We even had a small audience during (some of the) matches. Some people had heard about the tournament, and wanted to check it out!

Teams
We had sent in our teams throughout the weak. Everyone brought out unique teams that you normally don't find on ladder. I was surprised by the high quality of the teams that everyone had sent in. the other tournaments that I joined had a lot more random teams. It could be everyones game.

Awq's teams
Team A: Blighthawk, Royal Peacock, Tiny Blue Carp.
Team B: Darkmoon Tonk, Infested Bear Cub, Spineclaw Crab.
Team C: Qiraji Guardling, Spectral Porcupette, Unborn Val'Kyr.

Beast_master's teams
Team A: Chi-Chi, Macabre Marionette, Pandaren Earth Spirit.
Team B: Ominous Flame, Rotten Little Helper, Stormwing.
Team C: Mr. Wiggles, Ore Eater, Tundra Penguin.

Ceyla's teams
Team A: Bronze Whelpling, Sun Sproutling, Weebomination.
Team B: Curious Wolvar Pup, Darkmoon Rabbit, Snarly.
Team C: Hydraling, Macabre Marionette, Son of Animus.

Topaz's teams
Team A: Anubisath Idol, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Unborn Val'kyr.
Team B: Death Adder Hatchling, Gilnean Raven, Lil' Ragnaros,
Team C: Fiendish Imp, Ominous Flame, Son of Sethe.

Tournament
Then the battles started. We had decided on one big group. The top two would fight each other in a finale.
I had made papers with our names. After randomly drawing two names we had our first two matches.

We had our first matches: Awq vs Beast_Master ended 2-0; Ceyla vs Topaz ended 1-2. Then our second matches: Awq vs Topaz ended 0-2; Ceyla vs Beast_Master ended 2-1.

It was a complete tie. As i originally thought, it was all very even. The last round would decide who would move through to the finals. We had close matches. Awq vs Topaz ended 2-1; Beast_Master vs Ceyla ended 2-1. So Beast_Master and me moved on to the final.

I won after a very very close match. The event ended up being 1.5 hour of pet fun! We then had our price hand-outs and made an official ranking to end the event with style.

Thank You!
I would like thank you all for signing up. I really appreciate it. The tournament felt really easy, casual and fun because of all of you. You were great and set up a great atmosphere. Thank you for that.
Thank you for creating interesting teams. It was fun to fight each of you.

Notes of critique
I loved the format. Choosing three teams (and using two) was a nice experience. It added an element of strategy that I liked. It also helped balancing out match-ups.

However, I would not recommend this format for future tournaments. It's tougher to find people for a best of three tournament. It sounded too formal, or to strategic. It alienated some players who enjoy tournaments.
I would also reduce the time to submit teams to 1 hour before the event (with this format). This would make it easier to find participants.

[Awq]

Screenshots

We arrived in Darnassus. We were waiting for the fifth participant. Pets came out. People used their fun toys. We learned that you sadly can not pet duel while you are wrapped in amber.


The duels have begun! I started out against Zoltan! We both used teams that you normally don't see on the ladder.


You can see one fight in the foreground and the other fight in the background!


The tournament is done. Topaz came with the great idea to find a more fitting location for a ranking.


We found a good location. We showed our 1, 2 and shared 3 as an ending for the event.

Thank you all for joining and making this event much fun!

*Sorry for the formatting of the lay-out. You can press 'view image' or go to the url for a better image.

[Beast_mast0r]

Great stuff, I'll see what I can devise for it

Is there going to be a time or rounds limit? What if two stall teams go against each other?
Or just a stall team, hmm, stalling indefinitely?

[Awq]

I am glad that you are interested! I really hope that we do get enough players to make this a success.
And I really appreciate it that you have given it some thought. It's awesome, thank you for your feedback!

Stall teams did not occur to me. People did not use stall teams in the tournaments that I've joined.
"If a fights lasts 100 rounds, it will count as a loss for both players. In the case that such a loss occurs at 1-1, both teams will technically have lost".
This strongly discourages stall teams. Great feedback! Thank you for making this tournament better.

[Rendigar]

You may also wish do a fixed number of minutes per round at maximum, because 100 turns to a forced loss for both can take a long time if one person chooses to stall just by waiting to the last second to choose their move, 100 times. Unfortunately I'm not on EU so cannot participate - but I have to ask, why no Egberts (is it not available on EU or something I am missing)?

[Melfice]

Only EU players can enter this Tournament? If so, I cant because I play on a NA server

[Awq]

You may also wish do a fixed number of minutes per round at maximum, because 100 turns to a forced loss for both can take a long time if one person chooses to stall just by waiting to the last second to choose their move, 100 times.

Most stall teams (Sunlight) are countered by burst, a single pet with strong healing, aquatics, weather setters amongst other things. I really don't see them as that competitive, or do I expect it to be a problem. Stall team vs stall team has been a non-issue in the past tournaments that I entered.

I am honestly expecting that people will say 'Wanna make it a Draw?' before the 100 turns end. There generally has been a great atmosphere in pet tournaments. It is not anonymous like the queue. I certainly do not expect a player to consciously skip turns.

I am strongly against a time limit. If anything, a time-limit encourages stalling between turns imo. If you are in a fight that you would lose, you are encouraged to take as long as possible so that both players will get a loss.
In case that stalling becomes a problem (as in, a few people are taking much longer than the others) I prefer to have alternative content available for those who wait.

why no Egberts (is it not available on EU or something I am missing)

No real reason! It was a (bad) joke.

Only EU players can enter this Tournament? If so, I cant because I play on a NA server

You can always organize your own pet tournament!

[Celya]

I'm cautiously interested in this, will have to think a bit because I tend to lean towards "fun" rather than competitive pvp teams, and not sure yet if I can make that date. Will email to confirm, if so.

How long do you expect the tournament to last? Or is it dependant on the nr of participants?

[Rendigar]

I understand your line of thinking, and can see what you mean. I've done competitive CCG tournaments (even ran them) and rounds always had a fixed end time (not games, rounds) because the tourney has to move on. And some CCG's don't have a fixed end possible (like # of turns) due to the mechanics of the cards. Pokemon had the limited # of pets total on each side to cycle thru (at most) but still some games would hit the time limit before one player or the other won completely (which is why rules for who the winner is in each state existed). You certainly sound like you've got this well in hand, though, so I wish you good luck. Plus you aren't doing anything crazy like giving out CE pets, which would attract the type of people who WOULD lower themselves to whatever tactics needed to win, of which stalling is the least of them.

[Awq]

I'm cautiously interested in this, will have to think a bit because I tend to lean towards "fun" rather than competitive pvp teams, and not sure yet if I can make that date. Will email to confirm, if so.

Thank you for showing interest. Please consider (near the end of next week) if you feel like coming/are free.

From my experience, most people use fun teams. Only the minority at these tournaments play 'competitive' teams. Most players just come because it is a pet battle event, or because it sounds fun!
It might be different in this case because of the format, but I doubt it.

How long do you expect the tournament to last? Or is it dependant on the nr of participants?

Thank you for asking this question. I forgot to discuss the duration of the event. I'm sure that others were wondering the same thing.

I honestly can't give a approximation. It is dependent of the nr of participants and the type of teams they run.
My guess would be somewhere between 45m and 1h45m.I will update it when I know more (even then it will be a guess).

I'll bump/update this thread when I know more.

[Beast_mast0r]

I am glad that you are interested! I really hope that we do get enough players to make this a success.
And I really appreciate it that you have given it some thought. It's awesome, thank you for your feedback!

Stall teams did not occur to me. People did not use stall teams in the tournaments that I've joined.
"If a fights lasts 100 rounds, it will count as a loss for both players. In the case that such a loss occurs at 1-1, both teams will technically have lost".
This strongly discourages stall teams. Great feedback! Thank you for making this tournament better.

Thanks for the feedback! Are you participating too Awq? i mean,you won't only be working right?

[Celya]

In that case I'll just mail you 3 teams I've been using in the past week and see how it goes.

[Awq]

-Updated pets for top 4-

Yea, I will be participating too! I am looking forward to it.

Thank you Celya for signing up!

[Awq]

We need more sign-ups!

[Awq]

The tournament is tomorrow. I've sent you all an email with relevant information (the teams and other details). Thanks a lot for signing up. Let's have some awesome battles.

On a related note. We could use one more sign-up in case someone is bored/free. It would make the group phase smoother.

Sorry for the same-posting!

[Beast_mast0r]

Everything was great and fun! 10/10
I'm looking forward for the next!:D

[Topaz]

Although we were only 4 members it was still super fun. learned some new tricks I never thought about. Looking forward for the next tournament.
I encourage everyone to join, everyone was really friendly and the fight were all in good spirit.

Kudos Awq!

[Celya]

I had a LOT of fun doing this. Turns out we were pretty evenly matched, with most of the fights going 2:1, so my biggest fear (getting totally roflstomped being the amateur amongst all the professionals) turned out to be groundless.

It helped to be able to talk to your opponent during fights.

I would be very happy to participate in similar events in future.

Thanks Awq for the effort!

[Awq]

Thank you all for signing up. I really enjoyed it! I do want to organize another tournament in the future. I do like having quite some time between tournaments, but you will read about it on here!

I could recommend anyone to organize a tournament. It turned out to be a lot of fun!

I was busy throughout the week, and I did not get to write/post screen shots. But I've finally updated the posts