Tournaments «Arena»

ATTENTION!!!
The current tournament is canceled. Registration for a new arena tournament is now open. This time with PRIZES. Also, the FORMAT has been changed to reduce randomness and increase skill level.

Now, more details. The current tournament is canceled because only 5 people signed up, and one of them is not responding. A new arena tournament will be launched with a prize of 5000 rubles for the winner. There is no entry fee. The new tournament will be held in a slightly different format, taking into account the main complaints about the "Arena Konwentowa" map.

As I understand it, the main complaints were: monotony (the same creatures always appear, and their quantity is fixed) and excessive randomness (players don't have the opportunity to strategize on the strategic map, and ordinary players can easily defeat experienced players in the final, where much depends on the creatures of the randomly selected cities).

In connection with these complaints, the following changes have been made: players take turns banning one city, then 5 PAIRS OF RANDOM CITIES are generated, from which players take turns eliminating two pairs until only one pair of cities remains. Who goes first is decided by a coin toss. Then, another coin toss is made to determine who chooses a city from the remaining pair (the loser of the coin toss gets the second city from the last pair). Then, another coin toss to determine the colors. After each battle, players switch colors.

The tournament format is BO5, as originally planned. Thus, players have an excellent opportunity to remove the most unbalanced pairs by banning and play a more or less equal pair of cities, where both players have a chance to win, and skill will play a significant role. Thanks to BO5, experienced players have a chance to demonstrate their skill over a long distance of several matches.

Now, regarding the randomness on this map. I played 6 battles on it (with another player) and can say the following. Of course, battles can turn out to be one-sided, often due to magic: Player A chooses a warrior and builds their strategy to counter a mage (let's say, they take disables, tactics for rushing, speed, protection from lightning), and Player B actually plays as a mage, and then the final will be quick and predictable. Or vice versa, Player A prepares for a tough battle of two armies under two warriors, they have no disables, no protection from lightning, but Player B has a mage with 20 spell power, and they have chain lightning and explosion. The warrior cannot cast protection against both elements at once, and they may not be able to rush with all their units at once (no tactics), they don't reduce the opponent's spell power because they have no disables, and that's it, GG. Of course, such finals are possible, and they cannot be called interesting. But here is where there is room for skill or heroic intuition to predict what the opponent will play and choose a hero with such skills and parameters to counter them. In addition, on this map, there can really be intense finals with equal chances for both, with swings and a beautiful endgame - proven.

Now, regarding the randomness of the selected cities. It is clear that the cities' lineups are not equal. But this problem should be solved (or at least minimized) by the new rule of choosing one pair of cities from five proposed ones. In addition, the map authors, it seems, have taken some measures to balance the game. Among the cities whose lineups seem weak, it was possible to test the undead, fortress, and inferno. The undead have been boosted by the fact that the number of creatures in each tier is higher than the average number for other cities, with the exception of upgraded vampires (there are fewer of them than other upgraded tier 4 creatures) and upgraded liches (there are as many of them as other upgraded tier 5 units). Thanks to this, the undead do not look like outsiders, probably somewhere in the middle of the list. The fortress has increased stacks of tier 6 and 7, and the rest are normal, only there are fewer upgraded gorgons, but given their parameters and abilities, they still look formidable. The result is a very meaty lineup with good damage and extremely unpleasant creature abilities. Definitely not an outsider. The inferno, as if, was forgotten to be boosted - the number of units is plus or minus average. I didn't get to test the stronghold. In any case, the rule of choosing 1 pair of cities from 5 gives the opportunity to avoid unbalanced pairs.

Regarding monotony. On this map, you can assemble different builds for the same faction based on the available spells, skills, and artifacts. Even the army can be varied in terms of upgraded/non-upgraded stacks, depending on the strategy for a specific battle. And in general, there are 10 cities in the game, so 45 (if no one is banned) different pairs of cities can appear. In my opinion, this is quite varied) Of course, if you play 100500 battles on this map, then it will become boring. But, as I understand it, this format is new for most players, so it will be a while before it gets boring.

If someone is worried about their rating on HW, then okay - reports will be compiled on the games of this tournament, but only to clearly show the results of the games and make it easy to enter them into the tournament table. The games of this tournament do not count towards the HW rating.

Regarding the points for winning and the distribution of places, the rules described in the first post in this topic remain in effect: a match is understood as a confrontation between players until victory in three battles (BO5). 3 points are awarded for winning a match. If the players have the same number of points, then we look at the difference between won and lost battles, then at the Berger coefficient, and then at the result of the personal meeting.
A detailed description of the map is also in the first post of this topic.

The tournament in the new format is conceived as a fast and intense one, so the division into groups will be as follows:

• if there are 8 participants, then this is two groups, from which the first two places go to the playoffs.
• if there are 9 or 10 participants, then also two groups, from which the first two places go.
• if there are 11 participants, then three groups, two of which have 4 people, one has 3 people. The winners of the groups go through, plus one player from second place, who has the best result in terms of points (or according to additional parameters). When comparing those who took 2nd place, the results of games with the last place in the two groups of 4 people will not be taken into account.
• if there are 12 people, then 4 groups of 3 people, the first two places go through and play the playoffs in the A1-B2, B1-A2, C1-D2, D1-C2 system.

More than 12 participants are not accepted, so hurry up, places are limited!😂