Posts from World Team Cup 2019! Discussion about organizing the second world championship.

Any in-game limitations affect the balance just as much as changes to something else. The only difference is what exactly it affects and why it's being done. The HotA rules were tailored to the rules of this portal. We are tailoring the game to our tournament and its rules. Or do you think that limiting the game doesn't affect the game balance and isn't much different from the original?

Regarding HotA, I've already said that HotA doesn't allow you to customize the game as flexibly as SoD. And if I can't disable what I don't like or don't need for a specific format, then there's nothing for me to do in it. I don't accept any mandatory elements for players on a permanent basis without the ability to change them to suit themselves. It doesn't suit me. That's why I don't understand what double standards have to do with it. I've written this many times and said it too. Apparently, I'm hard to understand, or I don't even know.

Regarding improving skills, it's not just in WoG, but also in HotA (magic resistance, scouting, etc.) and some other versions. But I do this temporarily for a specific format (and for the most part, it's about fixing bugs - the rest was just a suggestion for players), while in HotA it's permanent.

If a stalemate situation arises in battle, where one player cannot catch up to the other, and the other cannot kill the first, a draw is recorded in the match, unless one of the players wants to bribe or flee. If, due to morale, a player wants to try to catch up to the other, they can do so up to round 50, after which either a draw is recorded, or they are forced to flee or bribe.

In my opinion, this is a very stupid rule and could be a source of abuse.

Then it would be better to choose a more modest name for the tournament. World Team Cup clearly implies a tournament at least on the level of a world championship. And if so, then you need to live up to (or at least try to live up to) that status.

Well, who can name the champion of the football Olympics? Although the Olympics are prestigious and football is prestigious, and all that.

Before it is the prefix – Tournament Show. The word “world” has every right to be used, at least because participants from different continents will take part in it. During the first championship, the option of a “continental championship” was also considered. But this does not change the essence. In fact, I have never seen and do not see any other world tournaments with such a geographical scope, so there is no competition for the name. If it appears and it will be better – I am ready to change the name easily and without hesitation. I don’t think I have any problems with imagination. Of course, the fact that everything is done without large financial investments, without promotion, without TOP reviews, etc. – I understand. But this is not a reason not to create content that is interesting to someone, in my opinion. I still hope that in the future, I will not be the one doing this, but someone more serious and with greater opportunities. I have almost no support among players or streamers at the TOP level; I always recruit a team from everyone who is willing to help in any way – not because it is better for the tournament, but because we have no other choice. The same applies to other game aspects. We always have a choice: either we do something, at least somehow, or we don’t do it at all. I always try to bring everything from start to finish and try to solve problems as quickly as possible. But when you almost don’t sleep during such large tournaments and when there are few of you in the team – what should you expect? I have said many times – what kind of support, that’s the kind of content. I have contacted many people many times and received either ignoring or refusal in response. This does not apply to you – you have always helped as much as you could, gave advice, but not everyone looks at it that way. Added 2 minutes ago

In my opinion, this is a very stupid rule; it may be a source of abuse.

When playing without rules, such stalemate situations existed before (which is why, when playing with rules, this issue was resolved). If this is prohibited, it will no longer be a game without game rules. This is an opportunity to draw at least a draw when you have a bad hand.

Can I register a creature from the animal world? Otherwise, it feels like discrimination! I'm taking a raccoon into my team.

What about me? I am Jeleń.

I wrote a long post, but then decided against it and deleted it. You guys figure it out.

The post was probably about the differences in balancing with changes and cuts, right? I know the difference, and I also have some ideas about the reasons why it was done this way. Many portals went down this path by cutting parts of the game. But, for example, cutting Necromancers and the Conflux directly affects the balance of cities in the game, which forces players to play the original game not as it was intended, but as the players themselves decided on the portal. Of course, some kind of balancing was needed for tournaments – there are no questions about that. But there are many ways to balance, and none of them will be ideal. For some, nonsense is a game without rules; for others, nonsense is the rules of some portal, etc. Each portal plays by its own rules, but that doesn't make these portals better or worse – they just decided that this would be better. For any rules, even those that someone considers absurd, there will be an audience. But if the post contained specific suggestions, then it was a pity to delete it. I would have read it. In general, we can keep exchanging messages on HW with time gaps – it's much easier to communicate via VK, ICQ, or even call each other – Skype, Discord. Moreover, we both have each other's contacts. I see that you want what's best, but I just don't see any specific suggestions yet. From our current conversation, I understand that the suggestions are as follows: - Ban players from other countries from participating in the tournament. - Instead of a tournament without rules, hold a tournament with rules tailored to HW, as in the past. - Do not use developments that not only fix bugs but also introduce more significant changes (we probably won't use them anyway; there will only be fixes – well, maybe we'll tweak diplomacy a bit). Regarding "cleaning up" – haven't we "cleaned up" at least one tournament when no one believed in us and trolled us?

The most negative aspect of a Tournament with such rules is not even that it will push away many strong players, but that it disorients newcomers, who already barely know the HeroesWorld rules, and after watching streams of such an event, they will be completely misled.

Don't forget to add that creature to your team of animals, and that's it. You can win the tournament.

What about me? I'm Jeleń, after all.

But you're already playing as Jamaica! HELLO!

Soda could really use a high-quality tournament right now.
And I would gladly throw in some prize money for it.
But what is being planned is, unfortunately, not at all what is needed.

Main problems:
1. Rejecting HW rules — these rules are more than adequate and have been developed based on games of top players over many years.
Abandoning them is like allowing slide tackles from behind at the FIFA World Cup just because the conditional teams of Mozambique and Benin don't quite understand this rule.

2. Complete disregard for the main sporting principle — identifying the strongest. Taking anyone who is willing to respond, regardless of their skill level — who would be interested in watching such players?

3. A very loose interpretation of players' affiliation with national teams — the determining factor should be citizenship.

4. Template pool — why add templates that are outright boring and uninteresting.

What can be suggested:
1. Play with HW rules

2. Make a reasonable template pool (Jebus Cross, Diamond, Mininosta, 6LM, Anarchy, Spider). If things get really bad over time, leave 2-3 of the most dynamic ones, for example:
Jebus Cross, Anarchy or Jebus Cross, Anarchy, Diamond.

3. Direct maximum efforts towards attracting the dads from HeroesWorld, with actual citizenship of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Hungary.

4. From the found no-names, assemble 2-3 national teams, no more.

Make 2 groups of 3-4 teams.
Group stage: everyone plays everyone.
Top 2 teams advance from each group.
Then semifinals and final.
I.e., trade quantity for quality, and this will partially solve the time issue as well.

It's clear that point 3 is the hardest.
Pulling the guys away from zombies running in circles with golems is quite a task.
And if it's absolutely impossible, then it's better not to hold such a tournament at all.

Well, I feel like a Jamaican, that's a fact, but my parents raised me in a very strict way.

I would have accepted you, but the tavern is buzzing with rumors that you're from Jamaica. P.S. You're accepted.

Regarding the rules.
Football was invented with rules that are still in effect today, with only minor adjustments being made. No one restricts possibilities in football – like, you can't kick with your left foot or you can't develop speed above a certain level.

This game (Heroes) was also originally invented without any rules. And to this day, there are no universally accepted rules for Heroes worldwide. Each portal plays by its own rules and tries to impose them. I'm not saying this is bad – it's normal. There is, of course, an attempt, through the lobby, to promote gameplay with specific rules, and there have been positive shifts in this regard. On each portal, the TOP players have come to specific rules – they are different everywhere, although some players are common across portals. But why should a cross-portal tournament use the rules of just one portal? Only because we personally play on that portal and are used to them? And the rest should adapt however they want? Well, the last tournament killed the desire to play by these rules for some teams. Especially for those who played by VCL rules. There are even guys who switched to HotA because they don't want to bother with rules as much as in SoD.

Determining the strongest happens under any rules and with any level of players – the strongest is the one who won (either made fewer mistakes, or was better prepared for the format, or something else). Tournaments have been held under different rules and without them – and they continue to be held every year. And which winners do you consider undeserving in those or other tournaments? Even under HeroesWorld rules, there are guys who partially win due to a lucky draw or luck, but how do you plan to fix that – remove all randomness from Heroes? No one plays without mistakes – and the criticality of mistakes varies. The one who makes more mistakes doesn't necessarily lose – sometimes the one who makes one very critical mistake wins.

If we only recruited for the tournament based on citizenship, we would have 4 teams playing (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland), and maybe a few small ones, and that's not even a given – that would be your "World Championship"))). And why, in all sports, are Brazilians allowed to play for other national teams and even obtain citizenship through faster routes, but here players cannot participate for countries where their parents had citizenship or where they were born? The last tournament followed the same scheme – for example, we had a Moldova team. Hungary is not guaranteed to be in the tournament – last year we barely managed to gather them; this year it will be even harder.

A large number of countries is a requirement from the sponsor, both in the last tournament and this one. I recruit based on this principle so that it can be realized. If one of you were the sponsor of this tournament, I would try to please you specifically.

Regarding the level of players. Are weak teams banned from participating in any tournaments in any sport or esport? For example, in football, would they tell Andorra, Malta, Liechtenstein – you can't play anymore because we consider you weak and don't like watching you? The fact that players in many countries play poorly is because the game isn't very popular there – that needs to change. For example, after the last World Championship, we got a second player from China, a second player from Vietnam, guys from Georgia, etc. And how did they find out about the tournament? They could search for Heroes 3 and the name of their country and come across tournament games. And they watched the games to cheer for their own. In the last tournament, the Estonia team played very weakly, but it actually allowed viewers to cheer and support that specific team more than some others.

In almost all tournaments, I adhere to the rule – if a player wants to, let them try if they want to test themselves or are simply interested. Let them gain experience, etc. For me, newcomers are just as important as the "old pros" – I don't divide them into more important and less important.

Regarding the template pool – suggest specifics. All templates in the tournament are merely permission to play them – the players themselves choose the templates. Also, by mutual agreement, templates outside the pool can be played – but the consent of three parties is required. Since we still haven't gathered a sufficient number of streamers ready to stream large templates all day, we only included 6lm as XL+U in the pool. Jebus Cross is already among the templates. We introduced Mini Nostu in the last tournament – those drawn-out games are very well remembered by the streamers. Anarchy, yes, could be introduced. Diamond is also already there.

As for a "quality tournament" – that's a stretchable concept. I'm all for it – if someone has the ability to organize quality tournaments. I'd gladly watch them myself, especially if they are on SoD.

When preparing any tournament, I listen to the sponsor, the viewers, and the participants. Based on all this, I try to create something. The sponsor's requirements are always law, as they are financially invested in this, unlike the rest. However, sometimes we can even persuade sponsors to make changes – not always, but often. And the fact that sponsors continue to be found for SoD tournaments provides the incentive to continue.

Currently, there is healthy competition between different versions of Heroes. I support SoD. It's clear that my activities are not to everyone's liking, but they help SoD stay alive online (we deserve some credit for that). The result is more important to me. There were critics starting from the first tournament, but gradually they either got on board with us, or simply retreated to neutrality or ignored us. Many skeptics who signed up for unusual tournament formats changed their opinion about the format and gave positive feedback, even among non-beginners and guys from HeroesWorld. To draw conclusions about something, you need time and attempts.

And overall, I'm all for diversity in content. I don't know about you, but I haven't been eager to watch the same thing, both in formats and templates, for several years now. Heroes can be played in different ways – that's what the game's mechanics allow. It's already clear that SoD with HeroesWorld rules cannot compete with HotA. So why not look for other formats?