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I'm a bit swamped with work, but my head is full of ideas again. :rolleyes:
So, here's the question. I know quite a few players who enjoy playing Heroes of Might and Magic 2 – Dust, Ketch, Mike, Querty, PReDS, and I think Oxygen plays too. I'm probably not a very dangerous player myself, but I have played HoMM2 online and I really enjoy it.

Is it possible to get together and hold a nostalgia tournament for HoMM2? No entry fees or prizes, just for fun. About eight people. The club also doesn't charge for the computers, so there's no financial gain.
With save files and detailed game reports. A properly started and logically completed tournament. We can present this as a great piece to the Media.
In return, we'll get a good article about the tournament from the Media, and if they want, we can ask them for additional prizes, but it's not essential.

Something similar is impossible to do with HoMM3.
1. There are very strong conflicts within the community, like an iceberg, where only a small part is visible. For example, we can hold a system of offline tournaments, but no more.
2. Clubs are looking to make a profit. It's impossible to convince the clubs to let people play for free – there are a lot of people. And serious people won't want to invest financially when there are such discrepancies.
3. In our HoMM3 community, there is no generally accepted version of the game – SoD won't give up its position, and TE (VT) won't either.
4. The charm of the past. In the subconscious of players, HoMM2 seems much older than HoMM3, although the difference is only about 3 years. Retro can work.
5. It's impossible to get reports from HoMM3 players after offline tournaments.
But almost all HoMM2 players are talented report writers.
6. Game time. A game in HoMM2 takes less time than HoMM3.
It's easier for a tournament and for covering the subject.

In general, friends, we need your collective agreement to come to a specific place at a specific time. If yes, then we'll work on it further. Everything is quite easily achievable.
If you have any questions, write to me in a private message or here.

Dear colleagues, fans, and professionals of the second Heroes game. First of all, allow me to provide a brief introduction. Nagan-4 is a serious and respected person in the Heroes community; he has extensive experience in organizing tournaments. Therefore, I ask you to treat his undoubtedly interesting proposal with due attention. From me personally. I like the idea. I have some contacts with players who use two accounts, in addition to those mentioned above; we can try to update them. The question is about the location and timing.

Personally speaking.
I like the idea. I have a few contacts among the HoMM2 players besides those mentioned above; we can try to update them. The question is the location and timing.

I will try to explain the idea in detail.
What is needed is agreement within the group and a specifically defined proposed product. As I understand it, although the HoMM2 community is small, it is quite friendly. The people are adults, fairly balanced and responsible. Most likely, we won't have to expect unexpected ultimatums at the worst possible moment.
And a tournament—say, a Swiss system with 3-4 rounds, or two group tournaments of 4 people each and a final between the group winners—is possible. I repeat, we are talking about an offline tournament. And a mandatory description of the played matches.

Here is the initial package that we would ideally offer. Let's say, gathering the best Warcraft or Starcraft players in the country is possible, but it would cost tens, if not hundreds of times more. And the second Heroes, in terms of legend and branding, are quite on that level.

Why am I not proposing this in the HoMM3 format? Because there is no agreement among the players; just read the threads about the Yekaterinburg tournament project for 10k bucks, or the first club championship. Fights immediately break out over the version (SoD, TE, or BT), personal inter-portal antipathies flare up, etc. In principle, I am sure that I can reach an agreement with all the HoMM2 players—that the game prevails, from a rational standpoint. I don't have enough charisma for the HoMM3 players—the leading players will politely listen to me and then go off to play poker and other entertainments.
IMHO, business people will not continue negotiations in such a case; they need certainty.
Perhaps HoMM3 will mature in the future, but not now.

So—a compact tournament of the best players in the country in a legendary, cult turn-based strategy. Who can we sell this to? I probably wouldn't risk offering it to the men's magazine "Playboy" or the women's "Cosmopolitan." But to a specialized computer gaming magazine—very much so. Especially one that features smart game analytics.

I would probably reach out to a magazine like "Best Computer Games" (LKI). This magazine has quite serious game reviews, including turn-based strategies, especially cult series. There are many articles dedicated to games of the past. The Heroes series holds a special place; for example, it's worth reading http://www.lki.ru/text.php?id=1035

They have a quite interesting column—the Duel Club, where two journalists play a game, usually a strategy, with detailed descriptions of the matches and pictures. For example, here is how they played HoMM2. By the way, one of the players was the current editor-in-chief of the magazine.
http://www.lki.ru/text.php?id=404

In the Duel Club column, there are quite a few detailed descriptions of turn-based strategy games, which are quite interesting.

According to the theme, the second Heroes occupy a rather prestigious position.

Why do I think this might interest them? Well, at least because the magazine is constantly searching for authors—top strategy players. For example, quite a few analytical articles are released for Heroes 5 — http://www.lki.ru/text.php?id=4007

Practical players, some of the best.

There are quite a few articles by one of the strongest players in the first Starcraft, White-Ra
http://www.lki.ru/games.php?Game=SCBroodWar#Masters

I'm not very interested in how much these people's services cost the magazine, but the fact is they are looking for active players who also know how to put their thoughts on paper.

Given that this magazine correctly understands the place of the Heroes series in the gaming industry and is interested in interesting endeavors, we will offer them the project of a tournament for the best HoMM2 players. From us—gathering the best players, at least 8 people, full play-through of the tournament, and writing full reports.
From them—a mandatory report in the magazine, with photos and interviews. The magazine is sold with a disc—so it would be appropriate to place reports and game saves from the championship there.

Since the journalists play themselves, they could also participate and describe the vision of the tournament from the inside.

With the right presentation, it could become, if not the main theme of the issue, then a quite hit block. Pictures of the second Heroes in magazines always turn out bright, cartoonish, and look great.

What could this give us in perspective? Well, to admire our handsome... faces in the magazine. To declare that the Heroes community, including the second one, is very much alive. To give the game a new impulse. Possibly—to become authors; for example, an analytical article by Qwerty would look appropriate on the pages of the magazine.
To give the Heroes community a chance to establish a strategic partnership with the press; I still hope that the period of squabbles will be outgrown even by the third Heroes. And they too will become a marketable mass-media product.

What will it give them? A fresh, unconventional topic for the magazine. The opportunity to patronize such a tournament, the opportunity to name it with their logo. I repeat, gathering the best players of other cult strategies for one tournament would cost a significant amount of cash. Just take the third one—how much would the TE players ask for participation? And the Starcraft players?

If the best players truly act in coordination (Dust, Mike, Qwerty, PreDS, Ketch, etc.), then the proposal will be weighty. True, the guys from Siberia will have to travel far... but that won't be soon, while everything is being agreed upon... And the magazine's editorial office, if they appreciate all the benefits of the enterprise, might help with tickets.

That's all for now.

So, what are we talking about here? Playing Heroes, or making money and getting noticed by someone?

There are two main goals.
1. Making money. Although, I'm not sure yet what this "money" has done to offend me. :smile33:
2. Getting noticed by someone. In principle, it doesn't even matter who. :)

But seriously, read my first posts more carefully, and don't pull out individual phrases from the overall text, as this changes the whole meaning.

“Selling” it means offering your idea to someone. The benefits here are not material, but spiritual, and quite significant. There are quite a few serious, thoughtful people in the country who play strategy games; if specialized magazines have successfully survived the crisis, it means there's an audience. Thousands of people will read such a report, and for some of them, a good article in the magazine might be an incentive to become more seriously interested in Heroes. Wouldn't you yourself refuse to read a well-illustrated report about your favorite game? Believe me, there are enough people who don't play online and don't hang out on forums, for whom Heroes, including Heroes II, will forever remain in their hearts.

As for "getting noticed," I would gladly offer such material to the magazine "Cosmopolitan"; I guarantee that many attractive young blondes read it. :D
But the editorial board wouldn't take it. They would take a report about a stripper-motorcyclist competition, but not ours. Therefore, you can only get noticed by those who like to sit at a computer playing games.

In my opinion, the tournament can only be held in two places. The first option is Siberia (Novosibirsk?), since the majority of active Heroes of Might and Magic II players are from there.
The second is Moscow.
In the first case, several people from the European part of Russia travel to Dust and Co. In the second, the opposite.
Playing is easiest on several laptops, so that no one complains about the legitimacy. And why wouldn't cooperation with a magazine be helpful? They have connections with Buku and FKS – and through them, we can try to gain legitimacy for our tournaments, not only for Heroes II.

If Qwerty is from Moscow, he could participate not as a player, but as a commentator. Reviews of the round, reports from individual matches, and, if there's Wi-Fi, live reports simultaneously on three forums.
By the way, recordings of the matches would be very interesting. And if they were also saved, this tournament would become legendary!

Here's a question: is the tournament intended to be open (for anyone who wants to participate) or closed (by invitation only)?
If it's closed, I can add a few names to the list in the first post.
Gynnar (a very strong player from St. Petersburg, a big fan of the game), Brennan (an excellent young player from the Moscow region), Navuchodonosor/Captain (one of the strongest Heroes II players from Ukraine). In addition, there are two very strong Heroes II players from St. Petersburg: DR28 and SDV. I haven't seen their reports on online games, but I know they play online, and according to Qwerty, they have been among the strongest players in the Russian-speaking internet for offline play in recent years.
Next, Kama is a strong and thoughtful player from Moscow; when he's "on his game," he can beat any opponent.
And of course, there's the living legend of Heroes II – GreatGenius (Moscow)!

In principle, there's also a whole constellation of very strong players from St. Petersburg, starting with Horn (the creator of TE), who have switched to Battle.net, but could certainly show their skills if they wanted to.

Of course, this list is by no means exhaustive; it just includes the players I know.

Question: Is the tournament intended to be open (for anyone who wants to participate) or closed (by invitation only)?

If we want to create an exemplary tournament, it should be closed. There are two reasons for this. Someone might simply out of boredom say they will come and play, but most likely won't show up. If they do, their skill level will be very low, and we'll have to spend a lot of time explaining the rules. Newcomers are welcome in a regular tournament, but not in this one. Imagine if, in the World Cup final, a player who doesn't know about offside or how to take a proper free kick were to play – they would be screaming on the field, saying what stupid rules, we play differently on the beach. :)

Therefore, the tournament should only include players who have proven themselves. If we manage to create an ideal championship, we can then consider tournaments for beginners.

If the tournament is in Moscow, Qwerty could participate not as a player, but as a commentator.

There's no need to list all the advantages of playing in Moscow; they are obvious. But here are some potential drawbacks.
1. Accommodation. It's very expensive; even in St. Petersburg, you can find affordable housing, but not in Moscow. I'm not talking about lodging for vagrants, but how much would a decent apartment for 4-5 players cost for at least three days?

2. Venue. In principle, finding 8 laptops in Moscow shouldn't be a problem, nor should setting up a connection between them for the game. But we need a guaranteed venue, so that the players won't be kicked out in the middle of a match because the room is needed for a meeting of veterans of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or a club of non-alcoholic vodka lovers. ;)
Again, renting such a venue might be expensive.

3. I can't imagine such a tournament without some great players from Siberia. At least 2-3 people. But how expensive is it for them to travel to the capital.
That's why I was writing about a possible strategic partner – it would be easier to solve points 2 and 3 from the above.

Now, regarding the composition of the championship. Again, we need to talk to people about the mandatory requirement of writing a report after each game and completing the tournament. A possible scenario: a person is included in the tournament, arrives, possibly plays one round... then meets friends, plays poker, drinks... in the tournament report, it will be said that the player suddenly fell ill and could not finish the tournament...
What if there are 2-3 such people?

Gynnar (a very strong player from St. Petersburg, who loves Heroes very much), Brennan (an excellent young player from the Moscow region), Navuchodonosor/Captain (one of the strongest players in Heroes II from Ukraine). In addition, there are two very strong Heroes II players from St. Petersburg: DR28 and SDV. I haven't seen their reports on online games, but I know they play online, and according to Qwerty, they have been among the strongest players in the Russian-speaking internet for offline games in recent years.
Next. Kama is a strong and thoughtful player from Moscow; when he's "on," he can beat any opponent.
And of course, the living legend of Heroes II – GreatGenius (Moscow)!

These are excellent candidates; I've communicated with many of them, and I've been friends with Sasha Horn for a long time. The only thing is that we need to talk to Gynnar in particular – he is fanatically fond of poker. In case he meets the first Moscow poker player, there is a possibility that Heroes will immediately take a backseat. :(

Qwerty, I have a request: you know the Heroes of Might and Magic II players better, and they know you. Talk to the guys, who can play in an offline tournament under these conditions? If we can gather a team of at least 8 people, we can start negotiations with potential partners.

P.S. Please don't include me; I'm not a top player, but I would definitely come to cheer and watch, and I wouldn't be alone. But I will gladly provide all possible assistance.

I'm completely in favor of any such event :-) Especially if it involves my favorite Heroes 2. I'm ready to provide organizational assistance and participate as a player, of course :rolleyes: :cool:. The only question is the price of the plane ticket. Regarding support from the media, sponsors, promotion, etc., I can contact a person who organizes (and seems to be doing so successfully) similar festivals for old computer games; I think he would be all for it! Perhaps we could even organize this tournament under the umbrella of his festivals!? http://forum.heroesleague.ru/viewtopic.php?t=20705 http://goodoldgames.ru/

By the way, there's a 50% sale on the top shelves in the compartment, which is a significant saving. I looked up where Izhevsk is (between Perm and Kazan, between Dust and Moscow:))), and also where Michurinsk is – between Lipetsk and Tambov, it must be warm there.

"I'm never against potentially beneficial prospects," meaning that if the organizational issues are resolved, I'd be happy to participate.
P.S. As recent events have shown, a visit to Novosibirsk is not a problem for me.

Okay, let's move on. :smile14:

Questions for Qwerty and PReDS.

Guys, can you...
1. Guarantee finding a venue for 2-3 days for the game (one room is enough). Perhaps it would be easier to play on Saturday and Sunday, but is it possible to manage to play at least 3-4 rounds for the masters and still write decent reports? Practice shows that delays can occur for any reason, such as players being late, power outages, connection issues, etc. We also need an extra day - Friday or Monday.
2. Find suitable accommodation for several people for 3 days at relatively reasonable prices.
3. Find some laptops. Although, as I understand it, most Heroes players have laptops for personal use.
4. Encourage Moscow-based players to participate in such a tournament?

If yes, that's great. If there are any issues with some of these points, we need to negotiate with partners (see posts above).

Questions for Dust.

1. How do the Siberians feel about such a championship, including Mike and Ketch? Do they need sponsorship to buy tickets (this will be an important point when negotiating with potential partners).
2. Regarding Izhevsk. Are you familiar with this person - the organizer? They are holding a tournament on December 5-6. There are just over 2 weeks left, and the list of games has already been planned, including a 99% chance of a 3v3 championship, so people are probably practicing.
And suddenly, we appear. Even if the organizers in Izhevsk solve the issues with computers, accommodation, and a venue for the games, they definitely won't fully adapt to our needs.
There are two days allocated for the event - will they finish on time... goodbye to a full-fledged tournament and reports.
We become too dependent on external circumstances.
But for now, we have the opportunity to determine all the conditions ourselves.

P.S. The worst-case scenario is that we don't find partners or sponsors, and it doesn't work out in Moscow either. Then we get on a train, take our laptops, come to my place - I'll find a room for the game, and you can all stay with me :D, sorry - I'll demand reports, since we agreed.

And we'll post really great content on our forum!

If it's Moscow, Qwerty can act not as a participant, but as a commentator. Reviews of rounds, reports on individual matches, and if there is Wi-Fi, live reports simultaneously on three forums.
By the way, replays would be extremely interesting. And if we also have save files, then this tournament will become a legend!

Qwerty, it's probably too early to say. Right now, our main goal is to gather as many advantages as possible. Because we need to talk - either with Izhevsk or with the LKI magazine. It is possible that one of the conditions will be an agreement on the exclusive right to publish information about the tournament. IMHO, if there are interesting counter-offers, we will discuss them.

Guys, please don't delay, especially with attracting strong players and forming a solid team for the championship; it could actually work out.

Questions for Dust.

1. How do the Siberians view this championship, including Mike and Ketch? Do they need sponsorship to buy tickets (this will be an important point in possible negotiations with partners).

I don't know how Mike and Ketch feel about it. I'll send Mike a link – I think he'll get back to me. Ketch has been somewhat absent from the hero community lately. His participation is unlikely based on current information. I'll call him and let him know.
First, we need to determine the location and date, and we'll proceed from there.

Personally, traveling to Moscow-Michurinsk by train is difficult for me; it's 5 days round trip. Somewhere in the middle, where I only have to spend a day in the train – I'm still willing to do that. I'd even fly to the ends of the earth for G2, but I'm not sure I can afford it. :smile32:

2. Regarding Izhevsk. Are you familiar with this person – the organizer? They are holding a tournament on December 5-6. There are just over 2 weeks left, and the list of games has already been planned, including a 99% chance of a championship for the third game; people are probably practicing.

I'm practically not familiar with him. He announced his tournaments on the League. Today, I wrote to him on ICQ about this idea; let's see what he replies and how he can be helpful to us.
I didn't mean December 5-6; we shouldn't rush. Let that festival run its course; we'll organize our own, say, during the New Year holidays, with a format that suits us.

I don't know how Mike and Catch feel about it. I'll send Mike a link – I think he'll get back to us. Catch has been somewhat absent from the Heroes community lately. His participation is unlikely, based on current information. I'll call him and let him know...
First, we need to determine the location and date, and we'll proceed from there.

It's a shame, after all, Catch is a fellow Clans member; every time I drink from his mug, I remember him. I'd like to give him something personal as a keepsake.

Personally, traveling by train to Moscow-Michurinsk is difficult; it's 5 days round trip. Somewhere in the middle, where I only have to spend a day in the train – I'd be willing to do that. I'd even fly to the ends of the earth for G2, but I'm not sure I can afford it.

I completely agree, which is why I'm talking about partners. But we also need to offer something substantial in return.

I'm practically not familiar with him. He announced his Tournaments on the League. Today, I wrote to him on ICQ about this idea; let's see what he says and how he can be helpful to us.
I didn't mean December 5-6; we don't need to rush. Let that festival run its course; we'll organize our own, perhaps during the New Year holidays, with rules that suit us.

Will this person organize a Tournament for us? What's the benefit? If so, that's great; we'll discuss it immediately and see what we can offer in return.

The idea is certainly good, and Nagan's enthusiasm as an organizer is truly admirable. But I'm not such a big fan of Heroes to travel across the country for tournaments. And it's quite expensive financially, and my job probably wouldn't allow it. I could probably still make it to Novosibirsk, but objectively, we have to admit that this option is only convenient for me and Dust. And I haven't played Heroes II in a long time, so I've probably lost my edge. In general, it's quite convenient to play them online, and there don't seem to be any major cheating opportunities. So, playing in real life is just a plus in terms of increasing prestige and providing live communication.

Playing is a plus, meeting and playing in person is a huge plus, but why all these complications?

Well, if I understood the last sentence correctly, will you and SDV be coming?