How to make a MASTERSZ

Thread in 'Discussion' started by Qlex, 25 Nov 2013.

  1. So after having an incentive on making more TetrisConcept The Masters (TCTM) with already two of them made, and having seen what happens in Japan with the Masutaazu, it's been decided that I talk a little bit about what to do.

    If nicofromtokyo or any other player who knows the system well could certify this whole stuff, I remember we talked about it and it still was blurry =(

    What do the organizers have to do before a match?

    You put the players in two separate groups, pool A and pool B. They did it randomly, people pull out papers.

    After that, how people get eliminated or not is up to this chart (nicely explained!) :

    For 8 people (click to zoom):

    [​IMG]


    For 10 people (click to zoom):

    [​IMG]


    For 12 people (click to zoom):

    [​IMG]


    You will notice numbers on certain people in the chart, that is a seconds handicap for being eliminated once early or having been on the verge of being eliminated.

    There's a rock-paper-scissors between all the members to determine their placements in the arcade machines (needs clarification), and the best recordmen are placed on the player 2 slot while those with a slower PB get the 1P slot.

    This I think is due to the inferiority of the 1P, since the C button is actually in direct contact with 2P's left hand, so hitting the C button is quite hard, while 2P can actually barely notice a resistance to the stick, but maybe that's just how I see it. In any case, it's linked to the fact that the best players have a theoretical disadvantage in terms of consistency.

    What do the organizers have to do for the match itself?

    Well one thing for sure, you need at least an extra guy to take care of everything that happens, because at some point you'll need to ascertain the times for the future masters, might as well do it on the go, also you'll need to keep an eye on stuff for the ranking, as it can get really close sometimes.

    Of course, according to the handicaps and PBs, people will give a delay for every player. While we used one watch only, they actually have personal timers handed to every player aside from the one(s) who begins(-s). When the commentator makes the countdown, those with no overall handicap begin, and all the others activate the timer. It can get tricky as mine actually didn't work properly once, but it's possible to watch someone else's watch and make the calculation.

    What do the players have to do?

    So normally they don't in the TCTM, but in Japan the previous point makes them have to press the timer button at the correct timing. Depends on what people feel like doing in their meeting, I guess

    What do the commentators have to do?

    Okay, after a bit of outside and inside exploring of the Japanese Masters, I think it's safe to say that their system can add to the hype for the spectator, it actually hypes up the players as well!

    A basic list of all the things to do, by order of importance (from most important to least):

    - When people are beginning, say their positions (1P or 2P, etc) and their order of appearance during the contest.

    - When someone wins, just say it. If they do it with panache, yell it. You have no idea how fun this is unless you try it out yourself (this is subject to the noise restrictions of the place, of course, but you can still try a silent scream, I suppose)

    Not very hard to notice. Most of the time you have track of who's first, and even then you have the blinking GM and the sound of victory

    - Someone is about to die or in a crappy situation, well, make sure to mention it. This is TGM1 by the way, so you can say how much you sympathize with the player when he/she's in the top quarter and the randomizer is giving him/her crap. You don't have anything interesting to say about the bad situation? Just mention it with "aah"s, it's incredible.

    To notice it, I think the Japanese commentators try and hear the sounds of the alarm. I think so because at some point they were disoriented by me triggering TGM3's alarm. They were like "Who's in danger? Who? Ahhh *they turn back* Qlex-san is in danger" haha. But of course, you can make mention of every field that looks crappy with a quick look.

    - If someone broke a hundred, say it.

    This one is somehow simpler than the others because of the background change, but can get stupid because of the erasing of the numbers when both players are there, so if one of the more "furtive" players has taken the lead, make sure to keep an eye on them.

    - Commentate on the positions of the players and announce a ranking with who's ahead of the others

    Much like the previous point, you "just" have to read the numbers, but if the numbers are not there just say whatever you can say, or what you think. You will have to say such things pretty often (which is when you don't have to say one of the previous points), so if you're out of ideas and haven't said this just before, do it!

    - You have something interesting to say on the top of your head, might as well talk about it




    That's a tentative, maybe I will add more things, but I mostly will have to make that pre-game thing clear.
     
  2. Zaphod77

    Zaphod77 Resident Misinformer

    the system is designed around having a certain number of machines available, and running the brackets as efficiently as possible.

    I believe these brackets listed are designed for three machines.

    If there is a different number of machines available, the combining will work differently.

    When there are enough to run two simultaneously, that is done.

    When people who didn't lose on the same round are put together, the people who lost sooner get 20 sec time penalty.

    The logic appears to be to drop the winners bracket to 4 by the semifinals, and drop the losers bracket to two by the semis, and then combine them into a single 3 machine semifinal match. and to sometimes delay the losers bracket until more losers exist.

    Also, the semis eliminate 2 from winners and one from losers as near as I can tell. it's the only way the diagrams make sense that i can think of.

    With 4 machines and 8 people, you don't even need two groups to start, as they can all play simultaneously.
     
  3. Do you mean run two rounds at the same time? Like pool A and pool B, for instance?
     
  4. Muf

    Muf

    Interesting stuff! Definitely different from how TCTM I and TCTM II have been held. I'll try to make sure we have three TGM1 PCBs again (and with two joysticks each) so that TCTM III can be held properly. Having commentators is important too -- maybe we can Skype in some people not at the meeting so that the maximum amount of players at the meeting itself can play.

    Could someone translate the text on the monkey diagrams?

    Thanks for writing this up, Qlex! Really thorough :D
     
  5. Zaphod77

    Zaphod77 Resident Misinformer

    btw, even though masters 66th had 12 players... they had 4 machines and used a different rule.

    They were advancing 4 people each round.

    here's what I can make of how they did it.

    All normal rounds, 1st place got -10 bonus, and second place got -5 bonus.

    First round losers got +10 penalty.

    In the losers bracket, 1st place got +5 penalty, and 2 to 4th got +10 penalty.


    that said, things don't seem to quite add up. in particular the annotations for the loser's round seem to be completely incorrect compared to the chart.

    For some reason KOO seemed to gain+5 penalty when he entered the loser's bracket, and jin8 seems to have been deliberately forfeiting his handicap bonuses. (and yet he still won. truly a master!)

    The impression i'm getting is players are allowed to penalize themselves at any time if they so choose.

    the round results chart for the 66th had the text as text instead of images, so i was able to google translate it.
     
    Last edited: 1 Dec 2013
  6. ei

    ei

    That'd be a cool idea; I think adding some commentators would definitely help increase the hype for TCTM III.

    Another possibility could potentially be to hold a tournament over twitch, where each person just streams their machine. That'd be nice as it gives people without the means to be there in person to participate (and correspondingly increases the player-base for the tournament as well which could potentially be fun).

    Just some thoughts, though. Anyway, thanks for posting this, Qlex, it's very interesting!
     
  7. Zaphod77

    Zaphod77 Resident Misinformer

    perhaps someone who knows can chime in to find out how the initial handicaps are assigned.

    in the absence of a better way, i'd propose this.

    everyone gets to play a certain number of qualifier games (possibly 1, possibly 3, i dunno), and takes their best time, and that's used to determine who qualifies, and set initial handicaps by the differences in time.

    Also note that once in the losers bracket someone reached 999, but failed to make GM. This counted as a loss, of course.
     
  8. Oh, for that they have a ticket system where you put your best performance ever, one that they were able to see themselves (most of the time you go see the tenant and he notes the score.) They put the scores in the computer and they make a ranking out of it, but they also use this for the handicaps, in the way that victory is counted by margin from the PB, and not time
     
  9. Zaphod77

    Zaphod77 Resident Misinformer

    So it's your best confirmed performance ever outside the masters that's used to work it?

    seems fair. but if your best performance was a fluke, then other people will beat you despite the handicap.

    and a true master who performs consistently and fast can overcome a 3 min handicap to be number 1.

    i guess people here would be seeded by their rank on the site leaderboard in a TC The Masters, and only the top 12 people that were able to show up in person could go for it maybe?
     
  10. This is super awesome Qlex!

    Btw, how feasible would a streamed TCTM be? By which I mean players stream from all over the world simultaneously in a combined stream. I can stream, muf can stream, Kevin and Kitaru also maybe? There must be more.
     
  11. K

    K

  12. Muf

    Muf

    [​IMG]
     
  13. Oh! Interesting! So if to have been eliminated once, you will keep that handicap for the final!

    Thanks for the translation Jago =)
     
  14. ei

    ei

    I saw an online IIDX tournament run in a similar fashion, so it's definitely feasible. The "host" would just use one of those multistream sites like multitwitch and stream their multistream for the general viewership.

    If we did do something like that, I'd definitely be up for it.
     
  15. I am so down. But not for taking the initiative, lol.

    But if someone wants to start that, I would compete with maximum prejudice.
     
  16. Muf

    Muf

    I'm game, we'll just need to run some tests to get the technical details worked out. And we need a pair of commentators.
     
  17. K

    K

    sorry for the late posting Qlex.

    no need to translate the 12 players table, because it's pretty much the same..
    The announcer's job is : who need an explanation for that ? :sneaky:

    to participate player must be at least be GM ranked, and delay starting time is determined from their all time best "Gm Time Attack" (even if Pier21 also keep a time ranking table for the best performance done AT pier21)

    [​IMG]

    _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


    [​IMG]
     
  18. I just wanted to point out that there is a very deliberate reason for this: There's a hard limit of # of characters displayed onscreen, and any beyond this point aren't rendered. If both players survive long enough, this starts eating into P2's level counter, so that it becomes hard (eg. 49?/???) to impossible (eg. 4??/???) to tell when you've hit a section boundary.

    This interestingly means it's against P2's interest to get a bravo, since the bravo counter will eat up his level counter all the sooner.
     
  19. Zaphod77

    Zaphod77 Resident Misinformer

    Interesting. i did notice the p2 level counter glitching up.

    It seems only in the players best interest to make a bravo if they would fail the score requirement for GM if they did not. It's better just to get more tetrises. :)

    This also means streaming players do not have to deal with this problem, as they will be playing alone.
     

Share This Page