We're almost 1!
Jan 31, 2011 17:36:49 GMT -8
Post by t3h Icy on Jan 31, 2011 17:36:49 GMT -8
I originally made this place just to run a tournament for RBY, but didn't think this would still be blooming a year later. With an eye-bleeding layout, half a dozen semi-active people and tournaments that never finished, we've really come......wait a second... =P
Anyway, for our anniversary, I'll be hosting a full-fledged out OU tournament, which will be Pools and Double-Elimination, and to make sure we don't have other events in the way, I'm not hosting anything for February (though Zilch and WaterWizard are running a mini Round Robin for gimmick fans). I may also pass on running something in April, but we'll see what happens.
But, while I've seemed to have picked good seeds each tournament lately, seeds for March OU will be based on Pools. I'm also thinking of doing something different for it:
Pools will be in swiss format. For those that don't know what it is, each player in each pool is paired up with an opponent. After the match, all the winners are paired up and losers are paired up, then LL, LW, WL and WW people are paired up, etc, giving full out ranks in only a portion of the matches played in a full Round Robin. I'm not sure how many entrants we'll hit, but I'm hoping for a nice 16.
Now, usually people don't care about Pools, and I can't blame them as it's a nearly useless extension to an already long tournament, but seeding is nice. So as an incentive, 1st seeds will receive Byes and 4th seeds will be eliminated, so with 16 entrants, there will be 4 Pools of 4. WW is 1st, WL is 2nd, LW is 3rd and LL is 4th (kind of like a mini double-elimination bracket). This works nicely as the two winners of their first match will battle out for a Bye in the bracket, while the two losers fight to just make it in. Also, the exact players of each seed are randomized in the bracket (so you may or may not face people you faced in Pools again).
Bracket Example:
Pool Example:
So in this example, A would be 1st, C would be 2nd, D would be 3rd and B would be 4th.
(I'll also make prettier images for Pools/Brackets)
The one drawback is that a quarter of entrants don't get into the bracket, but I think this system would be exciting and also more rewarding to those that do well. I may run a poll if people prefer 4th Seeds being put into the bracket anyway, but I'd really like to run this with elimination Pools.
Anyway, onto discussing some battling aspects. I'd like to talk about you, the opponent and the RNG.
Per turn, you have at max, 9 options (4 attacks, 5 switches), and as much as you plan and predict your opponent, only one of the 9 are selected, while the opponent too has 9 options. For any given turn, there's 81 possibilities at most, and only one happens. In that one is a whole other amount of things that can happen because of the RNG. You could get Paralyzed, miss, CH, do high damage, etc.
Maybe this is just my personal view point, but I like to look at it like this:
Each time you switch, that means you attack one less turn as well and vice versa, but of course, switching may put you into a less disadvantageous situation. You have to consider if it's worth the turn spent, and if you'll stay in that advantageous situation. It's related to how chain-switching works, for example vs Tauros, you switch to Gengar first to take a Normal attack, meaning you go into a more advantageous situation without any loss, and then you do it again to Articuno vs Earthquake to an even more advantageous situation.
Personally for my playstyle, I dislike using Pokemon like Zapdos or Persian which have hard counters. While Persian and Zapdos have their uses and are often better than many Pokemon (perhaps even on average), they have a way higher standard deviation of usefulness per battle. I personally like consistency, and since I am forced to switch out a lot less, I get more attacks in per battle than my opponent. Alternatively I have more options between attacks/switches that are viable which also helps with being a bit more unpredictable. For example, having Zapdos on your team takes away a common choice as you may not want to reveal you have it. That means you only have 8 options per turn as opposed to 9.
You can go very deep with this and you're the one to decide how far you go.
Now, no matter what happens during the turn, you ultimately pick 1 of 9 or less options and that's all you ever do. Often your selection may be affected based on what you think the opponent will do, but you still pick 1 of 9. It's your ability to determine repeatedly and consistently which is the best option and have your correct choices outweigh the bad. But even someone who picks perfectly per turn may fall due to RNG, but that's what makes Pokemon dynamic, exciting and fun.
Of course before picking 1 of the 9 options per turn, you also have a ton of stuff to decide on when constructing a team, but I'm focusing more on battling than team constructing here.
One way to learn how to predict your opponent well is to figure out how opponents handle these situations and which of the 9 options they pick in each one. Does their choice resemble faking you out? Retreating? Playing through it? You can also pick up on patterns as you watch closely what it does, but because the human brain is an amazing thing, there's no simple formula you can just punch in to get a result, though you can get to approximately 50% with an even opponent. Theoretically you could get 100%, or at least much closer to, but you'd need to be some sort of prodigy in Psychology and recognition of patterns to crazy levels. Maybe that's why Posthuman is so good, despite never playing. =P
Anyway, I'd really like to see all of you join the OU tournament next month, and try to get all of our all-stars in for massive competition and hype! =D
Anyway, for our anniversary, I'll be hosting a full-fledged out OU tournament, which will be Pools and Double-Elimination, and to make sure we don't have other events in the way, I'm not hosting anything for February (though Zilch and WaterWizard are running a mini Round Robin for gimmick fans). I may also pass on running something in April, but we'll see what happens.
But, while I've seemed to have picked good seeds each tournament lately, seeds for March OU will be based on Pools. I'm also thinking of doing something different for it:
Pools will be in swiss format. For those that don't know what it is, each player in each pool is paired up with an opponent. After the match, all the winners are paired up and losers are paired up, then LL, LW, WL and WW people are paired up, etc, giving full out ranks in only a portion of the matches played in a full Round Robin. I'm not sure how many entrants we'll hit, but I'm hoping for a nice 16.
Now, usually people don't care about Pools, and I can't blame them as it's a nearly useless extension to an already long tournament, but seeding is nice. So as an incentive, 1st seeds will receive Byes and 4th seeds will be eliminated, so with 16 entrants, there will be 4 Pools of 4. WW is 1st, WL is 2nd, LW is 3rd and LL is 4th (kind of like a mini double-elimination bracket). This works nicely as the two winners of their first match will battle out for a Bye in the bracket, while the two losers fight to just make it in. Also, the exact players of each seed are randomized in the bracket (so you may or may not face people you faced in Pools again).
Bracket Example:
Pool Example:
So in this example, A would be 1st, C would be 2nd, D would be 3rd and B would be 4th.
(I'll also make prettier images for Pools/Brackets)
The one drawback is that a quarter of entrants don't get into the bracket, but I think this system would be exciting and also more rewarding to those that do well. I may run a poll if people prefer 4th Seeds being put into the bracket anyway, but I'd really like to run this with elimination Pools.
Anyway, onto discussing some battling aspects. I'd like to talk about you, the opponent and the RNG.
Per turn, you have at max, 9 options (4 attacks, 5 switches), and as much as you plan and predict your opponent, only one of the 9 are selected, while the opponent too has 9 options. For any given turn, there's 81 possibilities at most, and only one happens. In that one is a whole other amount of things that can happen because of the RNG. You could get Paralyzed, miss, CH, do high damage, etc.
Maybe this is just my personal view point, but I like to look at it like this:
Each time you switch, that means you attack one less turn as well and vice versa, but of course, switching may put you into a less disadvantageous situation. You have to consider if it's worth the turn spent, and if you'll stay in that advantageous situation. It's related to how chain-switching works, for example vs Tauros, you switch to Gengar first to take a Normal attack, meaning you go into a more advantageous situation without any loss, and then you do it again to Articuno vs Earthquake to an even more advantageous situation.
Personally for my playstyle, I dislike using Pokemon like Zapdos or Persian which have hard counters. While Persian and Zapdos have their uses and are often better than many Pokemon (perhaps even on average), they have a way higher standard deviation of usefulness per battle. I personally like consistency, and since I am forced to switch out a lot less, I get more attacks in per battle than my opponent. Alternatively I have more options between attacks/switches that are viable which also helps with being a bit more unpredictable. For example, having Zapdos on your team takes away a common choice as you may not want to reveal you have it. That means you only have 8 options per turn as opposed to 9.
You can go very deep with this and you're the one to decide how far you go.
Now, no matter what happens during the turn, you ultimately pick 1 of 9 or less options and that's all you ever do. Often your selection may be affected based on what you think the opponent will do, but you still pick 1 of 9. It's your ability to determine repeatedly and consistently which is the best option and have your correct choices outweigh the bad. But even someone who picks perfectly per turn may fall due to RNG, but that's what makes Pokemon dynamic, exciting and fun.
Of course before picking 1 of the 9 options per turn, you also have a ton of stuff to decide on when constructing a team, but I'm focusing more on battling than team constructing here.
One way to learn how to predict your opponent well is to figure out how opponents handle these situations and which of the 9 options they pick in each one. Does their choice resemble faking you out? Retreating? Playing through it? You can also pick up on patterns as you watch closely what it does, but because the human brain is an amazing thing, there's no simple formula you can just punch in to get a result, though you can get to approximately 50% with an even opponent. Theoretically you could get 100%, or at least much closer to, but you'd need to be some sort of prodigy in Psychology and recognition of patterns to crazy levels. Maybe that's why Posthuman is so good, despite never playing. =P
Anyway, I'd really like to see all of you join the OU tournament next month, and try to get all of our all-stars in for massive competition and hype! =D
