Beginner Tournaments

[vYzion]

I think that there should be beginner tournaments on a regular basis.

I scroll through the tournament posting everyday and always run into the same problem...I basically need an entire set in order to play. Don't get me wrong, some of the formats look really fun...for people that already own the entire (or at least a healthy portion) of the card set.

This is sort of like how celebrities get all sorts of free designer clothes...the one group of people that can actually afford Gucci doesn't even have to pay for it. In Shadow Era, the people that don't really need the SC as badly are the only ones that can compete for more of them.

Why should beginners be relegated to months and months of grinding to get 500 SC (which is still no where near enough to get a substantial portion of the card set) when someone that already has the entire set of cards and 5K SC can get another 1000 in a couple hours (winning a tournament).

When I think about the fact that the new edition is going to be released soon, this just becomes rather vicious. The only people that are going to have a chance at getting the new cards in a timely fashion are those that have had the entire set for sometime now and have just been hoarding SC.

So, in order to stop this obvious division of classes within the community from proliferating any further, those that need SC (or gold) to build there decks should be offered ample opportunity to receive them in an efficient and timely fashion (i.e., not grinding out 40 gold a win).

Personally, I think the onus falls on the game developers (but as long as they support it with prizes, then it doesn't really matter who organizes the stuff) for a number of reasons:

First, if this trend continues, I really don't see that Shadow Era will be able to continue attracting new members (especially as more and more sets get released).

Second, if the schism between the "haves" and the "have-nots" continues to grow, I think it will cause a lot of people to stop playing the game.

Third, With a smaller gap in opportunity, the competition within the community will increase which means that the game itself will move forward and evolve much more quickly.

What I would like to see is something along the lines of the following:

1) A weekly event.

2) Divisions should be partitioned by rating.
e.g., Every week there is a beginner's tournament (3-day event or whatever). 3 Divisions (0-75, 76-150, 150-225). Each division has it's own prize pool (e.g., 0-75: 1st - 100 SC, 2nd - 50 SC, 3rd - 25 SC....150-225: 1st - 1000 SC, 2nd - 500 SC, 3rd - 250 SC).
Or, perhaps restrict tournament entries to a band of ratings (e.g., an under 150 tournament)

3) A monthly event for the winners of the weekly events with bigger prizes.

In any case, the details can be worked out (round robin matches, pairings, etc.), but I think this is something that needs to happen in order to level the playing field a bit and increase the quality of games in the Shadow Era community.

[Zhou86]

With all due respect, a rating of 220-230 is not hard at all, in fact I got it via a deck I constructed for FREE (Not even using any offers) by following this guide: http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....tches-(Majiya)

And to join a tournament, you don't have to be RICH with SCs, a relatively good and competitive deck is cheap, at most you only need 200-300SCs (including the free $2m SCs giveaways and level up). All you need is experience, time and commitment to participate in a tournament.

The best format of a tournament that suits new players are Pop-Up tournaments.

There are people who actually paid for the SCs and I believe the advantages are theirs. For people who want to play this game for free (myself included), they (or we) will have to pay more of our time/attention/effort to earn those SCs.

As for now, this game is already as newbie friendly as it can get with readily available QMs and AI to grind for gold. Tournaments should always be an exclusive privilege for more advanced players who devoted more of their time, effort and some even cash to better themselves in this game.

Sorry if I offended anyone with this post, but this is just my humble 2 cents.

[Alzorath]

I wouldn't mind running a 'newbie only tournament' - the trick is confirming those people are new as an outside player ...

Also worth noting - TJ and A1 popups are a great place to start testing the waters as a new player (you can be competitive there even if you only have 1 deck you've been working on, and it's good for learning the tournament environment because everyone from nobodies like myself... all the way to former big tournament champions, have been in them from time to time).

[Zhou86]

I wouldn't mind running a 'newbie only tournament' - the trick is confirming those people are new as an outside player ...

Also worth noting - TJ and A1 popups are a great place to start testing the waters as a new player (you can be competitive there even if you only have 1 deck you've been working on, and it's good for learning the tournament environment because everyone from nobodies like myself... all the way to former big tournament champions, have been in them from time to time).

Agreed, confirming someone whether he/she is a new player from ratings is not an accurate gauge. And plus tournaments must always be of some quality i.e. at least the players know how to play the game itself.

[pyrogene]

Beginner tourneys are not popular for a few reasons.

1. New players are often not aware of commonly used ways to organise games such as IRC/PM and may not have a sustained interest level so the organisation is much more difficult.

2. It is difficult to verify the authenticity of the new player to create a "level" playing field.

3. No incentive at all currently for players to spend SC and time to organise tourneys. If they do, they may prefer one which they or their friends/guildies can join as well.

Should Wulven have some official support for that? Yes, and not just for beginners but for all other players as well. It's already on their to-do list so will have to wait to see what happens.

However from a business perspective, a paying customer is definitely more valuable than a non-paying one. So don't count on it being too easy to get SC. If its so easy to win SC who would pay for them?

As several have mentioned, it's not impossible to make a competitive deck without spending any money (most tourneys unlike your misconception, does not require a full set). You just need to put in the effort to gain the experience. The freemium model is always about the trade-off between time and money. If you are not willing to spend time, you have to be prepared to spend a little.

[Mip]

Hello,

I'm also kind of new (though I did buy some SC) and I've competed in some pop up tournaments. I'm not sure that a seperate tourney for new players is really needed. I got over 200 rating in a week, so at what point are people still new in the game, the first two days? Should you feel that one is necessary you could also organize one yourself and ask Wulven to sponsor it. I believe there is a stickied threat there to do so. Though then you will also run into the question of how to decide who is a new player.

Bye,
Mip