PIU ZERO Tournament, Bloomington IN, March 24-25

[Jason Dread]

Agreed. I can't tell you how many new players I've seen go into the dark recesses of battle mode, only to do miserably because they don't know what's going on and never go back to playing Pump again.

[FLAKK]

That is why I vote for having a random song on Remix instead of a song on Battle Mode for a tie breaker.

[Yume_Taira]

Well, we could do that...or someone could have the sense to make a Battle Mode tutorial, or at least directions.

[Arka]

Web-based descriptions make Battle Mode sound far more complicated than the equivalent for DDR or ITG (where the modifiers are automatically picked by the machine).

I think MonMotha would agree that Andamiro's engrish makes Battle Mode seem more complicated than it actually is.

Nonsense! It just makes it seem... um... "glonous cultual." That's the ticket.

[Edit:] On further introspection, I don't think it matters what MonMotha would agree to anyway, because I scared him away with all the raving over the Sun Shine Incident. 'Nuff said.

Arka, if you want to learn battle mode, have an actual person teach you. It'll make more sense.

Unfortunately, I don't know any actual people who'd be interested in teaching me.

Unless that's an offer.

[Yume_Taira]

*shrug* I don't think you're anywhere near me, but I can type something up for you.

[malictus]

OK, I know you guys are chomping at the bit for some rules. Here's my idea in a nutshell for the tech tourney; comments welcome:

- standard double elimination with NCAA style brackets
- qualifying round is ANY song on any difficulty, placement based on score (Nightmare players take note!)
- rounds consist of two songs on Arcade mode; each player picks song, difficulty and side for his/her turn
- winner of each song is determined by (Perfect * 2) + Greats
- ties wil be broken by a random song on random difficulty
- for the rounds with the final 4 (in both winner's and loser's bracket), you may choose to play a Remix song instead of an Arcade mode song, if you wish; also ties for the final 4 will be broken by a random Remix song
- you may choose a particular song only once during the entire tourney (not including qualifying round)

These rules are unofficial; I'll post more elaborate rules (and times!) soon but this is the basic idea.

[Secef]

- rounds consist of two songs on Arcade mode; each player picks song, difficulty and side for his/her turn
- winner of each song is determined by (Perfect * 2) + Greats

Question 1: Will people be able to choose Freestyle+Nightmare difficulties? I'd guess not, since this would make the tourney kinda long, having to play each song twice on those rounds and all.

Question 2: Should misses be factored into scoring somehow? I know on harder songs PA starts to take a backseat to simply passing (not that I'd know, I suck). Maybe -1 for misses or some such. I dunno how PIU tournaments flow.

[malictus]

Definitely no Freestyle/Nightmare songs during the regular part of the tourney; however, you could choose to do a Nightmare song for your qualifying round.

And yes, maybe adding a penalty for misses would help, but I don't want things to get too complex. I also don't want to rely only on score to determine the winner, since (IMHO) score is too heavily based on where in the song you might have happened to break your combo...

[MonMotha]

What mods are allowed? I presume speed mods are good, but are anything else allowed? Some mods do affect both players, and those should probably be out (except maybe for tie breakers?).

[Jason Dread]

OK, I know you guys are chomping at the bit for some rules. Here's my idea in a nutshell for the tech tourney; comments welcome:

1 - standard double elimination with NCAA style brackets
2 - qualifying round is ANY song on any difficulty, placement based on score (Nightmare players take note!)
3 - rounds consist of two songs on Arcade mode; each player picks song, difficulty and side for his/her turn
4 - winner of each song is determined by (Perfect * 2) + Greats
5 - ties wil be broken by a random song on random difficulty
6 - for the rounds with the final 4 (in both winner's and loser's bracket), you may choose to play a Remix song instead of an Arcade mode song, if you wish; also ties for the final 4 will be broken by a random Remix song
7 - you may choose a particular song only once during the entire tourney (not including qualifying round)

These rules are unofficial; I'll post more elaborate rules (and times!) soon but this is the basic idea.

1 - Perfect
2 - This is pretty unique from my perspective, and honestly I really like your idea for qualification.
3 - Standard, but good.
4 - This is the only thing I have apprehension about. Because of Pump's scoring system and my organized tournaments in the past, I would highly suggest using the player's score at the end of the song to determine the winner.
5 - Once again original, and very good
6 - VERY interesting twist. For the final four you may want to add the provision that the Remixes will be played on Crazy mode. Nothing like having a final four match determined by World Remix on Hard :\
7 - Standard, and good.

Overall I think you've got your shit together. I'm really looking forward to this.

I still suggest trying to get Zero, though

[Arka]

*shrug* I don't think you're anywhere near me, but I can type something up for you.

That's okay - I'm not anywhere near me when I'm playing PIU, either. Yay for no PIU machines within ~50 miles.

More seriously, this is probably unnecessary now because the tournament won't be using Battle mode. But the thought is certainly appreciated.

...5 - ties will be broken by a random song on random difficulty

Does PIU have a "random difficulty" setting, or will this be the good old-fashioned kind of randomness (i.e., roll a 3-sided die*)?

...7 - you may choose a particular song only once during the entire tourney (not including qualifying round)

This is regardless of difficulty, right? That is, you can't play a song on Crazy to wipe out a slow opponent early on and then reuse it on Hard when faced with a different person? (Or vice versa, I suppose.)

I apologize in advance if these things should be obvious to me and are useless to everyone else.

*Please tell me someone else gets this reference. I don't want to feel old.

[Jason Dread]

MC Frontalot reference, correct?

There is no random difficulty setting in Pump. I imagine it would be something as simple as a difficulty from a hat, or a javascript which will generate the difficulty for you. The only provision I would have on the random difficulty it to leave out Normal mode and only have Crazy/Hard available. I can guarantee if the random song is on Normal mode then there will be plenty of redo's for FPC's.

If I understand right, you can reuse a song on a different difficulty. Perhaps more clarification from the organizer is in order but I firmly believe what I said to be the case.

[FLAKK]

OK, I know you guys are chomping at the bit for some rules. Here's my idea in a nutshell for the tech tourney; comments welcome:

- standard double elimination with NCAA style brackets
- qualifying round is ANY song on any difficulty, placement based on score (Nightmare players take note!)
- rounds consist of two songs on Arcade mode; each player picks song, difficulty and side for his/her turn
- winner of each song is determined by (Perfect * 2) + Greats
- ties wil be broken by a random song on random difficulty
- for the rounds with the final 4 (in both winner's and loser's bracket), you may choose to play a Remix song instead of an Arcade mode song, if you wish; also ties for the final 4 will be broken by a random Remix song
- you may choose a particular song only once during the entire tourney (not including qualifying round)

These rules are unofficial; I'll post more elaborate rules (and times!) soon but this is the basic idea.

I think these rules are good and will make for an interesting tournament.

[malictus]

Thanks for the feedback everyone; stay tuned for more details!

[malictus]

Just to let everyone know, there is a chance that the machine will be upgraded to Zero BEFORE the tournament; I just informed them that this would be a good idea, and not to wait until after the tournament if it's possible to get it sooner.



I'll keep you guys informed...