The Expanded Medal Play Series of GOTM

[cracker]

The Medal Play Series will be an optional choice that GOTM players may choose to participate in for extra recognition at one of five different skill/division levels.

We want to first emphasize that this option should have little or no impact on how or why you play the individual GOTM games. To have your GOTM games count towards the medal play results all you need to do is meet the targeted victory condition in some games. The targeted victory condition is optional for the GOTM games themselves and you will have the choice of multiple optional games to fill out the requirement for three games that will make up your medal play average.

You do not need to feel any obligation to play in the extra and optional tournament style games that will be added to the monthly game availability schedule. If you do choose to play in these games you may do so with the confidence that the will be designed and administered with the same level or professionalism that you have grown to expect from all GOTM games.

The second major issue to recognize is that the medal play series has five division levels for player skill, but that the actual games will always only be available to play at the three skill levels: COnquest, Open, and Predator. Players will be divided into compartive scoring divisions according to the number of games they play at the various skill levels. You can look at a general mapping of divisions to skill levels be equating Conscript division players to only playing at the Conquest Skill Level while Leader division players would only play at Predator Level. The Class level playing system is specifically designed to facilitate interaction and comparison of games without forcing the fully divided and unrelated game discussions that became so prevailent in former torunament games.

Here is a link to the Medal Play Series index page where you can find more information about the series.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/medal_play/index.shtml

 

[Ronald]

Hi cracker,

You and your team definitely did a wonderful job taking over the tournament and keeping it alive.

Thanks very much

Ronald

 

[cracker]

Ronald,

You are not out of the picture either. Just take care of family priorities and then let me know when you are feeling up to returning to the processes of building part of the new inclusive "tournament'.

 

[simonsezz]

I looked at the tournament stuff a few months ago when I first found this site but had to make a decision as to where to start and the gotm won based on how big a committment I had to make to try things out.
Now........ only a player for two gotm and I might just 'have' to play 2 games a month now.....only question now is how much civ can a civfanatic civ.......
Seems very well thought out, competitive, simple, yet challenges the player to both try new things (I'm SUCH a warmonger) and even take a chance by upping the bar every other month or so.
One can only assume this should swell the ranks of both the gotm and tournament player camps!

Hey,these guys are GOOD!

 

[scubagtr]

I like this idea. It will really help on those months when I finish the GOTM early and am looking for some other games to compete in.

So looking at this Season 5. It looks like I will have to play at least one GOTM as a Medal game as well, but future seasons, I can play them separately?

Also, Do we need to declare that we are playing this GOTM or any future ones as a Medal game BEFORE we start? Or basically, if I try to win GOTM21 by diplomacy, but that doesn't work, and then I try for Space Race and win, then I can submit it as a Medal game as well?

 

[cracker]

You do not need to delare in advance what your intentions may be.

It may help your performance to do this for your own purposes, but you may feel free to choose your own path to success in teh games while recognizing that your performance in the medal play series will be based on how quickly you achieve the targeted victory condition.

Astute players will recognize that a well played game will achieve a fast victory under almost any conditions even if it is not absolutely the fastest individual submissiopn for that one game. Since your performance in the medal play series will be be based on the average of your highest three games, then a player who plays well and reiably in three games will have a very strong chance of winning the medal for their division while a player who sacrifices everything in terms of speed without supporting play migh be subject to severe swings of fate due to random outcomes in the game.

Gotm games submitted for medal play will also be scored, validated, and ranked as submissions for the GOTM scoring system. SO, effectively you will be able to count the same game in two different places and the GOTM scoring system will provide an overview of the skill evidenced in the game will the tournament scoring system will provide a purer representation of achieving the targeted objective in the minimum number of turns.

 

[Yndy]

Is there any registration necessary to participate at the Medal Play?

Is there any registration necessary to join one of the divisions?

If I submit two open class games and a predator one, would I be ranked in veteran or elite?

These sound like FAQs aren't they?

 

[cracker]

No registrations required, your first qualifying game submission will be your registration for medal play.

By the time we get out to where a third game in the sequence of medal play will be possible, there will be an optional indicator on the submission form that will let you clarify your preferred division.

All will bcome clearer after we get toward game 2 or 3 of the series.

For now we only have one game up and defined and if you meet the target victory condition, then you will be considered in the pool.

 

[scubagtr]

For example Season 6: So let's say that I play the GOTMs as they are and win in different ways, none matching the Medal victory conditons for that given game and also play the 3 Medal-only games, with these results. Win 6-2 and 6-4 by the correct victory condition, but accidently trigger the wrong victory for Game 6-6. Or what happens if I lose one of the Medal games. I guess what I'm asking, can any of those be submitted for any type of credit ( a loss or the wrong victory condtion (assuming it's not the GOTM)?

Will this skew the GOTM21 to mostly be wins by the Space Race or do you anticipate near the same mix of usual victory conditions?

 

[mad-bax]

I have to say that I am warming to this idea, particularly having read the provided link. It is unlikely that my GOTM21 submission will qualify for the Medal play as I have set myself a particular goal for it. However, I should be able to get 3 out of the remaining 4.

I do have a simple question here just out of idle curiosity. Will the additional games (5-4 and 5-6) require the same level of commitment as the usual GOTM games. In other words will they be designed so that "on avearage" they can be completed with fewer game play hours than the standard GOTM or not?

Scubagtr: IMHO there will be a higher proportion of submissions for the "stated" victory condition than you would otherwise see. However if we assume that the best dates given by the Jason system are technically accurate, then the actual Jason score distributions should be unnaffected by the victory condition. What you might see is some changes at the "elite" end of the scale, where players who want to compete in the Medal play event choose a different path to a stated victory condition than they might otherwise. In fact I kind of suspect that the average player score might go up slightly where people go flat out for a specific victory condition from the start, rather than waiting until an "appropriate" time to decide which way to go. Hedging your bets is not an option in the tournament. It's only a guess, and as such is bound to be wrong.

 

[Renata]

I don't think that was actually scuba's question. He was asking what would happen if he submitted two valid medal play games, but the third was won by the 'wrong' victory condition. I don't know if it's been discussed what will be done in such cases yet. In the old tournament, 'incorrect' wins still counted, but were discounted in some fashion I never looked into deeply enough to figure out. Maybe something similar?

Renata

 

[Melifluous]

IIRC wins by any way other than the "ideal" victory scored a mere 10% of the total score.

It was a win in the fastest time possible with the set victory that counted.

Any other victory was kinda a loss...

Melifluous

 

[scubagtr]

That will certainly put the pressure on. I will need to play all 6 games and pray I get 3-4 with wins and hope that at least 3 of those victory types are the correct ones.

It will be fun to try for a Space Victory and have to vote against myself in a UN vote to prevent myself from winning the wrong way

 

[RowAndLive]

Just a simple question: While I understand that a well-played game will certainly have a quicker finish date, doesn't this also favor the unemployed, students and retirees over those of us who are either over-working (too many hours), over-employed (too many jobs) or prolific (too many children)? Shouldn't it be based on hours played instead? Otherwise, I like the idea of the medals, and levels of competitors. THanks.

 

[ControlFreak]

RowAndLive@ If I understand you correctly, you're thinking a quicker finish date means July 20th rather than July28th? The tournament and these medal games will be comparing the GAME date of completion. 1450AD rather than 1998AD.

I too fall in the over-working, prolific catagory but wouldn't want anything based on the hours played.

I really like the concept. I barely get to finish the GOTM and won't be submitting GOTM20 unless some miracle occurs tonight. If the non-GOTM competative games are quicker to play, I may switch to playing these instead.

 

[RowAndLive]

Thanks! Boy do I feel dumb.....

 

[mad-bax]

Originally posted by Renata
I don't think that was actually scuba's question. He was asking what would happen if he submitted two valid medal play games, but the third was won by the 'wrong' victory condition.
Renata

Whoops sorry, you're right. I had a similar idle thought myself. What if I played to the domination limit and submitted the game, then instead of capturing the last town raise it and go on for a space race win? I guess there's no chance of that being allowed.

 

[drewshark]

I forsee alot of players playing the GOTM with the medal series a thought in the background. Because of this, I think a lot of players with gear towards the necessary victory condidtion. I wonder how this will affect GOTM submissions and may actually lead to players going for alternate victory conditions, different than the one many others are submitting. I guess I'm worried that we may only see two or three of the other conditions submitted for each one and a few hundred of the necessary condition. Any thoughts on how this will affect gameplay, GOTM results, the qsc, and global rankings? At first look, those who do not compete in the medal series may have an advantage.

 

[Nightfa11]

@GOTM Staff: Nice work. This is the best of both worlds, and probably even better!

I have a couple of suggestions/questions:

1. Start a poll or series of polls that will help the GOTM staff discern the nature of the games that are desired (tourney specific games). For example, I prefer smaller maps and would like to see how many others feel the way I do. Since GOTM maps tend to be largeish, I would like to see how many others want to see small tourney maps.

2. Since we aren't having difficulty level variations, how are you accounting for the difference in conquest, open and predator at the varying difficulty levels. You said:

A typical player will be expected to play well in games that range across the equivalent of two full difficulty levels in order to expect to earn medal recognition for skilled play.

At the extremes, predator deity is much tougher than predator regent. I would assert the difficulty between conquest regent and conquest deity is greater than two levels (given the current conquest bonuses).

3. What difficulty level will the TBA games be? Will these difficulty levels affect the normal rise/fall pattern of difficulty in the GOTM?

EDIT: replaced warlord with regent (we don't play warlord games in GOTM at all, do we?)

 

[Smirk]

While I don't like this and would have played more than the minimum 3 games needed this is much improved over what I previously saw, good job cracker.

I have a few remaining questions, for season five at least one of this gotm games I will have to play as a medal play game since 5-2 isn't happening? So I'll have to sacrifice one of those gotm by not doing the domination rush strategy. So what are the tourney victory conditions for gotm22 and 23? I'm fine with just making a blind descision on which one I will play for the tourney, but I would like to base it on something.