Thank you very much to JD, Lagavulin, and Brian for organising this
tournament very well.
<p>
Thank you to everyone for their kind words.
<p>
Congratulations to Sampras on a great tournament. I am still
impressed by your "perfect" against the twin mice. Until I saw you do
it, I thought it was impossible.
<p>
Congratulations to everyone else who had great performances during
this tournament.
<p>
I know I have said a lot of what I am going to say now on IRC
already, but here goes:
<p>
I have not had as much fun in a tournament since T2, and I am not
saying that because I happened to win both. Of course, the fact that
I had a lot of fun, made me put more effort in. Because I thought
K2/MC2 (what should I call it?) was fun well before the final few
rounds.
<p>
The seedings worked out a lot better than I had expected. Of the 8
seeds, the top 4 seeds advanced to the semis, and the top 2 seeds
advanced to the finals. I guess the seedings were ALMOST perfect.
<p>
I was surprised the seedings worked out so well, because, unlike
seedings in tennis, for example, the game changes every round. It's
almost like seeding people according to their tennis rankings and
then make them play each other on other sports.
<p>
Of course, there's always the chance that the number 8 seed plays
against the number 1 seed on a game on which the former one is an
expert and the latter sucks. Well, of course, there's always luck
involved. Based on the fact that each of the top 4 seeds won at least
one round, it looks like by simply shuffling the games in a different
order, any of the top 4 would have won. There is no way I would have
beaten Sampras on Goal! Goal! Goal!, or Phil on Anteater, or BBH on
U.N. Squadron.
<p>
Although the one-on-one rounds are fun, I do not think they should be
extended to the final 16. It gets more frustrating sooner, then. Get
a game you're not good at, or oppose an expert, and you're out. At
least until the one-on-one rounds start, you can wing it. I liked the
one-on-one rounds, but starting them at the final 16 already seems a
bit too early to me. The seedings probably would be less accurate
too, then. The seedings in K2 were based on 5 rounds. If one-on-one
had started at the final 16, then they would have been based on only
4 rounds.
<p>
I don't think the tournament was too long. I don't think rounds
should be less than 10 days per game. Some people learn games faster
than others, and at least 10-day-rounds don't automatically eliminate
anyone who happens to be gone for a few days. The tournament could be
made SLIGHTLY shorter by not waiting one day in between rounds.
I'd've preferred that. The only problem is that not all the
submissions may have been verified as soon as the round ends. Either
way, I think the next game could be announced immediately after the
previous round has ended. And within the next few hours hopefully, or
one day at most, after the end of that previous round, everything
should be official.
<p>
Eliminating half of the competitors in the early rounds is not much
fun, I think, for the 75% who are out after having played just one or
two games. So I liked the "relaxed elimination" in the early rounds.
<p>
OK. I think that concludes my remarks, except for something slightly
related to this: T6. There are some issues that need to be resolved
first. I hope to make an announcement regarding T6 soon.
<p>
Cheers,
Ben Jos.
--
walbeehm@walbeehm.com
But I'll leave it to everyone to say what you think about it here, I'd be interested in seeing your feedback.