Dear all,
The seventh edition of CyberVASL is now open for sign-up. If you are interested in joining this tournament, please send an email to CyberVASL {at} outlook {dot} com (please be sure that you include exactly "CyberVASL VII" in the subject of the email), indicating your real name, your personal ID code in the AREA webpage (http://www.asl-area.org/), and email. By doing so, you accept that I will use this information and pass it to others for the exclusive purposes of running the tournament.
All rules are below, but here is a summary:
- This seventh edition will be limited to 32 participants, and will consequently have 5 rounds.
- Currently, 20 participants have confirmed participation, so there are 12 free slots available.
- The tournament will start as soon as the 32 slots are filled. In case vacancies still exist by 30th March, the tournament will start with the available players by this date.
- All sign-ups must be done by email. Strict receiving time will determine participation in case the threshold of 32 players is reached.
- I will give some "badges" to participating players, for achieving some targets. The purpose is only to add some spice to the tournament, with no other intention or implication.
COMPLETE RULES:
- Each round, people will be paired, and only the winner of each game will continue in the tournament.
- Default method of play is VASL PBEM, no optional rules and VASL dicebot. Other methods, rules or dice are allowed upon agreement of both players.
- All games of a round must be completed no later than three months after the previous round finished. All games have to be running (i.e., both setups done, and turn 1 started) after one month from the start of the round.
- Deadlines are NOT flexible. At the end of a round a winner must be declared. Failure to this will imply a double loss to both players. Please only sign up if you can send at least one log per day most of the time, as speed is very important when playing PBEM.
- All pairings will be predetermined at the start of the tournament, and you will be allowed (and encouraged) to start your next round game as soon as you know who is your opponent. This will give you more time to complete the new game, as the three months period only starts once all games for the previous round are finished. I will try to regularly remind people about new games that can be started.
- Depending on the number of players (and previous forfeits), it is possible that some players are not paired in a given round. In that case, those players will automatically advance to the next round. I will design pairings to avoid this to happen in the last rounds.
- Pairings will be based on AREA ratings at the start of the tournament, and will be designed in a way that best players will tend to play between them only in latest rounds.
- If you feel that you are not going to have time to complete your game in time, please resign as soon as possible, to allow your opponent to start his new round game ASAP.
- If your game is not finished, (or the game has not started after the first month) then the player more responsible of the delay should politely declare his opponent as the winner, no matter how the game was going.
- All results (win/lose/forfeit) can be notified by either player, either by posting here or sending an email to CyberVASL {at} outlook {dot} com. In the latter case, please be sure that you include exactly "CyberVASL VII" in the subject of the email. Please communicate in a similar way scenario and sides chosen, as well as the moment when you effectively started to play turn 1.
- All games (except those not started after the first month) will be reported to AREA.
- In case a rules dispute appears, please consult the rulebook and the rules forum in GameSquad. Only when this doesn't clarify the answer, you can ask me for a decision. Both players should explain their point of view, with specific references to rules. In this respect, I will have the help of a very experienced player (Brian Wiersma), who will also be the responsible of deciding when the dispute affects one game in which I am playing.
Sign-up rules:
- The sign-up period will last until 30th March at most.
- The number of players in this fifth edition will be limited to 32. Once this limit is reached, sign-up will immediately end, and first round will start
- 20 participants have confirmed participation, so there are 12 free slots available.
- In case the limit is reached before 30th March, new participants will be selected exclusively by the date and time in which sign-up emails were received.
Specific suggestions for selecting scenario and sides:
- ANY scenario can be chosen. Please take into account time availability of you and your opponent, to ensure that the scenario is small enough to be played by the deadline.
- One of the purposes of the tournament is to encourage people to play against new opponents, in order to learn from them both in terms of rules and strategy.
- Therefore, to encourage less experienced people to join, it is suggested that (when the players have different experience levels) the less experienced player selects 3-4 scenarios, and pass them to his opponent, who in turn selects one of them and randomize sides. In this way, less experienced players can adjust the scenario selection to their rules knowledge.
- If both players have a similar experience level, then they can agree on any way they want.
- To facilitate this procedure, all players will have an associated experience level (based on the AREA seed that determined pairings), that will be communicated when the pairings are done.
- Please have a list of your 3-4 preferred scenarios prepared in advance, to avoid unnecessary delays.
Good luck to all!
Sergio
PD (Possible change in the overlapping structure of the tournament, starting next September)
As you know, a new CyberVASL tournament starts every six months (at the end of March and September, usually). By the time a new tournament is about to start, 25% of players are still playing the previous tournament, so if they join the new one, they must play two parallel games, one for each tournament.
This structure is working fine. But I'm considering a slightly different one. Please give your opinion about the change here in this thread, or privately by email.
The proposed change is to change the structure of the September tournament from the current elimination format to a league format: Groups of around 6 players, playing against all other players in their group, with a deadline for all games of 11 months after start. Final classification will be based on total number of wins, with some tiebreakers to be defined.
Groups will be arranged into divisions: One Leader division, two Elite, four 1st line, etc. After a season, first player in each group will promote to the next division, and two last from each group will fall.
If the change is implemented, we would still have overlapping tournaments, one with the current elimination format, and the other with a league format. People would be free to participate in either or both.
With six players per group, each player has to play 5 games. Players can choose to start and play several games at the same time, or play one after the other. The only constraint is to have them all finished by the 11 months deadline.
I see the following pros in this proposal:
- In the current elimination format, inexperienced players can play against the best opponents, which is good for learning. The new format also offers them a way to play against similar opponents, thanks to the division system, and to play more than one game, thanks to the league system.
- It makes the tournament less repetitive
- With the 11 months deadline, you can play that loved, but big, scenario in a pbem tournament.
- You don't have to worry about inactive players. If a player is ejected by inactivity, the points and relative classification of the others will remain unchanged, because all have exactly one missing game against the abandoning player.
Probably, there are other cons. Feel free to enumerate them and please give your opinion about the proposed new format.
PD2: List of current participants (up to 15th March):
Bruno Nitrosso
Will Fleming
Martin Marquis
David Gillies
Alex Koestler
Sergio Puente
Eduard Gonzalez
Blake Ball
Anatoly Sizov
Rick Carter
Jeff Buser
Tom Arnold
Jason Wert
Warren Smith Jr.
Brad Hampson
Gary Bartlett
Ivan Kent
Angel Gonzalez
Robert Mac Ginley
Pierce Mason
The seventh edition of CyberVASL is now open for sign-up. If you are interested in joining this tournament, please send an email to CyberVASL {at} outlook {dot} com (please be sure that you include exactly "CyberVASL VII" in the subject of the email), indicating your real name, your personal ID code in the AREA webpage (http://www.asl-area.org/), and email. By doing so, you accept that I will use this information and pass it to others for the exclusive purposes of running the tournament.
All rules are below, but here is a summary:
- This seventh edition will be limited to 32 participants, and will consequently have 5 rounds.
- Currently, 20 participants have confirmed participation, so there are 12 free slots available.
- The tournament will start as soon as the 32 slots are filled. In case vacancies still exist by 30th March, the tournament will start with the available players by this date.
- All sign-ups must be done by email. Strict receiving time will determine participation in case the threshold of 32 players is reached.
- I will give some "badges" to participating players, for achieving some targets. The purpose is only to add some spice to the tournament, with no other intention or implication.
COMPLETE RULES:
- Each round, people will be paired, and only the winner of each game will continue in the tournament.
- Default method of play is VASL PBEM, no optional rules and VASL dicebot. Other methods, rules or dice are allowed upon agreement of both players.
- All games of a round must be completed no later than three months after the previous round finished. All games have to be running (i.e., both setups done, and turn 1 started) after one month from the start of the round.
- Deadlines are NOT flexible. At the end of a round a winner must be declared. Failure to this will imply a double loss to both players. Please only sign up if you can send at least one log per day most of the time, as speed is very important when playing PBEM.
- All pairings will be predetermined at the start of the tournament, and you will be allowed (and encouraged) to start your next round game as soon as you know who is your opponent. This will give you more time to complete the new game, as the three months period only starts once all games for the previous round are finished. I will try to regularly remind people about new games that can be started.
- Depending on the number of players (and previous forfeits), it is possible that some players are not paired in a given round. In that case, those players will automatically advance to the next round. I will design pairings to avoid this to happen in the last rounds.
- Pairings will be based on AREA ratings at the start of the tournament, and will be designed in a way that best players will tend to play between them only in latest rounds.
- If you feel that you are not going to have time to complete your game in time, please resign as soon as possible, to allow your opponent to start his new round game ASAP.
- If your game is not finished, (or the game has not started after the first month) then the player more responsible of the delay should politely declare his opponent as the winner, no matter how the game was going.
- All results (win/lose/forfeit) can be notified by either player, either by posting here or sending an email to CyberVASL {at} outlook {dot} com. In the latter case, please be sure that you include exactly "CyberVASL VII" in the subject of the email. Please communicate in a similar way scenario and sides chosen, as well as the moment when you effectively started to play turn 1.
- All games (except those not started after the first month) will be reported to AREA.
- In case a rules dispute appears, please consult the rulebook and the rules forum in GameSquad. Only when this doesn't clarify the answer, you can ask me for a decision. Both players should explain their point of view, with specific references to rules. In this respect, I will have the help of a very experienced player (Brian Wiersma), who will also be the responsible of deciding when the dispute affects one game in which I am playing.
Sign-up rules:
- The sign-up period will last until 30th March at most.
- The number of players in this fifth edition will be limited to 32. Once this limit is reached, sign-up will immediately end, and first round will start
- 20 participants have confirmed participation, so there are 12 free slots available.
- In case the limit is reached before 30th March, new participants will be selected exclusively by the date and time in which sign-up emails were received.
Specific suggestions for selecting scenario and sides:
- ANY scenario can be chosen. Please take into account time availability of you and your opponent, to ensure that the scenario is small enough to be played by the deadline.
- One of the purposes of the tournament is to encourage people to play against new opponents, in order to learn from them both in terms of rules and strategy.
- Therefore, to encourage less experienced people to join, it is suggested that (when the players have different experience levels) the less experienced player selects 3-4 scenarios, and pass them to his opponent, who in turn selects one of them and randomize sides. In this way, less experienced players can adjust the scenario selection to their rules knowledge.
- If both players have a similar experience level, then they can agree on any way they want.
- To facilitate this procedure, all players will have an associated experience level (based on the AREA seed that determined pairings), that will be communicated when the pairings are done.
- Please have a list of your 3-4 preferred scenarios prepared in advance, to avoid unnecessary delays.
Good luck to all!
Sergio
PD (Possible change in the overlapping structure of the tournament, starting next September)
As you know, a new CyberVASL tournament starts every six months (at the end of March and September, usually). By the time a new tournament is about to start, 25% of players are still playing the previous tournament, so if they join the new one, they must play two parallel games, one for each tournament.
This structure is working fine. But I'm considering a slightly different one. Please give your opinion about the change here in this thread, or privately by email.
The proposed change is to change the structure of the September tournament from the current elimination format to a league format: Groups of around 6 players, playing against all other players in their group, with a deadline for all games of 11 months after start. Final classification will be based on total number of wins, with some tiebreakers to be defined.
Groups will be arranged into divisions: One Leader division, two Elite, four 1st line, etc. After a season, first player in each group will promote to the next division, and two last from each group will fall.
If the change is implemented, we would still have overlapping tournaments, one with the current elimination format, and the other with a league format. People would be free to participate in either or both.
With six players per group, each player has to play 5 games. Players can choose to start and play several games at the same time, or play one after the other. The only constraint is to have them all finished by the 11 months deadline.
I see the following pros in this proposal:
- In the current elimination format, inexperienced players can play against the best opponents, which is good for learning. The new format also offers them a way to play against similar opponents, thanks to the division system, and to play more than one game, thanks to the league system.
- It makes the tournament less repetitive
- With the 11 months deadline, you can play that loved, but big, scenario in a pbem tournament.
- You don't have to worry about inactive players. If a player is ejected by inactivity, the points and relative classification of the others will remain unchanged, because all have exactly one missing game against the abandoning player.
Probably, there are other cons. Feel free to enumerate them and please give your opinion about the proposed new format.
PD2: List of current participants (up to 15th March):
Bruno Nitrosso
Will Fleming
Martin Marquis
David Gillies
Alex Koestler
Sergio Puente
Eduard Gonzalez
Blake Ball
Anatoly Sizov
Rick Carter
Jeff Buser
Tom Arnold
Jason Wert
Warren Smith Jr.
Brad Hampson
Gary Bartlett
Ivan Kent
Angel Gonzalez
Robert Mac Ginley
Pierce Mason