Sunday Community Skirmish #1 (signups for Sunday 11th May)

[Velvet]

comes free with terrible, temporary logo!

There is a unique tradition practised by a mysterious sect of monks, its origins lost in the mists of time. Every Sunday, they would rise from their deep contemplation of the universe to duke it out in homemade airships across a variety of exotic locales. Largely forgotten for centuries, now that the airship is mainstream, the sect have gone public, encouraging any young men and women who will listen to participate in violent weekend air battles. At least it gets them off the streets.

This is a new competitive event to keep your Sundays interesting. There's no recurring commitment or overarching structure.
We will be attempting to maximise community involvement and minimise personal stakes or reliance on individuals - referees, casters and organisers will be kept as separate roles and there is no fixed "owner" of the event, hence the "Community" in the name. In fact I'll be pretty relieved if there's a volunteer to handle organisation next week.

The first event will take place at 8pm UTC on Sunday 11th May (note that Britain is not currently on UTC) and will be streamed by Fourth Oracle at http://www.twitch.tv/fourthoracle.
The match follows the same 2v2 deathmatch, single elimination, best of 3 format that you should be used to.

Signups should be posted in this thread. Signups close 24 hours before the event, at 8PM UTC on Saturday the 11th of May. No more last minute signups, sorry.
The bracket and map rolls will be available soon after signups close. (brackets at http://goiocommunity.challonge.com/)
Please include a Skype contact for your team in your signup, if I do not already have one.

Time Limit Rules
This is new. We hope it'll put pressure on teams to kill each other without encouraging the habit of some teams of waiting until the 25 minute mark before they realise they need to force an engage.
If it is felt these rules are unsuccessful or have negative consequences we can always revert to something more traditional next week.

• Matches have a 15 minute time limit. 5 minutes are added to the timer at every kill.
  
• When the timer runs out, the team with the higher score wins.
• If the timer runs out and the scores are tied, the match is a draw. If a Bo3 is left tied like this, it will be decided by score totals. If these are also tied, it will be resolved with a (virtual) coin toss.

Substitution/Disconnect Rules:

• Nobody may play for more than one team on the same day.
• The match referee is authorised to call pauses and allow substitutions midmatch at their own discretion. A guideline is about 2 pauses/substitutions per team per match. However if both teams are happy to have a pause or it otherwise seems appropriate in the circumstances the referee can allow as many pauses as necessary.

[Imagine]

Just so you're aware, the 11th is Mother's Day in the US.

[Sammy B. T.]

Bring your mother!

[Velvet]

That's no problem. Family members are always welcome to watch the stream!

...

thanks for the heads up.

New Casters?
Anyone who is interested in casting or streaming, please pitch in! Your contribution would be welcomed and even if you're new and incompetent we'd probably give you at least one chance! Seriously though, it would be great to see some new casters so if anyone is at all interested that'd be awesome. Being able to stream is not compulsory - although it helps. I'll try to organise things so that if we get any new casters they'll be paired with someone more experienced to give them a smooth learning transition. If you're in the slightest bit interested, give it a try - new casters are always welcome!

[redria]

New Casters?

Remains to be seen how my sanity holds up being part of administration, but casting (not enough internets to stream) would be fun. I'm willing to take a crack at it either of the next 2 Sundays, and possibly again at some point in the future. No experience whatsoever. No guarantees. Probably best in color commentating, not play by play.

(Note, I have no plans of casting for the HC league. Don't worry about that)

[Velvet]

Remains to be seen how my sanity holds up being part of administration, but casting (not enough internets to stream) would be fun. I'm willing to take a crack at it either of the next 2 Sundays, and possibly again at some point in the future. No experience whatsoever. No guarantees. Probably best in color commentating, not play by play.

(Note, I have no plans of casting for the HC league. Don't worry about that)

sounds good. Added you on Steam to discuss it, if you'd prefer to use another form of communication send me the details by PM.

here's a question for everyone:
Should any rule, eg. a predetermined "picking order" (one team has to finalise their loadout before the other) be implemented to shorten lobby times and avoid "standoffs" where teams scramble around trying to counter each other's counter builds?

[-Mad Maverick-]

yes

[-Mad Maverick-]

also i won't be in this week due to mothers, but I'm working towards the 18th

[Velvet]

it occurs to me that this might be a bit late. How would people feel about 7 rather than 8 UTC? (I think if there was a change it will happen to next week rather than the already scheduled one)

[Tropo]

sarcilege might not be able to make it this week but will try would rather later then earlyer as that is 6 in the morning

15 min match times seem way to quik having a look over some casted events in the passed the avg match time seems to be 20 to 40 mins

[Mattisamo]

sarcilege might not be able to make it this week but will try would rather later then earlyer as that is 6 in the morning

15 min match times seem way to quik having a look over some casted events in the passed the avg match time seems to be 20 to 40 mins

Hence the added 5min/kill.

[redria]

Games could run as long as 55 minutes each (15 + 8*5). That should allow plenty of time as long as somebody is getting kills. Interesting timing decision. Should make for a good one-day-tournament rule.

[Velvet]

Sorry if the wording about the timer wasn't very clear. 15 mins is only the "base" at which the timer starts. The idea is that if absolutely nothing is happening in a match, the sooner it ends the better. However as Redria says, so long as people are scoring the occasional kill even a very slow match is allowed for under these rules.

[Hillerton [PC]]

I'm affraid Rydrs will not be able to make it this Sunday, Sundays are generally a bit iffy for our team atm but we will try to participate later on and like the idea (we really missed the rumble).

here's a question for everyone:
Should any rule, eg. a predetermined "picking order" (one team has to finalise their loadout before the other) be implemented to shorten lobby times and avoid "standoffs" where teams scramble around trying to counter each other's counter builds?

I just want to point out that a time limit or some thing like that might be a bit more fair to both teams. Counter picking can play a big part in wining and forcing one team to pick ships without knowing what the other team will bring and then allowing the other team to pick after will give a huge advantage to the second team I feel. Say you where up against Rydrs and you pick first, then you take something to counter our Pyramidion due (or most commonly used ships) but then we are free to pick something completely different to counter your counter. Or even worse that you are up against a team that don't always fly the same ship then what do you pick in order to have a good game?
Maybe something like a 1 minute time limit from that all pilots join could work in order not to drag it out?

[Velvet]

[quoteI just want to point out that a time limit or some thing like that might be a bit more fair to both teams. Counter picking can play a big part in wining and forcing one team to pick ships without knowing what the other team will bring and then allowing the other team to pick after will give a huge advantage to the second team I feel. Say you where up against Rydrs and you pick first, then you take something to counter our Pyramidion due (or most commonly used ships) but then we are free to pick something completely different to counter your counter. Or even worse that you are up against a team that don't always fly the same ship then what do you pick in order to have a good game?
Maybe something like a 1 minute time limit from that all pilots join could work in order not to drag it out?[/quote]
basically my thoughts. wanted to get some input on that suggestion rather than dismissing it out of hand.
I think you might be right that a timer is a better alternative than a picking order if it is felt that lobby times are dragging out.