Possible SotM tournament rules

Games Sentinels of the Multiverse
#1

What do y’all think of the following as a way for two people (or two teams) to compete at SotM?

A match consists of a series of games that continue until one team wins and the other team loses. If both teams win or both teams lose a game, they play another game.

For each game, one team will pick the villain, then the other team will pick a hero, then the teams will take turns picking heroes until all players on the team have a hero (or up to the number of heroes / game – probably four), then the same team that picked the villain will pick an environment. So one team gets to pick the villain and the environment, but the other team gets first pick of heroes. For the first game, a coin toss to determine who picks which, then alternate for additional games.

You can only pick decks that have not been chosen. If all decks for a category are chosen, then they all become available again. Variants count as different decks for both heroes and villains. The standard and variant Sentinels can be mixed and match, but, if so, the remaining four must be used if The Sentinels are chosen again.

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#2

I’m a little confused. Are there two simultaneous games going on, or two sequential games going on, per tournament round? (It matters if you are playing from the same pool of decks.)

#3

It has possibilities. If you have six people, two teams of three playing SOTM games in tandem would be better than trying to actually play at H=6 (although I’ve done this a couple times and not had any major issues yet).

The big issue with this is that depending on villain, environment, and even hero choice, the length of the two games is likely to be radically different, so one team will be stuck waiting. You could say that the winner of a round is the first team to finish their game, and the other scoops and plays the next round, but this would unfairly push toward quick villains being better than long-game ones.

This sounds overly complected. I’d just let each team pick a villain and an environment for the other team, then let each player pick their own heroes and go for it. Drafting heroes doesn’t work for a lot of players who are really only comfortable playing a handful of heroes that they like or are good with.

This could work, but again I think it might be unnecessary complexity. And variants counting as different decks works a lot better if you have extra decks, which not everyone can afford to.

#4

Two simultaneous games. Each game has the same villain and environment deck, but different heroes.

#5

This is a competition, so I’m not worried about people being uncomfortable with decks. Your ability to win will be based in part on your familiarity with the decks. Drafting is a critical part of what I’m interested in!

You make a great point about the differing times that concurrent games could take. I envision this as being far more successfully as a forum-based tournament where rounds occur over days rather than an in-person tournament.

I’m also not too worried about people not having all the decks. I see the people playing this as likely to be people who have collected everything.

#6

Everything, sure. But two copies of everything? Less certain.

#7

What about this, as a variation on the idea? I’m thinking about combining your proposed rules with FPS siege-style games.

Pair off participant teams, and then each pairing works as follows:

  • Start with one complete copy of the game to draw from, except for the OblivAeon villain booklet
  • Each team drafts the Villain for the other team to face
  • Each team drafts the Environment for the other team to face
  • Each team drafts their team of heroes
  • Each team plays their games simultaneously, and tracks the total number of rounds played
  • Switch – and what I’m not sure of here is, do the teams get to keep their hero drafts and just switch Villain/Environment, or do they play completely identical games?
  • Each team plays their games simultaneously, and tracks the total number of rounds played

Then, out of the 2 games each team played,

  • Whichever team won the most games wins the pairing
  • If tied, whichever team played the fewest rounds in winning games wins the pairing
  • If still tied, whichever team played the most rounds in losing games wins the pairing
  • If still tied, play a new set
#8

I was envisioning each person playing at home with their own decks.

#9

I’m not a big fan of rounds mattering. That may be because my play style is often to turtle until I can build up.

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#10

True; so do I in many of my solo games. But I figured with teams familiar with the game you’d end up with many pairings coming out with the same record. I thought having an efficient tie-breaker would help move the tournament along. And I was trying to reward the turtles at least a little bit by measuring how long they can survive against the tougher villains! :wink: