Welcome to the Second Season of the Kansas, Iowa and Missouri Brawl Circuit! I would like start off by thanking all the TO’s for their help in running the previous circuit. After a fairly rough - yet successful - first circuit, I got word that there was an interest in doing another one... so what are we waiting for? Like last season, the purpose of the circuit will be to foster competition and improvement for every participant by keeping an active tally of tournament records to which players are ranked via Circuit Points. The first event in the circuit will be on 7 May 11 in Lawrence, Kansas! Events will run until December, and the circuit will conclude with a Championship Event in January. If you have any questions regarding the circuit, feel free to ask a TO or me personally on AIM ( lShana24l ), Skype (Fino0437) or by text (913) 787-5282; however, all final decisions regarding the circuit will be made by me.
Season 1: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=277121
~Events~
Event 52
Location: Lawrence, Kansas
Date: 7 May 11
Link: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?p=12236197
Brainshock Beta
Location: Iowa City, Iowa
Date: 25 June 11
Link: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=296956
Rauleen's Host (TBA)
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Date: August (TBA)
Link:
~Rules~
While we will try to uphold a consistent rule-set throughout the circuit, it is to the TO’s discretion on which rules apply to the event. However, each event will be required to follow the Unity Stage-list. It is encouraged that the unity rule-set is adopted at each event, but not required.
~Payouts~
15% of the total amount will be taken out from each event and added to the Circuit Pot. Payouts will be calculated afterward. Should there be less than 32 entrants, payouts will be altered to 55/30/15
Singles
1st: 55%
2nd: 30%
3rd: 10%
4th: 5%
Doubles
1st: 60%
2nd: 30%
3rd: 10%
Payouts given will be rounded and equalized in accordance to “fairness,” meaning they will not always equal the percent amount. In general we try to make sure the lowest placing player in the money at least earns their entrance fee back.
Singles Circuit Payout
1st: 50%
2nd: 25%
3rd: 15%
4th: 10%
Doubles Circuit Payout
1st: 60%
2nd: 30%
3rd: 10%
~Points~
For each event you attend you will receive points based on how you place! The higher you place, the more points you receive. Points will be accessed after the results for each event are posted. If a tournament fails to reach a minimum of 16 singles entrants and 8 teams entrants then the points for singles and doubles will be halved. Doubles points will be awarded to a team, not an individual player. The Championship Event will be worth 1.5x KsIaMo Circuit Points.
Teams points are for your team. Should a player change team members, their most recent team will get half the points from each player’s previous placements added to their score. Any other team(s) cannot be considered for prize money and are effectively "disbanded." This is to reward consistent teams meanwhile not punish those who switch or those who team with someone random too harshly. You may only receive prize money for one team at the end.
Circuit Events
1st - 40
2nd - 30
3rd - 20
4th - 15
5th - 10
7th - 8
9th - 6
13th - 4
<13th - 1
Championship Event
1st - 60
2nd - 45
3rd - 30
4th - 23
5th - 15
7th - 12
9th - 9
13th - 6
<13th - 2
*Changes as of 9-2-11*
***** The cap for attendance points has been changed from 17th to 13th.
***** Payouts for singles and doubles have changed. The new payout system is to balance the distribution of money; however, you may notice it appears to favor doubles. The reason behind this is that the payment in doubles is split between two players, which has now taken into account.
*Changes as of 8-2-11*
***** The MLG rule-set will no longer be used (thank goodness), see rules section for more information.
***** The penalty for switching partners in teams reduced from 2/3 to 1/2.
***** All finals sets will be played / recorded on my Wii. This is not negotiable - finals sets not played on my Wii will be considered friendlies, or (under a unanimous decision of all the attendants) the event can be removed from the circuit.
***** There were some issues last circuit where the full 15% cut could not be made, due to venue issues and so forth. Note, I will not be accepting anything less than what is promised. If you have a problem with that, increase the venue fee - it’s not my problem.
***** Instead of designating states to have an event for the circuit, I am going to be open to which months are easily accessible to that state. Additionally, circuit events will not necessarily be limited to the KsIaMo region so long as the TO is willing to make their event part of the circuit (via 15% cut and similar rule-set). Yes Rob, that means if you can secure a venue and generate enough interest for a tournament in Nebraska, it is a possibility that the tournament may be apart of the circuit.
***** Out of all the events you attend, the event in which you placed the lowest will be dropped from your overall score before the Championship Event. Due to the overwhelming gaps in points from the last circuit (in both singles and doubles), this will be a test to attempt to equalize the point spread as well as eliminate a potential state bias. To be fair, players who attend every event will be given 5 points after the low score drop.
***** Random seeding will replace seeding based on Circuit Points. TOs will be encouraged to use random seeding, but I won’t stop them from seeding based on region/state.
Why? Seeding discriminates against weaker players, while doing anything but seeding discriminates against stronger players - neither should be favored. Egalitarianism isn’t necessarily fair, but it is my belief that if a player deserves a top 3 spot, they will find a way to get there - play to win.
Exceptions:
(1) If pools are done, then naturally the event should be seeded by pools.
(2) Should an event exceed 64 entrants, the top 4 players/teams can be seeded at the TO’s discretion.
(3) The Championship event will be seeded based on points of the top 8 players/teams.
For more on random seeding, I’ve included some literature below on my personal reason for it being used. If you ignore any of the points I make (ie, cry when I clearly already gave a reason to your argument) you will be ignored.
--Plainly put, those who do well early (in theory) will solidify their lead as soon as they attain it (ex: Ks-Ia-Mo Season 1).
(4) First off, when events are seeded by the circuit points, you will find a lot of “weaker players” playing the same “stronger player” at every event. This can be somewhat discouraging:
Person 1: “You should come to *insert ks-ia-mo event here* it’ll be a lot of fun”
Person 2: “Well, I was unable to attend the first 2 events, so if I go, I’ll have to play a really good player first round, regardless of my skill so it hurts my chances of being able to win.”
The goal of the circuit is to promote growth - a poor way of doing that is discouraging attendance. By seeding via circuit points, we essentially penalize potentially “strong players” simply due to the fact that they may not have been able to afford to go, had some other outside influence that prevented them from going, had an off day, or simply wasn’t able to capitalize on gaining a point lead early on in the circuit. More importantly penalize weaker and middle level players with a guarantee that we will make the bracket in a way that they lose early.
To the actual point though, it can be difficult to get better when your best chances of improvement are inhibited by being seeded against someone who is so much better than you, that you're overwhelmed beyond the point of learning from the game.
(5) Regardless of seeding by skill or seeding randomly, you still achieve improvement. I argue random seeding offers more potential to improvement of every member in the community. With random seeding, those who deserve a top spot will find a way to get there. Placing well (or poor) at one event does not influence your ability to place well at the next since you are still on an equal playing field as everyone else. Think about it this way, weak players will eventually get owned in the face... but at least they have a chance to score some wins. The great thing about tournament matches (compared to friendlies or even money matches) is your opponent will have no legitimate johns as to why they lost. Giving opportunity to low/mid-level players to experience wins against other players closer to their skill opens up a learning opportunity that they otherwise may not have gotten with seeding. A few "stronger players" might suffer in the process, but my initial points stands: if a player deserves a top 3 spot, they will find a way to get there. Tournaments outside the Midwest (or even ksiamo) won't be seeding you guys easy brackets, so complaining about playing another "strong player" suggests you aren't ready for serious competition.
(6)You are just as likely to be on the stacked side as the easy side and just as likely to play a “weaker player” as you are a “stronger player” at every event. The difference being, with seeding, only the “weaker players” have the chance to be given a stacked bracket. That's not necessarily fair either, nor does it promote growth to the community... rather the select few.
--Additionally, an easy bracket only takes into consideration of the amount of “weaker players” in relation to “stronger players.” Due to some form of depth in Brawl, being put into the stacked side of bracket doesn’t necessarily affect you as much if your main counters most of the characters on the stacked side (or may affect you more being placed in the weaker side comprised of counters to your main). There are a lot more factors at work that may negate the effects of a stacked bracket.
(7) With random seeding, the top 3-5 players (relative to attendance) are generally accurate in results, while afterward the accuracy decreases quickly. Initially, this may seem to be an issue, but when you look at the point distribution the top 3-5 spots are the ones that matter in the end when points are being calculated for the circuit pot. Overall, the laws of statistics still promise that the best players will be paid at the end of the circuit.
(8) The beauty of double elimination is that it negates most of the arguments against random seeding (in terms of playing good players and in terms of accuracy of results). Like I mentioned before, the circumstances in which random seeding won’t be used is when there is high attendance and at the championship event. These are both instances in which we should favor “stronger players” (my subjective bias). In the event of a high turn out, I feel the top 4 players should get seeded due to the amount of money on the line. By the time we reach the Championship event, we should have collected enough unbias data to determine accurate skill seeds. Additionally, since the Championship event gives higher points AND it's the last event to gain points, it's important we favor those at the top of the board for the accuracy of the overall circuit results. Pools will also negate random seeding since pools relatively test player ability in the “now” of when the event is being played.
I probably contradicted myself somewhere in the explanation... oh well
Zeton - 12
Arty - 10
Clel - 10
Kain - 8
Mr. Doom - 8
Johnny Deadshot - 8
Yoshq - 6
Sago - 6
Trent - 6
Nicole - 6
Joker - 6
Delux - 5
Bpow - 5
Rockstar - 4
Fource - 4
Rob - 4
Rick - 4
Sword_Master91 - 4
Count - 4
2 or Less:
~~~E52~~~
Non
Heyden
Stealth Raptor
Dillan
Luke
Aura
Thugz
Wang
Tempest
Dream
Scrub
Quote
Daniel
Duck
~~~BB~~~
17: Ripple
17: PFGC Indianaz Finest
17: MegaRobMan
17: FAE
17: DLA
17: Nicole
17: Nappy
17: ook
25: Scythe
25: Zwarm
25: Jlo
25: Mr. Doom
25: Trent
25: Akashi
25: Triple R
25: Twink
33: Cool_guy69
33: D.Disciple
33: Nom
33: GameGenie
33: NGamer3k
33: Eon
33: Joker
33: Rob Gambino
33: Meneil
33: Smeesh
33: Kirk
33: Oro
33: Future
33: Tmacc
33: Wang
33: Thugz
49: Dund
49: L
49: Leek
49: Aura
49: BCRF
49: Zeal
49: Red Ryu
49: Jaeke
49: Weston
49: Schizm
49: Kuares
49: Hills
49: Dylan
49: Joe
49: Fujin
49: Silver
65: Bishup
65: Leroy
65: Valk
65: Zozefup
65: SpongeJordan
Count & arty - 15
Zeton & Clel - 15
Fource & Joker - 10
Nicole & sago - 10
Nappy & Moe - 10
Team We Both Have Eye Infections - 10
Zeton & Bpow - 8
Tmacc & joker - 8
Stealth & Scrub - 8
Dillan & Daniel - 8
Mitchell & Denton - 6
Legalize it - 6
Ripple & Pierce7d - 6
FAE & Future – 6
D. Disciple & Rob Gambino – 4
Akashi & Meneil – 4
Oro & Kirk – 4
Sponge Jordan & Red Ryu - 4
1 point
~~~BB~~~
17: Wump Fumcher (Joe + Weston)
17: Runescape Goblins (Twink + BCRF)
17: Colin + Dustin (Colin + Dustin)
17: Wolf Mother (Eon + Bishup)
17: **** ***** (Schizm + Jlo)
17: Century (Leek + Zeal)
17: 2good4u (Slimpy + Lisento)
17: Snake Eater (L + Dund)
25: ook + Zozefup (ook + Zozefup)
Season 1: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=277121
~Events~
Location: Lawrence, Kansas
Date: 7 May 11
Link: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?p=12236197
Brainshock Beta
Location: Iowa City, Iowa
Date: 25 June 11
Link: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=296956
Rauleen's Host (TBA)
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Date: August (TBA)
Link:
~Rules~
While we will try to uphold a consistent rule-set throughout the circuit, it is to the TO’s discretion on which rules apply to the event. However, each event will be required to follow the Unity Stage-list. It is encouraged that the unity rule-set is adopted at each event, but not required.
~Payouts~
15% of the total amount will be taken out from each event and added to the Circuit Pot. Payouts will be calculated afterward. Should there be less than 32 entrants, payouts will be altered to 55/30/15
Singles
1st: 55%
2nd: 30%
3rd: 10%
4th: 5%
Doubles
1st: 60%
2nd: 30%
3rd: 10%
Payouts given will be rounded and equalized in accordance to “fairness,” meaning they will not always equal the percent amount. In general we try to make sure the lowest placing player in the money at least earns their entrance fee back.
Singles Circuit Payout
1st: 50%
2nd: 25%
3rd: 15%
4th: 10%
Doubles Circuit Payout
1st: 60%
2nd: 30%
3rd: 10%
~Points~
For each event you attend you will receive points based on how you place! The higher you place, the more points you receive. Points will be accessed after the results for each event are posted. If a tournament fails to reach a minimum of 16 singles entrants and 8 teams entrants then the points for singles and doubles will be halved. Doubles points will be awarded to a team, not an individual player. The Championship Event will be worth 1.5x KsIaMo Circuit Points.
Teams points are for your team. Should a player change team members, their most recent team will get half the points from each player’s previous placements added to their score. Any other team(s) cannot be considered for prize money and are effectively "disbanded." This is to reward consistent teams meanwhile not punish those who switch or those who team with someone random too harshly. You may only receive prize money for one team at the end.
Circuit Events
1st - 40
2nd - 30
3rd - 20
4th - 15
5th - 10
7th - 8
9th - 6
13th - 4
<13th - 1
Championship Event
1st - 60
2nd - 45
3rd - 30
4th - 23
5th - 15
7th - 12
9th - 9
13th - 6
<13th - 2
~Important Changes~
After experience of the first circuit under my belt, I decided to make a few revisions to the circuit. If you disagree with the changes I have made, I encourage you to reply with a lucid argument as to why you disagree with the change and what you feel should be done. Until then, here is what has changed from Season 1.*Changes as of 9-2-11*
***** The cap for attendance points has been changed from 17th to 13th.
***** Payouts for singles and doubles have changed. The new payout system is to balance the distribution of money; however, you may notice it appears to favor doubles. The reason behind this is that the payment in doubles is split between two players, which has now taken into account.
*Changes as of 8-2-11*
***** The MLG rule-set will no longer be used (thank goodness), see rules section for more information.
***** The penalty for switching partners in teams reduced from 2/3 to 1/2.
***** All finals sets will be played / recorded on my Wii. This is not negotiable - finals sets not played on my Wii will be considered friendlies, or (under a unanimous decision of all the attendants) the event can be removed from the circuit.
***** There were some issues last circuit where the full 15% cut could not be made, due to venue issues and so forth. Note, I will not be accepting anything less than what is promised. If you have a problem with that, increase the venue fee - it’s not my problem.
***** Instead of designating states to have an event for the circuit, I am going to be open to which months are easily accessible to that state. Additionally, circuit events will not necessarily be limited to the KsIaMo region so long as the TO is willing to make their event part of the circuit (via 15% cut and similar rule-set). Yes Rob, that means if you can secure a venue and generate enough interest for a tournament in Nebraska, it is a possibility that the tournament may be apart of the circuit.
***** Out of all the events you attend, the event in which you placed the lowest will be dropped from your overall score before the Championship Event. Due to the overwhelming gaps in points from the last circuit (in both singles and doubles), this will be a test to attempt to equalize the point spread as well as eliminate a potential state bias. To be fair, players who attend every event will be given 5 points after the low score drop.
***** Random seeding will replace seeding based on Circuit Points. TOs will be encouraged to use random seeding, but I won’t stop them from seeding based on region/state.
Why? Seeding discriminates against weaker players, while doing anything but seeding discriminates against stronger players - neither should be favored. Egalitarianism isn’t necessarily fair, but it is my belief that if a player deserves a top 3 spot, they will find a way to get there - play to win.
Exceptions:
(1) If pools are done, then naturally the event should be seeded by pools.
(2) Should an event exceed 64 entrants, the top 4 players/teams can be seeded at the TO’s discretion.
(3) The Championship event will be seeded based on points of the top 8 players/teams.
For more on random seeding, I’ve included some literature below on my personal reason for it being used. If you ignore any of the points I make (ie, cry when I clearly already gave a reason to your argument) you will be ignored.
(1) Technically the first state to host has an unfair (though slight) advantage for the rest of the circuit. Factoring in variables such as travel fatigue or lack of sleep due to travel (etc johns) to OoS players may affect their overall ability to play. This is the primary reason pools supersede my view on seeding, as it tests the ability of the player in the "now" rather than gives them an advantage regardless.So why random seeding again?
(2) A “weaker player” may do better than a “stronger player” just because they had the convenience of the first event in their home state (due to being able to achieve peak performance easier, ie johns listed in the first point, or even the ability to attend). When the second event comes by, that “weaker player” may be seeded BETTER than the “stronger player.” Due to the nature of seeding, favoring stronger players, the “weaker player” now has a better chance of advancing further in bracket.I don't get it, so what if someone does well at the next event?
--Plainly put, those who do well early (in theory) will solidify their lead as soon as they attain it (ex: Ks-Ia-Mo Season 1).
(3) Say that a strong player did not have the chance to attend the first event, and is considered a last seed. At the second event, he has an even greater probability to play a strong player early in bracket than with random seeding. You essentially run into the same problem either way.But with random seeding you might have two “stronger players” play each other early on!
People should just get better instead of whining about being bad.
(4) First off, when events are seeded by the circuit points, you will find a lot of “weaker players” playing the same “stronger player” at every event. This can be somewhat discouraging:
Person 1: “You should come to *insert ks-ia-mo event here* it’ll be a lot of fun”
Person 2: “Well, I was unable to attend the first 2 events, so if I go, I’ll have to play a really good player first round, regardless of my skill so it hurts my chances of being able to win.”
The goal of the circuit is to promote growth - a poor way of doing that is discouraging attendance. By seeding via circuit points, we essentially penalize potentially “strong players” simply due to the fact that they may not have been able to afford to go, had some other outside influence that prevented them from going, had an off day, or simply wasn’t able to capitalize on gaining a point lead early on in the circuit. More importantly penalize weaker and middle level players with a guarantee that we will make the bracket in a way that they lose early.
To the actual point though, it can be difficult to get better when your best chances of improvement are inhibited by being seeded against someone who is so much better than you, that you're overwhelmed beyond the point of learning from the game.
Doesn't seeding still offer improvement to all players? We should just stick with seeding because that's what I'm used to (and I don't like change!)
(5) Regardless of seeding by skill or seeding randomly, you still achieve improvement. I argue random seeding offers more potential to improvement of every member in the community. With random seeding, those who deserve a top spot will find a way to get there. Placing well (or poor) at one event does not influence your ability to place well at the next since you are still on an equal playing field as everyone else. Think about it this way, weak players will eventually get owned in the face... but at least they have a chance to score some wins. The great thing about tournament matches (compared to friendlies or even money matches) is your opponent will have no legitimate johns as to why they lost. Giving opportunity to low/mid-level players to experience wins against other players closer to their skill opens up a learning opportunity that they otherwise may not have gotten with seeding. A few "stronger players" might suffer in the process, but my initial points stands: if a player deserves a top 3 spot, they will find a way to get there. Tournaments outside the Midwest (or even ksiamo) won't be seeding you guys easy brackets, so complaining about playing another "strong player" suggests you aren't ready for serious competition.
But if you do random seeding, there's a greater chance of there being a stacked side of bracket! That's not fair!
(6)You are just as likely to be on the stacked side as the easy side and just as likely to play a “weaker player” as you are a “stronger player” at every event. The difference being, with seeding, only the “weaker players” have the chance to be given a stacked bracket. That's not necessarily fair either, nor does it promote growth to the community... rather the select few.
--Additionally, an easy bracket only takes into consideration of the amount of “weaker players” in relation to “stronger players.” Due to some form of depth in Brawl, being put into the stacked side of bracket doesn’t necessarily affect you as much if your main counters most of the characters on the stacked side (or may affect you more being placed in the weaker side comprised of counters to your main). There are a lot more factors at work that may negate the effects of a stacked bracket.
Well, all that aside, random seeding might affect the outcome of the circuit. Shouldn't we keep that in mind when the payout is more than a regular tournament? Why don't we just spin a roulette wheel and give whoever guesses right 15%?
(7) With random seeding, the top 3-5 players (relative to attendance) are generally accurate in results, while afterward the accuracy decreases quickly. Initially, this may seem to be an issue, but when you look at the point distribution the top 3-5 spots are the ones that matter in the end when points are being calculated for the circuit pot. Overall, the laws of statistics still promise that the best players will be paid at the end of the circuit.
So why are there circumstances in when there is and isn't random seeding? Shouldn't we be consistent?
(8) The beauty of double elimination is that it negates most of the arguments against random seeding (in terms of playing good players and in terms of accuracy of results). Like I mentioned before, the circumstances in which random seeding won’t be used is when there is high attendance and at the championship event. These are both instances in which we should favor “stronger players” (my subjective bias). In the event of a high turn out, I feel the top 4 players should get seeded due to the amount of money on the line. By the time we reach the Championship event, we should have collected enough unbias data to determine accurate skill seeds. Additionally, since the Championship event gives higher points AND it's the last event to gain points, it's important we favor those at the top of the board for the accuracy of the overall circuit results. Pools will also negate random seeding since pools relatively test player ability in the “now” of when the event is being played.
I probably contradicted myself somewhere in the explanation... oh well
Zeton - 12
Arty - 10
Clel - 10
Kain - 8
Mr. Doom - 8
Johnny Deadshot - 8
Yoshq - 6
Sago - 6
Trent - 6
Nicole - 6
Joker - 6
Delux - 5
Bpow - 5
Rockstar - 4
Fource - 4
Rob - 4
Rick - 4
Sword_Master91 - 4
Count - 4
2 or Less:
~~~E52~~~
Non
Heyden
Stealth Raptor
Dillan
Luke
Aura
Thugz
Wang
Tempest
Dream
Scrub
Quote
Daniel
Duck
~~~BB~~~
17: Ripple
17: PFGC Indianaz Finest
17: MegaRobMan
17: FAE
17: DLA
17: Nicole
17: Nappy
17: ook
25: Scythe
25: Zwarm
25: Jlo
25: Mr. Doom
25: Trent
25: Akashi
25: Triple R
25: Twink
33: Cool_guy69
33: D.Disciple
33: Nom
33: GameGenie
33: NGamer3k
33: Eon
33: Joker
33: Rob Gambino
33: Meneil
33: Smeesh
33: Kirk
33: Oro
33: Future
33: Tmacc
33: Wang
33: Thugz
49: Dund
49: L
49: Leek
49: Aura
49: BCRF
49: Zeal
49: Red Ryu
49: Jaeke
49: Weston
49: Schizm
49: Kuares
49: Hills
49: Dylan
49: Joe
49: Fujin
49: Silver
65: Bishup
65: Leroy
65: Valk
65: Zozefup
65: SpongeJordan
YES I KNOW PEOPLE ARE IN THESE TWICE, I'M TOO LAZY TO MATH THE TEAMS POINTS N SHIZ.
- PM me if you need it changed so you can show off to your friends or w/eCount & arty - 15
Zeton & Clel - 15
Fource & Joker - 10
Nicole & sago - 10
Nappy & Moe - 10
Team We Both Have Eye Infections - 10
Zeton & Bpow - 8
Tmacc & joker - 8
Stealth & Scrub - 8
Dillan & Daniel - 8
Mitchell & Denton - 6
Legalize it - 6
Ripple & Pierce7d - 6
FAE & Future – 6
D. Disciple & Rob Gambino – 4
Akashi & Meneil – 4
Oro & Kirk – 4
Sponge Jordan & Red Ryu - 4
1 point
~~~BB~~~
17: Wump Fumcher (Joe + Weston)
17: Runescape Goblins (Twink + BCRF)
17: Colin + Dustin (Colin + Dustin)
17: Wolf Mother (Eon + Bishup)
17: **** ***** (Schizm + Jlo)
17: Century (Leek + Zeal)
17: 2good4u (Slimpy + Lisento)
17: Snake Eater (L + Dund)
25: ook + Zozefup (ook + Zozefup)