Hey everyone, it’s finally over: the first ever 3+ World Championship! This announcement is pretty long, but we implore you to read it in its entirety.
First off, congrats to VariantsOnly for winning the finals match against Niccless (and congrats to Niccless for putting up such a fight!). On the first match day, Variantsonly came out on top with a score of 7-3. However, on the second matchday, Niccless fired back, going 4-0, tying up the match. VariantsOnly then came roaring back, winning 4 out of the next 5 games, claiming the 11 points needed to win the best of 20 finals with a final score of 11-8. Here are some of our favorite games:
While we’d say that the tournament has been a great success, there are definitely many things to improve on. We’ve made a small list of ways this tournament can be improved for next year’s installment.
To begin:
We got started very late this year, with signups beginning in early December and finishing around December 20th: The signups were only 10 days long which made the tournament quite rushed… ideally we would begin signups some time in early-mid october and let them go on for a full month, starting the tournament in early to mid November. That would slow the pace down, and possibly allow for more time between the matches as well as enable us to conclude the tournament before the start of the new year.
Restrictions:
We were very lenient on entries this year, with virtually no restrictions or background checks. We were of the mindset that 1. As a two-person team with other stuff to work on, we didn’t have the time to conduct those checks and 2. As long as the players played the tournament fairly without using computer assistance, it wouldn’t matter whether they did in the past. However, many other variant World Cups have adopted measures that prevent people with previously marked accounts from joining, which we think would be a good thing for us to adopt as well, just to be safe.
We could also implement a restriction on account creation dates i.e “Accounts created before May 1st 2021 cannot join” to prevent people from making multiple accounts to join the tournament.
Time Control:
This year we held a vote on time control, but there were many players that voted for a time control but didn’t even join the tournament. Consequently, there were more votes for 3 + 0 than there were participants that wanted 3 + 0. Hence, a more fool-proof way to determine a time control should be used.
In general, we think it’s agreed upon that players shouldn’t have to worry about being forcefully flagged in important matches like these, as we are trying to find the best three check player, not the fastest three check player. Because of this, we could consider making an increment time control mandatory for the entire tournament, and have people vote on different increment time controls.
Tournament Format:
This year we did single elimination as the tournament format. We got multiple complaints about it (generally after the fact though) as some people wanted double elimination instead. And we agree! Double elimination is a much better format in general, but we simply couldn’t do it this year as we didn’t have the time to organize and coordinate all the additional matches that double elimination would create. Double elimination would be ideal, but it all depends on how many volunteers and tournament directors there are… which leads us to our final point.
Last, but not least (If we didn’t touch on an issue that is important to you, put it in the comments!), this tournament was a lot of work. We spent countless hours organizing, writing rule sets, inputting results, sending out team messages and announcements, etc. It’s really taken a lot of time. This is probably the most important improvement to be made, because without it, none of the other improvements can be implemented: We need more tournament directors and volunteering staff. In order for this tournament to be improved, it either needs more than 2 people running it or 2 people with a lot of time to run it (Especially if those two people have no prior experience in organizing large tournaments and have a lot of other things to do as well!). If you are responsible, have extra time, and ideally have some prior experience with organizing (but not necessary), we need you! Please contact us if you think you meet these requirements.
Acknowledgements
First off, we really want to thank the community for participating in this event and making it a very strong 3+ tournament. Without your participation, none of this would have happened. Also, thank you for the kind messages of support. Every “Thank you” meant a lot and kept us going. As for the trophy, big thanks to @Whitedancingrockstar, @PepsiNGaming, and @ProgramFOX for helping design and implement the trophy. Thank you @Nojoke for helping us out with administrative tasks. Finally, thank you @Chess_Poems and @Whitedancingrockstar for streaming the finals match. Excellent commentary!
Once again, congrats VariantsOnly for being the 3+ champion of 2020 and Niccless for being the runner-up! VariantsOnly will also automatically be in the finals of next year’s installation (as he is the current reigning champion).
Thank you all!
Namelecc and two64brocc
First off, congrats to VariantsOnly for winning the finals match against Niccless (and congrats to Niccless for putting up such a fight!). On the first match day, Variantsonly came out on top with a score of 7-3. However, on the second matchday, Niccless fired back, going 4-0, tying up the match. VariantsOnly then came roaring back, winning 4 out of the next 5 games, claiming the 11 points needed to win the best of 20 finals with a final score of 11-8. Here are some of our favorite games:
While we’d say that the tournament has been a great success, there are definitely many things to improve on. We’ve made a small list of ways this tournament can be improved for next year’s installment.
To begin:
We got started very late this year, with signups beginning in early December and finishing around December 20th: The signups were only 10 days long which made the tournament quite rushed… ideally we would begin signups some time in early-mid october and let them go on for a full month, starting the tournament in early to mid November. That would slow the pace down, and possibly allow for more time between the matches as well as enable us to conclude the tournament before the start of the new year.
Restrictions:
We were very lenient on entries this year, with virtually no restrictions or background checks. We were of the mindset that 1. As a two-person team with other stuff to work on, we didn’t have the time to conduct those checks and 2. As long as the players played the tournament fairly without using computer assistance, it wouldn’t matter whether they did in the past. However, many other variant World Cups have adopted measures that prevent people with previously marked accounts from joining, which we think would be a good thing for us to adopt as well, just to be safe.
We could also implement a restriction on account creation dates i.e “Accounts created before May 1st 2021 cannot join” to prevent people from making multiple accounts to join the tournament.
Time Control:
This year we held a vote on time control, but there were many players that voted for a time control but didn’t even join the tournament. Consequently, there were more votes for 3 + 0 than there were participants that wanted 3 + 0. Hence, a more fool-proof way to determine a time control should be used.
In general, we think it’s agreed upon that players shouldn’t have to worry about being forcefully flagged in important matches like these, as we are trying to find the best three check player, not the fastest three check player. Because of this, we could consider making an increment time control mandatory for the entire tournament, and have people vote on different increment time controls.
Tournament Format:
This year we did single elimination as the tournament format. We got multiple complaints about it (generally after the fact though) as some people wanted double elimination instead. And we agree! Double elimination is a much better format in general, but we simply couldn’t do it this year as we didn’t have the time to organize and coordinate all the additional matches that double elimination would create. Double elimination would be ideal, but it all depends on how many volunteers and tournament directors there are… which leads us to our final point.
Last, but not least (If we didn’t touch on an issue that is important to you, put it in the comments!), this tournament was a lot of work. We spent countless hours organizing, writing rule sets, inputting results, sending out team messages and announcements, etc. It’s really taken a lot of time. This is probably the most important improvement to be made, because without it, none of the other improvements can be implemented: We need more tournament directors and volunteering staff. In order for this tournament to be improved, it either needs more than 2 people running it or 2 people with a lot of time to run it (Especially if those two people have no prior experience in organizing large tournaments and have a lot of other things to do as well!). If you are responsible, have extra time, and ideally have some prior experience with organizing (but not necessary), we need you! Please contact us if you think you meet these requirements.
Acknowledgements
First off, we really want to thank the community for participating in this event and making it a very strong 3+ tournament. Without your participation, none of this would have happened. Also, thank you for the kind messages of support. Every “Thank you” meant a lot and kept us going. As for the trophy, big thanks to @Whitedancingrockstar, @PepsiNGaming, and @ProgramFOX for helping design and implement the trophy. Thank you @Nojoke for helping us out with administrative tasks. Finally, thank you @Chess_Poems and @Whitedancingrockstar for streaming the finals match. Excellent commentary!
Once again, congrats VariantsOnly for being the 3+ champion of 2020 and Niccless for being the runner-up! VariantsOnly will also automatically be in the finals of next year’s installation (as he is the current reigning champion).
Thank you all!
Namelecc and two64brocc
