Alex: Data Please!

[MattPowell]

(08-01-2012 12:50 PM)CombatEX Wrote:  

(08-01-2012 10:54 AM)MattPowell Wrote:  Eh. I don't see any reason to get tied up in knots over this. You move second 50% of the time in matchmaking play and any community tournament should be designed to balance who plays first.

Imagine if you flipped a coin in sports to decide which team would have a disadvantage over the other. 50% of the time you have the advantage, 50%, a disadvantage.

Say in basketball 50% of the games you play you don't have a backboard.
At a track meet each contestant in the '100 yard' event has a 50% that they actually have to run 110 yards instead.
In the NFL each game one of the teams gets to start with 3 points.

etc.

Sure, it evens out in the long run, but it's not good for any competitive event to have a significant advantage given to one of the teams/competitors.

Maybe FTA isn't a huge problem, but the point of this thread is to see if it is (and if it's a major problem on any of the maps).

As for the super 1 division league (like SC2 Grandmasters), I'd like to see this. Players can still be ranked by points (again like SC2) as when a bonus pool is implemented (Alex mentioned he's tentatively planning on adding seasons and bp in the future) points will be fairly indicative of MMR at the highest levels. The reason I ask for this extremely select league for the top ~100-200 players is to give Super-Titan members something to fight for. Without a hardcap on players, Super-Titan, while a good goal, will only ever have the prestige of something like SC2's Masters league. It's cool being in the top ~2% of players but 2% is still a huge range from rank 1 to the bottom of the 2%. I'm mid-masters league in Starcraft, but I'm *TERRIBLE* compared to Grandmaster players. The same will surely apply to Outwitters as more and more players join and Super-Titan expands in population.

I was thinking Super-Titan can be renamed 'Titan' while this elite hardcapped league can be named 'Super-Titan'. I've always found it weird that we have a *Super*-Titan when there isn't even a normal Titan =P

Anyway, this is a 'way down the road' request =) No rush. Just hope this sticks in the back of Alex and Adam's minds as something to do implement in the far future.

Let's say when facing a player named Bob I have an 80% chance of winning when playing first and 40% going second. That seems like a pretty severe FTA.

Best 2/3, me first in two: I have a 76.8% chance
Best 2/3, Bob first in two: I have a 54.4%
Best 3/5, me first in three: I have a 77.3% chance
Best 3/5, Bob first in three: I have a 61.7% chance

That's with a large asymmetry. If it's smaller they'll converge faster. I don't see this being an issue unless you want individual matches to be ble to hang your hat on the outcome of a single match, but I don't think that can ever be a reasonable expectation.