Third Ladle

The Third Ladle was won by anarchic wanderers on the 3rd September 2006. It was organised as follows:

Finals will be played at 9pm GMT (US: 5pm EDT, 3pm MDT, 4pm CDT, UK: 10pm BST, DE: 23:00 CEST)&mdash;stick it in your diaries now!

It will all be played out over a few hours, so plenty of excitement as well as a climax -- perhaps your name will be listed on the next Tronic Ladle!

Preparations
As part of the (TRONICv1.3) progression, we are experimenting with different ways of self-organising ourselves as players. Based on Ladle Feedback, the event is designed to get bigger and bigger with minimal structural alteration. Please consider this when participating as a player and contributing to the organisation of this event... one day we may realise THE CUP.

Team Registration
Players first have to organise themselves into teams. Choose a team and communicate with the other members. The team that is on the list should be the team that plays on the day, though there will be opportunity to make up numbers if some team-mates can't make it. The competition is only going to work if you turn up on the day!

Team Captains
Team Captains need to be established by their teams. These team captains are essential for the smooth running of the event on the day. They will meet at the Challenge Room at 6.45, 7.30, 8.15 and 9 to register that their team, notify wins and losses, and establish the next round. They must then return to their players, communicate to them their next opponents and which server to go to ALL UNDER 5 MINS! Tall order? That's why the captain has to be good. All team captains should make themselves known at the Challenge Room page.

Fortress Settings
All servers must run standardised fortress settings, probably as they are on Bugfarm Fortress server.. Although different servers and clients may translate them, this should as much as possible be standardised: see LADLE fortress-servers. Any variation between servers can be a matter of more popular, recommended servers. The most significant factor to determine is the winzone, and there is plenty of discussion already about this topic in the forums.

Reaching Up to 128 Players
Something like a marketing strategy. Is it through word of mouth... through advertising.. can players encourage others to join by posting invitations in other game forums. At the root of it all, however, is the game itself. It is essential that the first experience a player has of the game is a pleasurable one, and hence some thought must be paid to how new players are treated. Inviting new players onto teams, informing them of the Ladle, may provide the right support for them to have fun and develop as players, and thereby increase the level of competition globally. We need new players!

The Day
128 players, 16 teams, playing on up to 8 servers.

Feasible Round- Period Timing
How is each round run? Can we play 8 games simultaneously? To play the entire competition in 3 hours, we can use a round of 3/4 hour. This gives fifteen minutes for captains to get to the chatroom, challenge opponent captains, return to team, collect teams at the appointed server, and then half-hour to play best of three.
 * 6.45pm GMT
 * first round, 16 teams playing on 8 servers simultaneously


 * 7.30pm GMT
 * quarter-finals, 8 teams playing on 4 servers simultaneously


 * 8.15pm GMT
 * semi-finals, 4 teams on 2 servers


 * 9pm GMT
 * finals, 2 teams play the best of 5

Team Captain Challenge Room
Team-captains all meet at a specified chat room. We should have a provisional play-off order, though last minute challenges may have to be set up and servers allocated. Some teams will be missing a few players, and this is the place to recruit last-minute team-mates.

Server Allocation
Stuff to do with PING so that players have reasonable, acceptable PING. If there are enough players and hence servers, players will tend to play others nearby so that PING is roughly equivalent. Towards the end of the competition, neutral, recommended servers, are used to home the finals. Check out LADLE fortress-servers.

Teams congregate, ask politely or kick off anyone who is not in the competition, and then play their game. They must do this within half an hour since the next rounds will start without them. There are two ways of ensuring no mid-game entries: locking the server, or presenting a full team of 8, which is by far the easiest. If a team does not have the numbers, they can take players from the pool who do not have set teams to play in.

Winning team-captains return to the challenge room for the next round. Losing team-captains may wish to organise games amoungst themselves, to hone their skills for the next tournament.

Spectators
It might be nice to have a facility for the final to be mirrored off other servers so that everyone can witness the final, cheer etc... Just adds to the fun and makes the final more exciting since all the players will know they are being watched by players they put out the competition....heheheh