At 7pm EST today we will be starting the first match of Season 2. I sketched out the Captain's Bracket for this season as well (just used challonge because I'm lazy)
A brief explanation on Captain's Bracket:
Each player in this bracket will compete in a best of 3 as the "captain" of a set. Each match will be a 4v4 and the captains will draft a team from the available Player Pool and pick/ban quests from a Quest Pool. Regular matches are 1 hour long as usual, however tie breakers will be 2 hours long. 1-hour and 2-hour matches will have different quest pools to compliment their respective time slots.
Quest Pick/Ban Phase:
For those not aware, in Season 1 we were using a Veto System to decide on which quest would be played for every match. We found this to be a rather slow way to deciding on a quest and often times we would just end up playing the same ones frequently. So with Season 2 we're introducing a Quest Pick/Ban System!
Before each match starts, 5 random quests will be rolled from the Global Quest Pool. Each captain will then roll a 20-sided dice with our discord bot. The winner of this dice roll decides which captain will pick first in the Drafting Stage, and the player who loses the dice roll will get to ban quests first. The reasoning behind this is we've decided that being able to have choice over the Drafting Phase is a bigger advantage than having Quest Pick/Ban advantage.
Quest banning order will be 1-2-1. The captain who lost the dice roll will get to ban first, so this gives them the final decision on which quest is played.
Let's say we have 2 captains: Phelix and Nemo
They both roll a d20. Phelix rolls a 15, and Nemo rolls a 7. This means Phelix has won the dice roll and will get Drafting Phase Advantage.
5 quests are then randomly chosen from the Global Quest Pool (this is typically done on my stream.) Let's say the following quests were rolled:
Sweep-Up Operation #2
Phantasmal World #3
MA2A
MAE: Caves
MA1B
In this scenario, Nemo will ban 1 quest from this list first since we are doing the order of 1-2-1. Lets say Nemo bans Sweep-Up Operation #2. This leaves 4 more quests on the table.
Now it's Phelix's turn to ban 2 of the remaining quests. Let's say he bans MA2A and MA1B. This leaves only 2 quests left, MAE: Caves and Phantasmal World #3.
Now Nemo will choose between them and the quest he chooses will be played for that match. We'll just say he picks MAE: Caves. So MAE: Caves will be the quest that this 4v4 will take place. After this comes the Drafting Phase, which I will also give an example for that continues from this.
After the quest is decided, we then move on to the Drafting Phase!
Player Drafting Phase:
Before the match starts we need at least 8 players total to be willing to participate. These players will make up the Player Pool. Given each match is a 4v4 only 8 players will end up playing, however the player pool can have more than 8 players available for the captains to draft from. This means if you don't get drafted you will have to sit out. No hard feelings! We just don't have the means of including everyone for these 4v4 matches. However if there are 4 players left after the Drafting Phase is finished we encourage you to compete alongside us! Your participation will not count against you in Season 2 player statistics.
Once the Player Pool is created the Drafting Phase can begin. The pick order for this is 1-2-2-1, so the winner of the dice roll earlier will get to decide if they want to first pick or second pick. There's some strategy involved here! Sometimes first pick isn't always best since as second pick you might get to choose 2 players who work really well together. It's all about synergy! Captain's will want to think hard about their pick order and how well the players they choose work together.
Continuing from the previous example's canon, we will use Phelix and Nemo as the captains once again. Since Phelix won the dice roll, he has decided that he will pick first in this Drafting Phase.
Here's a Player Pool that they will draft from:
Sange
mt
ReVisioN
Killz
No Hit
Wilson
Current Character
So from this list Phelix will get to pick first. Let's say he first picks Sange.
Now nemo gets to pick two players. He'll pick ReVisioN and Killz.
phelix then gets to pick two more players. He'll choose No Hit and mt.
This leaves nemo with the last choice between Current Character and Wilson. We'll say he picks Current Character, thus benching Wilson for this match.
So the teams will be as followed
Team 1:
Phelix [Captain]
Sange
No Hit
mt
Team 2:
Nemo [Captain]
ReVisioN
Killz
Current Character
I hope this was a good enough example! From here we move on to preparing for the match.
Match Preparation:
After drafting is finished each team will go to their own voice channel and are given 15 minutes to prepare for the quest. In these 15 minutes you are allowed to create new characters, develop planning with your team, watch existing runs of the quest, or just hang out and socialize
The only rule is that you are NOT allowed to play the quest yet.
We are also fairly generous with the time given to prepare, as we know people run into troubles with crashing or connection issues, or maybe are just slow to set up their characters. So if it goes over 15 minutes, no big deal! We just want to make it as fast as we can so let's try to stick to 15 minutes here.
When a team finds themselves pepared they will ready up in the Teamz discord channel. When both teams are ready an admin will shortly begin the countdown to start the timer. We have banners and commands in game that let players know how much time is left as well, so having your own personal timer isn't necessary anymore (but still recommended.)
Match Start:
Now the easy part! Once the timer has started your team is allowed to load the quest. If the quest has a console you are allowed to use the /lower command before quest load. If it doesn't have one you are not allowed to lower before quest load at all. All quests you will be allowed to use the /warp command, and you are even allowed to warp to different areas if you want to practice a certain part of a quest with your team or test things out before doing full runs.
Your team should focus on getting the best time possible in the time limit. Try to focus on yourself, don't stress too much about the other team!
Match End:
Once the timer ends you are allowed to finish the run you're currently in. You are NOT allowed to load into the quest once the timer is up. Typically what teams will do here is check how much time they have left, and if they have enough to restart their run they will do so. Sometimes finishing up your run is more important though! At times it can be a hard decision to make whether to restart your run before the timer ends or just finish your current one. My best advice here is to just communicate with each other and be on the same page! Nothing's worse than restarting when nobody else on your team was expecting to.
Additional Things/Rules:
We have a timer pausing function in case anything bad happens (like severe crashes or connection issues.) If a team is in a run and the other team asks for a pause, that team will be allowed to finish their run. However the timer will be at a standstill in this time period. The only exception to this is if it's the first 5 minutes of a match in which case we will reset the timer entirely and have teams stop their current runs typically.
We insistthat at least one player per team records their gameplay. This will be used as the primary proof of your run and ensure there was no cheating involved.
We willNOT tolerate intentional throwing of matches. If you don't like someone on your team, do your best to work with them. Your common goal is to win. Anything personal comes after the match, not during. If you are caught intentionally throwing you will be indefinitely suspended from the season and teamz as a whole. Admins are not exempt from this rule.
We don't allow toxicity towards other players in the discord. General banter is okay as long as its between someone you know and it makes sense. If things get too heated we insist you take it to DMs or to the proper channels. I don't want to have to bar anyone from playing over this rule, so please let's just not let it get to that.
Okay that was a lengthy post, hopefully that covers everything.
crazy day of teamz, 2 quests played and in BOTH the difference between the winning and losing team was FOUR SECONDS. This is what we want to see, it coming down to the wire with both teams producing very optimized runs within the short time-frame. Both teams EASILY beat the winning time from the last time these quests were played. I strongly encourage anyone interested in Efficient PSO Gameplay to try this out. I have learned so many new quests over the past month and grinding for an hour or two per day has definitely improved my execution. I feel like this is the case for everyone that has been participating, the average skill level of the draft pool is at an all time high and makes drafting much more interesting because quest knowledge and coordination skills are now much more valuable.
Shout out to No Hit for the very well formatted posts.
hi hello i'm the "new player!" obv not new to PSO, but i never considered myself adept at TA.
i started doing these just a couple days ago, and while there's admittedly a learning curve (both slight as well as s t e e p) i learn a ton every time i play. i haven't had this much fun in PSO in a long time! the depth of knowledge contained in this group of players could write multiple convincing dissertations.
i don't expect to get voluntarily drafted into a bracket team anytime soon, but with more players, we could more regularly have a non-bracket team race alongside the bracket teams. come get it!
