So here’s this idea I had for a one on one SEIV ladder/league. It grew out of the discussion about the tournament Ragnorok is talking about starting.
The idea is kind of like a perpetual tournament, or as I like it call it, “King of the Hill”. The idea is we get as many people as want to join up and divide them into brackets of 8. All the games are one on one and from a bracket of 8 players you end up with 1 winner. Then you pair up the winners of 4 separate brackets in one on one games to decide the first King of the Hill.
So you’re reading this and thinking, no big deal. It just sounds like a 32 player single elimination tournament. And if we stopped now, that’s exactly what you’d end up with. But we aren’t going to stop there. Because just like the King of the Hill game we all played as kids, you don’t just get to the top and sit. You have to defend your crown. You have to fight to stay KOTH.
But not against just anybody that happens along. Being KOTH has its privileges. You only have to face the cream of the crop that rises up from the bottom of the hill. You are The King after all. So all those other guys get to fight it out amongst themselves for the honor of facing you in one on one competition. If they win, they become the new King. And if you do, well long live the King.
So here’s where things get interesting. Everybody else but the King that loses gets thrown into another bracket of 8, down at “the bottom of the hill”. Of course they don’t have to keep playing, they can always go home. But if they want to get to be KOTH they gotta join another bracket.
Players can play through as many brackets as it takes to get to KOTH, but they can only be in one bracket at a time of course. This type of setup could actually work for as few as 11 regular players, but it would work best I think for 24 or more. Otherwise the KOTH is sitting around on his throne for weeks at a time without being challenged.
So here’s an example of how it might work. Say we get 20 people to sign up. The first 16 would go in two brackets and start playing their way up the hill. The Last four would start a third bracket and wait for either four new people to join, or for four people to lose in the other two brackets that want another crack at the top. Once that bracket is full they start playing and another bracket starts. For that matter the brackets could start playing as soon as two people join, and just fill in as they go. The only stipulation would be if you lose a game you can't jump into an open spot in the same bracket You have to wait for a new bracket to form.
The winners of the first four brackets compete for the initial KOTH crown. While this is going on new brackets are forming all the time and new players, and old players that got knocked down are climbing back up. Hey, nobody said being King is easy.
After the original KOTH is crowned, things change a bit. From that point on there is always a KOTH sitting at the top. The winners of the next two brackets that finish play each other and the winner of that gets to play the KOTH. The KOTH has to accept the challenge of this player, but these are the only games he ever has to play to retain his title. He doesn’t have to play every schmo that comes along. The guys getting a shot at him will have earned the right by getting past 4 other guys in one on one combat. If the King doesn’t accept the challenge of a player that has rightfully earned his chance at the top then he abdicates and the challenger becomes the new KOTH.
So on and on it goes. As many players as want to play can play. Everybody will always either be KOTH, or playing a game, or waiting for a bracket to fill up. No need to really worry about seeding the brackets, they can just be filled as they go.
We’d need to come up with some rules about how frequent turns should be played, and whatnot. It would kind of suck to be stuck in a bracket waiting on some guys to finish their games that aren’t playing. And for that matter we could allow players to form their own brackets if they prefer. Get together with seven of your friends that you know are reliable and play each other to get to the KOTH. I am thinking that wouldn’t be too hard to work out. It should be fairly loose I think to keep it fun.
So, whatcha think?
[ March 13, 2003, 17:21: Message edited by: geoschmo ]
Are you tough enough to be the "King of the Hill"?
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