At the end of 2012 I posted an idea for a player of the year (POY) award. It would follow a point system that was the production of a formula involving entrants, average rating, prize money, and finishing position. In posting it 2 weeks before the new year started, I realized that it was way to close to the new year to get a system in place and a group of volunteers behind it in time. So thinking ahead for 2014, I still want to do this. Here is my idea for a formula:
# Entrants x Rating x Finish x Prize money/# of people on your team.
Entrants is the exact number of entrants.
Rating would be the average rating of the tournament, broken down into these factors:
Below 1800- .5 points
1800- 1
1900- 2
2000- 4
2100- 7
2200- 11
2300- 16
2400- 22
I don't think GML season 3 or 4 will have an average of 2500 points :P
Finish will give these % of total tournament POY points to 8 spots, accordingly:
1- 35
2- 20
3-15
4-10
5-8
6-6
7-4
8-2
Prize pool will have these factors:
Under 100- 1
100-300- 2
300-1000- 3
1000-5000- 5
5000 or more-10
Here are 2 examples to show different types of tournies.
Example 1
Masters of "blankety blank"
256 entrants
Average rating is under 1800 (pretty sure most of these are) (.5)
Prizes are badges and voobly memberships, not totaling 100 dollars (.5)
1v1 format
256 x .5 x .5 = 64
1. 22.4
2. 12.8
3. 9.6
4. 6.4
5. 5.12
6. 3.84
7. 2.56
8. 1.28
Example 2
GML season x
8 entrants
1v1 format
2300 average rating (16)
Prizes are 1000-5000 (5)
8 x 16 x 5
1. 224
2. 128
3. 96
4. 64
5. 51.2
6. 38.4
7. 25.6
8. 12.8
As you can see the second tournament gives a lot more points simply because it gets a multiplier of 16 for a 2300 average rating. If the junior GML happens, its would probably have a 2100 average rating, and only get a multiplier of 7. Also, the prize money would be significantly less, probably 0. Which brings me to my next point.
If this were to happen, there would need to be a committee elected to touch up around the edges. In the summary of my two examples I saw the first problem, and spot of controversy. Tournaments that have more prestige than a voobly badge tournament, but no prizes (at least monetary prizes). Obviously this is a problem, but I think for this particular example, the chance to compete for something in the next season is worth a lot more than the 20-50 dollars it costs for voobly premium memberships. So maybe a special rule would be implemented for the few times these scenarios occur, but like I said before, its a kink that needed to be resolved.
Additionally, the most obvious thing that a committee would decide is the formula. My example was an example, and just that. Every factor in my formula is up for debate, but instead of having a community wide discussion about it which will never work, we should assign 4-5 people (maybe more) to decide on something final.
Another issue, probably the most important one, is incentive. Why do players want to win the POY? Well, they want money. I think if there is enough backing in this from the community, a year of donations might be enough. Only time will tell. Obviously if this topic doesn't go to 20 pages worth of "yeah what a great idea", we will probably be able to see that it won't be worth the time.
Wrapping up, I think it is important that the factors I put into my formula are used, but not necessarily their values. # Entrants and Rating are to determine the difficulty and prestige of the tournament. Prize money measures incentive. At first I wasn't going to include prize money in the formula, but after much thought I decided to include it. Incentive measures how hard the players are trying to win, and how much they are training to do so. Viper recently said he wished he entered into MoArena so he could stream it. He also said in the same session that he thinks he plays 30% worse when he does stream. I would say that his incentive is only to please his viewers, and that he has nothing to gain from winning, thus, no incentive.
Lastly, the point of POY will be to encourage activity, and to have fun. Also another idea I'm toying with is to assign a point value to either a players rating peak for the year, or his average rating.
LMK what you guys think!
# Entrants x Rating x Finish x Prize money/# of people on your team.
Entrants is the exact number of entrants.
Rating would be the average rating of the tournament, broken down into these factors:
Below 1800- .5 points
1800- 1
1900- 2
2000- 4
2100- 7
2200- 11
2300- 16
2400- 22
I don't think GML season 3 or 4 will have an average of 2500 points :P
Finish will give these % of total tournament POY points to 8 spots, accordingly:
1- 35
2- 20
3-15
4-10
5-8
6-6
7-4
8-2
Prize pool will have these factors:
Under 100- 1
100-300- 2
300-1000- 3
1000-5000- 5
5000 or more-10
Here are 2 examples to show different types of tournies.
Example 1
Masters of "blankety blank"
256 entrants
Average rating is under 1800 (pretty sure most of these are) (.5)
Prizes are badges and voobly memberships, not totaling 100 dollars (.5)
1v1 format
256 x .5 x .5 = 64
1. 22.4
2. 12.8
3. 9.6
4. 6.4
5. 5.12
6. 3.84
7. 2.56
8. 1.28
Example 2
GML season x
8 entrants
1v1 format
2300 average rating (16)
Prizes are 1000-5000 (5)
8 x 16 x 5
1. 224
2. 128
3. 96
4. 64
5. 51.2
6. 38.4
7. 25.6
8. 12.8
As you can see the second tournament gives a lot more points simply because it gets a multiplier of 16 for a 2300 average rating. If the junior GML happens, its would probably have a 2100 average rating, and only get a multiplier of 7. Also, the prize money would be significantly less, probably 0. Which brings me to my next point.
If this were to happen, there would need to be a committee elected to touch up around the edges. In the summary of my two examples I saw the first problem, and spot of controversy. Tournaments that have more prestige than a voobly badge tournament, but no prizes (at least monetary prizes). Obviously this is a problem, but I think for this particular example, the chance to compete for something in the next season is worth a lot more than the 20-50 dollars it costs for voobly premium memberships. So maybe a special rule would be implemented for the few times these scenarios occur, but like I said before, its a kink that needed to be resolved.
Additionally, the most obvious thing that a committee would decide is the formula. My example was an example, and just that. Every factor in my formula is up for debate, but instead of having a community wide discussion about it which will never work, we should assign 4-5 people (maybe more) to decide on something final.
Another issue, probably the most important one, is incentive. Why do players want to win the POY? Well, they want money. I think if there is enough backing in this from the community, a year of donations might be enough. Only time will tell. Obviously if this topic doesn't go to 20 pages worth of "yeah what a great idea", we will probably be able to see that it won't be worth the time.
Wrapping up, I think it is important that the factors I put into my formula are used, but not necessarily their values. # Entrants and Rating are to determine the difficulty and prestige of the tournament. Prize money measures incentive. At first I wasn't going to include prize money in the formula, but after much thought I decided to include it. Incentive measures how hard the players are trying to win, and how much they are training to do so. Viper recently said he wished he entered into MoArena so he could stream it. He also said in the same session that he thinks he plays 30% worse when he does stream. I would say that his incentive is only to please his viewers, and that he has nothing to gain from winning, thus, no incentive.
Lastly, the point of POY will be to encourage activity, and to have fun. Also another idea I'm toying with is to assign a point value to either a players rating peak for the year, or his average rating.
LMK what you guys think!