Beginner Brackets

Scott Hardie | March 11, 2012
It's time for our very first event in Pirate Paradise: Beginner Brackets, where the first sixteen players in the game will compete in a simple elimination tournament. The winner will collect 160,000 gold coins, a nice sum of gold at this stage of the game.

Rock Block had a single tournament annually, not counting play at GooCon. I say, why wait a whole year? In Pirate Paradise, I still intend to run large-scale, months-long contests like that, but we'll also play smaller, shorter contests throughout the year. Some of these will be restricted to certain players (beginners only, previous winners only, GooCon guests only), but most of the small events will be open to everybody. The large-scale events with much bigger prizes will always be open to all players.

I've specifically chosen a simple, familiar format because it's our first event. This should be fun! Good luck!

Chris Lemler | March 11, 2012
Scott are we gonna be using our pirates that we have now or is it gonna be random pirates like we used to have in RB

Scott Hardie | March 11, 2012
You'll use your own pirates. There might be an event someday with randomly generated pirates in your crew, but most of the time, you'll bring your own.

Chris Lemler | March 11, 2012
I'll be the first one out i'll be collecting 10,000......lol But it will be a fun experience looking forward too it... One other question What happens if there is a draw to they face the same opponent until someone wins?

Scott Hardie | March 11, 2012
Yes, the same two players will keep playing until one of them wins. I'm starting all brackets with a fair battle wherever possible, but rematch battles will be dirty, to bring about a swifter ending.

Chris Lemler | March 11, 2012
Sounds good be looking forward to it.....This is gonna be a fun tourney :)

Scott Hardie | March 11, 2012
All of the initial battles wound up being fair except two, where an exact balance was impossible: Chris vs Jeff, and Erik vs Jeremiah.

Scott Hardie | March 12, 2012
Chris, congrats on not being the first one out. ;-)

Steve West | March 12, 2012
Mwuhahahaha! I'm probably out the next round for that.

Chris Lemler | March 12, 2012
Okay i'll be the 2nd one out....haha Good try Scott you had a very worthy opponent :) Steve congrats on advancing to the 2nd round :) Maybe next event Scott will get revenge and make you walk the plank!!!!!!ARG

Erik Bates | March 12, 2012
[hidden by request]

Samir Mehta | March 12, 2012
[hidden by request]

Steve West | March 13, 2012
Yer killin' me here. Ha!

Aaron Shurtleff | March 14, 2012
Ugh. So even if (big if) I manage to squeak out a win over Justin, my reward is that I face Steve West?? Meh.

Don't get me wrong, if it was Scott I was facing, I'd be meh about that, too. -_-

Aaron Shurtleff | March 14, 2012
Aw! I had a feeling we'd be seeing a few forfeits coming. :( Congrats to the beneficiaries!!

Erik Bates | March 14, 2012
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | March 15, 2012
Not only did Samir win the winter season of the goo game, and defeat Steve West in Pirate Paradise as noted above, now he has joined the 1000 club. He's on a roll!

Matthew Preston | March 15, 2012
There's a dominance-esque nickname for Samir out there somewhere...

Erik - I hear ya! Easiest battle I've ever won as well. Our battle of the not-yet-played-participants rages on. Good luck to you sir!

Suggestion for future tournaments: You have to take at least one turn to receive any gold. It doesn't seem right that the players who completely abstained get any winnings. But now that I think about it, that might hamper their participation from the game altogether...

Scott Hardie | March 16, 2012
I thought about requiring at least one turn played to earn a prize, but I decided to pass in this particular case, in the spirit of being kind to "beginner" players. Inactive players won't be admitted to most events, so it won't be an issue.

Scott Hardie | March 23, 2012
It's time for the final battle, a clash of the Stephens (Stevens?) that has been a long time coming. Steve West and Steve Dunn have been unbeatable in this contest so far, but now, one of them must fall, and the other will emerge triumphant. Go Steve!

Chris Lemler | March 23, 2012
I am rooting for Steve....haha

Steve West | March 23, 2012
Me, too!

Steve Dunn | March 24, 2012
I really good at making it to the finals of Funeratic competitions. Sigh.

Steve Dunn | March 27, 2012
Hey Steve, something to consider as we wait for our contest to continue.

Rather than allow our fate to be decided by a dirty battle, you want to just chop the pot?

Steve West | March 27, 2012
I'm willing if Scott's willing!

Scott Hardie | March 28, 2012
I'm tempted to become Jeff Probst and make you an offer: You can play each other for the gold, OR divvy it up equally among all other players while taking none for yourself. Naaah...

Fight! Battle for our amusement!

Steve West | March 28, 2012
It's on. Although this may take a couple weeks.

Steve Dunn | March 28, 2012
It's on. Although this may take a couple weeks.

It will take a couple weeks if you keep slow-rolling me. What gives?

Let's be clear: I assume you have strategic reasons for it, and I respect that. I'm the last person on Earth to begrudge anyone anything like that. I'm just curious - what's your game?

Trying to delay the payday for some reason? I'm worried about getting attacked by the Royal Navy within an hour of our battle, whichever way it goes. Are you trying to disgorge gold in advance of that? That's all I can think of. Out with it!

Scott Hardie | March 28, 2012
For the record, you can "chop the pot" in the sense that you can both resign where you are now, each taking 80K for being eliminated in the fourth column. The event would end without a winner. I presume you don't want to do this since you'd just be passing up a 50/50 chance at another 80K on top of that, but it's fine with me if you both really want to take that option.

Steve Dunn | March 28, 2012
Naaaah, I'm thinking more like combining the total of first and second (240K) and chopping that 120 each. Which, if we agreed to do it, could be arranged in a gentlemanly way just between us.

But actually, the only reason I brought it up was because I thought our game was delayed by Scott's not manually launching it. I now realize it's because Slow-Hand Steve is working the system.

Wait, wait, I got it. You're trying to promote as many pirates as possible to gain advantage in a future dirty battle. That's it, isn't it?!!

Steve West | March 28, 2012
It's not the most clever strategy in the world but it's all I got. I hate being slow -it's not my nature - but whatta ya gonna do? Draws as we stand now are inevitable with our respective strengths.

Steve Dunn | March 28, 2012
No they're not! There's going to be a dirty battle in which one of us gets screwed by the distribution and loses. Let's just get it over with.

Or... chop the pot. We play it out, whoever wins, wins. Then we bet 40,000 on a battle in which the winner of the tournament, shall we say, neglects to exercise the most prudent judgment in gameplay.

Steve West | March 28, 2012
I think it's set up that the five highest cards are automatically chosen for each successive battle. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Scott Hardie | March 28, 2012
Correct. There could still be a different distribution if you had multiple possible pirates to fill the last slot. For example, if your top five pirates were ranked R6, R5, R4, R4, R3, and you had several R3s, I would choose one of them at random to fill that last slot. However, that scenario doesn't apply to either of you with your current crew ranks.

Steve Dunn | March 28, 2012
OK then this is an absurd exercise. Let's split it!

Samir Mehta | March 28, 2012
[hidden by request]

Steve Dunn | March 29, 2012
Steve, let's assume you're right and draws are inevitable while you amass gold to promote pirates specifically tailored to take me down.

Any particular reason we can't play out those inevitable draws?

Steve West | March 29, 2012
I'm nervous I'll make a mistake when making unnecessary moves. It'll be over soon.

Scott Hardie | March 30, 2012
Congrats Steve! You have well earned the first title.

I have lots of ideas for future events large and small, but I will always entertain more sent in by players. :-)

Steve Dunn | March 30, 2012
Thanks!! I might have some ideas for future competitions, but in the meantime I'll probably just gripe about the existing contests and continually berate my opponents!

Steve, you're a great competitor. I'm sorry you did not get to follow through on your strategy, but I'm glad our match didn't last several weeks!

Chris Lemler | March 30, 2012
congrats Steve

Steve West | March 30, 2012
Me too! I'm pretty happy with my share of the loot as you must be with the lion's share. Nice job.

Scott Hardie | March 30, 2012
I wondered if Steve West unlocking March's new technique a few days ago would become a factor. It didn't, because the final bracket didn't last until a third battle where he would have had it and Steve Dunn wouldn't, but the technique probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. I'm kind of disappointed in how it turned out: What should have been a great method for overcoming those "invincible" pirates that the Steves use to seal victory has turned out to be awkward to employ, more likely so far to cause the player using it to lose than to win. Future variations in the game like the pirate equivalent of Global might make it a lot more helpful, and perhaps it just needs a savvier player than me to make good use of it, but so far, meh.

Steve Dunn | March 30, 2012
Scott, what are you talking about? What's this great method for overcoming invincible pirates?

Scott Hardie | March 30, 2012
Hire a fifth pirate to find out. You can afford it. Wow, you guys already spent all of your winnings? Jesus.

Scott Hardie | March 30, 2012
To be clear...

Steve Dunn | March 30, 2012
Oh, thanks for the tip. Somehow I'd missed that we have to accomplish feats in order to be challenged by ghost pirates.

As for spending all the dough, of course we did! Otherwise the Royal Navy would grab it, right?

Scott Hardie | March 30, 2012
The Royal Navy wouldn't take all of it, and what they would take, they would take slowly. I will be the only player to lose a big lump sum to them in one battle, since the rules governing their behavior changed since then.

The January and February feats had already been accomplished by most players when they were introduced, and thus were applied retroactively: Play one battle to completion, and win three battles. This March feat is the first one that most players haven't accomplished yet. Steve West was the only player to hire five pirates before the feat, though a few more of us have done it since.

Chris Lemler | March 30, 2012
Do you get to fight the navy ships or do they just take the money

Scott Hardie | March 30, 2012
You get to fight the navy, but they're super difficult. You have a random chance of bringing a technique to help you.

Steve Dunn | March 30, 2012
Fair enough, but didn't this very competition we just finished tend to indicate we're in an arms race?

Chris Lemler | March 30, 2012
What if a miracle happens then what do you get for beating the Navy Ship?

Scott Hardie | March 30, 2012
Chris: Currently, there's no direct reward for fending off the navy, but you do permanently get to keep whatever gold you defended against them. (They may still come back for more gold if your "debt" exceeds what they sought the last time. I can clarify if that doesn't make sense.) Before long, there will be a new feat called "defeat the Royal Navy." This will be a source of pride and bragging rights, and probably a sweet technique, for whoever can pull it off. :-)

Steve: I definitely agree about the arms race at the moment, as early investment in your crew is wise. There is an upper limit to how many hires and promotions you can make, but it gradually expands the longer you play. Sooner or later, you should begin saving money towards eventual victory in the game, at which point the navy will be waiting.

Chris Lemler | March 30, 2012
If I may make a suggestion maybe you can win some gold if you beat the Royal Navy :) Cause that sounds like it's hard to beat. Just a reward for beating the Navy ship

Scott Hardie | March 30, 2012
I'll consider that, thanks. I'm thinking about adding a reward for defeating the navy beyond what I said above, and there are four possibilities on my mind:

1) They won't come after you again for a long time, like you get a six-figure forgiveness on your "debt" to them.

2) You get a big cash prize out of the ether, like six figures, as you suggested.

3) You get to collect the amount of money they've taken from other players since the last time someone beat them, which could be a little but would probably be a lot.

4) You get to steal money from other players, like 100k divvied up however you want among all players. This idea is the least connected to the concept of the navy (maybe in defeat they must do your bidding briefly?), but it's potentially very interesting, and piratey. :-)

Scott Hardie | March 30, 2012
I do think that a sizable reward for beating the navy is both deserved and a good incentive for others to try. But I'm also reluctant to create a Free Parking situation.

In the game of Monopoly, some players like to put all money paid out by players onto the center of the board instead of the bank, to be "won" by whichever lucky player lands on Free Parking. It sure is fun to receive that sudden windfall, but playing that way breaks the game. I don't just mean that one untalented player can suddenly win out of the blue by luck alone. I mean that the game of Monopoly is designed so that players are supposed to go bankrupt gradually through ever-shrinking cash resources, and the addition of the Free Parking lottery keeps the game going unnaturally long. I read a clever rant about it once, about how the very people who complain about Monopoly taking forever to play are often the same ones who play it wrong with that house rule.

Anyway, sudden windfalls are fun, but it might hurt Pirate Paradise for one player to suddenly jump very far ahead of the pack. I'm planning to have that kind of big cash payout happen at the end of a big months-long event, but in that case, it will be rare (once annually?), it will strongly contested by the player body so that the recipient really has to earn it, and other players will get substantial prizes for second/third/fourth/etc place so that the lead isn't so far ahead.

Scott Hardie | April 14, 2012
Fyi, final decision: If you beat the Royal Navy, they won't attack you again for at least six months, and they will forgive some of your "debt," twenty-five times the amount that you defended in that battle. For instance, they just attacked me and claimed 19,069 of my gold coins as punishment for robbing merchants. If I had won, then when they started attacking me again in October, they would ignore 476,725 of what I "owed," which itself is only 25% of the total amount I have stolen from merchants. Maybe all of this math doesn't make it sound exciting, but it's a pretty hefty reward.