Tappedout Third League SignUps CLOSED
Challenges and Articles forum
Posted on Aug. 11, 2015, 10:02 a.m. by xzzane
CanadianShinobi, ThisIsBullshit, and I will be doing three more leagues for everyone! The first league will be in the Modern format, the second will be in the Standard format, and the third league will be in the legacy format. When the league starts, you are to report all match records to the wall of the user that is in charge of your specific league. So if you are in the modern league, report your results to CanadianShinobi. If you are in the standard league, report your results to me, xzzane, and all legacy players should report their results to ThisIsBullshit.All of the leagues will start and end at the same time. CanadianShinobi is in charge of the modern league, I am in charge of the standard league, and ThisIsBullshit is in charge of the legacy league. All standard rules of each format will apply.
Sign-ups will close on September 12th, at which point play will begin. I will produce the brackets and results sheets dont worry about that! To sign up, state what format(s) you are interested in playing as well as what time zone you live in. This is to generate brackets that will make things easier for people to complete their matches. Matches will be completed through a use of either Untap.in, Cockatrice, XMage, or any other way of completing your matches that is agreeable to both players.
The general layout will be the same; I will randomise all players into brackets. Everyone aims to play everyone else in the bracket. Matches are to be scheduled on your own, at your own convenience. 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss or for not playing a match. In order to schedule matches you can comment on peoples walls or private message them.
If you want to take part then just comment below specifying whether you want to sign up for the standard league, modern league, legacy league or a combination thereof. Note that all matches will have to be played, so don't stretch yourself too thin!
You may use only one deck. This is a competitive tournament. Once you have decided which deck to enter, make sure either I, CanadianShinobi, or ThisIsBullshit know what it is. You can do ths by either by tagging us in the COMMENTS section of the deck (NOT description), or by just linking it on any of our walls. Deck lists may not change after the deadline.
In order to make things more interesting, CanadianShinobi, ThisIsBullshit, and I have decided to grant a reward of five feature tokens to the overal winner of each league. Note: Only one winner can get the tokens per league, not per bracket. There will be a winner's bracket that will follow the first bracket to determine who wins the feature tokens. Points WILL NOT carry over into the winner's bracket. This is to prevent circumstances where multiple people drop out of one bracket and make it impossible to win overall compared to another person's bracket. Another rule that we have decided to implement is one to help motivate people to play. If you have not completed at least half of your matches by the halfway point of the league, then you will be eliminated from the league. Extra time to complete this league will be granted in order to accommodate this new rule. All of the leagues will start September 12th. Upon the league's start, you will have three months to finish all of your matches, with the first part of the leagues ending on December 12th. The winner's bracket will then be announced once the first part of the league is done.
So in other words: DO NOT SIGN UP IF YOU CANT ACTUALLY PLAY.
SignUps and League results can be found here.
Standard Brackets:
Standard Bracket One
Standard Bracket Two
Modern Brackets:
Modern Bracket One
Legacy Brackets
Legacy Bracket One
Legacy Bracket Two
Special thanks to ChiefBell for hosting the previous two leagues, and for helping us get the third league started.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #3
Okay, thanks. Hopefully I won't be pushing the deadline, although once November 11 hits and a bunch of college app stuff is over, my free time skyrockets. I should be able to get my games in by the deadline though.
October 8, 2015 8:55 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #4
Legacy Bracket Two has been shut down due to lack of games being played. Better luck next time.
Bracket one will follow pretty soon, at the rate we're going.
November 8, 2015 6:27 p.m. Edited.
Certainly just got super busy because my job is really hard.
November 9, 2015 2:49 a.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #6
Legacy bracket one has been also shut down due to lack of games played.
Guys, if you sign up for a league, please actually attempt to play some games.
November 15, 2015 7:23 p.m.
CanadianShinobi says... #8
Just a heads up that I will be officially closing Modern on Wednesday. I tried to hold out in the hopes that the brackets would continue play. This did not happen. Announcement regarding the Champion Bracket to follow soon.
November 30, 2015 7:51 p.m.
You can just use the search bar. Picture of magnifying glass.
December 1, 2015 4:04 a.m.
I would push for some modern games, but I cant find my bracket, and thus don't know who to play.
December 1, 2015 5:09 p.m.
themindxyz says... #12
micah1: you are in modern bracket 4. If you look at the results link at the bottom of the post, it has all brackets with all the contestants.
December 1, 2015 8:52 p.m.
I was only in charge of standard. I made a bracket for the first modern bracket, but I don't know where a fourth one would be.
December 2, 2015 8:16 p.m.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #16
You could also tag someone in your bracket in a comment here asking them for a link.
December 2, 2015 8:26 p.m.
CanadianShinobi says... #17
Regardless, the brackets are now officially closed.
December 2, 2015 10:21 p.m.
Eh. I guess I can close standard as well. Activity has ceased in all brackets. ThisIsBullshit CanadianShinobi, want to move this on to phase 2?
December 2, 2015 10:29 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #19
I have no phase two. Feel free to take your next steps without me xD
December 2, 2015 11:34 p.m.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #20
Oh well. I wish more of my bracket had shown up.
December 2, 2015 11:41 p.m.
DreadnoughtMTG says... #21
Maybe for future leagues we could run a shorter length (say two or three weeks maybe?) to promote more involvement. Shorter leagues more often might make people without the time to play actually hold off from joining.
Or a specific play schedule where two people play within a few days or a weeks time or it's an auto draw or something?
Just some thoughts. I appreciate you three running these leagues! They're still fun even if all the matches aren't completed.
December 3, 2015 12:20 a.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #22
I think way fewer people would sign up, but we could definitely try doing like a monthly league or whatever
December 3, 2015 12:31 a.m.
Shorter leagues I dont think is much of a solution...
Though, in my bracket, I was able to play the majority of the games that first day... a few in the same week... after that it was nigh impossible to for my opponents to find time.
December 3, 2015 5:09 a.m. Edited.
blackmarker90 says... #24
I would say keep it to 8-man Pods and run it FNM style. If there are enough pods you could take the top X from each pod and have a playoff that way.
December 3, 2015 8:58 a.m.
Coinman1863 says... #25
I thought that's how it was done, the top 2 from each bracket, (At least for modern where there are 4 brackets)
December 3, 2015 9:47 a.m.
themindxyz says... #26
I think that shorter, more frequent leagues would help a lot. Most people lose interest as time goes on, and giving a shorter deadline will probably allow more games to be completed. Also, people want to edit and improve their decks, but when the leagues are so long they can't without changing their submitted deck list which isn't allowed.
December 3, 2015 12:14 p.m.
Maybe a league once a month. One week to sign up. 3 weeks to play games?
Use the same google document each time so it's less work for us, and randomise brackets as before.
December 3, 2015 12:15 p.m.
Just post on my wall if i make it to the next round or something
December 3, 2015 12:27 p.m.
UrbanAnathema says... #29
I agree. I lost interest overtime because I had radically changed my deck and playing with the old one just wasn't the same.
December 3, 2015 12:27 p.m.
blackmarker90 says... #30
I suppose I should clarify, making a leave per format that fires once 8 people have signed up. And over the span of a month ish have the winners of each pod play the last week of every month
December 3, 2015 12:38 p.m.
ABadMagicPlayer100 says... #31
The other thing is that the league started right at the release of a new set and people probably lost interest in their old decks.
December 3, 2015 1:34 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #32
I fail to see how BFZ, with hardly any legacy playables, made the entire legacy league decide to not participate.
There were exactly two games played in the two legacy brackets. I don't think shortening the time would've done anything. People just need to play when they say they'll play.
December 3, 2015 2:29 p.m.
What TiBs said.
People need to just have more responsibility. No excuses. Myself included.
December 3, 2015 2:52 p.m.
ABadMagicPlayer100 says... #34
I'm not saying that it was the only factor, but it played a huge role in standard and made a slight impact in modern.
And yes. Responsibility. We all need it.
December 3, 2015 3:38 p.m.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #35
About half of my bracket was really good about games. We all played each other, then the other half never showed up.
I do think that a shorter bracket time would help. It would also help keep things interesting and fresh.
December 3, 2015 3:52 p.m.
UrbanAnathema says... #36
My responsibilities are my job and my family, not keeping loose MTG appointments spread out over a few months on the Internet. To be honest, if you had a shorter more focused playing time, I think that would encourage people more serious about committing to specific times. If I know I'm not going to be available for a whole lot of free time over the next few weeks, I'm a whole lot less likely to sign up for something like this if it is something shorter and more focused.
Just my two cents.
December 3, 2015 7:02 p.m. Edited.
DreadnoughtMTG says... #37
The lack of play/responsibility is a big part of suggesting a draw or loss penalty so that active participants are less affected by the people who aren't playing.
I think setting up the brackets as a more organized league with a schedule of play is the easiest way to institute the penalty. This would likely keep a slightly longer league length (2 months should easily suffice, 1 week per match).
Special circumstances could be cleared with the league organizer if need be.
Another option could be running 1 or 2 off tournaments in each bracket instead of round robin league play. That could easily keep with a shorter league alternative.
Overall, I think either shorter leagues or more organized play should hopefully promote higher involvement among participants. Just some thoughts.
December 3, 2015 7:12 p.m.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #38
UrbanAnathema I just want to make sure you didn't get the wrong idea from my comment. Without a doubt, you're in the half that showed up from our bracket. People like Ajex (not singling him out, just using him as an example as we was not the only one) never showed up in our bracket. Not once.
It sounds like everyone is agreeing that shorter leagues would be better. I would advise against going too short because then it discourages involvement for moderately busy yet responsible people (myself in mind here). I will show up and get my games in, but it might take me a little time. The biggest problem is no-shows or people who just stop responding. I will respond (and have repeatedly inquired for involvement to play games within my bracket) for as long as the bracket is open.
3 weeks of play per bracket feels a little on the short side to me, although I understand why people want them short. What if we did 10 days for sign up, 30 days of normal play, and 20 days for the champions bracket? That comes out to roughly 2 months per league, which seems reasonable to me. Thoughts?
December 3, 2015 8:38 p.m.
UrbanAnathema says... #39
No worries ToolmasterOfBrainerd, I wasn't taking it personally. I just think we all need to understand that this is a game.
I think a little more structure would likely help a lot. We don't need to shame people for not being "responsible" enough to show up. I would even be happy to help with some of that structure. If people don't show, they are marked as concessions and people can move on.
I think some of the lose structure lends itself to people not taking their participation all that seriously...I think that's actually ok and should kind of be expected. I think more structure would both encourage people that commit to take it that a bit more seriously, and also for the structure to have a built-in process for dealing with those that don't so that the overall league doesn't suffer.
December 3, 2015 9:23 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #40
Perhaps making the tournament shorter too. Like a week of intensive games, and a final bracket the next week. This doesn't have to be a month-and-a-half-long endeavor.
December 3, 2015 9:36 p.m.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #41
7 matchups in 1 week? I don't see that happening for me for sure, and I'm relatively active on this site. It'll be way too hard to get the games in. Especially trying to match up schedules. Even if I'm free for a 2 hour slot every night, that doesn't mean that my opponent will be open in that same 2 hour slot, meaning that even being available to play could result in not being able to play games. More time for the tournament means more likelihood of schedules lining up, but at the same time more time also means decreased interest. It'll be difficult to tell how long we need.
December 3, 2015 10:06 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #42
One week is definitely too short. I'd say three weeks and then two for champions.
December 3, 2015 10:08 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #43
Not necessarily 7 matchups though. Make four brackets of four or five players each, that's three to four matchups in a week, or two weeks if a week is too little time. The Champion bracket is made up from the top players, so four players, then there are the next couple games and a final between the top two. The tournament would be done within a month.
There's also a gap between when people sign up and when the tournament actually starts. Make that two weeks instead of a month. The reason that this league didn't do so well is because 3 months is a LOT of time, and circumstances change. Keeping to a stricter and shorter schedule would do a lot more good than harm, and it would force the players to be people who know that they can fit that amount of MTG into the week and who will therefore not quit.
December 3, 2015 10:19 p.m.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #44
That makes more sense. 3-4 matches in 1-2 weeks is reasonable. I'd say just a couple of days between sign-ups and play is better still. I see no need for any more down time than is necessary to set up brackets.
Assuming we're going to do many leagues going forward, we try to include the players that would like to compete in a league, but can't fit quite that much mtg into a week. We should have at least a few leagues that we open up to more players. But dedicated players if we can help it, not those slouches that don't appear. Maybe you have to be a deckspert to participate in the league, or otherwise demonstrate that you will play your games.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #1
So when is the half-way point by which we need to complete half of our matches? I feel like that's coming up soon.
October 8, 2015 8:31 p.m.