Hardwood - Suggestions: Tournament Support

Forum >> Suggestions >> Tournament Support

Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date

#21871	01/03/2025 6:22:24 am	Dec 11th, 2042
naph Joined: 02/29/2020 Posts: 592 St. Marys Gaels II.1	I'm sure it would be quite a pain given the way scheduling is currently done. But I'd love to see HW support tournaments similar in style to the real world Maui Invitational, Battle 4 Atlantis etc. You could band together with other users and make groups of 4, 8 or 16 teams that would use 2, 3 or all 4 of the rivalry games. Then those teams would get seeded and play games based on the outcomes of those matches, (winners play winners, losers play losers etc) leading to OOC tournament winners etc. Or, it could even be done separately to the current rivalry system and have 2 neutral site games played in current rounds 3 & 4 or rounds 8 & 9. Regardless of the model, I think it could spice up the non-conference and give some opportunities for additional neutral-site games which better represents tournament conditions, with the added benefit of neither team in a rivalry having home court advantage.

#21872	01/03/2025 6:56:05 am	Dec 11th, 2042
kincaidrobinson Joined: 11/16/2023 Posts: 1 Quinnipiac Bobcats V.2	I second this. Participating in a formal tournament with a bracket and winner side/ loser side progression would be a real enhancement to the non-conference portion of HW.

#21873	01/03/2025 7:28:07 am	Dec 11th, 2042
plokmijn Joined: 03/19/2020 Posts: 91 Alabama Crimson Tide II.2	+1 to this suggestion. Manual tournaments using the rivalry slots have been as popular as ever (I believe nearly 50 teams participated in various discord invitationals this year). Would be nice to integrate this as a feature of the game and bring dynamic non-con tourney scheduling into the fold.

#21874	01/03/2025 8:47:54 am	Dec 11th, 2042
LemonPepper Joined: 03/26/2021 Posts: 16 Central Arkansas Bears III.3	Love this idea and think it would be a great addition to the game. The unofficial tournaments we’ve scheduled in the discord have been such a fun part of HW for me and I’d love something in game like the Maui invitational.

#21875	01/03/2025 10:58:19 am	Dec 13th, 2042
freewind Joined: 09/12/2023 Posts: 7 Dayton Flyers V.7	I support this idea.

#21876	01/03/2025 9:05:58 pm	Dec 13th, 2042
admin Joined: 01/24/2017 Posts: 2460 Hardwood Administrator	What would be the mechanics of in-season tournaments? Would every team participate? Would the tournament be simulated on one day or across multiple days? Steve

#21877	01/04/2025 7:20:50 pm	Dec 18th, 2042
naph Joined: 02/29/2020 Posts: 592 St. Marys Gaels II.1	I envisioned the games being played on different days as the motivation for me is additional engagement. So, you want to give people time to discuss things between rounds. I also assumed that the games would simply replace existing OOC rounds rather than being additional. I haven't really thought through the consequences of not doing it that way. I'd keep it as similar to the current implementation for simplicity and to avoid unintended consequences (teams playing different number of games effecting RPI and tournament selection & seeding for example). If the implementation is just for 4 team tournaments then they could either replace an existing Rivalry Game (Occupy games 2&3, 5&6, 7&8 or 9&10, depending on which round you designate as "tournament round"). Or it could be additional to the current 4 rivalry games and fit in either games 3&4 or 8&9. If you want to allow 8-team tournaments, then they would need to replace an existing rivalry game slot. Tournament Creation Either A) you allow users to create their own tournaments. Probably a link on the rivals page. Submits a tournament name, which you either vet or not at your discretion. Or B ) You have a number of predefined tournament names. Perhaps adding more as existing ones become filled. Tournament Participation So option C) Everyone gets put into a tournament. As its early in the season grouping by TPI or some other in-game ranking would make sense. This largely just makes it like the end of season invitational games. But, this doesn't let groups of friends play against each other etc, so probably doesn't provide as much benefit. Option D) Allow managers to nominate for a tournament. (drop-down of available tournaments added to the rivals page) Option E) Allow managers to nominate to host a tournament. I'm imagining a link from the Rivals page. A place to enter the tournament name. These tournaments become the list that populates the tournament drop-down for option D Tournament Scheduling Option F) You can automatically seed the teams for each tournament via some in-game ranking. * Needs a means of handling or preventing oversubscribed tournaments. * Needs a means to prevent people from gatecrashing a tournament organised by other users. Option G) The host select all the teams in the tournament with existing rivals-style drop-downs. Again I'd go with a link from the Rivals page. Perhaps a "Tournament host" link. The host then seeds the tournament however they wish. I'm imagining you could just reuse the existing rivals drop-down for each of the 4 or 8 slots in the tournament. They could have the same "Matched" notification when teams that are slated to be in the tournament have nominated for the tournament. Option H) You could allow managers to select a tournament, and then populate a drop-down that only contains teams that have nominated for the same tournament. Requiring each manager to select the correct tournament, and then the correct opponent. As teams won't all nominate at the same time this would be a multi-step process. This would also prevent teams from gate-crashing a tournament as they wouldn't get matched with another team. (This works most simply for a 4-team tournament. Managers determine their opening round matchup and then winners play winners and losers play losers. Once you expand to an 8-team tournament then seeding becomes an issue once again) Regardless of implementation I'd recommend having several cut-off dates. * Final date to nominate/create a tournament. * Final date to nominate for a tournament. * Then final date to schedule your tournament. (either for the organiser or for managers depending on implementation) I know of at least one other game that has gone down the option G method. But I have no idea how automated that is and how much fiddling the game creator has to do to make that happen each season. Simplest combination would be probably options B, C & F. Everyone gets added to a tournament with a set name and its seeded using an in-game metric. Auto-tourney selections doesn't really address my desire for allowing user-driven tournaments however. A combination like B, E & H. Will require actions from a number of managers all lining up, much like the current Rivals system. A combination like A, D, G makes it more complex for some users, but makes it easier for others and requires less coordination overall. Updated Saturday, January 4 2025 @ 7:21:03 pm PST

#21909	01/11/2025 5:53:46 pm	Jan 10th, 2043
Ndsam05 Joined: 10/23/2024 Posts: 13 Saint John's University Johnnies V.12	Guys, hypothetically, an 8-team tournament would be 3 rounds. And conveniently, how many exhibition games do we have that could theoretically go away? Precisely the same number. Also, just a thought, but I think we could have a tournament tab on the sidebar, and people could create tournaments. People could make their tournaments either open or closed, closed being that the creator would have to accept a team's request to ioin, open being anyone could join if a spot was open. Tournaments could be auto-filled or created automatically for teams not in them so everyone gets a chance to be in one. Also if we keep it to 8-team tournaments, we know every team could get in one because the number of teams in hw is devisible by 8, based on the fact that all conferences are 16 teams.