Next 2008 RAWR Cup: Seeking Community Input!

The GuildCafe Tournament Committee (GCTC) for the next 2008 RAWR Cup is requesting some community input. One of our topics of discussion and planning in our last meeting concerned the tournament map lineups. We discussed three options:

1. Completely random maps in which we can choose to make a pool of maps to be randomly selected or leave it open to be randomly chosen from the complete pool of maps that exist in Guild Wars.

2. If we go with random and our own select pool of maps then would you like to know what the pool of maps are or not?

3. We can do it just like we did with the previous RAWR Cup and like the current Automated Tournament system where the maps are predetermined and disclosed to the players.

Please let us know which you think would be best for the tournament or any other ideas you might have as well as what maps in general you'd like to see in the tournament. Note that there are 3 divisions for the tournament, so think about whether or not the map system and lineups should be different for each. Your input would be highly appreciated.

Also keep in mind that we have an open forum where anyone in the community is welcome to join in on the discussion and planning of what we hope to be an even better and more successful 2008 RAWR Cup!

Feel free to visit our GCTC HOME or jump right into the discussion in our TOURNAMENT CHAT where some hot topics include tournament prizes & guild division placements!

Hope to see you there and thanks for your support!

Diversity is the key imo!

Frozen
Wurms
Meditation
Wizards
Burning

as long as druids are left out I'm all happy..

Thanks to rawr and Guild Cafe' for hosting such an awesome event! This is a very interesting topic, and I am curious to see how people feel about it.

I prefer the idea of random undisclosed maps. It makes for teams that try to gimmick to a specific area much harder to have that advantage. Hopefully it will create more teams that have to work with a balanced build over gimmicky stuff that on one isle dominates and the rest of the isles gets rolled

I agree with this also. But I am like 60%-40% on this topic. A strong debate has been raging among us and the reason is this: Random, undisclosed maps, provide a way to prevent the one-trick ponies from dominating a tournament. It also forces the guild to run a fairly balanced build in which they can play in all maps. It also tests the guilds ability to rapidly adjust their build to the map they are playing. But it does, however, eliminate a key option when strategizing. Some people think a key factor to a guild's strength is determined by it's ability to adjust to different maps. With this fact in mind, what do you guys think should happen with these maps that may help us to solve this deadlock?

This decision should not be made solely on the notion that a one-trick pony will win the entire tournament. While arguably such a guild won the January AT, the effectiveness of such "tricks" comes down to the then-current state of skill/gameplay balance and/or the failure of that guild's opponents to employ effective counter strategies against a known opponent with a known build.

In past tournaments, the map has always played a vital role in a guild's overall strategy. Arguably, the map becomes part of a guild's build, as you certainly would build differently for Burning Isle than you would for Frozen Isle. This was particularly the case when guilds played best 2 of 3, with one side picking the map in each instance. In addition, coming up with a strong build or a strong counter build for a particular opponent on a particular map takes a certain amount of skill, and you lose that aspect if you run a random rotation.

Under the AT style of tournament, I think the best method is the timed map announcement method used in the first RAWR Cup, where teams only have a certain amount of time to prepare builds for a particular map rotation. This way, teams will have to prepare in advance for all the maps, but stand to profit if they have more than just one trick up their sleeves. If the AT format isn't used, then you have some flexibility in terms of whether guilds play best of 1 or best of 3, or whether to mix-and-match map selection criteria based on whether it's the swiss rounds or the elimination rounds, etc.

Ideally, I would want to see the top 8 playing best of three matches, with a random map for game 1, game 1's loser picking the map for game 2 and game 2's loser picking map #3. Swiss rounds would have a set map rotation, with the rotation only being revealed X amount of time before the tournament starts. However, playing best of three matches is very time consuming, so the prizes would then need to be worthwhile enough to encourage top guilds to devote that much of their weekend to it.