Okay, scratch that (my concern about the Edit feature).

I could have sworn it was gone a moment ago. Now it's back.

(Or maybe I've just been beaten upside the head by Hill Trolls one too many times this evening.)

I also had a good deal of fun with the Anduin-challenge and I fully support the idea.

I have a suggestion though that may be an major deviation from your plan but could greatly improve everyones exprience.

I really think you should hook up the guys from www.cardboardoftherings.com on this one. In case you don't allready know them, they produce a really great bi-weekly podcast (dont worry, you can download mps straight from their blog) on the game. If you dont know them yet and care enough about the game to read and post about in the forum, you absolutely HAVE to check them out. They got a good understanding of the game and they are very talented casters. Seriously, I listen to esport commentary (mostly SC2) basically whenever I can and these guys really hold up to the professional ones.
The production is great, the content is interesting and useful and sure as hell theyre entertaining, if not to say funny. I know this is a shameless shoutout, but do not worry. I dont know them personally, I never talked to them, Im not one of them on a fake account. Im just convinced that they could greatly improve the concept of a "themed tournament week".

So how could this work? Basically youd have to figure out the theme and hand it to them (Im sure they are more than willing to provide feedback). In addition to posting it on the forum, they could announce the tournamet style on their podcast, which would make it a 2 week format, which Im absolutely fine with. For me as an almost 30-employed-kindof-guy, a 1 week format would leave me with maybe 1 or 2 evenings of play, which isnt quite so much. During the following podcast they could then proceed to report results from the previous segment, discuss it and call out the next format.

Youd basically reach a much larger audience and could enrichen the whole experience by additional coverage.

Sure, its more work for everyone involved. Do they want to do it? Do you like the idea? Absolutely in the dark here. I just really like the sound of it and Im pretty certain that it could be greatly successfull.

Also, dont forget to report your game results with the help of this http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=201&efcid=4&efidt=579185 thread. Thanks!

UnthoughtKnown said:

UnthoughtKnown, thanks for the idea! I'm actually a huge fan of Cardboard of the Rings. I've listened to all of their episodes, and they were quite influential in my decision to take the plunge, make the investment, and start playing this beautiful game. Yeah, they're great... so, shamelessly plug away!

At face value, I'd be more than happy to collaborate with them - or at least have a conversation about the idea. I'm pretty sure LightDarker and some of the other guys are fairly active on these forums (so if you're seeing this CBOTR, feel free to weigh in). But first, I'd like to kind of give this a try on a "smaller" scale and test out a tournament or two on the forums to see how they go, gain feedback, consider how the general idea and format may need to be refined, and make sure I can be a good host in all of this. If I'm having fun with it, and if there's a good response, I'm sure I'll learn a lot from the first few tournaments about how to make the process even better. Then, maybe, it may just be time to check in with the big boys over in Toronto at CBOTR Headquarters.

juicebox said:

Gosh, the text editor is so broken. If you got this too you can just hit ctrl v to type in the paste-window.

Love the idea of a tournament!

How seriously do we take this btw? If we want to make this a contest, the players probably shouldn't post their results in this thread to prevent copying their decks and moves, but send a PM to juicebox who could then update the Top 10 and, after the torunament is over, post the summary of the best scores.

Btw, I got a 101. So close! So close...

And what's up with the frickin text editor? Pursued by shadow?

Edir: you can also write posts when you use the edit button.

leptokurt said:

Hi leptokurt! First of all, congrats on the 101. I just read your round by round account on Marlow's thread, and all I have to say is... that's awesome. Well, that's awesome and I'm jealous, but mostly just that's awesome. Now, can you get a repeat performance next week?

As for posting results in the tournaments, I'm envisioning people post at least their Final Score and their Starting Heroes. Whatever someone wants to post beyond that (extra narrative, descriptions of rounds, cards used in their deck, etc...) would be totally up to them. Do you think revealing the Starting Heroes would be too big of a tell? I'm imagining not, but I'm curious what others think...

Others?

Thoughts about the Top Ten...

I've been thinking. This is a living card game, right? So, why not make a living Top Ten Hall of Fame list for those who participate in multiple The juicebox LoTR LCG Tourmament of the Week tournaments?

Here's how it would work:

Hall of Fame placements would be scored as follows: in each weekly tournament, a #1 ranked placement earns the participant 10 points, a #2 ranked placement earns the participant 9 points, a #3 ranked placement earns the participant 8 points, and so on all the way down to a #10 ranked placement earning the participant 1 solitary point. After the completion of this first weekly tournament, I will start a separate thread that will house the Top Ten Hall of Fame.

So, feel free to post multiple successes in each weekly tournament. Theoretically, someone could score as many as 55 points (occupying all ten spots of a weekly Top Ten final result) in one week toward their Top Ten Hall of Fame ranking.

 Gotta say, I don't think allowing multiple placements of the same person in one tournament is a good idea. This would just favor people with more time and willing to do tedious things. I'd say if I get a better score than my 109, than scratch the first score and use the new one. And I think it might frustrate people, too. Just assume, that I can duplicate some scores around 109, people with a score of 130 or 120 might get annoyed.

I hope this doesn't come off as negative though as I really like your tournament idea!

plueschi said:

plueschi, I welcome all thoughtful feedback. So, thank you.

At this point, I've been kind of imagining the Top Ten as functioning like the Top Ten lists you might find on an arcade game or on a pinball machine. If you play multiple times and can land repeat strong performances, good for you. However, I think what you are suggesting also has merit. I'd be curious to have other players weigh in on this piece, as I'm not fixated on either of these options. For now, I'll likely try out my initial idea and see how that goes, but all the data will be there (when people post successful questing experiences) to go back and rework the Top Ten if it proves out that your hunch is more accurate.

That said, do others have strong thoughts on this? I'd especially appreciate your input if you have experience running tournaments for various games. What I'm after is creating a specific option for an additional satisfying game play experience, beyond how satisfying this game may already be to play in all its various formats outside of this particular tournament structure.

juicebox said:

I think I like the original plan better 1 person 1 entry but maybe that's biased as a result of never getting into the top 10 on any arcade game because of the one guy who plays all the time and owns all 10 spots.  I'd still give it a shot either way, but I usually only get around playing 1-3 quests a week so  I wouldn't have much of a chance in getting to the "All time top 10" I believe you called it which I probably wouldn't anyway but it comes down to the same theory as the 1 guy at the arcade who owns all 10 spots makes it not as fun for everyone else.  Just my opinion.  

 Adding on to what I just said I do think that being able to try the quest again and change your score is a good idea, just everyone gets one entry that can be changed if you do better the next time.  

plueschi - I've been thinking more about your feedback, and Avalanche, I appreciate your thoughts as well. I gotta say, even without anyone else weighing in, I think you two have swayed me. Your idea would help to "spread out the glory," while also allowing for the dynamic of competing with both self and others.

I'm for it. So, here's how I'm thinking about revising that piece:

As the week unfolds, I will keep this first post updated with the Top Ten results. (Each participant can occupy a maximum of one Top Ten spot at a time, so you’re welcome to try and best your own result throughout the week).

Does that seem clear? My aim with the introduction is to boil it down to be concise, engaging, and clear.

As always, thoughtful feedback is always welcome. I've really appreciated it so far, and I think your suggestions will help make this a more enjoyable experience. So, thanks!

Seems fine to me.

Have to play Rhosgobel a few times before I shall return to the Anduin.

I know the change has already been made, but I figured I'd add my vote to 1 entry per player.  I'd rather see 10 different names in the top 10 than several repeats of the same player.

 Hey buddy,

I think I will skip this one and hop onto the next challenge. I think the deck changes I have to make are a little to steep. See, my decks are sleeved. In different colours. Unsleeving them, putting a new deck together and re-building my old decks afterwards would take me like 1 1/2 hours at least. Also I kinda forgot which cards came with the core set. I'd have to look up lots of cards online to confirm that they match the limitation. In short: Its a hell of a lot work to participate :S

Chris