Silent Auction Tournament

[Killometer]

Now that I've test-run this format at Valley War II last weekend I'm reposting it here for broader consumption.

This was inspired by killercactus' Army Auction Tournament idea (event here, logistics here).

The Auction

• we’ll have a number of pre-determined armies suggested by HSers equal to twice the number of players: to make sure we can accommodate everyone who shows up we will start with more armies than that, then before the auction TD randomly selects that number of armies to be auctioned
• silent auction open for 40-60 minutes-it will have a “soft” time limit, to prevent sniping (when it seems to be winding down TD give a “10ish” minute warning, then TD stops it when activity’s slow again)
• players are given $100 to bid on armies, minimum bid $1, minimum increases in $1 increments, players do not have to spend all their money, but any unspent money is lost, and cannot be transferred to another player
• players MUST buy 2 armies which are theirs for the entire day
• a player may not have the highest bid on more than 2 armies at a time
• once you’ve bid on an army you may not retract that bid (except to remove an illegal bid-highest bid on more than 2 armies, or over budget-and the removed bid may only be last bid placed)
• if any players end the auction with <2 armies, they select an army from the remaining pool in order from most remaining money to least remaining money; if any players have <2 armies after the supplemental draft the process is repeated; if two or more players have equal amount of remaining money d20 roll determines order
• if any player ends the auction over budget or with more than 2 armies all their armies are added to the supplemental draft pool and that player participates in the supplemental draft as if they have $-1

Army selection

Before each match round the TD rolls a D20: if even players choose their own army, if odd players choose their opponent’s army, when you choose an army for a player (whether yourself or your opponent) it must be one of the two armies that that player purchased, simultaneous reveal in either case.

Example: You bought armies 1 and 2. I bought armies A and B. We look over what the other player has. TD rolls a d20.

Even: You choose either army 1 or 2 to play. I choose either army A or B to play.

Odd: You choose either army A or B for me to play. I choose either army 1 or 2 for you to play.

So all day long you know you will be playing one of the two armies that you bought (so be sure to bid on armies you like). You just don't necessarily know which one.

How Silent Auction work

All the armies will be laid out on a table prior to the start of the tournament. Each army will have a piece of paper and a pen by it, and if you want that army you write down your name and your bid. If someone else also wants that army they write down their name and bid (must be higher than the previous bid by at least $1). Whoever has the highest bid written down for an army at the end of the auction wins that army.



Thought process

I wanted to see how coveted different armies would be in a free market. I included the "must buy 2 armies" factor so that it didn't just become a race for players to identify the strongest army and drop their full budget on it. With two armies and a strong chance of playing either players had to weigh whether to spend a lot of money on a strong army and take a risk with what was left that they could afford, or to buy two middle-of-the-road armies and hope to play them well.

This format required a bit more pre-event organization, and effectively added another full round to the time it required, but it went off smoothly and added a fun dimension to the event.

[Killometer]

Auction info from Valley War II

winning bid...# of bids/# of bidders...army

$70 8/5 Zelrig, Minions x3
$70 4/2 Cyprien, Sonya, Phantom Knights x4, Deathreavers x1
$60 11/4 Moltenclaw, Sonlen, Greenscales x3
$60 8/4 Braxas, Deathwalker 9000, Mezzodemons x3
$60 3/2 Kurrok, Air Elemental x2, Earth x3, Fire x4, Water x3
$56 10/2 Omegacron, Snipers x2, Repulsors x2, Marro Warriors
$56 3/2 Cyprien, Sonya, Skeletons of Annellintia x3
$53 6/4 Kurrok, Water Elementals x10, Air x2, Marcu
$50 4/2 Heirloom, Siege, Zetacron, Warforged x3
$50 4/3 Zombies x4, Zombie Hulk x2, Krav Maga, Marro Warriors
$50 2/2 Granite Guardians x3 Warden 816, Syvarris, Kyntela
$48 7/3 Microcorp x2, Anubians x3, Khosumet, Marcu
$47 8/4 Arrow Gruts x3, Swogs x2, Krug, Ice Troll, Raelin SotM, Marcu
$47 5/3 Su-Bak-Na, Marrden Hounds x3, Marro Warriors
$45 11/4 Major Q10, Venoc Warlord, Venoc Vipers x5, Marcu
$44 4/2 Su-Bak-Na, Kee-Mo-Shi, Ne-Gok-Sa, Stingers x2, Otonashi
$40 1/1 Blade Gruts x3, Grimnak, Sujoah, Fyorlags x2, Otonashi
$35 3/2 Death Chasers x3, Pulverizers x2, Warhulk x1
$30 2/2 Shurrak, Black Wyrmlings x4, White x3, Red x4, Sahuagin
$25 1/1 Wolves of Badru x2, Werewolf Lord x2, Khosumet
$20 3/3 Deadeye Dan, Guilty, J. Murphy, J. Sullivan, Brave Arrow, Mohicans x3, Sahuagin
$5 1/1 10th Foot x2, Legionnaires x2, Marcus, Valguard, Me-Burq-Sa
$5 1/1 Death Knights x3, Dumutef x3, Taelord, Zetacron
$5 1/1 Command Courier x2, Skahen, Laglor, Carr, Krav Maga, Otonashi

[personwholives]

Hey, so afterwards, I realized a severe abuse of process this system leaves open: if you overspend, everything that you're bidding on goes into the extra army pool, and you get to pick from there. If enough people aren't paying attention, and everyone else winds up with two armies, you could just overpay on two of them intentionally, and then grab them both from the extra armies pool (of two).

You need a penalty to prevent somebody sneaky from pulling that off (though if everyone else doesn't buy two armies, that might not work out, in our tournament it would have worked just fine.

[dok]

Originally Posted by personwholives

Hey, so afterwards, I realized a severe abuse of process this system leaves open: if you overspend, everything that you're bidding on goes into the extra army pool, and you get to pick from there. If enough people aren't paying attention, and everyone else winds up with two armies, you could just overpay on two of them intentionally, and then grab them both from the extra armies pool (of two).

You need a penalty to prevent somebody sneaky from pulling that off (though if everyone else doesn't buy two armies, that might not work out, in our tournament it would have worked just fine.

How about a rule that you can only have the winning (i.e. latest) bid on two armies at a time, and the total of those two can't be greater than $100? Simple enough, and this guarantees that nobody overbids (or, if they do, they are risking getting stuck with an overpriced army).