Online Scape Season 23 - CONGRATS KEVINDOLA

[Dysole]

Online Heroscape Season 23

This is a 2016 End of Year Championship qualifying event.
Games are played using the online Heroscape interface. Links to how-to-play videos below:

Spoiler Alert!

Interface

Demonstration game

Using an online voice chat utility, such as Skype or Google Hangouts, improves the playing experience considerably.

Format: Hot Draft

• For this event, each player will bring a draft pool. Rules for your draft pool:
  • Minimum of 1000 points; maximum of 1105 points (VC units allowed, no Marvel).
  • Maximum of 50 figures total for your draft pool.
  • No duplicate uniques.
  • No single card in your pool can account for more than 20 figures.
• Each game, your draft pool will be combined with your opponent's draft pool to form one large draft pool that both players draft out of. If there are duplicate uniques, one copy of the unique card will be eliminated from the pool.
• The winner of the dice-off chooses whether to pick and place first or second.
• The person who picks first chooses one card's worth of figures and places it. Players alternate picking and placing a single card from the drafting pool.
• For each pick, you choose a single card's worth of figures and place it on the battlefield (unless you draft Airborne/Rechets). All squad figures placed that turn must be within 3 clear sight spaces of each other and figures may not be placed on glyphs or adjacent to opponent's figures.
• Players continue drafting until they pass or until they have no options within the 535 point, 20 figure limits. There is no 24-space limit for this event. Once a player passes or has no placeable options, their draft ends, and the other player may continue drafting until they have no options remaining.
• The player who lost the dice-off decides which player automatically wins opening initiative. This decision is made after armies are placed and before Order Markers are placed.

The regular season will last four weeks, with one game each week. After the regular season ends there will be a single elimination bracket for the top finishers.

Maps:

Spoiler Alert!

A Stone's Throw (Lodin + Zawit)


Hot Heights (Holdir + Kelda)



Ember Canyon Road (Dagmar + Valda + Yngvild (Disengage))



Cage Match (2 Treasures + Astrid + Thorian)



Ice Thistle (Wannok + Ulaniva)


Zephyr (Wannok)


Elswin Plateau (Valda + Lodin)

TG Pool:

Spoiler Alert!

Heroic Rune (Attack +1)
Ring of Protection (+3 defense, temporary)
Brooch of Shielding (Disengage)
Belt of Giant Strength (+2 melee attack, temporary)
Glyph of Searing Amulet (unblockable wounds against adjacent)

Trap: Roll one unblockable attack die against every figure standing on a glyph.

Event Details and Rules:

Spoiler Alert!

Power glyphs will be placed, power side up, on maps before the game begins.

Dice-off Equalizer - A check before each game to see the dice off win % for the tournament for each player will be made. If a player has a lower Dice off win % than his opponent, he will automatically win the dice off. Should the win % be tied, a dice off will be performed.

Time Controls

If, at the end of any turn, both of the following conditions are met:

• One player has taken 20 minutes less game time than their opponent according to the app AND
• At least 60 minutes of gameplay time has passed since the timestamp of the first set OMs,

Then the player who has taken less time than their opponent may note the current time gap in the chat window and warn their opponent that they are approaching the timed game finish. After that point, if the time gap between the two players increases by another 10 minutes beyond the noted gap, then the player who has taken less time than their opponent may end the game on time. The game will then go to partial card scoring.

Additionally, if one player has taken 40 minutes less game time than their opponent, the player who has taken less time than their opponent may note the current time gap in the chat window and warn their opponent that they are approaching the slow play forfeit. After that point, if the time gap between the two players increases by another 20 minutes beyond the noted gap, then the player who has taken less time than their opponent may claim a win on time, irrespective of the game situation.
The organizers reserve the right to nullify either of the time controls rules if we find that it is being abused or if we believe the time recorded on the app is incorrect.

Because of the time control rules, it is important to use the app's clocking features correctly.

• Always press the "done" button when your turn is complete.
• If you decide to move to a position where your opponent has the option of a leaving engagement attack or engagement strike, use the appropriate quick message button to tell them to make that roll.
• If you have any out-of-turn movement (scatter, scurry, etc), press "done" when you are done with that movement.
• If you decline an out-of-turn action (e.g. you don't want to attempt a leaving engagement attack on Krug, or you don't want to scatter), press "done" to decline the action.

Stalemate Rule

At the end of any round after the fourth round of the game, a player may activate the stalemate countdown by informing their opponent in the chat window. After that call, if three or more consecutive rounds pass where:

1. There is no attack or attacking power* used against an opponent, and
2. Each player wins initiative at least once,

Then the game is over and the winner is determined by partial card scoring.

Note: If a wound is healed (and/or a destroyed figure is returned to the battlefield) then the attack or power that inflicted the wound (and/or destroyed the figure) does not count for the purposes of avoiding a stalemate.

* "attacking powers" are defined as any special power on an army card or glyph that inflicts wounds, destroys figures, or takes permanent control of figures.

Scheduling

Once the last game of a given round (including bracket games) is announced, players in that round have one week to complete their game. Please attempt to schedule a time to play your game with your opponent. If the game is not completed, a forfeit or double forfeit may be handed out.

If you cannot come to an agreement with your opponent on a time to schedule the game during that week, or if you cannot reach your opponent after three days, then please post in the tournament thread so that the organizers are aware of the issue.

The tournament organizers reserve the right to manually set the pairings involving players with a history of either failing to schedule their games, or not showing up for scheduled game times. Such players will also not be given the benefit of the doubt should scheduling conflicts arise.

Reporting Game Results (and dropping out)

The winner of the game must use the game result form to report results. (This will be linked once the tournament begins.)

If you do not want to continue in the tournament into the next round, please PM an organizer to let them know.

Etiquette for watching games

• Only the tournament referees (awesomeunleashed, Bengi, dok, Dysole, Filthy, Kinseth, Typhon, Xorlof) are authorized to make binding rulings. If no referee is present in a game, ask before offering your opinion.
• Refer to this thread for the etiquette rules of the Online Heroscape tournaments.

Disputes

The tournament referees are awesomeunleashed, Bengi, dok, Dysole, Filthy the Clown, Kinseth, Typhon2222, and Xorlof. These players may make rulings on in-game disputes (line of sight, figures fitting on a space, dice rolled too soon/too late, etc) in games where they are not playing. If there is a dispute and one of these players is online, they may issue an on-the-spot ruling. If you have a dispute you cannot resolve, and none of the referees are present, you may stop the game and PM the tournament referees for a ruling.

NOTE: if a ruling is made late in the week and there is not enough time to schedule completion of the game, the tournament referees may issue a forfeit loss to the player who was ruled against.

Players in the event:

1. belgarath
2. Chris Perkins
3. dok
4. Dysole
5. Jesus20456
6. kevindola
7. Kinseth
8. MegaSilver
9. mew28
10. mtl1998
11. vegies dad
12. vegietarian18

[Kinseth]

Notification for all 2015 players.

Spoiler Alert!

@jcustar09
@mtl1998
@Deroche
@Soundwarp SG-1
@Dysole
@awesomeunleashed
@I.S.B.3
@jcustar07
@Chris Perkins
@Smithy Winfred
@vegietarian18
@Bengi
@superfrog
@Ixe
@William099
@TreePowerz
@roballtogether
@Tom_Bombadil_
@Mew28
@playa1
@Taeblewalker
@capsocrates
@Crixus33
@Simval
@betawolf36
@Arrow Grut
@randomskyfears
@twigleg2
@belgarath
@Major Q23
@Aldin
@Heroscaper Guy
@n00b
@Foudzing
@Lance
@Filthy the Clown
@mee likey
@ShadowWater
@Buddy412
@ScapeRaider

[caps]

So it's heat of battle? I don't see anything about starting zones in the OP.

Cage Match is one of my favorite maps ever. Looks enticing.

[Dysole]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

So it's heat of battle? I don't see anything about starting zones in the OP.

Cage Match is one of my favorite maps ever. Looks enticing.

Yeah. We basically meshed Heat of Battle and Draft together.

~Dysole, hoping you join

[Kinseth]

Originally Posted by Dysole

Yeah. We basically meshed Heat of Battle and Draft together.

~Dysole, hoping you join

Some of us kicking and screaming...

[belgarath]

I'll probably get in so I can see if I can extend my loosing streak.

[Kinseth]

Congrats to @TreePowerz for winning the Ticalla Jungle prize for the 2015 season.

Please PM me your information on where I should send you the prize.

[William099]

I perform historically poorly in draft events like this. I'll spectators this time around.

[jesus20456]

First time trying to play Heroscape competitively, should be fun

[Kinseth]

Originally Posted by William099

I perform historically poorly in draft events like this. I'll spectators this time around.

Just an FYI, we are going to have 1 less event this year. Instead of our usual 6+ End of Year, we are going to do 5+ End of Year.

[vegietarian18]

I want to play, but I'm not sure if I can. I don't think a draft is up to the balance standards that Online Heroscape has put out.

How? Well, let's say someone brings a draft pool with only a single strong figure. They could easily win games just by winning the diceoff. Now, the diceoff equalizer was invented to prevent these kinds of players from winning the event, but I'm just worried about the early rounds when the equalizer will not have taken effect yet. If I get outdiceoffed in the first round by some n00b who employs this strategy, I could have my online ranking decimated. This is not an option.

Luckily, there is a solution: Cut the Cake Draft! Cut the Cake is the famous solution to prevent players with unbalanced armies from winning in Bring 2, so it's perfect for creating balance here in a draft format. Both players draft an army, then the player who lost the diceoff gets to pick which one he wants. No more winning games by dropping a strong figure in your pool!

Now, the downside to this decision is that dok can no longer take advantage of players who mess up the draft. This is a hard thing for me to let go of, but I think it's necessary.

Can we get a hotfix to the rules to make it Cut the Cake Draft?

[dok]

I know how hyper-competitive you can be vegie, but sometimes we just want our formats to be fun.