Hey guys! My name is Ryan "NeebSAGA" Belkin and I'm the Community Manager for Playhem. We're excited to bring you all a series of daily tournaments with weekly cash prizes up to $500 that are open to ALL leagues! These tournaments will go on throughout the month of July and lead up to a huge event at the end of the month. Take a minute to look over this thread as it contains a lot of important information on what Playhem is, how to use it, which tournaments we'll be hosting and with what prize pools, etc.
Playhem is a revolutionary eSports site that allows players to wager points or cash against friends (and enemies) in head-to-head matches and tournaments. Although offering support for a variety of different Xbox and Playstation3 games, the focus of this post will be solely on Starcraft2. When playing a game using Playhem, whether it's head-to-head or in a tournament, both users press "I'm Ready" on the site before playing their game and the Playhem platform automatically detects the winner! If it's a head-to-head match the winner will automatically be transferred their winnings and if it's in a tournament you'll be automatically advanced in the bracket.
The tournaments will be broken down into groups of leagues to give all players an equal chance of winning tournaments. The leagues will be divided as follows:
-Bronze-Silver -Gold-Plat -Diamond -Masters and Grandmasters
Points are used on Playhem for players that don't want to wager cash against eachother or in user-created tournaments. They're also used to buy-in to tournaments for cash prizes that are sponsored by Playhem.
You can get points a variety of ways including: -Winning head-to-head matches -Winning points tournaments -Participating in Playhem Bonus Point giveaway tournaments -Posting a game result to facebook or twitter (20 points per post on each site) -Referrals (Earn 350 points for each referral that plays 3 games on Playhem) -Playing on Playhem! (200 bonus points every 5 games played)
*Still finding yourself low on points? Let me know and I'll boost your account a little bit =P*
Besides using points to buy-in to cash prize tournaments hosted by Playhem, they can also be traded in for different prizes that are auctioned off on Playhem's facebook. Some previous prizes have included a Tritton AX 180 gaming headset, a Sony PlayStation 3 console, and Dr. Dre's Beats headphones.
Please note that giving away points is prohibited and could result in suspension.
Playhem's regular caster is FrodanSAGA. If you aren't familiar with him, check out the SAGAcity Invitational that he casted alongside Catspajamas. Various guest casters may also make appearances at any time to cast alongside Frodan. The Plat-Diamond Saturday tournament and the Master-Grandmaster Sunday tournament will both be casted and depending on the schedule, the Bronze-Gold Saturday tournament may also be casted. Check out Frodan's stream!
From the Playhem homepage you can create an account by either connecting your facebook account or signing up without it. After logging in, go to "Manage Games" at the top and add Starcraft2 with your bnet profile url and your character code, hit "Save" and you're ready to start playing!
Can I have multiple accounts?
Multi-accounting is not allowed on Playhem. We will soon be implementing multiple region accounts so you can link multiple regions of Starcraft2 accounts to the same Playhem account but we have zero tolerance for the smurfing of lower league tournaments and doing so can result in suspension and/or permanent ban.
Creating A Tournament
From the "Tournaments" page, any user can easily create a tournament with league restrictions, entry fee, bracket size, prize distribution, round length (best of 1, 3, 5, or 7) and choose starting maps for each round.
How do I select map for a head-to-head match?
For the time being, both players just agree on a map via either the head-to-head chat on the site or in-game chat. We'll be adding best of X and map pools to the head-to-head matches in the near future.
If you have any questions post down below and I'll answer them in the FAQ section. You're also always welcome to hop in channel "playhem" on Starcraft2 NA for a more immediate response if someone is available. Look forward to seeing you guys on Playhem soon!
On July 05 2011 10:56 H.k[D] wrote: This seems pretty amazing and I know I'm going to use this site!
=DD
Edit: The times listed on the Tournaments page on Playhem are localized for the user, so those should show the correct starting time for everyone. Remember though, check-in begins 30 minutes prior to start so you need to press "I'm Here" sometime within the half hour.
Some tutorial guides are on the way since the system may sometimes be a bit confusing. This is a phenomenal opportunity for people on all skill levels to start competing
Registration is open for Tuesday's prize tournaments. Be sure to check-in between 5 and 5:29pm Pacific time (and everyday Monday-Friday) and the tournament will be starting at 5:30 pacific.
Also look out for the bonus point tournaments to begin registration at about 2pm pacific tomorrow and regularly on Monday-Friday.
I'll be adding the rest of the week's tournaments soon so players can register ahead of time.
I added links to the specific tournaments in the "Tournaments currently open for registration" spoiler in my original post.
Also, be sure to use your invite link when you're having friends sign up because you get 350 extra points for each referral that plays 3 games. On the bottom right there's a little Buddy Icon with a + next to it, click that and you can see your invite link. For example mine is http://playhem.com/by/neebSAGA if I give that to people I'll get 350 points for each person that plays 3 games on playhem =)
On July 06 2011 07:34 SoKHo wrote: how do we checkin?? is there a certain channel to meet?
Yeah, on tournament days always remember to join us in channel playhem on sc2
As far as check-in goes, 30 minutes before the start of a tournament, you'll get a pop up notification on Playhem with a timer that says "You have 30 minutes to check-in, press I'm Here" just hit "I'm here" and you're checked in.
So for Monday-Friday, check-in will start at 5pm PST / 8pm EST.
On July 06 2011 09:02 SiN] wrote: so you only get $15 if you manage to get 1st place in a tournament that costs 350 points with only grandmaster/master players?
You say that as if daily $30 tournaments are offered all over the place o.O As far as I know there aren't currently ANY daily tournaments with >=$30 in the prize pool (just for the master/gm division), and a weekly $100 master/gm tournament.
This system is pretty awesome, just had a blast in the gold league tournament! Everyone should check this out, it only cost points to enter (which you get when you signup, and it's easy to acquire more). For my first tournament ever, i think it went pretty well!
Yeah, there's no doubt this website is gonna be huge soon. I got second in the Master/GM tourney, and Neeb was there the whole way, making sure everything was going the way it should. It'll only get better :D
I'm glad you guys had a good time! Hopefully you'll play in more upcoming tournaments =D
I also added a "Previous Winners" spoiler in the first post for a little bit of bragging rights xD
The rest of this week's daily cash tournaments are currently open for registration and I'll open the bigger prize weekend tournaments soon, check the spoiler toward the bottom of the first post to see which are open and for quick links to them. Direct links to tournaments also have the fast signup on them so you can basically skip the whole "Add sc2 to your account" step to make things faster.
Make sure to use your invite link when you invite friends because you get 350 points for each referral that plays 3 games =D
On July 06 2011 16:52 Anihc wrote: Cool system. Site is really laggy though, especially with current auto-reporting of games.
Hey thanks for the feedback! I actually wanted to address that. There was an unexpected small glitch here and there that should be cleared up sometime tonight/tomorrow morning. The tournaments tomorrow (Wednesday July 6th) should run much more smoothly.
As far as playing games/updating; as long as both players press "I'm Ready" before playing each game (it isn't once per match in a best of 3 for example, it's before each game), the site will automatically verify the winner. It usually happens in a few seconds but it can take 2-3 minutes sometimes, just try to be patient please.
It seems like most users would prefer self-reporting of matches with replay uploading so that's something we're definitely going to keep in mind and look into, I'll keep you guys posted with any updates regarding that as well as any other changes =)
On July 06 2011 17:13 neeb wrote: There was an unexpected small glitch here and there that should be cleared up sometime tonight/tomorrow morning.
Problem solved guys! The site is running smoothly as promised and today's tournaments as well as future ones should run much better =) I do want to remind everyone though, BOTH users have to press "I'm Ready" before playing each game, and be patient because it might take 2-3 minutes to verify your win. The rest of the weekday cash tournaments are open for registration, look forward to seeing you guys and congrats to Tuesday's winners!
On July 07 2011 00:52 Sif_ wrote: signed up for todays tourny! a question though, do the bonus point tournies also come up on the 'Tournaments' tab on playhem.com?
Yeah absolutely, I just don't create them as early in advance because I don't want too many people no-showing because we don't have a waiting list feature implemented yet.
Edit: The times listed on the Tournaments page on Playhem are localized for the user, so those should show the correct starting time for everyone. Remember though, check-in begins 30 minutes prior to start so you need to press "I'm Here" sometime within the half hour.
That's really important guys. I didn't realize this before. Times on the Playhem Tournaments page are localized for the user, so those should show accurate starting times for everyone. Check-in is the half hour before each tournament.
Edit: The times listed on the Tournaments page on Playhem are localized for the user, so those should show the correct starting time for everyone. Remember though, check-in begins 30 minutes prior to start so you need to press "I'm Here" sometime within the half hour.
That's really important guys. I didn't realize this before. Times on the Playhem Tournaments page are localized for the user, so those should show accurate starting times for everyone. Check-in is the half hour before each tournament.
oh man, thats awesome! i always get lost with PDT, EST, PST, there are SO many! hahhahaha
Played in the tournament yesterday and will be playing in today's as well. Was a lot of fun and ran very smoothly. With the website working faster, it will be amazing.
oh man, thats awesome! i always get lost with PDT, EST, PST, there are SO many! hahhahaha
Hahaha me too man me too xD
On July 07 2011 03:38 ruiyang wrote: Very cool! I hope this project goes well
Thanks man! Hopefully you come join us in some of the tournaments and in channel playhem on sc2 =)
On July 07 2011 03:58 cupz21 wrote: Played in the tournament yesterday and will be playing in today's as well. Was a lot of fun and ran very smoothly. With the website working faster, it will be amazing.
Look forward to seeing you again in tonight's tournament =D
I signed up for the diamond/platinum tournament just now. Where/how do I check in? Are points awarded for this tournament if you don't get a cash spot? Otherwise it looks very hard to enter more than one of these daily tournaments per week. Does the twitter thing count for each game or just each series?
On July 07 2011 05:07 Frozenhelfire wrote: I signed up for the diamond/platinum tournament just now. Where/how do I check in? Are points awarded for this tournament if you don't get a cash spot? Otherwise it looks very hard to enter more than one of these daily tournaments per week. Does the twitter thing count for each game or just each series?
Hey man, it's pretty easy to get more points, see this:
Points are used on Playhem for players that don't want to wager cash against eachother or in user-created tournaments. They're also used to buy-in to tournaments for cash prizes that are sponsored by Playhem.
You can get points a variety of ways including: -Winning head-to-head matches -Winning points tournaments -Participating in Playhem Bonus Point giveaway tournaments -Posting a game result to facebook or twitter (20 points per post on each site) -Referrals (Earn 350 points for each referral that plays 3 games on Playhem) -Playing on Playhem! (200 bonus points every 5 games played)
And when check-in starts you will get a pop up notification on Playhem with a timer that says "You have 30 minutes to check-in, press I'm Here" just hit that and you're checked in. But check-in doesn't start until 30 minutes before the tournament, so for Monday-Friday prize tournaments check-in is at 5pm Pacific / 8 pm Eastern.
Points are also awarded in those tournaments but it's to the top 3 finishers (so they get cash and points). You get 20 points for posting a game result on Twitter, and another 20 for posting on Facebook, for each game, not series.
But the easiest way to get extra points (besides playing games in head-to-head matches or in tournaments and getting a 200 pt bonus for every 5 games played) is participating in these bonus point tournaments like the one registering right now. It always pays to finish higher obviously, but in these tournaments all players are given bonus points (even last place) and it's only 10 points to enter. Good luck and glad to have you aboard, let me know if you have any other questions!
On July 07 2011 05:58 Frozenhelfire wrote: Is there any way to do a "practice" ready check? I run noscript and I'm sure a lot of others do and I'd hate to have the ready check blocked.
Sure, go to the "Head to Head" page, cursor over me (my account is NeebSAGA) and challenge me, we can do a test challenge and you can make sure it works, gogogogo =)
And I would suggest joining the bonus point tournament so you can get some extra free points for future entries to cash tournaments.
On July 07 2011 06:14 Frozenhelfire wrote: It says you already have a proposal. Thanks for the help and the tournament(s). This is my first tournament and I don't want to mess it up :D
No problem man. You gotta bring up the little chat thing with me though on the head to head page, click my little icon (should be bottom left). It will look like this when you click it http://i.imgur.com/2uaa5.png
On July 07 2011 06:18 Frozenhelfire wrote: I can't type anything to you. It says your opponent rejected the challenge.
I did but then I opened up another one lol, see if you have 2 on there maybe? If not maybe try relogging and challenging me or something, but you should just see 2 from me and you gotta click the most recent one.
On July 07 2011 11:47 Sif_ wrote: had to go out today, ill be sure to show up tomorrow! ^^
i also lost the points tourny =(
Every participant gets extra points in bonus point tournaments =) You should have some extra in your account now, if you went out early I believe you got 150.
On July 07 2011 14:06 SoKHo wrote: i will definitely try to play tomorrow, this looks awesome w. the auto updates!!!
Look forward to seeing you! Make sure you join us in channel playhem on sc2 =D
I have a question - what kind of time does the site use? US Pacific or Eastern? It would help if the site had a clock with the time and date sort of like in TL, so non-US players could see and better understand the time. Edit: Or is the time already redone for ur time-zone on the site? If it is - then sweet, great job.
On July 07 2011 16:03 sickle wrote: I have a question - what kind of time does the site use? US Pacific or Eastern? It would help if the site had a clock with the time and date sort of like in TL, so non-US players could see and better understand the time. Edit: Or is the time already redone for ur time-zone on the site? If it is - then sweet, great job.
Yeah, as long as your profile location is correct on Playhem, the times listed on the tournament page are automatically localized for the user =)
I really want to encourage every Playhem user to join us in channel playhem in game for it to be easier to find head-to-head matches and stay informed on upcoming tournaments (bonus point tournaments for example, are created about an hour before they start).
The larger cash prize weekend tournaments are now open for registration. Check the "Tournaments currently open for registration" spoiler in the first post for direct links or go to the "Tournaments" page on Playhem to register.
On July 08 2011 04:38 birdkicker wrote: buggy website cant even register.
o.O What browser/operating system are you using? I've honestly never had anyone report that it was hard to register and certainly not that the website was too buggy to register oOo It's running very smoothly for me right now, do you have any kind of noscript add-ons or anything like that?
On July 08 2011 04:38 birdkicker wrote: buggy website cant even register.
Hey bird, it appears the problem is that you can't continue on the site until you verify your email address. You should get an email saying "click this link to continue" and once you do that you're good to go. You can then add your starcraft2 account and start playing head-to-head matches or joining tournaments =)
On July 08 2011 04:38 birdkicker wrote: buggy website cant even register.
Hey bird, it appears the problem is that you can't continue on the site until you verify your email address. You should get an email saying "click this link to continue" and once you do that you're good to go. You can then add your starcraft2 account and start playing head-to-head matches or joining tournaments =)
i got no email whatsoever from playhem. I'll show you a video of my problem if needed
On July 08 2011 04:38 birdkicker wrote: buggy website cant even register.
Hey bird, it appears the problem is that you can't continue on the site until you verify your email address. You should get an email saying "click this link to continue" and once you do that you're good to go. You can then add your starcraft2 account and start playing head-to-head matches or joining tournaments =)
i got no email whatsoever from playhem. I'll show you a video of my problem if needed
Yeah that would be awesome if you could do that, my email is NeebSAGA@playhem.com thanks!
I might've experienced a similar problem trying to register from the main site earlier. I ended up doing it from a different area of the site and it worked fine. It was a weird glitch where it wouldn't verify my nick in the box where you type in nicks.
On July 08 2011 09:28 Deezl wrote: I might've experienced a similar problem trying to register from the main site earlier. I ended up doing it from a different area of the site and it worked fine. It was a weird glitch where it wouldn't verify my nick in the box where you type in nicks.
Hmm that's interesting. Well I guess I'd just suggest everyone uses the direct link to tournaments to register for the time being until that problem is fixed. Direct tournament links are listed under the "Tournaments currently open for registration" spoiler in the first post. And the larger cash weekend tournaments are now open for registration =)
Congrats to tonight's winners! Look forward to seeing you guys in upcoming tournaments =) Friday's cash tournaments are open for registration as well as this weekend's larger cash events. Check the spoiler near the bottom of the first post for direct links to tournaments.
Well cool, I just won $6.00. For a night spent playing this tourney instead of playing ladder. And I think I played against better people than I would normally play on the ladder, so it was good practice.
Site seems to be running much more smoothly now, and games are updating faster. Good job. I still think games should be bo3 except for bo5 finals. bo7 is just too much for me.
Glad you guys are having fun! Make sure to invite your friends using your invite link so you get points for them; 350 points for each referral that plays 3 games =DD
On July 08 2011 15:25 Anihc wrote: Site seems to be running much more smoothly now, and games are updating faster. Good job. I still think games should be bo3 except for bo5 finals. bo7 is just too much for me.
Yeah I agree. You'll notice that the weekend tournaments are only bo3/bo5 because bo7 is a little too much. I just didn't wanna remake the tournaments that were already made with bo7s because some users had already registered and I didn't wanna kick them out =P All future tournaments will only be up to bo5 though =)
I just signed up for playhem, and I was having probably the same issue as Bird and Nuni..
So here's what happened:
When trying to sign up for a new account using facebook, when the part came to enter my nickname there was the textfield with the greyed text "Nickname" but when I clicked in it and wrote my nickname, it would be in grey as well, thus the site doesn't recognize that something changed and the sign up button doesn't get activated..
The same thing happened when trying to sign up without facebook..
It ended up working on the main page (next to the big picutre of the marine)..
But if you go to the "Prizes" section, above the prizes on the right it says "Don't have an account? Sign Up" .. there it's pretty messed up in the following way:
- When trying to sign up with facebook : Greyed out "Nickname" doesn't dissappear when clicking the field and I can write (in grey text) whatever but the Sign Up button doesn't get activated.
- When trying to sign up without facebook : Greyed out "Nickname" and "Password" doesn't dissappear when clicking the field. And in the middle field where it probably should say "E-Mail" in grey, it doesn't say anything it's just blank. And the drop down boxes for the date of birth are not functioning either. And of course the Sign Up button not activating because of just being able to type grey text instead of black.
I would suggest copying the code you used for the front page sign up to that location as well
I just signed up for playhem, and I was having probably the same issue as Bird and Nuni..
So here's what happened:
When trying to sign up for a new account using facebook, when the part came to enter my nickname there was the textfield with the greyed text "Nickname" but when I clicked in it and wrote my nickname, it would be in grey as well, thus the site doesn't recognize that something changed and the sign up button doesn't get activated..
The same thing happened when trying to sign up without facebook..
It ended up working on the main page (next to the big picutre of the marine)..
But if you go to the "Prizes" section, above the prizes on the right it says "Don't have an account? Sign Up" .. there it's pretty messed up in the following way:
- When trying to sign up with facebook : Greyed out "Nickname" doesn't dissappear when clicking the field and I can write (in grey text) whatever but the Sign Up button doesn't get activated.
- When trying to sign up without facebook : Greyed out "Nickname" and "Password" doesn't dissappear when clicking the field. And in the middle field where it probably should say "E-Mail" in grey, it doesn't say anything it's just blank. And the drop down boxes for the date of birth are not functioning either. And of course the Sign Up button not activating because of just being able to type grey text instead of black.
I would suggest copying the code you used for the front page sign up to that location as well
Hope this helps.
Best regards, Octoshape
Hey Octoshape, thank you very much for your detailed feedback! It seems several people are having some issues signing up right now and we're doing everything we can to get that fixed immediately. We should have that taken care of by tomorrow and I apologize for the headache that must have caused you.
Some users were having a hard time getting more points so I lowered the entry fee for the upcoming weekend tournaments (which are open for registration now) and next week's daily tournaments will also have lower entry fees.
I just signed up for playhem, and I was having probably the same issue as Bird and Nuni..
So here's what happened:
When trying to sign up for a new account using facebook, when the part came to enter my nickname there was the textfield with the greyed text "Nickname" but when I clicked in it and wrote my nickname, it would be in grey as well, thus the site doesn't recognize that something changed and the sign up button doesn't get activated..
The same thing happened when trying to sign up without facebook..
It ended up working on the main page (next to the big picutre of the marine)..
But if you go to the "Prizes" section, above the prizes on the right it says "Don't have an account? Sign Up" .. there it's pretty messed up in the following way:
- When trying to sign up with facebook : Greyed out "Nickname" doesn't dissappear when clicking the field and I can write (in grey text) whatever but the Sign Up button doesn't get activated.
- When trying to sign up without facebook : Greyed out "Nickname" and "Password" doesn't dissappear when clicking the field. And in the middle field where it probably should say "E-Mail" in grey, it doesn't say anything it's just blank. And the drop down boxes for the date of birth are not functioning either. And of course the Sign Up button not activating because of just being able to type grey text instead of black.
I would suggest copying the code you used for the front page sign up to that location as well
Hope this helps.
Best regards, Octoshape
Octoshape, that's an amazing feedback man and would be very helpful. Thank you very much! We're working on the fix.
Most of the Starcraft II functionality are in beta right now, we're adding new things pretty quickly too. Feedback from you guys is very crucial at this stage to make a quantum leap for the service.
Sorry for the bumps along the road. We're doing our best to make a great service for the Starcraft II community and that's the only way to achieve that.
Please let us know of any ideas/suggestions/bugs or anything else that you have in mind.
Ok .. Well some things come to mind after being on the page for a while:
(Of course, these are simply suggestions, I'm not implying that those are bugs)
- Upon selecting a challenge from the bar at the bottom of the page, it would be useful if your cursor would jump to the chat window automatically.
- All challenges in the bar at the bottom of the page disappear when you select "Tournaments" on the top of the page and reappear if you select any of the other 3.
- The orange bar on the top is a bit strange: The button "Manage Games" you can toggle on and off, but the others you cannot, when you toggle it "on" the Manage Games section shows up on top of whatever you're looking at, except when you're in the "Help & Support" section. When you're in the help and support section you can still toggle the manage games button and it turns dark, but nothing happens. (this could be intended this way, I was just pointing it out in case it's not).
Typos: (Typos are underlined)
- Welcome to the Live Support. Live usually means that your request will be processed within a minutes. (In the Help & Support section; should probably say "within minutes" or "within a minute")
- There are few easy ways of how to invite your buddies (I guess this should probably say "there are a few" but not sure )
That's about all I found looking through it quickly.. I'm not a native speaker, so sorry if some of those things are correct
Best regards, Octoshape
Edit: Own typos :D haha
Edit 2: It would be reeeeally good if on a player profile you have a button "Challenge him". That would be very useful, and there is no way to close a player's profile to get back to the "Head to Head" section. The only way ( at least that I can see ) is to go to "Tournaments" and then back to "Head to Head".
Edit 3: On a player's profile: The battle history can get quite long if players play alot, and there's no way to like minimize it or like show only 10 at a time and be able to scroll through, so if you wanna get to the bottom of the page to see that player's friends you have to scroll quite a while. (For example: http://playhem.com/users/2962)
I'm actually a little surprised that there is that much money going to the lower divisions. The bronze-gold is a third or a fifth of the master-grandmaster prize money, which is really quite rare. Usually the prize would be something like lessons, since it does not take much to win a bronze-gold tournament, no offense.
But atleast, this is very encouraging to lower league players to play. Maybe giving money to the top 4 in the master-grandmasters or something larger than just 3 places, since it is really hard to advance far in a higher level tournament compared to bronze-gold.
Ok .. Well some things come to mind after being on the page for a while:
(Of course, these are simply suggestions, I'm not implying that those are bugs)
- Upon selecting a challenge from the bar at the bottom of the page, it would be useful if your cursor would jump to the chat window automatically.
- All challenges in the bar at the bottom of the page disappear when you select "Tournaments" on the top of the page and reappear if you select any of the other 3.
- The orange bar on the top is a bit strange: The button "Manage Games" you can toggle on and off, but the others you cannot, when you toggle it "on" the Manage Games section shows up on top of whatever you're looking at, except when you're in the "Help & Support" section. When you're in the help and support section you can still toggle the manage games button and it turns dark, but nothing happens. (this could be intended this way, I was just pointing it out in case it's not).
Typos: (Typos are underlined)
- Welcome to the Live Support. Live usually means that your request will be processed within a minutes. (In the Help & Support section; should probably say "within minutes" or "within a minute")
- There are few easy ways of how to invite your buddies (I guess this should probably say "there are a few" but not sure )
That's about all I found looking through it quickly.. I'm not a native speaker, so sorry if some of those things are correct
Best regards, Octoshape
Edit: Own typos :D haha
Edit 2: It would be reeeeally good if on a player profile you have a button "Challenge him". That would be very useful, and there is no way to close a player's profile to get back to the "Head to Head" section. The only way ( at least that I can see ) is to go to "Tournaments" and then back to "Head to Head".
Edit 3: On a player's profile: The battle history can get quite long if players play alot, and there's no way to like minimize it or like show only 10 at a time and be able to scroll through, so if you wanna get to the bottom of the page to see that player's friends you have to scroll quite a while. (For example: http://playhem.com/users/2962)
Hey thanks for the feedback man it really helps us a lot!
On July 09 2011 03:41 chaopow wrote: I'm actually a little surprised that there is that much money going to the lower divisions. The bronze-gold is a third or a fifth of the master-grandmaster prize money, which is really quite rare. Usually the prize would be something like lessons, since it does not take much to win a bronze-gold tournament, no offense.
But atleast, this is very encouraging to lower league players to play. Maybe giving money to the top 4 in the master-grandmasters or something larger than just 3 places, since it is really hard to advance far in a higher level tournament compared to bronze-gold.
Well I think it's pretty relative to your own skill level. Like, it isn't fair to say that it's harder to get through a tournament of masters and grandmasters than it is bronze-gold because it's relative to your own skill level, if you're only silver you should have just as hard of a time as a master does getting through the higher tournament.
I think having these tournaments really is fun for lower league players though; most tournaments are either restricted to higher leagues, not winnable for lower players, or have extremely low prize pools for lower level players. And I think our prizing structure does encourage players to get better and compete for higher prizes as they improve =D
On July 09 2011 06:27 joeendzel wrote: what are the rules on switching races? my little icon shows toss but I want to play terran. and what about switching in tourney?
Hey joeendzel, that icon is just your "Most Played Race", you can play any race you want in the tournaments though. You should however, choose one race for the entirety of the tournament.
Previous poster did not help me whatsoever as i was registering on the main page.
I start out trying to register an account on Playhem regularly, without Facebook. It says my email and username was invalid/taken. I then use the "I forgot my password" feature and type in my email, to find out my email was free. So this is contradictory. Lastly, I try the last option, which is facebook signup and any username i put is invalid.
I start out trying to register an account on Playhem regularly, without Facebook. It says my email and username was invalid/taken. I then use the "I forgot my password" feature and type in my email, to find out my email was free. So this is contradictory. Lastly, I try the last option, which is facebook signup and any username i put is invalid.
Hey birdkicker, thank you very much for being patient and taking the time to post that video, it really does help us smooth out any bugs such as the one you're having a problem with right now.
I'm definitely going to have someone take a look at this as soon as possible but I was under the impression that it was already fixed. I just did a little test and made a new account (using the regular account signup without facebook option from the homepage) and it worked for me. I put in my details and created the account and I immediately received a verification email from Playhem. Upon clicking that, my account was fully functional and ready to go. I guess it's possible that your account got stuck or something in the process of the signup issue(s) being fixed, I'm not sure. Until our dev team can take another look at that and make sure it's all working properly, can you try creating an account with a different email address the way I described just making one now? Thanks!
On July 09 2011 08:30 H.k[D] wrote: doh, i missed the bonus points tournament >< do you think you could post the bp tournaments slightly earlier (like the start of the day :D?)
also, why are weekend tournaments slightly earlier than normal D:
Haha. Well I'm always open to running bonus point tournaments (as long as I'm awake =P) if we have enough players for them =)
The weekend tournaments are hosted at a bit different times because those events are usually going to be casted/streamed live so we have to host them around the schedule of our caster =D
I start out trying to register an account on Playhem regularly, without Facebook. It says my email and username was invalid/taken. I then use the "I forgot my password" feature and type in my email, to find out my email was free. So this is contradictory. Lastly, I try the last option, which is facebook signup and any username i put is invalid.
Hey, Birdkicker. Please send me a PM with your Facebook ID. I think i begin to understand in which weird circumstances you've got. Sorry for the inconvenience.
On July 09 2011 09:57 H.k[D] wrote: Just curious, if you sign up but then dont show up, are points refunded?
As far as I know the way it is right now, you are NOT refunded if you sign up for a tournament and miss check-in. If the tournament is canceled or you leave it, they're refunded, but if you're a no-show they are not.
On July 09 2011 14:35 birdkicker wrote: How do i obtain my facebook id?
I think he meant your facebook email address and/or facebook url? That's my best guess man, and again I do apologize for this and thank you for being so patient really =)
On July 09 2011 15:55 OpTiKCoYoTe wrote: great system they have for tournaments and i liked my 3rd place $6 ;p. seriously tho its really organized and ez to use <3
Glad you're having fun on Playhem man =D Look forward to seeing you in upcoming tournaments as well!
@neeb (or whoever's in charge) Another thing I noticed:
You don't have any activity yet. Find challenge in General chat
Don't know anybody? Invite friends and have fun
Those 2 texts are showing up when you dont have any challenges on the bottom bar, once again they don't show when you're on the "Tournaments" page, and their color is black just like the bar, so you only see them when you highlight it.. Maybe choose a different color for those texts..
Best regards, Octoshape
Edit:
Another thing: there is no link on the whole page to see the prizes available.
Typos:
In the profile page there is a check box next to the following text: "Sent result email to me" (I guess that should be something like: "Send results email to me" or "Send results via E-Mail")
Again in the profile in "Change password": "Just make sure you pick not usual and clever password. The best practices is to have >than 7 symbols with characters and number."
That is one weird sentence imo my suggestion: "Make sure you don't pick common words as your password. The best practice is to have more than 7 characters with both letters and numbers."
I'm an SEA player so I've got a free NA account too. I actively ladder on SEA and use the NA account when I want to play with my friends in NA. since the tournaments are organized for NA, I will need to register with it. But then, my league on NA is static cuz I don't ladder there. Any advice? Also, any progress on implementing the multi server accounts thing for a user?
Thanks for the great initiative and organizing the tournaments btw.
@neeb (or whoever's in charge) Another thing I noticed:
You don't have any activity yet. Find challenge in General chat
Don't know anybody? Invite friends and have fun
Those 2 texts are showing up when you dont have any challenges on the bottom bar, once again they don't show when you're on the "Tournaments" page, and their color is black just like the bar, so you only see them when you highlight it.. Maybe choose a different color for those texts..
Best regards, Octoshape
Edit:
Another thing: there is no link on the whole page to see the prizes available.
Typos:
In the profile page there is a check box next to the following text: "Sent result email to me" (I guess that should be something like: "Send results email to me" or "Send results via E-Mail")
Again in the profile in "Change password": "Just make sure you pick not usual and clever password. The best practices is to have >than 7 symbols with characters and number."
That is one weird sentence imo my suggestion: "Make sure you don't pick common words as your password. The best practice is to have more than 7 characters with both letters and numbers."
Hey Octoshape, thanks for more feedback! I think at this point in time, although not very aesthetically pleasing, a lot of those issues such as typos and such aren't a very high priority of the development team right now. They do need to be fixed at some point, but everyone is working around the clock trying to get out a lot of different exciting new features here in the near future so the small stuff may be put on the back burner for a little while haha.
On July 09 2011 18:55 anmolsinghmzn2009 wrote: I'm an SEA player so I've got a free NA account too. I actively ladder on SEA and use the NA account when I want to play with my friends in NA. since the tournaments are organized for NA, I will need to register with it. But then, my league on NA is static cuz I don't ladder there. Any advice? Also, any progress on implementing the multi server accounts thing for a user?
Thanks for the great initiative and organizing the tournaments btw.
Hey man, you're in luck! The multi-region accounts are actually already deployed on Playhem! Here's a screenshot of the "Manage Games" tab for Starcraft2 accounts. http://i.imgur.com/n8JLh.png
If you have multiple Starcraft2 regions on your Playhem account, when you enter a tournament it should enter to you under your highest league across all accounts. So if for example you're masters on the SEA server but only Platinum on the NA server, you should be qualified as a master in all tournaments that you enter. Hope that helps and I look forward to seeing you in upcoming tournaments!
Updated the first post with last night's winners, congrats guys!
Today and tomorrow's larger cash tournaments are open for registration =) Check the spoiler near the end of the first post for direct links or just go to the Tournaments page on Playhem. See you guys there!
These look pretty fun and well thought out. Ill definitely be playing in some. The point system is a nice twist but i think players that dont place often will stop playing early when their points diminish.
On July 10 2011 03:35 caneras wrote: These look pretty fun and well thought out. Ill definitely be playing in some. The point system is a nice twist but i think players that dont place often will stop playing early when their points diminish.
Glad to have you with us! If you check out the points spoiler in the first post it's actually really easy to get points. But I have lowered the point entry fees because people are supposed to be having fun with Playhem and running out of points isn't fun for anyone haha. And if a player does get really low on points, just let me know and I'll be glad to give you some; we want players to be able to join tournaments and play head-to-head matches with friends etc.
And speaking of points, there's actually a bonus point tournament open for registration right now =D Extra points to all participants even if you go out first round =P
Saturday Bonus Point Tournament - Check-in: 12:30 pm PST / 3:30pm EST, Start time: 1:00pm PST / 4:00pm PST
Hey Octoshape, thanks for more feedback! I think at this point in time, although not very aesthetically pleasing, a lot of those issues such as typos and such aren't a very high priority of the development team right now. They do need to be fixed at some point, but everyone is working around the clock trying to get out a lot of different exciting new features here in the near future so the small stuff may be put on the back burner for a little while haha.
Yes I understand, and actually appreciate that! (The Game Verification service really should be fixed asap ) but I hope that someone will like just take those notes and make a list for future things to do
Hey guys I just had to ban someone because we had a 1600 masters zerg player smurfing our bronze-gold tournaments. I just want to reiterate that we have absolutely zero tolerance for the smurfing of lower leagues. That's not fun for anyone and it's even more pathetic when players are trying to compete at their own skill level for actual cash prizes. There are not very many tournaments that offer the lower leagues cash prizes on a regular basis and we are not going to have our lower players afraid to play or lose interest because someone is doing that. If you'd like to accuse someone of smurfing you can always contact me and/or send replays to NeebSAGA@playhem.com . Thanks guys!
Hey my brother just told me about this. He is in gold and I`m in masters, i was wondering if I could register. Im afraid to get us both banned. (we live in the same house).
On July 10 2011 07:38 aeris wrote: Can't seem to register for the sunday tournament, it still open? the "join" button is grayed out
Hey man, that's because Sunday's tournament is already full unfortunately. This week's prize tournaments are all open for registration though. Check the spoiler toward the end of my first post or go to the Tournaments tab on Playhem. Look forward to seeing you in upcoming tournies!
On July 10 2011 07:43 alepov wrote: want on EU
Hey alepov! Playhem does support all regions but unfortunately the current promotion is only on the NA server =/ I know there's a lot of EU players out there looking for tournaments such as these ones and I'm going to do my best to set some up for you guys at some point in the future and give all of you an equal chance to compete and win prizes =)
On July 10 2011 09:34 gogatorsfoster wrote: Hey my brother just told me about this. He is in gold and I`m in masters, i was wondering if I could register. Im afraid to get us both banned. (we live in the same house).
I replied to your PM but I'll answer it here as well in case anyone else has the same question. As long as you're both only playing on your own account then it's fine, it only becomes a problem if a player is using the lower account to smurf the lower league tournaments.
I dont know why i am spending so much time with technical issues on this website. I usually just walk away. Well anyways i pm'd enreign and waiting for response.
Just reminding people that there's more to do on the website than just tournaments! They have a head2head section where u can play for cash or points that can be redeemed for cool prizes xD I'm always looking for a challengeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! It's more fun and less stressful than the ladder! C'mon people! Someone please challenge me head2head :D
Really cool tournament setup guys! Thanks for doing this. I live in Australia and usually play on sea, was gonna do placement matches on NA and then enter the bronze-gold bracket, but I won 4 of my placements and placed plat. I don't think I stand much chance in the plat through dia section, but I will keep practicing and hopefully enter some similar tournaments in the future.
Seems like an efficient and easy way of organising open tounaments. Hope tournaments like these continue to happen.
On July 11 2011 12:00 Namida wrote: Really cool tournament setup guys! Thanks for doing this. I live in Australia and usually play on sea, was gonna do placement matches on NA and then enter the bronze-gold bracket, but I won 4 of my placements and placed plat. I don't think I stand much chance in the plat through dia section, but I will keep practicing and hopefully enter some similar tournaments in the future.
Seems like an efficient and easy way of organising open tounaments. Hope tournaments like these continue to happen.
Good luck to everyone competing!
Hey Namida, thanks for the kind words! I hope you do pursue improving your skill level to something that you're comfortable with so we can see you in future tournaments =D You're always welcome to join us and try your best, it's a lot of fun and a nice break from ladder =)
On July 12 2011 01:47 SoKHo wrote: I was really busy last week, so I couldn't play, but I was wondering why the times got pushed 30 minutes later? I wish it was 30 minutes sooner =(
I think the times are the same o.O Monday-Friday Check-in: 5:00pm PST / 8:00pm EST Start: 5:30pm PST / 8:30pm EST
Edit: Looks like I accidentally made Monday's bronze-gold tournament 30 minutes earlier, that was a mistake. All of the other tournaments are at the correct time though.
On July 12 2011 05:46 JonnyLaw wrote: If a tournament is full and people do not show up at check-in time, when/how do you select replacements?
Unfortunately, atm we don't. Hopefully we'll have a waiting list implemented soon and we should be adding 32 and 64 player brackets in the near future =)
On July 12 2011 06:01 JonnyLaw wrote: Ah very cool, thanks for prompt response.
No problem man let me know if you have any other questions. You're also welcome to hop in channel playhem on sc2 NA to ask anything or look for head-to-head matches etc.
Congrats to tonight's winners! Hope you guys had fun =)
Tournaments are starting to fill up quickly (some are filling up a couple days in advance) so if you want to participate make sure you don't wait til the day of the tournament to register because there's a good chance it will be full! We'll be adding larger brackets as soon as we can but right now they're only 16 player max so make sure you secure your spot early if you'd like to play.
I adjusted the prizing structure to be a little bit more top heavy because it didn't make a lot of sense for 2nd or 3rd place to be competing for as much as they were relative to the first place prize.
if I could get a Playhem mod to email me @ darkmoonst@gmail.com or PM me here, i would appreciate it as i am attempting to sign up on your site and it says invalid URL when i try to add SC2 as a game.... many thanks in advance
On July 12 2011 23:29 Bishop148 wrote: if I could get a Playhem mod to email me @ darkmoonst@gmail.com or PM me here, i would appreciate it as i am attempting to sign up on your site and it says invalid URL when i try to add SC2 as a game.... many thanks in advance
Sent you a PM man. Just make sure you're pasting your profile url into the correct place for the region on the account. Like, you're not accidentally putting your EU link in the NA region form or something.
Playhem.com is definitely a great tool for any amateur level player looking for a taste of competition and tournament style play.
Played in my first bronze->gold tourny last night and had a blast even though i got 2-0'd first round . Met some cool people and even had the chance to obs in games between DDE and ThisIsJimmy!
Found myself not having fun playing sc2 until i discovered playhem and it is definitely something to look into if you enjoy competitive gaming. Thanks to Neeb & Haya for all their hard work keep it up guys!
Congrats to tonight's winners! It was really cool to see a player like sixjaxDDE in our tournament, and TheDoctor played some great games against him. ThisIsJimmy also made his first appearance in a Playhem tournament tonight, exciting stuff =D
This weekend's larger cash tournaments are now open for registration.
So I just signed up, got the confirmation email and activated my account. I have 500 points, but I apparently can't join any tournaments. The "Join" button is grey and doesn't do anything when I click it... what am I missing?
-edit nevermind.. I guess the one I tried was full /facepalm
If anyone is looking for a head to head match I'm always willing to play. I'm like mid masters level, NeebSAGA.240 or find me in the playhem channel on SC2 NA =D
On July 15 2011 10:38 Noam wrote: I noticed that only 8 players showed up for today's $30 tournament. Isn't is possible to setup a backup player list somehow?
Yeah. We're going to be adding larger brackets very soon as well as a waiting list.
On July 15 2011 13:11 birdkicker wrote: my issue has been solved. turned out if you have previously registered on Dtoid it screws you over on playhem...
Huh that's weird. Well thanks for helping us find that problem so hopefully it doesn't happen to anyone else. And I'm glad you were patient for that long and able to get an account, sorry about that. Hope to see you around in upcoming tournaments =)
How does the automatic winner checking system work? Does it go into your Match History and automatically check if you lost/won your last custom game on the decided map? How secure is this system from work-arounds?
On July 16 2011 18:31 Octoshape wrote: Quick question: Is the game verification system fully operational now? Haven't seen that thing work so far :-/
Just wondering, makes it a lot easier to invite people when the thing actually works :p
Best regards, Octoshape
Huh? It's always been fully operational lol o.O Not sure what you mean man. But yeah it's working smoothly like it always has been.
On July 16 2011 23:12 IniX wrote: How does the automatic winner checking system work? Does it go into your Match History and automatically check if you lost/won your last custom game on the decided map? How secure is this system from work-arounds?
I'm not entirely sure how it works to be honest man, I'm not on the development team and all that stuff is way over my head lol. It is very secure though; it's been tested numerous times every which way and there's no way to fake a win or anything like that if that's what you mean.
Congrats to last night's winners! Make sure you guys tune in to http://www.justin.tv/frodan today and tomorrow as there's always some great games. Some of this week's tournaments are also open for registration now. We're adding larger brackets very soon =)
On July 18 2011 03:54 Dalguno wrote: What time does the GM/master tournament start? It says 7, but 7 what time?
Monday-Friday 5:30pm PST, Sunday 6:00pm PST. Check-in begins 30 minutes prior to the start of a tournament. The tournaments page should localize the time for the user, but if not it also shows the time zone on the tournaments page ie: "Times are shown in your timezone (GMT-07:00)".
On July 18 2011 06:36 FryktSkyene wrote: This site is sick.
I use to play in those 30$ tournys and the one time i got matched up with slush in the finals
Guess who won?
Not me. qq.
Haha yeah, I've had to play against guys like Slush and vileHawk etc a few times, not fun =(
Congrats to yesterday's winners! Make sure you guys tune in to Frodan's stream today at 6:00pm PST if you aren't playing, there's always some great games in the Master/GM tournaments =D
Hmm, the times are so hard for EU. QQ! Looks completely awesome though, can't believe I didn't notice this before considering how much time I spend here on TL. Signed up now, and will be looking to play some tournies in the future. Great incentive to start practicing more too, been lacking motivation to play for a while, but this got me completely psyched. :D
Is the page of a tourney from last night such as http://playhem.com/tourney/9827 supposed to not include the brackets, or is there some error? If this is intentional, is there any place on your site to see past results?
On July 18 2011 07:30 CNSnow wrote: Love it! I will definitely buy an account on NA server!!! Are there going to be such events on EU server???
We definitely have plans to run similar tournaments on other servers but I'm not exactly sure when we're going to start them, standby my man =D
On July 18 2011 07:30 Krikan wrote: Hmm, the times are so hard for EU. QQ! Looks completely awesome though, can't believe I didn't notice this before considering how much time I spend here on TL. Signed up now, and will be looking to play some tournies in the future. Great incentive to start practicing more too, been lacking motivation to play for a while, but this got me completely psyched. :D
Haha for sure. These tournaments are really a nice break from ladder as well =)
On July 18 2011 13:25 CuHz wrote: So how do u enter the tourny? i keep trying to click join but it doesn't work.
That means it's full. Confusing I know lol. We're going to change that to make it more obvious when a tournament is full but we're adding much larger brackets soon so that should hopefully clear up most of the problems with that.
On July 18 2011 20:59 Noam wrote: Is the page of a tourney from last night such as http://playhem.com/tourney/9827 supposed to not include the brackets, or is there some error? If this is intentional, is there any place on your site to see past results?
Atm I don't think there is a way to see the brackets of previous tournaments. There will be in the future though. You can see the top 3 finishers of a tournament in the first post of this thread near the bottom under "Previous Winners".
all of the top gms took over the masters and grandmasters tournament... there's like 0 chance for a masters league player to win...:x... will there be a seperate masters tournament in the future?
On July 19 2011 12:14 birdkicker wrote: all of the top gms took over the masters and grandmasters tournament... there's like 0 chance for a masters league player to win...:x... will there be a seperate masters tournament in the future?
It's something we've talked about and would like to do in the future yes. The problem is just getting enough players to fill a GM only tournament. We're still discussing different ways to go about it but I agree, right now it's hard for an average master to win anything.
On July 19 2011 12:14 birdkicker wrote: all of the top gms took over the masters and grandmasters tournament... there's like 0 chance for a masters league player to win...:x... will there be a seperate masters tournament in the future?
You can always create your own tournaments and restrict it to master's league only. The site itself has a lot of potential for creating public tournaments. I used it to set up a tournament that is convenient for gold / plat league players on the west coast working 9-5 jobs.
Hey I love the tournaments, but the one problem I have is with your rule regarding disconnections during a game. From what I know, if a player dcs, the opponent gets to decide if he/she wants to win or have a rematch.
I think this is incredibly unfair as most people will take the free win and does not allow a person to ask for a review. Shouldn't the admins review a dc if a player requests it?
I bring this up because I just played in a tournament and in the quarterfinals in a bo3 match my internet acted up and I dced. It was the third game and I was in the process of destroying my opponents base when I dced. I found this extremely frustrating and had a little rage fit when I found out the rules regarding disconnections.
I think the rule should be similar to many tournaments run by z33k.
"If an admin feels a player is abusing this policy you will be kicked. Upon a disconnection the replay will be reviewed in order to determine if there is a clear winner. If a winner is decided and one player disputes the replay will be reviewed by at least 2 other people who will also decide if there was a clear winner or not. If a majority is reached between the 3 judges that is the final outcome of the game. If not then the game will be replayed."
Now it doesn't have to follow this to the letter, but something similar to this would help make playhem a lot more enjoyable since everyone has internet issues here and there.
Perhaps this question has been answered in this very long thread, if so I'm sorry, but how does playhem make any money if I can just compete in a tournament for some cash with points, which I get for free when signing up? It sounds a little too good to be true, am I missing something? (probly yes :p)
Judging from watching several of my friends play in these tournaments, and myself participating in a few, I can say that smurfing is rampant in the lower tournaments.
I don't know how you really avoid this as most lower tournaments are...but this is really awesome that someone is actually taking interest in daily tournaments for money!!
EPT![[image loading]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7643860/Banners%20without%20Origin/_banner_590x125_p.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GZJiF.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Jxnka.png)
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/VwGwD.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/yk2D7.png)
my suggestion: "Make sure you don't pick common words as your password. The best practice is to have more than 7 characters with both letters and numbers."
