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UPDATE - New features added!
Hi everyone,
Some of you may already know us from the various competitions we organize: Weekly Solo cups (GameCreds Cup - 100€ cash prize - 23rd edition soon!  ) or ClanWar Invitationals - some others may even remember a former TL post announcing the website when we first released it 
We've released a SC2 Tournament Wizard a while ago, and have recently made quite a lot of improvements (and still are), so I thought it'd be worth updating the post, and asking for feedback
It has already hosted the WCG France Qualifications, and numerous GameCreds Cup - it should also host an upcoming Dailymotion cup
WHAT IS IT?
A tournament Wizard! It helps people organize SC2 1v1 tournaments.
List of key features, in short:
- Any logged-in user with a valid SC2 profile (FAQ: see how to add a profile) can start his own tournament - up to 512 slots
- Advanced "skill-criteria": filter the registrants to only allow a specific 1v1 league - data taken straight out of Battle.net (no cheat possible)
- Auto-start on a specific date/time, players are instantly PMd & mailed to go and check the brackets
- Automatically generates Tournament Tree. You can choose to have it 100% random OR seeded (using league & rating criteria)
- Player-powered match summary, with admin control on the scores - if there's a conflict, the system sends a PM and mails to all the admins
- Admins can specify a livestream + embed it in the tournament page
- Winner is automatically shown when the finals have been played!
HOW DOES IT WORK?
When someone registers on GameCreds, and add his profile, we create a SC2 "CV" with all his leagues, stats, match history, etc. updated on a daily basis.
We're using this as a main filter (along with the server the character is on: Bnet EU/US/etc.) to determine who's able to register for a tournament or not.
For instance, our idea behind the GameCreds Cup was: "let's gather the best players, and have awesome games to stream, starting from round 1" - so we restricted the registration to people having a Diamond, Master or Grand Master 1v1 league.
You could do the same for a tournament where you don't want any top players participating - you could specify ![[image loading]](http://st1.gamecreds.com/images/contents/recruitment/sc2/leagues/22x22/5.png) bronze only, or bronze + ![[image loading]](http://st1.gamecreds.com/images/contents/recruitment/sc2/leagues/22x22/3.png) gold + ![[image loading]](http://st1.gamecreds.com/images/contents/recruitment/sc2/leagues/22x22/4.png) silver, and no one with a profile showing a higher 1v1 league would be able to join.
CREATING A TOURNAMENT
On the Tournament wizard page, hit the "+ Create Tournament" button...
1- Fill-in the pop-up form info
(Click +spoiler+ for images & detailed explanation)
+ Show Spoiler +The first part of the pop-up lets you set the basic info: - Tournament Title
- Tournament Date & time
- Registration period
- Max Players
- Format: Bo1? Bo3? Bo1 until Ro8, then Bo3 and Bo5 for the finals? etc.
- Location (Bnet EU/US/Asia, etc.)
- Should the brackets be Auto-Seeded or not
- Required league rating to participate (bronze to Grand Master)
![[image loading]](http://info.gamecreds.com/imgnews/tn/tn_pp1.jpg) The second part of the pop-up lets you write up the tournament details: - Who are the tournament admins (you have to be friends on GameCreds, for their SC2 profile to show-up in the autocomplete field)
- Description area (HTML is enabled)
- Tournament avatar (will be auto-resized)
![[image loading]](http://info.gamecreds.com/imgnews/tn/tn_pp2.jpg)
2- Your Tournament will then show up in the list
Some major tournaments (with cash prize) will most probably be listed as "featured" and get to stay on top of the list.
![[image loading]](http://info.gamecreds.com/imgnews/tn/tn_list.jpg)
...clicking on it will bring you to the actual Tournament Page
![[image loading]](http://info.gamecreds.com/imgnews/tn_6.jpg)
3- ...where you can browse the tournament options
![[image loading]](http://info.gamecreds.com/imgnews/tn/tn_options.png)
...either as a regular player wanting to register, or as an owner/admin, where you'll be able to :
+ Show Spoiler +- Register your SC2 profile (hell yeah, why wouldn't you want to play your tournament? )
- Edit the tournament info - this will bring up the creation pop-up with all the info - and you can edit most of them
- Launch the Tournament - You can decide to manually launch it before the start date - even before the registration period expires. You're the boss, it's your call. This will automatically send a PM to all participant saying your tournament has gone live, and they should check the brackets out.
- Delete the Tournament - After being asked twice if you REALLY want to do this, it will send a PM to all participant notifying them that the tournament they registered to no longer exists.
- Administrate the list of participants : basically, you can kick out any registered player you don't want in. He'll still be able to join again though (if he notices he's no longer in).
![[image loading]](http://info.gamecreds.com/imgnews/tn_4.jpg)
4- Once the Tournament has Started, the brackets are being generated
The tab "players" that previously showed all registered players (sorted alphabetically) will display the tournament tree (brackets) instead.
+ Show Spoiler +Players will be placed 100% randomly if you set it so when creating the tournament ![[image loading]](http://info.gamecreds.com/imgnews/tn_5.jpg) If you ticked the Auto-Seed option, all players will be given a seed, based on their league & rating (grand master 1600 > Grand master 1300 > master > etc..). Agreed, it's not 100% perfect a seeding process, but it will still prevent 2 top players from meeting too early. ![[image loading]](http://info.gamecreds.com/imgnews/tn/tn_seeds.jpg)
5- Reporting the results
...is very easy. Players only have to click on the small ![[image loading]](http://st2.gamecreds.com/images/contents/recruitment/sc2/tournaments/oeil-on.gif) "eye" icon next to their matchup, in the tournament tree.
+ Show Spoiler +It will diplay a popup where to enter score. ![[image loading]](http://info.gamecreds.com/imgnews/tn/tn_scores.jpg) Note that admins can bypass any player-sumbitted result by entering the score themselves (if players are too slow, do it wrong, forget to do it, etc.). If players enter conflicting results, admins are automatically being notified by a PM and prompted to check it out.
That's about it! Don't hesitate to give it a try!
It's not 100% finished, but it should be pretty muched "bug-free" - I'd very much appreciate if you guys could give us some background on either:
- features that are a bit too bugged/messy
- what went ok/not ok in GameCreds-powered tournaments you've been in
- ...what to add? :D
We're already working on adding a check-in system in the coming days.
Thanks a lot!
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pretty awesome work, I have one question though.... do we need to get our own licence from Blizz or does your licence cover all tourneys run via your website?
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Seems like really simple/easy-to-use system! Hope it helps me find good tournaments^^
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Thanks
You still need to ask Blizz for the license - though that's a DAMN GOOD idea for a feature we could add!
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from an aesthetic point of view you seriously should consider a new webdesign. the current one is a clusterfuck and i get the feeling i am visiting the website of toys'r'us. good tournament system tho
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On March 15 2011 03:05 tabbi wrote:
from an aesthetic point of view you seriously should consider a new webdesign. the current one is a clusterfuck and i get the feeling i am visiting the website of toys'r'us. good tournament system tho
I'm probably going to print that comment and pin it to the wall next to the designer's desk :D :D
Couldn't agree more - we're actually working on a new design for the whole website... simpler and lighter!
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On a side note - a live example of how a tournament gets hosted:
We're right in the middle of the GameCreds Cup #5 - you can see the brackets evolving automatically (well, still need to refresh to the players evolve).
--> tournament tree (112 players)
--> Streams : French (ZeratoR) // English (GG-Artanis)
We're looking into adding more streams in the tournament page (limited to 1 atm)
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On March 15 2011 02:58 GameCreds wrote:Thanks You still need to ask Blizz for the license - though that's a DAMN GOOD idea for a feature we could add!
Glad to be of some use lol. I agree about the site being way too busy as well, simple and slick is always best imo
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wow awesome
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Great work *o* !
I'll organise a weekly tournament with SC1 units !
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Nice work man. Seems like an awesome app, hope it gets popular.
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Seems to work pretty smooth. Though I agree with people's comments about it being a bit clustered.
My suggestion would be to have greater options on tournament choices. Like Round Robin tournaments, or group stages for larger number tournaments. Individual selection of the number of games in a series for each round might help to.
Looks promising though, good work!
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On March 16 2011 03:15 Invex wrote:
Seems to work pretty smooth. Though I agree with people's comments about it being a bit clustered.
My suggestion would be to have greater options on tournament choices. Like Round Robin tournaments, or group stages for larger number tournaments. Individual selection of the number of games in a series for each round might help to.
Looks promising though, good work!
Thanks a lot
We're currently working on (amongst a LOT of other things on the site - including a massive revamp):
- 2v2/3v3/4v4 (hell, why not? :p) tournaments / ClanWars
- Adding group stages + round robin
- Seeding system!
As for the seeding system, one of the things we're looking into is using people's League + ELO ranking.
Granted, it's not going to be 100% accurate, but most of the time, a 4K+ Master League *is* better than a 1K+ one - so it should do the job.
The UNIQUE (and cool) thing about our system is that we're getting players data straight out of battle.net, so the filtering of players (by league) is 100% accurate
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Looks really nice so far!
Just wondering, is there a way to make some sort of invite-only tournament with this?
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Wow, looks really nice great job.
Stuff like this is just great.
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Thanks a lot for your feedback
On March 16 2011 21:18 Viper Jr. wrote:
Looks really nice so far!
Just wondering, is there a way to make some sort of invite-only tournament with this?
Unfortunately, not at the moment (we really released it not so long ago) - that's something we're considering as well.
I suppose, one way to achieve it nevertheless would be to :
- tell the guys you invite to register to your tournament
- filter the list, by kicking out the registered players you don't want in (you can do that as an admin)
Example:
If you hit the the "Players" tab of the upcoming GameCreds Cup #6 (go register! ), as a random visitor, you'll see the list of players already registered. Clicking on them will bring you to their bnet-like SC2 Profile page.
![[image loading]](http://info.gamecreds.com/imgnews/tn_8.jpg)
When logged on the site as the tournament admin/owner, you're able to kick anyone from the players list, by hitting the small "close" rounded button.
![[image loading]](http://info.gamecreds.com/imgnews/tn_7.jpg)
Then you can either decide to launch the tournament manually if they all joined (which wil replace the player list by a nice tournament tree), or close the registration period (by editing the tournament info), and wait til the auto-start.
Not really a nice invite-only system, but still a way of doing it nevertheless
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(Edited the post to add a few details - fill FAQ coming soon)
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Ok, I've tried it out a bit now with some friends, and it generated some feedback:
1. I created a tournament and told my friends to join it. It worked out well, but somehow, there are now 4 copies of this tournaments. One working, with the players in it, and three others, just sitting there. Perhaps there some issue with refreshing the site/editing the tournament once started?
2. Is there a way to delete a tournament as an admin?
3. Is there a way to delete a Starcraft 2 profile from your Gamecred account? You can add several, but I can't find a way to delete one.
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On March 17 2011 03:35 Viper Jr. wrote:
Ok, I've tried it out a bit now with some friends, and it generated some feedback:
1. I created a tournament and told my friends to join it. It worked out well, but somehow, there are now 4 copies of this tournaments. One working, with the players in it, and three others, just sitting there. Perhaps there some issue with refreshing the site/editing the tournament once started?
2. Is there a way to delete a tournament as an admin?
3. Is there a way to delete a Starcraft 2 profile from your Gamecred account? You can add several, but I can't find a way to delete one.
Hey Viper Jr.
Thanks a lot for your feedback!
1. We forgot to add a "lock" on the create button ; which sometimes prompted it to behave strangely (creating duplicates). It's now fixed
2. Not yet - we're adding this very soon
3. Same answer! As for now, this something you have to request manually (by sending a PM to the staff, asking it on the "troubleshooting" forums or in the feedback) - we're adding this in the next patch to be soon applied to the site.
Main reason being - it's quite complicated a system - we have to analyze every single "recruitment opporunity" you opened wirth your profile, clan you created/joined, message/comment you wrote, replay you show on, etc. and affect them in a way, when deleting your profile.
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A little update - now that Battle.net is up and running again, the Tournament Wizard si also back
Since there was a ladder reset, players eager to participate in a tournament (whichever it is) will have to make sure they have a 1v1 league - i.e, that they have already played a few solo games!
Example: the GameCreds Cup #8 only allows diamond & master league players to join
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Quick update - thanks a LOT to everybody for your feedback!
We should be implementing soon:
- a "delete tournament" button... deleting a tournament and sending a PM to all particiapants, saying it's not happening after all
- a Check-in option. This should greatly facilitate admin work when dealing with 100+ players, in reducing the number of defwins/freewins, early in the tournament tree.
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Anyone willing to host a tournament? ^^
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Great tool! Just a quick question: Could you add an option to make a tournament "private"? I'm wondering about this because I think this feature would be useful if a bunch of friends and I wanted to emulate a tournament amongst us. But as it is, this tool makes the tournament completely public, allowing anyone to join. Just a suggestion Thanks for the tool and I know that I can just set a strict time limit and make all my friends register at the same time but still.
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On July 13 2011 22:57 thisisSSK wrote:Great tool! Just a quick question: Could you add an option to make a tournament "private"? I'm wondering about this because I think this feature would be useful if a bunch of friends and I wanted to emulate a tournament amongst us. But as it is, this tool makes the tournament completely public, allowing anyone to join. Just a suggestion Thanks for the tool and I know that I can just set a strict time limit and make all my friends register at the same time but still.
Thanks for your feedback
Yeah a "private mode" or "invite-only" system is something we'll soon be working on as well
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OK! Check-in system has been added :-)
Should be tested next week for the GameCreds Cup #24
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EPT![[image loading]](http://info.gamecreds.com/imgnews/tn/tn_create.png)
![[image loading]](http://st2.gamecreds.com/images/contents/recruitment/sc2/leagues/22x22/2.png)
![[image loading]](http://st2.gamecreds.com/images/contents/recruitment/sc2/leagues/22x22/6.png)
![[image loading]](http://st2.gamecreds.com/images/contents/recruitment/sc2/leagues/22x22/7.png)
