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UPDATE: - $50 for the first person that beats me in a best of 3
- $100 for the first person that beats me in a best of 5
So far I'm undefeated and have barely been threatened. If offering more money is the only way to get someone decent to play me, so be it, I'll offer more money.
Standing offer, no time limit. First come, first serve -- only the first person I lose to gets the cash. No repeats; a player has to decide beforehand whether they're challenging me best of 3 or best of 5, and are not eligible for both.
How long will it take TL to provide a decent challenger?
Original thread follows, and its offer still stands. Ian has to decide whether he wants to be included in the above or not.
Starcraft, at least on Battle.net, is dying. Players are less active and less skilled, fewer new maps are being made, and for many, the game is no longer as exciting as it used to be. In particular, the state of UMS competition is in serious decline. Having been a part of virtually every competitive UMS community in the last several years, the story is always the same. For various reasons -- a lack of popularity with the public, the map becoming stale after being played too many times, bored domination by the top players, etc. -- after a while players go inactive, the games decline, and the community dies. The only map I actively play at a competitive level is Diplo Infinity, and it too is dying.
So with that as a preface, my friend IanIanIan@USEast and I (outlawpoet@USEast) were thinking about ways to get more people involved, since the level of competition in diplo has been stagnant for quite some time. We were both willing to put up cash, but unless we found some more competition, we'd just be paying ourselves. We needed to think bigger. "What if we ran an event and got TL involved? Think they could beat us?"
The answer was no, TL has no chance. But we're going to let you try anyway.
Rather than running a tournament where you had to place to win any money, we decided we'd just skip the formality of playing each other in the finals and actually give you guys a chance to earn some of our cash. We'll take on any and all comers, for free, and if you beat either of us, we'll give you our money.
So here are the details. The map will be a modified version of Diplo Infinity 2.8a (see note below), the mode will be Diplomacy. There are 34 countries playable, all with different strengths and weaknesses, relatively well-balanced across the board. LEARN HOW TO PLAY HERE
Here are the challenge categories. You may participate in either or both. AGAIN, THIS IS FREE TO ENTER.
TL CAN'T BEAT US 1v1
Country selection is random.
Prizes:
$10 - if you win a best of 3
$20 - if you win a best of 5
TL ALSO CAN'T BEAT US 2v2
Country selection: One randoms, the other picks to complement their ally and counter their opponents. Learning the layout of the country selection area to determine which country your opponent has randomed is expected procedure. We are willing to pick first in a timely fashion -- arguably there is an advantage in waiting to see what we pick as well so you know what we both are -- but if you pick first that is fine too. The two players randoming will be automatic, see the note below.
Prizes:
$20 - if you win a best of 3
$30 - if you win a best of 5
Prize goes to the team, you may split it however you decide.
CASH PRIZES ARE SUBJECT TO INCREASE. If we don't lose too many of our matches, and we won't, we'll do it again and up the ante.
NOTE ABOUT THE MAP: For competitive play, there are currently two problems with the randomization process for games on Diplo Infinity 2.8a, both stemming from the fact that the randomization is not automatic, enabling a player to wait before randoming to find out what country the other player is. If both players wait until the timer, then the "structured randomizer" activates, giving each player a predetermined country. As of 2/22/09 I have edited the map to cause immediate randomization with no possibility for determining the opponent's country by waiting. In 2.8a there is also a bug with Slovenian Strikers that enables the player to obtain infinite gas which I have also fixed. I am currently editing the map to support 1random1pick 2v2s, so I have not uploaded the map to a file site yet, but you may download the latest version from me on battle.net. Other than these few changes the maps are identical.
Downloads
You have two weeks as of this posting to play us. We will not intentionally dodge anyone, but if a lot of people sign up and you are not very active, we might not get the opportunity to play you during this two week period. To sign up, post in this thread or PM either of us, along with your battle.net ID, and we'll contact you to arrange a time to play. By signing up, you agree to the rules in the spoiler below.
A note about scheduling -- 2v2 best of 3s require four players to be online at once for an appreciable length of time and are significantly more difficult to organize than 1v1s. I cannot guarantee prompt scheduling for 2v2s, but I can for 1v1s. I will get organized with regard to scheduling as quickly as I can. As long as you sign up in this thread, Ian and I will eventually get around to playing our series with you, and will discuss extending the two week deadline if it becomes an issue. In the meantime, I suggest you use the time to practice.
+ Show Spoiler [Rules] +
1. Chaoslauncher is required, games will be played on low latency. If you lag, we reserve the right to not play you.
2. If you hack, we will catch you, and we will report you to TL admins.
3. Pausing in game is acceptable up to 3 minutes without prior negotiation, any longer will result in a loss.
4. Disconnects result in a loss for the disconnecting party.
5. The game occasionally crashes during the initial turn, these crashes will result in a replay. Other crashes must be screenshotted and sent to us immediately in order for there to be a replay. Anything questionable will result in a loss.
6. If it's possible in the map, it's allowed. As an example, turret freezing is a diplomacy standard and is expected.
7. If you intentionally waste our time after you have lost, we reserve the right to not play you again. To be clear, if you turtle up or attempt to hide buildings all over the map with no chance of winning, we will finish the game, but we will not play you again. Games can drag on for quite some time until we get the necessary units to break a turtle, but since income can never be exhausted as it can in melee, there is no such thing as a stalemate. You will not win our money by annoying us.
8. Chatting in game is allowed but we will squelch you if we find you obnoxious. Games are to be friendly, if you're bm in the game queue, lobby, or game itself, we reserve the right to not play you. Friendly trashtalking is fine, insults are not. Our discretion.
9. If there is a dispute over a game, ultimately we make the decision. We will be as fair as possible. Remember, this challenge costs you nothing.
10. Players who are on my friends list are not eligible. The intent of this is to challenge TL and broaden our community.
11. Lastly, you are responsible for providing us with a way to pay you. Options are paypal, cash, or check.
Good luck TL, you need it!
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POLLS AND OTHER INFORMATION:
After you lose, you will not be eligible to play us for cash again, unless you are willing to negotiate a price for you to play again for cash. The following poll is to gauge your interest, and is in no way a guarantee from us on cash amounts. We reserve the right to refuse to play you again regardless of price.
Poll: If you lose, would you pay to try again?
(Vote): Depends how well I do.
(Vote): Yes, if I can negotiate a fair price.
(Vote): $1 to try again. I'll definitely win the second time.
(Vote): I'd pay ever-increasing increments until I won.
(Vote): No way. Free or nothing.
If you simply want to learn the map, we are willing to teach you
If we teach you how to play, you will not be eligible to earn our money. Sorry. A prerequisite for us teaching you how to play is having read the guide.
If you don't suck, we will broadcast your games.
With your permission, of course. After this event is over, we are considering streaming the best and most entertaining games we played with commentary. Games prohibitively long to commentate on, we'll post as replays.
CURRENTLY SIGNED UP
2v2 -
TL ID: Phelix; b.net ID: Control301. Partner not specified. PM sent.
TL ID: greeny k; b.net ID: unknown. Partner not specified. PM sent.
TL ID: Bill Murray; b.net ID: unknown. Partner not specified. PM sent.
TL ID: weaponx3; b.net ID: weaponx3. Partner not specified. PM sent.
1v1 -
TL ID: waffles; b.net ID: 510waffles. Defeated 2-0.
TL ID: weaponx3; b.net ID: weaponx3. PM sent.
? -
TL ID: QuickStriker; b.net ID unknown. PM sent.
Need more people!
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Awesome idea, I would so do one of these using LotR maps instead(the good ones that actually take skill rather than massing units >.>), but I haven't played in so long due to the same reasons you stated above.
Just out of curiosity, what is the difference between Diplo Infinity and Diplo Gold, since I did play Gold for quite a few hours a while ago.
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I'm interested, but I need a partner. I haven't played this map in over a year though, so I probably will be rusty.
BNet ID:Control301
Also, can't we do this over iCCup for the LAN Latency?
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ill sign up. i would say im one of the better diplo players lol
bnet id : 510waffles
i feel the game is imbalanced. if the team gets scotland and another maybe like sweden i dont see how you can win the game.
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On February 17 2010 13:22 superbabosheki wrote:
Awesome idea, I would so do one of these using LotR maps instead(the good ones that actually take skill rather than massing units >.>), but I haven't played in so long due to the same reasons you stated above.
Just out of curiosity, what is the difference between Diplo Infinity and Diplo Gold, since I did play Gold for quite a few hours a while ago.
If it wouldn't derail the thread, I'd be happy to do a comparison of Diplo Infinity and Diplo Gold. Gold players love to argue that Infinity takes less skill; having played the highest level players of both communities, I can say without a doubt that that is not true. Other than that, there are too many differences in gameplay for there to be any real parallels.
On February 17 2010 13:26 Phelix wrote:
I'm interested, but I need a partner. I haven't played this map in over a year though, so I probably will be rusty.
BNet ID:Control301
Also, can't we do this over iCCup for the LAN Latency?
ChaosLauncher is required, games can be played on any gateway as long as #LL is in the game name.
On February 17 2010 13:29 Waffles wrote:
ill sign up. i would say im one of the better diplo players lol
bnet id : 510waffles
i feel the game is imbalanced. if the team gets scotland and another maybe like sweden i dont see how you can win the game.
There are a few auto-win and auto-loss matchups. The map is not perfectly balanced, and that is why we play best of 3 instead of best of 1. That said, scotland is not a very strong country, and I would destroy your scotland with my sweden.
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If you think the mapping community is dead u should check out the modding/campaign community lol
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On February 17 2010 13:31 integral wrote:
If it wouldn't derail the thread, I'd be happy to do a comparison of Diplo Infinity and Diplo Gold. Gold players love to argue that Infinity takes less skill; having played the highest level players of both communities, I can say without a doubt that that is not true.
I'm interested in this.
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I will warn you.... from the very dawn of time of my Starcraft competitive developing skills and play first occurred with the same diplomacy game that you are about to challenge us... (Well Diplo 7.7 at the time) And that was 2003. I still have all the skills and experiences I have so feel free to challenge me IF YOU SO DARE TO.....
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On February 17 2010 13:31 integral wrote:
There are a few auto-win and auto-loss matchups. The map is not perfectly balanced, and that is why we play best of 3 instead of best of 1. That said, scotland is not a very strong country, and I would destroy your scotland with my sweden.
i meant if thre was a team of scotland and sweden vs like denmark and czech or something
and i guess the best of 3 would be nice way to fix. i think a good way to balance it is that if you play bo5 and get to "thumb down " 1 game for each player. similar to OSL
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On February 17 2010 13:33 Whiplash wrote:
If you think the mapping community is dead u should check out the modding/campaign community lol
Maplantis dying really made me sad. SEN did Temple Siege, but other than that nothing is really new lately.
On February 17 2010 13:34 GeneralStan wrote:Show nested quote +On February 17 2010 13:31 integral wrote:
If it wouldn't derail the thread, I'd be happy to do a comparison of Diplo Infinity and Diplo Gold. Gold players love to argue that Infinity takes less skill; having played the highest level players of both communities, I can say without a doubt that that is not true. Other than that, there are too many differences in gameplay for there to be any real parallels.
I'm interested in this.
Maybe I was unclear. This discussion will derail the thread, so I'm not going to talk about it, and would request that no one else attempt to start that discussion in this thread either. This thread is about Diplo Infinity, not about Diplo Gold. If it gets off track I will request a moderator to delete the irrelevant posts.
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Vatican City State1650 Posts
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On February 17 2010 13:46 orgolove wrote:
How arrogant.
What's wrong with being arrogant when the players are willing to actually pay money to back up their claims?
It will be ironic if one of the other top diplo players just happens to post on TL, though.
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On February 17 2010 13:46 orgolove wrote:
How arrogant.
That's the point! The way I see it, I've been playing this map since 2006, and there's no way I should lose to anyone who hasn't played as much as I have, and there's no one who has played as much as I have. If anyone on TL can beat me in a best of 3 after only 2 weeks, 1. they deserve the cash, and 2. I will gladly accept the lesson in humility.
If I don't put up money for people to play, no one would accept the challenge. If I didn't think I would win, I would either be stupid or generous to put up money for playing, and I'm not generous. Arrogance is not part of the equation unless I have a false sense of perspective as to how good at the map I am, and I don't really think I do.
Prove me wrong, it's my loss!
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No one is going to win against IanIanIan haha
that guy is incredible
never played with integral before but if he's on par with IanIanIan, I don't think anyone can stop them
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So I just checked the Infinity channel, seems nobody is active anymore.
Also, in the TL version, will you fix auto-reveal for Phantom in Turn 11? Destroyer hasn't bothered cleaning up the bugs...
Integral is Outlawpoet, I don't think many people can stand up to him.
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Sorry I'm a little confuzzled ATM, so first try is free and the rest you have to pay and if you win you get money right??
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Ill play, ill get a partner give me a week to practice then you lose all the money you put up.
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On February 17 2010 14:09 Phelix wrote:
So I just checked the Infinity channel, seems nobody is active anymore.
Also, in the TL version, will you fix auto-reveal for Phantom in Turn 11? Destroyer hasn't bothered cleaning up the bugs...
Integral is Outlawpoet, I don't think many people can stand up to him.
Oh, well I'm active all the time, I'm just not logged in right now. There are about 10 active players on my friends list, it's been kind of dismal lately. I'm hoping this challenge will rejuvenate the community a bit.
I will not be making any changes to Phantom mode, sorry.
On February 17 2010 14:11 Nub4ever wrote:
Sorry I'm a little confuzzled ATM, so first try is free and the rest you have to pay and if you win you get money right??
Yep. Looks like no one is willing to pay, even if they come close to winning against us, so I guess most people are only going to get one shot.
On February 17 2010 14:16 GreEny K wrote:
Ill play, ill get a partner give me a week to practice then you lose all the money you put up. Sounds good. To sign up post your b.net ID in this thread or PM it to me.
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This sounds like a solid tournament and I endorse it.
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EPT
