Hearthpwn

Alright, so before I get eliminated and look super salty, I want to express some ideas about these long-form competitions.

Is eliminating competitors actually a good way to do this? Each round, we have a number of people make it through, only to find themselves unable to complete the next phase. Hell, I was nearly among that number this round. But as the rounds continue, and the participation drops, the competition becomes increasingly less interesting. Maybe the first culling felt good, but since then I question whether it actually improves the competition.

If there is a positive benefit, the discussion threads get easier to follow with fewer participants. But with 10ish people going on to the next round, those discussion threads are going to get pretty quiet. 

What if the polls occurred every round, and then your score from each round was tallied at the end? This would still give the competition a phase structure, to make the project easier to handle, but without forcing people out. I'm sure there are people who were eliminated who would still be participating, and given we've had drop outs, its kind of a shame that they aren't still around. Further, if people are reaaaally intent on winning the competition, and only find motivation through the possibility of winning, they'll be able to track their scores from round to round, and see whether they have a reasonable chance of winning in future rounds.

tldr: what if the competition wasn't formatted around elimination, but just scoring.

Edit: Some stats

• 20,000 views on phase 1 discussion thread
• 17,000 views on phase 2 discussion thread
• 7,000 views on phase 3 discussion thread
• 9,000 views on phase 1 submission thread
• 8,000 views on phase 2 submission thread
• 2,000 views on phase 3 submission thread
• 600 views on phase 3 poll 1 thread (so far).

What this tells me is that the primary audience for the competition are the competitors themselves. As we eliminate competitors, we eliminate large amounts of traffic to the competition. If this were a spectator sport, it'd make sense to use elimination. But when most spectators are apparently competitors, it makes no sense to use elimination over pure scoring.

Quote from Teknician >>

Quote from Demonxz95 >>

Well, this happened.

 Well, in the expansion I had that I got eliminated from, this happened:

I guess we all thought that a 4/3 statline justified a little bit more than Elusive.

I'm sad that four people missed this phase. It kinda hurts because you know you would've completed yours, were you not eliminated— but then, they didn't complete theirs, so that's elimination too.

In regards to switching up the format for the next big competition, its something we can look into. Some initial points of concern:

• Keeping many of our entrants - lets say 100 people - becomes a big strain on us as mods to run the competition. That's what, 10 polls each round to keep them clean looking? 5 polls if you don't mind sifting through 20 entries of stuff per poll? Do we run polls simultaneously or one after another? Then we also have to make sure we're keeping track of whatever scoring method we're using - and that that scoring method is fair - across all the rounds.
• Another issue - yes, less people are casually checking in per round, some of which is likely down to lack of exposure due to upcoming expansion, but I don't know that people would be interested in checking multiple polls per round, with many different entrants. It's just so much work for the casual viewer. Compared to now, where there's just a few entries and they can digest them easily.
• Finally, since we'd obviously keep our scoring method open and be revealing the number of votes after each round for transparency, people would be able to see who's leading. Many people might just drop out after seeing they didn't get that many points and don't think its worth it. We'd end up with weird, uneven numbers of competitors, and due to the low retention of multiple polls I can't help but feel that a few people would be obviously in the lead the whole way through.

As I said, totally willing to consider switching it up, but those are just my initial hesitancies with that specific idea.

Quote from ShadowsOfSense >>

In regards to switching up the format for the next big competition, its something we can look into. Some initial points of concern:

• Keeping many of our entrants - lets say 100 people - becomes a big strain on us as mods to run the competition. That's what, 10 polls each round to keep them clean looking? 5 polls if you don't mind sifting through 20 entries of stuff per poll? Do we run polls simultaneously or one after another? Then we also have to make sure we're keeping track of whatever scoring method we're using - and that that scoring method is fair - across all the rounds.
• Another issue - yes, less people are casually checking in per round, some of which is likely down to lack of exposure due to upcoming expansion, but I don't know that people would be interested in checking multiple polls per round, with many different entrants. It's just so much work for the casual viewer. Compared to now, where there's just a few entries and they can digest them easily.
• Finally, since we'd obviously keep our scoring method open and be revealing the number of votes after each round for transparency, people would be able to see who's leading. Many people might just drop out after seeing they didn't get that many points and don't think its worth it. We'd end up with weird, uneven numbers of competitors, and due to the low retention of multiple polls I can't help but feel that a few people would be obviously in the lead the whole way through.

As I said, totally willing to consider switching it up, but those are just my initial hesitancies with that specific idea.

I had to go with my top 4, myself; although, given the division between the two polls, does that mean I'll end up voting for my top 6 in the second poll? (Considering who's going to be showing up in the second poll, that's probably a yes)

The Second Poll is now up! Apologies for the slight delay. The votes for this poll will remain hidden until the second poll has concluded.

Quote from nobravery >>

Quote from ShadowsOfSense >>

The Second Poll is now up! Apologies for the slight delay. The votes for this poll will remain hidden until the second poll has concluded.

 We definitely shouldn't have these competitions run in spoiler seasons. It makes you mods busy and there will be less voters.