Ice Breakers Tournament Feedback Survey

Hey everyone!

It’s been a long ride into the chilly stage of the Ice Breakers 3 vs 3 Tournament. The stage may be breaking away (for now!), but we invite you to participate in our feedback survey so that we can continue to build tournaments suited for players of all skill levels. Please congratulate your champions - Stardust, Ziggy & V.

All users who successfully complete the tournament survey will also be given an Orichalcon Coupon shortly after the survey closes. The survey will close on March 14th, 2021 at 11:59PM PST.

Short Tournament Survey:
https://forms.gle/nun6xs4v7qoCu5nw9
If you would like for your feedback to be anonymous, please enter "N/A" as your IGN (In-Game Name).

Continuing tradition, you can find and watch past tournament matches in the archive.
Thread Link: http://forums.playredfox.com/index.php?threads/tournament-archive.49542/

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General Thoughts:
It was back to the drawing board after the previous Scroll Masters Tournament. We wanted to take the tournament on a different approach so that even the casual & busy players can participate too! After some thorough planning, a double elimination tournament held on the weekend with the option of bringing in a substitute for good measure was born. To help ensure that casual players would be a little more motivated into giving the tournament a try, a more standard lineup of prizes was offered.

Double Elimination format is something new that we wanted to explore. This allows teams for a chance at redemption so that they can progress further into the tournament. When combined with weekly matches, this allows teams ample time to strategize, practice and sharpen their skills up. As the tournament progressed, it allowed for us to get an idea of what time your team was available at and continue to schedule your team at around the same time (except if your team moved to Losers’ Bracket). However, there is no such thing as a perfect tournament and has it’s fair share of issues, described in the below section.

Tournament Issues:

• Despite our moderators enforcing anonymity (assigning teams a designed team name instead), some players still chose to reveal their match or opponent details to the general public. This resulted in targeted attacks against certain individuals and/or teams.
• Participants often referred to specific moderators as their actual names and spoke to moderators without respect. Our primary role is to ensure that the tournament is safe and enjoyable for all. As a result, there will be absolutely zero favoritism and it should be made clear that there will also be no biased opinions against any participant.
• Poor sportsmanship towards fellow competitors, which often led to arguments.
• There were adjustments made to the tournament ban list & rulings, which caused confusion amongst participants.
• Some teams were unprepared, which resulted in long delays before when the match actually started. A new ruling was placed later on to remedy this issue.
• Tournament matches were shared or streamed to other players, using software such as Parsec.
• As we could not determine the usefulness of team substitutes in this tournament, they were not eligible for any set packages should their team climb to victory.

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Discord Integration:

• We wanted to make the experience simpler and made sure that teams got the support they deserve, so Discord integration was upgraded so that all participants would be in a dedicated Discord server together, instead of our beloved Rumble bot hoping to slide in your DMs hoping to take you on a night out in NHAA..
• A unique invitation link was given to each team, with limited uses for each invite. This process helped ensure us that invites were going to the right individuals, but we did find that some players shared the link to outsiders. Those outsiders were immediately removed from the server.

Challonge Integration:

• Challonge was used in this tournament so that the public can view the current status of the tournament step by step.
• The integration eliminated doubts that matches will be "rigged" in any way, shape or form as the match pairing will be done automatically by Challonge's system.

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What Happened:

• Early in the tournament, there were a number of targeted DDOS instances or inappropriate comments against an individual or team. Action was taken against these users but the damage was already done and some users found themselves targeted for harassment or DDOS attacks.
• If a team hit another team before or were accidentally hit by the opposing team, the following happened:
  • First Offense: Not count that specific round and that team will be warned.
    
  • Subsequent Offenses: The team that was hit immediately gets 1 point and the round will not be counted.
• Early on in the tournament, the match started as soon as the round began as the terrain of the maps allowed moderators to jump off the map without interrupting the battle. Since some participants expressed anger anyways, the ruling was later on changed so that the match will begin when moderators have died and to be stated with a cue such as "Begin".
• Both teams were given 15 minutes to join their respective match room unless the following occurred:
  • The opponent team has shown up to the room, therefore the 10 minute timer will start from when they walked into the room.
  • If teams joined the room early (because the room was made a few minutes early), the timer would start from the designated match time.
• A rare occurrence where both teams camped on opposite sides of the stage, waiting for ExoCore. This type of tactic was not allowed and the round was not counted.

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Tournament Scheduling:

• Our team was well aware of the current situation with COVID-19, which may result in busier lifestyles for a majority of players. As a result, we decided to host the tournament matches on the weekend where players are more likely to make it to their match.
• Since teams were afraid that they could not fight because their Team Captain was not present, we later on decided that Team Captains can be subbed out should there be a legitimate reasoning for doing so.

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Issues with Tournament Ambassador (TA) & Tournament Moderators (TM):
As usual, the role of the Tournament Moderators are always crucial in our tournaments. A majority of the matches were recorded for record keeping purposes,

• Some participants felt like there were favoritism to specific teams. To clarify again, there will be no conflict of interest when judging and handling official tournaments and events.
  
• Participants thought the moderators' decisions (such as lag verdicts) were incorrect. Once again, lag will be judged primarily on the moderator's point of view.

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DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) Issues:
DDOS attacks are common in the world of gaming and Rumble Fighter is no exception. We take DDoS threats very seriously, especially during the time of a tournament. Even threats or jokes will result in a temporary suspension from the game.

To clarify, the use of a VPN does not stop a DDOS attack but may prevent your home connection from being pinned down, especially during these times where you will require your internet connection to access school related activates. As such, a VPN suggestions thread was made for users who are beginners at using a VPN.
Thread Link: https://forums.playredfox.com/index.php?threads/vpn-suggestions-for-rumble-fighter.49541/

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Substitution & Re-entry:

• Substitutes were optional for each team and some teams felt cheated when it was stated that substitutes will not be eligible for the set package prizes.
  • In response to the criticism, it was allowed for teams to discuss amongst themselves - for example if a team member wants to give up their Gladiator Set for the substitute player.
• Re-entry was granted if for certain circumstances such as their opponent that a team lost to was disqualified from the tournament. In other instances, some teams received "byes" to the next round.

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Lag Issues:

• If two users are lagging with one another, unless the defeat was due to game breaking lag ("Teleportation" or "God Mode"), the match will continue. Lag judgments and calls are determined primarily by the Tournament Moderators.
• Tournament participants will take full responsibility if they decide to type in chat or suicide while a tournament match is still going on without explicit permission or direction from the moderator(s)

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Conclusion:
You can’t always win. However, it’s important for you to speak through your skills, not through your words. Never stop keeping your fists burning with passion and the desire to win, for there will be more fiery battles to come. Until then, stay sharp and stay classy.

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Thank you,
Starberry