ROLL CALL

[Rattler]

Hi, Folks!

The last TacOps tourneys have (I think) been a success as far as interest and participation is concerned, now I have started to develop the background for the upcoming TacOps Tourney (TT) 2003.

Here is what I am planning to do, and why, comments appreciated (this is all still very open for discussion and changes, let me know what you think, either over the list or privately to <tourney2003@eventfoto.com>):

- As we are now in v4 with netplay as one of the features, and as I have always seen the PBM tourneys as a source for learning for all the community and as a means to broaden the base of potential players by encouraging newbies to participate I intend this time not to run a dedicated PBM tourney but one that tests the overall capabilities of players and could be truly called a TacOps Tourney (w/o the PBM bit, making full use of what v4 offers.

- This said, I want to run a v4 tourney in two stages: Stage 1, an elimination round with a number of short and heavily unbalanced scenarios (20-30 game minutes) with a two-legs approach (each player plays each side once) and a point system to evaluate performance ( a bit like in 1999, for details how we ran it that year see http://battlefront.com/resources/tacops/HQ/text/tournament/mattsgp.html, a certain precentage of players with the highest point rating then go to the next stage. This stage 1 will be played in either two-players netgame or by multiplayers netgame (2 players + host) mode. The advantage of this approach is a) that tourney time is reduced and that we can have live observers that could take part in the learning and fun, finally c) that this might help to draw a bigger crowd of up-to-now-lurkers to have a go at netgaming...

- The qualified players that enter stage 2 will then hash through some (balanced) PBM scenarios (60 min+) to evaluate two finalists (spectators will have to resort to game replay) who will then play the final game in a multiplayer environment with a referee as host and (hopefully) with spectators.

- Scenarios for the elimination round (stage 1) will test basic player capabilities such as coordination between differnet force types (inf, vehicles, helos, arty), timely execution of plans, defense on the move, extraction of friendly units in hostile environment, engineering exercises, etc.)

- Scenarios for Stage 2 will evaluate complex player capabilities such as the combination of all stage 1 scenario challenges <g>

Now, to allow me to plan with some background I need to have a rough idea how many participants I have to plan for, so here a (yet non-commiting)

ROLL CALL:

EVERYBODY BASICALLY INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING IN THIS TOURNEY PLEASE SPEAK UP!

TIA

Rattler