Official***** Kong Off 4 (July 30,31,Aug 1, 2)

[Xermon54]

Thanks Jeremate! 

[homerwannabee]

The biggest problem with the wait it out approach is you lose vital bonus points doing so.  You wait to long, and it's harder to come back from.

[WCopeland]

One bottom hammer and you earn them all back, not a problem.

[homerwannabee]

One bottom hammer and you earn them all back, not a problem.

That is if you do it once, but the game is 116 boards.  Being on board 75 instead of 76 is not a huge advantage.

[homerwannabee]

Also it's about pace.  The person ahead if he is decent at math can figure out the pace of the person behind, and adjust their pace accordingly.
The system has it's flaws.

[WCopeland]

The player who is behind will always be at an advantage. If you're jumping barrels at the top, the only way you lose points is if Kong throws a wild, which is only going to be 100 points lost for every 1600 points accrued on average while at the top girder. A typical bottom hammer should earn 2500+ points. Let's say on average Kong throws two wilds while you camp the top girder. One bottom hammer will thus recover the points lost for 12 barrel boards, or 4 levels.

[xelnia]

Sunday will be streamed as per Richie.

Any word on a Twitch channel, time, etc.?

[ChrisP]

Seeing as how the contest hasn't started yet and everyone is at 0, I don't understand what the conundrum is here.

Just ban stalling tactics from the outset, and make sure everybody knows the rule. Problem solved. 

I mean yes, this should have been discussed with the players and worked out long ago (along with many other things), but it's not too late to work it out amongst yourselves.

[KIG666]

So in other words, KO4 is a side-show until Sunday, and the majority of what people will see on the stream will be a bunch of folks running boards. The big games actually worthy of world-class play will not be broadcasted.

What an disappointment 

The Kong Off should be about the biggest score so they should stream the first days as well.

If some freakin pinball tournament is more worthy to stream for them you know that the Kong Off is definitely on the wrong location this time 

I'm not interested to watch lame running boards. You can watch this from any average DK player as well no need to include such lame stuff in a Kong Off imo. Oh well each to their own I guess...

[homerwannabee]

The player who is behind will always be at an advantage. If you're jumping barrels at the top, the only way you lose points is if Kong throws a wild, which is only going to be 100 points lost for every 1600 points accrued on average while at the top girder. A typical bottom hammer should earn 2500+ points. Let's say on average Kong throws two wilds while you camp the top girder. One bottom hammer will thus recover the points lost for 12 barrel boards, or 4 levels.

Ok, my bad, I was thinking standing on the ladder at the top for some strange reason.  But yeah, jumping the very top level barrels would work.
I guess the only problem with that is your opponent can do the exact same thing, so maybe it's not an advantage doing something like that.

[mikegmi2]

A few have discussed a gentlemen's agreement to not do any stalling.  Hopefully this will hold true next weekend.

[homerwannabee]

A few have discussed a gentlemen's agreement to not do any stalling.  Hopefully this will hold true next weekend.

Gentlemen's agreement! I like those.

[mikegmi2]

If there's an open power outlet I can plug my phone into, I may try to stream Fri/Sat via Periscope.

You can follow my Twitter Mike Groesbeck @mikegmi2 for a notification when the stream goes live.

Odds of this working are probably very slim due to not being able to get a decent cell signal inside the convention center.  Just trying to figure out a way to provide some coverage since it doesn't sound like anything will be streamed Fri/Sat...

[konghusker]

What am I missing here in regards to guys wanting to run the timers down? Doesn't high score win your match on Sunday?

[mikegmi2]

What am I missing here in regards to guys wanting to run the timers down? Doesn't high score win your match on Sunday?

The argument is that a player that takes their time, and progresses slowly and carefully, will have an advantage over someone that finishes boards quickly...or point presses.

The faster you run through pie factory and rivet boards, the higher your chances of a 'screwing' happening (amongst other things such as making a mental error).  So the player that sits back, jumps barrels until the timer runs out on all barrel boards, and finds other ways to safely stall out their game for as long as possible and at the same time not lose too many points, could monitor his opponent and play out his game accordingly.  Given equal skill levels and play styles of 2 players, the stalling strategy could (would) be the winning strategy if you factor in the evil randomness of DK.