Kong Off Wildcard Qualifiers Discussion Thread

[danman123456]

Haha - Well said. I'm not pissy at all just a concerned citizen. It will be a blast at the KO3 im sure. Game on!!!

[LMDAVE]

Yeah, it's always hard to determine someone's tone over the internet.

Richie and Jourden were not prepared for the amount of wild card players that showed up.  No fault of there's, since the wild card division at KO1 was a last second add on and there were only about 5 players.  In Denver, there were some pissed off people that traveled pretty far and spent a good amount of money to play all weekend.  When the last minute cutoff round was announced, there was some backlash for sure.  Dan and I talked pretty extensively about it on Saturday at KO2.

When you go back to KO1, the inception of the whole Kong Off, the wild card was nothing more than a spare machine with the attitude of "Step Right up folks and see if you can put up a score with these guys." Well, a few did come along and surprise with some decent scores.

At KO2 they sort of expected it to be the same way but it ended up getting overloaded majorly. This is one of the reasons I pointed out about it being cooler to be in the top10/12 for KO1 than KO2, KO2 was really diluted for the top12. The only "special treatment" we got, other than the dedicated machine, was getting a personal introduction at the very beginning. Afterwards, those who qualified to be in the kong off were on stage with all of the players that paid $30 to be in the kong off.

Wildcard has taken a life of it's own for KO3. Not sure if Jourdan/Richie are up to speed yet on what's going on with that yet other than Chris' article the other day. But, the kong off is Richie's baby, not sure if he's planning on changing the concept of it in the future or not. Sure would like to hear their opinions on it since it's their show, but haven't heard much yet. I hear something may be coming soon though.

[marinomitch13]

I won't lie, Dave, being a WC player, I feel pretty guilty feeling like we WC players are stealing the show from the main competitors -hence why my posts have been the way they are. I agree with John and Chris that the KOs are about having fun, and for me personally, I'd be content not even playing DK at all and just hanging out with all my DK friends. To be SUPER honest, I kinda think the WC machine scores shouldn't be counted as part of the competition at all and that the entire event should be solely about the top 12 players (or 20, or however many they wanna host). However, I'm assuming that most people don't feel as I do, so there's not much I can do about that. Either way, I'll have tons of fun.

[ChrisP]

I think I just like making long posts.

[JCHarrist]

Changes to the format have been posted at TG:

http://www.twingalaxies.com/article/2397/kong-off-3-wildcard-update/

[marinomitch13]

I think the changes were a pretty fair compromise. Thanks, John, Eric, and Chris.

[danman123456]

See I was with John on this and I liked the concept of if you come in Top 3 you are in. While a Top 8 overall score is "Fairer" I like the competition aspect with the Top 3 finishes. I guess it could be said its similar to the Kong-Off in its the best score you get over 2 days but I really liked the cut-throat aspect of Top 3 for that day is in!

John /Eric  I'm not busting on you here so please no offense

1. The overall #1 only getting Sunday. I liked what the concept was for as it was originally a perk for winning it all but they should have a chance to play on Saturday. That has now been "fixed"
2. Throwing out the lower score if you do better the next time and come in the Top 3 again. Later rounds should count more.

Not to throw any more logs on the fire but what about this as idea? Feel free tell me to Shuddup and mind my own biz too John/Eric its ok

First and 2nd place finishes in each WC Tournament are locks for the Saturday KO3 event. If the same 2 people win each tournament then its the next top 6 overall scores (Kinda like wildcard in football. The division winners make it and then its the top teams left).

This really works out well for both because it puts emphasis on coming in the Top 2. If 6 different people come in the Top 2 then it would be the remaining 2 highest scores from all three events make it. Odds are good that its going to probably work out the same either way but this does really make winning and 2nd place in each event more important and also prevents someone in "4th place" from the old setup with a lower score then someone else moving on. This "fixes" both issues. You win your in and then from whats left its the best score overall.

Again whatever you gentlemen do is all good with me! Thanks for everything sirs!

[JohnTheLawnMan]

The main issue we had with the "top 3 from each tournament" scenario was duplicate winners.  There was too much f'ing around swapping scores and moving players around after the fact.

It also seemed to me like the majority were down with top 8 overall, and that kinda sealed the deal.  When weighing the pros and cons of both, we felt the top 8 overall really addressed most of the issues with the original proposal.

The "top seed" was pretty much axed shortly after the discussion started.  Eric and I both had tunnel vision on that one.  After playing in the KO2, and experiencing the stress an anxiety of having to "make the cut" we thought it was a no brainer to give the top seed a free pass to round 3.  We never even thought about that player losing a day of playing.  Once that was brought up, we knew it had to go.

Funny thing is, we already killed the top seed scenario while everyone was still complaining about it. 

That's one of the disadvantages of being part of the KO3.  We couldn't just start announcing changes until we had everything ironed out.

There will be no more changes, though.  The update on TG is the final scenario, and I'm very happy with it.

Thanks to everyone for the input, and special thanks to Chris Psaros for writing 2 kick ass articles and helping with the final wild card scenario.

[hchien]

Are the qualifying rounds open to everyone?  I'm not asking for myself, but more for the bottom few spots of the Top 12, which we all agree could change at any moment.  If say the 12th ranked person gets excluded from the qualifiers, then gets knocked down to 13th place before Oct 25, he's basically left out in the cold.

Admittedly, the 13th ranked person probably would not have any problems getting past Round 1, but it seems a bit ironic that the 14-21st ranked people would get a free pass but not the 13th (in this situation).

I feel picking the Top 12 prior to picking the wildcards makes the most sense.  It solves all the above problems and I believe most competitions are done that way.

[JCHarrist]

Are the qualifying rounds open to everyone?  I'm not asking for myself, but more for the bottom few spots of the Top 12, which we all agree could change at any moment.  If say the 12th ranked person gets excluded from the qualifiers, then gets knocked down to 13th place before Oct 25, he's basically left out in the cold.

Admittedly, the 13th ranked person probably would not have any problems getting past Round 1, but it seems a bit ironic that the 14-21st ranked people would get a free pass but not the 13th (in this situation).

I feel picking the Top 12 prior to picking the wildcards makes the most sense.  It solves all the above problems and I believe most competitions are done that way.

Right now, Estel is #12. He would be eligible to play because his score is just under a million. Anyone higher up on the scoreboard wouldn't be as the rules stand now.

[ChrisP]

Another question that shouldn't be forgotten is whether everyone in the top 12 is even planning to go.

Steve said in his seminar last week that he's going, but is Billy? What about Shaun, Kyle, and Estel?

Also Jourdan told me that he's gonna have a D2K, a Junior, DK3, and a Pauline.

Therefore, my suggestion would be, if one of the Top 12 gets knocked out at the last minute, just make it an "emergency" Top 13, and if they don't get a cab or two to go with their current 20, just convert one of the other Nintendo cabs to DK.

After all, the only reason that it's 12 is (as I understand it) because they have 20 machines and want at least 8 wildcard machines as one of the measures to correct for the too-many-wildcards problem that happened last year (all this qualifier tourney stuff being the other measure). 20-8 = 12.

But there's no particular reason or tradition establishing that the main lineup has to be 12. The first year it was 11, and last year it was whoever could get a million by the deadline. The only reason it wasn't 13 last year is because Estel (who Richie was crediting with the "honorary million") couldn't make it.

[danman123456]

John - Nope its all good. Top 8 works and the swapping around scores was what was the sticky wicket there. For next year tho just consider the option that Top 3 are in and if there are duplicate winners its the remaining next highest scores. If the same 3 win its the next 6 highest scores. That covers both bases and I like the fact it puts emphasis on winning a round.

Thanks again and good luck everyone!
Dan

[JohnTheLawnMan]

Although I do like the top 3 idea better, both have their merit, and it seems the community likes the "overall 8" idea better.  We'll see how it goes.

One other thing that doesn't sit well with me, is if there are duplicate winners and we move down the list, someone who was not in the top 3 will "win", when they really didn't win.  So now, the more I think about it, the scales are tipping toward me liking the top eight scenario better.  There's no second guessing anyone who makes the cut.

[Bliss1083]

My audio issues haven't been resolved. Is their anyway you might be able to make a hand gesture to be announced the day off the wildcard rematch where you know it's being played live. I have a terrible echo I have tried to get rid of but it just repeats every 2 seconds. I've muted everything but nothing changes.

[f_symbols]

I would try using a different broadcasting software if possible.  OBS can be tricky with audio set-up, I know nothing of X-split.  I do know that adobe flash media live encoder is pretty straight forward, one can easily select between the desktop/webcam mic inputs.  The only time i've had issues with echo are if my OBS settings have "repeat captures" two sources both pulling audio (not the same time) or when i open my twitch page in a browser and forget to hit mute.

What type of computer, OS, and webcam?