Please post any questions you have about the KO3 format here

[hchien]

I'll start:

Do Friday scores count?  If Friday scores do count, how are machines going to be shared among the 20 players (top 12 + online ?

On Friday, how many machines will be available for the online 8/top 12 and how many machines will be used for the wildcard tournament?

How many WC players will advance from Friday's tournament?

Is the Oct 25 deadline a played, submitted or verified deadline?

I'll batch send the questions to the KO3 organizers and post responses here.

[ChrisP]

The Online Cool Guys.   

I like it!

And good luck getting responses to these questions, Hank! Lord knows I've tried...

[Scoundrl]

Hank has the inside track. Seriously, lets get all these questions out there so we can move on to the fun part of this competition.

My question is.. will the hot chick on the skeeball tables be back!

[up2ng]

Good questions Hank,

Here are a few off the top of my head:

Is there any way to avoid having machine selection in the middle of Friday's Tournament?

If yes OR if no -- Last quarter drops on Friday need to be specified.

Will there be any restarts allowed for Wildcard players?  (I recommend 10 minutes)  On Friday?  On Saturday?  On Sunday?  Allowing restarts will make for a better player experience AND for better scores -- giving the Wildcard players a more realistic chance of competing against the Top 12 for the prize money.

Will there be anything (officially or unofficially) going on on Wednesday or Thursday (or Monday)?  Will all DK machines be on the floor and ready to play ahead of time?  What about other games?

Is there any chance of expanding the current schedule?  How about first quarter - last quarter ranges of:  Friday 10:00AM - 8:00PM (followed by machine selection), Saturday 10:00AM - 10:00PM, Sunday 10:00AM - 6:00PM (followed by awards ceremony) ?

I'm sure we can come up with a few more questions . . .

[hchien]

Shawn, I can answer this one.  ANYONE off the street can compete in the wildcard tournament.  That's the whole idea.  So theoretically there could be a 100 people showing up that want to play.  However I think the $20 entry fee is enough incentive to dissuade the very casual player from wanting to enter.  This was the whole incentive of qualifying online (so you wouldn't have to share a machine with a horde of people).  However, it will not be as bad as you think.  By most people's estimates, there will be about 30 wildcard players.  If you subtract the 8 online qualifiers who won't be playing on Friday, that makes ~22 people sharing 10 machines (I will confirm that there will be 10 available).  That means you will be sharing the machine with about 1.2 people.  I'm going to guess that the average game on Friday will last about 1/2 hour.  There will be lots of 200-300K players and their average game is probably under 200K.  So that means you'll only need to wait about 36 minutes for a game.  That's not bad in my opinion.  Enough people will be eliminated on Friday that you will probably only share the machine with 1 person on Saturday (again I have to confirm how many people advance from Friday).  And on Sunday you get a dedicated machine.

EDIT: If you have any questions, please post them by tonight.  I'm going to compile our collective questions/suggestions and send it out tonight/tomorrow morning.

[hchien]

Will there be anything (officially or unofficially) going on on Wednesday or Thursday (or Monday)?  Will all DK machines be on the floor and ready to play ahead of time?  What about other games?

Reading through this, I realized I can at least partially answer this:

Unofficial events that I'm aware of (please add if you know of anything else):

-Denver mint (George, myself, Youmee, Jeremy, Katie) Thurs afternoon
-Burrito Off 2 (Mitch v Hank)
-Swear Off (George, Robbie, Jourdan) Who's refereeing again?
-Couples off (signed up I think are: Wiltshires, Dan/Kayla, me/Youmee, Vince/Alexandra)

I don't think times have been announced for the last 3 events.

I don't think machine preparation will be as big an issue this year vs. last.  Last year they had to get 16 machines ready from scratch.  This year it will only be an additional 6 or 7 machines (one was given to Jeff Willms).  Also I encourage anyone (if you haven't done so already) watch the 1up staff getting the machines ready.  It's a lot more work than you think!  Richie nearly killed himself for KO1 getting 11/12 machines ready by himself.

As for other games, I believe the only other games that will be available are for WR attempts: http://www.twingalaxies.com/article/2431/14-separate-event-tournaments-announced-for-kong-off-3/.  There is not much space for anything else.

[homerwannabee]

Any swear off without Alan Staal is not a real swear off!

[lakeman421]

Allen is going to ref the Swear-Off.  If he competed it would be completely unfair.

[marinomitch13]

Arm-wrestling off (Mitch vs Ken, Ken vs others (?), Mitch vs others (?), Hank (both arms) vs Vince (one arm ))

[hchien]

Hank (both arms) vs Vince (one arm ))

LOL.  I think I'll need both legs.

[hchien]

General questions

On Friday, how many machines will be available for the online 8/top 12 and how many machines will be used for the wildcard tournament?

There will be 10 machines dedicated to the WC tournament both Friday and Saturday

Is the Oct 25 deadline a played, submitted or verified deadline?

All scores must be SUBMITTED by 10/25/13 at 11:59 pm

In what order do the players get to select their machines on Friday?

It is based upon the top 12. No 1 picks first, No.2 picks second, etc.

Will all DK machines be on the floor and ready to play ahead of time?

It is our plan to have all DK machines in the bar and playable by 11/14

Is there any way to avoid having machine selection in the middle of Friday's Tournament?

No. It can't be changed. There will be 10 machines dedicated to the WC throughout the day except from 5-6 when all game play will cease for selection. The WC competitors need to keep in mind they still have 12 hours for game play on Friday. A one hour break will not significantly interrupt the amount of time available. It's one hour no matter how you look at it.

Can you post "last quarter drops" for Friday rather than time intervals?  For reference, I believe the longest games on Friday will be 2 hours, but 1.5 hours is pretty safe.

Last quarter on Friday is at 10:30 pm. It now reflects that on the website. Is the next question, when is the last quarter drop before the break to select machines? I feel that coming..

Is there any chance of expanding the current schedule?  How about first quarter - last quarter ranges of:  Friday 10:00AM - 8:00PM (followed by machine selection), Saturday 10:00AM - 10:00PM, Sunday 10:00AM - 6:00PM (followed by awards ceremony) ?

The schedule is set based upon the time the location is available. It can not be extended.

Wildcard related questions
Apparently all WC related questions should be directed toward John, Eric and Chris.  So I/we ask John, Eric and Chris:

How many WC players will advance from Friday's tournament?

Instead of having players assigned to a machine, can you create a queue of players for all machines and the first in line gets the next available machine?  If we switch to this method, when will players be added back into the queue (when their current game finishes or keep the order of players the same throughout)?

Can WC players restart games this year?  If so, what are the 'restart' rules?

[up2ng]

No. It can't won't be changed.

 

It's one hour no matter how you look at it.[/i]

Wildcard players should be aware that under this schedule play will be halted for FAR more than 1 hour.  Available play will be MUCH less than 12 hours.  It is what it is I guess and that's a shame since easy solutions are available.  As long as all Friday players are aware of this issue ahead of time, it should at least negatively impact all players "equally" (sort of).

Can you post "last quarter drops" for Friday rather than time intervals?  For reference, I believe the longest games on Friday will be 2 hours, but 1.5 hours is pretty safe.

Last quarter on Friday is at 10:30 pm. It now reflects that on the website. Is the next question, when is the last quarter drop before the break to select machines? I feel that coming..

This is highly amusing.  (Why isn't there an emoticon for the head and hand motion where something "flies right over" someone's head . . .)



It's great to get some answers and clarifications to some of those other questions though.  Thanks Hank.  Good stuff.

[marky_d]

(Why isn't there an emoticon for the head and hand motion where something "flies right over" someone's head . . .)

   
 

[mikegmi2]

What constitutes "submitted"? 

Can we play a game on Oct. 25, burn it to DVD, put it in the mail the next day postmarked Oct. 26?  Or does it have to be postmarked by Oct. 25, no later?  Or by submitted, do they mean it has to have been shipped and in the hands of Stephen Boyer by Oct 25 to qualify as submitted?

Also, I don't know how anyone else would feel, but would the community like or dislike moving the deadline date for qualifying for top 12 to an earlier date...for future Kong Offs? 

[ChrisP]

Even if I am not 100% happy with the answers, I am so fkng thrilled to have answers!

While I share your "uh oh" approach to things Dean, I think Friday will be okay.

As for the WC questions, I assume that I was identified as an info source because I wrote the report on the wildcard division format, but I have no "power" per se in how things actually play out.

How many WC players will advance from Friday's tournament?

It's still eight! Those 8 advance to Saturday and meld with the 8 online qualifiers for a total of 16 Saturday wildcard players. Even though there are 10 WC machines, 8 is still the number. I would say it's too late to change that.

The real question is how many of those 16 advance to Sunday and get their own machines. The new Kong Off site says 10, which would make sense, since there are now 10 WC machines. So I will go to KO3 assuming that 10 wildcards get a dedicated machine Sunday. This is something to confirm with Eric/John.

Instead of having players assigned to a machine, can you create a queue of players for all machines and the first in line gets the next available machine?  If we switch to this method, when will players be added back into the queue (when their current game finishes or keep the order of players the same throughout)?

As I understand it, the wildcard division is totally under the control of Eric and John, meaning that they, and not the Kong Off organizers, have final say in the logistics of machine-sharing. This also means that they would have the responsibility of assigning referee(s) to the task. The queue system is better in terms of tourney integrity, but also more labor-intensive.

Can WC players restart games this year?  If so, what are the 'restart' rules?

I like the idea of a restart period for Friday and Saturday, under one condition: that it not be a hassle, or referee-intensive. To make that happen, what we would is a large-display timer on top of the machine, visible to everyone present, that the player himself starts when he steps up to the machine. We wouldn't need 10 timers (rarely/never would all 10 machines be in a restart window), but we would need enough to go around. 5 maybe? Timers would make the restart period self-policing, and you wouldn't need a human writing down start times and telling everyone when their time is up. As for the window, I'd say it should be no less than 5 minutes but certainly no more than 15. And if there's no restart period, I see that as fair as well, since perhaps that's something that should be left to the top 12 as a perk.  We'll see what John and Eric think of this.