The results of
season 8 in the Apolyton PBEM Tournament have been posted. Activity is low, but
Mongoose has scored a solo victory and takes the crown. Congratulations!
Also posted are the belated
season 7 results, which are quite uninteresting seeing as no games were completed then. In addition, by request (requested 10 months ago, but hey
), the
cumulative results for the entire tournament, seasons 1-8, have been posted. At the top of this list, by a quite convincing margin, is
Misotu! Those who were playing in 2000-01 will not be surprised.
Congratulations!
The list does showcase the weaknesses of the score system when used in this way - indeed, the season system was put in place mainly to avoid those weaknesses. Bonus points for beating winners end up being far too powerful, as witnessed by the fact that every player with more than 10 points except buster got them mainly by beating Misotu in a single game. While beating her is certainly a worthy accomplishment, the effects seem a bit exaggerated.
At the other end of the list, some of the most loyal and reliable players are penalised for playing many games. H0bbes, for example, has been extremely helpful by steadily picking up games that others had disappeared from, often inheriting less than stellar positions. It would probably be fairer if players did not lose points for losing games.
Furthermore, there is really no point(!) in having half points in the system; it is cleaner to simply increase all point values and use integers. Now that so few games are running that the seasons are essentially meaningless, only the cumulative score makes sense to keep. A new system such as
- 10 points for a solo victory
- 4 points for a team victory
- 2 points for each solo victory of someone you defeat
- 1 point for each team victory of someone you defeat
- 1 point for being submissive rather than eliminated
- 0 points for a loss
might be more appropriate.
But that is only relevant if the tournament is to continue.
I have come to the conclusion that it is time for me to retire from my position as administrator. There are several reasons for this, but foremost among them is time. I no longer have the spare time I had in the tournament's heyday, or the inclination to spend time on the tournament, and it is actually quite a while since I have had it. Accordingly, service has suffered, new signups have been waiting for too long to get games and I have not been actively trying to recruit new players. Thus, activity has dropped. Of course, there are far fewer players looking for new SMAC games in 2003 than there were in 2000 as well.
Still, a revival might be possible. What it would take is someone who is willing to spend some time and effort on it; advertise a bit, bump the signup thread if it disappears for too long (or get a moderator to top it), create some new and exciting scenarios to attract players, etc. It may be time to abandon the somewhat restrictive tournament parameters of 4-player, non-accelerated standard map games (although I have always been offering custom games on demand) - they were put in place mostly to simplify the signup process.
Things can be done. But in any case, I know that I am not the right person to do them anymore. Indeed, I should have resigned earlier. I apologise to all those who have received poor service over the last year +, though few of them are likely to read this.
Of course, it may be that the tournament's time is simply up. People who want a game have certainly been able to get one, and there has been a movement towards more special scenarios (waterworld etc.) lately. There is not necessarily any need for keeping score. But if the community wants it, or someone has fresh ideas and energy, please get in touch. Maybe something can be worked out.
I will of course keep up with my moderator/password keeper duties in the few tournament games that are still running. However, until further notice, no new signups will be accepted, and no further scores will be recorded. It has been fun while it lasted, and I hope you have enjoyed the tournament games as well.
Please use this thread for any and all tournament discussions, including congratulations for the new champions!
- there were and still are far better players than me here and elsewhere - you know who you all are 
