**VideoGameSage NES Weekly Contest Leaderboard & Rules 2021**

[BeaIank | 1,618]

6 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

8 participants = 3 rounds

16 participants = 4 rounds

Yeah, more players takes more time on that basis alone.  And then if you get into numbers between the two, there's definitely more work.  So yeah man, the time and energy thing 100% factors in.

Not only that, but you have to pick the games for the tournament based on the players that made it so that the selection doesn't look biased towards a specific player.
And come up with challenging rules for those games you picked.
Then try to throw a curve ball to surprise those that made it to grand finals with a special extra game. Sometimes, like last year, the players throw a curve ball at your curve ball.
I picked Circus Charlie to surprise them. Alas, Bert was a specialist in Circus Charlie...
 

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

1 hour ago, BeaIank said:

I picked Circus Charlie to surprise them. Alas, Bert was a specialist in Circus Charlie...

And I still managed to beat him . Albeit, I had to do a code exploration to figure out how the bonuses worked. 

[docile tapeworm | 4,198]

1 hour ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

And I still managed to beat him . Albeit, I had to do a code exploration to figure out how the bonuses worked. 

how do you sleep at night?

[JamesRobot | 5,798]

33 minutes ago, docile tapeworm said:

how do you sleep at night?

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

19 hours ago, Richardhead said:

@BeaIankand @guillavoie

I think it’s time to hand over the contest reigns to @Dr. Morbis

Dude knows how it should be done.

Probably has a team all ready to go.

Well, I would do a seeded tournament, so that the standings after playing for eight straight months actually mattered.  Then I would match (for example) #1 vs #8, #2 vs #7, #3 vs #6 and #4 vs #5.  I'd announce the game and rules, then the participant's job would be to beat the score of the one man he was pitted against.  The four winners would advance and rinse and repeat till you have two guys in the finals duking it out against each other.  I'd also do my best to avoid selecting shmups because it seems they are so specialized that everyone on earth is either really good at them or really bad at them, with absolutely no inbetween, so even choosing a shooter one time is going to knock a great NES gamer out of the competition based on game selection alone, whereas every other genre I can think of on the NES has a more natural bell curve for individual skill.

But this is entirely moot because I'm not in charge...

Edited September 2, 2021 by Dr. Morbis

[JamesRobot | 5,798]

20 hours ago, Richardhead said:

@BeaIankand @guillavoie

I think it’s time to hand over the contest reigns to @Dr. Morbis

Dude knows how it should be done.

Probably has a team all ready to go.

I know, right?  Bout time we got some rule changes up in here.

[Richardhead | 2,813]

10 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

I know, right?  Bout time we got some rule changes up in here.

The reality is that even if I do make the tournament. I will probably decline to play anyways. Work gets crazier than normal around that time. 

[NESfiend | 1,515]

1 hour ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Well, I would do a seeded tournament, so that the standings after playing for eight straight months actually mattered.  Then I would match (for example) #1 vs #8, #2 vs #7, #3 vs #6 and #4 vs #5.  

So here is the big problem with that which Ill task you to solve since youve obviously given it thought. A lot of the veterans who are the best players in the field are coasting to make the tourney. You could very well be the 1 or 2 seed and draw Bert round 1. You want to wind up in that scenario? I sure as shit dont. At least with current way, if you have the second or third best score round 1, you arent at risk to get axed. 

Whats the perfect answer? I dont have a goddamn clue. Like any set of rules or regulations, there probably isnt one. But this shit is fun however Bea and gui set it up. And they do a great job. It isnt something to lose sleep over. Real life is competitive all day. This is the part where there is no pressure, but you can enjoy it if you get time, a good game selection, and a decent result. 

Edit: Also, alien syndrome was the best selection ever. I still go back and play it through it once in a while. My little brother, who obviously isnt involved here, got the game also and is all about it. 

Edited September 2, 2021 by NESfiend

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

26 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

So here is the big problem with that which Ill task you to solve since youve obviously given it thought. A lot of the veterans who are the best players in the field are coasting to make the tourney. You could very well be the 1 or 2 seed and draw Bert round 1. You want to wind up in that scenario? I sure as shit dont. At least with current way, if you have the second or third best score round 1, you arent at risk to get axed. 

Whats the perfect answer? I dont have a goddamn clue. Like any set of rules or regulations, there probably isnt one. But this shit is fun however Bea amd gui set it up. And they do a great job. It isnt something to lose sleep over. Real life is competitive all day. This is the part where there is no pressure, but you can enjoy it if you get time, a good game selection, and a decent result. 

Who you meet doesn't matter, in that sense.  To win a tournament you have to beat the best, so if that means beating Bert, what does it matter if it's Round 1 or the final?  If I came in first and met Bert at #8, so be it, whoever got the better score would advance.

And I didn't come up with this "new idea;" it's the way they ran the Digital Press MAME league in the early 2000's (DP being the precursor to NA for us really long-winded fellows, which was then the precursor to VGS) the top X number of people after the season would advance to a play-off in a seeded format.  The reason I like it is because it rewards the higher seeds for performing and participating more throughout the long season, whereas the current tourney here appears to pay no particular attention to whether you came in first or tenth, so long as you make the cut.  As a result you have  coasters like Bert, who hasn't even played the last two weeks because he doesn't have to; he knows that all he has to do is be "sort of good" some of the time and he'll be in the tourney, no different than #1.

At the end of the day, I'm cool with whatever format they use, I'm just spit-balling here.  This is my first time participating in one of these contests in the NA/VGS era, and I'm just throwing out new ideas for you perennials to think about.  I know old-timers can be set in their ways, but sometimes a little new blood can make things better moving forward... just look at what has risen up from the ashes of the old NA...

Edited September 2, 2021 by Dr. Morbis

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

1 hour ago, NESfiend said:

A lot of the veterans who are the best players in the field are coasting to make the tourney.

And just to be perfectly clear, this quote above is exactly the issue I'm trying to address.  The best players are coasting through 32 games and then will actually try for two or three?  I mean, am I the only one who sees this as something that can be improved upon?

Anyway, I won't rock the boat anymore.  I'll just "coast" through the rest of the season, as is the prescribed way of things, and then give 'er my all in the last couple games of the tourney.

Whatever will be will be...

Edited September 2, 2021 by Dr. Morbis

[JamesRobot | 5,798]

3 hours ago, Richardhead said:

The reality is that even if I do make the tournament. I will probably decline to play anyways. Work gets crazier than normal around that time. 

That's nonbinary and special needs.

[PII | 1,884]

[BeaIank | 1,618]

I find it funny that the fact that the 1st place at the geral scoreboard will be deemed the VGS NES Weekly Contest champion is being completely ignored by the lot of you.
The tournament is a separated small plus to end the season. It crowns only the tournament winner, not the NES Weekly Contest champion.
Nor it affects the Genre champions for the year.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

10 hours ago, BeaIank said:

I find it funny that the fact that the 1st place at the geral scoreboard will be deemed the VGS NES Weekly Contest champion is being completely ignored by the lot of you.
The tournament is a separated small plus to end the season. It crowns only the tournament winner, not the NES Weekly Contest champion.
Nor it affects the Genre champions for the year.

Well, it's kind of like all the rest of American sports, where the regular season champion is entirely ignored, and whoever wins the handfull of post-season "play-off" games gets all the accolades and glory.  I actually mentioned this to @docile tapeworm a week or so ago when he was telling me I couldn't win while I was sitting at the top of the overall Leaderboard.  I personally consider winning the weekly scoreboard for all 32 games to be more representative of overall skill, but I feel like I'm literally the only person on this website who feels that way. In fact, the link someone posted of all the tabulated results for every tournament starting with the 2009 NA weekly contest, listed the person who won the post-season tourney each year as the "champion" and title-holder, not the person who was at the top of the weekly leaderboard at season's end.  That's a pretty clear illustration of just how entrenched this line of thinking is...

And @BeaIank, I have to ask: what does "Geral" mean?  I've never heard that word before, and I couldn't find anything when I looked it up on dictionary.com.  Is it short for "General" or something else that I'm totally missing?

Edited September 3, 2021 by Dr. Morbis

[BeaIank | 1,618]

Geral is the Portuguese word for General.
You can't expect me to not put some Brazilian sauce in this thing.

[BeaIank | 1,618]

Also, I am not from NA. Why the eff should I care about how NA sports work?
I am all about Formula 1 and there the racer with more points at the end of the season wins.
And no tournament happen, but people here seems to like this whole tournament thing to end the year, so I keep doing that shit.

[docile tapeworm | 4,198]

8 minutes ago, BeaIank said:

Also, I am not from NA. Why the eff should I care about how NA sports work?
I am all about Formula 1 and there the racer with more points at the end of the season wins.

@Dr. Morbis 

there it is. you mentioned soccer and bea mentions f1.

no one gives a shit about who wins the general season leaderboard. Cause MERICA!

in the regular season you can lose and still win. if you lose in the post season thats it, your done. tougher to win in the tournament so it gets the respect.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

4 minutes ago, docile tapeworm said:

@Dr. Morbis 

there it is. you mentioned soccer and bea mentions f1.

no one gives a shit about who wins the general season leaderboard. Cause MERICA!

in the regular season you can lose and still win. if you lose in the post season thats it, your done. tougher to win in the tournament so it gets the respect.

...And that's the shame of it all: the format and qualification for the final tourney are treated as an afterthought, but the result is considered the gold standard for the whole year.  If that's the way it's going to be, shouldn't more thought be put into the whole thing than just, "eh, we'll figure it out at the end of the season..."

[BeaIank | 1,618]

Nah, I would rather scrap it instead.
It is just a plus that can be discarded.

[docile tapeworm | 4,198]

2 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

...And that's the shame of it all: the format and qualification for the final tourney are treated as an afterthought, but the result is considered the gold standard for the whole year.  If that's the way it's going to be, shouldn't more thought be put into the whole thing than just, "eh, we'll figure it out at the end of the season..."

you said you would leave out shooters. your dead to me

1 minute ago, BeaIank said:

Nah, I would rather scrap it instead.
It is just a plus that can be discarded.

that would just make us look at genre champs with the respect. overall champ would still be a bum.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

1 minute ago, docile tapeworm said:

overall champ

That's got a nice ring to it!  Thanks for the wonderful title!!!! I'll give you due credit for the name whenever I reference the Geral Scorebaord winner that way... 

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

12 minutes ago, docile tapeworm said:

you said you would leave out shooters. your dead to me

Understandable, considering the fact that shooters are just about the only NES games you're competent in (Not competent enough to win the 2021 Genre Title, of course, but good for a few points here and there...)

Edited September 3, 2021 by Dr. Morbis

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

37 minutes ago, BeaIank said:

Nah, I would rather scrap it instead.
It is just a plus that can be discarded.

You know, I don't think that's such a bad idea.  Only downside is that someone who joins in, say, June, might still have a shot at making the tournament, but they'd pretty much be out of contention for the overall leaderboard, so it may end up discouraging participation from people who just discovered the site.  The tournament also gives people a reason to keep playing if they're out of contention for the top of the list, as they could still end up making the cut.

Okay, so no matter how it's done, people aren't gonna like it.  See, this is why I hate running shit

[Richardhead | 2,813]

3 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

You know, I don't think that's such a bad idea.  Only downside is that someone who joins in, say, June, might still have a shot at making the tournament, but they'd pretty much be out of contention for the overall leaderboard, so it may end up discouraging participation from people who just discovered the site.  The tournament also gives people a reason to keep playing if they're out of contention for the top of the list, as they could still end up making the cut.

Okay, so no matter how it's done, people aren't gonna like it.  See, this is why I hate running shit

If everything is free….. nobody wants what you’ve got 

[docile tapeworm | 4,198]

7 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Understandable, considering the fact that shooters are just about the only NES games you're competent in (Not competent enough to win the 2021 Genre Title, of course, but good for a few points here and there...)

shooters is the only genre that real players care about. speaking of this years shooter crown. it will be real embarrasing when i win it by only competing in 3 of the four games.

but ill agree that im terrible at platformers. games like smb3. and real weak in beat um ups too.