2020 HBLBC - Post-mortem

[Deadeye | 1,595]

Please share your feedback, positive or negative.  This will help us improve future competitions.  If you have ideas to change it up, that too. 

For those that went to the Final Season, what did you think about it?  

[JamesRobot | 5,786]

I enjoyed the overall contest length and number of games but felt the time for each game was too long.  A few times it felt like no scores were posted until the end.  I think a week to post scores is about right.  Gives it a sense of urgency.  Plus the schedule is announced in advance, so you can have pretty much as much time you need to practice a given title.

I enjoyed the format of the final season but felt a little cheated on who can finish the game first for immunity.  I like the idea of two different games and different objectives though.  Can't say I have a better idea for the format.

[Red | 435]

I liked the relaxed pace of having only one game a month and two weeks to play it.  It made it easier to keep up for the a full year.  Although, I did have a tendency to wait until the end anyway, so I can see JamesRobot's point about the two weeks not being necessary.  As long as it's still only one game a month, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference.

Although it didn't matter in the end, I liked how winning earlier games gave a small boost for the final game.  I think you have to be extra careful choosing a final game when you do that though.  NNNNNN was a great choice since it's the kind of game where you have to just keep going until you can't survive anymore and it's difficult enough that someone being able to play it endlessly is unlikely.  I think the final round would be less exciting if a game where a maximum possible score is used (like Scramble).  A game like that could make it impossible for anyone who doesn't have a score/time boost to win.

Like JamesRobot, I wasn't crazy about the immunity game.  If you want to keep it, maybe there should be a downside to it?  You could make it so that if you beat the immunity game, you won't be eligible for the time/score boost.

[ecmyers | 97]

I enjoyed the whole contest though I'm in favor of having the whole month to post a score. It's probably just me, but there are times when I am just too busy in the  designated two-week period to put much time into playing and practicing the game, and having more time increases the chances that I'll be able to participate. I was so busy once I misjudged the dates and totally missed a whole game! Maybe the scores you can get for each game could decrease as the month goes on. Full points at the two-week deadline, one less point for three weeks, another point lost for the end of the month. Too complicated?

While I liked the idea of the immunity game, it seems like it is always going to go to the person who can stay up the night the challenge goes live (and of course has the time to practice the game). Maybe there could be bonus challenges that everyone was eligible for by a certain date, or something like that? Or yeah, the immunity could come with a cost, like Red suggested.

But really, overall I thought this was well thought out and well managed, and I fully appreciate that it is run a certain way for a reason, so don't change anything on my count! Life gets in the way of gaming sometimes. (Often.)