Arena ARENA GAMES: General Discussion (Season 3)

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

IIRC...

 

Magic or Mundane = SKJAM

Damage Incorporated = Bazza

High Aces = Enforcer84

[Pariah]

Lord Commissioner,

 

As Season III draws to a close, I wanted to make just a few comments and observations about some of the new rules and operating procedures in the six-and-a-half weeks we’ve all just been through.  These are just my opinions and may have nothing at all to do with reality.  Take them for what they’re worth.

 

First and foremost, I will admit that I was more than a little uncomfortable when it was announced that we would no longer be following the ‘one opponent each week’ model and would be facing someone new every day.  It seemed like it would be impossible to establish any kind of continuity or to analyze any opponent’s strategy and plan for it. Honestly, I thought it was a bad idea.

 

I will freely confess that I was wrong. Facing the same person every day in competition for a week can make even competitors who like each other a little crazy; when competitors with clashing personalities have to deal with each other for five days straight, acrimony can really build up.  Neither of those was an issue this season, as far as I could tell. The change of pace was really nice.  And it really helped to be able to say “Okay, I had a bad game today, but tomorrow I get another chance against someone else” every so often.

 

So, Lord Commissioner, I would vote for keeping the ‘new opponent each day’ format for future seasons.

 

Secondly, the Homework assignments treated me much better this season than the Trivia did in Seasons I and II.  I expect it was probably less work for you as well.  It’s a win-win!  So I would vote to keep the Homework as currently implemented for next season.

 

Third, I really like the ‘best of three’ format for the playoffs.  Much more dramatic, much more balanced.  It’s not perfect (see below), but I like it.

 

Fourth and lastly, while the different match themes (Youth Gone Wild, Ladies Night, Powerless Peril, etc.) did make for some interesting matches, I felt that they also took a little of the strategy out of the day-by-day gameplay.  This was exacerbated by some combinations of themes and arenas.  For example, Ladies Night in the Cargo Plane. This particular combination put my team in a bind on the day in question, because although I had five women on my team, none of them were non-fliers.  I can understand (and support) the desire to mix it up and increase the degree of difficulty on occasion, but in several cases, it felt like I couldn’t use the best player I had for a match because of the arena, or the theme, or both. Had I understood how the themes were going to be a daily thing, I would have drafted a little differently.

 

As a side note, the way some of the randomly-determined themes fell, it led to uncomfortable (at least for me) rematches. If each player is going to face each other player four times, it's less interesting if two of the four are the same theme—Powerless Peril, for example—and involve the same characters.

 

If you ask me—and admittedly, you didn’t—I would love to see no more than two special themes per week, with the other three days being standard matches. Furthermore, I would lobby for no more than one theme match per playoff round.  It’s the playoffs.  Let the managers put their best players in.

 

That’s all I had to say.  Thank you for herding this particular group of kittens in Season III.

[薔薇語]

Speaking of the changes, I know that at least one time and maybe two or three times I had the exact same character facing off against the exact same character. The nature of the randomness meant that it was only likely that I would face the same manager with the same adder (Ladies night / youth / powerless). So maybe there could be a Monday is X v Y and thus you can make sure to not have repeats of themes on Mondays so as to avoid that. Or as Pariah stated, having only one or two a week would keep the chances of that from happening much lower.

 

As to the ease of making strategies, I found it much harder. In season 1 and 2, I would actually consider who would be my opponent on each day and made adjustments to my team or points. This season I found it hard to track who had who on any given day and who they played earlier that week to know who I could play. So I just focused on the terrain alone and never actually looked at who I would face. I didn't even know which manager I faced any given day because I thought it was useless to even bother looking it up. That said, I am not saying that is a bad thing. It saved me thought since I could just put together a week lineup in about a minute.

 

Just my thoughts on the subject.

 

Foreign Orchid.

[Hermit]

To hear everyone's reactions so far, it would seem the majority believe this new system is fairer and more even...

 

naturally, I am against it. I don't know what it is, but I just feel more secure with a 50+ point lead over my rivals and...

I'm not convincing anyone am I? 

 

darn it

[Pariah]

Oh, there was one other aspect I meant to comment upon: I like that the daily announcement of each match included only the character names, and not the team or player names. Ideally, that's what each match should be about: the two (our four) characters in the arena, not whose characters they are or which team they play for. I found that having only the character names given helped me, at least subconsciously, to eliminate (or at least reduce) my own biases and vote strictly based on the character I thought would win.

 

So I'd vote for keeping that aspect going forward as well.

[Hermit]

But...but.... when I'm not pissing people off, I'm quite lovable...

[FrankL]

Oh, there was one other aspect I meant to comment upon: I like that the daily announcement of each match included only the character names, and not the team or player names. Ideally, that's what each match should be about: the two (our four) characters in the arena, not whose characters they are or which team they play for. I found that having only the character names given helped me, at least subconsciously, to eliminate (or at least reduce) my own biases and vote strictly based on the character I thought would win.

 

So I'd vote for keeping that aspect going forward as well.

The same. I found in the past that even when I tried to eliminate my biases, knowing it was X's team made me more likely to vote for or against the character. Even trying to ignore those biases didn't always work.

 

However, most matches didn't include if they were powerless peril or no equipment. I imagine that I voted inappropriately (not realizing that Punisher* wouldn't have his guns sorta thing).

 

*Selected as the example because he wasn't drafted.

[Psybolt]

I started the season with an uncertainty about the new format, but I ended up liking it pretty well. 

 

I would suggest doing something more to make the XPs even less important.  Moving the max total to 10 was a good step, but maybe it should be lowered even more. Those XPs are the thing that imbalances the contests the most. 

[薔薇語]

Indeed, the principle reason I was not bottom of the barrel was END. Without that, I would have likely been down with E84. 

As to lowering the day to day expenditure, I don't think that is important. Prior to the playoffs, the average day to day END expenditure was only 3.3. So most people were not out spending like a madman. And if you remove me from the averages (I was the sole madman), the average daily expenditure was only 2.9.

 

Foreign Orchid. 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

It's all over but the crying. Congratulations to Lady P. and Stay Focused!

 

 

 

That's a big win, fending off the threat of Psybolt's team, who went from second-worst to second-first. Umm, you know what I mean. To wrap things up, your regular season honors will be posted soon. 

[Hermit]

While I voted for Cap, part of me is rather pleased that Lady Pariah may have learned from our own encounter in season two. If you have points to spend and you're in the finals do not hesitate, do not hold back. If you can, proverbially nuke them from orbit, and and when they wake up from their coma after a thousand days of Recovery checks, go "Good game, good game"

 

 

PS: I should add, what I said of Lady Pariah applied to Psybolt... that is, to paraphrase, he's too good to give a fair chance to unless one absolutely had to

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

 

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the NGD Superdraft Arena Games Season 3 Regular Season Honors!

 
Alright, alright, settle down.
 
Here we go. Please give your love to the following warriors!
 
 
Solo Most Valuable Player
Wonder Woman.
(Diana had an incredible 6-0 solo record in the regular season. She faced and defeated Sif, Black Orchid, Superior Spider-Man, Carol Danvers, Big Barda, and Toph.)
 
Tag Team Most Valuable Partner
Green Lantern Hal Jordan.
(Hal proved he was the ultimate teammate as he went 3-0 with three different partners. He found victory with old friend Green Arrow and twice with Beta Ray Bill.)
 
The People's Champion
Captain Marvel Carol Danvers
(Carol won more votes this season than any other warrior. She went 4-2 in solo matches with no TT appearances.)
 
Versatility Award
Ben Grimm, The Thing
(Ben was everywhere with a near perfect record. He was 4-1 in solo matches, 1-0 in tag matches, and he even fought in a Powerless match, his only defeat. He's also the only warrior with a kill.)
 
Hard Luck Woman
Power Girl
(I was shocked, too. PG had four solo matches and lost every single one of them. She managed to snatch defeat from Cosmic Boy, Black Adam, Green Lantern (Hal), and Ant-Man. On the bright side, she did share victory in her only tag match with Supergirl.)
 

Let's hear it for 'em folks!
 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

So how did your warriors do? Solo records

 

 

 

Solo	Total			
Votes	Wins	Losses		
28	2	1		Ant-Man
9	1	0		Beta Ray Bill
37	2	2		Big Barda
39	3	2		Black Adam
21	2	1		Black Orchid
36	4	0		Black Panther
36	3	0		Blue Beetle (Jaime)
6	1	0		Booster Gold
19	0	3		Bronze Tiger
37	3	1		Cap America
74	4	2		Cap Marvel (Carol)
46	2	2		Cap. Marvel (Monica)
36	2	1		Captain Marvel (Billy)
13	0	3		Colleen Wing
51	2	3		Cosmic Boy
14	0	3		Crush
9	0	1		Cyborg
19	1	1		Dash
39	2	3		Dr. Light (Kimiyo)
21	1	2		Dust
34	3	0		Flash (Barry)
31	2	2		Gohan
36	2	1		Green Arrow
23	1	2		Green Lantern (Alan)
22	1	1		Green Lantern (Hal)
21	2	0		Jade
35	3	0		Karate Kid
8	0	1		Kenshiro
7	0	2		Kitana
17	1	1		Longshot
54	2	4		Magik
20	1	1		Magma
14	1	2		Magneto
45	3	1		Marvel Girl (Rachel)
41	2	2		Mary Marvel
10	1	0		Mister Miracle
15	1	1		Moon Knight
33	2	3		Ms. Marvel (Kamala)
32	3	2		Nightwing
7	0	1		Optimus Prime
38	0	4		Power Girl
11	0	2		Red Robin (Tim)
26	1	3		Red Sonja
13	0	3		Rockslide
16	1	1		Sandman
43	4	1		She-Hulk
19	1	1		Shrinking Violet
34	2	2		Sif
24	1	2		Spinnerette
40	1	2		Starfire
19	1	2		Storm
10	0	2		Super Commando Dhruva
57	3	1		Supergirl
20	1	2		Superior Spider-Man
62	4	1		The Thing
18	1	2		The Warlord
57	3	1		Thor
20	0	3		Thundra
29	1	3		Toph Beifong
25	2	1		Valkyrie
14	1	0		Winged Victory
69	6	0		Wonder Woman
27	1	2		Zorro

The only warrior without a solo match was Leonardo of the TMNT.

 

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Here are the Tag Team records

 

 

 

Tag	Total			
Votes	Wins	Losses		
10	2	0		Beta Ray Bill
3.5	1	0		Big Barda
4.5	1	0		Black Adam
3	0	1		Bronze Tiger
4	0	1		Cap. Marvel (Monica)
5	0	1		Captain Marvel (Billy)
4	0	1		Colleen Wing
6	1	1		Cyborg
7	0	2		Dash
2.5	0	1		Dr. Light (Kimiyo)
5	1	0		Dust
6.5	1	0		Green Arrow
16.5	3	0		Green Lantern (Hal)
3.5	0	1		Karate Kid
8.5	1	1		Kenshiro
2.5	0	1		Leonardo (TMNT)
3	0	1		Longshot
6.5	1	0		Magma
6	1	0		Magneto
8	0	2		Marvel Girl (Rachel)
2.5	0	1		Mary Marvel
3.5	1	0		Mister Miracle
2.5	0	1		Optimus Prime
6.5	1	0		Power Girl
5.5	1	1		Red Robin (Tim)
9	2	0		Rockslide
4.5	1	0		She-Hulk
4	0	1		Sif
3.5	0	1		Spinnerette
4.5	0	1		Starfire
9	2	0		Storm
11	1	1		Supergirl
2	0	1		Superior Spider-Man
4	1	0		The Thing
4	0	1		Thundra
6.5	1	0		Toph Beifong
4	0	1		Valkyrie

The following warriors had no tag matches.

 

Ant-Man

Black Orchid

Black Panther

Blue Beetle (Jaime)

Booster Gold

Cap America

Cap Marvel (Carol)

Cosmic Boy

Crush

Flash (Barry)

Gohan

Green Lantern (Alan)

Jade

Kitana

Magik

Moon Knight

Ms. Marvel (Kamala)

Nightwing

Red Sonja

Sandman

Shrinking Violet

Super Commando Dhruva

The Warlord

Thor

Winged Victory

Wonder Woman

Zorro

 

 

[Lady Pariah]

While I voted for Cap, part of me is rather pleased that Lady Pariah may have learned from our own encounter in season two. If you have points to spend and you're in the finals do not hesitate, do not hold back. If you can, proverbially nuke them from orbit, and and when they wake up from their coma after a thousand days of Recovery checks, go "Good game, good game"

 

 

PS: I should add, what I said of Lady Pariah applied to Psybolt... that is, to paraphrase, he's too good to give a fair chance to unless one absolutely had to

I definitely did learn from our finale last year. I was much more careful in my spending this season. While it didn't always go my way, it worked in the long run. I knew I didn't want to get to the finals and lose because I had no points to spend, like I did in our final match last season. To be so close to winning and lose like that sucked! Thanks for that! Kind of. Lol

[Pariah]

Solo Most Valuable Player

Wonder Woman.

(Diana had an incredible 6-0 solo record in the regular season. She faced and defeated Sif, Black Orchid, Superior Spider-Man, Carol Danvers, Big Barda, and Toph.)

 

Mother of Hades! Anyone who goes 6-0 against that lineup damn well should be MVP.

[薔薇語]

I just learned that Season 3 of "RWBY" just started up a week or so ago. I knew there was doubt some time ago with the death of the original creator but I am glad they decided to continue this show. I am posting this here because the second sequence in the season 3 opener is quite apropos to our Arena battles I feel. So please sit back and enjoy:

--Watching just the second I am showing you will NOT spoil the whole series for you if you have not watched it before. The second is from time-stamp 2:33 to 8:20. If you do watch the first two minutes it is not spoiler but also not quite relevant to the Arena. 

http://roosterteeth.com/episode/rwby-season-3-chapter-1

Enjoy. 

 

Soar. 

[Bazza]

Solo Most Valuable Player

 

Wonder Woman.

(Diana had an incredible 6-0 solo record in the regular season. She faced and defeated Sif, Black Orchid, Superior Spider-Man, Carol Danvers, Big Barda, and Toph.)

 

 

Mother of Hades! Anyone who goes 6-0 against that lineup damn well should be MVP.

 

Yeah but this:

 

The People's Champion

Captain Marvel Carol Danvers

(Carol won more votes this season than any other warrior. She went 4-2 in solo matches with no TT appearances.)

 

Wonder Woman had more total wins, and won against Carol Danvers, however Carol still had more votes than Wonder Woman.  

 

​You might say she is marvellous. 

[CaptnStrawberry]

Was running around yesterday, but congrats to Lady Pariah.  The playoffs were all nail-biters.

 

I'm impressed by Black Panther - it looks like he had an undefeated record second only to Wonder Woman, with about half the votes! 

 

The 3D6 system (as in Hero) seems to work - most results are close, very occasionally you'll have outlier rolls.

 

I kinda miss the character summaries we used to get with each match, but I know I complained to Commish at least once or twice about how they weren't completely accurate.

[薔薇語]

I'm impressed by Black Panther - it looks like he had an undefeated record second only to Wonder Woman, with about half the votes! 

 

 

Wow. I didn't notice that. I didn't even think to look at the results since it was all placed in alphabetical order and couldn't be messed with. But you are right that Black Panther did a great job. 

 

Taking out my champions alone I get:

 

Black Orchid - 21 - 2 - 1

Black Panther - 36 -4 - 0

Cyborg - 9 - 0 - 1

Dr. Light - 39 - 2 - 3

Flash - 34 - 3 - 0

Gohan - 31 - 2 - 2

Robin - 11 - 0 - 2

Spiderman - 20 - 1 - 2

 

This means that my most popular character (per match) was Flash with 11.3 votes per match. Least popular was Robin with only 5.5 votes per showing... Damn Red Robin got NO love...

 

The character I used the most in solo matches was Dr. Light. Although she didn't have the strongest showing she still has a softspot in my heart. Gohan, too. 

 

Thanks for the heads up Capt. 

 

Soar. 

 

Edit: 

 

Tag Team Results:

 

Black Orchid  - 0

Black Panther - 0

Cyborg - 6 - 1 - 1

Dr. Light - 2.5 - 0 - 1

Robin - 5.5 - 1 - 1

Spiderman - 2 - 0 - 1

 

SOAR. 

[Steve]

Based on the stats, I think it's time to release Power Girl from my roster. If I keep anyone from this season, it's going to be either Supergirl or Valkyrie.

[Pariah]

You should definitely keep Supergirl.

 

(Because I want Valkyrie. )

[Hermit]

Powergirl will get snatched up fast next season I'm sure

[Steve]

Based on those responses, maybe she was such a dud this season because I suck as a manager.

[Pariah]

I don't believe that to be true, and I don't think any of the rest of the owners believe it, either. You did have colossollaly bad luck this season. Great management can't always fix that.

 

You did a great job in Season II. You'll likely have better results in Season IV.