Starting this month (March) I'm delighted to announce that a new Player competition has started. The way this will work is as follows:

• At the start of each month each player's score is reset to 1000 points.
• Points are awarded or lost upon completion of every non-Teamplay,  non-Tournament, Public game on a Live board.
• Points are calculated in the usual way - (Loser’s Score / Winner’s Score) * 20 = Plus/Minus Score Change (up to a maximum of 100 points per player).
• The competition runs from midnight at the start of the month to midnight at the start of the next month (all times are EST).
• The contest is free to enter and everyone is automatically included.
• Usual rules apply - any use of multiple accounts, pre-game alliances with friends or family etc will result in all competition points being deducted and a possible ban from the site. 

Each month, a $50 prize will be awarded to the top ranked player.

Prize money will be sent via either PayPal or Amazon gift cards, whichever is preferred by the winner.

You can see the current leaderboard either on the right hand side of the Home page or the full list is here.

Good luck everyone!

Wow!

Awesome.  Great idea!

Wow, great idea!

I think now would be a great time for a WarGear Newsletter via Email with this (and all the other recent additions)!

As usual, I will be the only one to disagree.

I am fine with a monthly competition, it's a good idea. I am a bit sceptical though as if I am in a very good position in some 16-player games, I could be tempted to willingly gain time to make sure I will cash all my victories on the same month.  This is why I would prefer a monthly official tournament. Also the reset of all scores each month seems to be against the idea of the score calculation itself which is meant to give more points to weak players vs good players.

But the thing I really don't like is the 50$ prize. What pisses me up most on this site is the high number of cheaters and the feeling nothing efficient is done against them. And all this cheating is done despite there is nothing to win. I can't imagine what it will become when there will be money at stake.

Toto wrote:

As usual, I will be the only one to disagree.

I am fine with a monthly competition, it's a good idea. I am a bit sceptical though as if I am in a very good position in some 16-player games, I could be tempted to willingly gain time to make sure I will cash all my victories on the same month.  This is why I would prefer a monthly official tournament.

But the thing I really don't like is the 50$ prize. What pisses me up most on this site is the high number of cheaters and the feeling nothing efficient is done against them. And all this cheating is done despite there is nothing to win. I can't imagine what it will become when there will be money at stake.

Toto raises some valid points.. 

Sure there are cheaters, but I venture they would be easily spotted when get anywhere near the upper echelon players.  I stand to be corrected, but pretty much everyone knows everyone at the highest levels on this site, and I'd be willing to bet that a cheater couldn't get near the top 25 much less the top 10 without a good number of players here noticing, especially with a prize at stake.

Nevertheless, I think the "hold the win over" is perhaps the strongest of T's arguments.  I'm not a fan of any arrangement that has a tendency to create unusual or contrary play, and with that in mind, I agree with T that the best forum for money games are tournaments.  Unfortunately, a tournament is not an inclusive format. No doubt, Tom is looking to woo people to go Premium as they consider the possibility of saving or even making money.  I.e., it makes business sense.

Personally, I think there are only a few dozen players who play here that will consistently have a shot at the prize, and I sure ain't one.   If I was looking to win a prize, I'd be much more likely to play in a single tournament, or maybe a series of elimination tournaments, where I'd at least have a shot at it.

 The competition doesn't require Premium membership and is non-Team, non-Tournament...

Interesting, I like the idea!

2nd and 3rd should get -something-, at least, in any horse race.

I suggest 2nd gets a chip that they can trade in one time to let him/her start first in one game.

3rd gets a shiny virtual medal.  (But not too shiny.)

HangTen wrote:

2nd and 3rd should get -something-, at least, in any horse race.

I suggest 2nd gets a chip that they can trade in one time to let him/her start first in one game.

This assumes that going first has an advantage, which is not necessarily true with some boards (e.g. Go-Geared)

3rd gets a shiny virtual medal.  (But not too shiny.)

Hangten means, 2nd and 3rd in the monthly competition. 

Maybe it's an idea to equalize the price a little bit. Now it is all or nothing. 50 dollar or nothing. Maybe it's nice to do something like this:

Number 1: 30 dollar

Number 2: 15 dollar

Number 3: 5 dollar

M57 wrote:

HangTen wrote:

2nd and 3rd should get -something-, at least, in any horse race.

I suggest 2nd gets a chip that they can trade in one time to let him/her start first in one game.

This assumes that going first has an advantage, which is not necessarily true with some boards (e.g. Go-Geared)

Well then you wouldn't trade the chip in for that game, would ya?

I was planning on seeing how the first couple of months worked out - certainly options to adjust / increase prizes depending on how things go.

Well, the problem with this month is the influence of the booting of jinkyjim and the others.

Number 1 (atkins) and 3 (babbalouie) were in a lot of games with these players. Now it's much easier for them to win their games. A 7 player game becomes a 4 player game. Because it seems like the booted players were in like 25 games together with Atkins and or Babbalouie.

The luck of the draw. None of us anticipated this happening, nor did we know anything about this monthly tournament or prize. Everyone had the opportunity to enter these games. Atkins, jinkyjim, and I always joined in as many WarGear Warfare games as possible for the fun of it and the competition. I do see your point, but the way championship points are distributed is not fair either.  

Look at it this way. Whether Tom booted jinkyjim and the others or not, they would have still timed out and gotten booted from the games anyway.

True. But if affects this months rating a lot though. I mean sure you both are very good players. No doubt. And you would have won a lot of those game anyway. But you would have never won so many games normally.  

I guess just bad luck for me. Nothing to do about it. Normally I would have joined a few of those games as well. But because I was going on holiday for a week I didn't join them. Ah well. Let's hope the best for next month.

What do you think of the idea of a price for the best 3 babbalouie? 

Yes. It should be the top 3. Every added incentive is good. Tom has done a good thing here and he is constantly looking for improvement. Anything for additional competition and recruitment is great for WarGear.

Yeah, I think this well help the site a lot as well. It's a great idea! 

Well, it all worked out anyway.

I think I prefer Paypal ^^ 

Good job. I guess those 2 player games on little played boards add up.