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Drafting Tournaments Explained


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#1 Integrity

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Posted 20 December 2010 - 06:48 PM

I LOVE YOU LIFE

AN EXTRA PREFACE:
HOSTS: If a draft you're hosting finishes drafting - defined as all draftees being gone - would you mind contacting me via PM, profile comment or this thread so I know to backlog it?
PLAYERS: If you finish a draft, mind informing me which draft and your final turncount?

ANOTHER DOUBLE EXTRA PREFACE
If you're just looking for the Rulesets, skip the bulk of this post and go to the bottom.

PREFACE THE THIRD
The good ol' logs are now in Post 2.

ITT, I will explain drafting for those still unacquainted with it. I must preface this with a statement: I know many others, including myself, have made posts explaining drafts in the various drafts floating about. I still think it'd be good to have a ridiculously thorough post that I can link to in the future for the benefit of others. To the meat!

Drafting: What?

The simple, one-line, tl;dr explanation for a draft tourney is thus: A pool of characters is established, several people enter and take turns picking characters, then play through the game with only those characters. There's a wee bit more to it, obviously, but that's the basics.

With the advent of several new types of draft flying out of the woodwork, I'm going to take an aside nice and up here to define a couple things.

In a Standard draft, each person drafts his own team in order. This is typical. EX: I draft my team, Soul drafts his team, Donna drafts her team, and Furetchen drafts his team.
In a SOYO (screw over your opponent) draft, each person drafts somebody ELSE'S team. Fair warning to hosts: don't set players in a SOYO draft to draft for each other or politicking will ensue. GOOD EX: I draft Soul's team, Soul drafts Donna's team, Donna drafts Furetchen's team, and Furetchen drafts my team. BAD EX: I draft Furetchen's team, Soul drafts Donna's team, Donna drafts Soul's team, and Furetchen drafts my team.
In a Knickerbocker draft, each player nominates somebody else from outside the draft to draft for them. EX: Tangerine drafts my team, Spectakitty drafts Soul's team, Obviam drafts Donna's team, and Lumi drafts Furetchen's team.

The Prelude

Let's say my Spanish love, Donna, creates an FE8 draft thread. As the thread creator, several responsibilities are bestowed upon Donna. Primarily, she's supposed to keep the OP updated as the draft progresses before the actual playing starts. Anyway, Donna understands her responsibilities and creates the thread anyway. Donna declares that the pool of characters be split among 4 players, and the game be played on Hard mode. So our intrepid forumites - myself and my good friends Furetchen and Soul - all waltz over into the thread and declare ourselves committed. Everybody's in, and Donna randomizes the drafting order...

Obviously, we're not all Donna. Some of us are Furetchen and Soul, for instance! As a contender, you do have responsibilities too. Also remember, dear Donna, that the thread creator is also a contender and shares those responsibilities. Honestly, these aren't nearly as many as the thread creator's - but the first, and very most important of all - is to be sure that you can finish the draft. As a mediocre player myself, I've only lost two drafts ever. Why? Because nobody else ever finished. So ask yourself: do I have the time and attention span to play this all the way through in a reasonable timeframe?

The Process

Donna's results are me, Soul, herself, Furetchen in that order. As I am myself and therefore not a smart man, I draft Neimi*. Furetchen, far down the line, shakes his fist in mute rage, as I have taken his favorite character out of the pool. Play passes to Soul, who drafts Syrene because he's kooky. Donna then drafts Kyle, and play moves to Furetchen. Furetchen, being at the end of the line, gets to draft twice and picks Franz and Vanessa - then play rolls back to Donna, then Soul, then me twice, then Soul. And around and around it goes until the characters are all gone - or until the teams are equal and there aren't enough characters to make another pass. To remember the order, simply count the number of contestants, say the last number twice, and go back around.

1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3 ...

Obviously, you don't want to hold up the draft. If you're pretty sure you're going to be sleeping or at school or at work when your turn comes up, and you won't be back for a while, you're allowed to implement a contingency plan. This involves - generally - sending a PM to another user with a list of picks. Let's go back to this FE8 draft that's going on. We're early in the draft, and we're waiting for Furetchen to get his double-pick done. Donna knows she'll be in bed like a good girl when Furetchen makes his pick and doesn't want Soul to have to wait. So, Donna sends Soul a PM.
"Hey Soul, bestest buddy old pal, if I'm not around when you're ready to go could you draft Forde for me? If Furetchen takes him then give me Ross, then Duessel. Thanks!
--Donna~"

Generally speaking, I like to send the PM to the person drafting immediately after me. The reasons are many; the person can't shift his picks (soul: ooh, forde's a good idea. yoink!) to block me, and he's the person who would be stuck waiting anyway were I not around. Then, to the example, if Soul shows up before Donna does, he can say "Donna took Forde, and I want Lute." It's generally considered polite to leave a notice in the thread stating you might miss this pick and your second is X, additionally. Finally, I find it's best to, when implementing this plan, have a hierarchy of one plus however many drafters are coming before you. So if you're waiting for two people to draft, have three characters lined up for your second. If you're waiting for the double-pick and two more ...well, at a certain point there's no reason to have a second. This is really only for if you're almost up for picking and won't be ready. Rule of thumb: if there are more than two people between the current status and you, it's not worth it.

* - for God's sake, if you're drafting FE8 don't take Neimi first.

The Pr...uh, Gameplay

Now we move to the gameplay itself. Things lose a lot of structure here; in the previous section, Soul could do absolutely nothing except twiddle his thumbs while he waited his turn. Now he can blaze out with all speed and rush into the game. As the tourney itself loses structure, so too does the expectations. Ostensibly, drafts are about getting the lowest turn count out of the contenders. Honestly, though, it doesn't matter in my experience. You are, however, expected to make semi-regular status updates. This is where the variation comes into play; some people like to leave updates until they've finished several chapters, some people like myself update every chapter's turncount and basic strategy into the thread as they finish it, some people like to do a complete play-by-play, and some ridiculous people named Balcerzak just record the experience and post it to Youtube. For the actual gameplay, you're only allowed to use the characters you drafted, and you take turn penalties if anybody else does something disallowed.

The Variables

Obviously, since Donna has control over her draft, she can impose rules. These can be as ludicrous and far-fetched as she wants, but I'll provide a few common examples here:
* Common Characters: Most, if not all, drafts have a few characters who cannot be drafted because anybody is allowed to use them. This is almost always the main Lord but can often be extended to a game-changer like good old Marcus.
* Prohibited Characters: The corresponding rule to the above. Some characters so thoroughly alter their game that they're not only out of the draft, use of them is prevented. I, personally, have only seen this extended to Seth but who knows?
* And Many More!

Undraftees, too, have different penalties depending on the draft. Generally, use of an undrafted unit (while forced, you shouldn't deploy undrafted units except to recruit) takes its toll in the form of a turn penalty. Since you're going for the lowest turncount in the draft, this is bad. Pay attention to what the OP says undrafted units can and cannot do without taking penalties.
* Meatshielding: This one has a bullet because it's HIGHLY variable and difficult to predict from tourney to tourney. PAY ATTENTION TO WHETHER OR NOT YOU'RE ALLOWED TO MEATSHIELD! If you aren't, you take turn penalties any time an undrafted unit sees any combat, regardless of the outcome.

I said to pay attention to the rules if you're signing up for a draft, but I seem to have forgotten the next most important thing. As the OP: state the rules clearly. If there are common units, make sure that everybody knows exactly who they are and when they're allowed. Keeping a clean post, while optional, is recommendable - but the priority is still to update it, regardless of quality. Spoilered at the bottom is a Generic Ruleset. The Generic Ruleset merely presumes a basic set of rules for the lazy or unmotivated. You may say "using generic rules except X" because they are not all-covering.

Drafting II: The Process Again

Since this is a bit of a hangup, I'm providing a spoilered section with a sample draft and how it goes. Besides that, my job here is done. I'll modify it later as new ideas come to mind. And, though it be egotistical to say, maybe this ought be stickied?

Spoiler - a sample fe8 draft

 


----------

Generic Rulesets and Recruitment Lists

Prospectively hosting a draft? You could fight with Red Fox for a while about your special rules for units that you forgot to clarify, or you could just copy one of these lists! DO FEEL FREE to modify them if you use them. Experimentation is encouraged! And people, don't go copying that freakin' tier list like everybody seems to - that's just irritating. No, you want your lists laid out orderly, don't you? Yes, of course you do. And you're lazy? Yes, of course you are. Fear not! The relevant recruitment lists are included.

All lists are laid out in recruitment order, with all necessary omissions (free units) ...omitted.
FE4 is a special case: mothers will be listed first, followed by fathers.
Any game with a route split involving different character lists (FE5, 6) will have the A characters until the merge, then the B characters until the merge.
FE7 assumes skipping Lyn Mode for the order.
FE8's list will assume Eirika route for the order.

Spoiler - FE4 is the funnest

Spoiler - FE5 is what I ain't done

Spoiler - FE6 is characterfull

Spoiler - this one's FE7

Spoiler - I basically freeballed FE8

Spoiler - FE9, my fingers hurt

Spoiler - oh god FE10

Spoiler - FE11, or the one I can copy and paste

Spoiler - dat FE12

Spoiler - FE13, cribbed from PKL without asking <3





Revisions

Obviously, I'm looking for content here so feel free to leave things you think need added.

BIG CREDITS TO
Red Fox of Fire: for being the mod in charge and basically taking care of me when I get stuck and for being the first ever to format my things for me
eclipse: for helping me with the Great Logs Reformat
Radiant Dragon: for basically writing the Generic Rulesets for me
Kopfjager: for helping a lot with the FE12 ruleset
CR-S01: for being super cool about formatting oh my God
CR-S01: yes she's here twice because she made other people start being cool about formatting and golly gee
Gorgar: for helping me when my dull brain was struggling with how to format takeovers
PKL: for revising the FE12 ruleset for me after the translation patch was done


Spoiler - changelog

Edited by Integrity, 01 May 2013 - 05:56 AM.


#2 Integrity

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Posted 21 December 2010 - 03:20 AM

Section 8: These Posts Brought To You By Red Fox of Fire

Here we've got a massive set of spoilers giving all past drafts and their turncounts. Enjoy feeling inadequate! The OP will be *starred in each of these instances. The first line is the name of the thread, followed by the topic number.

Since this has come up quite a bit, I'll now answer what the topic number is actually FOR.

Simply put: look up at the URL! See how this thread is serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=24029? Just replace that 24029 with the topic number of any draft and you'll speed away to it at Warp Eight. I'd like to hotlink all of them, truly, but we're over the limit for that so this is the other workaround.

Spoiler - of course we had to have freakin' FE1


Spoiler - now presenting FE2!


Spoiler - FE3, apparently.


Spoiler - the lonely FE4 no more!


Spoiler - FE5, brought to you by Psych


Spoiler - past FE6 drafts


Spoiler - FE7, not the original?


Spoiler - short FE8 drafts

Edited by Integrity, 26 April 2013 - 09:56 AM.


#3 Integrity

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Posted 21 December 2010 - 03:53 AM

Spoiler - screw FE9


Spoiler - long-ass FE10 drafts


Spoiler - FE11's buncha drafts


Spoiler - FE12 already whoa


Spoiler - kakusei means awakening


Spoiler - that crazy bastard Radiant Dragon's brainchild and its copycats


Spoiler - trs now eh


Spoiler - the metadrafts

Edited by Integrity, 01 May 2013 - 04:12 PM.


#4 Soul

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Posted 21 December 2010 - 10:46 AM

This is hilariously educating. XD

#5 eclipse

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Posted 21 December 2010 - 12:08 PM

A few things:

- Before even signing up, ask yourself if you'll have the time to finish AND log your run. If you don't think you'll have the time, don't enter. It really sucks when five people enter and three finish (and that's because I bugged two of them).

- Some weirdos like me will only log to a point, then stop, and wait for everyone else to finish. I do this because of the way Shadow Dragon is. Due to my logging habits, certain tournaments will forever remain unfinished.

- Joey also records his runs, but he has yet to finish the H3 draft. . .*coughcoughHURRYUPcough*

- Looking back at past drafts isn't considered cheating. . .I think. However, do NOT look at my first SD draft tournament as a basis, or you will lose. Badly.

- Throw tier lists out the window, because certain characters shine in this format (characters that most people wouldn't touch normally). Who they are and why they do will come with experience. Maybe I should do a SD draft tier list. . .

#6 Soul

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Posted 21 December 2010 - 12:15 PM

I agree. There has been massive reagequitting through the last two FE10 drafts. And all of us of the FE7 draft run IV ragequit out of sheer boredom.

#7 Integrity

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Posted 21 December 2010 - 12:50 PM

- Before even signing up, ask yourself if you'll have the time to finish AND log your run. If you don't think you'll have the time, don't enter. It really sucks when five people enter and three finish (and that's because I bugged two of them).


Definitely. Most of the others, meh, but definitely this.

#8 Red Fox of Fire

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Posted 21 December 2010 - 04:42 PM

I said to pay attention to the rules if you're signing up for a draft, but I seem to have forgotten the next most important thing. As the OP: state the rules clearly. If there are common units, make sure that everybody knows exactly who they are and when they're allowed. Keeping a clean post, while optional, is recommendable - but the priority is still to update it, regardless of quality.

As a possible aversion to this, do you think it would be a good idea to have a specific list of "General Rules" for these tournaments? That way whenever a new one is started the creator can just link here and say "using General rules" to avoid ambiguity, maybe noting a few specific changes.

#9 Tricky Dick

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Posted 21 December 2010 - 04:45 PM

Hi.

First ever Draft Tournament was on GameFAQs.com. I brought them over to here.

WHERE'S MAH MENTION?!

#10 Integrity

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Posted 21 December 2010 - 05:20 PM

Done and done. Somebody spot me on the ruleset - I THINK I covered everything basic.

#11 Paperblade

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Posted 21 December 2010 - 05:33 PM

- Throw tier lists out the window, because certain characters shine in this format (characters that most people wouldn't touch normally). Who they are and why they do will come with experience. Maybe I should do a SD draft tier list. . .


This is something to keep in mind. High EXP gain, ease of favoritism, low number of units fielded, and playing on a lower difficulty level create a much different environment.

#12 eclipse

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Posted 22 December 2010 - 12:03 AM

This is something to keep in mind. High EXP gain, ease of favoritism, low number of units fielded, and playing on a lower difficulty level create a much different environment.


I was thinking more along the lines of certain characters who would normally be redundant/outclassed suddenly. . .aren't.

Oh, and count three losses. . .you didn't win the H3 SD tournament (Mist beat you).

For SD, meatshielding must be allowed, because of the stupid, stupid gaiden requirements.

Edited by eclipse, 22 December 2010 - 12:16 AM.


#13 Balcerzak

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Posted 22 December 2010 - 12:30 AM

So ask yourself: do I have the time and attention span to play this all the way through in a reasonable timeframe?

What exactly counts as a 'reasonable timeframe'? I know both of my Hard Mode drafts I probably took 2.5-3 months on, and I don't remember, but it was probably a full month, maybe month point five on the FE9 Normal Mode draft as well. I mean, granted, I see some people blaze through the whole draft in a matter of a week or so, but... Everyone's schedule is different, after all. As long as regular progress is being made, even if it's only a chapter a week (average, some weeks just suck), I think that's reasonable.

I guess, I'm probably missing the point, and all you're trying to say here is "Don't sign up and drop out," which I fully endorse.

Hi.

First ever Draft Tournament was on GameFAQs.com. I brought them over to here.

WHERE'S MAH MENTION?!

I can't say as I know when the tourney on GFAQs happened, but I thought I remembered something along a similar vein at FESS, only that was more of a "drafting debate", where they did snake drafting for a team and then instead of doing debates on individual characters (like you see in SF's Debate subforum) they debated the relative quality of the total team's ease to complete HHM.

Good work on bringing the current incarnation over and giving it to life here though. :)

This is something to keep in mind. High EXP gain, ease of favoritism, low number of units fielded, and playing on a lower difficulty level create a much different environment.

That is highly dependent on the draft in question. Most GBA drafts were I thought on the hardest difficulties. I never followed the SD ones, though to be honest. It certainly is an entirely different ball of wax though, even if difficulty shift is out of the question.

#14 eclipse

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Posted 22 December 2010 - 12:43 AM

What exactly counts as a 'reasonable timeframe'? I know both of my Hard Mode drafts I probably took 2.5-3 months on, and I don't remember, but it was probably a full month, maybe month point five on the FE9 Normal Mode draft as well. I mean, granted, I see some people blaze through the whole draft in a matter of a week or so, but... Everyone's schedule is different, after all. As long as regular progress is being made, even if it's only a chapter a week (average, some weeks just suck), I think that's reasonable.

I guess, I'm probably missing the point, and all you're trying to say here is "Don't sign up and drop out," which I fully endorse.


I think this should be left up to the person who makes the draft. I think posting at least once a week with either a log or some mention that you're alive is sufficient.

That is highly dependent on the draft in question. Most GBA drafts were I thought on the hardest difficulties. I never followed the SD ones, though to be honest. It certainly is an entirely different ball of wax though, even if difficulty shift is out of the question.


Since I have competed and finished the most Shadow Dragon drafting tournaments. . .

Difficulty is usually on Normal, to allow for Frey and Norne. Integrity put together a H3 one that was all sorts of amusing. I'm not sure if H4 would be prudent, and H5 is something I refuse to touch with a ten-foot pole.

#15 EVE MID OR AFK

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Posted 22 December 2010 - 01:45 AM

- Joey also records his runs, but he has yet to finish the H3 draft. . .*coughcoughHURRYUPcough*



I will, in due time. I actually thought about it recently.

#16 dondon151

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Posted 22 December 2010 - 03:00 AM

A couple of us on #feto had the idea that we could hold a real time auction of characters, and then compete in a way similar to a draft playthrough. Everyone would start with a fixed amount of "currency" and bid on the characters to be on their team.

#17 Integrity

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Posted 22 December 2010 - 07:07 AM

@Balcerzak: FE7, 8 and 9 are always played on the American-localized hardest difficulty, in my experience. FE6 has seen both, FE10 has seen both but predominantly NM, and Eclipse told you about FE11. By "reasonable timeframe", I really mean "am I going to be around for drafting reliably or name seconds reliably, and will I make decently constant, even if slow, progrees?"

dondon: That's...actually a pretty good idea. I may try it sometime.

#18 Soul

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Posted 22 December 2010 - 07:13 AM

I would do that if I had RL friends who played FE. But I don't.

#19 kirsche

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Posted 22 December 2010 - 07:16 AM

That'd also be pretty harsh on people outside the runners' time zone. E.G. somone like me who's online at completely different times to most people.

#20 Integrity

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Posted 22 December 2010 - 07:36 AM

IRC. Plus, the whole process would take like an hour or two, and most people can fudge their sleep schedules that much on a weekend.




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