Tournament

Tournaments (colloquially known as "tourneys") allow large numbers of pirates to compete against each other for prizes and pride. They can be started or joined by clicking on the tournament board, usually placed in inns and palaces. Tournament boards can also be purchased and placed in buildings.

The tournament board
Clicking on the tournament board gives allows pirates to find a tournament to join or to start one. Puzzle Competitions can also be joined from the tournament board.

Joining a tournament
Open tournaments are denoted by the "Details" button on the right-hand side of the screen, and tournaments currently in progress will have a "Status" button instead. The Details button offers more information for each tournament's settings and pirates can click the "Join" button if they decide to participate.

A pirate must be able to meet the specified entry fee to be able to join. Pirates with a wager ban cannot join a tournament with an entry fee, but wager limits do not apply to tournament entries.

The different options are explained below in the Creating a Tournament section.

Creating a tournament
When a pirate clicks "Create tournament" there are several options that pop up in the screen. The picture to the right shows the default settings and the specifics are outlined below.

Puzzle
Swordfight, Rumble, Drinking, and Treasure Drop are the only tournament puzzles. If a player lacks a subscription on subscription oceans, or a parlor badge on doubloon oceans, it is only possible to create tournaments for puzzles that are free that day.

Rated
Whether or not the games count as rated.

Playing
The options are one game per match or best two of three.

Type
The tournament type can be either single-elimination (with or without a playoff to 3rd and 4th place) or double-elimination.

Single-elimination
Once a player loses a match, they are eliminated. If the option to have a 3rd place playoff is chosen, prizes can be allocated for 3rd and 4th place.

Double-elimination
This type of tournament creates two brackets. If a player is eliminated from the starting bracket, they are placed in a loser's bracket. Players eliminated from this bracket are out of the tournament. The winner of the loser's bracket must face off against the winner of the main bracket. In order to win, the winner of the loser's bracket must win twice, since the other player has not yet lost.

Seeding
Seeding is how participants are matched-up for their matches. Byes, if necessary in the first round, are distributed according to seeding. There's been some controversy about seeding in larger tournaments for prizes such as familiars.

Seeded by rating
Pirates are matched-up evenly according to rating to stop the higher rated pirates from knocking each other out of the tournament in the early matches. Byes, if necessary in the first round, are given to higher-rated pirates.

Random
Pirates are matched-up randomly.

Minimum pirates
This is the minimum number of pirates that need to join the tournament for it to be able to start when the starting time comes. If this number is not met, the tournament will be cancelled and all prizes and PoE will be returned to the participants.

Entry fee
This number can be anything. If there is a fee, the PoE goes into the prize pot.

Prize
Tradeable items owned by the pirate (except for items which are presently equipped) starting the tournament can be added to the prize along with PoE. Items can be offered to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers, however, the 3rd and 4th place options are not available for standard single-elimination tournaments. If the prize value including PoE, items, and entry fees are worth a total of at least 5,000 PoE, an automatic oceanwide tournament broadcast is sent once the minimum pirate number is reached. This broadcast does not reach those aboard ships unless the total value of the prize pool is 10000 poe or above or there is a familiar as a prize.

Pot distribution
There are several options for prize distribution. All items are awarded to first place, but PoE division possibilities are as follows.

Cascading arithmetically
Cascading arithmetically is 1 share, 1/2 share, 1/3 share, 1/4 share, 1/5 share, and so on. Even though first and second place get the same share as the cascading exponentially option, it will work out to less because there are more shares to distribute (assuming at least one 3rd place player).

If a player has not won at least one round, such as by losing after a first round bye, the player recieves no shares. If a player's share is less than the entry fee, the player receives nothing, and the share is divided among the other players.

Cascading exponentially
The way cascading exponentially works is that first place gets 1 share, 2nd place gets 1/2 share, 3rd placers get 1/4 share, 4th placers get 1/8 shares, and so on.

If a player has not won at least one round, such as by losing after a first round bye, the player recieves no shares. If a player's share is less than the entry fee, the player receives nothing, and the share is divided among the other players.

Cascading exponentially to third
This option is an exponential cascade limited to the first, second and third place finishers. First place gets 1 share, 2nd place gets 1/2 share, 3rd placers get 1/4 share, and everyone else gets nothing.

If a player has not won at least one round, such as by losing after a first round bye, the player recieves no shares. If a player's share is less than the entry fee, the player receives nothing, and the share is divided among the other players.

Winner take all
As the option name says, the winner of the tournament takes everything.

Starts in
How many minutes will count down before the tournament starts.

Local players only
If this option is checked, the tournament will only appear on the tournament board in the scene it was created and players must join from that location.

Watching
Once a pirate joins a tournament, a tournament summary will appear in the Ahoy! panel. The "Allow Watching" checkbox defaults to being checked. Some players may choose to disable watching for the following reasons:


 * On slower computers, watchers may cause the client to lag slightly.
 * Comments by watchers can be distracting. In addition, in Treasure Drop and Drinking games comments from watchers can direct players to make moves that they may not have found on their own.
 * In "bring-your-own" Swordfighting, Drinking, and Rumbling tournaments, watchers can see which swords, mugs or bludgeons are being used in the match. Potential opponents can also watch matches, and it may give them time to choose a sword, mug or bludgeon to counter a pirate's own. Pirates can guard against this by having a spare sword, mug or bludgeon prepared for subsequent matches, which the opponent may not have anticipated.
 * In any tournament match, potential opponents may also be able to analyze a pirate's strategic strengths and weaknesses by watching that pirate's style of play.

Tournament broadcasts
A tournament will be broadcast to anyone logged on once the following conditions have been met:


 * The prize pool is at least 5,000 PoE is broadcast to pirates on land (this can be entry fees and the pot bonus, and can also include items). A prize pool of at least 100,000 PoE or a familiar is broadcast to pirates on land and on ships
 * The minimum number of pirates has been achieved
 * Alternately, any tournament offering a familiar or a ship will broadcast (as long as the minimum required pirates have joined)

Historical notes

 * The possibility to choose whether or not a tournament was rated was removed for some time, but reintroduced at a later point.


 * For a short time, there was an option for "immediate matches." This was used during the transition between the time when all matches for a round had to begin at the same time and the present system where all matches start as soon as both participants are known.


 * Some historical tournaments include:
 * Black Death's 8th Swordfighting Tourney for 4.12 million PoE

External/other links

 * Commonly discussed ideas from Game Design
 * Official game documents