Las Vegas Team Tournament, News, Format Discussion and Poll

Reecius

3 years ago

Hey everyone, Reecius here with a poll for Las Vegas Team Tournament attendees and a discussion about the recent debates in format.

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The LVTT is largely a standard team formatted event for 40k with essentially one primary difference at this point in time: we have opted to use a simplified scoring system for reasons to be outlined below.

Traditionally team formatted events ranging in the 5-8 player range have a scoring mechanism in which individual games are scored and then either compared individually or as a team to produce an overall result based on a point differential. What this means is the more one player or team defeats the other player or team by, the higher their score.

Pros:
Players familiar with team tournaments are familiar with this format and can jump in and enjoy it readily.
It allows for more advanced strategic choices in pairings based on list design.
Lists can be designed to perform specific roles such as acting as a defender or attacker, or to counter current meta lists, etc. which allows for armies one would not normally use in a 1v1 event.
For the veteran to the format with access to a wide range of miniatures, it provides a more varied and unique tournament experience.

Cons:
To compete most effectively, teams must be familiar with this format which is fairly complex and may be a barrier to entry for the format.
As the incentive is to get the largest degree of victory possible due to differential scoring, list building choices may change significantly encouraging army types that would not normally be seen in a 1v1 style tournament and due to (intentional) list miss-matches may often results in blow-out outcomes for individual games.
A team can lose more individual games than the opposing team but if they score more cumulative points still win the round which may be unsatisfying to some players.

Caveat: the above is a broad strokes overview to give the layperson an idea of how this format works and the implications of using it. I am sure many a veteran team format gamer will be reaching for their blood pressure meds after reading this due to the lack of nuance but it illustrates the key points.

The LVTT has proposed to use a simpler scoring system to make the leap into playing a team formatted less daunting. This format removes the differential scoring element and instead proposes to add up the total individual wins of each team. Therefore, the first team to 3 individual victories would win the round. Total Battle Points scored in each game are tracked to stratify the field for final rankings and to make each game’s results meaningful.

Pros
This format is more accessible to a player unfamiliar with team formatted events, thus lowering the barrier to entry and potentially increasing the number of players interested in team formatted events.
Players may not feel the need to bring lists that are significantly different from those they would bring to a 1v1 style event, thus making it easier to not only participate but to compete well with the army they already use.
A close game won by 1 point is as meaningful as a blow-out game in determining round outcomes which may be more appealing for some players.
Winning more individual games than the other team may be a more intuitive method of determining the round outcome for some players.

Cons
The veteran team format gamer may feel that the format lacks the depth they have come to enjoy in a traditionally formatted team events with differential scoring.
Some players may feel that there is less meaning to games played after one team has already hit the 3 games won threshold for a round.
The pairings process may feel as if it has less strategic depth due to less need for specialized lists.
A player that finds themselves in a very poor match-up based on lists has less ability to directly influence the outcome of that round in this format as points earned help to influence final standings not round outcome. With differential scoring, a player that mitigates a loss can help their team to potentially win the round.

While we feel that in order to achieve the goal of making a team formatted event as accessible to as many as possible is in the best interest of growing the popularity and longevity of team formatted events, we’ve received feedback from a number of players stating that they’d prefer a more traditional format. We have decided to present the arguments for and against as fairly as we can, and put this to a vote to see what the majority of players actually prefer. We do not play in our events and as such, have no dog in the fight. Our primary purpose is to provide the best possible experience for our attendees and thus are letting you all decide.

We’re leaving the vote open to anyone to inform future event format choices, but for the LVTT specifically only ticket holders’ votes will be counted. To verify this, we will be going off of whom ticket purchasers have assigned tickets to. If you have not done this yet, do not fret, your teammates can still vote now and you can go and assign them the tickets at any time before voting ends. If anyone has specific questions on this topic, email: Frankie@FrontlineGaming.org

This poll will run through Tuesday, August 24th, 2021.