Review [Issue 7] A Summary of the Clan Championship

[skitee 555]

So now, it's over. All the hype, all the build-up, all the battles. The first English clan championship is done. And what a championship it has been!

All the fights, all the flags, all the points, all ended with the final battle, the 2^nd position-playoff between Georgian Clan Crusaders and Try To Stop, which was arguably the most thrilling battle in the whole competition. Whatever your opinion is on whether it was or not, you cannot argue that it was a magnificent sign-off to what has been a fantastic competition and one which has done the English community proud.

But what have we learned from this championship, and what can we take into future championships? What would be my suggestion for future championships?

Dare Devils are a cut above the rest of the clans

It's a fact. Right now, DD are nigh-on unstoppable. They crushed everyone through the qualifiers, through the group stage, through the knockout rounds, all the way to the final. And when people started to have doubts about their ability at CP battling, they won both of the games in the final which they played in with convincing margins as well.

The only scary thing about DD's absolute dominance is how poorly they seem to perform in the Russian championships, being defeated heavily by the top Russian clans each time. If they are that far behind the top Russian clans, and the English community is as far behind DD as it is, how bad in relation must most English clans be? And also, how good must the famous Russian clans be?

But anyway, if things do stay the same, DD will be massive favourites for CC 13 and all the rest of the smaller competitions which will be taking place through the year – but I wouldn't go staking my bets just yet, a year is a long time in a world where the balance of power can shift in weeks.

CP Mode is worthwhile for clan war fighting

What we saw in the final battles, the first official championships to involve the CP gamemode for some of the battles, was two clans competing against each other in attacking and exciting gameplay going all out for the victory. Any accusations which may have been made beforehand that CP was not “real” fighting or involved less skill than CTF were rendered worthless when we could see the amazing and diverse skills on show from the CP final battles.

What is now certain is that now there can no longer be only one game mode for clan wars. Once CP comes out in the majority of the maps, which I hope will happen very soon, then CP should never be overlooked when organising clan wars. It involves skills which do not exist in CTF, such as being able to concentrate on different areas as a team - and also requires more teamwork and organisation than CTF does.

In the future, I hope that a CP tournament will be upcoming, and that CC:13 and beyond will also include the finals in CP – it was a fantastic precedent set this year, and hopefully one that will be continued as long as clan championships continue!

The group stage system as it was in this CC:12 is flawed

In this tournament, there's no arguing in that the most boring section of this tournament – from the qualifiers, the group stage, the play-offs, and the final – was the group stage. Despite every single one of the qualifier games either being played or lost by a team who had already resigned from the competition, in the group stage there were forfeits all over the board, including the embarrassing scenario which happened in Group 1 where White Red Squad qualified for the play-offs without even playing a game in the group stage.

There needs to be a method whereby an advantage is given to clans who actually play their group games. Whether that be the 0.5 point motivation for playing a game that was given out in the qualifiers, or a system where group stages are scrapped altogether and the play-offs follow immediately the qualifiers, it doesn't make a difference. There should just be a system in future clan championships whereby we don't get the farce we got this year, the one where half or even fewer of the battles were actually being played, rather than clans forfeiting to gain an advantage in their group for battles which they expect to lose by more than five flags, or clans agreeing to a mutually beneficial tie. This cannot happen again.

A repêchage works very well, but without a grand final things can get boring

Does anyone else have the feeling that there is something lacking when the final game which takes place is the battle for second position? Where is the final, the winner-takes-all fight which excites tankmen like no other event can? In my opinion, a final for this tournament is required. Just a battle which will decide the winner, all or nothing.

However, I do not think the solution to this is to scrap the repêchage. Without the repêchage battles, the play-offs would have been done very quickly, and we would have very little enjoyment. No, the repêchage is required, not just to give clans a second chance and make sure it is the best clans in the final, but also to just increase the number of total battles for the community to enjoy and watch. In a mini-tournament, a repêchage could be scrapped, but in the championship I don't think so - there must be a repêchage. What then is the solution?

There are a number of potential ways to solve this, in my opinion. We could have a grand finale from the top two positions in the final three; or add both repêchage finalists to create a final four which then is knocked down to a final (whether by a group stage or by a further round of semi-finals, it does not matter); or get the two winners of the semi-finals to face off, with the loser of that battle facing the winner of the repêchage and the winner of that to take the winner of the original final – there are numerous possibilities. But, for certain, in the future, a final is required. Not three teams – two. Unless, of course, we have a three-way CP final....

Clan Battles are more of a passionate affair than any other form of battling

National pride? The Clan Championship wiped that away, at least from Tanki. Take the stuttering uncertain nature of the World Cup, with teams uncertain about the people who can join their team, with people confused and uncaring when their team is kicked out. Compare that with the passionate, supportive, heated nature of the Clan Championship and there is no contest. The Clan Championship clearly has been a competition which has created passion like the World Cup never could.

Why so? Maybe it was because the World Cup was not-so-well organised. Maybe the World Cup's supplies gameplay was flawed. Maybe the teams in the world cup were weaker. Whatever it was, the World Cup was nothing compared to this championship. In fact, I might go as far to say as there is no need for a World Cup next year. Let's have two clan championships instead – a CP one and a CTF one?

HD streaming is a requirement, particularly to increase the profile of successful clans' members

Does anyone else agree that they got the most out of the battles when nuclearbom and his HD view was streaming? After all, it does help to be able to read the names of the players rather than waiting for the spectator to read them all out for you! In my opinion, for upcoming clan championships it would be by far the better if the only streaming was by people who could accommodate HD streaming. On behalf of the community, I appeal to you – the DJ team – find people with powerful computers who can accommodate HD streams before next world cup! The commentators are fine, but get people with these computers to be able just to stream the games for the community to enjoy.

One of the main reasons for this is not just to get a more pleasurable viewing experience (although that helps), but also because of the way in which the community can read the names of the top players. In a ironic way, I know the names of the famous Russian clan war players more than I do the English, despite being an active member of the English community – the impossibility to read fighters' names on the English streams is aggravating. If HD streams become widely accommodated, then our great English clan war players will be able to get the fame which they deserve.

The prizes at the moment are nothing

Let's be honest, to the top clans, 150,000 crystals to share are nothing. This was meant to be the pinnacle of English clan war fighting! This was the top prize! At least it should be enough for five members in the clan to be able to buy a full m3 garage. 600,000 crystals would have been a fairer prize, although I wouldn't go so far as to saying that special paints should be provided yet. If 150,000 crystals had been offered out to the winning clan, with no pride attached I can pretty much guarantee that very few clans would have entered. What is 150,000 crystals to tankmen who have a full garage?

I'm not saying that special paints should be offered as a reward – that's a bit too much, considering the level of the English community at the moment. But certainly more crystals than the measly amount of 150,000 should be offered.

The Championship staff were brilliant

Let's finish on this positive note – the organisers of the championship: Bruce, koolwalky, and then MizARee, did a fantastic job. Yes, some clans were annoyed when decisions went against them, but when clans whined about defeat, when clans fought battles riddled with lags, the organisers moved quickly to make a decision – whether the decisions were right or not is debatable, but it's certain that the organisers kept the Championship moving and did the right thing.

On top of that, the cybersport team were great. Yes, for some of them, commentary was not so good; and certainly it would have been nicer for there to have been HD streaming on every one of the battles, but overall the cybersport team did their best and gave us viewers a very enjoyable experience whilst watching the battles.

Let's hope future Clan Championships and clan tournaments can live up to the expectation that the first has brought on!
~skitee

Edited July 31, 2017 by Hexed

[WhiteKnight170 2]

I think that certain official future championships may be a bit...rigged....if you know what I mean..

[Raphael2 3,263]

Yes‚bigger reward would be fine :D

[Reiki12345 57]

@WK yes,its very disappointing and poor organizers.They want us to play 5-4 weeks for what ? for 150k crystals ? just ..... :rolleyes:

@Raphael ofc what did I just said.

 

And skitee you know i always agree with you :D

[r_khkh1230 0]

http://tankionline.com#friend=24a4ef529

[BoRn.To.Be.WiLd 29]

no skills in CTF? :huh:

[skitee 555]

I assume you are talking about "involves skills not used in CTF". That does not mean that skills don't exist in CTF.... just CP uses some different ones.