The 2009 CAGDC Tourney at Richie Knucklez' Arcade in NJ

[richieknucklez]

John Jacobson posted a vid and some pics of the tourny.
really good stuff; great site as well

http://johnsarcade.com/

Paige and I are definitely heading up to Funspot for the contest at the end of May.
So are the Cahill brothers. Lets all plan a dinner get-together for the CAG 2009 tourney crew.

Also Ben, Vic and the Barcade crew, wadda ya say we form a Tri-State chapter CAG team?
Steve Wagner and I have been talkin about formin a NJ crew, but with NY and PA we may be able to stand up against New England... uh  maybe

[VonDummpenstein]

Mark, an idea for your tournament structure.

Until reading your recap of the final tournament standings I was unaware of the actual tournament structure.  I had presumed it was a structure similar to what we see in the TG decathlon, where players have to play all the games.

At first I didn't like it; I didn't like the idea that players weren't forced to play titles on which they were less than stellar, thus bringing down their overall percentage.  However I have given it some real thought, and I must say the structure is really growing on me as I'm beginning to see some of its advantages, most particularly to the player's enjoyment factor.  Still though, I wish in some way that players were forced to play outside of their comfort zone - although seven games seems like a fair number to test a player's comfort zone.

So after tossing around thoughts in my head to the point where I couldn't sleep and had to type up this post, I truly haven't brainstormed any BIG ideas that would greatly benefit the CAG tourney or drastically reform its structure - I think you might be on to something here.  But there is just one thought I had, just one: perhaps there could be implemented some sort of incentive system to play and log scores on games in which the player is "not so fresh"; or perhaps some small reward for being particularly good at a title at which everyone else stunk; or perhaps some advantage gained by being the best at the title that garnered the most submissions.

Ultimately of course, there should be no alterations if they would negatively impact the player's fun, so really I'm asking for everyone's input here, not just Mark's (and also let it be noted that these are the words of an outsider looking in).  But what I'm getting at is simply this: if the contest always challenges the player to play the same games (give or take a few), is it really the best way of finding out who is the most well-rounded gamer?

Thanks,....thoughts?
_________________________________________________________

perhaps there could be implemented some sort of incentive system to play and log scores on games in which the player is "not so fresh"

One way this could be done would be to offer a separate prize for the player with the highest percentage spanning all the tourney games.  This way, players could either concentrate on upping their scores for their best seven games, or use their time to set average scores across the board.  However I am unsure whether this would be logistically possible given the number of entrants, the prize pool, and the time of machine availability.

[Permafrostrick]

Mark, your tables show scores for me for Digdug, Journey and Track-n-Field.  I didn't play any of those 3 games.

The other 7 scores you show for me are the only games I submitted scores for...and are correct.

no idea where you got those 3 other game scores from....not mine....please delete those from my listing.
..might end up knocking me down behind Jimmy actually...hehe...no biggie really.

I wish I could have gotten to play T-n-F. I never saw the game available for play...someone was always on it.

[richieknucklez]

I know Robby Cahill played Journey T&F and Digdug. and his initials are also RC

[dbh]

But there is just one thought I had, just one: perhaps there could be implemented some sort of incentive system to play and log scores on games in which the player is "not so fresh"; or perhaps some small reward for being particularly good at a title at which everyone else stunk; or perhaps some advantage gained by being the best at the title that garnered the most submissions.

The first CAGDC tournament actually had an incentive system.  It didn't work as expected and actually caused more problems and issues.  An example of this was that it was possible for a player to increase their score on one game and as a result actually end up with a lower overall total.

[TooManyGames]

Congrats to Mark, Richie, and all the gamers in the most recent CAGDC event!  Impressive scores to be sure! 

I wish I would have remembered when the event was, I absolutely would have been over to Jersey for it.  8*(

[MDARULZ]

Now, that's transparency.  Solid numbers for all to see and double check, to remove any doubts.  Nice bunch of scores guys.

Yup, full results are important to have up and available, but it's gonna get a lot more transparent than that !  Unlike any other arcade contest in history, I'll put my accuracy on the line by publishing the original and complete set of score sheets too !  I'll have this up in a while, after I get the initial tourney page up (next week), so that anyone can double-check that all scores were transferred correctly.  And, this will also be available for all past CAGDC events.  I'll be working on getting it all up as time allows...

Speaking of that, as I said at the awards ceremony, I made a mistake by not recognizing the need to have refs (including myself) enter more than initials for a player on the score sheet.  Besides Darren Harris and Donald Hayes having the same initials, the Cahill brothers really sabotaged things !  Of course, I say that totally tongue-in-cheek, as they did nothing wrong, but with J.J. Cahill (JJC), Jamie Cahill (JC) along with Jason Cram (JC too !!!) and John Jacobson (JJ again - quadruple yikes !!!!!!!!), and also Robbie Cahill and Rick Carter, I set myself up for mix-ups !  Again, totally dumb on my part not to realize that the extra contestants vs. past years would create the need for a change. Well, we'll write the first name and last initial next year, for sure !!  That, and the contestant writing their initials, will alleviate any issues.

Speaking of the contestant initials (that they wrote), that enabled me to straighten out the below issue from Rick, and I also double-checked all the 'J' and 'C' issues, and the other sig issues, noted above.  But, with sometimes non-perfect ref writing, another error may have slipped in.  Also, I normally enter scores myself onto the spreadsheet, but the huge increase in entrants negated that this year, so a number of great gamers helped me out (thanks, guys !) by reading things off.  That also caused some issues, as they got mixed up with the similar / same initials issues.  But, it's not their fault - the buck stops with me, and I should have foreseen the issue.  Nonetheless, it should be corrected in all but full now.

Mark, your tables show scores for me for Digdug, Journey and Track-n-Field.  I didn't play any of those 3 games.

The other 7 scores you show for me are the only games I submitted scores for...and are correct.

Corrected.  And, because of T&F helping you out big-time, as you predicted, you dropped - from 8th, to 12th !  And, those from 9th to 11th moved up one spot.  Sorry for your original mis-ranking, Rick !!

No other rank changes took place, from the minor corrections due to the noted initials issues.

I might also note that, in my initial readover after the event, other than 8 changes due to initials mix-ups (most all were very, very minor, and resulted in no rank changes, and minor % changes, other than for Rick), there was only one mistake found, and that was a mistake of omission, where a slightly higher score was not entered.  I also found one instance of this on the readover done at the end of the event, after all score sheets were entered.  Frankly, that's pretty amazing, given the quantity of scores, and the fact that I was sick from a cold I likely caught on Friday (damn travel - always exposes you to 'exotic' germs from outside your area of the country !).

I wish I could have gotten to play T-n-F. I never saw the game available for play...someone was always on it.

I heard another complaint about T&F.  Apparently some players didn't look to see if others were waiting before starting a new game.  For shame !  But, players should feel free to step in when they see this, and mention that they were not just spectating, but waiting to play.  Well, I'll emphasize etiquette next year, even more so than I did this time.  Overall, I don't think it was too big of an issue, but I want a perfect event for you guys, so I'll be working hard to address all issues, not matter how minor.

OK - I'll address other posts in this thread as I get time.  Here's the links again to the results, and hopefully they're 100% error-free after the second go-over.

Results for all 37 entrants who submitted at least one score (3 submitted no scores).

Results for qualifying entrants (32 in total), who submitted at least seven scores.

[ben]

John Jacobson posted a vid and some pics of the tourny.
really good stuff; great site as well

http://johnsarcade.com/

Paige and I are definitely heading up to Funspot for the contest at the end of May.
So are the Cahill brothers. Lets all plan a dinner get-together for the CAG 2009 tourney crew.

Also Ben, Vic and the Barcade crew, wadda ya say we form a Tri-State chapter CAG team?
Steve Wagner and I have been talkin about formin a NJ crew, but with NY and PA we may be able to stand up against New England... uh  maybe

Sounds cool...anything to promote the hobby.

[Scootie]

Richie

Great Tourny - and again - thanks to you and Paige for the wonderful Ziti.....

Glad to hear you're coming up to FS - As to your NYC area gaming team - count me in - I was born in Brooklyn - raised in Queens and Long Island, and lived in NJ from 2000 until 2004. I'll always consider myself a NY'er at heart; New Englanders are not the most "accepting" type, and are (at least from what I've seen) somewhat CLIQUISH - especially in Northern New England. No offense to you New Englanders who are warm & outgoing...

There's also a chance (due to potential new job) that I may move back to the big apple by summer's end....


Scootie

[rwm741]

...I'll always consider myself a NY'er at heart; New Englanders are not the most "accepting" type...

Maybe if you would lose the Yankees cap...    (j/k)

-- Richard

[BadBrains]

That's great to have you on the team scootie!

[richieknucklez]

I finally picked up a working Pole Position 2 machine yesterday.
I traveled all the way to Washington DC for it and got it home at around 10pm last night.
I doublechecked and it was already set on TG settings.
I had a chance to play it a few times this afternoon and finished a crashless race
after about 3 or 4 trys. came in at 77,520. (Fuji track of course)

Nice!

[ShawnLov]

Richie, I want to watch you play DK... I just hit within 1000 of my high score three games in a row and I can't break 160... I am missing something.  Do you have time to run through a game on a flashback Friday or some other time?

Also,

Is there anyone who knows any info about what the game list at the FS contest will be and what the qualifying scores are like?  Don't fry me if its obviously posted somewhere because I didn't even look yet.. Steeper than at Richies?? Obscure games?  I am not very good across the board, but I have been having a particularly hard time with my students lately and Ive been stepping up my practicing an hr or so a night to blow off steam.. getting better,

Any info appreciated
Peace

Shawn

[Permafrostrick]

wow richie...finished fuji on PP2 that quickly and that high?  well done!

I never had a complete Fuji in the "super speed" and crashless before.
although maybe only played PP2 on the Fuji course about 10 times.
played it some in MAME years ago....really tough in mame for steering.

hope new version TG adopts emulates PP and PP2 correctly.  wolf106 doesn't.

[Steve W]

Is there anyone who knows any info about what the game list at the FS contest will be and what the qualifying scores are like? 

I don't think they announce them until the day of or before the contest.