There was some talk after the first Abba match on the 1.9 match of doing some type of Tournament Style system to kick up the excitement of Abba. There were some ideas tossed around, but a few people seemed to like the idea of trying to model a tournament after NASCAR's Sprint Cup and their "Chase for the Sprint Cup". I have been mulling over some ideas in my head and talking with some other people about how best to set this up. I figured it was time to open this up for a larger discussion so that we can move to it if so desired.

For those of you not aware of how the Chase works in NASCAR, there are 36 races with 43 racers to determine a season winner. Each racer is awarded points based on their placement at the end of each race, with bonus points for leading a lap, leading the most laps, and winning the race. At the end of the 26th race, the top racers have their points reset to a value mathematically impossible to be eclipsed by the rest of the field, and to level the field between them to make the last races just as valuable as the first (prior to this, there were racers going into the last race with the cup already won).

Enough background though, on to what I would like to propose. I was figuring of having a total of 18 matches. All matches would be open to how many people wish to enter. After the end of the 15th match, the top 3 players would have their point totals adjusted and they would take part in the chase during the last 3 matches. At the end, the winner would take the cup.

To determine the top 3 players, we would implement a points system (separate from the Abba scores). Each player for entering a competition would be awarded One Point for each match, capped at a maximum of 10 points (to ensure that people can miss events and not be negatively impacted). For bonus points, One Point will be awarded for finding dungeon artifacts in a match, with no cap for a total potential of 15 points.

The top 5 people in each match will be awarded points based on their placement. 1st Place will receive Ten Points, 2nd Place is Eight Points, 3rd Place is Six Points, 4th Place is 4 Points, and 5th Place is 2 Points. No points (outside of participation and bonus) will be awarded to anyone placing 6th place and below. Should there be less than 6 participants, last place will be awarded 0 points instead of the normal placing points. At the end of the 15th match, each players top 7 placing points will be used to find their placement (again, to help with missing matches, plus an odd off match).

The Cup's award will be taken from the total prize from each of the individual 18 matches. The winner of the match will take home 75% of the winnings of the match. 15% will be set aside for the Abba Cup, and 10% distributed evenly among the other participants. The Abba Cup itself will be a winner take all award to the top Abba player.

The first 15 matches will be held on a regular basis similar to how they are held now. To ensure fair opportunity for the 3 players in the chase, the final 3 matches will be held when the players in the chase are all eligible for participate. These 3 matches will be set in advance, and should one of the players not able to make that match, the match will continue as scheduled.

Tie Breaking procedures for finding the top 3 players as possible:
1: The player with the most Abba Wins in the first 15 matches
2: Top 5 Abba scores
3: Top 10 Abba scores
4: All 15 Abba Scores (note, if participated in less than 15 matches, 0 scores will be used for the missed matches)
5: Coin Flip

Tie Breaking Procedure for the Abba Cup Winner
1: Most wins in the final 3 matches
2: Abba Scores in the final 3 matches.
3: Prize will be split evenly among winners.

Please discuss. This post may be modified during the discussion.

I like the idea and I'm totally open to something like this, heck I even suggested a similar idea. But while reading this my only contention is keeping a players. A race to the cup would be pointless if the same 3-5 people played every time, with other random players filling in other spots.

I think we need to strongly focus on mandating a specific day and time and keep it. Whether it's the second Saturday of the month at 8PM Eastern or what. Once we get regular abba matches and start getting a bit of activity. I say this because our methods of advertising abba is wholly inclusive. It's either in the Skype group chat or in IRC/Gamechat. We reach only the most regular users with that method. Sure, there are users who hop on and ask if there is an Abba match planned in the future but it's not an adequate way to go about it.

If we have regularly scheduled abba matches we can put this on the P@C page, we can write about it on Minecraft server forums; we can use that regularity as a selling point. Then, start the race to the cup once we get a decently sized regular crew.

Sorry to hijack your topic for that. I do have ideas, however.

You mention bonus points for having the fastest lap, most laps led, etc etc in NASCAR. We could do similar things in Abba. Give bonus points for the most Diamond Ores found, emerald, lapis, etc down the line. I'm not sure what else we can give points for without writing a plugin, which I think lennart did write one? But this plugin would have to track the points live. That way, after the match, someone like myself or Elemental can analyze the data and determine who was in the lead the the longest, who got the most points in a determined time span.

For that time span, it could be a minute. But not the same minute for everyone that might be unfair; in racing your lap is counted as you cross the line, it's possible to be in last place but still set a fast lap though unlikely. As such, everyones minute should be set to the best possible. It's possible I found 120 points in my best minute but came in 3rd while 1st only found a max of 70 points in their best minute.

I'm sure there are other stats we could throw in there too with such a tailored plugin, such as "least amount of non-ore blocks broke" or something.

I agree that we need to do a standard time for the matches for this, though I was thinking of doing more weekly matches and not monthly (as to try and have the time frame shortened). I don't think it is hijacking to talk about it, though it isn't strictly about The Chase.

Also, I like the idea of having the plugin track those types of stats. I was struggling a bit with how to do bonus points, and went with about the only thing I could think of with what could be found out at the end of the match. Most of a certain type of an ore could be used as well (or even setting a new Abba record).