Turn-Based Tournaments - Mind Sports Olympiad

Overview

New for 2023 we will be holding some tournaments with a turn-based format. Turn-based means that rather than everyone being online at the same time and playing the game in real-time, players are given substantially more time (several hours, days or even weeks) to make their moves. After making a move, you leave the game and check back a few hours later to see if it has come around to your turn again.

We want to include some turn-based games primarily because this allows us to include some games on the schedule that may otherwise be difficult to host in real-time. Weekend double session slots are in high demand on our timetable and particularly with the heavier multiplayer games there are so many that require a lot of time in order to complete a tournament in one day. By holding the opening rounds of these tournaments turn-based we can fit these great games in where we might not otherwise be able to. We will also be trialling some games from other categories, as feedback following 2022 showed there was strong interest in turn-based tournaments and this is something we would like to explore. Real-time play will always be the core of the MSO and all of our tournaments will conclude with a real-time final to determine the overall winner.

List of Turn Based Tournaments

The following tournaments shall begin with turn-based rounds in 2023

Gaia Project
Tzolk’in
7 Wonders Agora

Key Dates

Registrations Open – Available Now!
Registrations Close – Saturday 7th January
Tournaments Begin – Wednesday 11th January

Turn-based games will last for approximately 4-6 weeks, depending on the game and the speed at which players play.

Real-time finals have been scheduled for each tournament, however these may be re-arranged if all the players involved agree.

Time-Out Rules

Players are forbidden from kicking any opponent that has ran out of time without obtaining approval from the MSO first. Send us a message in Discord and either Mike or statmatt will advise. We will aim to be lenient with the time allowances as we want as many players as possible to be able to take part, however we may instruct a player to be dropped if a game is at risk of overrunning our schedule or a player is playing unnecessarily slowly. If we do instruct a drop in a multiplayer game the game will be continued with the remaining players (BGA will say the result is nullified, this is incorrect).

Tournament Details & Formats

Gaia Project

Gaia Project shall be organised with all players playing in 3 preliminary games simultaneously (4 player games). Players will be matched against as many different opponents as possible with those matchups being determined by the MSO. All games are played as custom games on BoardGameArena. Once the matchups are published one player should create the table and invite the other players to join the game table. Tables should be setup with the following settings:

Game Speed – Turn-based 2 moves per day (this gives players a bank of 36 hours and an increment of 12 hours per move)
Game Setup – Variable map
Map Size – Normal (use the reduced map size for any 3-player games)
Faction Selection – Draft selected factions
Factions Bans – Enabled

The selection/ban process works as follows: Players first each choose one faction to ban and those factions cannot be used for the game. Players then select the factions for the game, with the randomly determined first player choosing the seat 1 faction, second player seat 2 faction and so on. Once there are as many factions as players in the game selected, players then submit their maximum bids (in terms of points paid) to play as each faction. These bids are taken and the result is calculated. Note you might not pay as much as your maximum bid for a faction if other players did not bid as high for it, the system calculates it so that everybody gets the result most advantageous to them (based on the maximums input).

Players are awarded tournament points based on finishing position in each game (8/5/3/1 for 1st/2nd/3rd/4th, or 8/5/2 in a 3-player game). The top 4 players after the preliminary stage will qualify for the final (Sunday 12th March, 2.30pm UTC). Any ties shall be settled using percentage of best opponents score (max 110%), then most games won and finally buchholz drop 2 if required. There is a more detailed explanation of these tiebreaks on our rules page (these are used in our live tournament standard multiplayer tiebreaks). The winner of the final will win gold, with the remaining medals being determined by overall tournament points tiebroken in favour of the the player who performed better in the final.

To take part, please complete the ~~tournament registration form~~ – entries now closed

Gaia Project Discord Channel – https://discord.gg/J4FYXUavUw

Tzolk’in

Tzolk’in shall be organised with all players playing in 3 preliminary games simultaneously (4 player games). Players will be matched against as many different opponents as possible with those matchups being determined by the MSO. All games are played as custom games on BoardGameArena. Once the matchups are published one player should create the table and invite the other players to join the game table. Tables should be setup with the following settings:

Game Speed – Turn-based 2 moves per day (this gives players a bank of 36 hours and an increment of 12 hours per move)
Uxmal corn limit – Limit to 20 corn

The Uxmal corn limit applies to the Uxmal 2 space, and limits any resource trading to a maximum of 20 corn’s worth of trades. The same limit applies to the building which grants the player the same trading action.

Players are awarded tournament points based on finishing position in each game (8/5/3/1 for 1st/2nd/3rd/4th, or 8/5/2 in a 3-player game). The top 4 players after the preliminary stage will qualify for the final (Saturday 4th March, 2.30pm UTC). Any ties shall be settled using percentage of best opponents score (max 110%), then most games won and finally buchholz drop 2 if required. There is a more detailed explanation of these tiebreaks on our rules page (these are used in our live tournament standard multiplayer tiebreaks). The winner of the final will win gold, with the remaining medals being determined by overall tournament points tiebroken in favour of the the player who performed better in the final.

To take part, please complete the ~~tournament registration form~~ – entries now closed

Tzolk’in Discord Channel – https://discord.gg/BxwBA8B79X

7 Wonders Duel Agora

Our 7 Wonders Duel Agora turn-based tournament shall begin with a preliminary 7 round swiss tournament organised using BoardGameArena’s (BGA’s) tournament system. This shall be followed by a live final involving the top 8 players in a knockout bracket (best of 3 matches).

Game settings can be viewed from the BGA tournament page.

At the conclusion of the preliminary stage, players shall be ranked by the number of games won. Ties shall be broken firstly with buchholz drop 2, then full buchholz and lastly if required, cumulative score. There is a more detailed explanation of these tiebreaks on our rules page (this is our standard tiebreak format).

7 Wonders Duel Agora Discord Channel – https://discord.gg/kJN8B9eyXA

Contacting Us

All communication for these tournaments shall be carried out via Discord. Each tournament has it’s own dedicated channel so if you have any questions or encounter issues during one of your games, please send us a message there. If you would prefer to contact us in private, you can send a direct message to either Mike or statmatt.