Was not expecting to relive a blow-by-blow of my brief Icarus moment 
The Final Battle is a great community experience. Attitudes remain surprisingly positive through the night despite total exhaustion!
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Still can’t believe someone drank a case of beer over the duration. That’s commitment!
I think you misread that. It was Budweiser, not beer.
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I’m conflicted because my gameplan will be very similar but I’ll be really mad if I don’t get the medal for playing in every match. I’ll just have to bring a 30 rack of Busch light instead of drinking IPAs the whole time. Haha
Almost everyone gets the medal the two times I have attended. It’s a great article and very representative of my experiences there but of course some things may seem more dramatic. Considering how much pinball gets played during that tournament it kinda makes sense. I usually drink some beer around normal beer-o-clock and then around 2/3am start back up…
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That’s surprising. I assumed at least half take a round or two off over the course of the tournament.
Nope. No one does. If you did it would ruin your standing. It’s not the intention of the tournament to play when you want. Round after round after round after round…
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Okay. That’s cool then. I was mistaken. Impressive that everyone plays the whole time. Can’t wait. Fingers crossed I can snag a ticket.
Each round is 4-player groups on a bank of 3 games, and the rounds averaged around 1.5 hours. That’s 16 rounds in 24 hours. But with Swiss pairing the top groups take longer to play, so the groups further down in the standings get about a 15-30 minute break between rounds. That’s figuring 1.5 hours per round for the top groups and around 1 hour for lower groups.
If you don’t want to get worn out just play like crap and you’ll have more time to relax, lol.
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It would be interesting to play with balanced pairings to avoid the 15-30 minute lag between rounds for the other 96 players. I understand why swiss is done so the winners path to victory is the hardest it can be. It just does so at the cost of others playing less pinball but maybe the other 96 players prefer that. Do the top 4 prefer not having that 15-30 min break? I have no idea.
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It would change the whole structure of the tournament. Would change how we do payouts across the whole 100 player field last round. Changes why people keep playing to do a little better even when they are at the bottom at 3 am.
I encourage you to experience the event before suggesting changes. I’m always open for suggestions but I prefer suggestions from people who have experienced it and truly know how it unfolds. I’ve definitely spent a lot of time thinking this out thoroughly.
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To me the whole structure of the tournament is 24hrs and Group MatchPlay which stays intact. I dont see any changes to payout or people’s motivation to play simply based on pairings. Can you elaborate? Thanks
I haven’t participated in the 24-Hour Battle, but I can see some reasons why balanced pairings wouldn’t work with what they’re going for.
For starters, the prize structure is set up so that the winner of each group in the final round gets money. The amount decreases as you go down through the groups, so the higher you place, the more money you have a chance to win. This incentivizes performance right to the end because you need to win your group to get cash. With Swiss pairing, you’re going to be with folks who have performed about the same as you throughout the event, so probably even odds. If it’s balanced pairings, it’s much more likely that the skill level will be unbalanced, and while some people might enjoy being the underdog, many won’t. Especially not after 24 hours without sleep, I’d imagine.
Another advantage to Swiss pairing is that the top players are always competing against each other for points, so there’s a greater chance for movement. With balanced pairings, the top folks are less likely to play each other after facing off once and are just going to have more of a chance to rack up points.
We use balanced pairing for running our league tournaments because it’s meant to be a social thing and we want folks to have a chance to play against a variety of people, but that’s probably not the goal of this event.
Different formats serve different purposes and it all depends on what you’re going for which is best for your event.
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i understand the way the payout is structured is dependent upon swiss pairings but that could be mitigated by paying out the top 25. I understand swiss pairings will provide the most difficult path to victory which provides validation that the winner didn’t just win based on pairings. I was more interested in the balance someone mentioned where top players dont have the 20-30 minutes of break time between rounds compared to the majority waiting on them.
People are clamoring to register for the event and everyone who plays loves it. It’s certainly not broke, so…
I prefer not having the break. I’d get groggy if I was sitting around waiting between rounds. 5 minutes is ideal to use the restroom and grab a snack, but anything longer is just time to get tired. The rare times I’ve had breaks I usually practice on games I haven’t played yet to test feeds and tilts, etc.
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Top players always take longer regardless.
Paying out top 25 won’t incentivize people to keep playing and to the best of their abilities in the bottom 25% at all come the middle of the night.
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Top players grouped together are more likely to take longer, i agree with that.
You must feel the $$ incentive is the motivation players need to make the event successful. I would of thought other reasons like competition, organizers and the niche of being part of the 24 hour event.
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My 24 hour experience says that no one really wants breaks. A break is just killing time until you get to play, and is an unwanted opportunity to get more tired or fall asleep.
What would be worse than breaks is slaughter pairing for a full twenty four hours. Aside from evening out play times between groups (which is good), it would be awful from a competition point of view.
The less skilled players would be getting killed round after round, while the best players would be cruising through, with very little competition. Actually they’d be engaged in bitter indirect competition with the other top players who are in other groups…hoping to outscore someone they aren’t even playing against.
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24 hr version of Pinball, Pinball, Pinball (Flippin’ Frenzy) that would really cut down on the breaks 
I NEVER felt tired throughout any part of my GWR 30hr marathon, nor while actually playing in any format of competition. The same can be said for when you’re playing a console game, or watching crap on YouTube - whether it’s the focus needed, or the lights from the machine/screen or combination of both it just doesn’t happen. As soon as you stop though, that’s when the tiredness hits you.
Sounds like a great, fun tournament, there was one scheduled in the UK last year, but with only 12 people signing up the format had to be changed into 2 separate comps over 2 days.