Jeff Kuta#
At the risk of opening Pandora's box of Crypt Grouping Formats, I
wanted to start a discussion of what OTHER formats people might want
to see sanctionable by the VEKN. This has something that's always
been in the back of my mind, and after reading curevei's electronic
profile, I figured I'd go ahead and start a thread.
Currently we have open Constructed and restricted set (e.g. Sabbat War
only) Constructed, as well as five various Sealed/Draft formats.
I think the sealed formats pretty much cover what people want, but I
think that alternate Constructed formats could be beneficial and, for
lack of a better word, "interesting."
First questions first though. Should there be more sanctionable types?
I think so. Most importantly, having more options could encourage
people who are otherwise bored with tournament play to try out
different ideas and strategies in an "official" setting. While many
don't give much credence to the current rating system, I still think
that it's nice to compete in sanctioned events, if only so they affect
your rating (and please let's not get off topic during this thread).
Personally, it feels like progress when my Career stats change, even
if it's in the wrong direction.
Now for the weak reason. There seems to me little reason that there
shouldn't be more formats, unless White Wolf has some plans for the
future where the purity of their ratings is paramount. But if that
were the case, couldn't you simply have a composite Constructed and
Sealed ranking, and if special cuts of the data were necessary, filter
out the "alternate" types? You could also have Limited Draft and
Limited Sealed cuts of the data. It would seem fairly easy to
accomplish.
I'd like to see all these Storyline events Sanctionable. During the
two months out of the year that these worldwide events occur, almost
the entire VTES community gets together and competes; always for fun,
but the competition is very good. Players that might otherwise just
play in their own regular groups get together and things really get
mixed up. The lure of promo cards is enough to get players travelling
across state and country borders just to play VTES. I think it's a
golden opportunity for WW to gauge the strength of it's players by
sanctioning the 100+ events that occur during the Storyline Events.
I'd also like to see some of the Storyline Formats CONTINUE to be
Sanctionable even after the premiere events are over. The Eye of
Hazimel format might be a great thing for people to continue replaying
over and over just for fun at home, but why not let it continue to be
available? The only objection I could see is if new players randomly
show up at an event and find out their decks don't meet the specified
criteria. In that case, blame belongs with the host and tournament
organizer for not promoting the alternate nature of the event.
I think that a generic "storyline" format would also be well received.
Simply forcing players to use 75% of their crypts with identical clans
significantly changes the environment. For one, it would discourage,
or perhaps eliminate most types of weenie decks. I don't seem weenie
decks being as big a problem as some do, but this alternate format
would certainly force people to make difference choices. Some may
argue that this format would unduly limit the number of viable decks
since there's less cross-pollenation of disciplines, but I think
having strong clan oriented decks compete in this format can be
refreshing at times.
Really, I don't have a ton more ideas for this thread, but I know
there are plenty of people who do. I did want to get some discussion
rolling. Hopefully if there is enough interest, the VEKN might adopt
some of the ideas herein.
Jeff