Origins `90 Tournament Report
Part 3

Tournament Scoring Revisited

by Tony Valle

The legendary Canadian contingent of Air Superiority folk recently held a tournament in the Toronto area and they used the new scoring system outlined in Issue #10. While I haven't had the chance to talk it over with them directly, they did talk to J.D. about it and I got the information second hand from him.

The preliminary report is that they felt the system didn't work very well. They did think that it may be better than the numerous systems tried to date, but they weren't sure. Mind you, I am interpreting second hand dialogue here, so if you actually talk to the Canadians about it, you may hear a different story. I'll be getting in touch with them via email shortly (I hope) to get the details first hand. J.D. and I discussed this at some length and came to an important conclusion-the tournament scoring system only works as well as the underlying point scoring system.

The central theme behind this scoring system is that is reduces inequities. Its supposed to narrow the gap between the best scorer and the worst scorer in the room in any one round. It's also supposed to reward consistency, but in order to do that it must be used for several rounds. What I discovered as we discussed the Canadian reaction was that they had used a point system similar to those tried in the 1987 and 1988 Origins tournament by J.D. Points were awarded for valid missile shots, turns of advantage, and so on.

While this should not present a problem in principle, in practice its quite a different story. As our fine Canuck friends noticed, pairing a novice against a veteran gamer in such a system virtually guarantees that the latter will rack up a huge number of points and thus finish first in the round. If there are several rounds where everyone gets to face the same average level of competition, this is not a problem. When there are very few rounds, however, the purpose of the tournament scoring system can be defeated.

Solutions

Some potential solutions to the above problems suggest themselves. My personal choice is to use the VP system out of Air Superiority as the basic point award system. It is based on the one thing that really counts in an air battle- killing the other guy. Some might argue that this will still lead to inequities when a veteran gets in against a rank novice, and that is true. But that is a problem with the system used to pair opponents and is a problem that comes up in any competitive gaming situation.

I would like to point out again that the system I have outlined has been used to score tournament bridge for half a century, at least. It works well because the basic scoring system of bridge is well-defined and very equitable. If Air Superiority is around 50 years from now, maybe it will have a VP system as well constructed. In a bridge tournament, you face the problem of good pairs feasting off the weaker ones, and a lucky pair will often win more games and get a higher point total that it would have if they had been forced to face stiffer competition. In bridge circles such a situation is known as a "fix". I've been on both sides of a fix before and while it is mildly annoying, I can live with it. It tends to balance out in the long run. If you take a longer view of Air Sup gaming, you'll see that no single tournament should be considered overly important.

Good pilots will win more often and more consistently than bad pilots. The tournament system is not supposed to always produce finishers in order of relative playing abilitythat would be very stifling, I think. I enjoy the fact that I can go down to the bridge club tonight and win, even though my partner and I are not the best pair in the room. It gives us a little reward that keeps our interest in the game high. We won't win too often, however, if we don't improve as players. The good pairs will carry away a larger portion of the rewards over time. This gives us an incentive to improve. All in all, I think the system works very well.

Developments

The 1991 Origins will feature a fully-structured Air Superiority tournament. We hope to have team and individual competition and a variety of events for both Air Superiority and Air Strike. J.D. and I are interested in supporting a nationwide tournament system with the annual national event held at Origins each year. The Baltimore Origins this year win be a test of this concept.

In order for this to work, we need your help. If you or your gaming group are interested in sponsoring sanctioned Air Superiority / Air Strike tournaments, write us and let us know. I am available on GEnie as A.VALLE2 or through my internet address: vaHe@huntsville.sparta.com. You can always reach me via Snail Mail as well. We would like to see tournaments being held as regularly as possible. If you get us advance notice, we'll mention it in AIR POWER and if you send along the results, we'll highlight the winners.

Ultimately, J.D. and I are setting ourselves up to be the national clearinghouse for tournament results and player rankings. We have a system envisioned where a player collects points by winning or placing in regional and sectional tourneys, moving up through the rankings: Green, Novice, Regular, and Veteran. Special point totals within a time period, say most points within a year, for example, would win Sierra Hotel or Combat Hero awards. Hey J.D., should we hold classes to give out Tactics Master certificates?

Well, there's no end to the possibilities for membership cards, T-shirts, buttons, and the like. Once again, we're not in this for the money (how many rabid Air Sup gainers are there anyway?) but for the fun and the desire to reward dedicated and talented players. Given the way I seem to play at tourneys, you know I'm not in it for the glory.

What do you think? Please send us your ideas and we'll give you some feedback as soon as we can. We want to keep the community excited and interested.

Origins `90 Tournament Report Part 3

Origins `90 Tournament Report Part 2

Origins `90 Tournament Report Part 1

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