Ein Freund und ich wollten spontan Shadowverse morgen in der Stadt spielen. Wir könnten jetzt natürlich in einem Restaurant spielen, aber dann müssen wir immer was kaufen und Mitarbeiter schauen dann nach ner Stunde immer, wenn du noch vor Ort bist und nichts weiteres bestellst.

Hello Admirals,

Round 2 delivered exactly what I hoped for: competitive games, close series, new strategies and some really enjoyable casts. With the new Patch now settling into the meta, we are slowly getting a clearer picture and saw some Commandships, as well as Titans, as well as the true endurance of some players and casters. We had some BIG games.

Without further ado, let’s move into Round 3 of the Time to hit BIG season.

https://preview.redd.it/sqd0pn93t60h1.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=4c2d97417e50a620715b6eadd7d013244e2c4cb0

Round 3 Pairings

Dad FPS & The Dial-Up Kid vs Missile knows where it isnt

Expandieren und Auslöschen vs Fleet CMD

ThirdFeather vs NauseousEmoji

Mappool & Draft Changes

The new patch promised more opportunities, fixing maps via Override Starting Position, but it seems it broke some maps. Main issue is on Razor's Egde with its 3 positions. In a 2v2 it seems to spawn teamA on the suicide and eco position while teamB gets eco position and aggro position. Another issue is Crossfire where you can't play it both ways.

I am a big Razors Edge fan, but honestly as long as it isn't fixed it needs to go out of the 2v2 pool. Now we are looking at an even number of maps. There are a number of ways to solve this. I could enforce a map or ban another one. Crossfire would be the first ban option as its also not working properly, the other would be Hammerfall as the argueably oddest map in the pool. Another idea would be working with hidden bans as in the very first season, but that was rather impractical. Another solution would be losers choice to pick a map and leave one open, which will be the official ruling now:

The new drafting works like this:

1. Do a dieroll.
2. The winner of the dieroll decides if they want first pick, but also has to ban first or get the second ban.
3. TeamA bans a map.
4. TeamB bans a map.
5. TeamA picks a map from the remaining 4.
6. Loser of Game one picks a map from the remaining 3.
7. In case of a 1-1, loser of Game two picks a map from the last remaining 2.

2v2 Mappool:

• Crossfire
• Shuriken
• Transtav
• Scrambler
• Hammerfall
• High Stakes

The 3v3 Mappool doesn't change. (In case we end up with 3v3s due to recruiting of players.)

gl hf Admirals

Round 1 Results

https://preview.redd.it/nd7dvat3osxg1.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=addcf74e218020ee5c666465cb7898d6ac2108b7

Round 1 is over and we got some, I wouldnt call it spicy, but definetely tense games. We almost lost half of the replays, but thankfully BiovoreBarrage didnt update his Sins2, so he could cast what WrathfulStrudel couldn't so we ended up with all replays casted and none lost. Big thanks to the casters making time in their schedule to cast the 4P2B games. I am happy to see some more people trying their luck on Hammerfall and I also love to see many different factions this tournament. Sadly we didn't found an 8th Team to compete against SOMA, so we will continue with 6 teams.

Without further delays, we have our first standings:

The winner of round 1:

• Fleet CMD
• Missile knows where it isnt
• Dad FPS & The Dial-Up kid

with 0-1 going into the next round:

• ThirdFeather
• Expandieren und Auslöschen
• NauseousEmoji

The next matchups for Round 2 are:

Fleet CMD vs Missile knows where it isnt

Dad FPS & The Dial-Up kid vs Third Feather

Expandieren und Auslöschen vs NauseousEmoji

Teams are already informed and the first match is already scheduled for this sunday.

Tournament Format - why 4 rounds?

With less than 10 teams only 3 rounds are really needed to determe a winner via swiss system. Not all teams are interested in winning the whole tournament, but rather getting a good placement and fun matches. To get more games and a precise placement via opponent match winrates a fourth round will be added as well as a Bo5 finals with the 2 best teams of the tournament. This means every team can still qualify for the finals with a 3-1 score and win it. I am aware that some games in Round 4 will be rather stompy, since teams are forcefully down/uppaired, but unlike Round Robin, the most unfair MUs between a 3-0 and a 0-3 won't happen and can be avoided.

Patch 1.55 is on the horizon

To ensure the castability of the games, they will be played on the live version. I tested the patch and it looks fun, will be a nice little twist when released. Honestly, it can't be released fast enough.
I expect the Grand Final being played on Patch 1.55 and in that case, the Grand Final will have an increased mappool with 2v2 Foreign Invasion and Gemini - welcome back old friend.

Really hyped for the game and race.

My starting Techs will be Gravity Drive, thanks to Ghosts and either AIDA or Neural Motivator. Home System and Hero will propably be Mentak ones. I like the 3 Action cards, since Action cards with Action: tend to be rather strong. Of course I would love the Hero from Argent Flight, but the Home System is just not it. I feel the Xxcha Hero and Homesystem are also fine, so that was a close call.

I have a green skip and a red skip in my slice (Faunus legendary Planet, MX) and I am 5th to pick. Have Nekro to my right, other races are Saar, Empyrean and NRA which is to my left. Nekro is between me and Ghosts and also tends to play honorable in the last games regarding our borders. So he might want to see how I respond to aggression or expects a friendly neighbor in me too.

Regarding Tech path, I want to go Sarween into Hyper Metabolism before going into the Network R3.

As a 5th pick I hope for Politic, for Breakthrough and to go for Leadership R2, going for MR and either Tech, Imperial or Construction R3, but wouldnt mind Tech or Construction R1 either and I am still kind of fine with Trade. What I see is that the Keleres is rather rich and independent with their economy. This is great, since I hate picking Trade and negotiate. Also free Infanterie R3 and onwards sounds nice on each Production. I wonder if I should grab a PDS at some point for the planetary shielding at some point for MR or my Home World. Also not sure how long the game goes. We might propably go to 14 with only 6 players. So after Network and Hyper Metabolism, I might go for the Agenda Research and Unit Upgrades.

With a go on MR on R2 without Sarween Tools I will propably get a bit thin. Plan is having a Mech and some Inf on every single planet system and a big Fleet with Flagship in my 3 planet system right before MR, so Nekro cant easily grab ships from me. Also people need to pay Influence that way to me, if they want to steal a Planet from the Keleres Council.

Since I will only start with Unit Upgrades around my fourth tech, I rather see Neural Motivater being the better tech over the course of the 3 games. AIDA is also only really needed for Destroyer II and Carrier II which are both great upgrades, but I might be fine without it. Inf II might be the biggest upgrade, which I can grab easily.

We propably introduce our factions and I want to highlight the Agenda aspect of the race the most. What is the best way to do it? Hoping to sell my Keleres Rider for around 2 TGs rather than 1.

Anything I am missing or should be worried about?

Also how does Nekro interact with my Agenda Research?