XQC #93 (Duel)

Hi beloved Xonoticians!

Not long time ago we had a poll about changing vortex balance and we were very pleased to collect your valuable opinions. Unfortunately nobody really cared to actually playtest the proposed changes, so now it's time to fix that! And let's do it in the one of the most important gaming modes first - the DUEL.

The most popular option from the poll (flat 65 dmg, no charge, same force) was included into the testing balance. The testing balance also includes crylink buff, increased MG penetration and enabled remote rocket jump.

You can practice with the testing balance on "psyx duel" servers. Open console and type "vcall balance-testingxpm" (without quotes).

WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 12th. 20:00 CEST (18:00 UTC).
Check-in: 19:00-19:55 CEST
Join #xonotic.cup ( https://webchat.quakenet.org/?channels=xonotic.cup )


Map pool: Aerowalk, Blood Run, Final Rage, Quark, Stormkeep

Format
The Cup will be divided into two stages - group stage and knockout stage (double elimination). 

Group Stage
The group stage has a seeding purpose for the bracket and no one gets eliminated in this stage.

- Each group consists of 4 players
- Round Robin
- Best of 1

Example:

Group 1 plays out seed #1, #2, #3 and #4
Group 2: seed #5 - #8
Group 3: seed #9 - #12
etc.

Obviously the group stage will have a seeding already, which means that you should end up in a group with similar skilled players.
This way, also lower level skilled players can have some fun and not just get stomped.

Double Elimination

There will be a Winner Bracket and a Loser Bracket.
If you lose a match, you will drop to the Loser Bracket and continue playing.
If you lose again you are out of the tournament

Map picking

Group Stage
- Best of 1 (Bo1) (= 1 map win needed)
- Heads/Tails->Cointoss + Drop-Drop-Drop-Drop

Rounds before Winner Bracket Semifinal and Loser Bracket Final
- Best of 1 (Bo1) (= 1 map win needed)
- Heads/Tails->Cointoss + Drop-Drop-Drop-Drop

Winner Bracket Semifinal, Winner Bracket Final and Loser Bracket Final
- Best of 3 (Bo3) (= 2 map wins needed)
- Heads/Tails->Cointoss + Pick-Pick-Drop-Drop -> If it ends 1:1 the remaining map is the decider. No draws possible.

Grand Final
- Best of 5 (Bo5) (= 3 map wins needed)
- WB Winner declares a map he 'wins' and goes 1-0 up, LB winner picks 1st map. After that map loser will pick the next map.

I'm not 100% sure I can participate that day, but I'll play if possible!

Supreme Champion: Tommy
Worthy Adversary: Spike
Maybe Next Time: morosophos

4th place: hotdog
5th place tie: Seeky, lightbringer
7th place: BuddyFriendGuy

https://challonge.com/g83mv75
https://challonge.com/v3at4izc/groups

GGS

My thoughts about the balance:
Vortex is too weak. 65 is too strong nerf. It worked in vodka balance because weapon switching was faster, but in vanilla it's just too weak.
Crylink secondary is strange. Mario intended it to be a buff, but in reality you can hardly do any damage or slowdown with it, especially on long distances
Rocket flying and mg solidpen couldn't be tested enough in the duel mode.

Some kid just changes magic numbers at random and we call that balance? No way.

Thanks for organizing, top level as always. Too bad it was fucked from the start

My opinion on the experimental balance:

• The Vortex doesn't feel very rewarding, flat 65dmg is frustrating, probably because most of the time on duels I'm used to hit with 80dmg full charge. Maybe flat 70dmg would work better.
  
• The Crylink secondary is just weird. I prefer the current secondary as it is more rewarding (you have to aim more carefully but it slows down the enemy quite a lot).
  
• I didn't really test the MG or Devastator changes (and tbh I still don't really know what the Devastator changes are about).
  

What I think about experimental balance:

• With Vortex I'd go with more damage and less knockback if not remove it completely. With flat 65 it did indeed felt way less satisfying and it felt like other weapons were more useful (unless you were fighting at a really long range, which doesn't happen very often in duel). Maybe with flat 70 it would be better?
  
• I liked crylink primary, the damage it dealt was more consistent. I like consistency, it makes crylink a more useful weapon and gives a bit more options when dealing with weapon denial. You can actually predict how much damage you're going to deal with it a bit better.
  
• Crylink secondary is definitely easier to hit with and overall just adds to the usefulness of the weapon. 
  
• I feel like MG doesn't need any buffs, just leave it as it is.
  

I prefer the current crylink's secondary concentrated pulling strength. It's my favorite weapon and I think it's Xonotic's signature. The modification made it somewhat similar to MG, at least from the perspective of a player who placed the last.