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It's locust!
eb Dec 22, 2013

We've had locust vs LocKtar tonight and what a great encounter it was! There were some real nail biters in there with Aerowalk being tied up for the better part of the match and Dm4 having two overtimes. We also had a Dm2 that was taken by LocKtar rather convincingly. The last two maps (Ztndm3 and Dm6) were pure domination by locust though and give him his well-earned first victory in DuelMania!

Congratulations to
locust
for taking the title in a final score of 3:2!

I'd like to thank my fellow admins Shame, racersnigeln, mipa and anni for having done a great job! Looking forward doing another season with you guys!

I also would like to thank andeh, peppe and bps for doing live commentary at twitch.tv/suddendeathTV and cooke for taking care of our russian spectators at ru.twitch.tv/deliberatemurder.

You can find VOD of suddendeathTV's coverage here: twitch.tv/suddendeathtv/c/3434000

And of course thanks to all spectators (we had 100+ on QTV, 240 unique viewers on the stream and 169 max concurrent viewers) for whom this tournament is done in the first place. (Thanks to andeh for the stats!)

Now off to enjoy your vacations! Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

New ping rules for next season
eb Nov 29, 2013
The BLooD_DoG vs spec case

The BLooD_DoG vs spec match was quite an eye opener that the DuelMania rules are pretty much lacking in the department of ping rules for EU vs non-EU matches. Although I despise the way spec discussed and behaved, he certainly had a point that an EU player doesn't have to play on a server where the non-EU player has the lowest possible ping. That said, I also have to say that I fully stand behind the admin's decision of continuing to play on the original server, simply because spec played a prac there and agreed on the server. But wanting to change the server after losing the first map is just... sad.

The new approach

In any case, players can agree to play on any server they want. And playing a fair game at equal pings is encouraged. But of course we cannot enforce that, since it's not really a player's fault if the opponent has a crappy connection.

As it stands, I dislike our current set of ping rules. They are too complicated and still incomplete! So, after thinking about it a while, here's my new take:

1) To determine a server to play the game on, both players show their lowest possible ping on a QW server IN EUROPE. The lowest ping values are then clipped to 39ms for EU vs EU matches, and to 52ms for matches that involve a non-EU player. 2) Servers where the DIFFERENCE of both lowest pings is retained are valid to play the match on.

Some examples
  • FI vs SE match with lowest possible pings: 13ms vs 13ms.
    After clipping: 39ms vs 39ms = ping difference of 0ms.
    → The players have to find a server with equal pings.
    I.e. SE server with minping 26ms which will result in a 26ms vs 26ms game.
  • NL vs SE match with lowest possible pings: 26ms vs 13ms.
    After clipping: 39ms vs 39ms = ping difference of 0ms.
    → The players have to find a server with equal pings.
    I.e. DK server with minping 39ms which will result in a 39ms vs 39ms game.
  • US vs SE match with lowest possible pings: 91ms vs 13ms.
    After clipping: 91ms vs 52ms = ping difference of 39ms.
    → The players have to find a server with a ping difference of 39ms.
    I.e. UK server with minping 52ms which will result in a 91ms vs 52ms game.
  • US vs RU match with lowest possible pings: 91ms vs 26ms.
    After clipping: 91ms vs 52ms = ping difference of 39ms.
    → The players have to find a server with a ping difference of 39ms.
    I.e. NL server with minping 65ms which will result in a 104ms vs 65ms game.
  • US vs PT match with lowest possible pings: 130ms vs 13ms.
    After clipping: 130ms vs 52ms = ping difference of 78ms.
    → The players have to find a server with a ping difference of 78ms.
    I.e. UK server with minping 52ms which will result in a 130ms vs 52ms game.
  • RU vs PT match with lowest possible pings: 13ms vs 13ms.
    After clipping: 39ms vs 39ms = ping difference of 0ms.
    → The players have to find a server with equal pings.
    I.e. UK server with minping 52ms which will result in a 52vs vs 52ms game.

These are just make-belief pings that I roughly estimated. Reality will very likely look different. But you get the general idea (I hope). What I like about this set of rules is that it's simple and monolithic, while covering all possibilities. The only adjustment of it is 39ms vs 52ms clipping depending if a non-EU player is involved.

Let me know what you think!

Some DuelMania history
eb Nov 7, 2013

I prepared static archives of all the old DuelMania tournaments for you to browse. Have fun!

Here we have the old series of DuelMania:

DuelMania 1

  • Date: April 2001
  • 64 participants
  • Admins: Supa, Sleiv, Vertigo
  • Winner: Vana
  • Runner-up: Acid

DuelMania 2

  • Date: June 2002
  • 64 participants
  • Admins: cara, Ibsen, kippo, ParadokS, RigorMortis, supa, Vertigo, xhrl, Zhin
  • Winner: mrlame
  • Runner-up: fifi

DuelMania 3 (for a laugh, hover over the PI sign on the top right corner)

  • Date: June 2003
  • 220 participants
  • Admins: dopeskillz, kippo, mirage, ParadokS, sassa, uiG, Vertigo
  • Winner: Milton
  • Runner-up: chAmp

DuelMania 4

  • Date: June 2004
  • 289 participants
  • Admins: dopeskillz, Drugs-Bunny, Jogi, sassa, ZkilfinG
  • Winner: reppie
  • Runner-up: phantasy

Here we have the country-specific DuelManias:

DuelMania.de

  • Date: September 2004
  • 50 participants
  • Admins: Apollyon, Cyrax, Jogi, Spoink
  • Winner: spoink
  • Runner-up: necroth

DuelMania.dk

  • Date: September 2004
  • 37 participants
  • Admins: ParadokS, Shame
  • Winner: ParadokS
  • Runner-up: eMbAh

DuelMania.fi

  • Date: September 2004
  • 57 participants
  • Admins: mega, Vertigo
  • Winner: Milton
  • Runner-up: Gamer

DuelMania.hu

  • Date: October 2004
  • 39 participants
  • Admins: crash, Iron, ox
  • Winner: milamber
  • Runner-up: musi

DuelMania.nl

  • Date: September 2004
  • 38 participants
  • Admins: FlePser, Purity
  • Winner: optimizer
  • Runner-up: FlePser

DuelMania.no

  • Date: October 2004
  • 22 participants
  • Admins: Drugs-Bunny, ibsen
  • Winner: TheChosenOne
  • Runner-up: badname

DuelMania.pl

  • Date: September 2004
  • 50 participants
  • Admins: alcapone, caban
  • Winner: Avenger
  • Runner-up: -insane-

DuelMania.pt

  • Date: September 2004
  • 29 participants
  • Admins: Bcm, Coinz, konk, mushi
  • Winner: Infest
  • Runner-up: nitemare

DuelMania.ru (archive incomplete)

  • Date: November 2004
  • 47 participants
  • Admins: B1aze, glad, slam, VVD, witka
  • Winner: doom
  • Runner-up: del

DuelMania.se

  • Date: October 2004
  • 61 participants
  • Admins: hickan, mogge
  • Winner: seese
  • Runner-up: ultra

DuelMania.uk

  • Date: November 2004
  • 16 participants
  • Admins: gaz, telly
  • Winner: def
  • Runner-up: Predsr

And here we have DuelMania True Masters which was invite-only and featured each country:

DuelMania True Masters (archive incomplete)

  • Date: December 2004
  • 32 participants
  • Admins: dopeskillz, ParadokS, Vertigo
  • Winner: optimizer
  • Runner-up: Gamer
Late additions
eb Oct 21, 2013

Of course, right after I created the bracket, there were two players that wanted to be added. One of them is jek (seems to be a rookie) and the other one is Bulat.

No harm done in adding the rookie to the bracket, since it doesn't really mess with the seeding. But adding Bulat resulted in a high calibre first round match between bps and him. I checked with bps and he is fine with it.

So, watch out for bp vs bulat this week. There will be a .qw on QuakeNet.

Edit: Aaaand another late addition: Grc vs LocKtar it is! Watch out for it!

About the admin process
eb Oct 20, 2013

There has been some confusion in the past on how the DuelMania admins deal with walkovers. Not mentioning names, but some players thought it would be enough to idle in our IRC channel and periodically shout the opponents name, in order to get a walkover. That's not how it goes though. So, here's the process:

  • First off, we will be strict with giving the necessary WOs every week to remove idle players and keep the momentum.
  • Sometimes a player realizes that he has been removed from the bracket and tries to play his match late. Before doing so, this has to be confirmed by his opponent and also the next opponent if applicable (they all have to agree to play the match late).
  • In general we'll try to get a hold of players on the day of the deadline, asking them why their game didn't get played. So, it's definitely a plus to be on IRC. Mind you, we won't give you a WO just for idling on IRC, if there's no indication that you made an effort to arrange the game.
In any case, the best option is to just talk to us if there are any kind of problems.