H2H8 / Takeaways from H2H8

  • Xeccah%s's Photo

    I'm going to start this convo early seeing how the Round Robin ended, but I was planning on making this thread right after h2h anyway.

     

    From having played in 2 seasons of Head 2 Head both at a fairly high level and on very different team enviroments, it is of my belief that Head 2 Head should never happen again. The community should not continue a deprecated contest when it isn't the best fit for the game and playerbase.
    So, what *is* good about H2H? You get people playing together, and you get a lot of high level work finished rather quickly. I  think there is a better vehicle for these goals than what H2H offers. Let me explain why I think H2H is bad for the community...
     
     
    H2H is a very top-heavy contest. On both teams I have been on it has been a select group of people who build seemingly everything while the other 2/3rds watch. It isn't either parties' fault, but it's of consequence for this matchup-style contest. If you don't use your best players 24/7, you're setting yourself up for failure. The Icons tried this and got shafted, because frankly silver or even mid gold quality in H2H is now unacceptable. The only time where it does work out is like in Haystack where the park relies less on quality of build and more on concepts or little things. This is a good segue into my other issue with H2H, and it has to do with popular vote being the decider. I'm definitely for self-determination, but in the case of rct contests, it leads to parks that have a catch to them and are built to appeal to people have a far better chance. H2H actually disincentivises risk-taking. Teams do best to approach this contest as their parks being products to be sold to the community, rather than making something new and novel and artistic, where it's the community's responsibilty to seek enjoyment out of. Judging parks is a skill in of itself, and it's one that admittedly not all of the community has. H2H's third, and MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE, is that it makes a lot of especially top-level players quit after. You build so much (Literally I've built 160% in BOTH h2h's I've been in so i know firsthand) and afterward you're not left with enough motivation to start or finish major solo projects..
     
     
    So if not H2H, what then? I think we need a new contest format that allows for newer players to work with parkmakers in order to improve their own skill. Something that allows for more risks to be taken and thus different kinds of parks would be created. Something that isn't so hard on players that they don't lose the libido to continue contributing to RCT and NE. 
  • saxman1089%s's Photo

    Why do we need a contest for newer players working with parkmakers? Why can't people just do that without a contest being required?

  • Scoop%s's Photo

    Well said shogo. Well said.

     

    edit: it's because people are more motivated for contests @saxman.

  • Xeccah%s's Photo

    I've asked that myself saxman, but I don't think it really happens outside of H2H, and when it does happen it's  just the top guys leading and micromanaging what the other guys do. That or it's just a guest spot in a park.

     

    I believe that parkmakers in this community have a responsibility to help non-parkmakers to keep this community going when eventually those guys leave. Every internet community is a revolving door, and for a long time in NE there was a drought in quality until those guys slowly got good at the game. 

  • shnupz%s's Photo

    without a contest for motivation it very rarely happens

  • Casimir%s's Photo


    Why do we need a contest for newer players working with parkmakers? Why can't people just do that without a contest being required?

     

     

    Because this is NE and the points matter.

  • Kumba%s's Photo


    Why do we need a contest for newer players working with parkmakers? Why can't people just do that without a contest being required?

    That might actually be my favorite part of H2H, working with newer/less experienced players. They tend to be very motivated to work with a top parkmaker and when you see them improve over the course of the season it's really something you can be proud of. 
  • saxman1089%s's Photo

    I don't think the format of H2H is that bad, and I don't think we should abandon it altogether. I personally am having a good time on my team, because we seem to have allowed for more inexperienced builders to build as much as they wanted. Honestly, maybe we just need player percentage limits. Rather than saying three parks is the max for each player, impose a percentage building limit of 60-70% per player for RR, have it reset and do 20-30% for the playoffs. I think someone proposed this before, so I can't take credit for the idea. I'm also aware that building percentages can be a bit arbitrary, but that can be up to the ref to police, and adding an assistant ref to help.

  • Xeccah%s's Photo

    I proposed that fix saxman, lol. I'm glad that the idea is still being floated around even if the people who will eventually manage the contest (liam) don't.

  • Turtle%s's Photo

    After every H2H you get the same thing happening - someone who didn't enjoy it comes out and says that the model is dead, H2H is stupid, it should never happen again. The exact same arguments, too. Top players quit after, because they build a lot in a short space of time and get burned out. 

     

    That's true, but would you have built two/three awesome parks in the next year if not for H2H? I doubt it.. I know that I wouldn't have. Whenever I took part in H2H, it was the only reason I built three parks in a few months. I would never have motivated myself to do so. I don't think that's a bad thing. 

     

    H2H prioritizing gimmicks is one that comes up often, too. That's a somewhat fair assessment, but again, I don't think it's a bad thing. The most memorable parks ever, for me, have been H2H parks, mostly. Because the model pushes people to create WOW parks. It's also possible to build "traditional" parks and do really well in H2H - Pacificoaster is a great example. Coming from a person who's won (and lost) H2H matches with a pretty wide range of park styles, I honestly believe that if your park is good enough, it will come out on top. 

     

    I think that in general, the best park wins, and there's a MASSIVE spike of productivity from 45 odd people in a three month period. We get literally more than 30 really high quality parks to look at, which is amazing. 

     

    I love it. I might play in the next one.

  • Liampie%s's Photo

    H2H is a great contest, with a good format that works IF THE PLAYERS PLAY. Interesting how the biggest complaints on H2H come from the people don't play the game. Cheaters and saboteurs. Fuck off. H2H is awesome, this post is stupid.

     

    I don't recognize that lower picks aren't getting to build. It's up the captain to come up with a good roster/schedule. Looks like all teams but the UR and the RP did this very well. UR is only top heavy because there seemed to be inactivity problems and you were pushing people out on the parks you were working on. Why is almost every H2H park you do a psuedo-solo? That's not because of the H2H format, that's just you.

  • BelgianGuy%s's Photo

    h2h and this one in particular is becoming more and more like eurovision where every park is being memed instead of looked at in order to sway votes and whatnot because people can't have their E-peen shrunk... The RE vs Icons match was the final straw for me, I get the boohoo I'm leaving but this singlehandedly made 1person have more say over the results of the competition that all other 80 combined. this is bullshit, this is rigging and if the replacements deserved to be ni the finals they just had to win their matches LIKE ANY OTHER TEAM who signed up, people have sunk hours into this beyond count over the last few months and this middle finger from 1 member taking power where he shouldn't have had it pisses me off. I mean other admins should've stopped that readme from release but hey admin that's leaving posted the matchup himself so they couldn't do jack shit about it.

     

    I agree liam, h2h can be beautiful and I wish people would have enough fairplay in their tiny little minds to have it be that way but I guess some just can't and that takes away so much of the competition, like why did we even bother having 5rounds and everybody build 5 parks if 1 I REPEAT 1 person just says, oh I like these guys and I will make sure they make the finals... replacements fucked up R1 by leaking, won 2 rounds, one of wich was rather controversial by the looks of voters being brought back to site, lost one rather closely. The game was supposed to be fair and this just made it clear it doesn't necessarily have to be for some people.

  • Faas%s's Photo

    H2H is a great contest, with a good format that works IF THE PLAYERS PLAY. Interesting how the biggest complaints on H2H come from the people don't play the game. Cheaters and saboteurs. Fuck off. H2H is awesome, this post is stupid.

  • MK98%s's Photo
    I don't think its the format that's lacking. We were too hyped for this. How many times did we have a mock draft on Discord? People were looking forward to this competition for a very long time and that makes people wanna reach the finals too much (or if thats not possible making sure others do). The stuff what happened here was the result of hating the other team combined with the pressure this competition has. H2H9 needs less hype and more fun.
  • In:Cities%s's Photo
    Next contest should be the Dirty Americans vs The rest of the world vs Shogo
  • ottersalad%s's Photo
    I think everyone so far has valid points. H2H is an awesome competition and I’ve loved every minute of it. For many in this years H2H I think it’s been quite fun but a few bad eggs are trying to ruin it.

    Maybe there’s a few tweaks that can be done in terms of park shares and voting to try and make it fair. My only thought is to make which team built which park anonymous until each round is over. Just simply vote on Park A, B, C, D, etc

    I think lower picks have had a chance to build this year. As a floater I’m very happy with my contributions. It’s up to the captains to balance park shares. I’ll be honest in saying I wouldn’t take a park and build shit if I thought G or Cocoa or Jappy would hate it. Maybe it makes sense for a captain to encourage lower picks to contribute? It definitely helped me improve when they chirped at me.

    I’m excited for the community post-h2h, and to win Dirty Americans vs Rest of the World.
  • Coasterbill%s's Photo

    Not all teams are created equal. Our round 1 pick and captain combined to do less than 6% of the work this year.  Scoop was picked in the 8th round and did more than 3 times that by himself (just through round robin).

     

    There are plenty of instances of lower round picks getting a lot of playing times and (in many cases) becoming leaders on the team and growing immensely as players. The same thing happened last season on our Heaven's Gallery team with bigshootergill who was picked in the last round and ended up leading the H2H-winning finals park with Tolsimir.

  • saxman1089%s's Photo

    It would be really fun to figure out the combined percentage each player did throughout the season for their team actually. I should do that later...

  • shnupz%s's Photo

    Next contest should be the Dirty Americans vs The rest of the world vs Shogo


    Shogo would actually do/organise this and you know it. Don't give him ideas.
  • CHE%s's Photo


    It would be really fun to figure out the combined percentage each player did throughout the season for their team actually. I should do that later...

    I thought the same and therefore collected the shares in excel :p

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