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SNES NHL '94 Cup Chase Launch


Tickenest

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After getting sufficient positive feedback, I'm going to attempt to launch the SNES NHL '94 Cup Chase.  We'll run it out of the NHL '94 Discord to start, #cup-chase is the channel.

Please contact me in that channel or directly on Discord if you want to play.

Quick Version i.e. Just Tell Me What’s Expected of Me If I Join

SNES version.  Plan on playing 4-6 games in every 10 day period.  You’ll be assigned opponents by the commissioner.  Match setup is standard: 5 minute periods, penalties, no offsides, no line changes.  You earn points for playing, winning, and playing well.  You also earn currency from playing that can be used to purchase advantages.  Worse players earn more money and can buy advantages more frequently.  It’s possible that an opponent may purchase an advantage to use against you-limit your team selection or force you to start with goalie pulled.   Those are the breaks.

You’re accumulating points over time to try to make it to the Chase championship.  Win there, and you win the title.  Then you defend it against new challengers until you lose.  Then you start climbing the mountain again.  Repeat forever.

 

Tentative rules (I'm open to ideas):

NHL ’94 Cup Chase Rules

 

1. Purposes

The purposes of the NHL ’94 Cup Chase are:

1)      Establish an ongoing competition that can be joined or departed at any time.  This allows the community to point new players to an existing competition for signup rather than possibly having to tell them that there are no competitions available for them

2)      Establish a competition that gives newer/weaker players advantages  in order to increase the possibility that they remain within the community

3)      Give everyone a realistic shot at becoming champion (as the championship changes hands frequently)

4)      Introduce elements to an NHL ’94 competition that aren’t found in contemporary competitions

5)      Have fun

 

2. Quick Version i.e. Just Tell Me What’s Expected of Me If I Join

SNES version.  Plan on playing 4-6 games in every 10 day period.  You’ll be assigned opponents by the commissioner.  Match setup is standard: 5 minute periods, penalties, no offsides, no line changes.  You earn points for playing, winning, and playing well.  You also earn currency from playing that can be used to purchase advantages.  Worse players earn more money and can buy advantages more frequently.  It’s possible that an opponent may purchase an advantage to use against you-limit your team selection or force you to start with goalie pulled.   Those are the breaks.

You’re accumulating points over time to try to make it to the Chase championship.  Win there, and you win the title.  Then you defend it against new challengers until you lose.  Then you start climbing the mountain again.  Repeat forever.

 

3. Competition Format

The NHL ’94 Cup Chase does not use the typical seasonal format with a crowned champion at the end but instead is an ongoing format closer to how professional boxing operates, with a current champion who must regularly defend his title from challengers.

The Chase operates as a continuous series of rounds.  Each round will be about 10 days long at the discretion of the commissioner.  Every round, players will be assigned to a pod of approximately 4 players (the size of a pod may vary slightly based upon Chase needs at the moment and players may be added to or removed from a pod during a round if players join or quit the Chase.)  One pod will be the championship pod, which includes the defending champion and the players who will be attempting to win the championship during that round.  The non-championship pods give players who are not contesting the championship have the opportunity to accumulate points in an attempt to reach the championship pod.

Each round, players play against the opponents in their pod in an attempt to earn points.  Points are earned for playing and for performance as specified in the Points section below.  The guiding principles in the assignment of points are:

1)      Everyone gets points for playing

2)      Players who play better get more points

3)      Points can be earned up to the final whistle (even in a blowout)

Championship Pod

In the championship pod, all players are attempting to accumulate the most points in the championship pod that round.  The player who accumulates the most points in the championship pod in a given round wins (or retains) the championship and will defend it in the next round’s championship pod.  The other players will cycle back into the regular player pool.  (Exception: if a player who has never won the championship arrives in the championship pod and finishes second in the pod, he will remain in the championship pod for an additional round (“second chance”).  At that point, he either wins the championship and remains in the championship pod as champion, or cycles back into the regular player pool.)

Every time a player successfully wins or defends the championship, the player begins the next round in the championship pod with an accumulating -5 point penalty to start the round, up to -15 points (so a player who first wins the championship in round 4 starts the round 5 championship pod at -5 points and if the player continues to defend successfully the player would start the round 6 championship pod at -10 points and rounds 7 and beyond at -15 points.  Upon losing the championship and later returning to the championship pod, the player would start with no penalty.)  Defending the NHL ’94 Cup Chase championship is not supposed to be easy.

A round’s championship pod consists of four players: the defending champion (the player who won the previous round’s championship), the “second chance” player if there is one, and the X number of players in the regular player pool who have the most accumulated points.  Accumulating points during non-championship pod play is the primary way to gain access to the championship pod.

Non-Championship Pods

In the non-championship pods, players accumulate points in the standings.  At the start of every round, these points are used to determine who will be in that round’s championship pod (the top X players making the championship pod that week).  Once a player reaches the championship pod and then loses, that player’s points are reset to 0 starting in the next round, and the player begins the climb back to the championship anew.

The assignments for non-championship pods are at the discretion of the commissioner.  The commissioner will assign players to their pods randomly and then tweak the assignments with the goal of preventing players from playing repeat matchups too frequently.  The commissioner will also tweak the pod assignments depending upon whether any player used the Buy An Opponent advantage (see the Golden Pucks section below.)

Schedule

The plan is for a round to last about 10 days.  The commissioner feels that 1 week is too short and 2 weeks is too long.  The plan is to aim for Tuesday-Friday (~10 days) and then Friday-Tuesday (~11 days) rounds.  The goal is to maintain a moderate pace of playing that prevents players who get their games in quickly from being too bored while helping players who have less availability get their games in as much as possible.  The commissioner may tweak the scheduling, primarily in cases where a pair or small group of players request an additional day to get their matches in, or if a round appears to have been wrapped up early, allowing the next round to begin.

 

4. Match Format

Players are expected to play a match against at least 2 of their pod opponents each round (and are expected to attempt to play every opponent in their pod each round.)  A “match” is a two-game series against an opponent.  Match rules are as follows:

1)      Original SNES NHL ’94 ROM

2)      Players should alternate home and away but players can play two home or two away games by agreement

3)      Penalties On, No Off-Sides

4)      Line Changes Off

5)      Manual Goalie

6)      5-Minute Periods

7)      Players may choose any team they like except an All-Star team or a team that has been banned by an opponent who has purchased the Ban Teams advantage (see the Golden Pucks section below)

8)      If a game ends in regulation tied, then overtime is played.  If the overtime ends tied, then the game ends in a tie.

 

5. Points

Players earn points based upon their playing performance as follows:

1)      Game outcome – a player earns 10 points for winning a game in regulation or overtime

2)      Period performance – if a player loses or ties a game, then points are earned for per-period performance: 3 points for winning a period, 2 points for tying a period, 1 point for losing a period.  In this way, a player earns a minimum of 3 points per game played.

3)      Achievements – A player earns points for the following achievements in a game:

a.       1 point for every period with 2+ goals scored

b.      1 point for every period in which the opponent was shut out

c.       2 points for every penalty shot scored

d.      1 point for every opposing penalty shot stopped

e.      1 point for every 2 breakaway goals (limit 2 points per game)

f.        1 point for every 2 one-timer goals (limit 2 points per game)

g.       1 point for committing no penalties in a game*

h.      2 points for committing 4+ penalties in a game (not counting interference penalties)*

i.         1 point for having the Start with Pulled Goalie advantage used against you (see the Golden Pucks section below)

j.        1 point for scoring the last goal of the game

*only penalties that caused a power play count for g and h.  If a delayed penalty is negated by a goal being scored or by the game ending, it does not count for g and h.

 

6. Golden Pucks

Players are paid for playing games in the Chase.  The Chase’s currency is the Golden Puck (GP).  GP is earned as follows:

1)      Win a game: 3 GP

2)      Tie a game: 4 GP

3)      Lose a game by less than 6 goals: 6 GP

4)      Lose a game by 6 goals or more: 8 GP

5)      Opponent purchases an advantage against the player: see the list of advantages below

GP can be spent on the following advantages:

1)      Use An All-Star Team – 5 GP – A player may use an All-Star team for one game.  This advantage can be purchased as many times as desired.

2)      Light Ban Teams for Opponent – 8 GP – A player may ban the opponent from using up to 5 teams of the player’s choosing for one game.  If the opponent previously purchased Use An All-Star Team, that purchase is nullified and refunded.  The opponent receives 3 GP.

3)      Heavy Ban Teams for Opponent – 20 GP – A player may force the opponent to use one of at least 10 teams chosen by the player for one game.  As this advantage is intended to force the opponent to use a weaker team, the player and opponent may simply agree on a weak team for the opponent to use without the player having to produce the entire list. The opponent receives 7 GP.

4)      Buy An Opponent – 5 GP – A player may buy the right to be matched up against any opponent of their choosing for the next round.  This purchase must be made for a round before the previous round ends.  If the player or the intended opponent winds up in the next round’s championship pod for any reason, this purchase is nullified and refunded.  The opponent receives 2 GP.

5)      Buy a Championship Pod Spot – 75 GP – A player may buy the right to be placed in the next round’s championship pod.  Upon purchasing this, a player complete 6 rounds in a non-championship pod before the player can purchase this advantage again.  This purchase must be made for a round before the previous round ends.  Only one player can purchase this advantage per round, and a queue will be formed if multiple players intended to purchase this advantage.  If the player was going to end up in the championship pod based upon the standings, this purchase is nullified and refunded.  A player who misses out on reaching the championship pod in a given round because another player purchased this advantage receives 20 GP.  All other players in non-championship pods that round receive 3 GP.

6)      Force Goalie Pull – 15 GP – A player may force an opponent to pull the goalie at the start of a game.  The goalie must remain pulled until either the player scores or period 1 ends.  The opponent receives 1 point and 3 GP.

The commissioner reserves the right to impose a cap on the number of GP that a player can keep and/or an expiration date on GP.

 

7. Veteran Status

Once a player has completed 6 rounds of Chase play in good standing, that player achieves Veteran status and receives an extra payout of 4 GP each round.

 

8. Communication

To begin with, the competition will be run using the #cup-chase channel in the NHL ’94 Discord and possibly using the nhl94.com forum (I’m not knocking myself on creating a website if this thing is going to flop within a month.)  Players should coordinate matches through Discord and post results (scores, period performance, and accomplishments) in the Discord channel.  Advantage purchases should be posted in the Discord channel (purchases are not secret) and should tag the commissioner so that he sees them.

 

9. Player Expectations

This competition succeeds only if players play enough matches.  A previous incarnation of the NHL ’94 Cup Chase failed after a few months due to unplayed matches.  This incarnation plans to use pods of ~4 players in order to reduce the chances that players are not able to find enough opponents.  Players have lives and aren’t expected to  be available all of the time, but they are expected to make an honest effort to play their games.  Players are not necessarily expected to play every opponent in their pod in a round, but it is to their benefit to do so.  Preferably, all games in the championship pod are played, though this is not mandatory.

Players are expected to have fun.  In particular, players are expected to have a good attitude about having advantages purchased against them (and players should keep in mind that they earn GP and possibly standings points as compensation).

 

10. The House

The commissioner intends to participate in the league (at first) not as a regular player but as The House.  Basically, if a round is nearing completion and a player has tried but not been able to complete the assigned matches, the player can ask The House to play in order to help the player complete the week.

 

Edited by Tickenest
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