9th G-Match Tournament - Suggestions and Requests

After completing a tournament we always invite everyone to tell us if they have special requests or new ideas for the next G-Match. Here are some ideas we came up with. Let us know what you think.

Passwords:
Instead of having the passwords in the chat's header, we thought to place them in the site's pages. Every week the password will be in another page of the site. The directions to find the pages will be given in the chat's header.
For example: This week's password is in Community --> Dictionary
You will need to go to the Dictionary page and grab the password from there. Click to view an example.

We can also use the puzzles descriptions as passwords. Again, the directions will be given in the chat's header.
For example:
This week's password is Griddler #83413 description
This week's password is Triddler #7222 description

Like always, the chat's header will be revealed 5 minutes before the G-Match. This will give you enough time to find the password.

Puzzles:
How about having quick rounds? Like - only 4 or 5 puzzles per match.
If we reduce the number of puzzles, how about having one difficult puzzle? Not those "evil" 3-color billion of points, but a bit above the average G-Match puzzles?

Schedule:
Do you want to have short tournaments? Like - only 12 rounds in even (2, 4, 6...) or uneven (1, 3, 5...) hours?

We can also split the day to two halves and have two tournaments simultaneously: one tournament (12 rounds) with "good hours" for the Americans and another tournament (12 rounds) with "good hours" for the Europeans. However, if we run two tournaments - the time different between every G-Match will be 2 weeks. One week for the Americans, one week for the Europeans. If you like this idea, tell us "where" to split the day, like: 10PM to 10AM GMT for the Americans and 10AM to 10PM GMT for the Europeans.

When:
We want to start the 8th G-Match tournament on Saturday, September 12th. If there are reasons to postpone it, let us know.

Two nay's:
1. There will not be a T-Match.
2. The G-Match is based on the user's attendance and not on the speed of solving. i.e.: The contest is not about solving puzzles faster than any other but about attending as many matches as possible and coming in on time.

Call for Puzzles:
The secret of having good G-Matches is having good puzzles too. Once again we call our authors to collect their muse and submit puzzles for the G-Match. Easy, small, mini-multies. Let your imagination drift. :-)
Thanks in advance!

Share your thoughts and ideas in here.

Hi, thanks for another great tournament... slightly ticked off because the last rounds were during summer holidays and my destination did not have an internet connection... bad planning on my part!

As for a next tournament:

passwords Please don't change anything, it's fun to join the chat, sometimes even say something and finding the password shouldn't be another "puzzle"

puzzles I like the idea of quick rounds, and especially the idea of 1 difficult puzzle. But I agree with ajesus that "1 hours worth of puzzling" is about the maximum I can get away with at home..

time schedule I don't mind "bad hours" - I kinda like the irregularity of it. A shorter tournament would be nice, I kinda lose interest after 7-8 rounds because it becomes a "chore"

planning september 12th sounds fine! bring it on!

Thanks for giving us a chance to give input, Hagit.

My $0.02:

Passwords: I like the passwords as they are. Without them, chats are going to become nearly non-existent. However, if you are feeling pressure to expose us to less-used portions of the site, I would request that you meet us half-way. Ex: putting a look-up funtion right on the front page.

Puzzles: I liked having a variety of types from week to week and during each round. I inevitably fall behind one, and can sometimes catch back up on an easier one. I am a slower solver, so I thoroughly enjoyed Mini Week. It was a nice breather from the stress of trying to solve normal griddlers with a clock ticking in your head the whole time. Side note: I like that you don't announce what to expect ahead of time. It makes the entire thing more balanced, and rewards those of us who will get up to play at 3am regardless of the type of puzzles.

Schedules: I would be amenable to playing solely on even or odd hours to make the tourney a little shorter (and thus more manageable). I am also content simply keeping the tourney as is. However, I would be highly opposed to splitting up the tourney between the US and Europe. Part of the appeal of the tournament is the world-wide rankings. We like to see how we compare with all the players all over the world, when everyone starts on equal grounds. One of the things I most appreciate about the tournament (and, in fact, what I tell everyone when I explain the basic concept) is that it is completely and unequivocably fair to every single player in every single country around the world. Everyone has to face the choice, at some point, to set an alarm for the aforementioned 3am round, or stay awake until then, or to just give it up as a lost cause and get a full night's rest. Those decisions affect all the rest of us and our rankings among each other. And let's be honest, ranking is why we do it, right? I'd much rather get an award for ranking "99th in the World" than for ranking "32nd in the Western Hemisphere North of the Tropic of Capricorn..."

When: I was thinking of rearranging my sock drawer that weekend, but I doubt a few hundred other people would mind waiting a week for me... (^_^)


Final note: I'm the first to admit I'm not a fast solver. And since this was my first full tourney, please remember that this part comes from the noob in me. (~_^) I don't know if it was just because I'm slow, or because my brain doesn't work past 11pm, or what, but a lot of the puzzles this time around seemed difficult to me. I very rarely finished in the 1hour timeframe. I always stuck it out, though, because I wanted my darn points for showing up! I would kind of (don't laugh! lol) like to see one easy puzzle in each batch of releases to give us slow-pokes a chance to catch up and breathe. The vets would still whip through them fast and get the best scores, and us loyal pokeys can still get a decent night's rest.


I'd apologize for how long this is, but you invited us... so it's all your fault. ;)
Looking forward to #9! I think... lol
~K.

for me it would be pefect if the g-match start later that September 12th ;)

Hello,
Thanks for asking for our input even though mine isn't very interesting....
Passwords: I understand why you would want us to search for the password - a great way to let everyone see what this site has to offer. But I think the Password in Chat is perfect.
Puzzles: I love the minipuzzles but I love the idea of fewer puzzles and one toughie or a multi.
Schedule: The time really doesn't matter to me. Some of you know I take care of my mother (who just turned 93 yesterday.) Sometimes I can't get to the computer until just before the G-Match. Then I'll start it but not be able to complete it until later. Sometimes I'm lucky and can complete the whole thing in one sitting. I'm so exhausted by the time I get to bed, I would never set my alarm to get up in the middle of the night. My G-Match will just have to wait until morning.
When: Saturday, September 12, is fine with me.
Terry

My twopennyworth is

Please leave passwords alone just making the final a search is enough

I love the ridiculous times of day and think it is fairer to the whole world for us all to suffer at some time

No opinion on short or long tournaments

If whatever puzzles are supposed to be completed in 1 hour I can manage in 2 hours that's not too long but I did love the minis round

I can't do 12th September as I am going to my sons graduation ceremony in Oxford ( First Class Honours - and am I a proud mother) but I guess it's a good day to start.

And just a thank you for organising the G match

Nicki

Password on an other page could be a problem for people, like me, who use not the englisch version of the site.

I like small, easy puzzles

Don't split the world in two.

12 or 24 rounds : I don't mind

For starting hours, please use 24h notation, no Am and PM, but 00:00 to 23:59

On sept. 12 I am not able to do G-match after 12:00

Harm.

I would find it better if the matches are sundays. saturdays are so many events. partys, birthdays, concerts,...

I've found it impossible to play many G-matches due to the timing and working Mon - Fri. I'm no longer doing that and am looking forward to playing this match. Pushing it to Sundays GMT would be a problem for anyone in the likes of New Zealand or Australia as that will push into our Mondays.

I'm looking forward to the tournament

Hello. This was my first tournament and I loved it. Thankyou puzzle creators and moderators and organizers. :notworthy:

Please keep the round the world round the clock format - it make everyone have good and bad hours and being part of a world wide tournament is fun. If the consensus is that 24 weeks is too long, then you could have one tournament at even hours, then a couple of weeks off, then the next tournament at odd hours.

Also, the mix of puzzles is good. Having some kiddlers and some minimalism and varying the time release is good. The idea of 3 puzzles and one longer/harder one is very good too - more variety. However, the idea of a very short round is not too appealing - getting up at 3am for a 15 minute round doesn't sound like fun - it would be over before I am even properly awake!

I agree with everyone else, the password is fine where it is. However, some people have been competing for much longer than me and may be wanting a bit of a change. Maybe you could test out some of the suggestions over the course of the tournament and see what the feedback is once we actually experience the suggestion.

And lastly, as a newbie to the tournament..... I have been doing griddlers for a while but always shyed away from the tournament because I thought it was for real experienced griddlerers. And I was nicely surprised to see that it is a fun puzzle hour and anyone can join in. Maybe a little news item before the next tournament to let other non competitors know how much fun it is and that you don't have to be an expert to join in.

I've been enjoying the G-match just as it is. I don't see any reason to split into a west vs east nor do I see any reason to change the way the passwords are obtained. I do like having passwords that are collected as clues to the final match. It's an extra puzzle to solve!

The past G-match had more harder puzzles than in the past. I think this is a good idea given that the competition is getting tougher and tougher. However I think that they need to stay easy enough that some of the newer solvers don't get discouraged. So I think the level of difficulty is good as it is, but maybe adding one tougher one is okay as long as the majority of the puzzles are solvable by the majority of regular users.