GOT NO TAN BUT I GOT THE LEVEL

DeathWing has announced second season of Lone Wolf competition. Seems like the only thing that has been changed is the prize pool which is now 25$ bigger. Big plus for that! Sadly, other stuff that were supposed to be changed, after some flaws from the first season and experience of how things were done, will remain the same. That big minus has caught Dinker's attention.

I have this bad habit. When something is cool and great I don't give it much attention. I throw a word or two saying that it is great and that is where the discussion ends. After all, what can you say about perfect chocolate ice cream or brand new Mercedes Benz? Amazing. One word that describes every emotion you have toward it.

But when you found yourself in a cafe asking for a traditional Turkish coffee and they bring you this, I don't know how to call it, a wannabe coffee, sloppy made, lacking sugar and without the sweets aside you have million and one thing to say about it. Where the fuck is sugar, where the fuck is sweet shit on the plate and why the fuck this coffee sucks so bad?

When one or two stones are miss placed and shaking you can see whole construction going down in no time. And this is that rare moment when I can make bound to the two terms which are considered to be the opposites. Stones and emotions.

Now I don't want you people to start thinking: "Na, Dinker always tries to bring out negative stuff on the surface, totally disregarding the big picture and the benefit we got from this". Yo! Relax, I am not here to ruin your self made imaginary world or to demoralize you while you are having high expectations. I am just trying, as always, to give you another way of thinking, which could be, well what the hell now, which definitely is better than the one you have.

And today I am going to write about Lone Wolf 2 which has the prize pool of 75$. It is not so amazing I know, but can you ask for more when you are playing non-profit veteran game which has around 10k users left? No sponsors, no offline events, no prize pools and no achievements to get except winning a trollarena tournament or nS cup. 

There is only love and wanna-be-good-in-my-village ambition left. So thank God there is someone who puts his own money like DeathWing or even that troll hb.thespecial with his Chinese fake Gucci bags and valets. That's great because once in a while people feel need to play for something greater than a pride. Something visible, weather that's a 5 cents coin or a basket full of shit. They wanna feel the trophy in their hands, to lift it up when they are alone and say: "Fuck yea, I won this basket full of shit because I am a skilled WC3 gamer". And that is absolutely great and I have nothing bad to say about it.

+ prize pool

Now, its not everything about the money. Actually, there is zero importance in this prize pool. If there was 5$ prize pool people would play it anyway. Because that is how our community is. Ego, ego and more ego above anything. And that makes it so damn interesting.

And that is the main reason why the prize should be split on top 3 players. Because the money is not the main reason people are taking part in this event. But it is great feeling to win a medal of any color from time to time. Having 40 bucks for first place, 25 for second and 10 for third would be better solution than putting all-in for a winner. 

- prize pool distribution 

Or even deducting 5 bucks  from second place and making it 20 with intention to give 5 bucks for the player who won in the best game during the event. Voting would be public. Who will get 5 bucks from the community voting? Pretty interesting and effective. That would encourage players to upload replays, to player better games and to compete in creativity rather than a cheese random race picking or pumping up their demon hunters.

- lack of side competitions

Time for the event is a total bitch. Total of 6 weeks which are taking part in the middle of summer is definitely uncool. I don't know about your plans people but I am going to evade the hot days in the city I'm living. And I am not going to escape from the town for 2-3 days, no, I am going to make several mini trips plus to kill the monotony of the summer laziness. I am totally not going to spend my summer in front of PC, massing ladder games for Lone Wolf. It would be better to reschedule the event for rainy days in September when people are taking a rest from a planned and action filled summer they were enjoining or at least to make it 12 weeks or 100 days to give a chance to everyone to play a normal, relaxed and chances equal competition. Looking it now it is going to be 6 weeks nerds festival of abuse.

- bad time schedule

After I took a short look on the rules I was a bit surprised that there is no rule of a fixed race. This was one of the biggest mistakes in first season. I would, personally, like to see the players picking their strongest race and playing with it. We are deeply running out of identities and sinking in a sea of players who believe that they can play random until that big moment comes and they switch to Night elf and add a bit of Scorched Basin charm. Having a fixed race during the whole event, players will not have that luxury to switch to Night elf in play offs and the games will surely be more interesting. Or at least, we will see the honest and real picture of our scene. Will the ego maniacs go for Night elf as their fixed race or something else?

- no fixed race rule

When I saw there was no fixed race I was surprised but when I saw that top 8 players will be seeded into a final bracket like in the past event I was laughing. You remember that Furi[RP] guy who jumped into the bracket because I wasn't able to compete because I had a scheduled trip? Well if you are not familiar with that story check it out HERE. So Furi[RP] had played several weeks and was one of the if not the most active participant of that season. He came into the first round of playoff and lost. He played 1 best of three match and was eliminated after because he was seeded against a played who is definitely and obviously better than him. He didn't even have the chance to enjoy the little triumph he made by getting in that top 8 of players. Na, he was eliminated right on the start. Right when it was supposed to become interesting.

And now I see that there will be another Furi[RP] with the same destiny in second season. All of that, of course, because no changes have been made. There should be at least 16 players who will take part in finals and there shouldn't be one lame bracket where 1st would meet 8th and so on. There should be 4 groups with 4 holders who ended the preliminary phase on the highest ranking positions. Unlike one poor bracket with single elimination format we would have a great 16 men group stage where everyone would get a proper chance to qualify. If not qualifying player would at least know that he had fair schedule.

- playoff organization

Why did I say fair schedule? Because player who passed through some criteria should be put into the same basket with all others. In last season we had players manipulating with the finals results of preliminary rounds, being sure that they can pass to playoffs with certain level. They stopped playing and trying. There should be criteria, lets say, level 35 which player has to climb to in order to qualify. And to remain level 35 until the end of competition. 

- qualifying criteria

I seriously enjoyed playing first season of Lone Wolf. Not because it was organized so great or because it gave me some sort of motive. I just enjoyed meeting legit players and playing relaxing games on battle.net. Still, I missed other people in my joy. Lack of replays, lack of discussions, lack of every single thing which was caused by bad organization. I, as a player, had more info of Lone Wolf on my blog than people who were hosting it.

To make the long story short, except the prize pool, which is not that important, this will be one very bad circus and the motto will be the title of this post.

Here is my rating for the event:

+ prize pool

- prize pool distribution  

- lack of side competitions

- time schedule

- no fixed race

- playoff organization

- qualifying criteria

That makes it 1 positive and 6 negative. If perfect rate would be 10/10 and satisfying one 7/10 I will calculate it like this: 

7 as a satisfying rate +1 for the prize pool -6 for all mentioned equals 2 and makes my final rate 2/10

If this offends anyone I am deeply sorry. This is however my opinion and my reasons. Don't troll by demanding me to make better if I can because my time and interests don't allow me to. I have planned those 6 weeks well planned and the plan is not to play Lone Wolf 2.

Good luck to all participants! And yea, almost forgot. Great movie Richy, I will add it to my collection soon.