Multiverse Fighting Championships
Since nobody else has done anything with MMA in the year and a half since I created a scorinator that can produce MMA results, I figured I might as well put up an interest thread and see if anybody would be interested in participating in an MMA league. I'll provide the answers to the obvious questions (at least those that come to mind):
How would this be scorinated? By whom?
The most recent version of Must10inator (currently version 1.3, available either pre-compiled for Microsoft Windows or as source code that you can compile with any C++ compiler) would be used at all times. I'll likely release an updated version of Must10inator before the first scorination for reasons that will be explained later on in this post. Given my plans for the schedule, it makes sense to switch to new versions of the scorinator as soon as they are released.
Initially, I'll do 100% of the scorination but I'm willing to let somebody else take over scorination eventually.
How many weight classes will be contested? Will there be separate men's and women's divisions?
Since it is the norm outside of the NS Olympics for men and women to compete against one another in NS Sports, I don't see any reason to separate men and women into separate divisions. Regarding weight classes, I recognize that separate weight classes are important in combat sports but I want to keep the event manageable so I'm leaning toward starting out with just 3 weight classes: Welterweight (170 pounds), Light Heavyweight (205 pounds) and Heavyweight (unlimited). At a later point, I'd be willing to revisit this if there's sufficient interest in more weight classes.
What would the schedule look like?
I don't think the tournament approach that is commonly used will work well for a sport like MMA that doesn't have an off-season. On the other hand, holding events every single day would quickly burn everybody out so I think the best option would be to do 1 scorination per RL week. This scorination would typically be on Saturday but might be on a different day some weeks (depending upon when I have time to scorinate in RL).
Matches would be scheduled using a modified Casaran system (generated by my Casaran Scheduler program), as this is likely the easiest way to produce a fair schedule. In order to assist the scheduler program, I will be modifying Must10inator to print out the judges scores even in the event of a knockout or submission. In the event of a knockout or submission, all rounds that were not completed will, for scheduling purposes, be awarded to the winner by a score of 10-0. By "modified Casaran" system, I mean that the no rematches rule will not be in effect since it makes no sense whatsoever to prohibit rematches when the competition is planned to last for an indefinite number of matchdays. An exception will be made however to ensure that no fighter who loses 2 consecutive title fights will ever receive a 3rd consecutive title shot. This means that the only manual adjustments needed will be to insert new fighters into the schedule and remove fighters that have either been kicked out of the MFC or are on hiatus. In order to speed up the task of producing schedules, I will also be adjusting Must10inator to produce the required input file for Casaran Scheduler automatically.
This modified Casaran system has major benefits for an MMA competition, as it effectively simulates a system similar to the rankings in RL MMA where new fighters start at the bottom and must work their way up the ladder before challenging for the title.
How would RP bonuses work? What about rankings?
Since the MFC will not have an offseason, I see no need for any kind of rankings (in the sense of a set number of points awarded to nations or fighters who've had success in the past to approximate past RP bonus). Instead, RP bonus will be the sole factor besides randomness. In the interest of keeping things fair for people who sign up later on, RP bonuses will degrade by 50% per matchday and will only be carried out to 3 decimal digits. Bonuses will be awarded on a 0-1 scale. This means that somebody who RPs during the first week and gets a bonus of 1 but never RPs again will have an RP bonus of 0.001 on the 11th week, which will be reduced to 0 on the 12th week. This will help ensure that nobody accrues so much RP bonus that an active newbie has no hope of ever beating them.
How will you handle people who don't RP? Will their fighters remain in the MFC forever to get knocked out over and over again?
If somebody knows in advance that they will be unable to RP for a significant period of time, I will permit them to take a hiatus and retain their fighter's RP bonus and "spot" on the ladder upon their return. This is realistic as fighters do indeed get injured in RL MMA. In order to prevent this from being abused, a fighter will not be allowed to return from hiatus until he/she has missed at least 4 weeks of fights. The OOC purpose of hiatus is to allow OOC users who do not have time to participate in the MFC for a significant period of time due to RL reasons to take a break and return whenever they have time without being penalized. In the interest of not clogging up the lower spots on the ladder with fighters that will never be RPed, any nation who does not RP for 13 consecutive weeks and shows no signs whatsoever of continued interest in participating in the MFC will have their fighters dropped from the competition. Nations will also be permitted to retire or withdraw their fighters at any time.
Fighters that go on hiatus, retire or are withdrawn will finish their next scheduled fight and will not be assigned further fights until such time as they elect to return to the MFC.
How will the first champions be determined?
The first champions will, more or less, be determined through the equivalent of a single-elimination tournament involving all fighters who are signed up prior to the first scorination. The last undefeated fighter among those fighters will be declared the first champion of his/her weight class. After a champion is crowned, the champion will always be seeded #1 in his/her division and will fight the #2 fighter in the division (unless the #2 has lost both of his/her most recent fights to the current champion).
How many fights will count in determining the next week's schedule?
A fighter's last 20 fights will be counted in determining the upcoming schedule. I may make adjustments to Casaran Scheduler so that it automatically enforces this. This limit is in place to ensure that newbies have a chance of rising up the ladder and earning a shot at the champion. The reasoning is similar to why other tournaments degrade their rankings (imagine how hard it'd be to compete in the NS World Cup if results from World Cup 1 still counted toward your ranking with the same weight as results from the last World Cup!). This also helps prevent a former champion who suddenly stops winning fights from getting shot after shot at the title just because he successfully defended the title 50 times in a row.
How would signups work? Would they be open forever?
Signups would, in fact, be kept open forever. In the event that an odd number of fighters were active at any given time and one of them was a new signup that hadn't debuted yet, that fighter would wait to make his/her debut until either some other fighter in the same weight class became inactive or another new fighter signed up in the same weight class. In the event that an even number of fighters are active, all of them will have fights scheduled.
Where would the fights be hosted ICly?
Ideally, the fights would be split up into separate cards and each card would be hosted in a different venue and possibly in a different nation. I believe this would be more realistic than scorinating several cards worth of fights, including 3 title fights and pretending that all of these fights are taking place on the same card on the same date and at the same venue.
How many fighters per nation? What about puppets?
In the interest of keeping the number of fighters manageable, I'd prefer to start with a limit of 1 fighter per weight class per nation (in other words, 1 heavyweight, 1 light heavyweight and 1 welterweight per nation). A single puppet signup would be allowed per OOC user on the condition that the user has shown a past history of RP either in the MFC or in other competitions. The signup limit may be increased later for nations that RP actively but I'll probably keep the limit on puppet signups in place.
How long would the MFC run?
As long as there is interest in the form of RP. As NS Sports is an RP sub-forum, if nobody RPs in a given event then there is no reason for that event to exist so I'd probably shut the MFC down if nobody at all RPed for some time period (possibly a month to 6 weeks). On the other hand, if there's interest then I could see MFC fights being scorinated once a week for as long as NS continues to exist and somebody has the ability and desire to continue scorinating them.
Why is the concept of this so different?
The concept is different because I believe this models the way MMA works in RL much better than the tournament format does. Unlike other sports, the UFC does not have a season where each fighter fights a set number of fights, the top x fighters advance to the playoffs and then a champion of the season is crowned. In the UFC, they crown a champion who defends the title perpetually.
The reason why I feel a modified Casaran is appropriate here is because it is an objective way of scheduling fights that doesn't require me to arbitrarily decide that fighter x and fighter y are going to fight each other on the next matchday (and because I already have a software program that does most of the work of producing the schedule). Arbitrary scheduling may be more "realistic" in the sense that the RL UFC uses it but I don't think its fair for me to be in the position of deciding who fights, especially when there is already a way to produce an objective and arguably fair schedule with significantly less work on my part.
Anything else?
Not that I can think of but feel free to ask questions if anything is unclear or I missed anything.
As an aside, given that the idea of a competition with no offseason is a new idea to the best of my knowledge, I will likely need to tweak some things along the way based upon input from those who are actively participating. Given that the creators of the most prestigious tournaments on NS Sports did not get them 100% perfect when they first envisioned them (all of the constitutions were adopted later and have been amended quite a few times), the odds that I managed to get this concept 100% perfect on the first try aren't very good so I'm definitely willing to listen to suggestions and to fix problems as they arise.
If there's sufficient interest, I'll convert this thread into a signup thread.
EDIT: Since there seems to be sufficient interest, I'm going to convert this thread into a signup thread. To signup, fill out the following:
Nation Name:
Trigram:
Heavyweight Fighter's Name:
Heavyweight Fighter's Style Modifier:
Heavyweight Fighter's Weight (206 pounds - Unlimited):
Light Heavyweight Fighter's Name:
Light Heavyweight Fighter's Style Modifier:
Light Heavyweight Fighter's Weight (171 pounds - 205 pounds):
Welterweight Fighter's Name:
Welterweight Fighter's Style Modifier:
Welterweight Fighter's Weight (0 pounds - 170 pounds):
Style Modifiers are a number between -5 and +5 (decimal numbers like 3.14 and -3.14 are valid) with negative numbers representing a fighter who tends to take fights to the ground and positive numbers representing a fighter who prefers to fight standing up (technically speaking, style mods affect the probability that a fight will end via submission as opposed to ending via knockout and vice versa but they do not affect the length of fights or the likelihood of them going to the judges for a decision).
Note: if you do not want to sign up a fighter in a particular division, you may leave that division out of your signup.
Current Signups
Nations (20)
Azadeshia (AZD)
Bojikstan (BJK)
Buffalo Bills Fans (BBF)
Equestrian States (EQS)
Filindostan (FID)
Greater Vakolicci Haven (VKL)
Hopington (HOP)
Jhalpharezi (JHA)
Kirishima (FDA)
Melbergia (MEL)
New Doltania (NDO)
New Jarwel (NJA)
Northwest Kalactin (NKO)
Nuovo Juvencus (NJU)
Savojarna (SVJ)
Union of Socialist Alpine Republics (UAR)
Upper Calcutta (MUC)
Vangaziland (VNG)
Velstrania (VLS)
Zukovina (ZUK)
Heavyweight (20)
Gale Sorokin [BJK] (+4)
Hala Rajadev [AZD] (+4)
Robert Strong [VKL] (+2.8)
Kiomriad nos Veltahir [VLS] (+5)
Desmund "Desmund" Pitpitunge [FID] (+4)
Shoraku "Raku" Umezaki [FDA] (+4)
Derlinnus Dervel [BBF] (+3)
Dak Williams [NKO] (-1)
Spartak "Războinic" Zlatkov [ZUK] (+4)
Igor Martov [SVJ] (+1.5)
Wlodzimierz Wieczorkowski [UAR] (+4)
Otto Bjorn [VNG] (+3)
Junior [EQS] (+1)
Solvig Åkerman [NJA] (+5)
Jan Vivic [NDO] (+4)
Greta Harrison [MEL] (+4.2)
Bobby "Skull face" Jones [HOP] (+1)
Adrien Babin [NJU] (+4.44)
Dinesh Dutt [MUC] (+4.5)
Dev Kumar Rai [JHA] (-4)
Light Heavyweight (18)
Sebastian Lujano [BJK] (-3)
Om Nan [AZD] (-2)
Rico Maldonorius [VKL] (-2.5)
Jienette "Jie" Zaragosa [FID] (-2)
Kenzo "Ken" Jean Baptiste [FDA] (+0.05)
Alec Breckenridge [BBF] (+3)
William Johnson [NKO] (+3)
Pavel "Şarpe" Dinescu [ZUK] (-4)
Dzsenifer Szakacs [UAR] (-3)
Marcus Frankerssen [VNG] (-4)
Klaudie [EQS] (-2)
Harald Lindström [NJA] (+0.5)
Aston Cork [NDO] (+3)
Frankie Waddington [MEL] (-2.16)
Crazey Davey [HOP] (+2)
Léo Tailler [NJU] (-5)
Hiren Chenghiz [MUC] (-3)
Jaidev Bhonda [JHA] (+4)
Welterweight (18)
Shane Wing [BJK] (+5)
Maria Schtenko [VKL] (+5)
Kencak "Ken" Wuysak [FID] (0)
Baek Ka Hee [FDA] (-1)
Cosmas Constadoulous [BBF] (-4.6)
Joey Martin [NKO] (-4)
Grigor "Kamenni" Kohlrus [ZUK] (+5)
Anna Kjaer [SVJ] (+3.75)
Charraigaich Mac Amhalghaidh [UAR] (-1)
Linda Henshmen [VNG] (+5)
Angus Ó hUiginn [EQS] (-4)
Veronika Lund [NJA] (-0.5)
Clarke Richardson [NDO] (+5)
Jazz Janson [MEL] (-3.89)
Lil mash [HOP] (+4)
Aristide Arthur [NJU] (+5)
Mia Singh [MUC] (+2.5)
Hari Shome [JHA] (+4)
