This is our 4th year running this event! Like in previous years, the goal is to play 100 rated games in a month! This event is designed to encourage more activity on the server and to help players get over any rank anxiety they may have. Don’t worry about de-ranking, losing, or performing badly. Simply play and have fun!
Games will take place on OGS and no where else. My reason for doing this is due to me being able to access the API for everyone’s games. I counted games manually one year and I never want to do that again! lol
I will be encouraging the three main board sizes, 9x9, 13x13, and 19x19. My feelings on this are, we don’t always have time for a full 19x19 game but we still want to play a game of Go. Small boards are great for quick matches. Many players use Go Quest and Baduk Pop for these same reasons. The 100 games will be size specific, but I will have a Grand Slam category for those who play 100 games on each size.
The settings for the games will be as follows…
All games must be ranked.
Chinese Rules (Encouraged but optional)
Time settings encouraged(minimum) are…
9x9
Byo-yomi 1m+3x10
Fischer 20s+10s up to 30s
Canadian 1m+5m/30
13x13
Byo-yomi 3m+4x10
Fischer 20s+10s up to 30s
Canadian 3m+5m/30
19x19
Byo-yomi 5m+5x10
Fischer 30s+10s up to 30s
Canadian 5m+5m/30
I encourage Chinese rules for the simple fact of it doesn’t punish newer players for trying things out. I always recommend my students to play out what they don’t understand. That is how we learn! But some rules sets will punish us for it. So in my opinion, I think this rule set is best for most.
In conclusion, I truly wish for everyone to have a great experience and remember that Go is a game to be played and enjoyed. It doesn’t need to be serious 100% of the time. I wish you all the most fun and exiting games for the month!
@jlt I think @Clossius1 just took the automatch settings from last year and pasted that for this year
@Clossius1 There was a rework of the play page and automatch system, so for ease of getting games, you can take a look at which settings are on offer as @jlt mentions. Also it depends on board size I believe, but just Fischer and byo-yomi, no Canadian anymore.
Thanks for organising though, hopefully it’ll be successful
Whew. I did it. Exhausting. I have no idea how I pulled off the grand slam last year, but this year I’m stopping at 19x19. (Also, if @Clossius1 is around, I think the results page stopped updating again.)
It was a roller coaster - I ranked up to 2d, then collapsed down to 1k, then ended at 1.3d, pretty close to where I started. Overall I played way better than last year, though - I think previously I ended with a 19x19 rank of 0.6k.
One thing that the experience definitely clarified, though, is that the dan ranks on OGS are total mess. I crushed a few 3d players, and got crushed by a few 2k players. And I don’t mean “someone made a big blunder” or “very tense fighting until someone collapsed”. No, I mean player X coldly and methodically dismantled player Y stone for stone.
I played several games against someone who was 2d at the beginning of the event, and 2k now. Half of the 1d’s and maybe a quarter of the 1k’s that I played could have given me a 2 stone handicap. It was so all over the place that I pretty much stopped looking at my opponent’s rating, because it held little information about what kind of game I was about to get.
I’m not sure yet what that means for my continued relationship with OGS, but it made the event kind of fun and chaotic. If you haven’t joined, there’s still time - even if you can’t finish you’ll have a good time.
