Reindeer Games (December 17)

[XelaKebert]

You may follow along with the progress using the spreadsheet here.

[XelaKebert]

Please join me in congratulating our top 4 winners. The complete list of entries can be found here.

 

First Place: Guillian 7/9

Second Place: Allessio 7/9

Third Place: Aerun 7/9

Fourth Place: NataliaHeart 6/9

 

Tie Breaker explanation contained below.

You will notice that there was a three way tie for First Place based on sheer number of Stantler captured. In fact, there were a lot of players who tied with each other. However, this is where the tie breakers come in. After receiving some questions about the procedures in game I would like to take a moment to clarify the exact ranking procedure in the event players were tied for a specific place, be it by capturing all 9 or by sheer number captured. Below is the complete ranking system in order of priority:

 

1) If one or more players capture all 9 Stantler, the event ends and players are ranked. Those who caught all 9 are placed by order of capture time in this order: Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen. This means that players who are able to capture Rudolph take priority over those who were not able to capture Rudolph; after that it is based on the order above. If at the end of that list a tie still exists, another tie breaker would have taken place for those players only.

 

2) If no players were able to capture all 9 Stantler within the time allotted, or if all ranked spots are not filled by players who captured all 9, the rankings would be based on number captured. If one or more players share the same number captured then ties would be broken in this order: Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen. Those who are able to capture Rudolph win tie breakers against those who did not capture Rudolph.

 

Players who lose a tie breaker are placed 1 spot below those who won the tie breaker. This process continues until all ties that affect prizes being awarded are broken. I understand this system seems arbitrary, but it is not. The tie breaking order follows the order in which Santa Claus would call out the names of his reindeer, Rudolph not included obviously. This order is found in the poem, "The Night Before Christmas". The only reason Rudolph carries so much weight over the order in which the rest are called is due to his importance in helping light the way for Santa's journey around the world on Christmas Eve.

 

This system has brought up a question as to why we do not use overall capture time to rank players. The reason for this is that the overall time it takes to capture all 9 will not be an accurate representation of how long it actually took. This system would punish players who wish to wait as long as possible before turning any Stantler in and would detract from the overall goal of being the first to find all 9 Stantler. In addition, we do not have any indication on when a player actually began to hunt for Stantler. If a player were to have started from the very beginning of the event, they would potentially be disadvantaged for having been hunting longer. I am open to alternative suggestions that can be evaluated and potentially used to replace the current system, but understand that systems that could punish players for taking longer to turn in entries or hunting longer will not be used to replace the current system. If you would like to give further input on the tie breakers for this event, please post here.