Team Lilyleaf
Team Purple
Team Kitti

Either way, I agree with Evan that the leaders of the teams don't have to be staff members. However, I think that all teams should have a back-up captain, in case the first one becomes inactive or something like that.

Team Chuck Norris.

I have a better idea, we could set up the teams right now, starting with generic names like Team 1, Team 2, Team 3. Then all the teams will have until July 1st to pick a team name and a team captain/co-captain. We could even set up secret forums for each team so that they could discuss these things without the influence of other teams.

so if we're gonna set up these teams blank teams, would we let people join whichever they want first, or will it all be decided for them in order to ensure that the teams have an even balance of members and skill? I mean, I'm sure plenty of people would want to be on Harumbai's team, with all those comps he's one...

Don't let people choose. Everyone will want to be on the dominant team, and if a dominant team exists, that means less fun for the newbies. I don't see, however, how it's possible to truly balance teams, as different people are better at creating levels and such for different games. The best way to insure balance is to, first, take sign ups in general. Give an end date for signing up for the IO, then after that end date, distribute the sign ups evenly into the 4 teams. Then give those teams a deadline to choose captains, co-captains, and a team name. Of course, if you were to do it this way, you might want to get started quickly.

Also, giving each team its hidden forum would be excellent. Don't make it so that the forums are password protected, because people can sabotage their teams and give out passwords to other members. Just put teams into their own "user groups" (which as an admin I'm sure you're aware of) and then make it so their forums can only be seen by people in their group.

Keeping the forums hidden won't be that hard to do, and the only thing we have to worry about is the staff sabotaging their team by giving themselves permission into other boards. But that probably won't happen.

So yeah, we should start collecting info on who's planning to join the IO teams-- and we should also make it so that you don't have to be in a team to enter the IO. And we should also allow people to join teams up until the IO starts, but of course, they'll have to request to join a team, and the staff will have to tell them which team to join; although they may take requests if there's room for it.

Alright, so I'll set up a topic where everyone can go and sign up for the IO.

I might be joining... once I know for a fact what categories there will be and weather or not there will be any non-HatPC ones.

there probably will be non-hatpc ones, and even if you're not sure, you should sign up anyway.

we also need to start figuring out the categories. If we're going to make them sports-themed, how would that work? It would probably be easier and less confusing if the categories were as blunt as last year's, but that doesn't mean we can't be creative.

Since I can't think of any good sports-themed categories, here are some other suggestions:
no single game categories?
speed levels
puzzles
video walkthroughs
sequel levels
DDA's
and that challenge tournament with several small categories within it.

speaking of that tournament, I've been wondering how it would work. Maybe each round lasts one week, so that there's a total of 4 rounds? Or we could make each round last 6 days, so that there are 5 rounds. And would there be a time limit? Or would all the rounds close on August 1st? If there was a time limit, we could judge each round and keep rankings of which team/person is winning the tournament. That would be more interesting.

Look at our old topic from last year, Livio. I made loads of suggestions that we can use. I'd dig it up but I am in a hurry.

Sports themes!

Running (or whatever the name of that even in the actual Olympics is called) - Speed Levels

Swimming - HATPC Water Caves

Hurdles - Platformer's Category Comp

"Football" (Soccer) - DDA Comp (Lol, what does everybody have with this sport? So boring; somewhere between bowling and darts.)

Bowling - HATPC Boulder Caves

Javelin - HATPC Arrow Caves

Cycling - FR2

Luge - Line Rider Videos

Syncro-Diving - Collab comp

Instant Replay - Open-Ended Interguild-Related Video Comp (or just Walkthroughs, if that idea sucks, since they'd probably all be walkthroughs anyway)

I'm not saying these should all be themes or that the should be all our themes, just that, lol, here are some sports-themed competitions. Here's a few more, regarding the tournament (which we should really start thinking of ideas for).

Relay - The tournament, except the teams are all entered. Round themes are kept secret, only to be released when the round starts (it sucks that the staff don't get to be as surprised). Each team will have to select one person to complete that challenge. No person may complete multiple challenges. 1 week for each.

Pentathlon - A single person competes for each round of the tournament, regardless of the teams. If multiple people from the same team enter a single round, the team will select a single entry (and that person will not be allowed to be the team's official entrant from there on out).

CSD and I came up with these last year. I still don't know why we didn't make these the categories, because they're awesome.

I think that's too restrictive and confusing. But Pentathlon is a good name for it. I think we should just let anyone join in on the tournament and have judges judging it continuously. I mean as soon as the comp starts, have the judges topic ready, and everytime a new submission is entered, they can play it, discuss it, and compare its ranking to the other entries so far. That way by the time the round is over, we can get the results out as soon as possible.

Since anyone will be able to join it, the overall winner of the tournament will bring the grand prize (lots of points) to their team-- and depending on how many participants, other members can bring in smaller second and third place points to their teams. But no points will be awarded to a specific team more than once, which means that if Team 1 had winners in first and third place, they would only get points for first, and no other team would get anything for third.

So looking at the possible sports-related suggestions, here's my first attempt at a well-balanced collection of such categories:

Cycling - Free Rider 2 (must use either BMX or Mountain Bike)

Running - Speed Levels in any platformer

Paralympics - DDAs

Tennis - collaborative levels, as a throwback to CaveMaking Tennis (actually, this could be cool if a team was to have their own little cavemaking tennis thread, and they worked on the cave the whole month, or just standard co-lab levels would be fine)

Football - Amberial Axis, or ball-focused levels from any other game (example: boulder HATPC levels, Red Remover or Super Stacker 2 levels with those little circle guys, scriball??, gravitee 2?? hm..)

Swimming - HATPC water caves

Pentathlon - tournament

[Puzzle category], but what should we call it? Baseball? (b/c it's about numbers) Judo/Taekwondo (lol i dunno).

We could do a Continental Collab. People select their continent then do a collab with everyone in that Continent (google docs)

Here are some suggestions for the whacky mini-tournament rounds:

[1] Hannah and the Pirate Caves - Effectively Use the Water Drain Glitch
[2] Super Mario Flash - Barred From Using All Tyles
[3] Ambriel Axis - Can Only Use Bubble Statics
[4] Red Remover - Can Only Use Pink and Red Squares

I'm not sure how many rounds are there will end up being, but this mini-tournament should focus on the most productive games, giving the more unacknowledged games the spotlight in the main competitions. Most members are familiar with the games listed above, and so they will feel comfortable in designing a level that meets new, weird requirements.

How are you planning on handling the mini-tournament? It would be a great way to open the Interguild Olympics with this while also opening with another competition. For instance:

Interguild Olympics Open // Competitions Starting:
Electric Box Competition (or so) Deadline: 2 weeks
Start of the Mini-Tournament, Round One - Hannah and the Pirate Caves Using Water Drain Glitch Effectively Deadline: 1 week

Each week would bring a new round, quickly ending the tournament without interfering with the other competitions.

Some suggestions for themes where you submit one level with your entire team, the Collaboration Themes:

-Zelda Classic
-Knytt Stories
-Large HatPC (this is more for the judges, I don't want to play 17 80x80 levels)
-Possibly something like a "Team Introduction Video", where each member shows off bits of some of their best levels and their 1337 playing skills

We should also do an unpopular game comp, where you may only make a level for Electric Box, Seppukuties or any of the other games with few levels.

I support the unpopular games comp, however making a co-lab Knytt/ZC level will prove to be a pain.

if we call it the Pentathlon, the "penta" means there will be five rounds. Like how the "tri" in triathlon means there are three.

Here are some other possible mini-tourney rounds. I looked through the old challenges and comp-ideas topics:

1-make a good cave that even quirvy can beat
2-Make a cave so that if you switch the door with the starting position the level will still be playable (preferably not just playable, but enjoyable and different)
3-make a level in which it is impossible to die
4-make a level in which you must die in order to beat it
5-Specific-game comp where you must use X-number of a certain tile (no more, no less)
6-Each tile must [or must not] be in contact with at least X-number other instances of the same tile.
7-No tile may be in contact with another tile of the same kind. (as long as you don't count empty space as tiles.)
8-we make a template, and the participants must make a level out of it. (may be best for an unpopular game, to get people started with it)
9-Harumbai's crazy jigsaw idea:
I think the ideas with the most potential are 4, 5, and 8. Ideas 5-7 are all good, but they're so similar that it'd probably be good to only pick one of them for diversity purposes.

Imtimi, your first idea is great, and that last one is also cool. I'm not sure I like the amberial axis idea. Maybe because goldfun already made a similar level to that. Also, how would such an SMF level be like? Or are you saying you can't use any of the tiles under the "Tyles" menu in the level editor? If so, that would be interesting.

And jell, you're suggesting some kind of Team-only category where you each submit a collab level? We could do that with a "Tennis" category, and just mandate that each team present one level in the name of the team, all the while still leaving it open for other collab levels made by other people on their own time.

My idea behind the collab competitions is that some categories take too much effort for a single person, such as a Knytt Stories level or an 80x80 cave. Those could be done far better if the teams make one large level for the entire team.
And as I said, I don't really want to judge 17 80x80 levels. You know how well it went last year.

Err, yeah, I meant barred from all of the tiles listed in "tyles."



And, uh, just how bad does this guy suck?

Also, using the Kyntt Stories level editor is insanely complicated and time consuming. I lost interest early on in trying to make a level for it. If we have a competition featuring around Kyntt Stories, I'd suggest making it a smaller competition.

I was honestly hoping we'd keep the rounds a secret, and just spring the rounds on the unsuspecting victims. If people knew the rounds beforehand, I think they might join or not based on the content of the rounds. The tournament could have in-advance sign-ups, but there's no reason people could just join if they feel like it. I'd just like a better idea of who all would be interesting in completing a series of random challenges.

July is fast approaching! :picnic:

So maybe we should all just suggest ideas, and then we'll pick the best (along with some of our own) in the Staff Forum?

IDEAS FOR ROUNDS:
Try something new - Submit a level for a game that you have not submitted a level for already.
Rain Cloud - Make a rain cloud level in RR.
Parallel Universe - Make two levels, in different games, that look and play similarly.
My Ideas Suck - And I'm going to stop listing them.

Somebody want to edit in a header for all the things we've decided on so far?

yeah, we should finalize the rounds in the staff forum.

Also how long is the IO going to last? So far, we're making it start on July 1, and end on August 1st. I kinda want to fit more rounds into the tournament, and the best way I can think of would be to make it so that each round starts only a few days after the start of the previous round. However, all the rounds will have the same end date: August 1st. This could help people better manage their time throughout the month. The only downside is that we won't be able to keep track of current tournament standings, but that's not that big of a deal. and we could always open a "current tournament standings speculation topic"...

Livio should make the teams.

we're already making the teams.

Beyond the default awards and badges, here are some ideas for fun, additional rewards that can be handed out to competition winners (or perhaps as a bonus only to the pentathlon rounds to encourage participation):

[1] Create Your Own Censor (as long as it follows Interguild rules, staff cannot deny it)
[2] Create Your Own Badge (as long as it follows Interguild rules, staff cannot deny it)
[3] Create Your Own Competition (one which will take place after the Interguild Olympics)
[4] Sabotage (restrict one member from representing their team in the next Interguild Olympics competition--they may still enter)
[5] Sabotage 2 (shut down the use of one team's secret board for the next Interguild Olympics competition)

These are merely ideas, but including little extras such as these--particularly the last two--can definitely motivate and provoke activity.

In fact, I'd discourage the last two. We don't want lesser activity - the IO was the peak of our activity last year and I think we'll experience more of the same this time around.

However, those first three are brilliant suggestions.