One of the last major tournaments hosted by egctv attempted to shake the meta up by changing up the rules in hopes of finding something interesting and eventful emerge.
While the endeavor resulted in mix community and pro feelings; i personally loved the heart behind it. And that was to introduce a bit of novelty to a gameplay that has quickly become stale and predictable and a delay of action packed engagements (esp in a abbaisd mirror or any other boom vs boom snoozefest).
I wanna offer my opinion on suggested future tournament formats.
I think the mostly land but respectable amount of water maps like holy island, kawasaki, canal; water hole were all decent amounts of water that all resulted in aggressive and early gameplay but had clear flavors of water.
I think a new map design idea could also force sooner and maybe Asymmetric engagements by moving larger resource towards the center of th map meahwile reducing the TC LOS and attack range by 1. Next insure both starting stone and gold are not under TC protection and opposite of each other with respects to TC.Same time reduce ram hp down to 300hp. Next feudal age up requirements change to 380f 240g. Lastly TC cost changes to 300w 400 stone (nerf buff)
THE IDEA BEHIND THIS:
makes the game more risky with unsafe starting resources; this naturally delays and deters meta 2nd TC meanwhile weaker rams deter ### ##### all ins constantly. The changes in age up and TC forces more villagers exposed for longer on risky resources.
Imo 2nd TC should never be a given, at the same time ram all in shouldnt be a defacto always effective counter to 2nd TC. And dark age should NOT just be merely a discovery/collect sheep age. Lowerly league players can stil play slow progression into feudal but decent to pro do not need this grace period as a default. And since we’re talking TOURNAMENT!! VIEWERS want to see action action action; mini games, macro games AND big fights back and forth.
What do you think?