Under Pressure (CP 1533)

[XIQQ]

Is it necessary to have 2 exhibition matches on every match day? 2 per day means 100+ over the entire year, which sounds awfully a lot...

Once we go to 7 or 8 groups per day, we have lots of slots for exhibition matches on days with fewer groups, and I think it's possible to finish all the seasonals & ToC solely in those days, even without the usual 2 exhibition matches.

If we wish to avoid featuring a character more than once in a single match day, we need these events to be spread out over several match days. We don't have enough match days with the days of fewer groups.

Assuming we have 7 groups as standard, which gives 42 matches per day. From Aquamarine to Emerald, there should be 30 days with 7 groups and 20 days with 6 groups, which already gives 20 days*3 matches per group*2 divisions=120 matches for exhibition. Ruby will be 6-group days, and Diamond will still be 4-group days as it is now. If you keep having 42 matches per day, this gives 5*3*2+5*(7-4)*3*2=120 matches for exhibition. This gives a total of 240 usable exhibition matches, and there should be more available on necklace matches and elimination stage I assume...

ToC this year used 12 matches. Next year there's one more male champion, so it'll be ~13 matches? Each seasonal needs 12 groups*3 matches per group+8 16-to-8 matches+4 quarterfinals+2 semifinals+final+3rd place=52 matches, so 4 seasonals mean 208 matches. 208+13=221<240, so...

"We don't have enough match days"...ah, but I thought none of the seasonals require many match days on principle? 3 days with 1 match from all 12 groups, 4 days for elimination, so a seasonal can be completed in as few as 7 match days. Unless we never hold different seasonals together, I don't see how it's a problem.

Seasonal tournament cannot start before we get the nominations, tally it, and then make voting avatars. Therefore, Spring and Summer Seasonal cannot start before certain dates. Fall Seasonal is an exception, but it is a painful exception.

(I'm assuming we're having 7 groups here...)

If we're starting aquamarine on Apr 7th, Sapphire should start on Aug 11th (15 Aquamarine, 12 Topaz, 9 Amethyst, 2-week breaks between stages). There'd be 6 days with fewer groups in Sapphire, and 2 in Emerald, so we can actually finish Spring within Sapphire and Emerald (if we can't fit 8 16-to-8 matches in the Sapphire necklace round, we can postpone finals to somewhere like Diamond).

As for Summer, Ruby will start on Oct 11th (or is it 10th? I don't really know which days of the week matches will be held). This year's Summer seasonal started in Ruby 2, which was also on Oct 11th, so...starting 2018 Summer in Ruby sounds reasonable to me. The 36 within-group matches can be completed in the 5 Ruby days & necklace day, and the rest can be finished in Diamond. Starting Summer later than Ruby 1 should be ok as well, since there are plenty of slots in Diamond. Let's say Summer starts in Ruby 4. We can do 18 matches in Ruby 4+5+necklace. Ignoring Autumn for the moment (poor Autumn), we'll have 12 in Diamond 1 and 6 in Diamond 2, then the 4 days from Diamond 3 to necklace is sufficient to wrap up Summer.

[maglor]

Is it necessary to have 2 exhibition matches on every match day? 2 per day means 100+ over the entire year, which sounds awfully a lot...

Once we go to 7 or 8 groups per day, we have lots of slots for exhibition matches on days with fewer groups, and I think it's possible to finish all the seasonals & ToC solely in those days, even without the usual 2 exhibition matches.

If we wish to avoid featuring a character more than once in a single match day, we need these events to be spread out over several match days. We don't have enough match days with the days of fewer groups.

Assuming we have 7 groups as standard, which gives 42 matches per day. From Aquamarine to Emerald, there should be 30 days with 7 groups and 20 days with 6 groups, which already gives 20 days*3 matches per group*2 divisions=120 matches for exhibition. Ruby will be 6-group days, and Diamond will still be 4-group days as it is now. If you keep having 42 matches per day, this gives 5*3*2+5*(7-4)*3*2=120 matches for exhibition. This gives a total of 240 usable exhibition matches, and there should be more available on necklace matches and elimination stage I assume...

ToC this year used 12 matches. Next year there's one more male champion, so it'll be ~13 matches? Each seasonal needs 12 groups*3 matches per group+8 16-to-8 matches+4 quarterfinals+2 semifinals+final+3rd place=52 matches, so 4 seasonals mean 208 matches. 208+13=221<240, so...

"We don't have enough match days"...ah, but I thought none of the seasonals require many match days on principle? 3 days with 1 match from all 12 groups, 4 days for elimination, so a seasonal can be completed in as few as 7 match days. Unless we never hold different seasonals together, I don't see how it's a problem.

Seasonal tournament cannot start before we get the nominations, tally it, and then make voting avatars. Therefore, Spring and Summer Seasonal cannot start before certain dates. Fall Seasonal is an exception, but it is a painful exception.

(I'm assuming we're having 7 groups here...)

If we're starting aquamarine on Apr 7th, Sapphire should start on Aug 11th (15 Aquamarine, 12 Topaz, 9 Amethyst, 2-week breaks between stages). There'd be 6 days with fewer groups in Sapphire, and 2 in Emerald, so we can actually finish Spring within Sapphire and Emerald (if we can't fit 8 16-to-8 matches in the Sapphire necklace round, we can postpone finals to somewhere like Diamond).

As for Summer, Ruby will start on Oct 11th (or is it 10th? I don't really know which days of the week matches will be held). This year's Summer seasonal started in Ruby 2, which was also on Oct 11th, so...starting 2018 Summer in Ruby sounds reasonable to me. The 36 within-group matches can be completed in the 5 Ruby days & necklace day, and the rest can be finished in Diamond. Starting Summer later than Ruby 1 should be ok as well, since there are plenty of slots in Diamond. Let's say Summer starts in Ruby 4. We can do 18 matches in Ruby 4+5+necklace. Ignoring Autumn for the moment (poor Autumn), we'll have 12 in Diamond 1 and 6 in Diamond 2, then the 4 days from Diamond 3 to necklace is sufficient to wrap up Summer.

Then, we have Divine Circlet/Crown matches and then usually one more special occasion match, similar to Touhou. The special match may be eliminated, but then we won't have room for any crazy ideas, thus grow stale.

[XIQQ]

Is it necessary to have 2 exhibition matches on every match day? 2 per day means 100+ over the entire year, which sounds awfully a lot...

Once we go to 7 or 8 groups per day, we have lots of slots for exhibition matches on days with fewer groups, and I think it's possible to finish all the seasonals & ToC solely in those days, even without the usual 2 exhibition matches.

If we wish to avoid featuring a character more than once in a single match day, we need these events to be spread out over several match days. We don't have enough match days with the days of fewer groups.

Assuming we have 7 groups as standard, which gives 42 matches per day. From Aquamarine to Emerald, there should be 30 days with 7 groups and 20 days with 6 groups, which already gives 20 days*3 matches per group*2 divisions=120 matches for exhibition. Ruby will be 6-group days, and Diamond will still be 4-group days as it is now. If you keep having 42 matches per day, this gives 5*3*2+5*(7-4)*3*2=120 matches for exhibition. This gives a total of 240 usable exhibition matches, and there should be more available on necklace matches and elimination stage I assume...

ToC this year used 12 matches. Next year there's one more male champion, so it'll be ~13 matches? Each seasonal needs 12 groups*3 matches per group+8 16-to-8 matches+4 quarterfinals+2 semifinals+final+3rd place=52 matches, so 4 seasonals mean 208 matches. 208+13=221<240, so...

"We don't have enough match days"...ah, but I thought none of the seasonals require many match days on principle? 3 days with 1 match from all 12 groups, 4 days for elimination, so a seasonal can be completed in as few as 7 match days. Unless we never hold different seasonals together, I don't see how it's a problem.

Seasonal tournament cannot start before we get the nominations, tally it, and then make voting avatars. Therefore, Spring and Summer Seasonal cannot start before certain dates. Fall Seasonal is an exception, but it is a painful exception.

(I'm assuming we're having 7 groups here...)

If we're starting aquamarine on Apr 7th, Sapphire should start on Aug 11th (15 Aquamarine, 12 Topaz, 9 Amethyst, 2-week breaks between stages). There'd be 6 days with fewer groups in Sapphire, and 2 in Emerald, so we can actually finish Spring within Sapphire and Emerald (if we can't fit 8 16-to-8 matches in the Sapphire necklace round, we can postpone finals to somewhere like Diamond).

As for Summer, Ruby will start on Oct 11th (or is it 10th? I don't really know which days of the week matches will be held). This year's Summer seasonal started in Ruby 2, which was also on Oct 11th, so...starting 2018 Summer in Ruby sounds reasonable to me. The 36 within-group matches can be completed in the 5 Ruby days & necklace day, and the rest can be finished in Diamond. Starting Summer later than Ruby 1 should be ok as well, since there are plenty of slots in Diamond. Let's say Summer starts in Ruby 4. We can do 18 matches in Ruby 4+5+necklace. Ignoring Autumn for the moment (poor Autumn), we'll have 12 in Diamond 1 and 6 in Diamond 2, then the 4 days from Diamond 3 to necklace is sufficient to wrap up Summer.

Then, we have Divine Circlet/Crown matches and then usually one more special occasion match, similar to Touhou. The special match may be eliminated, but then we won't have room for any crazy ideas, thus grow stale.

Depending on the exact arrangement of the seasonals, we will have ~50 slots (up to now, we've had around 50 for this year?) for exhibition matches in the group stages even after subtracting the ToC and the seasonals, and they'd be spread across 10+ days. (For example, one possible arrangement is 12 in Amethyst over 3 days, 6 in Emerald over 2 days, 18 in Ruby over 3 days, 16 in Diamond over 4 days. Some more in necklace days I suppose). I think it should be enough for the Divine Circlet/Crown matches once Elimination is included as well. We can still have smaller special occasion matches, just not as big as the Touhou exhibition (we don't need 48 contestants!)

Alternatively, rather than removing both of the regular exhibition matches each day, we can keep 1 per day. We'd only cut a total of 60 rather than 120, but it's still better than not cutting at all.

[maglor]

Is it necessary to have 2 exhibition matches on every match day? 2 per day means 100+ over the entire year, which sounds awfully a lot...

Once we go to 7 or 8 groups per day, we have lots of slots for exhibition matches on days with fewer groups, and I think it's possible to finish all the seasonals & ToC solely in those days, even without the usual 2 exhibition matches.

If we wish to avoid featuring a character more than once in a single match day, we need these events to be spread out over several match days. We don't have enough match days with the days of fewer groups.

Assuming we have 7 groups as standard, which gives 42 matches per day. From Aquamarine to Emerald, there should be 30 days with 7 groups and 20 days with 6 groups, which already gives 20 days*3 matches per group*2 divisions=120 matches for exhibition. Ruby will be 6-group days, and Diamond will still be 4-group days as it is now. If you keep having 42 matches per day, this gives 5*3*2+5*(7-4)*3*2=120 matches for exhibition. This gives a total of 240 usable exhibition matches, and there should be more available on necklace matches and elimination stage I assume...

ToC this year used 12 matches. Next year there's one more male champion, so it'll be ~13 matches? Each seasonal needs 12 groups*3 matches per group+8 16-to-8 matches+4 quarterfinals+2 semifinals+final+3rd place=52 matches, so 4 seasonals mean 208 matches. 208+13=221<240, so...

"We don't have enough match days"...ah, but I thought none of the seasonals require many match days on principle? 3 days with 1 match from all 12 groups, 4 days for elimination, so a seasonal can be completed in as few as 7 match days. Unless we never hold different seasonals together, I don't see how it's a problem.

Seasonal tournament cannot start before we get the nominations, tally it, and then make voting avatars. Therefore, Spring and Summer Seasonal cannot start before certain dates. Fall Seasonal is an exception, but it is a painful exception.

(I'm assuming we're having 7 groups here...)

If we're starting aquamarine on Apr 7th, Sapphire should start on Aug 11th (15 Aquamarine, 12 Topaz, 9 Amethyst, 2-week breaks between stages). There'd be 6 days with fewer groups in Sapphire, and 2 in Emerald, so we can actually finish Spring within Sapphire and Emerald (if we can't fit 8 16-to-8 matches in the Sapphire necklace round, we can postpone finals to somewhere like Diamond).

As for Summer, Ruby will start on Oct 11th (or is it 10th? I don't really know which days of the week matches will be held). This year's Summer seasonal started in Ruby 2, which was also on Oct 11th, so...starting 2018 Summer in Ruby sounds reasonable to me. The 36 within-group matches can be completed in the 5 Ruby days & necklace day, and the rest can be finished in Diamond. Starting Summer later than Ruby 1 should be ok as well, since there are plenty of slots in Diamond. Let's say Summer starts in Ruby 4. We can do 18 matches in Ruby 4+5+necklace. Ignoring Autumn for the moment (poor Autumn), we'll have 12 in Diamond 1 and 6 in Diamond 2, then the 4 days from Diamond 3 to necklace is sufficient to wrap up Summer.

Then, we have Divine Circlet/Crown matches and then usually one more special occasion match, similar to Touhou. The special match may be eliminated, but then we won't have room for any crazy ideas, thus grow stale.

Depending on the exact arrangement of the seasonals, we will have ~50 slots (up to now, we've had around 50 for this year?) for exhibition matches in the group stages even after subtracting the ToC and the seasonals, and they'd be spread across 10+ days. (For example, one possible arrangement is 12 in Amethyst over 3 days, 6 in Emerald over 2 days, 18 in Ruby over 3 days, 16 in Diamond over 4 days. Some more in necklace days I suppose). I think it should be enough for the Divine Circlet/Crown matches once Elimination is included as well. We can still have smaller special occasion matches, just not as big as the Touhou exhibition (we don't need 48 contestants!)

Alternatively, rather than removing both of the regular exhibition matches each day, we can keep 1 per day. We'd only cut a total of 60 rather than 120, but it's still better than not cutting at all.

I will consider it

[IGNITE]

Anyway, the reality is that we can't rapidly increase the art team. We can give more time for art team if the schedule changes being discussed in this press conference yield sufficient preparation time before the necklace match. With more break before and after the necklace match, while we still won't be able to guarantee the poster as we announce the results in 12 to 15 hours, we probably can get to unveiling the posters before the start of next period's matches. I hope this is a significant improvement compared to current status quo, in your eyes.

Would decreasing the number of candidates in the necklace match help with the poster making in time, or would it not worth it?

[Chibasa]

It would not change anything.