Arena Decathlon

[msclark]

Hi folks,

I've been thinking it might be fun to have a seasonal "Arena Decathlon", to challenge ourselves in a breadth of games rather than just our particular favourites. The idea would be that we pick 10 random (*) games and everybody who gets to Elite in all 10 would be automatically eligible. Then at the end of the season we sum everyone's scores and the person with the highest total is the champion. Hopefully this would encourage people to dive into some new games and give some love to some of the games that don't get played as much.

Does this sound interesting? Has it been done before? Obviously there's no point in starting this if nobody's going to give it a try, so if this sounds like something you'd be interested in then please answer the poll.

(*) I think (but am open to suggestions) that I'd pick games randomly, but make sure that there's a good variety of games in there. Perhaps something like:

• at least one Euro game
• at least one card game
• at least one abstract game
• at least one shorter/filler game
• at least one popular game
• at least one obscure game

If you don't like something chosen, hopefully you can force yourself to play enough games to get to Elite and then stop!

[thoun]

I like the idea, to motivate players to try new games. I've thought of a multi game tournament mode, but the objective is the same

[msclark]

I like the idea, to motivate players to try new games. I've thought of a multi game tournament mode, but the objective is the same

Yeah, a multi-game tournament would be fun too. I like the Decathlon idea simply because there's not really any organising to do. No registration required, no format discussions or point weightings, no headaches when people abandon. If you want to take part, just start playing the ten games and get to Elite - simple!

[msclark]

Ok, we've got 14 people declaring some interest so far, which I think is enough to give this thing a go. Even if the competitive side of this fizzles out, at least it's a fun challenge to start the new year. I figured that we'll need to play some non-Arena games at first, to get to the 100 Elo so might as well draw the games out of the hat now. The actual challenge will be for next season, though if you want to try and get there in the last days of this season good luck to you!

I randomly picked 10 games from the full catalogue on here. It turned out there were no (traditional style) card games in those 10, so I dropped the last one and replaced it with a random card game to come up with this list:

1. Guildes
2. 7 Wonders Duel
3. Caravan
4. ToeShamBo
5. Hugo
6. Lords of Xidit
7. Insert
8. Quetzal
9. Nippon
10. Palace

I think that's a nice mixture of games. We've got a meaty Euro, we've got some very light short games and plenty in between. There are (I think) four 2p, three 3p and three 4p games, which worked out well. We've got one of the most popular games on the site, along with a few I'd never heard of before, which is kind of the point of this. And nothing that looks too ridiculous, though I'll have to see how much I'll want to grind Hugo after getting to Elite!

If you want to take part, all you have to do is play these games in Arena. No registration required. At the end of the season, I'll faff about with Excel for a bit and come up with a ranking list of all the players who made it to Elite in all ten. I think just appearing on that list will be an impressive achievement.

Good luck! I'll see you at the table. I'm off to read some rules...

[msclark]

Just bumping this now that the new season has started.

[LightKnight]

I'm theoretically interested. But I'm not too sure considering the list of games (I barely play one among them). So idk... But it echoes with an idea I had before and which you motivate me into putting in practice .

[Silene]

Sounds great!

Maybe it's interesting for you that there are some competitions across multiple different games. Those are usually organized through BGA-groups and often present some results through google sheets.

I have started a group to collect such events for promotion + inspiration: https://boardgamearena.com/group?id=9889886

[msclark]

I'm theoretically interested. But I'm not too sure considering the list of games (I barely play one among them). So idk... But it echoes with an idea I had before and which you motivate me into putting in practice .

I think I'd only played one of the games more than once myself, but having now played them all a few times they're mostly pretty straight-forward. Guildes, ToeShamBo, Hugo, Insert and Palace all take just a few minutes to learn. 7 Wonders Duel, Caravan, Lords of Xidit and Quetzal have some rules to read but they're pretty simple once you get going. Nippon is the only one you'd really call difficult. They might not be everybody's cup of tea, but I've been enjoying the challenge so far. But talk to me again in a few weeks when I've played 30 games of Palace and am still in Bronze.

[Cheery Dog]

Hmm 3 games I can currently play in arena, but haven't done so for multiple seasons, and never got it of bronze when I did last try
3 I have played but haven't achieved 100 ELO
4 games I'm yet to play.

I think I'll stay out and just focus on reaching elite in 10 games I otherwise play.

[Curling]

Still possible to participate even when not answering to the poll?