Let’s Have Fun with Daily Rapid Vale!

[ddalgilatte]

Hi everyone!
Starting in August, I’ll be launching a new tournament format: Daily Rapid Vale! I hope you’ll take interest and join in.

It’s an 8-player knockout tournament, and each player gets 30 minutes of real-time play per match. Since it takes 3 matches to determine the winner, the entire tournament can last up to 3 hours.

If the format gains popularity, I plan to expand it to a 16-player bracket and shorten each player’s time to 22.5 minutes per match (45 minutes total per match).

If you have a preferred time slot, let me know — I’ll try to schedule the next Daily Rapid Vale at that time!

DRV 08-01-2025: https://boardgamearena.com/tournament?id=418910
DRV 08-02-2025: https://boardgamearena.com/tournament?id=418912
DRV 08-03-2025: https://boardgamearena.com/tournament?id=418913

[javini]

It is just a fixed 30 minute timer for all your moves? Or will it be similar to regular rapid where you get 1m45s or whatever it is to make each move? My main concern is that 3 hours is a lot of time to commit. And a max allotted time of 1 hour per game doesn't feel exactly rapid. However if it's like normal rapid where you get less than 2 minutes per move, that sounds fine

[ddalgilatte]

It is just a fixed 30 minute timer for all your moves? Or will it be similar to regular rapid where you get 1m45s or whatever it is to make each move? My main concern is that 3 hours is a lot of time to commit. And a max allotted time of 1 hour per game doesn't feel exactly rapid. However if it's like normal rapid where you get less than 2 minutes per move, that sounds fine

Hi Javini, thanks for your reply.
Yeah, unlike real-time arena games, the tournament uses a fixed time control—there is no increment per move. If you feel that 60 minutes is a bit too long, I could shorten it to 45 minutes (22.5 per player) or even 30 minutes (15 per player). I'll try that out for the next DRV.

[reddcast]

Sounds cool! Too early for us West coasters (5am) but thats a fun style of Vale

[BananaHarambe]

Hi ddalgilatte, I experimented with some real time tournament settings a while ago when I got the developer Moof to speed up the animation time for all the scoring cards. This adjustment helped increase the pace of the game dramatically. i am familiar playing Chess with various thinking time.

I think the game duration should be reduced to 30 minutes as a maximum. Most real time games are under 25 minutes, many are already under 20 minutes. 30 minutes game duration gives 15 minutes thinking time to each player which is quite generous in my opinion.

15 minute games were tested and were possible for rosenbot and I to complete, but all games were very close to the time limit. I felt like 15 minutes was quite rushed, but could be an interesting variation for players that like to play fast.

With my experience with 15 minute games I think 20 minute games would be no problem. That gives 150 seconds to each player, which they can use for late game sequencing and score calculations.

10 minute games are technically possible, see here for testing https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=595174833 but I do not recommend because strategy becomes limited and the focus becomes more on clicking buttons fast and doing everything fast rather than playing the game. Also, the balance between low skilled Freyja sand timer builds versus difficult Rudra/Rock Golem builds becomes very noticeable. At 10 minute games, players should start to bias towards easy sand timer scoring.

[ddalgilatte]

Hi ddalgilatte, I experimented with some real time tournament settings a while ago when I got the developer Moof to speed up the animation time for all the scoring cards. This adjustment helped increase the pace of the game dramatically. i am familiar playing Chess with various thinking time.

I think the game duration should be reduced to 30 minutes as a maximum. Most real time games are under 25 minutes, many are already under 20 minutes. 30 minutes game duration gives 15 minutes thinking time to each player which is quite generous in my opinion.

15 minute games were tested and were possible for rosenbot and I to complete, but all games were very close to the time limit. I felt like 15 minutes was quite rushed, but could be an interesting variation for players that like to play fast.

With my experience with 15 minute games I think 20 minute games would be no problem. That gives 150 seconds to each player, which they can use for late game sequencing and score calculations.

10 minute games are technically possible, see here for testing https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=595174833 but I do not recommend because strategy becomes limited and the focus becomes more on clicking buttons fast and doing everything fast rather than playing the game. Also, the balance between low skilled Freyja sand timer builds versus difficult Rudra/Rock Golem builds becomes very noticeable. At 10 minute games, players should start to bias towards easy sand timer scoring.

Hi, BananaHarambe. Thanks for sharing your experience. You're right — this tournament was designed for players who prefer fast-paced gameplay. So I wanted each decision to be made in under 10 seconds, while still giving enough time to think during critical combo turns. I believe a 30-minute game length is ideal, and anything shorter would be very challenging. I’ll try aiming for a 30-minute format in the next DRV.