Okay so I have spent the last few days trying to get my head around the complaints and viewpoints on the current tournament system, that frankly has created a considerable dip in participants and a fair few disgruntled members.

Tournapoint concept
I think it is fantastic and that there is definitely a place for them in the game as it certainly builds the prestige levels of tournaments that might have been lacking previously. However the irony is the current system has devalued tournaments. Why? Well that is the question everyone wants an answer to. I believe the funkypool audience have not responded to the less funky and more competitive, professional feel that has been brought into the game. If people had, the number of participants would not have dropped off in the fashion they have. Which leads to a conclusion that the concept, integrated into the older system would have received a better response.

Too many tournaments?
Quite frankly , yes. When the majority of players echo the same complaints, whatever beliefs or research you do, change is required. It is impossible to hide away from that fact. The Micro's contradict the aim of tournaments becoming the prestigious, showcase of the site. If you want to achieve that it needs to be competitive, fulfilling and rewarding. Which these certainly are not.
The remaining inclusion of friendly tournaments are bizarre.

CONT...

People either buy into a concept like this completely or not at all. So these tournaments popping up add frustration, confusion and are generally pointless as at the moment the system is simply all or nothing.

Everything ranked has taken away the magic
In my opinion this is the case. Like I say it is all or nothing on the game at the moment, tournaments were held in very high regard before this change to everything ranked. The tournapoint concept in my opinion has to be a substitute for the ranked side of the game. The league tables, the medals the sheer admiration that can come from it matches that of being 900+ and working tirelessly to get that rank up the tables. It is almost two separate game types, and with the funkypool motto often being options options options, this fits in perfectly, doesn't it?

CONT....

One more thing on this point is the argument of convenience for Micro tournaments, which without particular data is difficult to asses, but in my opinion the ranking table and ranking element of the game working alongside the tournapoint and tournament concept on the game smashes the convenience argument out of the water as people continue to have something to work towards if they do not have time for a tournament, which they may well do later on in the day.

Conclusion
I know this is getting on a bit now so I will conclude
It reads as if the tournapoint concept integrated into the older system is what I would recommend and will be fighting for, that is exactly right. That would be building on a success, this has been too bold and too dramatic. Building even further on it is an option e.g major tournaments or things such as that, at the moment that is just an impossible dream, where as before it was a constant recommendation.

The concept and the game is lacking accuracy. We all have to respect time constraints that Nick and co may be facing and have got to remain constructive and patient, but for me, there is a feeling of sadness, not only seeing the numbers and the vibe but also the negativity. I respect and understand the work that has gone into this game, I respect Nick an awful lot for what he has achieved. I will continue to play and help out no matter what direction the game goes in, I just strongly believe it is not hitting

Edited at 09:47 Mon 26/03/12 (BST)

Well said mate i agree!

Bring back hourly tournaments like the old days, 80+ entered all the time it was great and when you won one it was a great achievement but now you'll be lucky if 32 enter.

Need to lose the micro tournys and friendly ones aswell i think.

Sorry guys, this is the last line which clearly didn't fit despite my best efforts!

....the right notes at present and I really do think something does need to be done.

Got there in the end

Do you not think these days we haven't got the masses online for 80+ tournaments?

Well if we haven't then its due to all the changes over the years and people have disliked them

I've been on this site for roughly 6 years, I do remember entering tournaments that had 80+, was great fun. Would be quite something to enter a tournament these days with that many people or having 200+ online at once. Obviously some changes have to be made, where I'm not sure, though sportings posts summed up some of the problems extremely well.

I just want to pop in a very important but again overlooked fact that the days of 80+ entrants in a tourney were long gone before the change to ranked tournaments was made.

Indeed the changes were made to increase the numbers entering tournaments and in that sense they have worked.

To say the changes made have worked in terms of increased numbers in tournaments is bizarre, they certainly have not. Like sporting, nick and try, I've been around a longggg time and I've seen the coming and going of 8 and 9 ball pro which, like the tournament schedules today, were not popular. They were got rid of because very few people played them. Very few people play tournaments today, and that is unquestionably down, in no small part, to modifications made to the site.

The vast majority of people, myself included, have lost interest in the playing side of this site because it's just not anywhere near as fun winning tournaments as it once was. I'll never understand why the site maintained so many changes which were detrimental to it's popularity. It's rare to see new members sticking around these days too, the site's undoubtedly lost it's once untouchable appeal and sense of community and I don't see how it will ever get it back with the game's current dynamics. I hope I'm wrong. I could say a whole lot more on this but, just like most opinions around here, it will go predominantly unnoticed by those who make the changes, so it's pretty pointless.

Very good post by the way Kris.

The tournies in my opinion definately have lost its appeal i have won tournies without playing a game which now i feel i got unearned trophies tainting my profile , not that it a real glorious profile but you know what its mine and i want to feel like tha accomplishments i have made on it i really earned. The only advantage i really can see is for some of us the time change lands when there are few to none online so we are certain of games anyways . Great opinions by some of the permanent names for years around here the ones who would know and i agree fully to each

To be fair its got nothing to do with rank being introduced into tournys, its because more tournys have been added in that hour like the micro tourny and friendlys which means less will apply, but personally i'd like to get rid of friendlies and micros their just pointless, i entered a micro tourny the other morning and only 2 entered so that was the final straight away whats the point really?

I agree with you niall 100%

Like, snooker, US games, Killer, offline messaging, randomized racks, straight pool, auto starts, oh yeah, and Tournaments! Just a few of the things that have come to the site directly from the opinions posted here.

Pointless?

But back to topic

Some stats :

Over the last 12 hours, (from 7am to 7pm, on a tuesday) 549 players have competed in tournaments. That breaks down to an average per hour of 46 people playing.

Compare that to the days before tournapoints and micros. Sure, at peak times there could be more than that, but remember thats an average.

The fact is there are more people playing in tournaments, just in smaller groups.

One other thing I'm a little baffled by - many are asking for the old way back yet at the same time saying friendlies should be scrapped. Has everyone forgotten all tourneys used to be friendlies?

So, with that in mind, and remembering this forum is and always has been the driving force behind how the site goes (no matter what a few say) - carry on!

There will always be frustration it is natural. One thing worth noting is I am a mere spectator without any information available to look into numbers. It certainly is not an objective appraisal

A couple of things Spinner. You say compare it, do you have the numbers? Of course there are going to be more people playing in tournaments, there are more tournaments

I don't think anyone has asked for friendlies to be scrapped, just the friendly tournaments. With the current tournapoint concept, what is the point of them? The old way back yes, but with tournapoints. That was my favoured option because I feel that seperated elements of the site in terms of rank and tournaments is fantastic, it would have built on and made tournaments into the showecase events as initially intended without compromising the game in general. I am not sure what others think, generally though it seems members just want bigger and more prestigious events, rather than all these little pocket tournaments, which you have even reffered to in your post use to be the case, but is no longer the way the game functions.

how many of those are the same people though

also i agree with sporting, i don't care if entries dropped or raised but far too many tournaments now, every 15 minutes???

i just think tournaments are more prestigious the less the numbers of tournaments the more of an achievement it is.im not even fussed if you do one every 30 minutes but every 15 minutes.

i still think we should have a rotating schedule of hourly tournaments with a micro on 30 minutes, pleases everyone instead of having 3 micros one after other where only 1 or 2 join because they are in the main tournament.

also another point, has anyone noticed that most micros are same type as the main tournament before it?

needs more variety i think.

Am I the only one who likes the current tournament system? I only ever played tournament games even when the system was back in one an hour, so this is a welcome boost for me now as I can constantly be playing a game.

Just thought I'd throw in a vote in favour of the current system as it seems to have an overwhelming majority against.

im not totally against it but if it was made every 30 mins instead of every 5 10 or 15 mins it would be better i feel as you would still have your micro and a main tournament, in a sense i feel normal ranked games are a thing of the past too. i probably can't comment though as ive never been a ranked fan which is why i hardly enter tournaments (even on snooker where theres about 50% less than here).

Thanks for the stats there, quite good come to think of it

You realise you've just listed off things that should have been on the site anyway? But only came about after months and in some cases years of people begging for such additions. Game-enhancing requests are dealt with painstakingly slow around here, and I'm sure that's a contributing factor to the decline in popularity of the site. The stat you posted about tournament entrant numbers is ridiculously misleading and falsified, as someone else mentioned the same few people were probably entering the vast numbers of tournaments over and over. If you added up all the numbers of tournaments in any one day, plus the number of different people entering them, and compared that to a couple of years ago there would be a massive difference. Numbers in chat rooms exemplify this.

Doing my best to stay on topic here but, in my opinion (and I'm evidently not alone here), the current tournament schedule is just not good enough. I hope what happened to the pro games happens to the arcade games because they are awful, but they'll probably stay. I've come on quite a bit lately and looked at the upcoming schedule and logged straight back off again because there wasn't a tournament I wanted to play for a few hours. A few years...

...back I wanted to play every tournament. A good starting point, again in my opinion, would be completely doing away with friendly tournaments, they are honestly the most pointless addition I've ever seen on this site.

You mentioned (spinner) that tournaments used to be "friendly", granted they weren't ranked, but they certainly weren't friendly in the strict sense of the word. There was a wholeeeeee lot more prestige and self satisfaction associated with winning tournaments previously than there is now. There was times when, if I won a tournament with 70+ players in it, I felt that I actually achieved something worthwhile and gaining an extra tournament win on my profile actually meant something. Now I could win a tournament with my eyes closed and it means nothing because it required no effort as a result of the low numbers in them. Where's the satisfaction in that? I don't mean to be demeaning in saying that but it's true.

I hope something's done to remedy the lack of prestige associated with tournaments now. I remember Nick doing it previously by putting the "showcase" tournaments on at peak times and that certainly worked (I remember playing the UK marathon before at 10pm with over 130 players in it). I also don't mean to put the site down too much because I still love it for what it is, just don't find it half as appealing as I used to, or as I would if it had the same schedules/layouts/formats as a few years ago, but maybe that's just me. Don't think so though.