Custom Variants June News
Hello chess variants creators and players!
There are several changes planned for next week we would like to present. The first one, perhaps the most exciting, we're resuming the Wheel of Fortune arenas. We introduced some innovations into it, and the rotation will be restarted with a new idea: every WoF must have at least 1 new gamerule. Since we are starting from scratch, there is no longer any reason to worry about the similarity of already existing WoFs, so we can use our creativity without any restrictions. The rotation will start from the starting 5 WoFs created by CGA Team and all previous WoFs will be temporary disabled. Later, as time goes by, we will start to include older WoFs (one or two per week) back to rotation. But until then, we count on your help and hope we all come up with an updated list of cool and exciting games based on our great concepts and fun ideas!
In order to make all the publishing process simple and clear, we are bringing back our most dedicated volunteer, an upgraded cgabot 3.0, to our team. Now, whatever you decide to publish, whether it's a New Custom Variant or a new Wheel of Fortune game, all you have to do is submit at least 10 links to the testing games, count up to 3, and reload the page. Sounds fantastic, doesn't it?
You no longer need to spend your time choosing 10 games that would best meet all your requirements; you can put as many games as you want and cgabot will pick best ones for you! Moreover, forget about writing the gamerules out, trying to follow the correct format, specifying the time control, and even taking a screenshot!! All you need to do is to make sure (before posting links to the testing games) that there are at least 10 games among them that meet the requirements, namely:
- Games must be played over a span of at least 24 hours
- Games must be played with the author of the position
- Games must be played without any bot players
- Games must not be aborted or quickly-resigned
- At least 5 games must be of the final version (as long as there are another 5 that are similar enough to the final version and you provide an explanation of what you changed and why)
Each post that becomes under review automatically enters the Open Testing rotation and stays there for 24 hours. Open Testing is a special rotation of variants that are under review, which provides everyone opportunities to test and evaluate recently posted positions for themselves. Open Testing games are hosted by cgabot and change every minute. More information about Open Testing can be found here.
It's also worth to mention that along with the reorganization of the arenas, we have introduced a new rotation called Golden Variant.
| Monday | 2 Player |
| Tuesday | 4 Player FFA (1) |
| Wednesday | 4 Player FFA (1) Anonymous |
| Thursday | 4 Player FFA (2) |
| Friday | 4 Player FFA (2) Anonymous |
| Saturday | 4 Player Teams Self Partner |
| Sunday | 4 Player Giveaway |
The arenas start at 00:00 UTC and last 24 hours. Any new variant will automatically join this rotation with a higher priority. As weekly tournaments, along with Quick Throne and Hyper Fiesta, we have set up two more arenas: Mutated Laby (hyper Labyrinth 82 with promotion to a chancellor or a queen) and The BYG Hype (next week, 6sec the BYG setup).
We look forward to seeing your new positions and meeting you in the arenas!
With any questions, please ask in the comments of this news article on the forum, or by messaging any of our admins/coordinators.
Thank you,
qilp
