the fact that some of the old players and newer players (like from 2020 or newer) closed is kind of sad, I hope 4PC will keep improving, as like board size customization/ a REAL FFA game in the new variants (since basically FFA turned into solo, as 2nd loses 0.77-1.24 losses is what I saw) and that some of the people who closed would return to 4pc, since there isn't much people in the new thing (for now) thanks admins!
Embrace Change
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Mar 31, 2022
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#3
“Solo is dead”
I didn't play it much, but it was never dead, it was just infrequent and I'm sure several players still visited it.
“2nd-4th shouldn’t lose equally.”
I liked FFA because of its points system, now that they changed it, I honestly don't feel like I'm playing FFA Rapid. Another of the big reasons for playing FFA, which is my passion, is that many of the best players don't play anymore, have left or haven't come back. In Poetic terms: "My main mission is to defeat the Gods of the FFA"
The truth is that the Gods and many excellent players who are not World Top, have left, or have not returned.
That has an important reason, which is plain to see.
It seems to me that the point system should never have been changed.
New Standard Position
Absolutely agree, new openings can always be created, it's a matter of time. Omatamix is an excellent balance for everyone.
Time control
Absolutely agree
Overexaggerating/uncool way of approach.
Absolutely agree, Respect is as important for the players as it is for the administrators, this is about communication, and this must always be done correctly in the discussion forums.
All the recent changes are improvements in 4PC.
TL;DR My opinions of the changes and community’s reaction to them | Ideas of what to do and moving forward | Breakdown of some arguments I’ve seen thus far etc…
But really, it’s true that Solo has died as few players played it, can’t compare the numbers FFA used to pull with Solo. I do wonder however, if the people saying Solo’s dead, recall the times in 2018 when the top 1500+ rated games (1200 was starting rating, 1700+ was big time
) used to be Winner Takes All. There are players who even in recent times, would still call for that same WTA system to be implemented back in, it was a good thing for the time. 4PC system changes haven’t been uncommon, have patience, give it some time. Note that Solo dying doesn’t necessarily mean that the format is bad. Solo’s decline has been discussed numerous times, to name a few reasons, it’s because of: 1) Mostly through scrapping 1500+ WTA – the standardization of FFA, making it the default modality to play, hence it’s continuous gain of new players and rapid rise in popularity. 2) FFA having more leaderboards which made it more appealing to players. I wish a Solo Blitz leaderboard was added sometime in early 2019 when there were just Rapid leaderboards for both FFA and Solo, but FFA still had a higher player-base. Instead, Blitz FFA was re-added and that just completely “killed” Solo.
3) Just our laziness really. Most players (myself included) just dealt with the change and “migrated” to the dominant FFA mode, and didn’t bother making Solo games and waiting for them to fill up when we could just play FFA which was close enough to Solo. And it’s not like we used to only play Solo all the time prior to this, but surely everyone started playing way more FFA and way less Solo.
Dear 4PC community, I’d like to start off with a word of gratitude to the admins who take the time from their busy lives to help our beloved game prosper, their volunteering often goes unnoticed/under-appreciated– thank you! However, I too, have my criticism regarding the merging of 4PC and Variants, particularly the way it was handled. Despite the cheeky teasers at times of uncertainty caused by the fact that there was never any accurate date or timeframe mentioned, and a while after - some forum and discord discussions, the merge still felt rushed. There should’ve been more transparency in the face of substantial disapproval from a lot of people, including many top players, and personalities. In this post, I aim to go over some of the major arguments against the changes while expressing my opinions of them, plus some extra material..
“Solo is dead”
Dead? This “Solo” is the format of the World Championship! If it’s dead, we should be sad and try to revive it, no?
“2nd-4th shouldn’t lose equally.”
Honestly I think I’ve seen most complaints of this nature come from under 2500 rated players to whom this change is simply not going to apply to. Please kindly get there, build up the experience by staying around that range and see for yourself – maybe you like the change!? I think perhaps an argument can be made that the morph should happen at a higher point than 2500, so that it truly impacts the higher rated base? But folks I look at this as a positive change. We’ve seen those grueling, long-lasting 3-player-stages where the result of the game gets decided by a player “taking second”. We’ve been there when someone ruins the game and you feel like you’ve wasted your time, and they don’t even lose rating, there needs to be consequences. I believe 2nd-4th losing equally shall do a good job of reducing these “taking seconds” and kingmaking.
New Standard Position
I still think other starting positions besides omatamix should’ve been tested out. Having said that, I like Hest’s comments under another thread where he mentioned the fact that the pieces’ positioning is the same for every player in the new standard position, and I do think that it’s a good balance to have and is useful especially for beginners.
Opening variety. “moves are forced”
And? In opening theory there are lines where you must make certain precise moves, that’s just how it is. And I don’t subscribe to the notion that things are worse for Green now. BG are always on the receiving end; they have to support each other. Also keep in mind that there needs to be a “forcer.” If Red plays 1.h3 2.Bg3, then that’s going to trigger a necessary response from Green. Oftentimes it is on RY to get the creative juices flowing, which would in turn make for less repetitive positions.
Time control
Personally I long disliked 1|15D and think 1|7 is an improvement. Time control however, is a topic very much open to interpretation. I like the idea of Championship Time Control. The 2021 Magnus VS Nepo World Chess Championship match had a different time control than other events, so the idea is not at all crazy. In theory, we could surely have default time control something like 1|10D even, and 1|6 Championship Time Control. These numbers are purely examples and refer to FFA, Teams would work differently. I’d just like to light this conversation as I do indeed think it quite useful and interesting.
Overexaggerating/uncool way of approach.
I see among the people who are against the changes, this way of blowing things out of proportion/inaccurately describing instances, in an effort to really push their narrative home. Please don’t. Saying things like “a day before the merge there were seven 2300+ FFA games happening at the same time, now there aren’t any!” Or “the admins don’t do anything.” “no chance they’ll listen to us…” is just not that helpful, is it? At times there are even insults and just simply disrespectful remarks being thrown around. Dear fellow concerned members of the community, I wish we all stay sharp as a unit, and tackle the issues in a coherent manner to the best of our abilities.
Please be little bit patient and attempt to really try out the changes since we’re already here, some time does need to pass to be able to evaluate everything more critically. Especially now and moving forward, let’s always be mindful of what unites us: our love for the game, the desire to grow and popularize it, among many other commonalities we all have.
I’m open to the idea of being wrong about any of the things I’ve mentioned and welcome all proper disagreements, for the sake of progress and improving 4PC! <3