Come play and vote in the exciting conclusion of the first round of the Free IF Playoffs! Voting and fan selection commentary are here. If you are a new fan, please see the rules before casting any votes. A FAQ is available.
EDIT: This segment is over, and the next has already begun. See you there!
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Final scores at the end of the match:
This was all done randomly? Because there are a LOT of seriously heavy hitters in this round, and some very long games. I suspect if many of these had been in previous rounds then things would have turned out differently.
I noticed only 2 of these are in the top 10 though. This division does seem weighted towards really long parser games but it doesnât seem especially high in the overall rankings. It may just be that this division has more of the games that you personally like (which may be me projecting because it has a lot of the games I personally like!)
Haha, perhaps I am projecting. I would have bet money that Savoir-Faire, Worlds Apart, and Photopia would all be in the top ten, but now that I think about it, there are at least 20 games that I would have bet would be in the top 10. I was crystal clear on what #1 and #2 would be, though. Itâll be interesting to see what happens when those 2 come head-to-head, as Iâm sure they will.
To demystify the process:
This division does seem to have a concentration of well-known games, but itâs just Lady Luck at work. (To point out another cluster, Division 3 has practically all the games that start with âSâ in it.)
Regarding predictions⌠I, personally, have given up. (Though I am considering making a fan game out of predicting results in later rounds.)
I donât see anything in the rules about authors not being able to vote for their own works, but this seems like the division where a rule like that would really make a big difference!
The FAQ is explicit that authors are allowed to vote for their own works, but they are honor-bound to follow the same rules as other players.
Oh boogers! No matter how the combatants are going to be paired up, this is going to be such a hard round to choose one over the other.
The first 25 votes are already in for what looks to become a very active segment that Iâve started to nickname âThe Clash of the Classics.â
Just a reminder to all fans and players that everyone participating is honor-bound to play by the rules (which are short), and that a FAQ (which is long) is available to answer questions that have already come up. Good luck to the current contestants, and happy playing to all fans!
With the first quarter mark behind us at the end of Day 2, most matches are going as the seed rankings would predict, but some surprises have developed.
The Impossible Stairs has taken a significant lead over 4x4 Archipelago, which now lags by four after leading by two in the early hours.
Alias âThe Magpieâ has also taken a significant lead over community production Cragne Manor and is now up by three at 6-3.
An apparent vote switch in the match of Anchorhead vs. Known Unknowns has resulted in the first point on the board for the teen high school drama, but it still has a long way to go to catch up.
Likewise, Make It Good has managed its first two goals against Worlds Apart, which made a strong start of four points in opening hours, leaving the match at 4-2 in favor of the latter.
The hot match has switched from Treasures of a Slaverâs Kingdom vs. Bronze to Photophia vs. Digital: A Love Story.
The closest match remains The Mulldoon Legacy vs. Endless, Nameless, where the latter holds a single-point lead.
With less than an hour to go until the halftime mark, the overall situation remains largely unchanged despite new points being scored in most matches.
Endless, Nameless maintains a narrow two-point lead over The Mulldoon Legacy, currently at 6-4.
Story-enhanced puzzler Savoir-Faire continues to lead by six against all-story Harmonia.
Treasures of a Slaverâs Kingdom is holding out against Bronze in a high-scoring match whose battle lines seem entrenched at 9-6.
In the largest crow-draw of the segment, Python-based Digital: A Love Story has scored a sixth time against puzzleless pioneer Photopia, but a turnaround goal by the defender leaves the challenger substantially behind at 11-6.
Over the course of the most recent quarter, Twine-based rogue-like 4x4 Archipelago has closed half of the gap between its score and that of Dialog puzzler The Impossible Bottle, but it still has two points to go to pull even.
More motion in the hours after the half.
In match 26, The Mulldoon Legacy has made another goal and is now just one behind Endless, Nameless.
The same dynamic is at play in the slow-moving match of Make It Good vs. Worlds Apart, where the latterâs lead has been reduced to a single point.
Bronze and Digital: A Love Story have also each narrowed the gap between themselves and their opponents, Treasures of a Slaverâs Kingdom and Photopia respectively.
Scoring continues in most matches as some contests heat up in the third quarter.
The Mulldoon Legacy has made another goal and is now in a dead heat with Endless, Nameless.
A second apparent vote switch has reduced Anchorheadâs lead, but the 2nd-seeded Lovecraftian horror mystery is still ahead by eight in its bout with the teen drama with a supernatural twist, Known Unknowns.
In Photopia vs. Digital: A Love Story, the third most popular match in the tournament to date, the relatively unknown BBS simulation sci-fi drama now has eight points on the board, but the once-controversial defender has largely kept up the pace and still leads by four.
The margin enjoyed by Treasures of a Slaverâs Kingdom at the half has been whittled further by opponent Bronze, leaving the latter just one point behind and making it anyoneâs game.
With the clock past the third quarter mark, the final segment of Round 1 is less than two days from its conclusion.
The Impossible Stairs has compensated for the drive by 4x4 Archipelago with two goals of its own, but the Twine entry has scored yet again in recent hours, leaving it behind by three and its challenger positioned to win.
Alias âThe Magpieâ has increased its lead over Cragne Manor, which now lags by five.
Both Bronze and Make It Good are just short of tying their opponents; only time will tell whether they can catch up and pull ahead before the buzzer.
The Mulldoon Legacy and Endless, Nameless remain at a tie with each other and may be headed for the tournamentâs second coin-toss decision.
Fans are reminded to get in their predictions for Rounds 2 through 4 of Divisions 1 and 2. (See this post for details.) The deadline for receipt is noon UTC on Saturday July 6.
With just 24 hours to go, Bronze has tied it up at 9-9 and is playing a game of inches against Treasures of a Slaverâs Kingdom.
The Mulldoon Legacy remains tied against Endless, Nameless in another toss-up match.
4x4 Archipelago has scored again, bringing it to within two points of The Impossible Stairs.
Hard-boiled detective drama Make It Good remains stuck at one behind magical sci-fi story Worlds Apart.
Just 12 hours to go until the end of Round 1, and the tie between The Mulldoon Legacy and Endless, Nameless has been broken! However, just as with Make It Good vs. Worlds Apart, only a single point separates the two contestants, leaving the outcomes of both games less than certain.
Treasures of a Slaverâs Kingdom and Bronze remain locked at 9-9 as time grows short. Will one break the deadlock, or will the match be resolved by coin toss? Stay tunedâŚ
Fans are reminded that predictions for Divisions 1 and 2 are due before Round 2 begins, which is in just over 12 hours. Out of fairness to other players, late predictions for these divisions will not be accepted. Instructions for formatting your predictions are available here.
I was the first person to switch my vote from Anchorhead to Known Unknowns. I wasnât trying to be mysterious about it or anything; I just havenât had the wherewithal to participate in the discussion very much due to health issues. Anyway, Anchorhead is a classic for good reason, and nothing else in the Bell Park series has ever quite lived up to Birdland for me, so that was how my initial vote fell. But Known Unknowns is a very good game in its own rightâa highly polished, visually appealing, weird, moving mystery/ghost story/teen dramaâand the more I thought about it the more I felt like factoring âwell, itâs good, but itâs not Birdlandâ into the equation had been a little unfair, and I felt it didnât deserve to get totally curbstomped and go down without a single vote, which was how the voting had been going up to that point. So I swapped. Iâm glad a couple other people ended up voting for it too.
