The “Quiet Play” period is nearing its completion, and matches will begin Saturday March 8th. That means it’s time to start thinking about the Official Prediction Game™! See details on this thread: People's Champion Tournament: Official Prediction Game / Q&A
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Following are the Round 1 matchups for Division 4:
- Match 25: Delightful Wallpaper vs Babel
- Match 26: For a Change vs Search for the Lost Ark
- Match 27: Thin Walls vs Yes, Another Game with a Dragon!
- Match 28: The Little Match Girl, by Hans Christian Andersen vs Scroll Thief
- Match 29: The Moonlit Tower vs Bogeyman
- Match 30: Please Answer Carefully vs Scents & Semiosis
- Match 31: Things That Happened in Houghtonbridge vs Captain Cutter’s Treasure
- Match 32: Winter Wonderland (1999) vs Metamorphoses
And that’s the last – matches begin next weekend!
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This post will be kept up-to-date to show the standings at the end of each segment in the tournament. (Mid-match scores will be available on dedicated threads for each segment.)
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Awesome!
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Exciting!
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There’s just one day left until matches begin. According to polling, the ten matches with the most interest are:
MATCH DIV CONTESTANTS
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01 1 Six vs. Alabaster
32 4 Winter Wonderland (1999) vs. Metamorphoses
11 2 A Dark Room vs. A Change in the Weather
28 4 The Little Match Girl, by Hans Christian Andersen vs. Scroll Thief
18 3 The Dreamhold vs. What Heart Heard Of, Ghost Guessed
23 3 Galatea vs. To Hell in a Hamper
08 1 Winter Storm Draco vs. Augmented Fourth
13 3 Taco Fiction vs. Eidolon
17 3 The Weapon vs. Once and Future
19 3 First Things First vs. Christminster
Division 3, the “fierce” division, is heavily represented, but (surprisingly) the two highest-interest matches (tied for first place at 64%) are the first and last matches of Round 1.
Only half of the games listed above can make it to Round 2. If you see some favorites on the list and want to participate in voting, you can sign up at any time by going to the PCT Fans group page, reviewing and accepting the terms of the honor code for participants, and clicking the “Join” button at top right. With 36 fans already registered, the matches are sure to be exciting.
Also: It’s not too late to send in your predictions for the tournament, but it will be in just eleven hours. Maybe you’ve been thinking: “I haven’t played all of these games. How can I make predictions?” Well, nobody knows the future, so flip coins, use numerology, go by gut feel, do whatever works for you! Instructions on how to enter can be found here. Good luck!
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The bugles have sounded early, and the tournament has begun! Voting and discussion for Round 1 of Division 1 is open at this thread.
It looks like a surprise beginning to the event hasn’t kept things from starting off with a bang!
A couple of hours into it the hot match is Winter Storm Draco vs. Augmented Fourth, with a combined 7 votes (5-2 in favor of the latter) just two hours after voting went live. This edges out even the highly-anticipated match of Six vs. Alabaster, which currently has 6 votes evenly split between them.
Not far behind is The Legend of Horse Girl vs. Aisle, with the alternate universe Western trailing the high-profile experimental work by just one point with 5 votes between them.
DAY 1
We’ve firmly crossed the 50-vote mark, but there is still plenty of time and opportunity for more votes to be added. With 36 registered fans playing, up to 288 votes are possible in practice, though I would not expect actual voting to get very close to that since not everyone will vote on every matchup.
Alabaster has moved ahead of Six, with the match now at 7-4 in its favor. The hot match remains Winter Storm Draco vs. Augmented Fourth, where the latter has attained a commanding lead of 8-4. The match between Tales from Castle Balderstone and A Trial has also been heating up, with a combined 11 votes making it tied for second-hottest alongside headline match #01.
The largest lead by far is that of Illuminismo Iniziato over Everybody Dies, currently at 8-1. Heretic’s Hope vs. Tapestry has so far been another lopsided match, now standing at 5-1 in the multimedia Twine work’s favor.
DAY 2
Heretic’s Hope has extended its lead over Tapestry and is now 5 points ahead. Aisle has likewise lengthened its lead over The Legend of Horse Girl by another point, now at 6-4 in a match drawing more interest than expected.
The contest of Six vs. Alabaster has taken the torch of hottest match as the Aussie birthday party simulation steadily regains ground lost earlier to the fractured fairy tale. Six has put up 6 points so far and is now just one behind.
Winter Storm Draco vs. Augmented Fourth continues to be a hot match, and Draco currently trails Fourth by 4. With just a third of registered fans having voted, there is still a chance for Veeder’s mystical, meteorologically-oriented psychodrama to catch up.
Buggy vs. The Abbey has been one of the quieter matches so far, but the faux horror metacomedy entry by mathbrush is currently in front at 4-2. Meanwhile, in the slowest match of the segment to date, The Bible Retold: Following a Star has finally picked up a point in its run against Submarine Sabotage, but the underwater thriller is still up 3-1 after a triple-vote opening streak.
DAY 3
We’ve hit the 75-vote mark, and points are still coming in as fans explore games and cast their votes. With the extended two-week segment duration, even players who are just signing up will have time to play many of the games in this heat. For some matches, both contestants can be completed within a few hours.
In what continues to be the hottest match, Six has now caught up with Alabaster and surpassed it by one, with a score of 8-7.
The two contestants by Ryan Veeder in this heat are seeing mixed results, with Tales from Castle Balderstone ahead of A Trial but Winter Storm Draco trailing Augmented Fourth. Enough votes are still out there to change the fortunes of one or both games.
Buggy has picked up another point over The Abbey (1993) and is now 3 ahead at 5-2. Likewise, Illuminismo Iniziato has gained another notch, putting it a full 8 points ahead of slice-of-afterlife slacker drama Everybody Dies. Heretic’s Hope has also increased its lead over Tapestry, with that match at 7-1 in its favor.
DAY 4
Scores continue to move as players cast their votes, and another player has entered the stands, bringing the total possible vote count of this heat to 296. New players are welcome to join at any time; see the FAQ near the top of this thread for details.
In a surprise move, weird west dramedy The Legend of Horse Girl has picked up the pace and pulled even with opponent Aisle at 6 all.
The Bible Retold: Following a Star earned a second point, threatening to close on Submarine Sabotage, but within hours the military mystery had slipped away with another point of its own, leaving its lead unchanged at two ahead.
Six has held steady with its narrow single-point lead over Alabaster; scoring remained unchanged all day at 8-7.
Augmented Fourth widened the gap between it and Winter Storm Draco again, with their match now at 9-4. The music-themed Zorkian fantasy now vies with Illuminismo Iniziato to see which will be the first game to reach 10 votes.
DAYS 5 AND 6
Scoring remain unchanged during a mid-week slump in activity. With another weekend and up to two-thirds of registered fans having not cast a vote, the action is surely not over yet!
DAY 7
Moving into the weekend, Augmented Fourth picks up another vote over Winter Storm Draco, making it the first game in the tournament to reach 10 points. With a combined 14 points scored, match #08 is the second-largest crowd draw in the segment, and another vote there would place it at a tie for hottest match.
The Legend of Horse Girl vs. Aisle remains deadlocked at 6-6, with neither side able to score. Polling suggest that a tiebreaker vote may be coming soon – if not, the match will be decided by coin toss when time runs out.
DAY 8
Scoring unchanged. If the current match leaders hold steady through the remainder of the week, then one individual will be at the front of the pack for the Official Prediction Game, regardless of the result of a coin toss in match #06.
DAY 9
Six has gained another vote, extending its narrow lead over Alabaster and leaving it two up at 9-7 in what continues to be the hottest match of the segment. With 9 points on the board, Six is poised alongside Illuminismo Iniziato to break into double-digit scoring. Alabaster has five days left to close up the gap; new fans joining (and abiding by the honor system) could tip the balance.
DAYS 10 AND 11
Scoring unchanged, with only a few days left before the segment ends. Several matches are close enough that late voting could result in a tie or even a change in the leader.
Close matches include: Six vs. Alabaster with the former up by two, The Bible Retold: Following a Star vs. Submarine Sabotage with the latter up by two, and The Legend of Horse Girl vs. Aisle where the score is tied.
DAY 12
Late game motion on two matches! Alabaster picks up a vote, leaving it just one behind Six at 9-8. Also, Augmented Fourth expands its already seemingly insurmountable lead over Winter Storm Draco, with the score there now at 11-4.
DAY 13
A late vote for Aisle has broken its tie with The Legend of Horse Girl and placed it one ahead at 7-6.
Also, The Bible Retold: Following a Star has picked up a vote, leaving it just one behind Submarine Sabotage and bringing the total scoring for the match to the same level as that of Buggy vs. The Abbey (1993).
With just one day remaining, there’s still a chance for these close matches, as well as Six vs. Alabaster to change.
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FINAL RESULTS
Match #01: Wade Clarke’s Six edged out Emily Short’s Alabaster in the segment’s most popular match, ending with a narrow win at 10-8. This match was rated as most interesting by fans in advance polling, so it’s not surprising that it ended up drawing the most activity. The light-hearted, playful simulation of a day at the park was favored 3 to 1 in fan predictions, though Calculon predicted a win for Short’s dark fairy tale drama. Three other works authored in whole or in part by Short are competing in the tournament, appearing in Divisions 3 and 4, so we will soon see more from this highly-accomplished author whose masterwork Counterfeit Monkey dominated all challengers in the Free IF Playoffs.
Match #02: Michael Coyne’s Illuminismo Iniziato took a strong lead early and kept it, finishing the match 8 ahead of opponent Everybody Dies at 10-2. Although Everybody Dies took third place in the 2008 IFComp and has twice been included in the Interactive Fiction Top 50 of All Time, this lopsided result was in keeping with predictions – fans heavily favored Illuminismo (winner of the 2018 Spring Thing’s Main Festival) to come out ahead, and Calculon agreed. The sequel to Risorgimento Represso, a notable Infocom-like fantasy puzzler that was nominated twice but not chosen in the lottery for the tournament, Illuminismo will face Six in round 2. Everybody Dies was the only work in the tournament by Jim Munroe, but he has written several other games – most notably the ASCII-animated Guilded Youth. Fans are encouraged to check it out.
Match #03: Ryan Veeder’s Tales from Castle Balderstone surpassed B Minus 7’s A Trial with a score of 8-5. The Halloween spook story sampler proved popular despite being out of season, and was able to gain a significant lead by the end of day 1. The surreal Twine tale of a bureaucratic dystopia never managed to catch up in one of the more active matches in the segment. Fans universally predicted this outcome, though Calculon disagreed. A Trial was the only contestant written by B Minus 7, and has drawn praise from prominent author Chandler Groover. Fans seeking similar works can explore Inward Narrow Crooked Lanes and other works by the same author.
Match #04: Brian Rushton’s Buggy earned a win over The Abbey (1993) by Art LaFrana, scoring 5-3. Fan predictions were split between the short but sweet fake horror entry and the venerable DOS entry with a custom parser, and Calculon lacked enough data to make a guess. The Abbey was the oldest game competing in the tournament, written almost 30 years before its opponent. It was Art LaFrana’s sole competing game; fans who enjoyed it are encouraged to check out Hampton Manor, the only other game found in IFDB by the same author.
Match #05: Heretic’s Hope, a Twine work by G. C. Baccaris, handily won against Tapestry by Daniel Ravipinto, scoring 7 points to its opponent’s 3. Both contestants are high profile: The illustrated, musically scored drama set in an alternate universe society dominated by giant insects took 5th place in the 2019 IFComp and received the XYZZY Award for Best Setting that year (also tying for Best Use of Multimedia), while the three-part tale of afterlife temptation took 2nd place (and Miss Congeniality) in the 1996 IFComp and won that year’s XYZZY for Best Story. Despite the comparable achievements of these two works, fans and machinery universally predicted the former’s win. Tapestry was the only competing work by Daniel Ravipinto, whose better-known Slouching Towards Bedlam (co-authored with Star Foster) is currently ranked #50 in the IFDB Top 100.
Match #06: Submarine Sabotage by Gary Francis proved the victor over Justin Morgan’s The Bible Retold: Following a Star, but only with a little help from fate. The final score was 4-4 in one of the slowest matches of the segment overall. Perhaps buoyed by discussion in its favor, late voting brought Following a Star up to a tie, letting the religion-themed comedy puzzler overcome the short-form undersea mystery thriller’s opening streak. Nonetheless, Lady Luck gave the win to Sabotage, and that game glides away into Round 2. Fan predictions were 3-to-1 in favor of this outcome, and Calculon called the match’s winner correctly. No other work by Justin Morgan is in the tournament, though he has other published works on IFDB, including Spiral, which took 6th place in the 2012 IFComp.
Match #07: In another evenly-matched contest, Bitter Karella’s The Legend of Horse Girl eked out a win over Sam Barlow’s Aisle, ending the match with the segment’s second tie score at 7-7. The well-known experiment, first mover in the subgenre of one-room games, took a strong lead over the quirky, stylized western early in the match, but, like its determined protagonist, Horse Girl made progress slowly but surely over time. The two games were dead even at 6-6 for a full week before a tiebreaker vote appeared to decide the contest for Aisle. However, a last-minute vote for the underdog evened the score, and the first official coin flip to land “heads” (i.e. lantern) lets the dark horse continue to the second round. Most fan predictions and Calculon favored Aisle, so this may be the most surprising outcome of the first heat. Sam Barlow is a noted designer of many games including Her Story, which is not found on IFDB. We salute the historical impact of Aisle on the art form as it retires from the field.
Match #08: In the final match of segment, Brian Uri’s Augmented Fourth prevailed over Ryan Veeder’s Winter Storm Draco with the scoreboard showing 11-5. Fan predictions were divided in this match between a classic music-themed magic puzzler and a short and stylized “slice of life” adventure recounting paranormal events during a major snowstorm, but Calculon chose the former. Fourth kept and slowly expanded its sizable early lead in this match, which drew more discussion from fans than any other in the segment. Three other works by Ryan Veeder are competing in the tournament, including Taco Fiction in Division 2 (playing now).
With the dust settled, PCT Fan @bg has emerged at the front of the pack in the Official Prediction Game, with 6 out of 8 correct calls for this segment – congratulations on the great start! This heat has knocked out nominees by @AmandaB, @CMG, @Dissolved, @Hellzon, @Joey and @rovarsson, but each of those fans still has other champions in the running. The action now moves to Round 1 of Division 2…
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After its unannounced early start, Round 1 of Division 2 is well on its way!
In the most anticipated match of the segment, A Change in the Weather has taken a strong lead over A Dark Room, pulling in four votes before its opponent scored at all. The outlier text-based “idle game” has now gained a vote, and the board currently stands at 4-1.
Just as active is the first match of the segment, in which Lime Ergot leads CC’s Road to Stardom with the same 4-1 score.
At the moment Taco Fiction vs. Eidolon is tied at 1 all in what is surprisingly the slowest match so far.
DAY 1
A Change in the Weather continues to maintain a large lead over A Dark Room in what is by a slight margin the most popular match. The score there is now 6-2.
Meanwhile, Lime Ergot vs. CC’s Road to Stardom looks to be the most unbalanced match, with a current score of 6-1 in favor of the short but successful parser experiment. At five points ahead, it also has the largest lead over its opponent, a multimedia Adventuron work about anthropomorphized animals in space.
Taco Fiction vs. Eidolon continues to be one of the slower matches in the segment, but the pace has picked up. The breakout “game about crime” by Ryan Veeder is tied at 2-2 with the Twine tale of insomnia and a magical visitor, which scored the first point in the match.
Inevitable (2003) vs. Word of the Day pits two personal dramas about military PCs with conflicting goals in interstellar civilizations against each other, and though Inevitable maintained a single-point lead for much of the first day, its opponent has now caught up at 2-2.
Perdition’s Flames is hot on the heels of Nightfall in their match, but the nuclear thriller is ahead of the afterlife treasure hunt at 3-2.
Sand-dancer and The Mystery of Winchester High are both stories of misfit youths, but despite the first point going to the school-age treasure hunt, the more serious entry featuring a mystical desert journey is now in the lead at 3-2.
Venerable Inform 6 puzzler The Edifice is ahead of its Inform 7 Pokemon-inspired opponent, with the board now at 4-2 after starting with a 2-0 lead.
Adventuron entry Over Here! scored first in its match against ADRIFT entry The Lost Labyrinth of Lazaitch, but the latter has since had an unbroken streak and now leads at 3-1.
DAY 2
A Dark Room vs. A Change in the Weather remains the hottest match, and the multi-layered click-oriented web game is gaining ground on the pioneering contemplative parser work. It’s now two behind at 4-6.
Lime Ergot has scored another two points, extending its lead over CC’s Road to Stardom to seven points in a tremendous scoring streak.
Nightfall picked up a vote, dimming the hopes for Perdition’s Flames somewhat. With the score at 4-2 and a dozen days remaining in the segment, nothing is certain yet. Likewise, Sand-dancer is now two up on The Mystery of Winchester High at 4-2 after gaining another vote.
The Edifice pulled slightly farther ahead of Pogoman GO!, picking up a point after its author stopped by to add some comments about the game’s formative influences; the score in that match is now 5-2. Inevitable (2003) also scored, restoring its narrow one-point lead over Word of the Day for the time being.
Taco Fiction and Eidolon have been running quite close, with additional votes to both sides edging up the tally slowly. Although they have spent most of the time tied, at the moment Taco Fiction leads by one at 4-3. This match was rated second most interesting of the segment in advance polling (and among the top quarter of all Round 1 matches overall) which suggests that more votes are on the way; it seems as though fans may be having a tough time making up their minds between these two works.
DAY 3
Eidolon has earned a fourth vote, bringing the score between it and Taco Fiction once again to a tie.
Perdition’s Flames scored another point, partly closing the gap with Nightfall and leaving it trailing by one.
Inevitable (2003) continues to hold a minimal lead over opponent Word of the Day in unchanged scoring.
DAY 4
CC’s Road to Stardom has received a second vote, leaving it still six behind Lime Ergot at 8-2 but bringing their match to a tie for hottest of the segment.
Also, Inevitable (2003) has lengthened its lead over Word of the Day with the score moving to 4-2.
DAY 5
Taco Fiction has inched ahead of opponent Eidolon yet again, with the board now showing 5-4. With more than a week to go, the match could still go to either one.
Over Here! picked up a point, drawing nearer to The Lost Labyrinth of Lazaitch, which still leads by one at 3-2 in the slowest match of the segment. The Adventuron-based, 1980s-style graphical text adventure with pixel art styling might yet catch up to the low fantasy quest written in ADRIFT.
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