XCOM 2 Duel League

[Bobchillingworth]

Having played a number of matches with DP101, we both came to the conclusion that there's a lot of potential for organizing some sort of community tournament / persistent duel league structure, particularly given that RB is in the midst of something of an XCOM renaissance at present (thanks, Jowy!).


I haven't given a great deal of thought as to the structure of a dueling league, besides that we can establish times and pairings for matches here, as well as house rules for unit limits / bans (the in-game point values could use some work, with a few units being seriously undercosted). Of course the Discord chat remains an option for setting up casual games.


Oh, and DP101 discovered that there's a way to spectate games via the Steam interface, something to keep in mind if there's enough interest for some sort of formal tournament.


So, who's in? Once/if enough people express interest, we can get into details of bracket structure, duel times, rules, etc.

[Dp101]

I am in, obviously. Preliminary proposals for units that should be limited in some way: Shieldbearers, codexes, andromedons, psi operatives, combat hackers. Shieldbearers are absurdly cheap and are a force multiplier, codexes can teleport every turn for a guaranteed flank, andromedons have great AOE and have to be killed twice, as well as being really tanky for their price (they are 4.5K, sectopods in comparison are 8K), psi operatives are just generally really good with tonnes of utility and damage, and discharge is OP. I could be convinced to change any of these proposals though, particularly the last two.

[AdrienIer]

I'm in ! I'd also be up for casual games if you guys are around when it's not the middle of the night here.

[WarriorKnight]

Potentially interested (not a definite signup). I much prefer the strategic side of XCOM to the tactical side, but it would be a shame not to jump in regardless.

I will probably sign up if numbers need to be evened out. I'm also willing to provide team building advice to someone potentially interested who doesn't have as good of a grasp on the game mechanics. Otherwise I'll wait and see how things are panning out first.

[Dreylin]

I'd probably give it a go, but definitely won't have time until the new year.

[naufragar]

I'd be interested in this. I think Xcom multiplayer requires both sides to have deactivated all their mods, which is done easily enough.

[Bobchillingworth]

Yeah, no mods are allowed; it's very simple to disable them.


It's great to see there's some interest! No rush on getting started with an actual tournament, I'm happy to wait until Jan. There's some more work to be done in figuring out the vagaries of the system, anyway.


On that note, I played a couple games with El Grillo, and have some observations-


* Codices should be outright banned for sub-20,000 point games; between being able to teleport across literally half a map (into cover, with the ability to then shoot or overwatch!), their rift ability, and the cloning (which is very tough to avoid, given the lack of Bluescreen Rounds), they're hideously underpriced at 2,000 points and I'm struggling to envision a scenario where they don't dominate every 7,500 and 10,000 point match. Even then they should probably be limited to only one-per-team.

* Shieldbearers and Andromedans still seem to me to cost around 50% less than they should.

* The game is prone to some serious bugs- I believe El Grillo was getting "phantom cover" and having trouble getting the game to allow certain AoE attacks, while I saw the game refuse to acknowledge what appeared to be a very obvious flank, and an Andromedan refused to use its punching ability until the shell broke. Not sure how we'd account for these in a ranked match, perhaps simply restart (the matches themselves don't take long to play out).

[Jowy]

I'm up for it. Will have to play some practice games first.