March Madness bracket play rules

[Robc]

[riverbottom]

robc, will there be any rules regarding keggers for players in the bracket during each round?

[Robc]

Yeah River, its mentioned in the rules above that keggers are turned off for the entire event. I don't want keggers in non-competition beers either because I hope everyone focuses on drinking beers from the competition first (until limits are reached).

[Robc]

Rule addition:

Beers drunk by the brewer themselves (drinking your own beer) will be subtracted.

[Robc]

We have a full bracket! But do NOT hesitate to join! We all would rather have more participants and some of the players with 3 or 4 labels entered will be glad to give up a spot or two if you still want to play. So join the fun and submit your label name to join! I'll fill out the bracket with the various pairings (randomly drawn) tomorrow afternoon or evening. So there is still plenty of time to join up.

[Liron]

i think it might not be fair for ppl with lower brewing batch, some ppl can only brew 60 bottles a day and some can do hundreds....maybe it needs to be calculated by precentage and not by the amount?

[Liron]

thinking of that precentage might also be a problem...maybe it needs to be limited somehow to make it fair...

[Robc]

I think the bigger limitation is the amount of cold storage available in the smaller breweries. But you are right that your brewery size could have an effect on the outcome. Some brewers will sell all they have and thus be limited. But I don't think it is so bad as to ruin the game because it is beer sales that matter the most and that will depend much more on the time spent in the pub. Even if I have thousands of beers in storage if I don't spend time in the pub selling it then they won't sell too well. The exception is popular players who have made friends and cultivated a following... when their friends log in those friends will seek out their beers and buy them around the clock.

Which reminds me and this is an important rule that I will add above, Six Pack Sales will NOT be counted. I will only be counting individual beer sales. So if you think you have an inventory or production limitation then by all means turn off your six pack sales for the event. The sale will count whether the beer was purchased for yourself or someone else but it has to be an individual beer sale and not a sixpack sale. As I have already mentioned purchasing your own beer will not count.

The bottom line is that I think this problem will most effect brand new brewers who have been here only a day or two. As soon as a player gets their production up above a hundred or so a day (and you can use contract brewing to achieve this very fast) and storage above 500 or so then I think the limitation will disappear. So my response has to be that this inherent bias toward established players which you rightly point out is just going to be part of the game. I think it would become much too complicated and a mess to try and find a completely 'fair' way to eliminate it. The bracket competition will be repeated again in future so players who stick around will surely do better the next time. I will also award intermediate prizes as fast as I can to help out the newer brewers who make it to the later rounds. Perhaps the money can be used to upgrade their brewery and that will help them compete.

[Robc]

I am definitely still taking more entrants so please sign up! Nevertheless, to make good on my reply to Liron (see post above) I want to get the entry rewards into players hands as soon as possible. The following players are guaranteed at least one spot in the final bracket so I deposited the $100 brew buck 'Thanks for Playing' cash into these virtual breweries a few moments ago. I know how much every little bit helps the new brewers and I hope this gives you a little more operating cash to get your inventories in order.

riverbottom,
ShoreWoodBrew,
Darkside5,
Celebrewy,
BaronKananga,
gray75th,
gbeam,
dsneedham,
StoutMan,
ScarTron,
mithe87,
JoeAleble,
chriscas,
BoCoMobrews,
tcpadden,
Liron,
Barleyman,

New players who sign up for the competition are still eligible for this $100 so sign up now! I will stop taking new entrants around 7-8 PM tonight (Friday) Pacific Time

[riverbottom]

i am more than willing to give up a label or 2 if we need space - please keep nightmare as my only label in competition if you need to delete the others.