Re: Blur 5 Grand Final: Results Video is Live; Demos Up

[MiBeM]

Hey guys, not sure where to put this but just to keep you informed: I have been selected for leadership training in the army (against my will, didn't have enough willing applicants and they thought I had potential :S ) so my service will last a full year instead of the previously announced six months. Therefore I'll be mostly away until June 2016. So yeah, that happened and I'm not sure how to feel about it.

[EddyMataGallos]

Yo don't worry, you'll be here for the finals.

[_danielr_]

I'll be mostly away until June 2016. So yeah, that happened and I'm not sure how to feel about it.

As your speedrun competitor this is slightly good news ;)

Yo don't worry, you'll be here for the finals.

Huehuehue

[ska]

Yo don't worry, you'll be here for the finals.

That's a bit optimistic, don't you think? ;)

[ska]

The round is up, although it will probably take me a couple of days to process the results and package them for you guys. Stay tuned!

[ska]

Two people failed to submit runs, so I haven't really felt that compelled to update this, since it seems people have lost interest.

[_danielr_]

What, so four runs altogether?? That's ridiculous :/

I'd like to say, if non-submitter A was never paired with non-submitter B, then they should each lose the respective hs/sr round. If they were paired, then the tournament might need restructuring. However, this seems a pretty harsh punishment for what could have been a simple mistake - so maybe just run the round again? (new map of course).
Thoughts, anyone?

[vankusss]

I didn't submit a run for 2 reasons:
1. I couldn't find a motivation anymore, I mean this competition is taking months and publishing the results is taking weeks (wtf), it is hard to stay excited about it.
2. I don't stand a chance against macro, so why waste time on something I don't care about anymore.
Sorry to the other players.

[ska]

I don't know, van... I think it's a cop out to say you didn't want to try because you didn't think you could win. The whole spirit of the contest is to just give it your best, even if you're the underdog. Furthermore, you are a former grandmaster for crying out loud; give yourself some credit. Anyway, I can't blame you for not having motivation, but in my defence, it's very difficult to singlehandedly run a competition when you're working full time. I'm going to post the runs tonight and organise the next round's map. I am pleased to announce that the one and only tktktk will be providing the maps for this round, so look forward to that. Also, if anyone would like to give me administrative assistance in the competition, please let me know; I'm sure I can delegate a task or two.

[_danielr_]

I don't know, van... I think it's a cop out to say you didn't want to try because you didn't think you could win.

I agree. In the first week of sr finals, golf and I both happened to go right instead of left at the start of the map. That is, we both took the slow route. If either of us had gone the other way, it would have been an easy win.
You never know what's going to happen :P

[macrohenry]

I didn't submit a run for 2 reasons:
1. I couldn't find a motivation anymore, I mean this competition is taking months and publishing the results is taking weeks (wtf), it is hard to stay excited about it.
2. I don't stand a chance against macro, so why waste time on something I don't care about anymore.
Sorry to the other players.

Agreed with point 1 but I'm sure ska is doing the best he can. Creating maps, looking through the runs, adding information to the grid, recording a video (as for the last two rounds) is surely much more work than it seems.

Disagreed with point 2. Especially in this round the highscoring map was completely open, allowing dozens of different routes. Even though I think I found a good route I can never be sure that it actually is. The first route you'd have discovered could have been faster than mine already.

[ska]

If you've been following this thread recently, you will be aware that I have recently been in talks with tktktk.

For those of you who have been living under a rock, tktktk is one of the best N mappers to have graced this great game, making such classics as 'Slacker Versus Hacker', 'Advanced Robotics', and 'Shrapnel', among many, many others; plus, he was the first ever N grandmaster.

Fortunately for us, tktktk has been kind enough to pool eight unreleased maps—including some new ones—for my perusal. Since they are all such high-quality maps, I couldn't settle on a decision; therefore, I have opened up the vote to everyone on this thread. You can find the candidate maps here.

Voting is really easy, and you don't need to be an active finalist or competitor to vote. Simply pick up to five of your favourite maps for each category. All maps are available for voting in each category, except for 'Luft', which is excluded from speedrun voting due to its triviality. The map from each category that polls the highest will be selected for the preliminary finals. You do not have to vote for 5 maps, but it is preferable. Here is a template for your convenience, which you can copy and use to PM to me with the subject "Votes". The poll will end after 72 hours from this post. Please do not post your poll votes on this thread, or you will forfeit your right to vote.

Speedrun

5 votes: 4 votes: [map name] 3 votes: [map name] 2 votes: [map name] 1 vote: [map name] Highscore 5 votes: [map name] 4 votes: [map name] 3 votes: [map name] 2 votes: [map name] 1 vote: [map name] Now that that is out of the way, it's time to announce the results! Spoilers below.... .... First, [url=http://pastebin.com/yu7aDfdi]here[/url] are all the demos. Triple click to easily select demos. [size=200][b]Summary:[/b][/size] [size=150]Speedrun:[/size] [b]MiBeM vs. danielr[/b]: MiBeM didn't submit a run, so danielr gets a walkover to the prelim final. Nevertheless, his run was the fastest speedrun of all players, and he thoroughly deserves his place in the next round's final. His run was precise and unflinching, and ended up finishing 30 frames faster than his next closest rival, jp27ace. [b]Pony vs. jp27ace[/b]: Okay, this ended up being a very closely fought out battle. Pony elected to start by going left, while jp27ace went right. It wasn't entirely clear whose route was faster, but jp27ace's polish ensured that when the two players' paths coalesced, they were literally 'neck and neck' (lol). Thanks to jp27ace putting an extra jump in near the final door switch, he got himself a lead of a few frames, which he maintained until the end—knocking the defending speedrun champion out in a thrilling finish. Macrohenry also submitted his own run to try to secure a 3-day advantage over his direct opponent; however, his run fell well short of the mark. In the preliminary finals, macrohenry will meet the in-form danielr, while jp27ace's winning run will see him playing the reigning grandmaster, EddyMataGallos, in the other preliminary final. [img]http://i.imgur.com/a0jkCEu.png[/img] [size=150]Highscores:[/size] In the first semi-final, we saw another walkover; this time, it was vankusss who didn't submit a run, apparently due to a combination of intimidation and apathy. This means that macrohenry will get a free ride to the preliminary finals round, where he will again face danielr. [img]http://i.imgur.com/dTlw94J.png[/img] In the xaelar vs. jp27ace match, xaelar got absolutely thrashed, losing to jp27ace by 5.425 seconds. Xaelar has traditionally struggled in Blur, which probably stems from his inability to consistently find an optimal route, and it seemed to be his downfall yet again. Credit where credit is due, however, as getting to the 2nd round of finals is no walk in the park. Thanks for participating, xaelar, and for giving it a real crack. Jp27ace meets Eddy in the preliminary final, which means—bizarrely—the preliminary final match-ups for the final 4 players are the exact same in both highscore and speedrun categories. Danielr decided to also have a crack at going for the highscore 0th to secure a 3-day buffer over macrohenry, but he fell about a couple seconds shy of the 0th, which means he, too, will not get a time advantage. [img]http://i.imgur.com/mltcx6B.png[/img] Please remember to PM me your votes for the preliminary final maps. Edit: thanks to an insightful PM from danielr, I have realised I had opened to the 3-day advantage to everyone still in the running, and not just the people who'd automatically qualified to the prelims. In light of this, danielr will get a 3-day head start for speedrun, and macrohenry will get a 3-day advantage on highscores. See you in 3 days!

[MiBeM]

I failed to submit a run because I was stuck at the garrison for the entire duration of the round so I had no access to N. I don't think I would have had the motivation to spend my few free hours on this anyway though :P Good luck to the finalists!

[ska]

I failed to submit a run because I was stuck at the garrison for the entire duration of the round so I had no access to N. I don't think I would have had the motivation to spend my few free hours on this anyway though :P Good luck to the finalists!

Yeah, I figured you were away/busy, but you probably would have needed to dedicate all of your free time to even have a shot at winning your round.

[jp27ace]

Wooh double Eddy battle, good luck me!
It seems a bit silly to let the people still in the competition vote on the next map, but I guess there won't be many votes otherwise, I'll have a look through the maps later.

[ska]

Wooh double Eddy battle, good luck me!
It seems a bit silly to let the people still in the competition vote on the next map, but I guess there won't be many votes otherwise, I'll have a look through the maps later.

There were two main reasons why I did that:

1: It keeps people who are not competitors/finalists interested in the competition, and it will allow them to influence which maps they'd like to see tackled.
2: The more people who vote, the less likely there will be a tie. In the event of a tie, the map will be determined by the map which has the most votes from remaining finalists only; all other maps which didn't tie for the most votes won't count in this respect. If, in the unlikely event that both of these fail-safes fail, I will pick the map(s) from the tied maps.

[ska]

The 3-day head start has been applied. Feel free to play around with the maps as much as you like until the official democratically decided results have been announced.

[ska]

The speedrun map is "Asteroid Climb".

Here is the map data:
$Asteroid Climb#tktktk#Action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|5^564,528!11^564,564,114,90!0^36,168!0^60,168!0^48,180!0^36,180!0^36,192!0^36,228!0^48,216!0^48,228!0^36,240!0^204,36!0^216,36!0^192,36!0^228,36!0^228,48!0^240,48!0^276,36!0^276,48!0^264,36!0^288,48!0^222,270!0^222,342!0^270,378!0^354,318!0^282,294!0^366,222!0^438,162!0^522,210!0^474,234!0^366,390!0^330,462!0^270,474!0^162,426!0^162,126!0^174,162!0^342,138!0^270,150!0^234,186!0^150,318!0^462,402!0^630,426!0^522,366!0^510,486!0^606,258!0^462,318!0^462,330!0^390,498!0^402,498!0^114,198!12^528,288!12^312,222!12^306,432!12^540,420!12^264,330!12^192,102!2^36,576,0,-1!1^648,144!1^684,180!1^612,108!1^672,156!1^636,120!1^660,168!1^624,132!10^744,48!0^666,138!0^678,138!0^654,126!0^654,114!0^666,126!0^630,102!0^642,102!0^690,150!0^690,162!12^624,168!12^684,108!12^708,180!12^612,84!6^324,276,0,1,0,1!0^162,258!0^48,168!0^48,156!12^36,402!12^102,150!12^114,270!12^630,366!12^420,282!12^408,384!12^186,234!12^186,396!12^486,180!12^402,132!12^288,108!12^438,486!2^756,576,0,-1!1^108,540!1^684,540#

The highscores map is "From Clutches".

Here is the map data:
$From Clutches#tktktk#Action#9000B1111111111111111110000>1111111111111111110000011A011111111111111000002E0011111111111111000000003111111111111110000000011111111111111100000000J11111111111111000000000MI0B1111111111000000000000>11111111110000000000003111111111100000000000>11111111111000000000000BMI0B111111000000000000000;1111111000000000000000:11111110000000000000000000>1110000000000000000000000C0000000000000000;1111110000000000000000:1111110000000000031@000C111110000000000311D031111111000000000>11111111111110000000000B11111111111100000000000FJ111111111100000000?400?111111111100000000C140C111111111100000031111111111111111000000J11111111111111110000000F1111111111111110000000?1111111111111110000C40C111111111111111800?1111111111111111111|5^372,480!12^396,558!7^372,456,3!7^396,456,3!3^384,408!11^96,228,396,540!12^318,60!12^264,192!12^228,288!0^210,312!0^606,312!0^42,120!12^588,288!12^378,126!12^696,168!12^198,84!12^726,72!0^684,198!0^516,60!0^504,60!0^504,72!0^366,72!0^366,60!0^378,60!12^636,108!12^456,372!12^342,348!12^378,264!12^462,198!12^582,54!12^462,78!12^84,66!12^564,156!0^456,132!0^456,120!0^468,120!0^690,210!12^168,156!0^294,120!0^294,108!0^306,108!0^228,66!0^228,54!0^240,54!0^30,114!0^30,102!0^198,306!0^198,294!0^618,306!0^618,294!0^702,204!0^762,102!0^762,90!0^750,108!6^204,228,0,1,0,0!6^612,204,0,1,0,3!6^348,36,0,1,0,2!1^402,336!1^432,246!1^678,90!1^600,120!1^546,198!1^474,144!1^522,84!1^384,84!1^312,132!1^306,240!1^378,180!1^210,162!1^246,78!1^126,90!0^474,414!0^294,390!0^294,402!0^306,408!0^474,426!0^462,432#

The official deadline is 11:59 pm, Sunday, October 4, 2015 (Melbourne time).The voting statistics will be announced later.
Good luck, everyone!

[_danielr_]

Sooo a few days ago my laptop died. Not at all happy about that. Anyway, I got a new one, but for some reason it won't allow the same key (in my case, the one I use to jump) to be pressed more than once in quick succession (I think it limits it to 0.3 secs between each hit) which means that I can not longer chimney like, at all, or even wall jump properly.
I have a feeling the problem lies with Windows 10, but I can't be sure. I've tried going through all the keyboard settings and whatnow, but I may have missed something. Any ideas on how to fix this??
Help muchos apreciatiamosos guys :)

[EddyMataGallos]

Try with an external keyboard to see if it's a hardware problem, which very likely it will be, I know at least I had a similar problem with my old keyboard, certainly not as serious as your problem, but I couldn't press keys for a single frame in N v2.0, which runs at 60 frames/sec rather than only 40. The keyboard would just plain not detect the press.

If it's because of the operating system then you're fucked :P And I suppose that installing a virtual machine wouldn't help because after all it'd still be running in your Windows 10. You can always change your OS, if it's a new one you won't lose anything and it shouldn't take long, but that might be going too far.

[ska]

All I know is that Windows 10 is nothing but trouble. After privacy concerns, then people complaining about various issues withing days of release, I've steered clear of 'upgrading' any of my devices to Windows 10. If a downgrade isn't possible, then that's a shame. Do you have any other computers you can at least get use to get a run in?

[ska]

24 hour notice.

[_danielr_]

Thanks for the tips, guys. It's probably the keyboard: if I triple-tap, it only registers one or two taps. It won't be in time for this round, but I may as well order an external one, as suggested. Speaking of keyboards, does anyone else have this stupid arrow key configuration? http://tinyurl.com/pwl8jez It's horrific! :P
Regardless, I have submitted two pretty-good bad runs. I'm counting on Macro not rinsing me too bad ;)

[EddyMataGallos]

Damn, my sister's laptop has that arrow layout as well, it's a nightmare for gaming.

[_danielr_]

Damn, my sister's laptop has that arrow layout as well, it's a nightmare for gaming.

Can't believe I didn't notice what I was paying for.
Soooo Eddy, how confident are you feeling about this round?