Hexathlon League
With the talk of a possible return to live events and new competitive elements being tested, I wanted to share an idea I've been noodling on for a while that could bring together the individual skills element of Hexathlons with a faction-vs-faction component of anomalies and the exploration component of Mission Days - a Hexathlon League. It would have an approachable regular season of events focusing on individual competition, culminating in a large final tournament that would establish both an individual and a faction victor.
The Hexathlon League regular season would be comprised of player-organized "qualifiers" - players would submit proposals for play areas & dates to Niantic to host an event, and possibly pay a small fee to help offset the costs of setting up this event.
Each regular season event would run similar to the Hexathlons we saw in September 2019 and February 2020 - agents would compete in 6 stat categories, with a live scoreboard and a minimum threshold in each to earn credit for the event and an "elite" designation for agents who scored in the top 10% on one or more of the stat categories. Regular season events would be announced at least 2-3 weeks in advance anywhere in the world that agents want to organize them, with the caveat that there should not be two events within a reasonable travel distance (about 200 miles) of each other on the same day. The "season" would run for approximately 9 months, giving agents ample opportunities to find events to attend at locations and dates that work for them and qualify for the tournament. These qualifiers primarily would serve as an opportunity for agents to familiarize themselves with the event and hone their skills, as well as providing a fun day of active Ingress play.
Then it would be time for the tournament. This would be a two-day competition at a handful of designated sites around the world (like an anomaly weekend).
Day 1 would be open to anyone who qualified by achieving the elite ranking at any of the qualifier sites during the regular season. Agents would get a composite score across the stat categories and be ranked within their factions.
Day 2 would put each faction's N top-scoring agents from day 1against the other faction's N top-scoring agents. I'm thinking 32 vs 32, but the exact numbers could be tweaked. The important part is that there should be an even number of agents from the two factions participating in this final stage and that the agents are all "elite" so you get an exciting competition.
In my ideal world, these elite agents competing for both faction and individual glory would be competing in a "sandbox" that could be observed but not changed except by those who qualify, to ensure a pure competition, however I could also see an interesting meta in allowing non-participating agents to affect the playbox. In either case, agents from both factions would be there to cheer on their respective competitors as they try to win the tournament, creating an exciting player-spectator dynamic not ordinarily seen in Ingress live events.
Edited to add: There would also be a Mission Day on Day 2 of the tournament as an added option for those who don't qualify for the final competition (as well as those who do).
Comments
Sounds like a lot of fun!
One question, though: Medals? I see no mention of them. 🤔
The idea of an extended hexathlon competition is pretty good. Especially since a hexathlon itself is still very expandable. But the implementation of the 2-day competitions sounds like a lot of bureaucratic effort in my eyes.
There are the battle beacons, why not expand the function of these items so that they don't just affect a single portal but an area around it. Alternatively, 3 batlte beacons, on 3 portals: the direct connections between the corner points (displayed in the scanner like a link) result in the game area. The advantage is that battle beacons already exist and Niantic receives money for the purchase.
Definitely medals. I think there would be 2 separate medals - one for regular season (with a participant and elite style), and one for the tournament, with at least 3 tiers - perhaps a participant, finalist, and elite finalist level.
2 days is only for the big tournament at the end of the season. Most people who go to anomalies stay for the whole weekend anyway, so why not have the competition extend into the second day instead of reserving it solely for Mission Day. But also, a motivation behind the 2-day format is to make sure both factions are evenly represented on day 2, so that the outcome is not overly influenced by recruitment.
Niantic is already working on "expanded" Battle Beacons.
However, for me, the appeal of a Hexathlon, or something substantially similar to the previous ones, is the variety of activities involved. It wouldn't be a competitive Ingress event if there wasn't some battling for control of portals, but if that's the only goal, then I've never found that to be terribly exciting or interesting.
Travel could be a limiting factor. Participants would have to know and budget for any travel for the competition. Granted many agents already sort of do this for anomalies. There may be issues where some eligible players may not be able to make the competition due to issues that come up. The finals should be announced well ahead of time for players to properly plan and block off their schedules.
You mentioned the ability for the "audience" to participate. What if the audience participated in their own competition where achieving goals gives the winning faction things like the Lens or other "superweapons". The players participating in the finals could have a Coach that acts as a go between for the audience and the players to use these items when needed. The coach would have access to the sandbox intel map to assist the players. Maybe the coach has to be one of the people who made it to the finals. The faction has to choose amongst themselves who would act as that person.
Now, I'm imagining a Hunger Games-like format for the final round, with the audience sending care packages and such.
I really like the idea of a small subset of players for a final round to drive home the teamwork aspect, especially not knowing who will be on the team. Much like joining your faction as a new player, you really don't know, aside from a few people who your teammates are. This forces the players to figure it out and work together regardless of who qualifies.
I really like this! Here are my thoughts/ideas:
I think each year should consist of a 3 month qualifying stage, then the qualifiers get invited to the “Hexathalon” style events and the top XX number are then invited to the “finals” in a designated location “Chicago, NYC, Atlanta, Berlin, etc” for the 2 day event.
All dates and locations announced by February 1 of the year. That way, if you think you are going to be a badass that year, you can go ahead and plan/schedule/finance your trip to Berlin in September - right???
Example:
January 1 - March 31: Qualifying Actions
Worldwide
Must complete 5 of 6 Tasks
1. Capture 1,000 portals
2. Capture 1,000,000 MU
3. Destroy 10,000 enemy resonators
4. Recharge 1,000,000 XM
5. Complete 25 missions
6. Deploy 1,500 Mods
(Those numbers can be adjusted)
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Qualifiers move on the round 2: to be held sometime between April 1 - June 30 at XX designated locations.
Round 2 would be the Hexathalon style event.
10:00am-5:00pm
I’m thinking it would need to be invitation based to make sure an equal number of each faction are present at each location.
Requirements to move on: finish top 64 of your faction / of all participants in all locations.
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Finals: 2 days: Designated Locations (maybe 3 worldwide)
Anomaly Style with no outside actions from unqualified agents allowed to influence the “sandbox”.
Day 1: 8:00am-8:00pm
Day 2: 8:00am-4:00pm
Winners announced 6:00pm (Day 2)
Niantic could sell a full line of swag to help support the team. Jerseys, shirts, accessories, all with a special competition logo for each faction.
They could also broadcast the competition with ads and show the competition live, following the players with camera crews so players around the world could watch. (I can help with this part, I have experience with this)
I don't like the idea if it is meant to replace the current type of anomalies. What you describe is an "everyone for themselves" challenge. What I liked about the anomalies (especially in the recent years) was that there were things that required explicit strategic planning and teamwork (Media collection, link stars, longest link paths, mini shard games).
I'd rather see anomalies use the current format: Challenges that encourage strategic planning and teamwork.
Like the idea. Esports the way it should be??? This as a different from anomaly style play would grant itself its own playspace, and yes big game needs to be an outside the main board experience.
Not as a replacement for. Rather a different style of play re: Thailand two years ago except over months with several rounds.
Anomalies as constituted should stay in place.
We really don't have a "current style" of anomalies at this point. The anomalies have evolved in several ways since the start.
That's honestly how I wish Battle Beacons were from the outset. Drop a BB on one Portal, confirm that you have multiple participants across both factions, and the nearest 4-8 Portals become control points. That allows you to adjust the playbox density-- in a dense downtown area, it becomes a wild free-for-all, while in a rural area you need to strategically run from Portal to Portal to maintain control. The strategy becomes different depending on where the BB is deployed.
As for the Hexathlon League idea, I think you have something really good here. You also beat me to an idea I was going to post! I was thinking of something similar recently, where each monthly Special Event had a leaderboard and an ongoing scoring system. Players could score points by doing the following:
- Participating in a Special Event (gaining at least 1 AP during the event window) would award the player 1 point
- Being on the faction that performs better in the chosen metric (average captures per player, total link length, etc) for each event would award the player 1 additional point
- Being in the top 20% of players in each faction would award the player 1 additional point
- Being in the top 5% of players total would award 1 additional point
So a player who plays casually might earn 1 or 2 points per Special Event, while power players on the winning faction can earn up to 4 points per event. These points are cumulative across events and count towards a single medal, so a player who plays casually can still earn the same medal as a top performer, just at a much, much slower pace.
I love this idea!
But if we use New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago or Brooklyn 2019 as base line, does that change your answer?
Those events had different strengths to focus on when to came to metrics. The defeat of Chicago by fractions of a point showed how versatile it was - you couldn't leave out acquiring media.
I'm just saying an anomaly has changed scope where initially it depended on turnout to defend portals and then it became more intel based with operators on and off site. There's always multiple "games" at play with anomalies.
Excellent ideas all around! I agree that this shouldn't be a replacement for anomalies, but could work great in conjunction with them. For anomalies, I love loads of primary and satellite sites for the standard anomaly "season", then having just primary sites for the "championship" (think Abaddon Prime).
The Hexalthlon League finals could run the day after (or before) each anomaly championship site where loads of agents are still in town for the anomaly that could help the Hex League finalists farm gear before the event and cheer them on during it!
I would leave it able to no participants to be active in the playbox. It would probably be simpler for Niantic and add an extra layer.
Eg the elite participants organising with the other agents of there Faction to aid them and sabotage the other factions plans and efforts. Might give it a very Anomaly feel, except the issue if there is a huge numbers disadvantage would **** the fun of course.