While nearly all major tournaments dating back to 2018 have their scores and match histories documented on the site, the goal for this year is to add more detailed statistics to add more insight into events and the players involved. For Flag Dash specifically the site will be tracking the players who get first flag touches and flag runs this year, these are the most accessible stats to track and a good first step for the site.

That said, doing so requires the help of organizers, players, or volunteers to keep these scores, as not all tournaments have video footage that can be scrubbed through afterwards, and even those that do are not always clear enough to provide all details confidently due to camera angles or other factors. Thankfully we already have organizers stepping up to help with this, as the BANE NSNW Spring Tournament was our first tournament with these extra stats in place. Here’s what they look like on a player level:

If you’re going to be running or attending a tournament this year, and can help track match details, please contact us, whether through email, Facebook, or Discord, as we would love to have your help so that we can provide the most thorough information possible for teams and players. You can also find the scoring sheets used to track these stats on the Files page.

In the future there’s lots of stats that would be great for the site, but require even more people to be a possibility, so this is a starting point with a goal of adding to in the future, and if you have any thoughts of things you’d like to see, please let us know!

Tournament Page: https://blastertagassociation.com/ragnarocktoberfest-2024/
Registration: https://ragnarocktoberfest.ticketleap.com/

With the Ragnarocktoberfest King of the Hill tournament roughly 5 months out, our yearly testing for rules and layout updates has finished and changes are now reflected on the King of the Hill Tournament Rules page. I’d like to go over a few of the changes that may be the most relevant, and some that didn’t change and why. Of course read the rules in their entirety for everything.

Rule 1.5 has changed from 15 seconds to 10 seconds. The respawn time greatly affects the flow and speed of the game, so dropping the time by a third has decreased the punishment for players attempting to make moves that impact the game for their team. This change carries over into the penalty section as well, as penalties are based on multiplied respawn timers, so a double respawn penalty has changed from 30 to 20 seconds and a triple from 45 to 30 seconds.

Rule 2.1 has changed to reflect that there’s no reason for players to be required to hold their hands above their head prior to match start, this was originally done as a way to signify readiness of a team, but verbal checks are done so this is an unnecessary redundancy that we can remove. This does not change the requirement to display player status while out of bounds before respawning, only the beginning of the match.

Rule 3.5 has changed from preventing substitute players from holding blasters until they have subbed in for a teammate to allowing it so long as they are not presenting themselves as an active player or player attempting to spawn in to create confusion for the other team. This change allows subs to happen more smoothly than before, especially with the shortened respawn timer.

Rule 1.4 has remained the same at 320 darts per team per match. After testing multiple different dart caps this remained the most balanced, even minor jumps to 350 darts per team created situations where less movement was happening on the field due to the extra suppression ability that teams had. When we went to higher numbers like 500+ darts we found that effect was only exacerbated, at worst leading to instances where neither team could reach the middle hill timer until halfway through the match, leading to very stagnant gameplay. This does not mean that this number will never change, testing happens every year and combined with the next point may lead to balance shifting in these numbers.

We tested adding more cover in the form of taller stand up cover, however we did not get as much testing with these added pieces to ensure that the positioning would be balanced for gameplay, so they have been held back for this year, but will be tested with from the beginning for next year to see what they can add to the gameplay flow to improve it.

I hope that these explanations help inform you on the reasoning behind them, as always if there are suggestions please share them and they will be added to the testing list for next year, regardless whether they result in changes or not, the insight is always valuable to add to the testing process. I look forward to seeing everyone on the field that makes it to compete at Rag this year. I’ll leave you with the field layout and measurements for those that are looking to practice:

The 4th annual Ragnarocktoberfest King of the Hill tournament, presented by Silverfox Industries is happening tomorrow, with a full livestream for all to watch. With 12 teams separated into three groups to play round robin matches against each team in their group to determine seeding for the 12 team elimination bracket to complete the tournament.

The livestream will be hosted on YouTube. And will start at 9:15am PDT. The groups and schedule are as shown below: