A league of Catan

My brand new gaming group formed online in April, after the pandemic forced us to work from home in March.

We were all friends from graduate school in the 1990’s, and we had played games in real life at various times. In school, we played a lot of competitive ultimate frisbee. In 2002, we reunited in New Mexico on a group camping trip, and I taught them Settlers of Catan. We stayed up late those nights, playing multiple games.

Still staying up late playing Catan while camping.

Now we are playing various games on Steam, Board Game Arena, and Tabletopia. But this was a competitive group, and we were looking for more.

It began innocently enough. One of us figured out a way to manually hold a tournament playing Ticket to Ride online. Since there was no March Madness basketball tournament, we called it April Anxiety. Then came May Mayhem. And so on.

But our group started with Settlers all those years ago, and I began to think of a way to overcome the ups and downs of playing Catan in a single-elimination tournament. It can be ruthless if the dice rolls aren’t Gaussian or everyone picks on you for your early lead.

So, I developed a league instead.

Double-elimination

Eight people play seven games, guaranteeing we have all played each other at least once. That should even out one or two bad games, and your overall skills would shine through.

I favor your final result in the game, not the victory points you scored. Three points for a win, two for coming in second, and one for third. I determine your rank by those cumulative place points. Any tie breaker is cumulative victory points.

Finals standings after seven games. Juliet gets the no. 1 seed because she has three more victory points than Benoit.

Then came the tournament. Your final standing is your rank, and everyone makes the tournament. I modified a double-elimination format to account for a four-person table with two advancing each game. Lose once and you drop into the loser’s bracket. Win more and you get a bye in the third round.

Setting up for the double-elimination tournament, with a winner’s and loser’s bracket.

We finished the league with a clear differentiation between those who had played more strategically, but in the end the rankings didn’t matter. As we begin the tournament, I expect the upsets in the first round to be brutal. A few of the players were evolving their game as they played during the season, and despite their low seeding they should be ready for anything.

Can you tell we miss watching live sports?

Published Nov. 13, 2020