On October 17, I competed with a team from Boise State in the ACF Fall tournament hosted by the University of Colorado Boulder. This tournament was held online through Discord. A server for the tournament was set up by the hosts, and channels were created as virtual rooms for rounds to be played in. The way the tournament was played was surprisingly similar to an in-person tournament. Players could see each other, since all players were required to show video as an anti-cheating measure. Players buzzed in by entering buzz in the Discord channel’s chat, and whichever buzz came in first would be recognized.
The one thing that was very different for most teams was bonuses. My team decided that we all trusted each other enough to meet up and play together in the same room. For us, conferring on bonuses was easy, since we were all together. However, the players from other teams all played separately. For them, conferring on bonuses had to be done through the computer, which was prone to lag, and people’s microphones cutting out. I believe that due to us all being together, our team had an advantage when it came to bonuses. I would recommend that teams meet up to play tournaments in the future as long as it is safe and comfortable for everyone to do so. Another advantage to playing in the same room was that we were all able to easily debrief after each game, eat lunch with each other, and have a good time.
