This thread should probably be in Dungeons+Raids but as I could see potential in this, it's best to have more views and input. I believe this will really strengthen our community and put us out there to hopefully attract more players to keep this game strong. So here goes...
In professional sports (be it NHL,NBA, NFL etc.), there is an event held every year called the All-Star game where best players from every team in the league come together to form an all-star team. Akin to this, we could set up an event for end-game raids. The general logistics could be as follows:
2 Raid teams (40 players total; 20 players in each)
Raid: Frozen Tempest and/or Endless Eclipse
Pooling
Ideally, we want to spread the love around as best as possible. Taking NA Shards for example - From each shard, the community of that shard should pick representatives from their top raiding guilds. For the 8 NA shards - that means 4 shards will have 6 reps and another 4 shards will have 4 reps (again, 40 players total; 2 raid teams). It would be easier for the EU shards to do this as they have the perfect number of shards.
Role-based Sampling
It would probably be a lot easier to select the representatives through a randomized role-to-shard assignment. I could see this part to be somewhat of a conundrum as different classes can partake in different roles. Using Excel as a tool, we can approach this in two ways...
a) Role-based
Try to come up with a general raid composition that will fit best for the raids. Then with these set roles, randomly match them with a shard. Pick a representative that will fit that role from each of the top guilds selected to represent the shard. This method is more class-blind but a little more rigid to changes and adjustments as well. Rough example...
Team 1
Shard 1a - Tank 1
Shard 2a - Support
....
Shard 8 - ST Healer
Shard 1b - AE Healer
...
Shard 4b - Tank 2
Probably the more popular and more flexible option would be the following Class-based sampling.
b) Class-based
Same sampling/randomization method as above but with classes. Ideally - 5 from each class, roles can then be adjusted/changed accordingly to allow for more flexibility.
Team 1
Shard 1a - Warrior 1
Shard 2a - Mage 2
....
Shard 8 - Cleric 3
Shard 1b - Cleric 1
...
Shard 4b - Rogue 4
**Note: Once teams are made, it would probably be best to have an All-star team captain for each team (Raid leader role).
Scheduling and Transfer
For the teams to come together, the represented players will transfer to a designated shard for a week (event will last for one week as to not take you too far and too long away from home shard for regular progression). Two options come to mind again...a) players transferred to new shard will create and represent their own guild (for bragging rights) or b) every player must join the guild as named after their all-star team. The transfer should happen before the new cycle (Tuesday midnight/Wednesday morning). The raid competition will start at a time most suitable for everyone to accommodate time zone differences (for NA All-stars - will probably start somewhere around 6-7pm SERVER PST). Hopefully by the start of the new cycle, teams will have completed the raid dungeons, which brings me to the next aspect of the games...
Score/Competition/Prize
Aside from the fun, novel and exciting aspect these games will bring, there should probably be an extra incentive for everyone to compete at their best (aside from bragging rights and semi-decent lewts). Hence, there should be a scoring system...
Again, two options come to mind: a) Boss for boss kill scoring - whoever downs each of the bosses first gets 1 pt.,,problem with this method is it may result in a tie with the even number of bosses (quick-fix: team with first end boss kill, probably just Crucia at this point, will be awarded 2 pts). b) First to clear raid dungeon scoring - simple.
At this point, I cannot think of a prize reward that will be best suited for something like this. First thing that comes to mind is Plat reward. But this is hardly feasible as there are 20 players on each team to share that reward. On top of this, each player entering will probably have to contribute something like 20-50plat to a large prize pool for it to be considered significant. In the end, it would just be one team taking the plat of the other team. But again, this is some thing completely extraneous and can be done even without.
Organization/PR/Streaming/Voice Chat Logistics
If this event does garner enough interest, it will definitely be one that the whole community can tune into and feel apart of even if you are not selected to be in the games. I will first require (probably not myself), a group of individuals who can actually organize and promote something this large in scale and spread word to across the whole Rift community.
Preferably, these individuals can be the commentary team as well to commentate on the live feeds of the competition. In terms of how just this commentary+stream aspect is to be done will require input/ideas from everyone. Obviously, the commentary cannot be part of the All-star roster as they should be in a 3rd party voice chat of their own concentrating on the game. However, one of these players will have to provide us with the live feed. This aspect is still early and maturing, so please do provide ideas.
On topic, players of the teams will probably be on a voice chat server together. Again, the logistics for this will probably be picked up as the event gets rolling as this is easy to organize.
Concluding Statements
Thus far, this is all I can think of that would go into an event like this. If I missed any other aspects, please provide your thoughts, ideas and comment. While something as grande as this (with the focus being end-game raiding) can be quite competitive, we want to keep this as fun and light-hearted as possible. I do believe we have the community and players to pull this off as I have seen very enthusiastic players from many guilds across shards. In the end, we're here to promote and bring together our community and help boost a game we all love playing - Rift.
**Final note to expand upon: PvP torunament.
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