Changes to Contests

Hey Friends,

Staff and Chief Judges have accumulated some statistics from the recent Contest Carnival Event which can be viewed here.

These findings show us that, across a relatively large sample size of contests, the average winrate of coordinators is approximately 28.9%. This makes sense (accounting for ties), as there is a 25% chance that a coordinator would win at random. However, the data for contests has a very narrow spread: the standard deviation for winrate is only +/- 6.77%, meaning that approximately 68% of coordinators do not achieve a winrate in a a large sample of contests that is statistically significantly different from random chance (25%).

In light of this, we believe that contests are not competitive enough to be compensated at their current rate.

There is argument that people's sentiments in going into a contest can change competitiveness (i.e. if everyone that enters a contest is determined to win, the competitiveness goes up), or that competitiveness is possible (e.g. Morru's high percent rate of winning), but these variables are too far flung and thin to truly consider Contests, as of right now, competitive.

Thus the earnings (including Berry Store Mons/TM Bundles/obtaining a Legendary/etc) become a grinding game where there is no skill or hard work needed which deviates from our main goal across all sections that either skill or hard work will earn you Pokémon/TMs/Cash/Legends/etc.

In an essence: the Contest section is unbalanced with the rest of URPG.

So Staff and Chief Judges have been thoroughly discussing how we can change the Contest section to balance it out with the other sections. We want to emphasize that we worked diligently and thoughtfully to create the most unbiased and fair changes to this section; this section is fantastic and the activity here is thanks to dedicated members who enjoy playing the game and thus we have you all to thank for making it such a fun section in its entirety.

Therefore, these will be the new changes to the contest section effective immediately:

Contest Legend: Requires 50 Master Ribbons. 5 of which (as in 5 out of the 50 needed) need to be on one Pokémon alone. Multiple Master Ribbons of the same attribute on a single mon do not count toward Legend. All Master Ribbons applicable, however, need to be linked.

Contest Pay: This will be the pay across the board regardless of Rank (sans Master Rank).

1st: 1500$ +1500 CC
2nd: 1000$ + 1000 CC
3rd: 500$ + 500 CC
4th: 500 CC

Master Rank Contests pay +500$ and +500 CC more, thus:

1st: 2000$ + 2000 CC
2nd: 1500$ + 1500 CC
3rd: 1000$ + 1000 CC
4th: 500$ + 1000 CC

Judge's Pay: Stays the same, i.e. 3k divided at the discretion of the Judge.

Ribbons: Shall act the same in the sense that if you win a Normal Rank Cool Contest, that Pokémon is now eligible to participate in a Super Rank Cool Contest. But if that Pokémon wins a Super Rank Cool Contest, said Pokémon cannot participate in another Super Rank Cool Contest unless/until it has won/wins another Normal Rank Cool Contest. However, Ribbons now constitute themselves as a type of currency along with CC when purchasing Pokémon from the Berry Store, i.e. they are consumable; e.g. I spend 30kCC and 1 Super Cute Ribbon to purchase a Buneary from the Berry Store. I can no longer use that specific Super Cute Ribbon to purchase anything from the Berry Store again.

This means we all will have to start to differentiate ribbons used in the store in our stats somehow. An easy way to do this, is simply add an asterisk [*] next to the used ribbon to denote it's null in relation to the Berry Store.

Berry Store Pokémon: Along with the CC normally needed, as discussed previously, one needs a specific attribute of ribbon in order to purchase a Pokémon. We also decided to change out Honedge for Skarmory based off of rank changes made a while back.

Normal Ribbon of Specific Attribute to be Consumed for Purchase Purposes
Budew - $20,000CC (Smart or Beauty Ribbon)
Bunnelby - $20,000CC (Tough or Cute Ribbon)
Cherubi - $20,000CC (Beauty or Cute Ribbon)
Combee - $20,000CC (Smart or Cool Ribbon)
Espurr - $20,000CC (Cool or Smart Ribbon)
Geodude - $20,000CC (Tough or Cool Ribbon)
Oddish - $20,000CC (Beauty or Smart Ribbon)
Pachurisu - $20,000CC (Cool or Cute Ribbon)
Rockruff - $20,000CC (Tough or Cool Ribbon)
Skitty - $20,000CC (Cute or Beauty Ribbon)
Surskit - $20,000CC (Beauty or Cute Ribbon)
Whismur - $20,000CC (Cool or Tough Ribbon)

Super Ribbon of Specific Attribute to be Consumed for Purchase Purposes
Buneary - $30,000CC (Cute or Cool Ribbon)
Castform - $30,000CC (Beauty or Cute Ribbon)
Clauncher - $30,000CC (Tough or Cool Ribbon)
Crabrawler - $30,000CC (Tough or Smart Ribbon)
Growlithe - $30,000CC (Beauty or Cool Ribbon)
Mawile - $30,000CC (Tough or Cute Ribbon)
Minccino - $30,000CC (Cute or Smart Ribbon)
Petilil - $30,000CC (Smart or Beauty Ribbon)
Pumpkaboo - $30,000CC (Smart or Cute Ribbon)
Remoraid - $30,000CC (Cool or Beauty Ribbon)
Sneasel - $30,000CC (Tough or Cool Ribbon)

Hyper Ribbon of Specific Attribute to be Consumed for Purchase Purposes
Drifloon - $40,000CC (Smart or Tough Ribbon)
Inkay - $40,000CC (Beauty or Smart Ribbon)
Hawlucha - $40,000CC (Cool or Tough Ribbon)
Nosepass - $40,000CC (Tough or Cute Ribbon)
Ponyta - $40,000CC (Beauty or Cute Ribbon)
Salandit - $40,000CC (Beauty or Smart Ribbon)
Swablu - $40,000CC (Cute or Cool Ribbon)
Tangela - $40,000CC (Smart or Beauty Ribbon)

Master Ribbon of Specific Attribute to be Consumed for Purchase Purposes
Abra - $50,000CC (Smart or Cute Ribbon)
Honedge Skarmory - $50,000CC (Tough or Cool Ribbon)
Feebas - $50,000CC (Beauty or Cute Ribbon)
Pawniard - $50,000CC (Tough or Smart Ribbon)
Turtonator - $50,000CC (Beauty or Cool Ribbon)

Berry Store TM Bundles: We've also found it a tad silly to have to purchase TMs one would rarely use like TM Water Gun and TM Mud Slap in Bundles. So we are disbanding the Bundles and in it's place we are simply going to offer those TMs singularly, but in CC only and only those TMs from the Bundles. We also decided that TMs that relate more specifically to only Contests shall have a small decrease in price than their PokéMart value which are denoted by an asterisk [*].

Explosion - 3kCC*
Double-Edge - 3kCC*
Taunt - 2.5kCC
Thief - 1.5kCC*
Mimic - 1.5kCC*
Shadow Ball - 3.5kCC
Snatch - 2.5kCC
Work Up - 2.5kCC
Captivate - 2kCC*
Attract - 2.5kCC
Sludge Bomb - 3.5kCC
Thunder Wave - 2.5kCC
Roar - 2.5kCC
Toxic - 3kCC
Telekinesis - 1.5kCC*
Fire Punch - 3.5kCC
Thunder Punch - 3.5kCC
Ice Punch - 3.5kCC
Rest - 3kCC
Sleep Talk - 2.5kCC
Snore - 1.5kCC*
Sunny Day - 3.5kCC
Overheat - 3.5kCC
Flamethrower - 3.5kCC
Swords Dance - 2.5kCC
X-Scissor - 3.5kCC
Rain Dance - 3.5kCC
Water Pulse - 2kCC*
Sandstorm - 3.5kCC
Mud-Slap - 2kCC*
Dragon Rage - 1kCC*
Dragon Breath - 2.5kCC*
Water Gun - 1kCC*

Berry Store Addition: Along with those other changes, there will now be DC Passes available at the Berry Store for 8kCC each.


We hope that with these changes and additions the Contest section will be more balanced as well as give people ways to spend their CC better than before. We apologize for any frustrations you may have, trust us, we had many when hashing this out, but please feel free to ask questions and add comments as you wish.

Contests over a year or so were not anything close to the type of activity they have now. As staff, we must adapt to the times and make changes where we see fit to keep the game at large as balanced as possible. We must emphasize again that activity and fun in this section is thanks to all the players, participants and judges, who've made the Contest section what it is today; we hope you understand our reasons and see this as a good sign that the Contest section is thriving and will continue to thrive.

 

Hiiiiiii, I just have a few comments/questions that would be cool to see the reasoning behind. Also, I think contest activity is atcually quite low since the carnival ended (along with most sections tbh), but I don't think contests will be as active as they were for the foreseeable future so some of these changes seem a bit... harsh, for lack of a better word.

The thing that stands out most to me is that berry mon costs haven't really been adjusted to reflect the changes in participation payouts. ie 20k CC for a Budew, which is Simple rank, seems a bit high, given you receive less CC per contest for same amount of effort now AND you need specific attributes of ribbon which are then consumed.

Also, I don't really see why Skarmory is substituted over Honedge? I mean, thematically, it doesn't fit any better and seems a tad strange to just replace one Pokemon that seems more niche (ie no evolution, etc). Is this a preference thing or is there something I'm missing here?

Splitting up berry store bundles just seems kind of an odd choice too. Now instead of logical combo bundles, you're just offering a random selection of TMs from the Mart?

Cool to see the contests section is adapting to increased activity though!

 

I'll just pop in here to answer this part since the rest I feel I am not qualified to answer really if I'm being honest. Skarmory was substituted for Honedge since its a similar type (Steel) and it fits the same rank of the other Master tier Pokemon. Honedge was the only Demanding out of the group, which significantly increased its value and made it stick out in the rest of the group.