[DoMiNo]

Okay, the design battles seem to be working out okay, but there are a lot of people who want to participate and it's tough, with just one contest, to get everyone involved. Plus, there are obvious issues about who should be able to compete with who and I don't feel comfortable assigning contestants into "tiers" that may or may not reflect their actual abilities. Besides, that would be counter to the idea that "ideas," instead of skill, are the main factor in these contests.

The only solution I've been able to come up with is to establish three self-assigned tiers wherein designers assess their own respective skill levels and place themselves in what they believe to be the appropriate group. There would be a tier 1 through 3, with 1 being novice and 3 being advanced. That way, everyone would be where they wanted to be. Is this an idea worth pursuing? Would everyone be comfortable assigning themselves to a group?

My next concern--and hopefully you guys can help me out here--is the fact that, with different tiers, there would be multiple simultaneous contests (not to mention to regular design contest) which would be tough to juggle. The only way around this that I can see is to alternate between T1, T2, and T3 contests, allowing participants to choose higher-level challengers, etc., as was previously discussed. Thoughts?

[PRODIGY]

I voted for keeping it as it is. I think that if it was changed to include more battles, it has potential to become confusing with loads of threads bouncing around the design section. And I think voting may suffer as a result.

Having said all that, it would be nice if everyone can eventually have a go. Perhaps there should be a rule that a person who's already won a battle can't be battled again for a set period of time maybe? That would stop one person keep getting challenged.

At the moment, it's all working well with cracking drawings and lots of people voting!

[Steve Neill]

Leave it as it is. Designing at our skill levels is a fascist way of thinking.

For example, I'm sure NelsonDesign knows that I can draw a car better then he can. He doesn't need it shoved in his face, and it wouldn't be fair to him.

That's the truth, so let's leave it as it is.

[AXIS]

I voted for a compromise, we should leave it as is however the winner of a battle could elect two designers who he would like to see duke it out therefore giving everyone else a fair chance of competing.

[NelsonDesign]

lol Steve, thanks for using me as an example. I am going to have to say we leave it as it is, it is working just fine.

[Rob]

I voted for leaving it as it is.

[MartinEDesign]

Sorry I took the wrong one (took a compromise), but I say leave it as it is, it would be too demanding on your time I think, you already have a lot to do on the page.. So I say leave it, but a good idea would be that the winner announces 2 new contestants or he can only win 2 times..

[DoMiNo]

AXIS and Martin bring up a good point (also something we'd floated before), in that perhaps after two or three wins, a person has to choose two new challengers?

[LamboMan]

Leave it as it is.
But Dom there is one thing you could do to make things a bit clearer. Have everyone who wishes to be challenged and take part PM you and then you can make a list of the people who are willing to participate and post it on the first page of the battle thread, so that we all know who wants to battle and then the winner/challenger can easily choose from that list. Also, the challenger will get to know who's waiting to be challenged.

More importantly it will also help in making sure that everyone who wants to take part eventually does get challenged and not only a few people all the time. Of course i am not pointing towards anything thats happening now but something that could happen in the future. That way everyone who wants to take part gets a chance.

[AXIS]

Now that Session 1 is over, how do you guys feel about the new direction of the Design Battles? shall we continue moving forward with this format?