massman
10-02-2013, 09:03 PM
Hey XS,
Attentive forum viewers may have seen the revision 6 sub-forum (at HWBOT) around for a while, but never a thread. That changes today. As tradition dictates, every year at the end of the year we plan a new revision. This is not any different in 2013. We planned, and have already begun development of the sixth revision of HWBOT for a couple of months now. Starting from the original ideas, to discussing with key partners and community members, to precisely writing down the things we want to do, to composing this thread. We are still a couple of months away from production-ready code, but the development has advanced far enough to initiate the public discussion.
The Plan - Intro.
First - everything you see and know today at HWBOT remains as it is. There are no changes to the points, no changes to the leagues, and apart from a couple of minor visual enhancements no changes to the interface. The Overclockers League, Enthusiast League, Teams League, Hardware Masters, and others will continue to exist in its current form and place on the site.
In 2014, next year, we will release a new overclocking competition format at HWBOT. In broad terms, you could say we apply the same ideas of the Pro OC change to the Overclockers League. However, of course, there are a couple of differences. Based on the data we gather on competition activity as well as the tripled traffic ratings of the Pro OC pages, we will take the foundations of the Overclockers League and apply them to a Round-based competition structure suited for all amateur overclockers.
Those who browsed for coverage of the ASRock overclocking event in Guangzhou, China will have probably seen this picture pop up. In a presentation for a couple of extreme overclockers from China, we announced the plans for next year already.
http://news.hwbot.org/2013-10/guangzhouPresentation.jpg
So what is the deal?
The Plan - Real deal.
Next year introduce a season based competition series called "Challenger Series.? The series consist of seven divisions. Each division has its own hardware requirements. Each season lasts for exactly three rounds of 3 months, and each round consists of five stages. Overclockers compete on their own, not in teams as in Pro OC. Of course, we will keep track of how well team's members are doing across the various divisions.
http://news.hwbot.org/2013-10/divisionsTable.png
As said, the divisions differentiate by hardware requirements. As you can see in the above picture, the hardware for each division is very different. Division 1 obviously requires the most high-end hardware components to compete for the #1 spot. The lower you go in division, the lower the cost of the hardware. We have two leagues specifically for the AMD users, and even one dedicated to legacy hardware. The hardware requirements are fixed per round, meaning at the beginning of each round you will know exactly what hardware is eligible for competition. With new hardware releases, the requirements may change in between rounds. However, the competition in the rounds is unaffected by new hardware.
A season consists of three rounds of each five stages. That equals to fifteen stages. Each round will feature different benchmarks, so the competition emphasis might changes from 2D to 3D and back in between rounds. At the end of a season, the winner is the overclocker who has gathered the most points across the fifteen stages. He will be crowned division champion, and will be marked as such in his user profile.
It is possible to change divisions every round. However, it is not possible to join or leave a division if a round is on going. Similar to the Pro OC, you need to register up front to compete in a specific division. If you switch divisions during a season, you are ranked in the last division you were active in at the end of the season. In other words, it is not possible to be ranked in two divisions at the same time.
The Plan - Outro.
We are currently in the process of developing this new competition structure. We start this thread to inform the community of the plans, and initiate a first public discussion about the concept and maybe the division requirements. As development progresses, we will keep you updated on the whys and how?s of the new competition series. We will explain the exact motives of this new competition format, which include our mission to make overclocking affordable and for everyone. Not everything is set in stone; feedback regarding the timeframe, length, hardware requirements, benchmarks, and more is of course very welcome.
To end with, two slides of the presentation we did last month.
http://news.hwbot.org/2013-10/planPart1_300.png (http://news.hwbot.org/2013-10/planPart1.png) http://news.hwbot.org/2013-10/planPart2_300.png (http://news.hwbot.org/2013-10/planPart2.png)
Attentive forum viewers may have seen the revision 6 sub-forum (at HWBOT) around for a while, but never a thread. That changes today. As tradition dictates, every year at the end of the year we plan a new revision. This is not any different in 2013. We planned, and have already begun development of the sixth revision of HWBOT for a couple of months now. Starting from the original ideas, to discussing with key partners and community members, to precisely writing down the things we want to do, to composing this thread. We are still a couple of months away from production-ready code, but the development has advanced far enough to initiate the public discussion.
The Plan - Intro.
First - everything you see and know today at HWBOT remains as it is. There are no changes to the points, no changes to the leagues, and apart from a couple of minor visual enhancements no changes to the interface. The Overclockers League, Enthusiast League, Teams League, Hardware Masters, and others will continue to exist in its current form and place on the site.
In 2014, next year, we will release a new overclocking competition format at HWBOT. In broad terms, you could say we apply the same ideas of the Pro OC change to the Overclockers League. However, of course, there are a couple of differences. Based on the data we gather on competition activity as well as the tripled traffic ratings of the Pro OC pages, we will take the foundations of the Overclockers League and apply them to a Round-based competition structure suited for all amateur overclockers.
Those who browsed for coverage of the ASRock overclocking event in Guangzhou, China will have probably seen this picture pop up. In a presentation for a couple of extreme overclockers from China, we announced the plans for next year already.
http://news.hwbot.org/2013-10/guangzhouPresentation.jpg
So what is the deal?
The Plan - Real deal.
Next year introduce a season based competition series called "Challenger Series.? The series consist of seven divisions. Each division has its own hardware requirements. Each season lasts for exactly three rounds of 3 months, and each round consists of five stages. Overclockers compete on their own, not in teams as in Pro OC. Of course, we will keep track of how well team's members are doing across the various divisions.
http://news.hwbot.org/2013-10/divisionsTable.png
As said, the divisions differentiate by hardware requirements. As you can see in the above picture, the hardware for each division is very different. Division 1 obviously requires the most high-end hardware components to compete for the #1 spot. The lower you go in division, the lower the cost of the hardware. We have two leagues specifically for the AMD users, and even one dedicated to legacy hardware. The hardware requirements are fixed per round, meaning at the beginning of each round you will know exactly what hardware is eligible for competition. With new hardware releases, the requirements may change in between rounds. However, the competition in the rounds is unaffected by new hardware.
A season consists of three rounds of each five stages. That equals to fifteen stages. Each round will feature different benchmarks, so the competition emphasis might changes from 2D to 3D and back in between rounds. At the end of a season, the winner is the overclocker who has gathered the most points across the fifteen stages. He will be crowned division champion, and will be marked as such in his user profile.
It is possible to change divisions every round. However, it is not possible to join or leave a division if a round is on going. Similar to the Pro OC, you need to register up front to compete in a specific division. If you switch divisions during a season, you are ranked in the last division you were active in at the end of the season. In other words, it is not possible to be ranked in two divisions at the same time.
The Plan - Outro.
We are currently in the process of developing this new competition structure. We start this thread to inform the community of the plans, and initiate a first public discussion about the concept and maybe the division requirements. As development progresses, we will keep you updated on the whys and how?s of the new competition series. We will explain the exact motives of this new competition format, which include our mission to make overclocking affordable and for everyone. Not everything is set in stone; feedback regarding the timeframe, length, hardware requirements, benchmarks, and more is of course very welcome.
To end with, two slides of the presentation we did last month.
http://news.hwbot.org/2013-10/planPart1_300.png (http://news.hwbot.org/2013-10/planPart1.png) http://news.hwbot.org/2013-10/planPart2_300.png (http://news.hwbot.org/2013-10/planPart2.png)