TG History

TournamentGames.com is a website that was started in 1997, with the purpose of allowing players to compete against each other based on their strategy and skills in classic online games. The site offers 12 different games on multiple platforms. The classic TG game style is that of a casual, arcade and parlor style games, including games like Solitaire, Pool, Pinball, Puzzle style games with a competitive twist. Players compete in a variety of tournaments such as Limited Entry Tournaments, Sprint Tournaments, and Timed Tournaments in the original format. Originally, the game tournaments were only offered as free software downloads, however over the years the tournaments have been adapted to be available on multiple platforms. The same tournament based, classic games are now available in a more modern format on Facebook, mobile, and in an in-browser format as well.

TournamentGames.com is completely managed, and developed in house. Utilizing a small and efficient core group of people, all management, development, IT, marketing and support is done with as little outside support as possible. This company structure is used to make sure that the company always operates as a unit with the desires of the players at the focal point of all decisions and goals.

History

Prior to TournamentGames.com, the companies owner, Jack Pearson had a long history in the video game industry. Working with Allied Leisure among others, he helped design and develop a variety of arcade games ranging from cabinet style games to pinball machines. One of which was the Hercules pinball machine, which is reported at the time as being the largest pinball table ever produced. Using a billiard cue ball, there were many mechanical challenges that had to be addressed due to the over sized game.

The inspiration for TournamentGames.com stemmed from a solitaire game that Mr. Pearson designed called Tournament Solitaire. Players would compete in tournament format, with the player at the end of the week possessing the highest score would be declared the winner. Desiring to expand his idea, Mr. Pearson started TournamentGames.com. The site allowed players to freely download a custom version of Solitaire that boasted a variety of in game options which pushed the envelope of the classic game of Solitaire. Mr. Pearson designed a system of tournaments that would create and environment for players to be able to compete in a wide variety of Solitaire variations, giving the game “Legs” as he often stated. This allowed the site to gain interest and momentum while only offering the one game.

Being the first Skill Game site on the Internet offered many challenges. There were no blueprints, nor other sites to model his system after. Many other sites have come along after TournamentGames.com, most of which offered only a sliver of what Mr. Pearson offered with his site. Mr. Pearson’s tournaments were designed to offer players a transparent look at what they were competing in, as well as a very broad variety of competitions. Whereas many of the later sites to come on the scene, focused on having a much larger offering of games, TournamentGames.com concentrated their efforts on developing fewer games, yet keeping the level of quality more closely to the state of arcade games. In 2002, it was decided to test side by side, web versions of their current Full Screen games. Although other sites had some success with web games, the TournamentGames.com player being used to the Full Screen games, quickly gave preference to the full screen games. The web games were later dropped, and the focus continued on the full screen games. As time went by, web games were reintroduced into the mix as an additional means of playing the unique games that were offered. In addition, the games were also moved to mobile platforms such as Android devices and social sites such as Facebook in an effort to make the tournaments available on any players platform of choice.

Skill Ranking

The site attempts to make game play fair for all players, and in so doing it groups all players in a skill ranking system. When players first arrive and start competing in the tournaments, they are ranked as a beginner for each game. As their level of skill improves, they are moved upward in the skill ranks. The skill ranking is calculated by comparing each player’s winning ratio with every other player. So, if a player happens to stop playing, instead of their skill rank remaining stagnant, they are moved down in the ranks and are not able to keep the more prestigious skill ranking they may have once had. Each player will have a separate skill rank for each game they compete in. If they have not competed in a particular game, they will have a beginner skill rank in that game. The skill groupings are as follows:

100 - Beginner 60-99 Lower Intermediate 30-59 Intermediate 1-29 Advanced

Tournaments

Currently the site hosts approximately 1500 different tournaments, with game entries being between 30,000 to 35,000 per day. The different style of tournaments are as follows:

Limited Entry

The majority of these tournaments are Limited Entry tournaments, ranging from Limited Entry 2, where only 2 players can compete against each other, up to and beyond Limited Entry 100. When the tournament ends all open entries are given ample time to post their scores, but there is no pre-determined end time. Instead, each tournament has an entry limit. When that limit is reached the tournament is closed. For example, a tournament marked as ending at 36 entries will close as soon as the 36th game is started. No new entries are allowed in the tournament but all open entries are allowed to complete in a reasonable time

Sprint Tournaments

This style of tournament does not have a pre-determined ending time or number of entries. Each sprint tournament has a target score or target level that must be reached to win. The first player to reach that target wins the tournament and the tournament ends. Any outstanding entries are rejected immediately. This is different from the other tournaments where each player is allowed to post their score within a reasonable period of time. Because of the nature of this style of tournament, it is often advantageous to quit a game as soon as you have reached the target rather than continuing to play for a higher score or level.

Timed Tournaments

This style of tournament is the simplest. The Timed tournament ends at a pre-determined date and time. When the tournament ends no new entries are allowed on that tournament. Outstanding entries are given a reasonable time to report their score. The player with the highest score after the tournament has ended and all outstanding entries have reported (or expired) is the winner. All tournament times are US Central Standard Time.