My solution for Oceania VGC Circuit event balance.

Hey Everyone!

As you're probably aware the balance of major events in the Oceania region can leave a lot to be desired at times, both overall and in particular stipend periods. Here is my first attempt at a proposal of how this can be be improved on for the VGC 2020 season. Happy reading!

A few things to note:
- This will be based on the assumption that the Oceania International Championships will once again be held in Melbourne.
- I have made my best efforts to keep existing major events at similar times to avoid potential logistical issues, but not everything was able to remain at the same time of year.
- Complete circuit balance is too hard to achieve due to the vastly different amounts of local events from city to city, as a result of this the focus of this has been on the Regional level events.
- I welcome any feedback, positive or negative.
- The goal of this is to make it as fair as possible for as many parts of the Oceania region as possible. If you have any suggestions which you think are better, please do not hold them back.

My aim here has been to create an even spread of events for each stipend period, while also trying to spread event locations evenly across the season so that no player has a significant gap between major events that are somewhat close by, no matter where they live in the region, allowing them to be playing in VGC events for the entire length of the season.

I will sort them by stipend period to make things a bit easier to understand. Let's get into it!


1ST STIPEND PERIOD:

Adelaide Special Event
Hong Kong Special Event
Melbourne Special Event
Singapore Special Event

Four Cities that spread out enough that every part of Oceania will be able to attend one without having to travel too far, meaning everyone has the opportunity to put a result on the board and earn travel money to the Oceania International. All will most likely be VGC19 format events.


2ND STIPEND PERIOD:

Brisbane Regional
Taiwan Regional
Auckland Special Event
Malaysia Special Event
Singapore Special Event
Oceania International Championship - Melbourne

If I'm being completely honest, I only wanted to have one AU/NZ regional/special in this period as I believe it is the most fair solution for the period with internats. Brisbane Regional has been in December the last two years so I couldn't move it. Auckland events haven't been particularly big in the past and I feel that having it in the lead up to internats would be a huge boost to get New Zealand players involved in the circuit.


3RD STIPEND PERIOD

Hong Kong Regional
Perth Regional
Hobart Special Event
Malaysia Special Event

Even location spread of events I feel, again giving everyone in the region a chance to put a result on the board to have a shot at travel money. The new way that stipends are awarded leads me to believe the Hobart event will be much better attended than in 2018.


4TH STIPEND PERIOD

Malaysia Regional
Sydney Regional
Perth Special Event
Singapore Special Event
Taiwan Special Event

Ideally I would have liked to have put 3 Asian events and 3 Australian events, but couldn't put Adelaide or Auckland here due to fears of low numbers this late in the season. The Melbourne special would be a good candidate to add here if it doesn't hold it's special in the first quarter (with Auckland moving from second quarter to first quarter to fill the gap). Perth would be the last event of the season, as it is a location that basically everyone in Oceania would have to make a similar level of commitment to be able to attend and earn those final points on offer.


Basic summation of how it differs from the 2019 season:
- Moved a couple of events around to allow a more even distribution
- Added a regional in Taiwan
- Added a special event in Hong Kong
- Added 3 special events to Australia/NZ region

In order to give some insight into how the list ended up the way it did, these are some of the goals i was trying to achieve:
- Give the Hong Kong/Taiwan players a chance to play in every quarter without having to travel too far.
- Give Perth players a strong reason to play in every quarter.
- Get events in Adelaide again.
- Don't take any events away from Singapore or Malaysia.
- Increase event size in New Zealand.
- Equal amount of regionals in Asia and AU/NZ.
- Even event distribution across each Quarter.
- Even event distribution across the whole season.

I feel I have successfully hit a lot of these goals without altering too many existing dates of events, and I believe it gives almost all of the players in the region a really fair chance of achieving the benchmarks they are aiming for throughout the season (Day 1 invite, Day 2 invite, travel money to internationals).

Of course with more events than in previous seasons it means that wallet warriors could be at an even greater advantage, while creating this list it was under the belief/hope that the BFL will be set to 4 next season, meaning players shouldn't have to travel excessively far from their home city to hit the cap, which is something I think all players would appreciate.

As mentioned earlier I am open to all feedback, it's for the good of our circuit after all!

If you have taken the time to read this far I thank you for taking all this in, it took a long time for me to write so I would appreciate a RT. Getting as many people as possible engaging in discussion about the circuit is the goal!


Take Care!
Mitch