Hi MMTC! I've had some ideas about a possible series and wanted to share them with others/hopefully stimulate some wider discussion on what it could achieve. I regularly follow the COOP feedback threads/MTT schedule discussion stuff and know that this is a popular thing for discussion in there. Here goes!
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Mini-WCOOP has demonstrated demand for something that sits between SCOOP-L and SCOOP-M and sort of straddles them both at the upper and lower ends. The Mountain series also had something for a the low-stakes players. But the whole idea of low-stakes is that people eventually want to climb out of them, to an extent. The series needs to offer an incentive to that - either in the form of some buy-in scaling or in the form (preferably of satellites to high-placed finishers). That way you encourage people to play higher, but without being irresponsible - it remains about the challenge.
My rough ideas.
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'Climb the low/mid-stakes Mountain Series' (see what I did there) should range from 5.50r to a 50 main event, as per the recent M-WCOOP main event. But you should be rewarded for two things: high levels of play and doing well. There should be a 109 event in respect of this (with special entry only)
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Deposit bonus (hold on Amaya suits, don't get your knickers in a twist just yet). This should depend on amount. Deposit $50 pre-series and register events and receive the intro 5.50r ticket free. Deposit $100 and receive your 11 Sunday Storm SE ticket free. etc.
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Satellite rewards part 1. You could combine this with the above. E.g. Depositing 100 gets you a 11 satellite ticket to a special satellite to the 50 main event.
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Satellite rewards part 2. This should reward good play. Part of the prize pool should be set aside to boosting you up the levels. So anyone making a certain stage of a tournament (be it top 5%, 1%, 0.1%, FT, etc.) is rewarded with a ticket to a higher level. These tickets are must play. Therefore the marketing is that you can theoretically spend 5.50 on the initial event and run it all the way through the buy-in levels of the series, even if you don't make the FT and make the big money normally required to feel comfortable doing this utilising proper bankroll management. As the tickets are effectively free shot takes.
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Satellite rewards part 3. You could make the 'higher level' reward a 109 entry tournament. This could act as a 'high roller' for the series. So anyone making the top 0.1% of a 5.50r also gets a 109 entry ticket free, for example, which is a must play. This should happen in every tournament of the series.
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Satellite rewards part 4. Here's the good bit. The 109 bonus high roller event is only played by those winning tickets in the 5.50, 11 and 22 events. So the regs can't just pretend it's a super big 109. So it's more likely to have a higher proportion of recs (as not all 109 regs will want to play 5.50-22 dollar tournies just to get tickets) and therefore keeps money in the poker ecosystem at the lower end - which was a stated aim of the Stars revamps.
Have it over winter/maybe even replace TCOOP (or even run alongside) as recent posts show it isn't as popular as WCOOP/SCOOP. It should take place over 1.5/2 weeks, I think, initially. I've only included NL on the schedule because I don't play anything else and know nothing about them, but obviously you'd want to put other events in there too. Here's my attempt at a schedule:
[all times GMT, btw, but I've followed your rough patterns]
Day 1 (Thurs), 8th Dec
- 3pm, 5.50r intro event (40k gtd)
- 4pm, Big 7.50 special edition (40k gtd)
- 6pm, 11$ Micro Thrill PSKO (75k gtd)
Day 2 (Fri), 9th Dec
- 5pm, 16.50 Mini Weekender (Phase) (100k gtd)
- 6pm, Big 22 SE (80k gtd)
- 7pm, Fast Friday $22 Turbo (50k gtd)
Day 3 (Sat), 10th Dec
- 3pm, 11$ 1R1A special (75k gtd)
- 4pm, Saturday Eliminator 27$ SE (100k gtd)
- 5pm, 16.50 Mini Weekender (Phase) (100k gtd)
- 6pm, Saturday 3max zoom PSKO 33$ (100k gtd)
Day 4 (Sun), 11th Dec
- 2pm, 11$ Mini Kickoff SE (100k gtd)
- 4pm, 22$ Mini Warm-up PSKO (250k gtd)
- 5pm, 16.50 Mini Weekender (Phase) DAY 2 (100k gtd)
- 6pm, 11$ Sunday Storm SE (350k gtd)
Day 5 (Mon), 12th Dec
- Can't think of decent ideas for Mondays!
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Day 6 (Tue), 13th Dec
- 2pm, Bounty Builder 7.50 SE (40k gtd)
- 4pm, Bounty Builder 44 SE (100k gtd)
- 6pm, Bounty Builder 33 SE (100k gtd)
- 7pm, 11$ Mini Super Tuesday (75k gtd)
Day 7 (Wed), 12th Dec
- 3pm, 11$ 1R1A special (75k gtd)
- 5pm, 22$ Win the Button (50k gtd)
- 6pm, Hot 11 SE (50k gtd)
- 7pm, 22$ Battle Royale Mini SE (150k gtd)
Day 8 (Thur), 12th Dec
- 3pm, 11r (50k gtd)
- 4pm, Big 7.50 special edition (50k gtd)
- 6pm, 11$ Micro Thrill PSKO (100k gtd)
- 7pm, 22$ Moderate Thrill (!) PSKO (150k gtd)
Day 9 (Fri), 12th Dec
- 5pm, 33$ Bigger Weekender (Phase) (200k gtd)
- 6pm, Big 22 SE (120k gtd)
- 7pm, Fast Friday $33 Turbo (80k gtd)
Day 10 (Sat), 12th Dec
- 3pm, 16.5$ 1R1A special (75k gtd)
- 4pm, Saturday Eliminator 27$ SE (100k gtd)
- 5pm, 33$ Bigger Weekender (Phase) (200k gtd)
- 6pm, Saturday 8max Win the Button 44$ (100k gtd)
Day 11 (Sun), 12th Dec
- 2pm, 11$ Mini Kickoff SE (125k gtd)
- 4pm, 22$ Mini Warm-up (300k gtd)
- 5pm, 33$ Bigger Weekender (Phase) DAY II (200k gtd)
- 6pm, 11$ Sunday Storm SE (500k gtd)
- 7pm, 50$ Main Event (3 day, FT on the Tues) (500k gtd)
Day 12 (Mon), 13th Dec
- 6pm Bonus 109 event for people in the top 0.x% of each event
- Main event Day 2 playing down to final 9
Day 13 (Tue), 14th Dec
- Main Event FT
Other special events:
- A 11$ phase event running every day leading up to a final Day 2 on the last Sunday (possibly 3rd day/FT on the Monday) which should aim to crack 250k. In exactly the same way as the 10k payday works.
- New depositor only satellites. Let new players get a chance of qualifying for the bigger end of the events for a few dollars against players of a similar skill. They would be thrilled to get in a 50 dollar event for 11 dollars when you take out the better low/midstakes places who might populate lots of satellites.
Other stuff:
- "Who the hell are you and why should anyone listen to you?" A: I'm nobody! I just would love to see a proper series at this buy-in level and I'm exactly the sort of rec-but-keen player Stars should be targeting with this.
- "You have too much time on your hands!" A: I wish.
- "This is a great idea! Can I send you a small tip on Stars to show my appreciation for it?!" A: of course!