The PORT issue.

[Steve Camber]

Opinion seems divided as to whether playing as Team A gives an advantage over Team B.

As a games programmer myself, I can see no reason for there to be a difference, and I believe the "advantage" given by port A is purely imaginary. If someone _believes_ that they will play better as Team A, then they probably will approach the game more confidently, and have more chance of winning.

Personally, I have never noticed a difference in 11 years of playing KO2.

I'd like to investigate this further, but I'm a bit short on time. I suggest someone should analyse the results from the Dartford tournament and calculate how many games were won as Team A and how many were won as Team B.
Do we have a statistics volunteer ?

Put this PORT issue to rest once and for all !

SteveC
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_________________
SteveC - Getting crapper at KO2 by the day.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Steve Camber on 2002-01-18 11:22 ]</font>

[JamesHBeard]

**NICE POSTING STEVE MATE**
I nominate Alkis or Vasilis for the job. They will soon knock up this very usefull piece of information.

[VKafiris]

Here we go:

Home wins : 67
Home defeats: 56
Draws : 15

It seems either that team 2 is worst than team 1, or that this preoccupation has a great effection on the players!
The difference is not that big though, so what Steve is suggesting here may be correct. <IMG SRC="/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">

[Robert]

Can we remember who was TEAM A or B? I know it was drawn up that way but it group matches may have been played more randomly.

I think I played most of my group games sitting on the left, but in the records it might appear that I was team B. I don't think anyone really cared in the group phase. Sounds like a bit of an urban myth.

[VKafiris]

Actually I retreived this info from Alkis' webpage, so it's very accurate to the point!
An interesting note is that Alkis won the final with team B!

[JamesHBeard]

That works out at 55% Port A wins to 45% Port A losses.

Hardly anything in this I would say and would sum up from this that there is zero difference between port a and port b.. its all in the mind people....

[VKafiris]

Maybe Steve has something to say about that. We never bothered to ask him while we were in Dartford. Steve?

[durban]

The only issue with the ports was that (on the ST at least) if you played a two players on the same side game, the second port wouldn't let you use aftertouch for some weird reason!

But on a normal player v player game it was fine!

M

[alkis21]

Steve has (very subtly indeed) admited in the early forum days that he has allowed Team A (Crystal Palace, remember?) a slight advantage. From my experience, that advantage is this: Team B's players tend to fall down more easilly that Team A's when two players collide (no tackle).
As for the tournament, I had designed the schedule in a fair way for everyone: Every player played 7 games, so it was either 4 As & 3 Bs or 4 Bs & 3As for everyone in Round 1. Then in Round 2, those who finished 1st or 2nd in their groups played 2 As & 1B, and those who finished 3rd or 4rth played 2Bs & 1A. In the playoffs, the player with the best position in the previous rounds played the rematch as Team A (which helped Mark a lot to get back from his defeats in the first games, both in the semi-final and the quarter-final). As for the finals, we tossed a coin.
People who play with close dribbles and stop&go moves seem to be more affected from this because their gameplay involves too much contact. People who play with many long balls don't have too much trouble with being Team B, at least when it comes to offense.

[Robert]

Oh dear, oh dear!

This is getting out of hand. I don't discount that what your're all saying is right, but can we please avoid a prolonged discussion, as it will only draw attention to an extremely small point?

If people start to become obsessed with the Team A/B thing it will take on the effect of your serve/my serve in tennis, home & away in football, or black & white in chess. If we start to get a real hangup that A is better than B, it will

a) Become the number one excuse for losing
b) Cause a scheduling nightmare, ensuring that all players get to be A & B an even number of times.

They say there is no smoke without fire, but do we have to fan the flames? Most people have never noticed a difference, but if we start to put ideas in their head we create all sorts of imaginary problems. The A/B thing will start to have a psychological effect and become self-fulfilling, thus creating it's own 'evidence'.

Sorry, but after all these years I simply cannot accept our great game has such a flaw, that it is unbalanced in favour of one joystick port. If this difference was anything other than EXTREMELY minor then it would have been blatently obvious to serious players for years.

[Steve Camber]

Nicely said, Robert.

I hereby declare the whole port issue dead and buried. Let's move on, people, and enjoy the titanic true clash of skills that is KO2.

SteveC
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[alkis21]

I sincerely believe that the difference between Teams A&B is minimal. However, since some people asked about it before the tournament, it was not a problem for me to adjust the schedule accordingly. I agree we should not make a big fuzz about it.

[durban]

If you are a true world class player then there should be no reason at all to use it as an excuse.

In football sometimes decisions go against you etc, but if you are the better team overall you will win outright....KO2 is real football, if you are the best you will win!

simple as that, no excuses.

M