2022 Spring RFL Results Thread: Areas (Round Three)

[PhineasB]

Alright, let's see what the finale had to offer. It was a little anticlamactic truthfully, with a number of no-result or only partial sets among the entrants. But at least another Zod dropped this round, to go with the one from Round 1!

Spoiler: RFL Round 3 Results

PhineasB (10 pts)
Zod 71.8
Jah 18.3
Lo 15.1
Vex 10.6
Ohm 10.1
Total: 125.9

WoRG (1.07 HC) (8 pts)
Mal 38.7
Pul 19.4
Mal 38.7
Total 96.8

Kstil3227 (D2R) (6 pts)
Lo-15.1
Ist-7.5
Ist-7.5
Ist-7.5
Um-5.1
Total-48.7

ffs (5 pts)
Lo 15.1
Ist 7.5
Mal 5.0
Pul 3.4
Pul 3.4
Total 34.4

m4ke (4 pts)
Ber 20.5
Vex 10.6
Total: 31.1

HanShotFirst (D2R) (3 pts)
Lo 15.1
Gul 7.1
Mal 5.0
total: 27.2

abridged (D2R) (2 pts)
Um 5.1
Ist 7.5
Total: 12.6

Silvio415 (1 pt)
Gul 7.1
Pul 3.4
Total 10.5

zemaj
Ohm 10.1
Total 10.1

Nagisa (D2R)
Um 5.1
Total: 5.1

0 Qualifiers
Excalibur (D2R)
Kartongen
maxicek (D2R)
LouB 1.14
Swamigoon

Pending
Jamie

Didn’t Run
Gripphon

The final standings (drum roll):
The leader and third-place after two rounds didn't run round three, so lots of movement in the top five:

Spoiler: Final Standings

WoRG (1.07/1.08) (20 pts)
nulio (1.07) (18 pts)
HanShotFirst (13 pts)
Gripphon (10 pts)
PhineasB (10 pts)
Excalibur (9 pts)
Silvio415 (7 pts)
ffs (6 pt)
Kstil3227 (6 pts)
Vildecor (5 pts)
m4ke (4 pts)
Nano (2 pts)
abridged (2 pts)
Maxicek (1 pt)

Early versions paid off again!

Thanks to everyone for participating. Based on feedback, the 3-round/17-day format didn't seem to work for a lot of people, which the number of partial sets seems to confirm. And participation was a bit lower than the last two years and the running threads were pretty quiet. So I think a more significant tweak to format may be needed, along the lines I mused about last year. Keep your eyes out for discussion of some different options. Thanks everyone for participating and keeping the RFL a great SPF event!

PS. Please don't forget to post about your runner in the Meet the Rune Finders thread.

 

[Excalibur]

Oh my, what awful results!
@PhineasB Congrazt on the Zod, for winning this round and basically for getting some quality runes!

Dream Team

0 Qualifiers
Excalibur (D2R)
Kartongen
maxicek (D2R)
LouB 1.14
Swamigoon

 

[Silvio415]

Congrats to @PhineasB on the Zod and the round win! And thanks for hosting.

Congrats to @WoRG for the overall win and for mind-blowing drops like 1.08 Windforce and 30% LR SoJ, among other time travelled wonders.

This was my first tournament and I'm happy with my middle-of-the-road showing. More importantly to me personally, I got a bunch of runes (Pul x 5, Um x 3, Mal x 2, Gul x 4, Vex x 1, Ohm x 1, Lo x 1, Sur x 3, Ber x 2, and Jah x 1) that will help with the runeword grail AND I found this grailer while running Chaos for round 3. Overall I'm very pleased!

 

[Kstil3227]

Congrats to @PhineasB for winning the round and congrats to @WoRG for the overall win. Congrats to all the RFL runners and all the runes that were found during this.

Here is the final picture of all the runes that my new twinked-HC-D2R FOH pally found while running AS.

Total runs was 163 in the 20 hours. Started out fast with 6-6:30 minute runs, but as the set went on that average went up in time to around 7:30-8 minutes...I lost the drive to go fast and started picking up more things along the way. These runes will go to good use. Already getting ready to make a Grief for a HC Fury Druid or a HC Zerk Barb.



Run 21 Ist #1


Run 63 Ist #2


Run 64--Pul #1


Run 66--Um #1


Run 99--Um #2


Run 137--Ist #3


Run 137--Lo


Run 160--Pul #2


Run 160--Um #3

 

[HanShotFirst]

@PhineasB - Wow! Those are some seriously great runes! Congrats on the finds, and thanks again for hosting!

As for me, here's how things played out:

0 hours 47 minutes - Lo
6 hours 10 minutes - Gul
8 hours 47 minutes - Mal
... then nothing ...

Well, I was feeling really good at 47 minutes into this thing and I already had a Lo Rune. At 10 hours I was still thinking I'd have a full set of qualifiers ... Alas. Though, really I can't complain. I found a Cham and an Ohm in the CS right before the round started. So, my rune luck during this period was still pretty good ... It just didn't get to result in points!

Here's the runes:

Lo Rune:


Gul Rune:


Mal Rune:

A TC 3 and a qualifier off the same monser (De Seis), that was fun!

Anyhow,

Congrats to @WoRG on the win! And to everyone who found something they wanted while running!

 

[PhineasB]

I ran with a twinked Hammerdin who had been parked at level 92 since I finished my 7x7+2. I'd clearly killed him once since that post (likely during testing for my untwinked 99er pally) because he was at 92.1 when I dusted him off Anyhow, he got to 96.1 over the 20 hours, reinforcing the great XP to be had from CS. That was even with some p8 3-seal runs (usually skipping Diablo) and targeting groups of finger mages on and off.

But enough chit-chat, what about runes? Here's a haul pick:

He book-ended his set with great drops, including the first time I've had a qualifier drop on the last run. Things started off with the Jah just shy of 15 minutes in, followed by the Um right at 2 hours, the first Ohm about 30 minutes later, and then the Mal at 4.5 hours in (posting screenies only of the 10+ pointers):


I was liking my odds, on pace for ~20 qualifiers and 2 10+ pointers within first five hours. Then a dry spell, with nothing until around 9.5 hours, with Ohm #2 giving me a full set and 3 10+ pointers:

We then had another ~5 hour dry spell, with the Lo dropping (and trying to hide out of sight, but I luckily saw the animation of a rune dropping after having seen another drop earlier, so I searched the area until the second orange was visible):

At this point I was hoping for a top 5 of 10+ pointers, and a little more than three hours later, Ohm #3 dropped, followed by the Vex about 20 minutes later:


With the Vex, I thought, great an upgrade . . . of .5 points Then Ohm #4 dropped just after 19.5 hours, which I figured was my last upgrade for the round:

Nope! I was at 19:58:25 and figured I had one full run left, and maybe part of a second. It spawned with some bosses around the pentagram, so by the time I got to Vizier, I had decided I wouldn't bother with a partial and would clear out all the monsters in that arm, which ended up spawning two extra boss packs:

Yep, the Zod dropped at ~19:59:40. Almost couldn't believe it when I hit "d" (my version of Alt) to see what the rune I'd seen drop was. Absurd luck, and only my second direct Zod drop, so very happy with it.

Congrats to @WoRG on the overall, and everyone who picked up shiny rocks over the last two months! Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2022 RFL

 

[LouB]

Congrats to @WoRG and @PhineasB. After seeing the list of people with no qualifiers I feel a little better. Does anyone want to see a picture of me showing off the Fal and two Lums from the last set? Oh, well there is next year.

 

[ffs]

Congrats @WoRG on winning the whole thing, and @PhineasB for saving our honor with a great result this round.

That being said, overall results this year are quite terrible been like that for a while, last year's MFO wasn't that impressive either. The SPF mojo as to RNG seems to be taking a long beauty sleep! Let's hope results will be up to our usual standards next time.

For me it was all about lack of time this year, but still enjoyed the little running I did.

This round I ran AS with Java for about 4 hours. Considering that, the haul isn't that bad actually, managing to get exactly 5 qualifiers including a Lo:



FAs: 53
Ral: 22
FRs: 41
Sol: 10
Jewels: 72

Other notable finds:

• Java skiller with 18 life - fitting and very welcome
• eth Valk Wing (eth Grailer)
• Greyform
• Heaven's Light 2os 297 ED

Thanks for hosting @PhineasB!

 

[WoRG]

Wow... honestly didn't expect this! Feels weird to win overall without winning at least one round...

And Damn! Overall, Zod God was VERY stingy this year! I feel for all those who ran 20 hours and didn't see a qualifier, Dervish got ONE qualifier for 40 hours... but at least got LOTS of great non-qualifiers to make up for it... I joked about it, but if this had been an MFO, he might well have won, and the top ten score items don't even exist in 1.08!! (Assuming the same scores, LOL, and NO, I'm NOT advocating for past-patch participation in the MFO )

Fortunately, Artemis had better luck in 1.07... She got her first qualifier, a Mal from Vizer's pack, in the first few runs, which is always a great feeling and motivator (especially since Dervish had just run over 19 hours before getting his one and only qualifier)

Next was a Pul about 8 hrs in, from a random Champion balrog:


Finally, around 15hrs, another Mal, this time from Infector of Souls:

Thanks to @PhineasB for hosting, and to all the participants for the camaraderie along the way, you guys rock!!

WoRG

 

[Excalibur]

@PhineasB If it's possible, I would like to see a Tournament of Uniques and Runes where players should post the top 5 Rune finds and the top 5 uniques and the scoring should be a combination of those two. Will be interesting to see how players will approach such a Tournament and how they will balance their farming to score high in both items and runes.

Btw, since I have no runes to post... !

 

[LouB]

I agree with the Set and Unique scoring idea, Of course that means that I won't find anything of value next year!

Not to complicate things even further but what about some of those insane small charms and jewels

 

[ffs]

@Excalibur @LouB there have been a bunch of tournaments combining MF and RF in recent years, I hosted a couple myself. You can check the tournament listings for details, final section in this post.

 

[Excalibur]

@ffs I checked the link but couldn't find what I was suggesting. I know of those Tournaments that combine both into one but I was mostly taking about separating them in the same Tournament. Something like this where players post their top 5 of each:

Uniques

• Tyrael’s Might 48.2
• Death's Web 27.9
• Stormlash 17.0
• Dragonscale 14.6
• Griffon’s Eye 10.7
• Score: 118.4

Runes

• Ber 20.5
• Lo 15.1
• Ohm 10.1
• Ist 7.5
• Um 5.1
• Score: 58.3

Total: 176,7

 

[PhineasB]

That would be one heck of a set!

On a serious note, I think we could fit in a combo tourney like the above, MFO, and a modified RFL (more of an RFO), with a single three-week window. I'm still culling past high scores across all RFL rounds, but it looks like none of three areas really have a clear edge on top score potential, with Zods in Cows and Areas a big variable.

To float the idea, I was thinking an RFO where entrants pick one of the three RFL areas (or maybe combine Cows/Areas) and run a set - not mix and match, but full 20-hour set on those areas. Multiple sets are encouraged, so members could still do Trav and areas or cows. Over three weeks (or maybe even four to encourage multiple sets), two sets is definitely doable, and highest scoring set would count. That shortens the impact of RFL on the calendar, while also increasing interest in tight window for lots of running, along the lines of MFO, and offsetting what is objectively a bit of a slog with three defined rounds in current RFL format. And this would leave time in the calendar year for maybe a joint-RFO/MFO tourney like Excalibur proposed, with room still for 10-day MFO and likely one other MFO/warmup or balance the finds tourney.

Anyhow, wanted to start the discussion. I think there may be different approaches to MF/RF tourneys that account for interests and goals, and time constraints, of the SPF members.

 

[ffs]

@Excalibur Most of those tournaments that had a scoring system just like what you described if you read through the rules etc., it's just in the end you also need to combine the two scores in some way or another to determine overall placement.

Scoring system aside, plenty of information on characters/builds and targets/areas in those tournament threads regarding approaches to combining MF and RF.

But yeah I enjoyed those mixed tournaments a lot.

That being said I think RFL is good as it is tbh. It's a modern classic after all. But maybe we can go back to a more relaxed schedule.

 

[maxicek]

Congratulations to @PhineasB for an impressive round win and to @WoRG for the overall win.

I actually started running fairly hard for this round. 12h in The Pit took me from lvl89 to 92, but delivered zero runes. Actually almost nothing interesting at all. I did get a Unique Winged Harpoon, which was once my Grail -2 item. I expect to see many more of these in the future as the distribution curve adjusts itself. After I hit 92 I went to AS for a few hours running keys, but that also delivered nothing.

I could use some more runes in 1.14d, but just wasn't very motivated, not completing any of the sets. I actually preferred the longer format of the past. The shorter format worked fine in Covid lockdown times for me, but felt a bit too short to be this time.

Thanks for hosting @PhineasB - A complete change of format also sounds good for next year. The most important thing for me is that some kind of pure rune finding tournament happens, format doesn't really matter.

 

[Swamigoon]

I enjoyed the Balancing the Finds tournament that ffs hosted a few months ago, and not just because I scored so much better that time than this time.

 

[maxicek]

I enjoyed the Balancing the Finds tournament that ffs hosted a few months ago, and not just because I scored so much better that time than this time.

I also enjoyed this, but I think we need to have at least one major rune finding (only) tournament - A counterpart to the MFO

Rune finding is about killing as many monsters as you can at as high player settings as possible, as fast as possible.

MF is normally P1 and load on the MF. Most people tend to approach the hybrid tournaments as either RF with a bit of MF, or the other way around - You go hunting for runes and hope some uniques drop too.

Of course any other tournaments anyone can think up are also encouraged

 

[Excalibur]

@ffs Can you give me a direct link to one of those Tournaments?
I can't seem to find one in the list.

 

[PhineasB]

@Excalibur - the RF/MF tourney and the OBP tourney used a format where top 5 runes and top 5 items scored:

MF/RF Tournament - Sign-up and Running [by ffs]

This tournament has already ended. It was originally posted by @ffs on June 30, 2018. (link to original thread on diabloii.net) As a warm-up to the upcoming summer MFO, there was some interest in a tournament combining scoring for elite S&U and rune drops, similarly to the WSK tournament last...

www.purediablo.com

Off the Beaten Path Tournament [by Luhkoh]

DISCLAIMER: Please do NOT post in this thread yet. We still need to migrate all posts from the old thread on diabloii.net to this thread. If you want to help, feel free to do so :) This tournament has already ended. It was originally posted by @Luhkoh on Jan 3, 2020. (link to original thread on...

www.purediablo.com

The balance the find tourneys were top 5 scoring among items and runes in a 20-hour set.

Your proposal is a little different, I think, because it totals and combines points for items and runes, resulting in 10 scoring items and winner would have highest score, rather than assigning placement points (from 1-12) for top 10 finishers in runes and separately assigns points for top 10 finishers in items, and the overall winner is the one with highest total placement points.