Third Age Throwdown
48 characters from the War of the Ring contend for the crown. Who you got?
What is this new devilry?
The Ultimate Tolkien Tournament. Back by popular demand, we’re running back the “challengers vs. champions” format. 16 champions of the Third Age get byes, while 32 challengers fight in a play-in round for a chance to advance to the main field. Our custom Battle Engine simulates single combat clashes between the two characters in each matchup. Survive and advance – literally – until only one character is left standing: The Champion of the Third Age.
How it works
Background
This project came about by combining three loves: college basketball brackets, table-top games, and the stories of JRR Tolkien. Our goal is to create a platform that is fun for fans of all three.
Characters of Middle Earth have been assigned “battle stats” in fourteen different areas – seven offensive attributes and seven defensive attributes. These stats are based on the character’s combat skills in the stories, relative to other characters.
Characters are then seeded based on these attribute rankings, and sorted into a tournament bracket. Each “game” in the tournament is a simulated 1-on-1 battle between the characters. Winners and losers are determined by our Battle Engine.
Essentially our Battle Engine simulates combat as your favorite table top game might have done. Except instead of physical dice-rolls, we use an algorithm. Stronger characters will naturally have better chances of victory than weaker ones, yet there is a degree of randomness built in, which guarantees a few “upsets,” just as we see in basketball every March.
Similar to DnD or other tabletop games, we want you to picture the characters and the battles the way YOU imagine them from the stories – not how we imagine them, not how the filmmakers or illustrators imagined them. So we’re deliberately light on the graphics to leave space for that old-fashioned thing called…Imagination.
The Battle Engine
The Characters
The Third Age Throwdown field is comprised of 48 characters from the latter part of the Third Age of Middle Earth, during and leading up to The War of the Ring. Thirty-two characters compete in a play-in round for a chance to take on one of the sixteen most formidable heroes of the age. All characters are based purely on the books, not the movies, games or any other subsequent works.
Learn more about character lore, abilities, battle stats, and more on our characters page.
Join the Fellowship
Interactive Contests, Games, and Content Coming Soon!
Interested in partnering, collaborating, or sponsoring one of our upcoming projects or contests? You are most welcome. Community support allows our dev team to continue the quest, and ultimately deliver quality games, contests, and content for all!