Third Age Throwdown
May-hem is the new Madness. 48 characters from the War of the Ring contend for the crown. Who you got?
What is this new devilry?
You came for the madness. Now, stay for the May-hem! In our second featured tournament, we’re running a new “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 from across all three ages of Middle Earth have been assigned “battle stats” in fourteen different areas – seven offensive attributes and seven defensive attributes. These stats are based on how effective that character was in combat.
Characters are then seeded 1-16 based on these attribute rankings, and sorted into a 64 team tournament bracket. Each “game” in the tournament is a simulated 1-on-1 battle between the characters. Winners and losers in each battle 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 a simple computer algorithm. Stronger characters will naturally have better chances of victory than weaker ones, yet there is a degree of randomness built in to every battle to ensure a fair share of “upsets,” just as we see in basketball every March.
Ultimately the goal is to allow everyone to enter their own brackets and award prizes to the top finishers (just as you’d do in an office pool). But we’re still building out that functionality (as well as several other games and contests that will be hosted on this platform). You can help us on that journey by subscribing, following, and becoming a MEMber.
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.
Thanks to everyone who nominated new characters after the Ultimate Tolkien Tournament in March. Ask and ye shall receive! Here are our new characters:
- Balin
- Gloin
- Gorbag
- Quickbeam
- Radagast
- The Watcher in the Water
- The Olog-Hai
- Landroval
- Gollum
- Farmer Maggot
- Elrohir
- Durin’s Bane
- Cirdan
- Bilbo
- The Barrow Wight
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!