A new format for competitive play

[supahons]

These rules are more for a fun-tournament, but i think most players will be tilted in the first games with this. I think the civ-wheel spin (like in the GUA tourney) is more entertaining and reduces the complaints.

Here's a different approach. Just add a civ-rule.

1) You could also ask the question, what civ-pool should a PR35+ be required to play? (I'd say at least 5-8)

minimum (3/8 Nilla), (2 TWC and TAD) = 5/14, civ reset after this or without
basic (5/8 Nilla), (3 TWC and TAD) = 8/14, civ reset after this or without
(adjust numbers for Bo3, Bo5, Bo7)

2) You could make a Civ-Package like in a Trading Card game, and tell the caster or admin the one you want to pick.

Nilla civ pack contains eg. 5x Nilla, 1x TWC, 1 TAD (or 2 TWC and TAD)
TWC + TAD civ pack contains eg. 3x Nilla, 4x TWC/TAD
(adjust numbers for Bo3, Bo5, Bo7)

Participants can still choose their best civs and it would also lead to some suprises after a few games.
It only disadvantages the low-civ pool players, a civ-reset benefits them.

[Le Hussard sur le toit]

People raise a good point that it can be abused by picking the civs you're good at and your opponent is bad at. But I don't think that is is necessarily disqualifying, because it seems fine to reward someone who can play every civ, and penalize someone who only plays a handful.

This system rewards a different set of skills compared to the usual one, you would probably need to be good with many civs rather than awesome with few (although I think with the necessity to propose fair MUs and the ban on repeated MUs I think you guys may overestimate this problem).

I think it would be fun to see games with blind picking (because we'd get more variety in match-ups)

That is completely different, since 1) luck becomes the main factor here and 2) it reduces variety in MUs since players have to pick civs that will be good against almost any civ on the concerned map.

Here's my pitch: Players draft a pool of five or so civs before the series starts. Before the match, they pm the host which civ they're going to use. Then, when both players see the match-up, they can green up or throw the match out. Each player gets one of these "Throwouts" per series. It's basically just saying "I don't like this match-up, let's pick new civs." However, the player who used their Throwout still exhausts the civ they chose for that match-up; their opponent, if they wanted to, could pick the same civ again.

This is still blind picking. You avert the extreme cases of bad luck but not point 2) above.

You could also combine my civ-pool idea with OP's. It means that the player choosing will always have one of their good civs as an option. That doesn't get rid of all problems, but it ameliorates the main concerns of only picking civs your opponent is bad at.

You certainly can do that but it does not really solve the problem as was pointed by Kaiserklein : what if you don't play India and get Germany vs India on a no-TP map ?[\b]