Update

Stage 1 has been closed, stage 2 is now open for voting. Happy to see over 50 people participating in this tournament.

No ties had to be decided in this first stage, but some quests got really close, sometimes with just one vote difference.

The next stage is looking great, with some tight match-ups again: Helm's Deep vs The Ring Goes South will be a hard one.

Glad to see so many of the newer quests progressing to the next stage, let's see how far they get.

You can vote for stage 2 until December 7th!

Just 2 days remaining for this stage, some interesting matchups already.

I would have expected Ring Goes South to put up more of a fight than this, but anything is possible.

Speaking of which: There are quite some matchups that are really close, so your vote will count significantly!

Update

Stage 2 has been closed, we are now down to our final 32 quests in stage 3!

I am pleased to see a couple of recent quests in this poll, including those from the latest Saga. Let's see how far those get

This next stage will have some more interesting matchups again, featuring A Storm on Cobas Haven vs City of the Corsairs, Pelennor Fields vs Shadow of the Past, and Mt Doom vs Crossings of Poros.

Vote now for your favourite quest via https://challonge.com/FaveLOTRQuest2018

Voting for Stage 3 is open until December 13th

Nice to see Journey along the Anduin still going strong after all these years. I guess it's engraved in the collective memory by now.

4 minutes ago, PigsAreOurEquals said:

Nice to see Journey along the Anduin still going strong after all these years. I guess it's engraved in the collective memory by now.

That Hill Troll left a lasting impression on everyone, still funny to see the face of new players when that Troll engages them

I have to say it's starting to get really difficult to choose sometimes.

I seem to have forgotten to post my comment for the last round (it sat finished in the comment box :S ), whoops.
Anyway some great match-ups:

Helm's Deep vs. Breaking of the Fellowship are two of my favourites (and I am sure many others) so that was a close one.
City of Corsairs vs. Cobas Haven must be the ultimate dreamchaser showdown But Haven takes it. The great ship battle is awesome and I was disappointed by the showdown with Sahir.

I am really surprised to see Deadman's dike loose to the watcher, as I think that with the modern cardpool dike is much more fun. Also I hate the tentacles

On 12/8/2018 at 10:48 PM, Calvadur said:

I am really surprised to see Deadman's dike loose to the watcher, as I think that with the modern cardpool dike is much more fun. Also I hate the tentacles 

Tastes differ, I guess. I hate undead so watcher was an easy choice for me. Also Watcher is an iconic quest but I must admit Ring Goes South was a better iteration/implementation of that chapter.

If we try to compare cycle using the data present here we got 1 scenario from cycle 1, 1 scenario for cycle 2, 1 scenario for cycle 3 (who will probably loose though), 1 of the cycle 4 (same), 2 of the cycle 5 (again), 3 of the cycle 6, none of the cycle 7 (not even a race across harad :/), 1 from cycle 8 (about to be evinced), none from hobbit (battle of the five armies, I think about you), 1 POD (with a low score) and 5 from the LoTR saga. And those 5 are all well positioned for the next step, so we will probably have 62,5% of the field composed by scenario from the campaign. It is huge, even when considering they have 2 times more scenario than any other cycles. They are good scenario for the campaign (and I still support battle of the pelennor field to win this contest) but I don't feel like they all belong to the top of the competition like this.

I got the feelings that many recent players of our game first come to the saga so the competition got a bias from people who want to vote from what they have played (and enjoyed of course) over scenario they might haven't played. I can be wrong of course, and even if I'm right this does not remove any credit to those scenario, to those people or to the competition itself. But I try to figure how 62,5% of the quarterfinal could be the LoTR campaign. And with a pretty solid domination on their numbers. In fact I expect the top 4 to be 100% from the campaign.

Treachery of Rhudaur vs Flight of the Stormcaller is a bit of a heartbreaker; I really like both of those quests.

Tricky matchup between Storm and Knife, two of my very favourite quests. Surprised by the Mount Doom popularity; we found playing this one a rather miserable experience.

Also suprised by Mount Doom, as I remeber quite some people mention the high difficulty shortly after it's release. Took forever to take it out for the first time. Since then I have come to like it (somewhat). It caputures the atmosphere nicely and I always find myself debating if it is worth to play the ally or how to get as many actions out of my heroes *** possible.

Also a little surprised by the huge lead of Anduin over it's "remake". It is a classic for sure, but it didn't age all that well. Sure the remake can be "cheesed" by going for side quests, but I like a quest that gives good opportunities to play them.

Update

Stage 4 has been closed, we are in the quarter finals at this point.

I have noticed that a lot of Saga quests have managed to sneak through, but luckily some other quests have also managed to hang on up to now.

Maybe in future tournaments the Saga's should be kept to their own separate bracket, maybe that will yield significant changes.

Vote now for the Quarter finals!

We are nearing the end of the tournament, but it isn't all Saga quests from here on out. Flight of the Stormcaller managed to knock itself into the final 4 and will be competing against Helm's Deep, Pelennor Fields, and Journey in the Dark.

The term in which you can vote for the semi-finals is shorter than for the previous stages, you only have until December 29th to vote before we go to the final round.

We are nearing the end, just one more week before we know what quest is the community's favourite, and which quest will be my first quest of 2019 (please be Stormcaller, please be Stormcaller...)

You can vote for the semi-finals now: https://challonge.com/FaveLOTRQuest2018

The winner will be battle of the pelennor fields!

At least I found the 3 remaining saga scenario to be the best of the entire saga ^^. Even better than flight, for example.

So it has come to this, the final voting round of this year for the community's favourite quest. Which one of the epic battles will win. Will Helm's Deep reign supreme like it did in 2016? Or will Pelennor Fields knock it off the throne? In the bronze match, the Stormcaller takes on the Balrog. Who will claim the podium, and who will have to settle for 4th place? You have until the final stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve to vote for your favourite quest: https://challonge.com/FaveLOTRQuest2018

On 12/25/2018 at 2:39 PM, Rouxxor said:

The winner will be battle of the pelennor fields!

At least I found the 3 remaining saga scenario to be the best of the entire saga ^^. Even better than flight, for example.

I tend to agree. We had the exact same matchup (Pelennor vs Helm's) in the 2016 competition, where Helm's Deep pulled ahead by a small margin. So I guess Pelennor will take it this time, as past time winners tend to fall short in repeat entries (even when making it to the semi final again; quite showing for how good/beloved the quest is).

Happy new year from mainland Europe. At the stroke of midnight I closed the tournament, and Pelennor Fields has come out on top.

More information on the tournament can be found here: https://visionofthepalantir.com/2019/01/01/monthly-poll-december-2018/

Thank you all for the support, it was the first time I did a poll like this. There will be made changes in the future, so I guess we all learned something with this.

The new poll for January can be found on the homepage of Vision of the Palantir. It concerns 2/2/2/X allies

21 minutes ago, Durins_Father said:

Happy new year from mainland Europe. At the stroke of midnight I closed the tournament, and Pelennor Fields has come out on top.

More information on the tournament can be found here: https://visionofthepalantir.com/2019/01/01/monthly-poll-december-2018/

Thank you all for the support, it was the first time I did a poll like this. There will be made changes in the future, so I guess we all learned something with this.

The new poll for January can be found on the homepage of Vision of the Palantir. It concerns 2/2/2/X allies

Thank you very much for the effort. And happy new year!!!

Thanks for organizing this poll! Especially since it is my favorite for this non nightmare contest who win