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webcomic-character-tournament · 11 months

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what inspired you to choose a different tournament format rather than single elimination? do you know of any other accounts doing something similar?

even before tumblr polls were a thing, i thought it was interesting the conflicts presented when doing a single elimination tournament for voting based off of people choosing favorites when the options aren't equally known to all voters.

whether or not people seed multifandom character tournaments, there are still things that hamper my enjoyment. if you don't seed, then it can be frustrating to see a strong competitor knocked out arbitrarily early. if you do seed, then even if you get some strong matchups later on, its disappointing to me to just concede that some characters are meant to be eliminated even earlier than they might be able to make it (especially disappointing when you're a fan of a lot of relatively unpopular media!)

so within the couple weeks of tumblr poll tournaments being a thing,i was really itching to try out a different format!!

i tried to think about which aspects of tournaments were fun for me

it's fun to root for your favorite character and get really competitive about it! it feels good to see them go far!

it's fun to have intense matches where characters feel equally matched!

it's fun to see your lesser known favorites get further than you expect them to! and even if they don't get far, it's fun to bring awareness to them at all!

i pretty quickly decided that elimination tournaments were in conflict with some of my wants. nonetheless though, there's a lot to be said for the silly fun that can come from their fierce competition and surprise upsets

certain voting or tournament systems might not have the arbitrary eliminations of single elimination tournaments, but still didn't feel right for my purposes. for example, (beyond the other concern of popular vs unpopular characters) a full round robin tournament might get exhausting with the amount of competitors i'd want in any tournament i felt like hosting. and there's other types of tournaments/voting systems that would give "accurate" end results, but that i couldn't find a way to gamify in the moment so that each matchup felt like a unique thing worth rooting for with an obvious resulting benefit, which was important to me.

while not as much as other options, i still have a slight worry that even with a points system, a mcmahon style tournament might be a little too hard to follow for people to really have fun with the stakes of each individual match. but in the end i went with it because i thought it'd be really interesting to see how a skill-based tournaments system for determining skill level could be translated to popularity (in the known sense, not the liked sense), and i liked how it was dynamic enough to allow matchups not expected by the original popularity sorting if it turned out to not be as accurate, and how it could adapt to a wide range of contestants, and didn't necessarily need to have any set amount of rounds if it turned out it was more work to get more granular with the results than i initially expected.

but honestly despite having this in the back of my mind for months now, i havent done much active work until the past couple weeks when i finally started to have free time. i definitely still have a lot to consider when it comes to how many rounds i want to do and how many contestants or what exactly this is gonna look like! i'm simulating fake tournaments today to get at least some sense for whats realistic, but beyond that i hope you'll all have fun going along with this experiment with me! :)

and no i'm not familiar with any accounts doing something similar (let me know if you know any! i'd love to learn from them and participate!), although for other unconventional tournament formats, i'm really excited to see what @wlw-webcomic-bracket is doing for future rounds, and i think the special abilities in @funkylittlebaldcharapoll are an absolute blast (support the union!!!!)

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weeklyreviewer · 5 years

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Germany Might Be Producing the Best Pinot Noirs Available Today

In the world of wine, Germany—like New Zealand or Argentina—has a clear role: its wineries make Riesling. But while the first mentions of Riesling date from the 1400s, German Pinot Noir actually gets called out more than 500 years earlier. It seems Emperor Charles III brought the grape to Germany from Burgundy in 884. Today Germany has 29,000 acres of Pinot Noir, the third most plantings in the world after France and the United States—and now American wine drinkers are taking notice.

For a long time, Germans kept their Pinots to themselves. “The demand for red wine in Germany kept growing,” says Ernst Büscher of the German Wine Institute, “so there was nothing to export.” The industry focused on exporting Riesling, but Büscher says that’s changed over the past decade. Germans are drinking more white wines, freeing up Pinot Noir for export.

Pinot Noir actually does best in relatively cool growing conditions, which Germany has in spades, but it does need a long autumn to completely ripen. In fact, its German name is “spätburgunder,” which roughly translates to the “late-ripening grape from Burgundy.” Climate change may actually be a net positive for these wines. “As the climate starts to warm this late-ripening grape has a longer growing season,” says Josh Perlman, wine director at Giant in Chicago. “So they’re able to produce wines with a bit more power to them while still maintaining a lot of freshness. They have good ripeness and can make wines that are bit more like what people expect from Pinot.”

Ernst Dautel holds grapes after harvesting. Dautel cuts down half of each single cluster when they are still green, which reduces the yield and helps to get healthy grapes. Courtesy of Frank P Kistner

Perlman often lists several German Pinot Noirs at Giant, knowing that they come in a range of styles that offer a range of experiences for his guests. “Someone like Enderle & Moll are making a more classic style of Pinot with softer edge: lower tannins, high acidity. But there’s other producers that are making a really racy style, with a high-toned, linear quality to them.”

The Lucky 13

Those differences represent the range of growing conditions in Germany’s thirteen different wine regions. Enderle & Moll are in southerly, warmer Baden, where Pinot Noir makes up more than one-third of the vineyards. Red grapes also predominate in neighboring Württemberg, with Pinot Noir alongside lesser known German varieties like Trollinger and Lemberger. “The wines of Württemberg often have a bit more acidity than the other warmer wine regions in Germany like Baden or Pfalz,” says Christan Dautel, whose family has been growing grapes in Württemberg in southwest Germany, just across the border from the French wine region of Alsace, for 500 years. “There is huge amount of different soils like limestone, gypsum, red sandstone, and marl. But they are all calcareous with a high pH. This is very suitable for burgundy grapes.”

Wine lovers praise Pinot Noir for its ability to show different characteristics depending on the vineyard site. Dautel says his wine from the Schupen vineyard has a “full-bodied and charming” style” thanks to its gypsum soils, relatively low altitude (280 meters), and southern exposure. His vineyards at Forstberg are higher and steeper, with marl soils. Because they cool off more at night, Dautel says “Forstberg is always even more elegant and fine than the Schupen.”

Christian Dautel in the VDP Große Lage FORSTBERG, one of Dautel’s two pinot noir grand cru vineyards. Courtesy of Andreas Durst

While in Baden, Wurttemberg, and Pfalz Pinot Noir is found in many spots, as one moves further north, it tends to be concentrated in very particular areas. One of the northernmost wine regions in the country, the Ahr, is peculiarly devoted to red wine, with Pinot Noir in about two-thirds of its vineyards. The reputation of the area today rests almost entirely on one producer Meyer-Näkel, who pioneered a dry, powerful style of Pinot Noir in the 1980s. However, the total vineyard acreage in the Ahr is only about 900 acres, compared to more than 13,000 acres in Baden.

The Rheingau and the Mosel are probably the two most famous wine regions in Germany, largely due to a strong devotion to Riesling. The former has nonetheless always had a small corner devoted to Pinot Noir in the steep vineyards that overlook the village of Assmanshausen. “We grow around eighteen hectares of Pinot Noir, most of the vineyards in Assmanshausen but some in Winkel as well,” says Katharina Fladung of Allendorf, a family-owned winery. “Due to the steep vineyards, the dark slate soils, and the south-facing sites you’ll find perfect conditions for Pinot Noir in Assmanshausen.” The steep slopes encourage small berries and concentrated aromas because of their good drainage, and the dark slate keeps the vineyards warmer in the evening, so ripening doesn’t slow at night. It’s no coincidence that the Ahr actually has similar soils.

Dautel’s Wurmberg vineyard, located in the town called Besigheim. Courtesy of Andreas Durst

The Mosel has just a tiny amount of Pinot Noir, in large part because the Nazis banned it there in 1933 in favor of the more profitable Riesling. It has made a comeback since the late 1980s. One unique example is that of Hofgut Falkenstein. Red wines regular go through malolactic fermentation, a process that smooths out the wine and reduces its acidity. At Hofgut Falkenstein, that doesn’t take place, and the resulting wine has a savory, biting character despite otherwise tasting ripe and dense.

Stefan Steinmetz makes four different Pinot Noirs nearby. “Mosel Pinots are much more elegant and light than those of Baden,” Steinmetz says, but notes that climate change has done more than make Pinot Noir more feasible in the Mosel: “We have higher quality year after year. We already don’t necessarily have to plant it in only the hottest sites anymore.”

Germany’s New Wine Zeitgeist

“In the early days, excellent German Pinot Noir was the classic talking dog,” says Terry Theise, who imports a wide range of German wines. “It didn’t matter what it said. It was amazing that it could speak at all.” Theise says many of these were showboat wines, overpriced, rare, and not terribly interesting. “They were over-oaked, and overripe in many cases, and over-extracted in many cases.”

Enderle & Moll’s 2018 Liaison, a middle aged vine cuvee, from both sandstone and limestone soils. Courtesy of Vom Boden

At the other end of the spectrum, the more affordable Pinots were often thin. “There is something about the German Pinot Noir producer that wants the wines to be like white wines except with a little tinge of red.” Nonetheless, at a tasting of the German wines in his portfolio, Theise expressed satisfaction with the both the quality and breadth of style the Pinot Noirs on offer, demonstrated by producers such as Breuer, Dautel, and Ziereisen. “Pinot Noir is definitely part of the German zeitgeist,” Thesie says. From where he’s standing, Germany is working hard to earn a reputation for “lovely, affordable, delicious Pinot Noir.”