Competitive games are games with some kind of player versus player. In general, players will share a save file, then take turns playing. They went through several incarnations over the years.
Context[]
The concept of save-sharing was introduced with Roman Republic Games. Since then, its popularity has created several spinoffs, with a competitive edge. In general, these games were competitive, but weren't taken too seriously. This is because it'd be trivial to cheat, as you could reload from a save over and over again without anyone noticing. For the most part, competitors were put under the honor system.
More recent competitions, hosted by the Roguelikes discord server, have scrapped save-sharing. Instead, they focus on challenging single-player objectives.
The Weakest Link[]
The most popular competitive game was The Weakest Link, run in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2016.
It involved a single PC diving the Infinite Dungeon. Groups of players would advance cooperatively down the ID. If a player died, the player was eliminated, but the PC was passed on to the next player. After a few rounds, "chaotic" tactics - purposefully hindering the PC - became allowed. However, if no player could not solve the situation, the player creating the situation was eliminated.
Duel to the Death[]
Duel to the Death was another competitive game diving in the ID, Instead of a whole group playing a character, a character was shared for a 1v1 match (i.e. a duel). Unlike TWL, self-hindering tactics were allowed from the start. If both players died, the one who made it the furthest would win. Players that won would advance to the next round of duels, until only 2 players were left.
A common strategy was for the presumed underdog to leave the character in a near-starving state, thus forcing play to be more aggressive (thus, more luck dependent).
The Finals were won by Confucio.
Ladders[]
Similar to the original Duel to the Death, ladder competitions featured head-to-head ID dives. This time, an ELO-like system was used, and players could freely challenge a desired opponent.
In 2011, The Ladder of ChAoS (organized by JellySlayer) was created. Out of 19 participants, zsomkovacs finished with the highest rating.
In 2012, Duel to Death: Ladder Edition 2012 (once again by Jellyslayer) was created. Out of 16 players, Soirana earned the highest rating.
Mission ADOMpossible[]
Instead of players trying to sabotage others on a shared character, Mission Impossible and Mission ADOMpossible were purely cooperative. Each team would work together to progress and reach certain objectives. The team that did this the best would win.
2009[]
In 2009, Mission Impossible was run by Darren Grey. Five teams of four people were created, named after their captains.
Each team had four characters. The races were randomized, though each team would pick classes based on a draft. The combinations of race/class were up to the teams to decide. As players completed mission objectives, they'd rotate PCs with their teammates. Death or failure would result in the character being removed. Teams with deaths in the first missions were at a huge disadvantage, which lead to early frustration and inactivity.
There were 6 days (real life) to complete a mission, with no turn limit. Objectives included: reach HMV, reach dwarftown, pass dwarven portal, get water orb, get fire orb, and close the chaos gate.
The final result was not posted, but it looked like team JellySlayer would have won.
2014[]
A similar game was proposed in 2011, but failed to attract enough players.
In 2014, Mission ADOMPossible was hosted by JellySlayer. Six teams of five people joined, with some drop outs and replacements.
Like Mission Impossible, mission ADOMpossible had random races, with teams picking class based on a draft. However, death was not permanent - a PC would restart from their last save. They gained +3000 turns per skipped mission. For example, a character that completed mission 1 & 2 would have 12000 turns to do the entire thing. In contrast, a character who died on mission 1 would have 9000 (6000+3000) turns to complete mission 2 from a fresh character.
Missions were limited to 6000 turns. They were more exotic, such as obtaining the high king's ring or water orb without their guardian being on kill list. Intentionally failing a mission to improve the character was allowed, however you could not go past the turn limit or enter a forbidden area.
Team Fire were the winners.
Discord competitions[]
Several competitions were held on the ADOM discord channel.
Ultra-ultra[]
In 2016, the Ultra-Ultra competition was held, using the deluxe version of the game. Players would strive for an ultra ending or ordinary chaos god ending, with the settings set to few fortunes and tough monsters. There was a requirement to record the whole run.
The winner was the first to finish. It was won by ster (mist elf chaos knight). The runner up was God of ADoM (gnome necromancer, archmage). The runs were posted on twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/sterroidss/videos/highlights and https://www.twitch.tv/yollamist/v/96310288.
Queenslayer[]
In 2017, the Queenslayer challenge was held. The goal was to kill the ice queen as fast as possible.
There were only 3 submissions by three players. The winner was God of ADoM (aka Yolla). Yolla's run used a wand of wishing to generate some key things - Greater molochs for experience, some form of invisibility, alchemy, and wands of acid). He then killed the queen with offensive alchemy in 1881 turns. Runner up was Grond (aka Yulgash). Grond's run sacrificed the shopkeeper in Dwarftown after leveling him with Sis for a massive experience boost. After draining a pool in the Shadowy Dungeon to gain a number of necessary intrinsics and finding a RoDS for alchemy, he used offensive alchemy to slay the ice queen in 9438 turns. Third place and its prize remained unclaimed due to low participation. Some players speculated of using wand of far slaying to kill the queen, but never backed up that with uploaded flg.
Notes on the runs:
- Yolla: https://pastebin.com/LF4VyPzS
- Grond: https://pastebin.com/ciGTRbtq