How do you win Game Tournaments?

[Dellena]

I used the Psych Self Up in the mirror and won my first professional tournament.  Will have to test this more.

[Chris41279]

Ok, so far it seems the idea of playing the game more often has begun working for me. So I've started playing the game on my free time and the last tournament I placed 2nd. That's a first!

Maybe the whole "With a little more practice" was apparently saying something to us that we were all missing LOLOL

[Playalot]

Oh my goodness <slaps forehead>  I so didn't think about the 'practice makes perfect' angle! lol How obvious is that now that you've said it??!! I think I'm even more annoyed now but laughing at the same time!! 

[callycat]

Oh my goodness <slaps forehead>  I so didn't think about the 'practice makes perfect' angle! lol How obvious is that now that you've said it??!! I think I'm even more annoyed now but laughing at the same time!! 

Yes, this was my impression but I wanted to go back and check that my sim has stopped losing rather than just having a random lucky streak. His wins seem pretty reliable now, so I think this is correct.

[Chris41279]

Oh my goodness <slaps forehead>  I so didn't think about the 'practice makes perfect' angle! lol How obvious is that now that you've said it??!! I think I'm even more annoyed now but laughing at the same time!! 

I know, kinda makes me feel like a moron for overthinking it! LOL

[lahaygood]

my sim started placing and winning tournaments when he would play the game a bit first, then I'd send him to the tournament of the same game.  so far he has place 3rd 4 times and won 2 times.  Since he is in gaming career, confident, inspired or focused seem to produce better results.

[sawadaWiz]

I think beside the Very Focused emotion, how long you played the game before entering the tournament of the same game is one of the deciding factor. My sim was lost at novice tournament even with Very Focused. So I sent him to play for four hours without leveling up his skill and then play at tournament again, he won then.

[_Annika_]

I can hardly make heads nor tails of the xml files for tournaments, but I suspect that you need to be in the gaming career and career level is factored in to your final game score, as well as gaming skill. It's also possible that each game has it's own hidden skill level, and practice does indeed, make perfect. I'm basing this assumption on some min/max skill level requirements that are greater than the standard 1-10, though I really can't tell much because all the buffs, skills, careers etc are referenced as numbers.

[Chris41279]

I can hardly make heads nor tails of the xml files for tournaments, but I suspect that you need to be in the gaming career and career level is factored in to your final game score, as well as gaming skill. It's also possible that each game has it's own hidden skill level, and practice does indeed, make perfect. I'm basing this assumption on some min/max skill level requirements that are greater than the standard 1-10, though I really can't tell much because all the buffs, skills, careers etc are referenced as numbers.

Wait, the XML files will give you that info? I've never even attempted to decipher an XML file, or any coding file for that matter.. More power to you!

[m.sato]

I feel career doesn't influence gaming tournaments at all and emotions play a minor hole in it. Both my secret agent and my chef sims win about half tournaments and don't get a prize 1 out of a bazillion times, even when playing stressed, tense or sad.

The thing is they play only one game (The R.E.F.U.G.E.), at least once a day, have lost a lot before start winning and when trying to play any other games it's a disaster.

Finally, I kept one of the sims away from gaming for a while and it was not doing so good when begun playing again, so it seems they do get rusty.

[kanzaki]

I can hardly make heads nor tails of the xml files for tournaments, but I suspect that you need to be in the gaming career and career level is factored in to your final game score, as well as gaming skill. It's also possible that each game has it's own hidden skill level, and practice does indeed, make perfect. I'm basing this assumption on some min/max skill level requirements that are greater than the standard 1-10, though I really can't tell much because all the buffs, skills, careers etc are referenced as numbers.

I can confirm you don't need to be in the gamer career or even max level to win.

I had a tech guru and was stressing about how she was going to make the $5,000 goal in aspiration, she won a pro tournament with vg skill 9.

I have them play the same game whenever I use the computer, I don't know if that has an effect or not but it's placebo'd into me now for sure.

[sawadaWiz]

My sim who has level 10 in video gaming skill lose at pro tournament in game that he has always played. The game is modded, though, and he researched advanced game strategy before. But the one thing I'm sure, get your sim play a game of choice for hours before sending him/her to tournament, probably to prepare him/her up. I only can get him up to 2nd place in this way, the prize is about $750

[KTK10]

I was having problems with this originally too - then I just modded the sports game and played that and ONLY that game - then entered the professional tournament and I started to win almost every time. Prize money is about 840 I think. Good luck!

[radwyn]

i agree with the people who say playing the game first before you enter a tournament works. I always play the same game and seem to win a lot and I am not even in a computer based career. I try to play the game for at least an hour often more before entering. Also I always try to be very focused. There are lots of ways to boost focus not just with focus items.

[DarkWalker]

If I understood the tuning files correctly:

- Each game has an independent, hidden skill that goes from 0 to 90. It goes up (0.09 points per sim minute) when playing or streaming the game with any device (mobile included), increases faster (0.125/m) when taking part in a tournament, and decays if not used (-0.0125/m).

- The sim gets a score based on the Video Game skill and the hidden skill in the game: 3 points for each 10 points in the hidden skill beyond 10, up to 80 (so 3 points at 20, 6 at 30, and so on), and about 2 points per video gaming skill point above 2 (so 2 points at 3, 4 points at 4, and so on). Career doesn't seem to have an effect, but mood (focused, confident, happy) do due to increasing the effective skill level.

- The place is random, with the chances based on the score the sim got; a score of 6 or less guarantees a failure (edit: 10 or less for Pro tournaments), and a score of 38 or more gives the maximum chance of winning. A score of 38 requires 80 or more (out of 90) in the hidden game skill and a video gaming skill that has been boosted by emotion or moodlet beyond 10 (happy and confident boost it by 1; elated, fearless, and focused boost it by 2; in the zone boosts it by 3).

So, basically, if you want to maximize the chances of winning: focus on a single game to get the hidden skill in that game up, practice about three hours per day to keep the hidden skill high (taking part in tournaments counts as practice), play for an hour or two before each tournament in order to get the hidden skill near its max, and get into an emotion that boosts the video gaming skill. Do keep in mind that winning is random; with a video gaming skill of 6 (or 4 when focused) and no practice it should already be possible to win a tournament, though it will be very rare.