#mcc analysis

First, let’s talk about what the strategy is. In my mind, this can actually be a very good strategy if all of the moving pieces align correctly, even if it hasn’t worked out perfectly for Dream in the past.

Basically, Dream’s strategy is an attempt to overcome what I like to call “momentum-based scoring”, which is the scoring system currently used by Build Mart and formerly used by Grid Runners.

In this scoring system, teams get more points for completing a certain build before other teams complete it, regardless of how long it takes them to complete that particular build overall. This means that a team that has a quick start and gets new builds more quickly will have more time to complete these new builds while still getting a first or second-place bonus. With the addition of golden builds in season 2, which are worth double the points of a regular build, this grows even more important.

Dream’s strategy is basically as follows: all four players work together on one build, starting with whichever build looks easiest, to complete it as fast as possible and get the new builds sooner while neglecting the other two starter builds. By pooling resources together to make sure that they get the first build done as fast as possible, with three players going to get resources and one staying back to take charge with crafting and building (the exception is the first build: even the “manager” gathers resources for that), they get access to the next build, which is the first golden build, before other teams and can complete that as soon as possible. This sets them ahead and allows them to maximize points. It’s vital that they don’t switch back to one of the original builds with this strategy no matter how difficult the new build looks because they will get minimal coins for that build.

That being said, it’s not a perfect strategy.

The first issue with this strategy is that it works well in the first few minutes of Build Mart but not so well later on. They will get a speed advantage on the first few builds but, as other teams complete their builds, that advantage dissipates because, say a team completes their original set of builds around the same time, which means that they have three fresh builds to work with. In Dream’s strategy, you get new builds one by one. That’s why speed is critical in the first minute or so before other teams can finish the original builds. It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean that the strategy has no merit against any other strategy as it still gives them the opportunity to finish the first golden build before other teams can, which offers them a fair share of points. Whether this advantage is negligible at the end of the game or not is less clear. When done right, Dream’s Build Mart strategy stands up just as well as even Grian’s strategy. However, it leaves very little room for error, especially in the first few minutes of the game.

Now, let’s talk about what went wrong in MCC 18 in particular because I think it’s important to highlight these issues to start a discussion about how this strategy can work better.

One major pitfall that this strategy can succumb to during the event is a too many cooks in the kitchen type situation, so to speak. With three people gathering resources for one build, sometimes it’s difficult to clearly communicate who should get what and when. Multiple times throughout the game, Quackity was left unsure of what to do because George was already getting his assigned blocks for him or there were no blocks left to get once assignments were given out.

I personally wouldn’t fault George for this. I actually think that George is a much better Build Mart player than people, including himself, give him credit for. After playing the floater role in MCC 16, he’s gotten even better with this game and seems to have a decent familiarity with this map as well as being able to better judge the time it takes to gather materials. George got Quackity’s blocks for him because he was already there and recognized that he could gather them and return to spawn before Quackity would have a chance to since he was less familiar with the map and mechanics of the game. He was more flexible with his role which probably saved them a few seconds.

That brings me to another vital part of not just this strategy, but with Build Mart as a whole: flexibility. This is a strategy that assigns people with particular roles but there will always be times where it is more efficient to break from those roles. This didn’t come up very often in this Build Mart because, overall, they were able to be flexible when necessary. The only glaring example of when rigidity resulted in a loss of efficiency was due to a very small mistake at the end that ended up costing them a fair share of coins. Even though Sam was taking on a “manager role” and doing a lot of the crafting, George should have been the one to craft the piston right at the end of the game. He had all of the materials in his inventory already and, even if he didn’t know the recipe by heart, it would have been quicker to click on the book on the side and look up the recipe than it would be to toss Sam all the materials and have him craft it, even if Quackity hadn’t picked up the cobblestone by mistake. Given the high stress in the last minute of Build Mart, this is a very understandable mistake but worth pointing out nonetheless.

There were a few other small mistakes throughout the game as well but it’s hard to have a clean run of Build Mart without a few mess ups. Quackity had some confusion with the map layout and misheard some directions early on and there was a moment early on where Sam gets purple concrete when it wasn’t needed because it was part of the floor and then collects the purple glass without telling anyone, which George also gets. It’s important to have clear communication in this game but it’s also okay to acknowledge that can be difficult for almost all teams during the stress of the competition and those things are bound to happen.

Now, how could this strategy be improved? Beyond just closer study of the maps and better communication, it would be good to have something set for a player to do when they’re in a place where they don’t have anything to get due to either a lack of different materials in a build or a teammate already being in the area of what they’re intended to get.

The first of two suggestions that I wanted to put forward is something that Quackity actually attempted. When he wasn’t sure what to do, he moved to one of the original builds and started trying to work on it, though he seemed unsure of whether that was the right thing to do given it goes against their strategy, which I think tripped him up and made it difficult to focus in on that build enough to get anything done past gathering materials.

My suggestion is for the team to pick a designated “back-up” build at the start of the game. That way, if there’s ever a time where a player doesn’t have anything to do, they know what build they should gather resources for and work on. Sure, they would get less points for this build because theoretically it would be finished late in the game, but when Build Mart is played so late in the tournament as it has been recently, any extra coins matter a whole lot, even if it only amounts to a couple of coins for a partially completed build.

The second suggestion is for any player that has nothing to do to play a more traditional “floater role” and start grabbing blocks commonly needed for builds and to store them in the chests, clearly communicating what they grabbed. Blocks that would be useful to grab ahead of time would be wood (notably oak, spruce, and birch), stone, and iron. Having these blocks ahead of time might save time getting them later or, at the very least, some of them could probably be used on the other original builds at the very end of the game to get partial completion coins.

Overall, Dream’s strategy has merit and he seems to be getting better and better at Build Mart as an individual, even though it might not seem that way if you aren’t watching his streams. Since Build Mart is such a team game, it’s hard to see a player’s individual process if they’re consistently playing with other players that aren’t particularly great at it, which can be said about other games but is glaringly obvious here.