2nd Annual Easter Geode Hunt! [Crickhollow, April 8-9 '23]

[Ammonium]

Hello everyone! If you enjoyed last year's "First Annual Gundabad Easter Geode Hunt", I've got a shocking twist for you: we're doing it again this year! On Saturday and Sunday, April 8-9, 2023, from 2-4 PM servertime (US Eastern) each day, all you need to do is show up in Gundabad and harvest geodes for 20 minutes, and you could win prizes from a pool of over 1200 Gold and five Easter-y rabbit pets! (Plus, of course, all the geodes you can get your hands on!)

Some FAQ from last year's event:

• How do I sign up? We will be periodically advertising in /world and /LFF for the duration of the event. Send us a /tell, or meet us at the Steepset plaza, and we'll invite you to a raid. (This is so that the referees can see your geode pickups and score you appropriately). Once you're in the raid, you're all set to go! You must stay in the raid to compete. Furthermore, in order to compete in the event, you must own the "Fate of Gundabad" expansion pack and have completed the quest "Geode Hunter" at Zidir-Nesad in Gundabad (approx. min. level 127)
• How do I play? Once you're in the competition raid, you have 20 minutes to pick up as many geodes as you can. Your timer starts on your first geode pickup, not when you join the raid, so you have plenty of time to find the perfect spot. Once your timed run ends, you can start another by picking up another geode. You may compete as many times as you like, but only on one character per person, please.
• How is the event scored? You earn points for each geode you pick up during the event, according to the rarity of that geode type. Scoring is mostly performed automatically using a Lua plugin and Google Sheets (human input is limited to copying data between these systems to ensure fairness). The scoring system is designed to detect players using the special Gundabad toolkits that boost geode pickups, and subtract the boosted geodes from their score, so there is no advantage or disadvantage to using the geode boost toolkits during this event (except that using the toolkit means you walk away with more geodes, regardless of your score or rank). We also do not recommend that you barter for rare geodes during the event, as this will also adversely impact your score; rather, please leave the raid if you must do so, and then request a re-invite.
• How do I loot geodes while in a raid? The loot binding system makes it more difficult to loot geodes or other landscape pickups while in a group, and unfortunately grouping is required for straightforward and fair scoring to occur. We recommend using the Enter key to loot all and confirm binding, as this minimizes the mouse activity required to interact with this system.
• What has changed since last year? A few things:
  
  • Balanced availability between Saturday and Sunday.
  • Point system rebalance to diversify effective scoring strategies.
  • Minor prize changes due to availability.
  • Various improvements to the referee toolkit and scoring system (WIP).

We hope to see you there!

[Jaocynthe]

This is one of the most fun events in the game. Thank you so much for running it, Ammonium!

I wasn't able to defend my title this year, but I had a great time.