Clan Wars 1.0 was Exodus Clan Wars.
Clan Wars 2.0 was the Insomnia Clan Wars format we've been running for the past three months.
Clan Wars 3.0 is the new format we are starting from this coming Saturday, in order to respond to the phenomenal growth of the event.
The problem is that, given current server tech, the sweet spot for getting the best Wars is 4-5 teams of 15-20 players in total. I have determined this after three months of weekly Wars, and I have not the slightest doubt that this is the sweet spot. Yesterday, however, we got 7 clans with 27 players in total, and the game just wasn't fun. I mean there were fun aspects in it, but overall, it was nowhere near as fun as the previous 2-3 Wars, and the reason was the crowding.
Let me emphasize that the problem is not my format. My format is perfect and genius. The problem is server tech. If we had no performance issues, I would have doubled the size of the system, so that all 7 clans would have had plenty of space to expand before the crunch happened, and the sim would have run at 100% the whole time, and everyone would have had a blast. There is no doubt in my mind that bigger is better, if the server can handle it. Unfortunately, however, current servers cannot handle 7-team, 27-player games with large enough systems to allow everyone to expand for a while, and have fun, so something must be done about it (and it would have been an 8-team, 30-player game, if pXs had played, as they planned to, in which case the game would have lagged even more and crashed even sooner).
The solution is to find a way to hit the sweet spot of 4-5 teams and 15-20 players every week, until server tech improves. And I think that, after thinking up lots of possibilities, Elite and I have found the solution. I will post the raw chatlogs between us below, and give everyone 48 hours to read them and make suggestions, and by midweek I will unveil the new Clan Wars format in full. Enjoy, and let me know what you think about our plans.