Season 30?

[Caerbannog]

As the description suggests, post input on your current thoughts about pyramid vs. fixed schedules. Anything else goes too, including who you'd want to add to staff or make the league op.



I wouldn't count on us getting a bunch of new squads for pyramid to work "the way it is intended to", implying that squads actually move up or down meaningfully and we have enough squads not to need a repeat match-up rule.



I don't want to lead people either way initially, so I won't post the couple of "facts" I know about either format <img src='http://www.subspace.co/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



Oh and please, if you can, more than one word replies. ie. Fixed with top X making pro and the next Y making aml playoffs.



And no, we can't really work a 24/7 ladder system into place since we don't have an active bot/web developer to make it a viable option. The only way we could do this at the moment is to have squads play each other and post the result in agreement. But somehow I predict it wouldn't work for very long <img src='http://www.subspace.co/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[Idolatrous]

My feelings on this issue are pretty well known, but I'll reiterate them for the sake of this post.



Definitely fixed, each squad plays each other one time and then a few randomized rounds. Don't put the randomized rounds all at the end, mix them in randomly, so there will be a chance of back to back matches but you will only ever play a team twice (by random draw) and most teams (depending on the amount in league next season) only once.



I know Nguyens are tired of playing The Dark, Sterling and Assassins every weekend and although so far Happy Mob's schedule has been pretty spread out and I think we've only played llama's twice we haven't been able to play Nguyens or assassins since the first week. It turns out this actually worked out with us playing every one but Nguyens which is cool, but generally that doesn't happen. We've just been pretty hit or miss on some of our games. I know some teams are already at 3 matches against others and have 3ish teams they haven't and probably won't even face which just unbalances the standings completely and doesn't reflect the actual skill level of the teams.



Fact is league is just too small to do pyramid, anyone who is in aml either by 1 loss or simply k/d ratio, vs those who are just above the pro/aml split, are at a huge advantage because generally their schedule is going to be much easier in the last week. Where as a fixed schedule and have a couple randomized (but fixed) matches thrown in the mix will result in much more accurate standings and aml/pro split. There might still be 2 or 3 squads fighting it out for a pro/aml spot down to the end but that will mean they are both fairly equally matched instead of one team getting an easier schedule.



As for Staff changes...



I just want to see 1 or 2 active people (I know Crayzee is supposed to help but he doesn't seem to be around enough) who can help in a few ways

1. Start league matches if Caer is M.I.A for some reason or in a practice
2. Handle any problems with games if Caer is in a match himself or M.I.A
3. Keep the integrity of practices during the week
4. Discuss any issues to do with league/staff
   
   

They're all important issues that need to be addressed at this current time. Caer has always been there on Sundays, but eventually there may come a time he can't log in due to internet issues or something that he can't help and then league just won't run. That won't be acceptable and fireworks will fly for sure. So having some sort of backup plan in place is necessary to prevent this from ever happening. 3 is ideal (including Caerbannog and should be from 3 different squads), because the chances of all 3 not logging in (if they are all active members) is not that likely and it will allow for game time issues to be addressed as it's not likely that all 3 staff members will be in a match at the same time.



As most of the offenses that people do during pracs currently have a "mod must be present" clause in the rules we definitely need a few more active people who can enforce the rules during the week and send either a log or game id to the higher ups for any serious issues or repeat offenses. As well as this will give a sort of "panel" for issues regarding league staff, so you can bring up any possible issues or offenses to one of the other staff members, who should keep it secret from the accused staff member until(if) necessary to talk to them, and discuss it with the necessary chaos zone staff or other 4v4 League Staff depending on the offense.



All and all it will just make for a smoother league, where "biased" opinions and allegations will be much less likely.

[Idolatrous]

Okay well I was talking to hibachi and we had a few different ideas, it would be nice to get some feedback from other people, but that doesn't seem to happen these days. Just bitching after the fact! But I'll list a couple different ideas we came up with.



1. Fixed schedule play each team once, then random draw the remaining rounds, playing each team a maximum of 2 times (depends on how many teams to how many teams you would play twice and how many once).



2. Fixed schedule round robin style until you play each team once then pyramid league based on standings and again you can only play each team a maximum of 2 times.



3. Fixed schedule round robin style resulting in an aml/pro split based on standings after each team has played each other team once. Then you play within in your division for the remainder of the season.

- Possibly allowing for a match between the top AML team and bottom PRO team to switch spots, either each week (could be difficult due to repeat match ups) or only in the final week.



4. Draft league. I think things are probably a little too big to do this still but figured I'd throw it in since league would probably be more competitive but then a lot of players from SFE/LSF/etc would probably get benched most games so that's not fun either.

[babaloo]

I like a fixed schedule and then some sort of playoffs type schedule for AML/PRO.



Draft league would be awesome, but I think its success is completely dependent on the players. If older and more experienced players have a good attitude and are willing to include newer players, I think it could be really helpful for bringing in new players. EG has a draft league that is very popular and accomplishes just that (bringing in new players). It would of course require more of a forum community to run, because you have to have a lot of organization and rules behind a draft league...



Just for kicks to explore this a little further:

-a group of players (volunteers?) serve as the managers or captains of the teams

-a group of players (volunteers?) score players who sign up for the league based on popular opinion of their value (skill, ability to show up, etc) from 1-5

-captains take turns choosing players and can only have a certain number of 5s, 4s, 3s and so on.

-could even go so far as to only allow certain number of each to play in matches, e.g. one 5, two 3-4s and one 1-2. could have a hard time having teams have enough to show, could allow for NTS for a sub of the same value.

[Caerbannog]

[quote name='babaloo' timestamp='1307111844' post='275565']

I like a fixed schedule and then some sort of playoffs type schedule for AML/PRO.



Draft league would be awesome, but I think its success is completely dependent on the players. If older and more experienced players have a good attitude and are willing to include newer players, I think it could be really helpful for bringing in new players. EG has a draft league that is very popular and accomplishes just that (bringing in new players). It would of course require more of a forum community to run, because you have to have a lot of organization and rules behind a draft league...



Just for kicks to explore this a little further:

-a group of players (volunteers?) serve as the managers or captains of the teams

-a group of players (volunteers?) score players who sign up for the league based on popular opinion of their value (skill, ability to show up, etc) from 1-5

-captains take turns choosing players and can only have a certain number of 5s, 4s, 3s and so on.

-could even go so far as to only allow certain number of each to play in matches, e.g. one 5, two 3-4s and one 1-2. could have a hard time having teams have enough to show, could allow for NTS for a sub of the same value.

[/quote]



The last time we even attempted a draft we couldn't even find captains. I reckon we were just going to have them pick one player at a time from the current league player pool, then tell the players that such a league is happening.



But seriously, if you manage to waste your top picks on players who won't show up, it kinda sucks. It'd be cool if we could somehow have people show up at the same time and run it right there and then.



We have a total of 6 signed up pilots even for the 2v2 tournament that people are always asking for.