(For a better understanding and easier discussing, the actual teams will be called "regular teams", and the proposed 2 new teams will be called "league-teams" A and B.)
- - Every player registered in GU League will be associated additionally with one of 2 league-teams.
- The regular team membership does not change (You stay in your regular team, or you stay teamless).
- Your league team membership will be randomly assigned every month.
- League teams can match like any other team , with a few limitations.
Why a new matching variant if the one we have already works?
There are several reasons, some quite obvious, some need a bigger understanding of Statistics and Psychology. But lets keep it simple and start with a few questions and examples to demonstrate the usefulness of league-teams:
- # How long are you willing to wait for a teammate to show up, if you want to match?
# If you have a teammate or two, how long do you wait in Observer for a match?
# Are you in an active team but your teammates/ possible opponents live in a different time zone?
# Do you like matching teams out of your league and lose 0-7/0-8/0-9?
# Or otherwise, is it fun to start a match if you already know the outcome (9-0 after 15 min)?
# Is it some kind of dilemma for you to either stay in your semi-active team and match maybe once every two months or join another team and leave your longtime team(mates)?
# As a member in a beginner team, would you like to match with some more experienced players? But none of those will join your team or they do not have a spot for you in their team?
# Do you like official matches but dislike funmatches because of the bad behavior, lack of discipline, player attitude?
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I added 5 examples of strayers bzflag stats, to show some typical situations and make the problems a little bit more obvious.
A.
A lot of players around, but no teams.
(You can wait a long time and hope for some more players to show up, have time and are willing to match - or you just leave).
B.
1 Team (EIE) has 3 players available but no other teams are around
(They can wait a long time and hope for some more players to show up, have time ....
...if they are lucky, they get a 2vs2)
C.
2 Teams are around
(Is this a match anyone of those 2 teams want to play?)
D.
3 Teams are around
ForestForce just started a 30 min match against Apocalypse, so EIE has to wait at least 30 mins, if ForestForce/ Apocalypse play a rematch, 60 mins. Without any certainty to get a match.
E.
4 Teams are around
Looks like a lot of matching? Not so fast. 1 player of ForestForce is afk, 1 player of Lancers has not enough time to match.
Only possible match would be Apocalypse vs EIE.
The situation with league-teams could be this .
(additionally to the already existing options)
A.
league-team A vs league-team B
(Some players would prefer such a match over a funmatch because the quality and discipline in funmatches decreased a lot)
B.
EIE can match league-team A or B
C.
Instead of 2vs2 Rainbow vs Reptiles, both teams can match each a more balanced league-team. Rainbow can play a 3vs3.
D.
While ForestForce matches Apocalypse, EIE can match a league-team up to 4vs4 or play 2 smaller matches.
E.
Apocalypse, EIE can match each other 3vs3 or they each match a league-team up to 4vs4.
This should give a basic idea in which cases those new league-teams could improve GU league.
In short, less waiting time and the chance of more balanced matches.
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Some questions which may occur:
- # Can I match my teammates (of my regular team) this way? No, this is not allowed.
# Are 20 min matches allowed? Yes, of course.
# Are matches with uneven playercounts allowed (2vs3 for example)? Yes, they are.
# Can league-team A match league-team B? Yes, of course.
# How many points does a regular team get for winning against a league-team? The Elo-points won or lost are calculated by the same formula as for matches between regular teams.
# Can I leave a league-team? No, that is not possible. Every player has to be assigned to one of those teams.
# Can I switch from league-team A to B, my buddy plays there? No, you can not. You just have to wait till you are randomly in the same league-team.
# A regular team is challenging a league-team. Do I have to play? You do not have to play. It is completely up to you.
# A regular team wants to challenge a league-team, but preselect the players to match (We want to match vs player x, y, but not vs player z). Is that ok? It depends... This new mode is meant to give more match opportunities, more even matches. So it is allowed as long as the regular team doesn´t try to manipulate its Elo-rating by only matching the weakest players, or by harassing certain players this way. Adminship will have a close eye on this.
# My teammate and I are both in the same regular and league team. How do we report this match? In such a case, matches are entered for the regular team.
# We started a match between 2 regular teams, but we could let 2 in so we have a regular vs league team match. Is that ok? No, matches stay the way they started.
# Can we have better names than league-team A and league-team B? I hope so, we just use them at the moment for discussing this topic. Feel free to suggest some cool names (Team red / purple for example).
# Who is leader of the league-teams? The league teams will be administered by the GU adminship.
# Is there a difference between regular teams and league teams? As far as matching is concerned, there isn´t.
# If I disturb a league-team match, do I get banned? The ban (and banlength) is the same as for disturbing regular matches.
Some clarifactions and explanations in this post:
http://forums.bzflag.org/viewtopic.php? ... 15#p165493
To address concerns over scores and how that effects rankings:
http://forums.bzflag.org/viewtopic.php? ... 25#p165521