Critical Reflection on Team League

[MarcusAureliu#s]

I am sure we all agree that a tournament with less then 50% of games played makes little sense. Also it is unfair for teams that make time, just to see that enemy team did not appear, without even leaving a note in advance. Therefore i open this thread to discussing possibilities for improvement, especially concerning the following topics. If you find yourself unable to formulate constructive criticism that makes at least some amount of sense this is not the thread to do it.

 

Team making: Next time first collect all players and then make balanced teams

1. More fun to play balanced matches -> higher motivation
2. We can make bigger teams so it is more likely at least 2 players have time

Disadvantages

1. Complicates process as ppl might not agree with teammates
2. Lower motivation by beeing forced in team with social nub teammates

More flexible schedules

1. higher motivation for both teams to find date to play

Disadvantages

1. more self organization necessary which did for the most not happen in first tournament

Banning Teams that didnt play for some games at all

Banning Toxic Players

Using Challonge

Having Resposible Team Captains (mandatory from beginning)

[badosu]

I agree with all points here, especially placing more care into teammaking.

12 hours ago, MarcusAureliu#s said:

Banning Toxic Players

Is this in reference to previous organizer getting some harass, or were there other instances?
 

12 hours ago, MarcusAureliu#s said:

Having Resposible Team Captains (mandatory from beginning)

It's really annoying to try and help organize the team when they don't commit somewhat, so I'm not sure this helps mitigate a lot. That said, maybe putting some burden on the captain forces him to not want joining a messy team, so who knows?

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Given the previous experience I'm not sure the community is ready, be it in numbers or player commitment, for a decent TG tournament in a high compromise format. There are also other variables in play, like the unreliability of the current rating system (no TG rating, (in/de)flated 1v1 rating, and consensus rating is hard) and the fact that we have players from too many different timezones.

Nevertheless, a low compromise long-running TG tournament would be interesting to see. Just schedule matches on challonge and let it run, put a longer deadline and a reasonable forfeit rule and it may be a first step, bringing some experience and learning which players can be relied on, how to improve scheduling, etc.

 

Edited June 30, 2020 by badosu

[patwater]

I'm down for a team tourney... a bunch friends and I have been doing a lockdown league as part of the quarantine

[faction02]

Thanks MarcusAurelius for your efforts.

On 6/29/2020 at 5:07 PM, MarcusAureliu#s said:

 

Team making: Next time first collect all players and then make balanced teams

1. More fun to play balanced matches -> higher motivation
2. We can make bigger teams so it is more likely at least 2 players have time

Disadvantages

1. Complicates process as ppl might not agree with teammates
2. Lower motivation by beeing forced in team with social nub teammates

If the best players of a team are unavailable at the time of the game (because of unplanned events for example), then the games will remain unbalanced. Some players might be able to participate for one or two games then have other things to do. Not sure that having fixed teams over several weeks can work well.

Other alternatives to improve balance could be to adopt a format close to the Sunday pro games and change team every week depending on which players are available to play.

Adopt a system of handicap. Using something like the ratings that go2die nicely compiled to classifify players in groupe and impose some restrictions about the civilizations/starting ressources/positions (or any other potential starting advantages that we could think of...)  that the team can take. The worst team would have 0 handicap. A team only slightly better with a handicap of 1 would have one player that cannot take a top tier civilization etc... The system might be a bit tricky to define but I guess it could help make more balanced games in a situation with a limited number of players and where the outcome of a team tourney can be easily predicted before it starts.