Season Length

[crypt]

I don't know about changing the rules about map and team choice, just make the rules more clear to prevent any other situations such as the one at the end of Season 7.

About restrictions, the only ones i could think of would be getting rid of High-caps and Heart beat sensors, but I doubt either of these would come to pass.

I would also vote to put in the 90 day season again, it was much more fun in my book, and would give more time for clans to get the required # of cb's in before an 8 clan single elimination tourney, should it be instated.

Addition:

Longer season and short postseason + a longer offseason would give more meaning to the winners.

[Mr. Lothario]

     Personally, I'm a fan of the shorter seasons. They were shortened in the first place because the season was two months of inactivity, two weeks of some activity, and two weeks of frenzied activity. The pattern stayed the same, but with shorter periods of inactivity preceding the interesting part. IMO, I think the short seasons are working at least as well as the longer ones did.

     The shorter seasons have an advantage, in that they allow for experimentation with rules changes and such without too much risk. If a change turns out to be for the worse, hell, it only lasts six weeks, then we can change it back.

[BFG]

Im certianly not against shorter seasons.... but Having as many as five seasons a year feels like rather a lot. id say the majority of us mostly play during the winter months... so fitting so many seasons into a short season feels a bit rushed. - Not to mention the fact that the period "between seasons" for me can be one of the most enjoyable - things are so much more relaxed, we have some great guys running big servers (where all hell breaks loose ) and some great fun games are played.

Pushing to many seasons in i belive would damage this...

[BTs_GhostSniper]

Personally, I would like to see 4 Seasons each year, each lasting exactly 2 months, with exactly one month in between each season.  So, you would have one starting the first of January, going through February, then the month of March off.  The next season starts April 1, lasts through May, and you get June off.  The third season starts July 1, runs through August, and you get September off.  The final season starts October 1, runs through November, and you get December off.  Wow, that would be SOOOO easy to remember!

Make it so.

-GhostSniper Out.

[Brain]

i do rahter like GS's suggestion. then you have more than enough time for the finals to take place, the admins  have time to straighten things up, rule on issues, and retire/settle in. it also affords players ample time to relax. notably the off months seems to coincide with the times when school would be most hectic so that is an added bonus as well
also, while this would lead to more  ' interesting' times for the end of the season, along with an uneven season length (the first season of the year would be a few days shorter), it would be easier for players to remember the date of the end of the season

[crypt]

60 day seasons would most definitely work.

[cO.gabe]

The shorter the seasons become, the less valuble wins will become.  Also, the shorter the season is means there is more luck involved in winning.  These are just my thoughts...I don't know how true they are but they seem to make sense to me.

[crypt]

That's similar to what I said Gabe, I think that shorter season take out the fun of anxiously waiting for another hyped up season.

Also, shorter seasons mean less to the respective winners in each ladder.

[Aramarth]

Darn you GS... I am agreeing with you. That's virtually a perfect schedule... and there is no more ambiguity. However, what do we do for the present? The april-may season is half over, so what would be the suggestion of the community? Play this coming season into June, which is an off month? Or, don't hold another season till July? I doubt that one will be popular.

The bast part of the idea is that it introduces some much needed structure to the league. One of the biggest drawbacks for me has been the awkwardness of when seasons start and end. Scheduled seasons would fix it.

As a counterpoint for the sake of arguement, the same could be done with a three month, three season year, with one month breaks. Not sure which the community prefers. Lets hear opinions!

Ara

[BTs_GhostSniper]

However, what do we do for the present? The april-may season is half over, so what would be the suggestion of the community? Play this coming season into June, which is an off month? Or, don't hold another season till July?

You play Season VIII from its start on April 29 until, say June 15.  Then start Season IX on July 1, and go with the schedule I set out from there.  That would only shorten Season VIII by a little (the season would still be over a month and a half long), and would also give a 2 week break before Season IX begins.

It's so simple I could almost cry.

-GhostSniper Out.

[crypt]

GS, you are putting an awefully a lot of feedback for someone who can't participate in Season 8, but it's good to see that, keep it up.

[alaric]

A couple thoughts and considerations:

Great idea GS. I like it. But I have a quick question. Would the regular season end at the end of the second month or would finals end at the end of the second month? It doesn't really matter to me which way it goes, but I'd like it clarified just for clarification's sake.

[Aramarth]

As I understand it, the finals end at the end of the two months. Given our current system, emergency extentions also have a few weeks of the free month to get taken care of. However, you have an excellent point. If we implement the ladder finals system, we need more than two weeks for finals, which would make the finals almost as long as the season. Solution: use the three season/3 months per season alternate model that I suggested. Two months for season (8 wk), one for finals (4 wk) (or maybe 9/3 depending upon how the finals are implemented) and then a month off. Nice and simple still, and enough time for finals to pan out.

[alaric]

Actually Ara, that's incorrect. Unless more than 16 teams are competing in the finals, it will be done in two consecutive weekends. 16 teams makes for 4 rounds: one round each weekend day, two weekends.

That brings up a good point though, it might be a good idea to limit the total number of participaing teams to 16 to make the finals more manageable.

[BTs_GhostSniper]

I was thinking that the finals should be done the last two weeks of that two month season.  That way you have a full month off from the battle league.  So take the first full season under this plan, Season IX.  It would start on July 1.  The regular part of the season would run until the Sunday before the last two weekends of August begin (this year, that would be on August 15).  Then you have the two weekends of August 21-22 and August 28-29 to complete the finals tournament.

So, finals would end at the end of the second month, giving everyone a much needed break of one full month.  Season X would start on October 1.

[Aramarth]

Pardon alaric, thanks for the clarification.

[Brain]

i'm in favor if the 2 month regular season with 1 month for the finals.  for those not in the finals, this would be an off season of sorts

there are a few reasons for this so i'll just list them off for clarity. these reasons also assume the use of the finals tournament. i don't know enough about the current system to make any time judgments on it

1, season length consistency: gs's system keeps the season at approximately 61 playing days  with a 3 months of playing system, i believe that none of the seasons would be the same length. that is based on mental mathand  memory so i may be wrong on that

2, season length:  next season is just around the corner, but the season is still long enough to play a  fair amount of cb's with out having to scrounge for them every night

3, continued action: by holding the finals during the 'off month' you occupy 2 out of the 3 weeks. a high level of admin attention during the weekends ensures that problems are solved on the spot, leaving admins free during the weeks the finals are played to discuss other issues that have surfaced during the season.  those not involved in the tournament will probably be watching the tourney, leaving a 1 week period between a winner being declared and  the fray starting again. this leads to a minimum of excitement down time

[alaric]

Interesting thoughts Flies, but I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree.

I think GS's season schedule makes more sense, as it accomodates those who are in school better and having longer seasons just means longer periods of inactivity before people start to cb anyway. If you really want to have summer off, just eliminate the July-August season. Maybe schedule some kind of summer tournament in it's place just to have something BL related going on.

I also think the MP finals system should replace the current finals system, for reasons I've outlined in other threads.

And finally, I think adding a minimum cb per week would do more hard than good. I think it would make the regular season less fun and more stressful. The incentives that come with the MP finals system should be more than enough to encourage people to cb, mostly by taking pressure off the regular season, not by putting more on.

[Brain]

regardless of wether our suggestion, or any other final reform suggestion, goes through or not, i'd like to go on the record and say that i am 100% opposed to flies suggestion of requiring a certain number of cb's per week.  this plan would only further the practice of tactical cb'ing. if, say, 2 cb's were required per week lest you be made inactive, then all that would happen is the top ranked clans would go inactive each week because nobody would play them.  if we are going to increase  clan activity, the way to do it is not through force, but by incentive. we need to make them want to cb more.  remember "you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make them drink"

[.vooDoo.]

I am with you on this Brain. Many times in the past have people suggested this same rule, and I have always been against it. Its just not a practical rule. In a already small scale community the rule would just put to much of a strain on things.

I do however like Ghostsnipers suggestion on the 2 month seasons with one month off, but in the end, the season really rotate around Elandrion and Mauti coming up with the scripts for the ladders to run on. This will most deffinatly be a topic of suggestion in the admin section.

voods