We're now in the 4th week of the season and the number of matches that have been played is abysmal. I am of the opinion that the rescheduling rules need to be looked at, otherwise we're going to run into an issue at the end of the season with teams scrambling to play 4-5 matches during catch-up week. Here's how we look so far:
Premiere League:
6 of 12 matches have been played.
Division 1:
11 matches are reported, 6 of which are duplex forfeits from later weeks -> 4 of 12 matches have been played.
Division 2A:
10 of 12 matches.
Division 2B:
9 of 12 matches.
Division 3A:
8 of 12 matches.
Division 3B:
3 of 9 matches.
Division 4:
11 reported with 6 being forfeits by Lethargic Zebras -> 5 of 9 matches played.
It's just going to get worse unless something changes. I get that scheduling across timezones can be difficult, but it seems like teams are making zero effort at getting these matches played. Without some sort of incentive (double-forfeit?) I don't see the situation improving.
I see this as a growing problem, too. Something needs to be done. At this rate, a lot of teams will be so far behind in matches like Golden said.
This probably was brought up before, but why do teams get until the year 2256 to reschedule? Why isn't it up to the end of that matches week or the end of next week? e.g. So Week 1 match needs to be played by end of week 2, week 2 end of week 3 and so on? Or heck, crazy thought, Week 1 matches need to played by end of week 1??
There needs to be some penalty here. Anyway, this was straight off the top of my head without much thought; so this may have been discussed already.
It takes away from the excitement of even displaying teams current standing in their division, since they will only be accurate at the very end of the season. Also, the fact that there are no scheduled matches this week to watch while i'm at work on reddog's stream angers me.
I can agree with a rule to have it played by the end of the scheduled week, but if it's not played, which team gets penalized? Who's fault is it if the american team is scheduled against the russian team who is 11 hours ahead, meaning the two options to play are on the two weekend days which, depending on occupations, may not overlap (some people's weekends may not be sat and sun)?
This is probably a result of the international format. Scheduling matches is much harder. Allowing rescheduling gives the teams a better chance to get the matches played instead of forfeited.
I don't really see it as a problem though, same thing happened previous seasons even though they were regional. If history repeats itself, it will catch up.
The NSL approach to this is to talk to the teams that haven't scheduled their matches and try to get them to set them up. I rely on some awesome referees to help me with that.
Besides, those numbers seem to be based on the matches of week 1-3. Week 3 has only just begun this sunday, 2 days ago, still another 5 to go before week 3 is over. Your numbers are unfair.
One of my biggest issues with the rules for the league has always been the timely scheduling of tournament/cup and season weekly matches. Simply put, the rule for rescheduling is too lax and confusing. This season's appallingly horrid match completion rate isn't just a symptom of cross continental play. It was an issue in previous seasons when teams were segregated by region.
There's really no good reason that a team who has signed up for a season, knowing full well that there are weekly matches, couldn't play ONE... let me repeat that, ONE match per week. I fully understand that from time to time, there are circumstances outside people's control, that need to be accounted for, but that doesn't excuse a timely reschedule of a match. That's why we allow mercs (another rule we need to look at also).
For the most part, I see teams being lazy to schedule times to play or even worse, putting matches off until the end of the season (fully abusing the lax rescheduling rule) because they want to have more practice and improve. I don't follow many other gaming leagues, but I'm unaware of any other types of leagues or professional sports that allow such ridiculous rescheduling rules.
Also, it penalizes teams that actually take the season seriously. Some teams actually prepare week to week for the maps they need to play on Sunday and when their opponents reschedule for poor reasons, it's unfair to the team that prepares and is ready to play.
It also makes scheduling referees and casters for matches next to impossible and probably infuriating for our volunteers who may not know until the very last minutes when a match might be played.
The rule should be, you must play your matches at the default time or another rescheduled time within a week, perhaps two. That's ample time. Anything else just leads to abuses and makes the league look amateurish.
What is the point of a weekly map rotation if matches don't have to be played for weeks? It kinda defeats the purpose of practicing the week's maps in general.
Would it be possible to at least require teams keep their match comments up to date on when a match is scheduled? Or the status of the rescheduling. Some of them don't have a single comment and it's fairly overdue.
See i always thought that when you have a match you have 7days to play it and it must be played before default time off your next match, a way to punish teams that fail to do this, but in trying to keep it fair is they have a chance at catchup week to play but instead of it being 4 rounds - 4 points both teams would lose 1 point each for failing to play the match during default week, there for they can only get 2 points and only play 1 map that is choice of catchup week not there default map, an if they cant play at all bouvle forefit both teams lose 4 points each.
What about starting the match week on Monday instead of Sunday? Give teams all week to make plans for their match. Keep default at Sunday 20:00 CEST and if either team can't schedule during the week, whoever shows up at the default time gets the forfeit win. If nobody shows up, double forfeit. Leave the last week of the season as it is for any forfeit replays. Every single team can view their entire schedule and plan accordingly. So if you don't want to try and fit every forfeit replay at the end of the season, I suggest playing your match.
you have to play the match on default time. only if both teams agree on an other time the match can be rescheduled. If the teams can't agree on a reschedule 24 hours before the default game, the team wit 6 players online will win by default.
if a team got only one forefeit losse, they are allowed to replay that game in the replay week in the end of the season.
if someone like the commander or other key players are missing for two weeks, the teams wont have to play. they just need to work to get the games rescheduled.
This rule helps the admins, the casters and isnt impossible to manage as a team, since you still can be flexible if you reschedule intime.
PS: Please change the rule regarding maps. We have a mappool to choose from thats fine. But let teams decide which map they want to play. Team1 choose the first map and Team2 he second map.
That would creat a new meta game of which maps to practise and to play.
For example most teams dont like caged .... if your teams practise this map a lot. You would be able to suprise your enemy.
The Caster could talk about the maps and talk about why they choose "tram" or "veil" and the other team takes "summit".
Otherwise the season feels so "static" and its an entire week playing only the two maps which your playing end of the week.
I am all for tighter rules on rescheduling. As not only "team captain" but caster and ref I am trying my best to contact teams but sometimes it's more difficult. Take onFire for example our first 3 weeks are koreans, aussies/new zealanders, and americans. To schedule with Koreans it took us week. We won and then they forfeited. Now with Aussies, it was even harder, no communication and there is really only one time you can play when there is 11-12h difference, Saturday 2pm cest. We finaly scheduled for this week. Americans we are trying to schedule, bud didn't get response last couple days. As soon as we are on weeks with other Europeans and teams we talk with regularly everything will be cool again. If you push for default times there will be a lot of default wins for europeans, for others it might be 3am on the Monday morning.
I would support tighter rules on usage of match comments, say 48h before default time to have there rescheduled time by both. If none then default time. If at least one saying they cannot play, move reschedule comment deadline by 48h. Rinse and repeat up to 3 times. If you feel your opponent isn't responding or doesn't want to communicate, talk to ref with times you can play (minding opponent timezone) and he will try to contact the other team, he then ultimately decides on forced forfeits. Matches have to be played in 2 weeks after default time latest. If you show up on default time with 4 or more players and your opponent not, it's forfeit. Cleanup week allows you to schedule for 1 forced forfeit during season, but from points earned, 1 will be deducted and given to the team who was there or communicated originally.
Some ideas are from posts above. I was trying to summarize how I think it should work. Casters and refs would have all dates 4 days after default at latest, all matches would be played somewhat in their timeframes and teams will be forced to communicate at least a bit more. We need to emphasize match comments much more to the teams, i wouldn't bother that much if i wouldn't be caster also and knew how fucking important they are.
Posting in the match comments is already a rule, but we could start giving forfeits to either or both teams if they don't post anything in the match comments at all before the default time. I will announce that change on friday when I put up the next matches. However, I won't limit replays of forfeits to a number or just the cleanup week. I want as many matches played as possible, tighter rules in terms of scheduling will result in forfeits instead of matches played.
When teams abuse this system and unnessesarily postpone their matches to get more practice time or whatever, that's another place where we have referees and admins to stop this kind of behavior. We just need to be told about it.
On top of that, I can see that by far the majority of the teams have good control over scheduling their matches but are troubled by the international format.
With teams from all over the world, we can't have a forced default time. It would be very unfair for teams that are not in the timezone where the default time is primetime for gaming. For international play, we HAVE to be flexible in terms of scheduling the matches, even across the different leagueweeks. We need to be favoring the teams in this case, not the admins/casters/referees. I still don't see any true problem or need for change here. It will work itself out as the weeks go on. If it doesn't work out like it usually does, then I might look at making some changes to the rules. Laid this to rest. You should do the same, see how it evolves.
Default time is in the middle of the work day for america... it's 11:00am my time. I think it's 5am for the australian teams. This rule would mean that EU teams could essentially cause NA/AUS teams to forfeit all their matches by refusing to reschedule.
And btw... sorry to say this.. but! How can you define the "6 players" rule? I mean, many people can fakenick, and just join a random server and "printscreen" the whole lineup? Oooooh dammit, now i exposed the whole coverup!
Ryssk u dirty ugly person .. if i am nto mistaken someone is working hard to connect server and site .. and in the olden days which you obviously never knew cause u are a new hipster type young little ns2 nerd (my god that might have been mean XD ) .. but anyway in the olden days Server checked back with site and compared SteamID and all that crap goes away anyway ... the only way someone that is not in the official teams lineup will play is by either getting the steam account of one that is or other team "allowing merc" !
That is also the reason why i did not read anything here .. just get a decent system going and noone cares abotu anything in here anymore!
If you're talking about one team just getting players so they have 6 to force a forfeit there should be a ref in the server to verify the roster. So if one team just stacks a bunch of smurfs the ref would easily see it.
If you're talking about one team just getting players so they have 6 to force a forfeit there should be a ref in the server to verify the roster. So if one team just stacks a bunch of smurfs the ref would easily see it.[/quote]
Ye, it's just that i've never been in that situation, but it's good if someone brings it up, cause i've havent seen in the rules so far! But i think swalkidalki got this already, but good to know if somebody is thinking the same way as i do (the current job i have, it's a damage to think like this( :)
And what about tunnel gorge at some inaccessible places like gravity control on Descent ? It's not in a vent, but it is impossible for Marines to shoot it, and when they spawn Drone Bay...
“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
Have you played with the NSL mod? If you type sv_nslinfo in console, it will bring up every player with their in game name, steam ID, name & team on ensl.org. So it's blatantly obvious if they're using mercs.
There were more matches forfeited week 3 than there were played.... Little extreme.
