It seems alot fairer, since most of us were just put randomly. I like the new p/r.

Just curious to know why its went from 10 players to 8 in the majority of the groups? Since the games finish quite fast anyway.

Edited 9/3/2015 11:59:02

Edited 9/3/2015 11:59:09

At this stage the original p/r will remain, but it could work to make larger groups, meaning less relegations and more promotions for season 1 instead.

The best, if you win enough matches, you won't have to worry about relegation anyway. I haven't changed the p/r. I'm just getting feedback at this stage.

Edited 9/3/2015 11:59:16

With larger groups considered (10 per group), here is another possible alteration to the p/r. This also has the benefit of allowing for an expansion group (Group E) next season.

Group A.
Top 5 stay. 6th-8th to Group B. 9th-10th Group C.

Group B.
Top 3 promote. 4th-6th stay in Group B. 7th-8th to Group C. 9th-10th to Group D.

Qualifying Groups.
1st promotes to Group A. 2nd-3rd promote to Group B. 4th-6th to Group C. 7th-10th to Group D. 11th relegates to Group E (Expansion Group)

The last one I think is better as it has faster player movement in all directions, which makes it more fun.

If only the top player is promoted and only a couple are relegated the games become that much less meaningful for most players after only a fraction of the games in each group are done when most players already can estimate that they are not gonna be #1 but also not gonna be the last 1 or 2. Also faster lifts allow new players to quickly settle into the correct group, and give players a chance to jump above their head for a season, which is maybe not 100% fair but is more fun - IMHO. Long term any promotion system will sort the players correctly, but short term faster promotions/relegations make for a more entertaining league :)

The larger groups for next season looks like a good idea, and unless most players would prefer to keep the original policy, I will update the p/r policy to allow for larger groups and an additional expansion group.

Here is the updated policy for you to consider.

A - B Q1 Q2 Season 2 groups will be made up as follows:
5 - 3 - 1 - 1 Group A: Top 5 from A, Top 3 from B, Top 1 from Q1/Q2.
3 - 3 - 2 - 2 Group B: 6th-8th from A, 4th-6th from B, 2nd-3rd from Q1/Q2.
2 - 2 - 3 - 3 Group C: 9th-10th from A, 7th-8th from B, 4th-6th from Q1/Q2.
0 - 2 - 4 - 4 Group D: 9th-10th from B, 7th-10th from Q1/Q2.
0 - 0 - 1 - 1 Group E: 11th from Q1/Q2. (The remaining spots in this group will be filled through new players who want to join the league)

With that in mind, here is a quick look at each current group and my speculations on who will promote/relegate with the updated policy.

Group A.

Player Wins Losses
Gibs 5 - 2
TWOLKER 4 - 1
huddyj 3 - 1
Pink 2 - 0
USA Biches 2 - 0
Lampião 2 - 3
Dacian Novac 2 - 3
Slats 0 - 1
Diplomatic Immunity 0 - 4
PanagiotisTheGreekFreak 0 - 5

Still lots of matches still to be decided in this group. Looks like a lot of fighting for the top 5 spots, though I'd say both TWOLKER and Gibs will likely finish top 5. PanagiotisTheGreekFreak & Diplomatic Immunity look set to drop to Group C next season. Dacian Novac and Lampião will need to win most of their remaining matches if they don't want to relegate to Group B next season.

Group B.

Player Wins Losses
mslasm 7 - 1
Philip B' 6 - 0
The best 5 - 4
Pantelas 4 - 1
slydog384 4 - 2
Kevin Turner 2 - 3
alpha83 2 - 6
boorzuur 1 - 7
DanetDuo 1 - 7
Auburn Meadow 0 - 1

This group looks to be all but decided, though Auburn Meadow is an unknown factor. Philip B' and mslasm look certain to promote to Group A next season, and with Philip B's win over mslasm, he will likely go through undefeated. The last promotion spot could be decided when Pantelas and slydog384 face off. boorzuur and DanetDuo are likely to relegate to Group D next season. Auburn Meadow, alpha83, and Kevin Turner will be looking to avoid relegation to Group C. The best has played all his matches, and will almost certainly remain in Group B next season.

Q1

Player Wins Losses
Master Bjarke 4 - 0
Don 4 - 2
kirdol 4 - 2
Platinum 3 - 3
Des 2 - 2
slejer 1 - 0
Master Turtle 1 - 1
ipg 1 - 5
Ryzys 0 - 0
ARand0mPlayer 0 - 1
Dublin Warrior 0 - 4

No certainties here, although I'd say Master Bjarke should finish in the top 3 and thus promote to either A or B next season. Dublin Warrior and ipg will probably end up in Group D or E next season. Other than that, who knows.

Q2

Player Wins Losses
Buns157 5 - 0
Sultan Kosmitow 3 - 1
rocky1 1 - 0
smileyleg 1 - 0
lancegal 1 - 0
BenSeu 1 - 1
indibob 1 - 4
Matt431 0 - 0
KingNorbs 0 - 2
Ἀθηνᾶ 0 - 2
Coronel Gavilan 0 - 3

Hardly and matches played yet in this group. Buns157 looks like finishing in the top 3 and promoting to either A or B next season. Nothing more can be said about this group at the moment, other than that they are very slow.

Edited 9/3/2015 05:10:01

I think I'm gonna need some help after this...
I guess I'm just not putting enough thought into my gameplay.
It's been a rough week all around, so that doesn't help my gameplay either. :P

I will update the standings for each group every couple of days by editing the above post, so that way it's easy for you all to keep up with all the other tournaments just by checking my post.

This is my first qualifying, it's exciting to play against high ranked players. I'm good at diplos, but I have to learn a lot in this small earth 1v1. Good luck for everyone!

one small comment though. The aim of the P/r league was for players to judge where they fit in over a few seasons, but this wont really be the case if top players are regularly joining and being placed in the bottom division.
Will the league at some point become closed and only bring in new players when existing ones drop out?

Can you join me in next season or whenever.

one small comment though. The aim of the P/r league was for players to judge where they fit in over a few seasons, but this wont really be the case if top players are regularly joining and being placed in the bottom division.
Will the league at some point become closed and only bring in new players when existing ones drop out?

You would need to wait a couple seasons, so new people could know about it, but after season 5 or so, then you could close it.

Edited 9/3/2015 20:43:45

one small comment though. The aim of the P/r league was for players to judge where they fit in over a few seasons, but this wont really be the case if top players are regularly joining and being placed in the bottom division.
Will the league at some point become closed and only bring in new players when existing ones drop out?

My thoughts on this would be to make the expansion group (Group E) always be a qualifying group. That way new players could promote quickly (e.g. winner goes directly into Group A, 2nd-3rd move dierectly to Group B. Also, top players in each group would super-promote (go up 2 divisions rather than just 1) and bottom players will double relegate (drop 2 divisions). This way the league will sort itself out fairly quickly.

I can only host 5 tournaments at once, so at this stage I am limited to only 5 divisions. Ideally, you wouldn't want more than about 10-12 players in any given division, as the seasons would start to drag on for quite a while. If 5 divisions all had their maximum (12 players), 60 players would be the overall league maximum. Once we reach that, it will be a closed league, and new players would be put on a waiting list for when someone drops out.

We are currently sitting at 42 players, with another 4 looking to join next season, so I'd say it will only be 2-3 seasons before we reach capacity.

Another thought I have been considering is to finish each season with a 16-player single elimination tournament consisting as follows:

Top 7 players from Group A.
Top 5 players from Group B.
Top 2 players from Group C.
Top 1 player from Group D.
Top 1 player from Group E.

The winner of this tournament (rather than the winner of Group A) would be crowned League Champion. That way a recently-joined good player would still have a chance to take out the League title even though they aren't in Group A yet.

The results of this tournament would not influence promotion/relegation, as that is decided by the round-robin tournaments.

This tournament would have a 1 day 1 hour boot time with vacations honoured. Declined players will be replaced by the next highest ranked player from their group.

For season 1 this tournament would consist of the top 4 players from each group.

Edited 9/3/2015 23:33:12

Replying tthe message sent to league participants:

1) > Promotion/Relegation for the end of Season 1. I've mentioned several ideas on the thread...

The last proposal looks good to me (your post from 9/3/2015 00:53:28)

2) > Settings for future seasons. Boot times, vacations honoured/dishonoured, number of games at once, etc.

I personally prefer boot time of 3 days, even though games may take a bit too long. 1 day + banking up to 2-3 days would work as well for me (e.g. to let people take a weekend off, if they made their moves fast during the week). Number of games at once can be "all games" as far as I'm concerned, that should speed things up a bit; maps are small, moves should not take that much time to make.

3) > Overall league numbers. My thought is a maximum of 5 groups with 12 players in each group for a total of 60 players. New players will only be admitted if current players leave.

60 players seems reasonable enough. But to keep the league alive need to strictly kick anyone who was booted or did not accept tourney invitation within X days. Maybe also kick the last couple of players form the last group, to let some new blood in every season.

Edited 9/4/2015 09:20:19

Thanks for your thoughts mslasm, I've had mixed responses about limiting league numbers, but more than 12 players in each group starts to get a bit too big I think, and also I can only host 5 tournaments at once, so unless someone else takes on a couple, that's the maximum.

I think people would more prefer a quick turn around between seasons to keep the interest going. a 16 player tourny is going to take some time to complete.
Also on that point, those in tier A have earnt their way there and the winner of that division deserves the title in my opinion.

I agree with indibob about winner of tier A should be the champion.

Though about this whole quick relegation and dropping multiple groups after the first or second season seems bad to me. why promote from group B knowing that the competition in group A will mean you will come last and drop down to D or beyond? They might lose games on purpose to come 2nd or 3rd.

Edited 9/4/2015 17:21:37