I'm not going to go into it in depth, but I for one (Actually everyone I've talked to about the issue agrees) would love to see the number of starting spots in the 2v2 ladder raised to two per player. A couple reasons:
1) Although I do enjoy the dynamic of trying to isolate single opponents, and eliminating them before the other teammate has a chance to play the gift card, I feel like this feature has become overpowered.
2) It is not complicated enough. There is no longer the dynamic of attempting to guess your opponents starting spots, at least not to the same extent.
3) Another fun feature that is lost is the counter/expand slowly strategy, in which you can have one spot to disrupt multiple enemy territories, and another to safely expand in a harboured location.
4) There are less starting spots overall then in a 1v1 game. This just seems strange to me.

Anyways, just something to mull over.

I've been thinking about this, too. I plan to make a poll for this and make the change if the majority feel the same way as you.

I am one of the people Nuck has talked to and I completely agree with nearly all his points. The 2 v 2 ladder does not overwhelm me with excitement compared to the 1 v 1s, which is odd because I usually prefer team matches.

Problem is many of the games are decided right after distribution. One person is identified as having the spreading advantage and two of the picks usually result in a dancing show off. Then again, 8 picks could feel crowded on Medium Earth.

@Fizzer: If it could be attempted it may be worthwhile to test some games where each team still gets 3 distribution spots. I think it would be an enjoyable dynamic, considering there is a gift option to save the life of a teammate, if only one person from each team got a second spot.

So the dynamic for most games would be a strong power to start and a weaker partner. You could then use the gift early to even out the relative strength, later on to save a life, or use the gift to the stronger teammate for an offensive assault.

Aside from trying that my preference would be a to move the 2 v 2 to Earth or any other slightly larger map that people enjoy, and to give them 2-3 starting spots each. Since its a team game I don't mind if they are longer games, in fact that would be my preference.

I like the idea of 3 starting spots per team, especially if your opponent doesn't know who picked 2 and who picked 1. It would be an interesting aspect, because you could still try to trap one of your opponents, but it would be much riskier, as you would not know whether that was the person who picked two spots or one.

I'd like 2 starting spots for everyone, but on the full earth instead of the medium earth. Somehow, I do have a preference for full earth.

Just starting my first few 2v2 ladder games with the multiple starting spots, and I have to say that I can already see the improvements coming into play. Having the 5 wastelands is a must as it opens up a lot more of the map, and (somewhat surprisingly) still makes it difficult, but not impossible as in the old format, to guess some of your opponents starting spots.
Thanks for the change fizz, now if we could only get some more ppl to find a teammate and join

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1284183

This was probably the last of the "old" 2v2 games, as fatguy and I retired from the 2v2 ladder a while ago. But it was interesting, because, as nuck said at the top, Dragons/gaspumper isolated fatguy early, and I had hidden away in the US, hoping to avoid the early fracas and join in to just such a fight. And it was tough because I got called in to fight earlier than I'd wanted. The 2v1 dynamic at the end was interesting, and the unfortunate autoboot probably didn't impact the actual game results.

Enjoyable game to watch, bostonfred. Hopefully you and fatguy rejoin the ladders at some point.

Yeah, I'd like to see you both in the 1v1 ladder again!

wow very good job Fred, well done!