2015 League General Discussion Thread

For the 9-16 ranked playoffs you dont need 8 games necessarily, right?

I think Gamerman has said 4. Is only 8 for the top tier.

Under rule 3c of the PUBLIC league playoff rules……  :-)

“Any players who have completed 4 or more games, and who did not qualify for the League Champion Playoff may sign up to enter the additional league playoffs. These playoffs will also start with 8 players each, and will be seeded by PPG (with byes or play-in games as necessary)”

@Gamerman01:

Under rule 3c of the PUBLIC league playoff rules……  :-)

“Any players who have completed 4 or more games, and who did not qualify for the League Champion Playoff may sign up to enter the additional league playoffs. These playoffs will also start with 8 players each, and will be seeded by PPG (with byes or play-in games as necessary)”

So only eight people can only enter the playoffs that are for people other than the League Champion Playoffs?
Or people play eight players and then one out of the eight people advances to next round?

No, no, there are multiple additional playoffs as necessary, as dictated by the number of signups.  Each one is independent.  On the Ranking spreadsheet, look for another sheet/tab for the 2014 playoffs where you can see.  We had 3 total playoffs last year.  bmnielsen and soulblighter each won their 8-man playoffs.

@MakeMaps:

@Gamerman01:

Under rule 3c of the PUBLIC league playoff rules……  :-)

“Any players who have completed 4 or more games, and who did not qualify for the League Champion Playoff may sign up to enter the additional league playoffs. These playoffs will also start with 8 players each, and will be seeded by PPG (with byes or play-in games as necessary)”

So only eight people can only enter the playoffs that are for people other than the League Champion Playoffs?
Or people play eight players and then one out of the eight people advances to next round?

At this point, there are more elite players participating in the league than ever before.  So now it seems possible that the best player in the league could fail to make it into the Top 8.  Maybe we should switch to a 16-person tournament for the league championships (next year, if not this year).  We’d just have to make it clear ahead of time that the league championship playoff is potentially a 4-6 month commitment (given that it would go 4 rounds).

Uh, thanks to the two of us, the championship game is still being played, 1 year later.  If you can’t crack the top 8, I don’t think you deserve a shot at the title, no

Chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and with 8 matches in the first round instead of 4, that would slow it way down.  If it took as a year this time, adding another 8 would probably add at LEAST 6 months.

Thanks for the input

@Gamerman01:

Uh, thanks to the two of us, the championship game is still being played, 1 year later.  If you can’t crack the top 8, I don’t think you deserve a shot at the title, no

Chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and with 8 matches in the first round instead of 4, that would slow it way down.  If it took as a year this time, adding another 8 would probably add at LEAST 6 months.

Thanks for the input

Well, it would only be one added game.  Then again, I just noticed that one of the semifinals took 7½ months to play 15 rounds.  That averages to one round every two weeks.  So I guess your assessment would be correct.  ;)

I like the idea of the top 25% being able to qualify, maybe even more.  Too bad we can’t go with that idea of 4 flights of 4 people playing each other (3 games total), followed by a final flight of 4.  That would only be two rounds deep, so it would actually be quicker than the 3 played now, and also more thorough.  A single elimination knockout for a dice game is a bit much.  Even chess tournaments are rarely done that way….  :wink:

Then again, that part doesn’t affect my life.  But it would lead to less in-season manipulations to get to the final eight by a few choice players…

Please explain flight of 4.  I could probably figure it out, but you could just tell me

I already admitted that Zhukov and my game was long, due to both of us.  I was in my busy season at work.  As you mentioned, they’re single elimination games.  Heavyweights playing each other.  I don’t expect these games to be as fast as regular season or casual games.

College football has a lot of luck in it, too.  Out of over 120 teams, 4 make it to the playoff for the national championship.  I estimate that only about 10% of games are lost because of luck and 10% won because of luck, in all my experience.  It’s not like the previous versions.  Skill and tactics and strategy matters more in G40 than in any previous A&A.

Everyone with 4+ games can have a taste of exciting single elimination post-season playoff action.
The bigger the bracket, the bigger mismatches you have.  #1 against #16 instead of #1 against #8.  See NCAA basketball tourney of 64 teams.  Blowouts all over the place and #1 like never loses to #16 (there are 4 number 1’s and 4 number 16’s)

I still like 8 for our championship.  Almost all of the 8 are legitimate title contenders.  I wouldn’t say the same for top 16.

Dizz points out the luck in the game.  This is one of my reasons why it should only be top 8.  Less chance of a lesser player getting lucky and knocking off a top player.

JuanSpain would need lottery-jackpot luck to win the championship.  I’ve played him twice about a year ago, so I think I know.
Needing 3 games to win and 8 games to get in pretty much ensures a worthy champion.

More games and more playoff action is always attractive, I agree.  My solution is to multiple playoffs and allow basically everyone who wants to, to participate.

I understand the “flight of 4” idea as being round robin groups, like how the first round of the big association football tournaments work. But where they have the later rounds as single elimination, Dizz’s idea is to have those feed into a final round robin group of four.

So you start with 16 players and split them up into 4 groups of 4. Everyone in the group immediately starts a game with each of the other players in the group, so everyone has 3 going simultaneously. When all the games are done, you take the winner of each group and put them into a “championship group”, that then does the same thing.

The advantage is that you have more players and more games, but since there are only two rounds, it might be quicker in “calendar time” compared to having 16 players in a four-round single-elimination format. I’m not sure how much quicker it would actually be though, since having three important games going on at once would slow down most players.

Perhaps a better balance would be to only expand it to 12 players, with groups of 3 in the first round, so you would only have to play 2 simultaneous games. That could then feed into a single-elimination semifinal and final. I don’t know how to handle the issue of ties in a group though (i.e. all the players in the group have 1 win and 1 loss) - in sports you can use something like goals for, goals against, etc. as a tiebreaker but we can’t really do that.

Interesting idea though!

I definitly support the more “epic” version of groups, only 2 two groups of four if too diluted otherwise. In theory. In practise, and just speaking for myself, I cant see me managing three such parallel games, even if playing slow. And if you play them one after another and then have semifinal or just a final, League wont save time (unless all 8 are practised speed players and feel able to keep speed up in parallel games against Me1945, Gamer and Ghost, for example).

OK, it’s time to make the playoff signup announcement, which is completely independent of the Zhukov/Dizz suggestions - the rules were set a year ago

Sign up time

OK everyone, the playoffs start at the beginning of November, so it is time for me to take sign ups of those who wish to participate.

1. I do NOT assume that you are in the official league championship playoff unless you sign up.  Some players may not be interested in participating, and that is their prerogative.

2. You only need to have FOUR league games completed AS OF October 31 to qualify for the ADDITIONAL league playoffs (not the top 8)

3. Please sign up by messaging me directly.  I will add your name to the publicly visible signup sheet immediately.  Four reasons: to avoid setting up a separate league thread that some may not be able to find, to prevent anyone monkeying with the signups (unauthorized deleting or adding other players), to avoid cluttering up a currently existing thread, and because I like to receive mail  :lol:
   If you would, please, submit your age and country (or state of the USA).  I’d ask for gender but we all assume you’re a dude.  This is not required, it is voluntary.  Let me know if you are willing to have your age and country (state) shown in the playoff brackets, in your signup private message

If you have any questions, please read the league rules in the stickied thread thoroughly first.

That was supposed to say (not the top eight) under 2)

Signup sheet is a separate sheet on the league rankings spreadsheet

hey guys, it’s been a real wonderful season of lots and lots of games, and i appreciated every one of them! the league is great fun and am grateful to gamer for running it so well. keep up the good work.

i regret that i must finally say a true good bye to this gaming addiction of mine, as it has been a huge struggle for me to keep a healthy balance. the price has just been too great. i am definitely not coming back and will in fact be closing my A&A.org account to make sure of that! i apologize much for the games i have to forfeit at this time, and they are all really good games that i’d ideally finish, but alas it’s time to let it all go.

sorry if this causes another avalanche affect, i certainly hope it doesn’t!

best wishes to all of you!

That is actually a good news.
Gamerman, should we set up a limit for the number of the games a player can play at the same time?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf0oXY4nDxE

Me1945, no, we’ll just send the executive committee to do a house call intervention whenever someone gets to 30 games in a year.  An excuse to travel the world that way.

A man’s got to know his limitations, dominion, congratulations on a decision that helps restore that balance.  I’m glad you thoroughly enjoyed the 2015 league.  If I see a new guy several months from now called allies-rule and he’s finishing a lot of games quickly, I’ll do the right thing and ban him from the league

Sad to lose you Axis (but happy ur turning the page!)

so. . . I guess this means you won’t be plugging our variant?  :/

haha. jk. go forth and prosper.

@Gamerman01:

Sign up time

See post #623 for details
Playoffs start November 1 - you need to sign up to be in.  Only requirement is 4 games completed during 2015 league year