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Observations on SEAL Tier 5
 

SEAL Tier 5 was a BSG team league with a couple of plats thrown in. Some teams had paticularly low level rosters and certainly entered with a philosophy of playing for fun. Others quickly established themselves as teams to be feared. Teams made light hearted taunts and boasts, Volition wrote excellent weekly round ups that kept everyone in the loop and a sense of community within t5 emerged. At the same time it fostered healthy competition and a spirit of self improvement.

The greatest thing about this league in my mind is the motivation that it provided to improve. With the regular practise, support from team and shared goal it is inevitable many players will improve rapidly. Half the players in my team recieved promotions and half of those were promoted twice. This however increases the disparity of skill in a league that already has a wide range of skill levels. This chasm of skill differentiation eventually results in a class off players that are left behind competitively. At this stage some teams simply can no longer compete while the rest have thier flexibility in deciding thier weekly line-ups severely restricted as part of thier roster becomes unviable competitively.

At the same time months have passed since the formation of the league. The enthusiam players had when they joined the league wanes, they are less eager to play each week and starcraft in general takes lower precedence in their lives. Some players have their free time eroded by school, work or other preoccupations that were not a factor during the time they signed up.
The declining availability of players further constrict team managers choices in forming a lineup and increases the complexity of arranging matches.

These are the conditions that culimnate in a semifinal decided by walkover and a grandfinal that goes into eternal rescheduling limbo.

Perhaps more importantly the ever changing environment of the league forces the rules to be adapated. The incostancy of the rules cause confusion and stall the league as teams wait for admin decisions whenever they face unfamiliar territory. Teams are frustrated when their well laid plans are made obsolete by new rules. Admin calls are invariably controversial and animosity between teams is generated.

There have been many problems with the league and certainly a little too much pride put on the line towards the end. However I believe them to be growing pains of a league burdened with the difficulty of accomadating a wide range of ability and levels of dedication. One that ambitiously increased it's scope to include further disparity of skill and increased it's duration to further test dedication of it's players.

If we learn from these mistakes all the internet drama will have been almost worth it.
My suggestions for future BSG team leagues;

1. Rules must be set in stone for the entire duration of the league. These rules must account for the improvement of players in a manner that is predictable for team managers. Obviously this was not possible for the season past but we can take advantage of that for any feature low level leagues.

2. We know there will be mass promotions each ladder season that will raise the bar competitively. There must be a means to allow these players to continue to play whilst also allowing the unpromoted to participate without dragging down their team. The rule change that was implemented ( 4 1 -> 2 2 1 ) worked well in representing the raised bar of the better teams but effectively shut out bronze and silver players and made teams without a diamond severely handicapped. The major change required here is elimination of the 2 point acematch (which I think Maynard is already considering). Increasing representation of bronze-silver players during the later stages of the league is admitadely difficult.

3. Participation will naturally drop off as the season progresses. I believe a recruitment drive at a certain point in the season will be required. This should not be left too late as finishing off a season with players who were not around for the majority of it is a touch impersonal.The maximum team size at this stage would be increased. Alternatively the number of matches per week will need to be reduced or some players be allowed to play multiple matches in a week. Perhaps one of the matches can be a 2v2 using the players a team determines to be the mvps that night (or simply who is available on the night, makes organising it less messy).

4. Communication between team managers needs to be improved. There needs to be an automated means to submit double blind lineups without waiting for busy admins to reply. In cases of reschedules full availability timetables need to be shared, possibly in a double blind manner. The method of proposing match times via correspondence has proven to be glaringly inefficient.

5. If the league's duration is extended or expanded there should be a repeat of the prove you can field a team test.

6. Where at all possible there should be no conflict of interest in admins

Despite the critisisms I have made here I truly enjoyed playing in this league. During it's course I have improved considerably in starcraft ability, made friends and probably a third thing. Although I can no longer participate in it I want to see this league continue inorder to provide new blood a platform to develop their skills and participate in the larger sc2sea community.

Re: Observations on SEAL Tier 5
 

Whilst I agree with most of your comments, I will just make a few comments.

Firstly addressing the most glaringly obvious point that singles me out - "6. Where at all possible there should be no conflict of interest in admins"
Have it known - I have never made a call that effected TA. Maynarde has always done that, and when not available I have consulted the SEAL Admin team to determine a fair ruling.. so there is zero conflict of interest, if you believe otherwise you are grossly mistaken.

Then Communication between team managers - We set up a skype group so everyone could keep in touch - everyone is busy and I suggest teams select the player that is the most available - rather than someone that happens to have some rank.. in future seasons I'm going to suggest a vice captain to participate in the Skype group to sort out issues in the event of the main team manager being away.

We are addressing the skill gap and I personally think the tournament should be open to BSG sign ups only.. then natural platinum progression is acceptable, but anyone that makes it into Diamond - sorry, keep coaching and practising with your team, but you can't play any more.. This would require Tier 4 to be open to PD only sign ups with no GM players allowed.. but its something the whole SEAL admin team will be looking at and working out the best way of doing it for next season.

But yes, we've learnt alot from this season, and I can assure you - more structured rules will be in-place for next season.

Thanks, on behalf of Maynarde and myself - thanks to everyone that played, it was alot of fun and I hope to see many of the same teams come and play again next season!.

Re: Observations on SEAL Tier 5
 

You must understand that when you have conflict of interest your judgement will always be brought into question whether warranted or not. Even when you defer judgement it can feel like you have unfair influence to other teams. For this reason there should not be team managers who are admins. I did say wherever possible though as I realise in a small community it can be difficult or impossible to find other suitable admins.

As to the communication issue, while it's not a bad idea to have vice captains it will not solve the problem. I know this since I essentially was a vice captain. The team to team communication is not the only bottleneck, the team captains must also communicate with individual players and with admins. Some players can be contactable sporadically or only provide incomplete schedule information that introduces delays. I know that one team only communicates by email! Sometimes admins are busy with other tournaments or what have you and take days to reveal information that was submitted as a double blind. This is why I think there needs to be an automated system , a web page or something that reveals double blind information like lineups as soon as they are both submitted without need from admin input. If something similar can be done for player availability timetables that would make rescheduling much more efficient and eliminate a lot of delays. Or maybe just reveal order like the hero pick system in dota that does not require any middlemen whatsoever.

Re: Observations on SEAL Tier 5
 

"team managers who are admins."
I wasn't a team manager.. Edarus was the manager of TA.

If you are unhappy with my efforts this season, however - I will not admin the next season. However, I did not make decisions about rulings that affected TA. So there was no bias present.

Also, if you think I took days to post line ups your also mistaken - teams were often late, and there were official warnings about this given to a few teams.

I'm sorry if I can't be available to post them up as soon as they have been sent it, but this is a tournament that the SEAL admins run in their spare time - we get nothing for it and we run it when we can - if you are expecting a full professional run league - pay me a $50 entry fee at the start of the season.

Re: Observations on SEAL Tier 5
 

I feel Maynarde and Chad both did an exceptional job, Chadmann was completely impartial and actually NEVER handled any dispute or query involving TA as it was seen as a conflict of interest and passed directly to Maynarde.

Please don't leave us Chad. Finding good admins who actually show every week, who are completely impartial, approachable and lovely and highly respected IS NOT AN EASY TASK. Everyone thinks that being admin is so easy, but in reality these guys give up their time, deal with everyones bitching and then get told they are unfair or favour others.

No system is ever going to be perfect, but PLEASE do not hate on good admins because of it.

Re: Observations on SEAL Tier 5
 

Great constructive blog about how to improve a great league. Chad don't take it the wrong way I'm pretty sure Acies was just trying to find ways to improve what has clearly been a great experience. Obviously don't know the back-story but there's no need to take offense I don't see anything in this blog or posts aimed at you or even of a negative nature.

Back on point I really love when people take the time to point out what can make a good thing better. Cheers Acies!

Re: Observations on SEAL Tier 5
 

When did the league get extended? o.0

On the communication, every team I spoke with was pretty good, and everything went over pretty easily for VB in terms of scheduling and playing, maybe with a few hiccups in round 1 where I was a bit of a prick to certain members of QED and admins, which I've apologised for. After that, everything was pretty much smooth sailing.

While not performing to our best week in and week out, my guys were still eager to play and showed up on the night and put everything they had in to it. There were many weeks where we had a number of 2-1 losses that could have gone either way.

I think the skype group is used too much for scheduling, rather than skyping people individually. By skyping in the TM group, you run the risk of your messages being chatted away inadvertently. Skype should remain the place to inform the admins of any reschedules, though this can also be done privately to avoid the above problem still.

Managers also need to be endeavouring to reach the other manager with any means possible, try skype first as it's probably easiest, and if a day passes with nothing move to sc2sea, add them on bnet or join their chat channel and talk to their clan members about how to get in contact.

The most important thing for a manager trying to win isn't how good or skilled it's players are, it's to have them actually playing. Same with the players wanting to win, having a manager who can't schedule for the life of him and creates so many delays on the way interrupts how a player prepares for his games and ultimately makes them play worse, which I know in BSG can be the most frustrating thing ever.

Enough of my mindless typing for now, thankyou to all the managers of the teams and especially the admins Chad and Maynarde for a great league in which I had loads of fun. Looking forward to the next!

Re: Observations on SEAL Tier 5
 

glad you enjoyed this acies, it was great to meet and get to play with you and everyone else on the team through this league

most of those suggestions apply to all the leagues really. would kinda suck to not let someone admin just cause they're in TA (who have a team in every division i believe)

Re: Observations on SEAL Tier 5
 

I don't think there's a problem with a member of a team also being an admin, but no decisions should be made, announced, etc that involve that team, by the admin on that team.
When teams play, an admin that is not a member of either team should be present to make a decision there and then if required, the decision is final.

From my POV (which doesn't include all the facts mind you) all I saw of the finals was;

PP asks if a couple of matches can be rescheduled
Admin declares that no reschedules are to be allowed. Any matches that can't be played are forefit
Finals start
Both teams agree to play matches one at a time so they can be cast/streamed.
Subs are used to bring in players on both sides as some players aren't available
TA can't field the final player with a current result of 2-2
Admin decides final match will be rescheduled
PP Complains because they had to sub in players instead of reschedule and that there was a no reschedule decision earlier.
After many weeks of a finals limbo, TA plays a Masters player that another Admin declared wasn't allowed to play due to his current league standing
TA wins the final match
Admin declares final match not valid
Finals still in limbo
DISCLAMER: This is a personal POV of finals events. Does not reflect everything that happened in the background or discussions with others. But it's all the information I had.

If there was another admin with no ties to either team available during the finals to make a decision there and then, I think it would have been better. Even if the decision was the same to reschedule, at least there wouldn't be any complaints that the decision was biased.

Either way, seems it's over regardless. I appreciate the admins work, but we can all learn from this season and move forward.

Re: Observations on SEAL Tier 5
 

Fair assumption. I'll give you the actualities that you happened to leave out:

Admin states that NO SHOWS ON THE NIGHT WILL BE FORFEIT, RESCHEDULES AT THE MATCH ARE FORFEIT, RESCHEDULES MADE BEFORE MATCH TIME ARE PERMITTED, NO FURTHER RESCHEDULE WILL BE PERMITTED IF THE FIRST IS MISSED.
PP asks for a match to be rescheduled a week before line ups are announced - are told to ask when line ups are closer to being sorted - but should be fine.
PP don't remind TA captain of Reschedule request when line ups are posted
TA ask for 1 reschedule
PP DENY the reschedule
TA player was able to play, but on laptop with touch pad mouse
Admin grants reschedule - player did not miss it, PP should not take the win on technicality, poor sportsmanship
PP misses TWO reschedule times
after a month of waiting and a load of allowances made to PP, the TA player is promoted to Masters and no longer eligible to play.
PP player comes back and schedules the match
I ask SEAL Admins the right action, most suggest that PP missed the two reschedules and should forfeit - some say, allow the original match up (minimat v MrCrow) - the thought process behind this was that PP are punished by missing reschedules as minimat is allowed to play, rather than give the win to TA, PP have a chance with high diamond player vs low masters.
TA wins final match
Admin declares that match invalid but awards the finals to TA, regardless.
Thus overturning the allowance of minimat to play - but calling a forfeit on PP player. (this player was missing for 4 weeks with no contact to admins, PP were offered a sub but could not produce one).

What should I have done?

Re: Observations on SEAL Tier 5
 

See, information that reached me was 'No Reschedules'. No if ands or buts. A result of a miss-communication somewhere? I don't know. I'm sure the team captains would know more.

I suppose future seasons can simply start with rules that cater for these eventualities? No point trying to correct what's already done, but think of how we can avoid it again in the future. Apart from the finals, everything else was awesome. The only thing that bugged me from week to week was the late lineup postings. Finding out who I'm playing against with less than 24hrs notice wasn't cool.