SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

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.