Lemon/EAB Super League Changes #3: Season Schedule

[john4p]

Round 3: Season Schedule Options

Vote for the season schedule we will use in the 2018 Super League.
Voting starts (Sun 17th) and will end Saturday 23rd December, 23:59 UK Time.
Vote for your most preferred schedule from the two options.
Post your votes in this thread or PM one of the moderators.
Edited votes will be discounted - so think before you post.
Tactical or nosey voters can see the Lemon voting thread HERE.



Welcome to the third vote - League Season Schedule Options. Please only vote for one of these options, the one you want to see adopted for next year:

Option 1: Super League Classic
We use the usual schedule.

Option 2: Super League Doubles
New Schedule, and two games are played in every round.



1. Super League Classic

This option means we keep the current season schedule. This is based on rounds running for three weeks, starting with a two week vote for round 1, and then Round 1 starting from the middle of January. The rest of the year is then plotted out every three weeks until Round 14 ends at the end of November. Here is an example from this year.

Items in BOLD are the Double rounds.


Leg 1 [Rounds 1-7]
Jan 01 - Jan 14: Round One voting
Jan 15 - Feb 04: Round One
Jan 15 - Jan 28: Round Two voting [Theme: Magazine Reviews]
Feb 05 - Feb 25: Round Two [Magazine Round]
Feb 05 - Feb 18: Round Three voting [Special Round 1: PD Games]
Feb 26 - Mar 18: Round Three [Special Round 1: PD Games]
Feb 26 - Mar 11: Round Four voting [Open Round]
Mar 19 - Apr 08: Round Four [Open Round]
Mar 19 - Apr 01: Round Five voting
Apr 09 - Apr 29: Round Five
Apr 09 - Apr 22: Round Six voting [Special Round 2: Year]
Apr 30 - May 20: Round Six [Special Round 2: Year]
Apr 30 - May 13: Round Seven voting [Mystery Round]
May 21 - Jun 10: Round Seven [Mystery Round]

Leg 2 [Rounds 8-14]
Jun 18 - Jul 01: Round Eight voting [Open Round]
Jul 02 - Jul 22: Round Eight [Open Round]
Jul 02 - Jul 15: Round Nine voting [Special Round 3: Alphabet]
Jul 23 - Aug 12: Round Nine [Special Round 3: Alphabet]
Jul 23 - Aug 05: Round Ten voting
Aug 13 - Sep 02: Round Ten
Aug 13 - Aug 26: Round Eleven voting [Theme: Beat-Em-Ups]
Sep 03 - Sep 23: Round Eleven [Theme: TBC]
Sep 03 - Sep 16: Round Twelve [Special Round 4: Open]
Sep 24 - Oct 14: Round Twelve [Special Round 4: Open]
Sep 24 - Oct 07: Round Thirteen voting
Oct 15 - Nov 04: Round Thirteen
Oct 15 - Oct 28: Round Fourteen voting [Mystery Round]
Nov 05 - Nov 25: Round Fourteen [Mystery Round]

Choosing the No Change option means we play 18 games (or 20 if we add another double round next year), with each round starting on a Sunday and ending on a Saturday. Choosing this option means we often play one game in the rounds, and two games in some rounds. This can result in players finding it easier to master the single game in a round, and there is three weeks to play it. It can also mean casual players get the time to go further in the game, and provide a good or even a great score. It also means we can cluster the single rounds in the middle of the year, when the League is traditionally very quiet, and have double rounds at both ends to make things interesting.

The whole season is spread out, so casual players can post a token score, or miss out on rounds completely, and their overall points performance wont be affected too much. For example, a player might get 8 points for a mid-table finish, which is only 12 points from the leader. They could then make up places in the next round, or catch up points towards the end of the season.



2. Super League Doubles

Choosing the Doubles option means we change the schedule to a new one, based on running mainly two games each month. This starts with a two week votes for round 1, and a single game played during Round 1, starting from the middle of January as normal. Then there would be 4 double rounds, a summer break, 4 double rounds, and lastly a single game round to close the season. Changing the example above to 2018 dates, an example schedule might look like this:

Leg 1 [Rounds 1-5]
Jan 01 - Jan 13: Voting Round One
Jan 17 - Jan 31: Round One (one game, two weeks.)
Jan 14 - Jan 27: Voting Round Two [Theme: Magazine Reviews]
Feb 01 - Feb 28: Round Two [Theme: Magazine Reviews]
Feb 10 - Feb 24: Voting Round Three [Special Round 1: PD Games]
Mar 01 - Mar 31: Round Three [Special Round 1: PD Games]
Mar 17 - Mar 31: Voting Round Four [Open Round]
Apr 01 - Apr 30: Round Four [Open Round]
Apr 01 - Apr 13: Nominations Round Five [Mystery Round]
Apr 14 - Apr 28: Voting Round Five [Mystery Round]
May 01 - May 31: Round Five [Mystery Round]

Leg 2 [Rounds 6-10]
June 02 - June 23rd: Voting for Round Six
Jul 01 - Jul 31: Round Six [normal double round, not an open]
Jul 14 - Jul 28: Voting Round Seven [Special Round 2: Year]
Aug 01 - Aug 31: Round Seven [Special Round 2: Year]
Aug 11 - Aug 25: Voting Round Eight [Theme: Beat-Em-Ups]
Sep 01 - Sep 30: Round Eight [Theme: TBC]
Sep 15 - Sep 29: Voting Round Nine [Special Round 3: Alphabet]
Oct 01 - Oct 30: Round Nine [Special Round 3: Alphabet]
Oct 14 - Oct 27: Voting Round Ten [Open Round]
Nov 01 - Nov 20: Round Ten [Open Round] (one game, two weeks.)

Choosing the Doubles option means we play 18 games, with each round starting on the 1st of the month (which can be mid-week). This option means we would play mostly two games in the rounds, and it is hoped that playing 2 games would mean more choice for casual players. However, this could result in the players with the most time to spare getting to master both games, while casual players may be even more brow-beaten faced with two games, and expected to do well in both. The existing round themes would be compressed into the new format, leaving two 'closed' rounds, three Open rounds, and one mystery round.

It would be a more 'full on' competition, in that players would need to manage 2 games a month, and so they would need to be much more involved in order to keep up with the leaders. Playing two games in most rounds would mean 40 championship points are often up for grabs each month, so missing rounds completely could be rather more damaging to your championship hopes. Things could move rather more quickly, and this option would be more advantageous to those who have the time and dedication to compete in every round.


All 2017 players are welcome to vote and chat at anytime.

[Graham Humphrey]

I will have to vote for the current system (or 'Classic' if you prefer).

The schedule has evolved over the years to become what I feel is a really balanced system. Three weeks feels like the optimum time to play a game, in my view. Enough time for those enthused to master it, and for those who are (through choice or necessity) more 'casual' it should provide enough time for to post a score or two. And if it turns out it's not your thing, there's never too long to wait for the next one. Of course, the double rounds provide a change of pace and dynamic, which is always welcome to mix things up a bit. And I think we also have a good spread between 'regular' rounds and the various themes we introduced.

In contrast, I feel the new system that has been proposed would be pretty disastrous. Too many games too quickly, too uneven and the start/end dates are a bit of a nightmare and easy to lose track of (everyone knows, say, that a round always starts on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday, which is convenient for players and organisers). It would likely only benefit the really hardcore players who are more likely to put serious effort into two games every month, and if you end up with two games you didn't fancy it's a much longer wait to the next round. I think this would really harm the competition in terms of the number of players and the interest generally, and would reverse all the work in trying to get the more 'casual' players on board.

And besides, the competition overall has been doing pretty well. To chuck everything out for the sake of change seems far too drastic and unnecessary for me.

[capehorn]

I going to agree with just about all of that and vote

Classic

[vagrant]

Vote is option 1.
I agree with all of what graham says, the current schedule is very balanced and hard to improve on I think.

[Harry]

My vote is for

Classic.

[el_pasi]

I'll vote classic too.

[Amiga68k]

Classic

[john4p]

Okay, since everyone here and on Lemon agrees, including Biscuit (!) who suggested the new idea in the first place I guess we'll cut this round of voting short and soon move on the next one.

[S0ulA55a551n]

2. Super League Doubles

[lifeschool]

I think we can now write this vote off, as its currently 10 votes for the classic schedule, and just one for Doubles.

I suggest we can use this time to think about the next vote.

Both John and I agree that the Team Scores could be based on the average League Points of the first 5 players. We could just make another two options vote next weekend. Or if players want to voice their questions and concerns, now would be time to share it. We could even bring the vote forward, as John suggests, or we could even all agree and not even have a vote. This thread is open to suggestions.

[john4p]

I don't think we really need a vote for team scoring as there is no downside at all to your suggestion of using league points instead of game score, lifeschool. Let's just make this change.

[Graham Humphrey]

I thought the suggestion was total number of League points for the top five players, rather than the average? Otherwise the (admittedly more perceived than regular) problem of uneven number of players etc still remains.

[john4p]

Correct, we agreed on the sum, not the average.

[linesmachine]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

Three weeks feels like the optimum time to play a game, in my view. Enough time for those enthused to master it, and for those who are (through choice or necessity) more 'casual' it should provide enough time for to post a score or two. And if it turns out it's not your thing, there's never too long to wait for the next one.

That's pretty much exactly what I was thinking.

A 3 week game duration is enough to really get stuck into any game, but it's also short enough so that if I hate it and get zero enjoyment out of it (Superfrog) I don't lose interest in the comp in general.

[john4p]

I concur three weeks have proven to be just perfect. The tried and true formula wins.

And regarding the team scoring we'll just switch over to sums of league points.

Voting's over. Thank you everyone!

[lifeschool]

League Scoring,

I was trying to find a solution to less than 5 players in a team, like the situations below; where less than 5 players still win the round. Dividing by 5 or dividing by the people in each team in fact doesnt work, so averaging the score in these cases wouldnt work out any differently.

............Players........Pos.......Score
Team A ...3...............1,2,3........52
Team B ...4...............4,5,6,7..... 46
Result: Team A win.

Team A ...4...............1,2,3,4........65
Team B ...5...............5,6,7,8,9,.....50
Result: Team A win.

[john4p]

Both wins are fully deserved in the examples. No problem there.

[S0ulA55a551n]

Originally Posted by lifeschool

I think we can now write this vote off, as its currently 10 votes for the classic schedule, and just one for Doubles.

I suggest we can use this time to think about the next vote.

Both John and I agree that the Team Scores could be based on the average League Points of the first 5 players. We could just make another two options vote next weekend. Or if players want to voice their questions and concerns, now would be time to share it. We could even bring the vote forward, as John suggests, or we could even all agree and not even have a vote. This thread is open to suggestions.

Just wanted to be contrary

[mihcael]

Originally Posted by john4p

Correct, we agreed on the sum, not the average.

Sum of all or just the top 5?

[john4p]

Sum of the top 5 of each team.