The Problem With TWDT

[Burnt]

The draft tournament has potential to bring new players and veterans together to play together. The veterans are the mentors, and the new players learn from them, play alongside them, and even create friendships with them.

It doesn't have the potential to do this because it's only played 1 game a week with no practices during the week. Bringing in and training new players can be done in TWD but not in TWDT.

[Draft]

Agreed, my 6 * players have been playing before 2000 lol

next season:
two 6 *'s in twdtj/twdtd
three 6 *'s in twdtb

Advertisements: Do it through PMs when people are entering the zone, most public players ignore forums, twd, almost everything outside of public chat in public arenas and the robobot in the arena

I've introduced at least 4 of my friends to this game

3/4 of them didn't know how to change arena, pm, squadpm, squadjoin, and of course didnt know what twl was (which is tw's main attraction) etc after playing for like 2 days until I told them irl what to do lol

[Salubrious]

Yeah this was already an issue last season and based on the re-vamped ratings done prior to the start of this season, was already going to be an even bigger problem this season. If I remember correctly, 6* = played 1 or 2 twl games. I don't think teams suffer too much from being "forced" into playing someone with twl experience.

I think the main issue is there are too many people signed up and not enough squads. Setting aside completely newbies, there are still a bunch of solid players left on the free agent list who weren't drafted. I think the EG draft league is so much more successful because their smaller population actually forces captains to pick up and play newer players just to fill out their teams. When was the last time you saw a TWL squad even go into pub to recruit a newbie even just for TWD? (not even penetrate does this anymore)

So maybe in a year or two when tw dies some more, TWDT will become more newbie friendly :turned:

[Voth]

This zone (and subsequently, this game) is slowly dying, that's no secret. Any chance we have to bring more competition to the zone is through the development of new players. The draft tournament has potential to bring new players and veterans together to play together. The veterans are the mentors, and the new players learn from them, play alongside them, and even create friendships with them.

That's ideally how a draft tournament should be. The draft tournament is an EXCELLENT league, but it needs to be handled with more care for the underlying purposes of the league.

First of all, the fact that a team only needs to play one 6* per game is ridiculous. Many people who are more than capable in their league are being used as the "low star" in games. For example, I have absolutely no problems with being rated a 6 in basing, which is my main league, but the fact that my squad can use me as the low star in all basing matches is laughable. Additionally, any free agent picked up for 4/4/4 can be used as a low vp in any league, and this is happening for many free agent vets. Furthermore, I see virtually no new players even signed up for this league. Was it marketed wrong? Did we have a zone running periodically for pub players to see? Did we have a bot PM'ing all players as they entered the zone to sign up? Did we INFORM new players of the possibilities that come with a draft league?

If we want this league to start being successful, we need to stop thinking of it as a way for our current players to get picked onto a team of randoms and play. We need to think of it more as veterans being randomized onto teams with new players and them working together in matches to bring more new players into the competitive aspect of TW.

Extreme Games' draft league is very successful in this way. Personally, I started playing EG in early 2006, and I was drawn into their draft league, where I was taken under the wing of a veteran player who, after the league, invited me to his squad and trained me up. Many TW players will confirm that they have been drawn into EG flagging through the draft league. Just to name a few: MHz, a2m, Cig Smoke, Endangered. Finding a newbie with potential is a top priority for EG squads, because they can train them up and then that player is loyal to them. You don't see this with the TW players... it's incredibly hard to break into the competition here, and that is just wrong.

I guess I have sort of deviated from TWDT to a zone-wide problem but I just thought this should be said.