TWDT 2016 Rules

[ogron]

Draft


Date: Sunday, January 10th, 2016
Time: 3pm EST
Location: ?go TWDT

-Draft order will done via live stream at 2pm EST, one hour before the draft. This was a success last year, and will be done again by Heaven using a random number generator.
-Snaking draft (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1)
-Each Captain will select one low star package like last year. Drafting these packages are important, don't ignore them.






Free Agency


There will be a Free Agency draft one hour before Week 3 begins.

Date: Sunday, January 31th, 2016
Time: 2pm EST
Location: ?go TWDT

Unlike the past two years, there will only be one Free Agency draft this year. Any players not signing up by 1:30pm EST on Sunday, January 31st will not be allowed into TWDT.

Free Agency draft position will be based on the amount of individual TWDT stars each Captain has. The less stars, the higher your FA draft position. Tiebreaks will be whoever had the later position in the original draft (8 > 1).

Players drafted are immediately eligible for play.


Schedule


January 10 -- Draft
January 17 -- Week 1
January 24 -- Week 2
January 31 -- Week 3
February 7 -- Week 4
February 14 -- Week 5
February 21 -- Week 6
February 28 -- Week 7
March 6 -- Quarter-Finals
March 13 -- Semi-Finals
March 20 -- Finals

This scheduling is important to avoid a deadly lull in the form of Easter on March 27th, where everyone takes the day off to celebrate the resurrection of Cres.

We'll be using the same time slots from the previous two years:

TWDT-D -- 3PM EST
TWDT-J -- 4PM EST
TWDT-B -- 5PM EST



Format

We'll be moving to a slightly different format for the fourth time in four years. There are 2 reserved spots in each game. You must play a 7-Star or lower in one, and a 6-Star or lower in the other, across all three leagues. Simple, elegant, effective.




Borrowing


5-Star and 6-Star package players (they can't be a 7 in ANY league) that aren't started by their own teams (or eliminated from the playoffs) are eligible to be borrowed by other teams to avoid forfeits.

This year, I'm extending borrowing to the playoffs. Two team's seasons have been ruined in the playoffs the past two years, and it could have been more had Stayon and Commodo not been as magnanimous as they were by allowing their opponents to borrow during that period. You can't pick which player you're going to borrow in the playoffs, you have to ask a mod and one will be assigned to you (so you're not cherry picking this year's Boblemoche or Lena playing above their star level.)


Trades


The trade deadline is Tuesday, February 16th, 2016 @ 11:50pm EST (just after Week 5.) It's early enough that every team should still be in contention, but late enough that you've had two weeks to evaluate your Free Agency draft players, and have a good sense of what you need to make a playoff push.

Captains now have 48 hours to veto trades. 4 of the 6 captains not involved in the trade must vote against the trade to nix it. Trades must be completed before Friday at 3pm EST in order to give fellow captains time to evaluate it. This timeframe can be bypassed if you can get three captains to let me know they won't be veto'ing it.

I will ?message all captains when a trade is sent to me, starting the 48 hour clock. If I don't receive 4 vetoes I will process the trade. TWDT Ops will no longer be involved in the process of evaluating trades (unless acting within their capacity as a fellow captain) and whether they are fair or not.

This is a give-and-take power being afforded to caps. Vetoes are meant to be used for what you perceive to be a very unbalanced trade. If captains are abusing it and simply attempting to veto anything they perceive as not helping their own squad, we may revert it back to a TWDT Op review process.


Playing Down A Man


Playing down a man counts as 5-Stars. Playing down two is a forfeit. Congratulations to the two Captains who tried to get around star limits by playing down a man last year and forcing me to make this rule, I applaud your creativity.


Adding Players Over Star Limit


-Any kills/reps/active play that affects the game before the player either specs or is subbed will result in a 50-25 forfeit in TWDT-D/TWDT-J, and a 15:00-7:30 loss in TWDT-B.
-Active play includes (but is not limited to) terring, sharking, firing shots, or drawing fire.
-A player being AFK in spawn or not moving is not forfeitable.
-Make sure your Assistants are aware of the rules and have the Star Sheets bookmarked for each league. Ignorance is not an excuse.


Bans


Trading names to get around Star Limits is a season-ending ban. No warning.

There are no current bans in effect. Everyone is welcome to play and enjoy TWDT.

That said, acting like an entitled, petulent child, crying about your TWDT star rating and demanding to be removed then re-added later like we're your personal slaves, etc. will get you banned. Make all the posts you want, cry to upper staff, I promise you it won't work. I will not put up with your shit. We're not paid to do this, and it's a lot of work. The only thing I ask is you not actively try to make our lives a living hell while we run it.


Playoffs


-6 of 8 teams qualify for the playoffs.
-The top 2 teams earn a bye into the Semi-Finals.
-Standings are based on your cumulative win total across all three leagues -- you either make the playoffs in all three leagues, or none.
-Once in the playoffs, however, advancement is per individual league.
-Tiebreaks: Head-to-head record, then most wins in your worst league (5-5-5 beats 7-7-1), then best plus-minus across all three leagues (with minutes in basing countings as kills/deaths.)
-Star Cap Limits remain in place for the playoffs
-Borrowing is now allowed (preferably from eliminated teams)
-Playoffs Format is is a Best of 3 in TWDT-D, TWDT-J, and TWDT-B. All warbird and javelin games are to 50, and all basing games are to 15 minutes. In the past, TWDT-B was simply a race to 20 minutes, but I'm changing it this year.

[Crescent Seal]

is it possible 2 get this site working? http://www.subspace.tw/TWDT/

its nice to see team rosters, player stars, and player stats.

[ogron]

Rule Change

I'm going to change up the TWDT-B Star Cap rules a bit this year upon further thought, there were a lot of 7-Star basers who had trouble getting into lineup's last year, especially with a lot of teams going 6/6/6.

This is on top of me removing a lot of the egregious 6-Star baser's who were rated too lowly and are now 7s (Heaven, Bueno, etc.) who would perhaps have trouble finding their way into lines.

I'm going to change it from this:




To this:




You can still go 6-6-6 if you want, but you now have the option to go 7-6-6, or 7-7-5, giving you more flexibility in the league that requires the most manpower, and often the hardest to find legal lines for.

I think this will be an improvement and help a lot of good basers who had trouble finding their way into lines despite showing (For instance, Rab on our team last year.)

[ogron]

A captain from last year also brought up the issue of lack of 5s showing, and the discrepancy in skill between 5/6/7s, and suggested moving WB and Jav to a 13-Star cap instead of 12-Star, meaning you could field 7/6 instead of 6/6 or 7/5.

If you found a playable 5 you could conceivably go 8/5 with a 13-Star cap. This would be in line with past years of TWDT that only required a 5-Star in any ship across all three leagues.

The change could also be simply phrased as 7-Star max in one slot, and 6-star max in the other slot, so the only legal options are 7/6, 7/5, 6/6, 6/5.

While I'm 100% all in on the basing change I made due to the plethora of 7s struggling for play, I'm less certain on the WB/Jav issue and would like some feedback.

Thanks!

[Zeebu]

well, choose one or the other.

you can either focus on a team fielding their best drafted squad possible, regardless of stars, or...

you can focus on having unknown players get playing time.



youre changing it up so the first is becoming more primary. i happen to like that, but dont limit it then.


toss out the stars and whatnot if youre doing it that way. what use are they really? have a draft and then allow each team to play their best players if thats the case.




try some incentive for playing below the max star limit instead of forcing teams to do it. manually add extra points after the game or something maybe.
the highest amount of stars in your lineup for a wb or jav game would be 50; five 10 star peoples. maybe take 50 minus the overall stars of the actual fielded line and add it to the total after the game is over. game still goes to the winner but have the playoffs be determined by amount of points at the end of the season. winning gets you more points but losing with a low star line doesnt hurt you as badly.



i dont know, not exactly a well thought out idea, more just rambling...
but the point is:
youre changing rules to allow more experienced players to be added to lineups, dont half ass it. allow all of the best players to play.

[Tiny]

I think or thought the focus here would be to have more even playing fields and better competition while allowing lower starred players in certains leagues and newer faces to get playing time. You bumping it up a little bit will be quite the contrary. I vote (if we are having a vote) to keep the lower star caps that you had before. 7/5 6/6 in duelings and the 6/6/6 or 7/6/5 in basing.

[ogron]

Those are two separate issues (changing the star system and eliminating it).

I'm talking about changing the star system, and whether there are enough 5s to justify putting this much emphasis on them in TWDT given they're always difficult to find, many can't get them to show, and there is a large skill gap between them and the entire league, and if we should focus more on 6s and 7s in the low star slots.

Eliminating the star system entirely is a worthwhile idea to explore, but it is nevertheless separate from the discussion of changing the 12-Star limit to a 13-Star limit or 7/6 limit (to prevent 8/5 combos.)

IMO, I like the idea someone else proposed of shifting focus to 6/7 stars and leaving 5s as players you play when you're short. If they're talented they're effective 6s and you'll play them over your actual 6-Star players anyway.

I also like the idea of eliminating the star system entirely, and just drafting the best team's possible. I'm interested in hearing people's thoughts and opinions. TWDT has been a flexible mistress, and has taken many different forms over the years.

And no, Tiny, it's not a vote.

[ogron]

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of moving past the 5-Star position. It's led to multiple playoff forfeits, it's catering to the smallest and least dedicated population in the zone, and there aren't enough success stories to justify stymieing 6 and 7 star players who are active, have put in time to learn the league, and has long standing in the zone. Steam was a resounding failure, and we need to focus on the player base we have. When you're short players or when there's a special talent, you can play them in the 6-star spot.

I'm going to move TWDT back in the direction of higher skill competition and focus, while maintaining two dedicated spots to sizable player bases.



It's simple for captains and moderators to understand and check, it caters to the two biggest populations (7-Stars and 8-Stars), while increasing the level of play in TWDT.

[Tiny]

I hope you enjoyed your vacation Claus as I really missed you bro. That being said, have you set this back to the 6/6 or 7/5 yet?

[MHz]

New changes look okay to me. I had Boblemoche last season who was a decent 5*, but most 5* were too green to risk playing, or inactive. That meant most teams opted to play 6/6 and 6/6/6, meaning a lot of half-decent 7*s were benching. Perversely it is these people, the nokkonen-fork-cripple types, who are most likely to bench in TWL, or play on crappier teams. Exactly the people who could enjoy & benefit most from TWDT.

[Exalt]

Here's my $.02:

If there are a bunch of players that don't get to play due to skill level or star ratings or whatever, why don't you just take all of those players and create another team? Every year there are a ton of players that never get in a game, and there are a ton of highly rated players who log in for maybe 1 to 3 games total. Regardless of that, lineups are almost always set with a top 5 or WB/JAVs, which means almost 90% of all players that sign up don't sniff a second of play time. The only ones that do are the very low rated players that teams are forced to play.

I don't really understand a format that tries to be all-inclusive, but only for the very worst players and the very best. I'd say the large majority of active players fall somewhere in the middle. I don't know how you'd fix it, but it seems pointless to have so many active players never get to play.

I don't think they'd win much if the middle-tier players all got added, but a lot of this is for the experience. People also log in because it's one of the few times that TW is actually active and full of players, so something should be done after 10+ years of TWDT being exactly the same.

[ogron]

Here's my $.02:

If there are a bunch of players that don't get to play due to skill level or star ratings or whatever, why don't you just take all of those players and create another team? Every year there are a ton of players that never get in a game, and there are a ton of highly rated players who log in for maybe 1 to 3 games total. Regardless of that, lineups are almost always set with a top 5 or WB/JAVs, which means almost 90% of all players that sign up don't sniff a second of play time. The only ones that do are the very low rated players that teams are forced to play.

I don't really understand a format that tries to be all-inclusive, but only for the very worst players and the very best. I'd say the large majority of active players fall somewhere in the middle. I don't know how you'd fix it, but it seems pointless to have so many active players never get to play.

I don't think they'd win much if the middle-tier players all got added, but a lot of this is for the experience. People also log in because it's one of the few times that TW is actually active and full of players, so something should be done after 10+ years of TWDT being exactly the same.

It's crazy to me someone who hasn't played this game in years or played TWDT recently has such an incredibly strong opinion devoid of having any pulse on the state of the game.

I've run this league for 3 years straight, I'm pretty sure I have a better sense of who is playing and who is getting benched than someone who exists solely in non-corporeal form on forums. When I make structural changes, I talk to experienced, active players who actually play the game.

Like, I'm reading Commodo's post before yours, he's an experienced player who capped TWDT last season, played in both the TWL and TWDT finals this year, is active, understands the league, and is making factual statements based on what he's seen, and is providing something of value in terms of feedback.

Then, I'm reading your post, and I have no idea what the fuck you're going on about. You're talking out of your ass, you're completely clueless as to what's been going on the past few years in this league, and you're contributing nothing.

[Exalt]

It's crazy to me someone who hasn't played this game in years or played TWDT recently has such an incredibly strong opinion devoid of having any pulse on the state of the game.

I've run this league for 3 years straight, I'm pretty sure I have a better sense of who is playing and who is getting benched than someone who exists solely in non-corporeal form on forums. When I make structural changes, I talk to experienced, active players who actually play the game.

Like, I'm reading Commodo's post before yours, he's an experienced player who capped TWDT last season, played in both the TWL and TWDT finals this year, is active, understands the league, and is making factual statements based on what he's seen, and is providing something of value in terms of feedback.

Then, I'm reading your post, and I have no idea what the fuck you're going on about. You're talking out of your ass, you're completely clueless as to what's been going on the past few years in this league, and you're contributing nothing.

Edit: I keep editting this post so that I'm not too "mean" to you in my response Claus, but before you read further, understand that I had no ill will or negativity directed toward your competency or ability as a host. I realize you hosted for 3 years. I've played this game for almost 20 years, and I continue to PLAY it. That means I have plenty of knowledge on the pulse of the playerbase, because I am a player.

Claus, you need thicker skin if you think my original post was too "harsh" for your fragile ego to handle. I gave an honest opinion. You don't have to like it, but you certainly will NEVER make things better by simply listening to people only tell you good things. You do a lot of good things, but I don't need to tell you what needs to stay the same. None of us do, aside from once a year saying Thank You and Good Job at the end of TWDT. I never said you don't do a great job, unless you read something else entirely than what I actually wrote.

Trashing the playerbase that is already insanely small probably isn't the best idea. Your hard work is for nothing when the game is completely dead, so possibly shrug it off and use it as a learning experience. Not everyone will agree with everything you do. Just because I gave alternate opinions from what you would 'like' to hear (commodo's opinion is valid, but so is mine) doesn't mean you denounce my opinion and make his some worthy standard. I realize maybe too many spreadsheets and statistics make you a bit on edge, but don't take that out on me.

As a side note, when you do calm down, read my "negative" criticism as a simple honest opinion, rather than assuming it is an attack on you or your character. I have played this game far too long for you to simply dismiss my opinions outright, but secondly, whose opinion matters then? Does a brand new player not have the ability to voice their opinion either? If so, then honestly, no matter how good you are doing in TWDT, you need to reflect on the big picture. This game is dead in probably two years from now without new players, and your attitude certainly doesn't help them. Also, the old veterans that are active matter just as much (if not more), and when you ignore 90% of them due to wanting the top 10% of the playerbase to like you, it ruins your judgement.

[ogron]

It has nothing to do with a fragile ego. The notion that we should field a 9th team is insane -- if you played TWDT you would never make this suggestion. Despite some very strong turnouts the past few years, 8 teams is pushing it and the borrowing policies I instituted in 2014 have proved crucial in avoiding forfeits. It just doesn't make sense from any vantage point -- scheduling, league structure, player base size, the logistics alone would be a complete nightmare.

If you think I'm only accepting positive feedback, you really don't know what you're talking about. I fucked up the scheduling not anticipating Easter, and it was a huge debacle with half the league wanting a break and the others wanting to play. There was plenty of valid criticism. There's merit to other opinions who want a different star system (or to use last years), or that the 2nd FA draft last year was too late in the season and punished successful teams.

These are all mistakes I made, and I fixed them for this season. Your notion that I'm too fragile to take criticism or make changes doesn't really hold water.

I really don't think you have a grasp of what TWDT needs, specifically because you're not active in leagues (TWDT, TWL, TWIC, etc.), and believing that your past experience in this game can translate 1:1 to the current state of the game is a mistake. You acting like you have the answers despite being out of touch with this game annoys me, thus prompting my initial response.

If you have criticism or suggestions after playing this season, that's great, I'll be happy to listen, but until then it's hard to take anything you say seriously.

[Exalt]

If you have criticism or suggestions after playing this season, that's great, I'll be happy to listen, but until then it's hard to take anything you say seriously.

Aside from a shrinking population, this game doesn't change much at all throughout the years. I've played TWDT through enough years to know what to expect. Your right about me not having been active, and I'm sure I don't know exactly how many new people quit from two years ago to today, but that doesn't mean I'm clueless.

What you are talking about is that I haven't been back long enough to grasp 'current' events, but I wasn't mentioning some random break you did or didn't take during Easter or other absolutely insignificant bs that happened recently. You can play 24/7 to keep up with that if you'd like. I will always give you the floor when it comes to what happened a few months ago, or anything else like it that affects maybe a week of play time total. That's completely insignificant and useless in my perspective. Nobody quit this game because you didn't take a break during Easter. If they did, then no decision of yours would've affected their choice.

I'm talking about a bigger picture. I've been around for most of the 10 years TWDT has been with only a few breaks inbetween here and there. None of this shit changes much year to year aside from some new winner here and some new winner there. If anything, all that's changed is that many of the best players are no longer playing, although that statement was true when TWDT started 10 years ago too. In the end, it's all the same.

Since you brought it up, if 9 teams are too many, but 8 teams are too few to where you still have many players that never get to play, then possibly there is something to be done there, no? If one team fails to show up consistently (this happens every year), while another has 50 players show up every week and 40 never see the light of day, what happens?

In the same respect, the league has stars so that certain players do get to play. The problem is, those players are always the worst or the best. The middle-tier players are left out of the loop in the star system, so I was just throwing that out there. Unless this game lost so many players that it can't even hold a league like TWDT up, then I think my point has validity.

BTW, and you don't play this game yourself Claushouse. How much do you log into TW on a weekly basis? Should you not be taken seriously due to your inactivity as well? Think about that before using it to dismiss others.