TWDT 2 - a proposition

[Exalt]

Allow players to take their own destiny into their own hands by performance based stat

Jessup win % in TWDD:

3

Jessup

32%

2nd lowest win% on your team aside from Lens.

No wonder you would rather have stats matter more than the ability to win games.

[Jessup]

I can't vote either way for this (no offense MHZ) as I have many times given a very good alternative with how correct TWDT and make it a more fair and balanced system by using an earned stat based format when it comes to deciding starter lines for TWDT. Many stats can be combined including W:L ratios, K ratios ect. Allow us to do a preemptive tourny that includes ALL players which would decide who gets precedence to play that would ELIMINATE the star system completely. The population imo isn't big enough to do this idea unless you want 4 or 5 pro teams only which seems very boring and another repeat of TWL. Allow players to take their own destiny into their own hands by performance based stat/ tourny preceding drafts. Sick of star ratings, it's been broken forever in so many ways.

[Jurassic]

Some good points... not sure about 6pm EST during the week. Wouldn't that just eliminate euros and western time zone players? Or do enough people not have any sort of work they have to be doing during the week? I'm self-employed, but not degenerate enough to start playing at 3pm during the week.

[Exalt]

the vast bulk of TW's population can make 6-7.30pm EST on a weeknight. There's enough active players who have weaker ship - think wbm in javelin - to ensure a baseline of competency and activity. .

This timeslot alone makes it great. I hate playing early Sunday afternoons. Weeknights are the best times to log in and play this game imo.

[MHz]

Yeah.

The certain part of this equation is the Pro league. That would be probably the best league ever hosted in TW. Basically TWL-level games but with 8-10 equal(ish) teams. But hosting this alone will basically condemn to the bench anyone rated below 8*. It may well kill the zone harder than TWL, since TWL still has squads like Paladen which offer an opportunity for lower rated players.

The uncertain part is the Amateur league. Obviously it's going to be hard for North Euros (finishing around 2.30am). But I still think the midweek fixture gives it a novelty factor, and the vast bulk of TW's population can make 6-7.30pm EST on a weeknight. There's enough active players who have weaker ship - think wbm in javelin - to ensure a baseline of competency and activity. And since lowstarred players will be having statistically much stronger performances, I believe it will have a natural appeal. But yeah, we won't know until we've tried.

Looking forward to seeing beam's plan anyways.

[qan]

The idea of having a 2 tiered event has been talked over quite a bit. This is either going to be a great thing for DT, or an epic fail. Hopefully everyone will at least be willing to give it a chance.

The bet behind such a proposal is on drawing people in to leagues they ordinarily don't play, and bringing in people from other zones who don't have time to wait around to get borrowed in a TWD match. It will need some advertisement (and word of mouth from cross-zone players) but it seems like it stands a good chance of success if it can garner the signups. I think many people will be excited by the prospect of lower-stakes play that's still meaningful.

[RageRitual]

The idea of having a 2 tiered event has been talked over quite a bit. This is either going to be a great thing for DT, or an epic fail. Hopefully everyone will at least be willing to give it a chance. Seeing as how DT is the middle ground between TWL and TWD having it 2 tiered should make it easier for lower * players to get into these events without having teams getting completely dominated because of unbalanced teams. I know myself personally am looking forward to actually having a chance to play something besides base .

[LeeRomeno]

6pm is like 1am, on weeknight that seems pretty difficult to make, but I guess that's just for those in Eastern Europe, not sure how many newbies there even are as game seems dead for majority of time, except for a few pub players.

[ronaldinho]

I don't know, I'm divided, I can understand that good players don't want to play with bad players, but I like TWDT as it is now, probably because I'm a bad player myself. This proposal would give me more opportunities to play I think, as long as I can play Thursday from midnight to 1:30 am.

I vote I don’t like the idea, because there’s no I don’t know answer and because I would like TWDT to stay as it was the last few seasons.

[midoent]

I like the idea. Seems a little hard to implement. What if we just have, maybe 4 teams in AML who can play each other every sunday. They will have as many games, just not as many opponents.

[beam]

You are actually pretty close to the league I will be running after twl except I already fixed all the issues with your idea. Stay tuned and I will make an announcement within the next week or so.

[Rab]

I'm not convinced there's enough of a problem with the current format to warrant such a big change.
I think we're at the point where UK/EU is only about 15% of the population so it's reasonable for US players to want games scheduled later on Sunday. The same would apply to games any other day.

[MHz]

TWDT 2

Had a quick read through the whine-threads on here and thought the following idea could solve a lot of problems. Wrap your head around this and let me know what you think.

My idea - TWDT 2 - will effectively combine two drafts in one, to run separately but concurrently. One draft will be a Pro League which is entirely uncapped. The second draft will be an Amateur League in which only those rated 7.5* or lower can compete. One team, one captain, two drafts.

The initial signups will thus be divided into two groups. Those rated 8* or higher in any ship will be designated into the Pro group. Those rated 7.5* or lower in every ship will be designated into the Amateur group. The Amateur draft will only commence once the Pro draft has finished.

The Pro League will take place on Sunday at the normal times. This is a free for all- no restrictions on line ups. Players from the Amateur group can also play in Pro games if their captain requires. By my calculations, every single player rated 8* and above will be needed in Pro-DTJ if there are 10 teams (and it’s similar for DTD and DTB). Overall, this will combine the high level play of TWL with the equalising distribution of TWDT.

The Amateur League will take place on Thursday evenings commencing 6pm EST. To be Euro-friendly there will only be 1 game per division. DTD and DTJ will be Amateur only. Since DTB requires more players and more experience, this will be a 50/50 split between Amateur and Pro players. Amateur players will be selected and coached by experienced captains, and be pitted against players of equal skill/experience, giving them the opportunity to develop.

There are a minority of players who are rated lower than 8* in some ships and higher than 8* in others. These players will still be picked in the Pro draft, but will be eligible to play in the Amateur games in which they are rated lower than 8*.

Each draft will be scored completely independently, will have separate playoffs at the end of the season, with different medals awarded to the winners. Unlike conventional TWDT, nearly the entire population will be needed, either on Sunday or Thursday or both. Another quirk is that the population divides nearly perfectly, 50/50, between the Pro and Amateur groups according to last season’s ratings. Since eligible players will be spread more thinly between each tier, 8 teams may be preferred to 10.

Another huge benefit to the Pro and Amateur leagues is that ratings are completely redundant, since line ups have no restrictions. I happen to think that ratings are generally solid, but if you do have a gripe with the ratings, that’s fixed.

Major consideration will have to be paid to the 7.5* rating cut off. But, speaking for javelin at least, I think this is only debatable for a handful of players.

The over-riding problem for TWL and TWDT to date has been the stark differences in ability between good teams and bad teams. The steamroll games. Think Cuphead vs. Juice in TWLD. TWDT 2 will ensure that you only play matches with and against players of a similar skill, producing much more competitive and enjoyable games for all involved.

Pre-empting some complaints.

Thursday evenings will be a flop, nobody will show up.
- Wrong. People showed up to the Basing World Cup. And Hockey Zone regularly hosts weekday games with solid attendances, and with 1/3rd of TW’s population. Bringing in a midweek fixture will boost population and reduce league fatigue. 6pm EST is usually an active time in TW during the week, since it bridges Euro and North American time zones.

The uncapped league will put too much of a premium on players like Ease and Turban.
-Wrong. Picking 1st does not usually confer an advantage in drafts because of the gap to your 2nd pick.

Uncapped games will be elitist and prone to stacking.
- Wrong, uncapped games will inevitably include 8*s and possibly some 7.5*s. Teams which sacrifice one league in favour of another risk not qualifying.

The Amateur league will be a flop, nobody will take it seriously.
- Hopefully wrong. This is around 50% of TWDT signees, and it will benefit from more experienced captains taking an interest in them, shining a spotlight on untapped talent.