Season 13 wrapup

[PH]

Well folks, that's that. The circus has completed its four-month stay, and once again it leaves town. Let's all wave goodbye to the 13th rendition of TWL. I can't speak for everyone, but I felt it was a fun ride.

I have a few things I'd like to say:

• First and foremost, thank you to all the players and spectators. TWL relies on interest from the player base to stay running, and if the zone crash in round 3 of the TWLD final yesterday is any indication, there's still a little something left in the tank as far as league play goes. It wouldn't be possible without you guys. Thank you.
• Additional thanks go out to all the captains who were willing to work with me through some scheduling hiccups. These scheduling policies were really designed for a slightly more condensed league, but I felt it would be in the best interests of the zone to expand the league in order to generate interest from players who may want to spend this offseason looking to improve and compete in future leagues. I genuinely do appreciate the patience and understanding of the aforementioned captains, and I apologize if anyone feels they got screwed by my scheduling procedures at any point in the season.
• Major props go out to Quicksand. The zone crash in round 3 just goes to show that, when done right, bad guys are good for the league. Everyone wanted to see you lose. Every squad wanted to be the one to knock you out and shut you up. You earned your trip to the finals, and personally I thought it was damn entertaining to watch.
• I'm getting pretty tired of seeing Thunder's name on the TWLJ map. That's four titles in a row. Credit where credit is due, Ease is pro in the mustard bomber, but seriously, take a season off and give the rest of us a chance. Oh, and grats on your LD title defense too. Boss, you were definitely one of the better stories in TWLJ this season. Your strong teaming helped you rebound from an 0-2 start, landed you in the playoffs as a 5 seed, and eventually led you to knock off top-seeded Dice to get into the finals. I know it didn't end the way you wanted it to, but your season still has to be considered a major success. Congratulations.
• Dice is pretty much going down in the history books as the greatest basing squad of all-time. Four TWLB titles in six seasons speaks for itself. I'd like to thank mega, Cape and Stayon for giving me the opportunity to keep the Gatorade cold all season, and Dwopple for carrying me through the most important game of my career. Much respect to, well, Respect for their expected march to the finals, but I suppose Dice's addition of a rusted out piece of shit shark in round two was something that they just didn't have an answer for in their gameplan.
• Much as I have no regrets about expanding the leagues themselves, I also have no regrets about expanding the playoff format. The finals featured two 5 seeds, Respect was the only 1 or 2 seed playing for a title, and all three champions were lowly 3 seeds. There were a lot of upsets in these playoffs. And since we all love upsets, I'd have to say the 6-team playoff format worked well.
• To the Warpaths and Anti-Scrubs: I know it was a rough season for you guys, and I really appreciate you sticking it out and continuing to show up and fight every Sunday. Your competitive spirit truly is admirable.
• Huge, HUGE thanks go out to the ERs, especially those who stepped up and chain hosted. Major <ER> in particular made me proud when he filled in for an absent host to supervise all 7½ rounds of the finals. Honorable mentions go out to MoD <ER>, Tres <ER> and incure <ER>, as well as everyone else who filled in as needed. You guys were really the glue that held the season together.
• Thanks to the TWL ops for doing a solid job and making sound decisions to keep the league running as smoothly as possible, even with the bot failures that continue to plague the zone.

I guess that's pretty much it. Just wanted to show my gratitude for getting the opportunity to run the zone's biggest population draw. It was an enjoyable experience and I feel like I learned quite a few things.

Thank you and good night, Trench Wars.

[Voth]

Thanks for hosting PH.

On a sidenote, now you can make everyone shine your TWLB ring.

[Epinephrine]

Thanks PH and to all of TW staff for donating their weekends to make sure that league runs smoothly every weekend. It's a ton of work and it wouldn't happen without you guys!

[Kid Kaos]

Good Job this season ph you did a great job running the leagues and it went rather smoothly aswell which is a plus.

[Dabram]

though i decided to take a season off, from far on the outside it seemed to be one of the smoothest seasons ever. no surprise really since PH has a sound mind and isn't afraid of taking 'tough' decisions.

finals (well saw a bit from lb and watched ld) were nice to watch.

[Izor]

This is the first time I've captained a squad and not been screwed in some way in TWL, excluding the bot dying in round 3 which was arguably our fault for putting up 2 entertaining rounds prior to that. That and everyone wanted to see me choke.

What ph hasnt mentioned here (and I dont know why) is the fact that this game's playerbase loves to whine over the dumbest shit. Mad vs Thunder was the perfect example in the semifinals, as well as whatever squad Mad played in a 15 min base game and tried to appeal when they got no hope'd. When I say I was screwed in previous seasons, I mean that there was no opportunity to play, based on scheduling from Sk8's ops or just not getting an invite from pascone despite blatant feeding in TWD to the squads that were right below us prior to the qualification ending. You'll notice I didnt whine once about the replay of the third round we were coming back strong in. Theres just nothing to whine about. Same with almost anything else this season. Scoop's lag was bad in the semifinals for Mad, but it wasnt the fault of the server or hopone, so what was anyone supposed to do about it? And they still whined. I didnt whine/appeal anything, because I knew that PH was making the right decisions for the league and he really was all season. Unfortunately in the past with coordinators like pascone and Nethila, that luxury just wasnt there. Hopefully you opt to run this league again next year, ph, but I know that you have been taxed quite a bit by whining, lack of scheduling from captains (mb), and bullshit appeals that you have gone out of your way to explain the obvious reasoning behind.

Despite the few dropout squads, I think that expanding the league to more teams was really a step in the right direction. My suggestion for next year for LD is to just stop letting Paky Dude captain squads. His squads have dropped out of TWL for 3-5 seasons in a row, and its a waste of a spot that savanger or even Paladen could have used.

To our coders and bot developers: Overall, you guys suck. The bar is set pretty low being a volunteer job and all, but you managed to underwhelm us with shitty design over the past couple months. The one person that stands out as being very good here is Arobas+, especially with TWPD. I havent seen any ego from this guy unlike some other dipshits (Maverick) who think they are god-kings on the forums because they go around fucking things up.

And lastly, to all the people who say competition in the zone has gone down: I dont see it at all. This season we had 4 top tier squads, which might even be more than last year depending on how you viewed HEAVY and Pirates. The #1 and 2 seeds going down the way they did in semifinals should be a sign that competition in that league has really just gone up. Even with those 4 squads being at the top of the league, squads like Fatal, Rapid, Dice and Sage showed that they can compete as well. Last season really only had the top 4 squads, then Dynasty and Sweet who were about on the same level, then Sake. Next season we'll most likely have a Fatal/Sweet remake, QS, Epidemic, Thunder, Dice, and Sage. All the people who choke every year and want to throw together a squad for a championship will remake mad, because those squads dont cover players like scoop, skepsis, vys, and the rest of mad/quakes players. While they might be on Disoblige which I doubt, eventually someone will step up and make that squad next year.

P.S. The turnout for the TWLD finals and DD activity should prove to everyone that wb's are still this game's premier league. I know in the offseason BWC is planned, but really I think it would be nice to see some more WB offseason leagues besides just TWDT

P.P.S. Next season I'd love to revamp TWDT, but unfortunately I dont have the skillset to mess with any of that. We tried a last ditch effort right before TWL, but it was so fucked up that there was no point by week 2. This has always been fun in the past, and lets people who normally dont get to play with their squads like money and Oops get some bragging rights if they do well. Maybe a few months before the next TWL, someone will work on it? We had some great ideas for it but just couldnt get them implemented.

[Black Mage]

Izor I think you mean TWLM for your PPS and I agree.

[Izor]

yeah i meant TWLM

[Crescent Seal]

y ph on fire?

gj as head noop this twl

[curse]

Was a fun season indeed. <3 boss see you guys next year :P

[liquor]

thanks ph for hosting the league.

Was definately a fun season, glad we could turn some head in twlj.

Shout out to boss for being the funnest squad i've played on in the 7 years ive played this game. Cudi u are a riot never seen a player more entertaining to chat with than you. Thanks for all the players who kept us alive and active (over 700 games!) over the past 6 and a half months, thanks to all the capts over our lifetime, territory scarce lorko thrill did a great job all of u in keeping squad alive and active. thanks to our twl starters who got us to finals and kept things interesting. Was a fun season would gladly squad with any of you, even subneo :P again. For the first squad ive made it was a blast!

[curse]

word bone.

[Jeenyuss]

you did a good job, guy

[Jones]

Thanks PH for this season.

Oh, and I agree with what Izor said on most points.

[Papa Diop]

I agree with Jones, Blackmage, Izor and maybe Liquor if I would have been a Boss player.

Well done, if we keep the crap whine, appeals and freaks out of this game and have more PH's, then we surtenly will be dazzled with the high amount of population playing SS the coming year or next year...thumbs up!

P Diddy