The pirate theme is now over. The time for Santa hats has come!
I’m going to provide some santa hat png’s at the bottom of the blog you may use. Or if you only use the computer for that Ancient Defenders game and can’t figure out how to do The Photoshop you can send me the source image of your discord avatar and I’ll send it back to you Christmas themed. Suggestive Weebs get a special surprise.
With that out of the way, let’s not forget to congratulate Don’t Ban My Prophet for winning Season 3!
The rest of the blog I’m going to talk about season theme, and league format.
Theme
I thought the theme was very successful! Most team names were pirate themed, which I think worked out a lot better than disorganized cringey/edgy dead and dying memes. Clare’s blogs were pirate themed, and pirate hats stuck around the discord for a while! So DM me your thoughts about the theme even if you have nothing but complaints.
League format
Every year the admins listen to us whine like a buncha babies about some drama. I’m putting my suggestions in a blog to kick off the discussion.
Teams Should be 5 players
Instant positives
- Lower medal players get to play both games instead of getting swapped out and feeling less apart of the team and less apart of the league. This should lead to more practice and learning, as is the name of the league.
- Teams will not be forced to play at a medal disadvantage if one of their high medal players are away the team would not be forced to play their 5th pick as a replacement. You can always get a medal appropriate stand-in.
- Mid and lower medal players will be more likely to get the position they want. 5 player teams mean there will be more teams so the distribution of Legend and Archon players will be more spread out. Crusaders will probably be 3rd pick in the draft.
Drawbacks and their solutions
- We don’t have enough captains. Solution: We had a lot of maybes on the signup sheet.
- Drawback: People have lives and commitments. 6 player teams make things easy when someone misses a game. They make things easy to schedule but, as above, they don’t make things fun for the team that’s forced to play at a medal disadvantage. Solution: Standin and free agent pool exists for a reason. This leads me to…
Changes to standin rules.
- Draft sheet medal of standins does not matter . A legend 1 @ signup standin who grinds up to Ancient should not be considered a Legend 1 standin.
- Player’s current medal should also matter. An Archon 1 who grinds up to Legend 1 should be able to find a Legend 1 standin.
I propose a formula for how a standin can be decided.
The current medal of the standin should be no more than 2 stars higher than the replaced players draft sheet medal except when: the player to be stood in for has risen more than 2 stars in medal in which case the current medal of the standin should be equal to or less than the current medal of the player.
So if I’m Archon 1 on the draft sheet and never gain mmr my team can get an Archon 3 or lower medal standin (current rule but uses standins current badge instead of draft badge)
If I was Archon 1 and I grind up to legend 1 I am eligible for a legend 1 or lower standin. This way captains aren’t penalized for drafting rising players.
Current badge disputes can be settled by Listen Bot.
These same rules should apply to free agent player replacements.
5 Man teams means we’d also need to have more forgiving rules to how frequently people can use standins (since this is a 0$ league and people have IRL commitments and stuff). I propose:
Teams may play officials with 1 standin any number of times. (If the same player misses 3 weeks, the player gets replaced as is the current rule)
Teams may play with 2 standins only once in the regular season. Never in the playoffs.
Players on other teams may be used as standins during rescheduled games and eliminated players may be used as standins in the playoffs.
That’s all
Luth
Hopefully these maintain their png-ness on publish
