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shadow46x2



Joined: Nov 22, 2003

Post   Posted: Oct 14, 2013 - 21:22 Reply with quote Back to top

So, as of recently, there has been a fairly significant decrease in applicants to the weekly Scheduled Smacks.

In the spring, we were running fairly smoothly with probably 10-12 Smacks a month kicking off. Currently, though, we've had 1 Smack successfully kick off in the past month.

While, admittedly, this time of year always sees a small hit to participation, due to the FUMBBL Cup, it's never been this barren. Usually the count will drop in the higher range brackets, but the lower brackets will continue to see participation. This time around, though, participation is at an all-time low.

For the past several years, Scheduled Smacks have been my baby, and I'd like to find ways to bring them back to a more prominent position, but I need input from the community on what you feel is wrong, or can be improved upon, with the scene.

In the past, there have been calls for changes to Smacks on a semi-annual basis. Some of these requests have been very unreasonable, but some are quite plausible.

What I'm curious about though, is to take a poll of the community to get your thoughts.

Yes, I said poll, but there is no poll attached to this forum, because I need a little bit more information than simply what's listed in a radio-button poll.

I'm curious about the following:

1) Do you currently, or have you in the past, participate in Scheduled Smacks?
2) If you do, why has your participation dropped?
3) If you don't, why do you choose to not participate?
4) What would increase your interest in Scheduled Smacks, and drive you to participate more?

Please note a few things:

This is not a discussion about Instant Smacks. That is an entirely different subject, and I'd prefer to not muddy the waters in getting the two subjects mixed in the same thread.

Additionally, this is an open discussion thread, but I do request that before elaborating on points, please take a moment to throw in your answer to the poll question.

Thanks for listening, and hopefully we can build some good out of this.

--j

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JackassRampant



Joined: Feb 26, 2011

Post   Posted: Oct 14, 2013 - 21:26 Reply with quote Back to top

I keep thinking I'm going to join up and play in scheduled Smacks, but I just <3 my 1500-1700 teams and always forget to trim their treasuries down so they can play at the non-Legend level. (I'm also a little shy about trimming treasury, 'cause usually Nuffle sees me run low on cash and takes a liking to my positionals....)

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Synn



Joined: Dec 13, 2004

Post   Posted: Oct 14, 2013 - 21:36 Reply with quote Back to top

I would enter scheduled SMACKs if the TW limits/usage was adjusted.

Also would be fun if the prizes were upped a bit. Not sure what is possible in this arena.

Finally, would love to see B and R both accepted with equal ridicule.

__Synn
**Edit for poll answers:

1.) I have in the past once or twice.
2.) void
3.) I would have done it more if I didn't only have to use a Legend team (TW).
4.) See above Smile


Last edited by Synn on Oct 15, 2013 - 02:35; edited 1 time in total
Azure



Joined: Jan 30, 2007

Post   Posted: Oct 14, 2013 - 21:43 Reply with quote Back to top

1) Do you currently, or have you in the past, participate in Scheduled Smacks?
Yes, many times have I played in Scheduled Smacks - with my pro elves probably being the most involved with 9 Legend and 2 other smacks played.

2) If you do, why has your participation dropped?
Mostly because I forget to reapply after a smack fails to launch on week. Get a bit discouraged that fail to get a smack 2-3 weeks in a row, then forget about continuing to try. Also lack of real prize hurts my elf teams in the long run.

4) What would increase your interest in Scheduled Smacks, and drive you to participate more?
Two things: one is to increase the prize payoff - with overtime possible, and some of the bash heavy teams - combined with spiraling expenses, it becomes very difficult for lower AV teams to continue to be viable, so 100k (same as winning a RRR) prize money would be really nice and encourage me to participate more.

The other aspect would be to widen the TW range. This could be as easy as making them 35 or 40 TW bands instead of the current 25. Or to simply follow the example of BBB - not worry about bands at all, but just take interested applicants and group them up based on closest TW to each other and let them play.
Woodstock



Joined: Dec 11, 2004

Post   Posted: Oct 14, 2013 - 21:54 Reply with quote Back to top

Change brackets to -1400, 1400-1800, 1800+
CroixFer



Joined: Jan 05, 2012

Post   Posted: Oct 14, 2013 - 22:09 Reply with quote Back to top

I do participate and will keep doing. I would accept to join the smack and wait till 8 teams are in to kick it off. I do not mind to wait and would like to see it done so I do not have to join the group every week to no avail...

Sometimes I forget to join. A reminder to last week participants (specially if not scheduled) would also be useful.

Regards and good luck. I would also like to see them working again.
koadah



Joined: Mar 30, 2005

Post   Posted: Oct 14, 2013 - 22:20 Reply with quote Back to top

Announcements disappear from the the blogs list very quickly.
How about creating a group of Smack/Brawl coaches so that they can all be sent a promotion PM.

A publicity officer would be good. Someone who could do the kind of write ups that Chainsaw has been doing for the FC.

Edit: -1400, 1400-1800, 1800+ makes sense too.


1) Do you currently, or have you in the past, participate in Scheduled Smacks?

Have in the past.

2) If you do, why has your participation dropped?
3) If you don't, why do you choose to not participate?

Time & scheduling issues

4) What would increase your interest in Scheduled Smacks, and drive you to participate more?

Loads more time. Wink
Do something about TW. Make it more Brawl style. Have an end of season Winners Championship.

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Last edited by koadah on Oct 15, 2013 - 11:07; edited 1 time in total
Purplegoo



Joined: Mar 23, 2006

Post   Posted: Oct 14, 2013 - 22:38 Reply with quote Back to top

Hello, shadow.

1+2. Not as often as I'd like. This is partly due to being time poor and unable to honour the commitment, and partly because I often get an interesting team, and forget to trim their cash to get them in the correct bracket
4. I think there are a small number of things that may kickstart the format;

a) I think TW is a valuable idea. The plan / thrust was good; the execution can be painful / harmful. I'd like a button that freezes my treasury, or part thereof, for a tournament on the basis I can have it back afterwards. e.g. My TV 1500 team puts their 200k in a 'safe', it goes unused in the SMACK (harming noone else), I can play Vet, and then on my exit, cashback
b) Whilst some coaches need saving from themselves re: Inducements being a cure all; I think it's clear we can't sustain so any brackets in these days of reduced traffic. I might consider doing away with Elite, 2000 seems a useless number these days. 1750 then limitless?
c) The prize of victory should be sufficient, but the old linking events argument could be shoehorned in here. Did someone say Tour (insert usual chat about making it more interesting than bland, flat KOs)?
d) Ultimately, the only way to guarantee numbers is acessing as many coaches as possible. That means B. The question of quantity over what a SMACK is, or historically has been, isn't for me to answer. That's on you, you lucky guy
JackassRampant



Joined: Feb 26, 2011

Post   Posted: Oct 14, 2013 - 22:42 Reply with quote Back to top

Fix TW, or specify a TV cap for entry and for TV+Petty Cash each round (maybe escalating 100k/round or something). That might get a lot of people off the fence. I guess I'll build 1500 TW and 1750 TW teams, plus run a Legend team.

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koadah



Joined: Mar 30, 2005

Post   Posted: Oct 14, 2013 - 22:55 Reply with quote Back to top

Purplegoo wrote:
...


Agree with a-c.

But Box has the Brawl and doesn't really need Sched Smacks. A way to run combined instants would be good though.

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Rabe



Joined: Jun 06, 2009

Post   Posted: Oct 14, 2013 - 23:05 Reply with quote Back to top

1) Do you currently, or have you in the past, participate in Scheduled Smacks?

I have played a few Scheduled SMACKS with the Monsters (and even got into a final once). I also planned to join with low(er) TV teams, but never got that far.


2) If you do, why has your participation dropped?

For a long time my time slots for gaming were too slim. I didn't want to risk to get drawn against someone who was not comfortable with European evening time, because scheduling would have become very inconvenient (I've experienced it in Majors quite a few times).

Another reason: I only applied one team per week because having 2+ scheduling obligations would have been too much. This might have led to me not playing at all, because no high TV Sched SMACK kicked off and I hadn't applied for the low one. Partly kept me from getting low TV teams into SMACKs, because if I had the time, I wanted to play the Monsters. Wink

Same goes with my League commitments of late: If I know I have to play 1+ league games a week, it's often enough to not let me apply to Scheduled SMACKs.

Whenever a (Ranked) Major is coming up, I don't join SMACKs as well, because I don't want to risk being stuck in one and miss a Major application.


4) What would increase your interest in Scheduled Smacks, and drive you to participate more?

Just some ideas, some probably not realistic:

- a way to state how many teams you want to actually enter at most (ie. I could apply to all brackets, but only 1-3 teams would actually get in)
- publicly known dates for Major kick-offs at least 3 weeks in advance (so that I can tell exactly whether I can play another SMACK before the Major is drawn)
- fun/famous teams announcing their appearance in the next Sched. SMACK
- prize money (50-100k)
- some sort of season final (like every 100th Royal Rookie Rumble or this thing the Black Box Brawl has occasionally) where only the most successful teams from a "season" (however that is defined) are invited
- a trophy image to put on my team/coach bio
- a way to make sure you only find high TV teams in the "Legend" bracket (if I join a "Legend" SMACK I'm nor really keen on getting scheduled against a 1500-1600k team); maybe something like a TW that only counts a certain amount of the treasury in (100-200k)
- +1 for koadah's publicity officer
- +1 for koadah's group of Smack/Brawl coaches + promotion PM


Thanks for bringing this issue up! I'd love to see more Scheduled SMACK action. Especially the rare times I apply myself of course.
Although I'm pretty sure that a publicly announced participation of the Agility Monsters drives some coaches (cherry pickers and fluff lovers alike) to participate in that particular SMACK. Wink

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xnoelx



Joined: Jun 05, 2012

Post   Posted: Oct 14, 2013 - 23:31 Reply with quote Back to top

1. Yes.
2. Yes, and if anything I've been applying more recently, after seeing your blogs with all those 0s for teams applied. My participation has been sporadic though, because I usually just forget about them.
4. It's never put me off applying, but one point is that they do tend to be dominated (in terms of numbers, not just who wins) by high-level coaches who've been here a long time. I'm not sure how well information about them is disseminated to new coaches. Perhaps some sort of tie-in with the 145 Club? Their open leagues are popular, but their KO tourneys also suffer from very low participation.
There may also be some confusion between the similarly named Scheduled and insta-SMACKs (for newer coaches, that is). Maybe time for a re-branding when/if you make any changes arising from this thread?

Edit: And an idea that just came to me, so may not be well-thought out: perhaps CR limits instead of TW/TV? I know in the past I've spoken with other rookie-ish coaches about the lack of anything realistic to aim at between the 145 titles and the SMACKs/Majors. And with the way CR works on a bell curve, the majority of coaches on-site are pretty much in that position.

I'm thinking loose brackets here; Rookie, Experienced and Vet coaches in one, with, as mentioned above, possible ties to the 145 Club; Emerging Star and Star in another, Superstar and Legend coaches in the last maybe?

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koadah



Joined: Mar 30, 2005

Post   Posted: Oct 14, 2013 - 23:54 Reply with quote Back to top

Heh, heh. Well, the O[L]C could do with a Grand Prix admin. Mr. Green

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JackassRampant



Joined: Feb 26, 2011

Post   Posted: Oct 15, 2013 - 00:15 Reply with quote Back to top

I like Woodstock's idea of 1.4/1.8/unlimited brackets and PGoo's idea of being able to hold off Treasury. The latter could be implemented informally: require coaches playing in Smacks to specify how much Treasury they have to hold back in the team bio (erase after the Smack). This could easily be confirmed with a group PM.

Hmmm... that would mean tighter brackets would be okay. That might mesh with Goo's idea of making the unlimited bracket start at 1750k. Or group two adjacent TWs when necessary. This would also require a group PM, but we're already there in the first paragraph.

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Johnny_KTOU



Joined: Aug 11, 2008

Post   Posted: Oct 15, 2013 - 08:09 Reply with quote Back to top

1/ No.

3/ Been fairly confused with the system: I wasn't sure if anyone that applied was started in tournament of whatever size, or if applications only worked for a week and cancelled if not enough players, or if the tournament was started as soon as there was enough players... In doubt that it might be the latter one, I didn't really want to commit and then get stuck if the games were starting 3 weeks later.

I was actually going to apply when the Stunty Cup started (was going to PM you Shawdow to have some clarification first), but then realised the Fumbbl Cup was starting too; and there is no way I was able to do more than two tourneys at the same time.

However whenever I'll get kicked out (and/or win both Very Happy ), I'll definitely apply, so keep it up!

As someone said above, I'd be disappointed if I wasn't on when I applied, and although I'd still reapply and reapply, it does seem to be a shame that several players are rejected when a tournament could be started with them.
So maybe create more flexible/wider TW range categories when necessary, or group the teams with the closest TW together to decrease the number of players rejected?

But again, I'll definitely apply with my Bengals when I'm free-ish, so keep it up!!

Edit: better reward (100k?) would definitely have gotten me interested sooner Laughing
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