Alot of things have happened since the last issue. The factions are running at a bi-weekly schedule and teams doesn't seem to be able to play their games either way. It might be due to people being away doing other things in preparation for the holiday so we will likely keep the bi-weekly schedule a while longer before I make any big changes. On a good note, I still don't see a clear dominance by bashy or agile teams which indicates that the faction system is good overall. Maybe there will be more games when the client supports handicaps.

Another big event since the last issue is obviously the rules review. Unfortunately, I was out of town when it was published so Mr-Klipp did all the changes for the site. Overall, I'm happy with the rules review. The BBRC did a good job and it's nice to see that the game improves. Obviously, there is still work to be done and I am sure the last few issues will be ironed out eventually.

I finally got around to adding support for the FUMBBL Login option in the client. Obviosuly, there has been some initial chaos when people had to switch but I'm certain that people will manage to set it up properly. It does add effort to teaching newcomers how to play here but the added benefits are more than worth that trouble. I'm sure you all have seen the changes in the "Games" page. Over time, it will allow us to make sure people don't abandon games by marking teams as "in game".

You have more than likely noticed the new support system and the "Security Officers" (or Gorillas for short). It is working quite well so far and it has helped us resolve your support requests at a much quicker and structured way. Naturally, most of the improvements are on the admin view of things so you don't see nearly as much benefit from it as we admins do. Suffice to say, it's much much better now.

With us nearing the end of the year, and pretty much the first birthday of the current FUMBBL system, it seems likely that we will hit 100,000 games played before the end of the year. I didn't imagine we'd wnd up with that many games back in January, that's for sure.

The site is growing steadily and it shows in the usage graphs. At peak times, the CPU is struggling to keep up with the load. It's running at 100% capacity for minutes in a row which is more than likely noticeable for you. Therefore, I am once again calling upon you all to donate a small sum in order for me to be able to upgrade the CPU again. I am aiming for a dual CPU setup this time which will increase the performance quite noticeably. Naturally, a setup like this doesn't come cheap and it with the US$ low, it would end up at around $700. I do not think this sum is unobtainable, given the number of coaches that play regularly. For instance, if each of the coaches who played within the last 24 hours donated as little as $2 it would cover the cost of the new hardware.

As this is likely the last issue before christmas, I want to wish you all a merry christmas and a happy new year (adapt this wish for well-being to something suitable if you have other religious beliefs :) ).

On that note, I'll leave you to reading the rest of this issue and remember to play lots of games so that we do hit the 100k games!