FUMBBL :: Online Blood Bowl League

Joined: Jun 13, 2005

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 00:25

Rules Clarifications and Suggestions for future E.L.F. seasons.

With a new commissioner and many new members, some questions about rules regarding the E.L.F. were bound to come up. Here are a couple of ideas towards addressing these issues for future season.

What games count for a new team – any played during the season or just those played after joining the league?

The “Bring-In” Game Rule:

A new team’s E.L.F. season officially begins when they become listed in the scoring thread (they can do this after applying and before staff gets around to accepting them). To encourage new teams to join even late into the season and to reward those coaches already competing in E.L.F. style, “bring-in” games will be allowed. Of games played between the start of the current season and becoming listed, one in each category may be reported – five games in total – to “seed” a new team’s scores. This will allow new teams to “hit the ground running” without being overly disruptive to the continuity of the season.

Is there maximum TS difference for teams playing in Unranked/Faction?

The Modified +/- 40 STR Rule:

Unranked and faction teams (and academy?) are allowed to play teams stronger than them by any measure, but if the elf team was the stronger, then they have to adhere to the ranked 40TS rule. So if you're the weaker, play on! If you're the stronger, don't be stronger by more than a ranked team can be, keep it fair. This rule is not enforced if both teams have either ST of greater than 249 or ST of lower than 100.

Those are the two major ones that everyone seemed to agree needed to be addressed. I would like your feedback on these ideas before I etch them in binary.

Also, should Academy teams be allowed to join the league? I would lean towards “yes,” but someone may have an argument against it.

I’d like to get rules questions clarified before the next season begins – please point out any other ones that you think may be unclear. So let’s hear suggestions/discussion on these ideas and others.

_________________
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Last edited by pizzamogul on %b %21, %2006 - %00:%May; edited 1 time in total

FischerKing

Joined: Oct 25, 2003

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 00:39

I have a problem with the E.L.F for this reason: Its so much about spam factor, that it would take up most your time finding the right opponents. I mean, its easy to find a chaos team, or an orc team, but to complete the cycle many times, you godda spend alot of time playing and looking for the rare teams, especially on high ratings.

Therefore I think you should limit the circles to 1 or 2 pr. month, and allow an elf team to play 2 or more chaos, orc and dwarf teams pr. month. Its not an attractive league for me to play in right now, because I whanna play alot of other stuff, and I dont have the time for it.

Rijssiej

Joined: Jan 04, 2005

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 00:42

The “Bring-In” Game Rule:

Sounds just fine to me.

The Modified +/- 40 STR Rule:

This is the rule as i recall it used to be before it mysteriously disappeared so no problems there. Wink

should Academy teams be allowed to join

Problem ppl may have with academy teams it that they might be cherry picking n00bs for ELF games. But this can actually be done in any division so i don't see it as a problem.

Rijssiej

Uber

Joined: Mar 22, 2004

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 00:44

I'd say no to academy, after all it's supposed to be a division where the results dont matter. For the TS limit, I agree that it should be imposed to faction/unranked games when you're the stronger team.

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Recovering FUMBBL addict.

Rijssiej

Joined: Jan 04, 2005

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 00:47

FischerKing wrote:

I have a problem with the E.L.F for this reason: Its so much about spam factor, that it would take up most your time finding the right opponents. I mean, its easy to find a chaos team, or an orc team, but to complete the cycle many times, you godda spend alot of time playing and looking for the rare teams, especially on high ratings.

Therefore I think you should limit the circles to 1 or 2 pr. month, and allow an elf team to play 2 or more chaos, orc and dwarf teams pr. month. Its not an attractive league for me to play in right now, because I whanna play alot of other stuff, and I dont have the time for it.

Your problems are related to the old cycle rules. Nowadays all teams report the best game vs 2 different teams of each of the 5 categories. So you only have to play 10 games and after that it's just improving your score.

Rijssiej

Warmduscher

Joined: Jun 15, 2005

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 01:14

I personally like special competitions and challenge seasons. It adds a little spice to whole system and in the ideal case really shows which of the coaches can do achieve something unusual with their teams.So do more of them I say!

FischerKing

Joined: Oct 25, 2003

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 01:23

Rijssiej wrote:

FischerKing wrote:

I have a problem with the E.L.F for this reason: Its so much about spam factor, that it would take up most your time finding the right opponents. I mean, its easy to find a chaos team, or an orc team, but to complete the cycle many times, you godda spend alot of time playing and looking for the rare teams, especially on high ratings.

Therefore I think you should limit the circles to 1 or 2 pr. month, and allow an elf team to play 2 or more chaos, orc and dwarf teams pr. month. Its not an attractive league for me to play in right now, because I whanna play alot of other stuff, and I dont have the time for it.

Your problems are related to the old cycle rules. Nowadays all teams report the best game vs 2 different teams of each of the 5 categories. So you only have to play 10 games and after that it's just improving your score.

Rijssiej

Ok, thats actually good news Smile

but theres still a substantial spam factor right ??

Edit: I read the rules now, and spam factor doesnt seem to be a very bad problem any more, and thats cool. Good changes have been made to the E.L.F !
About the 40 ts rule of U: Ofcourse they shouldnt be allowed to play down more than 40 in ts, this shouldnt be a cherrypicking league Smile

nin

Joined: May 27, 2005

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 02:37

Suggestion: I'd like if there were some bonus points for playing against higher TS teams, may be +1 or +2 for every 5 TS... that's good fluf for the group, would encourage a little extra daring but doesn't look excesive

Suggestion about the runes (that were fun imho):
most casualties = darks (they are devious and like pain)
most shut out victories = high (they are really prideful)
most 5+ touch bonuses = wood (all about scoring, not many more things to consider)
most actual points due to touch difference = pro (they know that ultimatelly, it's about scoring more than your opponent)

...and [A]cademy shouldn't be competitive

great work this season, thanks pizzamogul

steinerp

Joined: Sep 18, 2005

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 03:28

I would also propose two new rules. Both are major changes and I'm not sure how I feel about the first.

1. Make it ranked only.
I don't have a problem with homebrew or startrek.nl but I do have a problem with the Doomwood Dashers. His victory is Category A was playing vs a bunch of his friends. It may be this was in a league but if you look at the game play they were very questionably played. This would be less of a problem in ranked where you aren't supposed to play friends and even you do you can't play the same group of friends over and over. For this same reason I would say no to Academy games. I feel bad cause this would eliminate "good" unranked teams like startrek.nl. But record abominations like the Cat A have no place in the league.

2. Give double points for ranked tournament games.
Events like smacks and the majors are what this league is all about, playing all comers, not cherrypicking, being men not elves. Teams should be rewarded for this. If not double points maybe an extra 10 points.

lauth81

Joined: Aug 21, 2004

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 07:31

I would like the following:

- Accept scores after applying to the group

- no Academy Division

- TS rule applies to non-ranked member teams

_________________
no plan survives contact with the enemy

Arcon

Joined: Mar 01, 2004

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 09:13

Uber wrote:

I'd say no to academy, after all it's supposed to be a division where the results dont matter. For the TS limit, I agree that it should be imposed to faction/unranked games when you're the stronger team.

I agree with you here.
Additionally I think cherrypicking in A is easier than in other divisions.
I do not care really about what games should count when you enter the E.L.F. group. I hardly see a problem counting games before joining.

About "make it ranked only". Well I have thought about it before. Partly because of the 40TS rule in ranked. And for the other part because of what steinerp mentions. But I really can´t get enough games in to hit first ranks anyway and I do not know whether many coaches take the advantage he mentions.

The idea to give awards for tournament games is good. But what about R-tourney games that are not in the 40TS range?

Mr_Launcher

Joined: Dec 27, 2003

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 12:32

I think the "you get double points if you play vs an EMU team" rule is a little bit annoying. How I am to know if a team I'm playing vs is an EMU team? I could of course ask every opponent I play "is your team an EMU team", but since I play quite a lot of games, that would be quite tedious, and the answer would be "no" most of the time anyways.

Another thing about this rule is that if I first make play an excellent 5-0, but no cas, against a non-EMU team, I get 40 points, whereas if I play a mediocre 1-0 no cas against a EMU team, I get 44 points. I don't think EMU teams are that much harder than non-EMU teams.

I can agree that there should be some bonus in playing vs EMU teams, but does it have to be so large? How about +5 points instead? That's high enough that you still prefer to play against EMU teams, but low enough so if you forget to ask your opponent if his team is a EMU team, it's not a very huge disadvantage.

Zatoc

Joined: Aug 02, 2003

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 13:41

After joining half way though last season with my Dark Elves these 2 rules probably have some relevance to me. I started playing half way though the season and included past games from when the season started in my final result. If I had not been able to do this I would have gotten a lower score and it would of put me off joining as I only had 2 weeks to finish the cycle. Allowing previous games easiest people into E.L.F. . I will now complete in season 9 with my dark elves and this will become irrelevant

I played a legend smack game against some Kremri and included this in my E.L.F. score. I take it this would not be allowed in future due to the ts being more then 40 even tho in ranked.

Zatoc

FischerKing

Joined: Oct 25, 2003

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 14:19

How about making a smack title count +20 points ?

Wietse

Joined: Oct 09, 2003

Posted: May 21, 2006 - 14:59

As I joined halfway in the last season. I was very happy i could record my games from before i applied. I dont think there should be a limit to reporting only a certain number of games, as long as the games are played after the start of the season.

There simply is no difference in games played before or after joining the E.L.F. It would have put me off if i couldnt record those games, as i would never have competed the cycle that late in the season otherwise.

I dont exactly understand the rules to do with team strength. Whats the difference with the ranked or unranked games?

Just make the rule you cant report a match (but you can play) against a team of TS 40 lower then yours. Simple and clear to me...