Fama & Jan' Suggestion of a new Pb Cup/League Format

Fama · Post by **Fama** » Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:21 pm

Hello everyone, I've had a brainstorming with Jan about new ideas to create a new pb cup/league format.

As these cups seems to face serious problems, we wanted to have a cup/league where pros can play with noobs in harmony without having to randomize teams. So this is what jan and I would suggest:

A mix of a Punaball League/Cup, with 2 weeks/duration.
We'll have 6-8 teams of 3 players. All teams will have 2 weeks time to play against each other team once. Since we've got Auto Servers, there isn't a need of an admin to be present. You can play 1 Game like it was casual, and then post the results on Pb topic forum.

Then, the group stage top 4 advance to the semi-finals+final which will be played on a single day.

The team composition is completely new, so read this carefully. We'll have two separate sign ups one for Group A and one for Group B.

Group A (The pro group): The seasoned pro-players enter in 2-man teams for this group. So an example of signing would be: "Tijny+Badeend signing up for group A."
Group B (The rookie group): The rookies sign up individually for group B. An example: "Jonn0 signing up for group B."

The maximum number of sign-ups in both groups is 8. So we can have max. 16 players in group A and 8 players in group B. If there is not enough players in Group B, the Championship will be played with 2 players only, without the 3rd element. Remember: The idea here is to give newcomers and newbies the opportunity to play and develop themselves with a pair of experienced players.

Anyone can sign up for group A if they think they're good enough. We won't restrict that. Likewise, if you think you belong to group B(let's try to be honest with this, to avoid a team with 3 pros), then you should sign up there. Note that individual sign-ups for group A aren't allowed. You must enter there with a 2-man team.

After we have a good number of group A and group B players, we let each group A team freely pick one player from group B to join their
team. Once the 3-man teams are formed, we can start the cup.

For group matches there will be a restriction that the group B player has to play in at least 3 matches and once with each teammate. Note that for a single match one player of the team can be unavailable as the matches are played 2vs2 format. The semi-finals will be best of 3 matches, and group B player has to play in at least 1 match per semi-final. The same rule applies for the final to be fair.

The teams will have 2 weeks to complete their max. 7 group matches. If after a deadline there are unplayed matches, one date will be fixed for a match to take place (Maybe the sunday of the 2nd week). If only one team arrives to that match, they win by forfeit. Then we go to the semis and finals with the current Quick Punaball cup system.

We think this system is good, because you can actually play with the mate you want and have an average player that can learn with more experienced players. Puna League, in our opinion, shouldn't take too long, and 2 + 1 week to complete a full league/cup won't bring any stress like we've had in previous quick cup formats, teams only need to schedule the games, play and post it on forum. The difficult part here is to commit newbies/pros to this League. Well, there will be a penalization for those who don't show up: 1st - They can be kicked from the Team(and stay 2 guys only) and 2nd - As i can't pay to make people stay and commit to a League, the team will lose 3 Points if they don't show up in the game that they previously have scheduled(they need to previously tell the opposite team 24 hours Min).

So, what do you think about this idea? Shall we do this or not?

Best Regards,

Fama & Jan [/b]

StealthBD · Post by **StealthBD** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 3:24 pm

Hello my dearest friends from the punaball community. I shall say that this intriguing proposal have a positive outcome for all puna players. There is always the Ying/Yang problem of professionals players attempting to willingfully cooperating with average and/or amateur players. It seems like a trustworthy idea if properly implemented top make the system just and fair for everyone. I understand where you guys inspired to create and share this with the community. If I am not mistaken, I believe that the mission of this operation in the long-term is to:

1) Focus on the need for cooperation between the Good and the Bad (so that the game don't end up looking like a strictly vertical organization, where winners are champions and losers are the humble survivors of this society.

2) Develop a "Training Program" for new players and old amateurs, so that we may empower and give them a sense of ownership, thus giving these individuals the ability to rise and shine as our veterans

3) To make the punaball game more popular and worthwhile user friendly experience for all our members and newly arrived fresh bloods.

Allow me to deliver a personal declaration with all due respect. "I Stefan de Rooy will join this rightful cause and fight for this quite appetizing idea proposed by Famao and Janao; and I shall lay my sword along all their fellow supporters. Let us unite and bring all players together as one punaball nation, because TODAY, WE MAKE HISTORY!!!!

The punaball world is ending! and only with God's will and a compassionate army of loyal men, we can blossom our puna community once again!!!!! - Stefan de Rooy (1987 - )

Post by **Mike Nike** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 3:54 pm

haha...thumbs up for stealth talking in that kinda language, like if he just watched some epic movie

/set epicmode 1

Fama · Post by **Fama** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 4:04 pm

If we go on with this Cup, i propose Stealth as the speaker of this Puna Winter Cup/League. He will encourage newbies to join and will rally the troops during the league.

Jan · Post by **Jan** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:44 pm

Many older players may be sceptical about puna cups that last longer than a day because many of those have failed in the past. Why would this one succeed then?

Firstly, we have 3 player squads, so one of them can be unavailable thus agreeing the dates for matches will be easier. Secondly, the motivation for rookies should be higher as they can play with pro's but still the pro's can play together. Also the teams will be more interesting and balanced this way. Thirdly, we have two autoservers and IRC, so playing will be easier as people don't need their own servers and they can meet up in IRC.

The only problem is that we lack committed players. For all players we need the commitment for 2-3 weeks to arrange their matches. It shouldn't really be hard as most of the other leagues work well in this game as well. There shouldn't be any reason why puna would be an exception.

Pingu · Post by **Pingu** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:05 pm

Ill join group B

I think this idea is nice on paper but dont really work in practice

Post by **dede** » Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:35 pm

Count me in, if you decide to organize it

Jan · Post by **Jan** » Tue Dec 04, 2012 9:17 pm

I'll post this here to keep the other thread clean.

The biggest problem of this format is that the matches must be played so quickly. The teams don't really have time to practice and at least I always worry if we get our matches played and the most important thing is to get the matches played rather than winning them. I don't know if other people share this feel, but for me it takes the whole fun away. A solution for this would be to allow one week to play one match. This would mean a very long league though and I'm not sure if people (or I) would be ready for that. Probably the quick one day tournament is the best way to do it after all. Your thoughts?

Post by **dede** » Tue Dec 04, 2012 10:29 pm

My current availability is next to 0, so scheduling matches isn't really something I can do. I can decide to stay home 1 night to play a F1 race or some random Quick PB Cup, but nothing more.

When this league started, our team agreed on playing every possible game with a random team composition, without even telling to who we leave out of the game. It's so hard to find mates and opponents online at the same time, so that's the way we got to do.

About PB cups "all-in-one-night", this is the summary in my opinion:

+ all matches played (except if some newba leaves)
+ high pressure all concentrated in 1h30m/2h
+ reliabe results
- some random teams (this can be fixed, more or less, by deciding teams at subscription)
- way too long competition, hard to keep concentration for so long
- (personal) too much stress for administrator (and that affects my gameplay during groups phase)

Post by **Whiplash** » Tue Dec 04, 2012 11:31 pm

The biggest minus for me is writing and reading private messages in order to get people on the field at the right time.

Fama · Post by **Fama** » Tue Dec 04, 2012 11:39 pm

Indeed, try not to say anything;)

Fama · Post by **Fama** » Wed Dec 05, 2012 9:38 am

This is my opinion about this "Beta" league:

+ A new opportunity to newcomers/newbies
+ Less stress for players and organization
+ Short League
+ Motivation from more experienced and newbies
+ Unexpected results
+ Players are also Managers(good management of the team is fundamental)
+ Players can have their favorite mate and pick another player
+New players

- Having to establish connection with everyone in order to play (i'm doing this constantly and it's working, but well, my patience won't last forever). In most cases, teams don't talk among themselves about a new arrangement.
- Schedules: little autonomy - After few games played, I had to schedule the rest of the games by myself. Although I know its very hard to make it.
-Like jan said, having to play 1 game monday and 3 games on wednesday because everyone show up on wednesday

Dede: Next xmas edition all in 1 night(after this league ends) maybe you could start posting it for 20's december