ok.
I want to try and clarify what i'm saying. I wrote it on discord the other night but to go into more detail.
I believe that due to such a small player pool we are dividing all our efforts of competitive games across too many leagues, cups and tournaments. In an ideal world, EVERY competitive game of WA would go into 1 global ladder/league.
I don't know what MI has planned for TUS 3.0 but first try to imagine a system similar to this.
Instead of having TUS allround, TTL, ONL and TRL. There was one larger ladder. Opponents HAVE to agree picks before they start the first game to avoid playing a scheme your not interested in playing. I say this because there is nothing wrong with agreeing picks before the first game starts and agreeing the games you want to play. It should be encouraged to stop lame tactics of second game picks happening after game one because if you win game 1 which was your opponents pick, and then pick game 2 you are bias of trying to go 2-0 easily, but if you lost you are biased of trying to go for 1-1. This happens a lot when players don't pick before game 1 starts, this would have to be a rule that is enforced. Also this rule is good for time poor wormers because personally I would not play an opponent in the ladder who wanted to wxw or big rr. I'm time poor with WA and I only want to play schemes I enjoy. However, going back to my original vision for this ladder, just because i'm focused on a reduced number of schemes, doesn't mean those games I play can't go into an overall global ladder or ranking.
So if TUS allround, TTL, TRL and ONL are merged you have 1 global standing.
There would be playoffs for EACH scheme if the criteria for those schemes were met - we can decide how many games are needed to try a scheme only playoff to occur in that scheme and how many PO spots. But lets just say at least 20 games per player, 80 in total and 4 spots.
You then still have the allrounder playoffs for the main ladder, but players can decide to opt out of the allround playoffs if they want to. There would be an option to toggle a box if they want to opt out of playoffs. This would also be available for scheme specialist playoffs, maybe i ended up playing over 20 ropers while i was happy playing bngs, t17s and elite as i decided i was ok playing my opponents pick, (sometimes i enjoy roping!) some how i got into the roper playoffs but dibz, mablak and sock are also qualified, I opt out and give my place to someone else (this is probably rare) - Maybe Deadcode plays all his t17 games but wins everyone and has a high enough overall rank to make the allround playoffs, he's not interested because he only plays t17 and decides to opt out of the allround playoffs and a spot goes to the next seed.
This system would in theory mean that all the TRL, ONL, TTL games end up becoming apart of the main global worms ladder. We'd have to work with the league admins of ONL to agree merging into a global ladder. But in theory nothing would change as all the inter players just play inter and still get inter playoffs, but those standings might look a little different.
I also think that CUP games on tus should be added into the main ladder, you can still run a cup and have cup winners but the game gets duplicated and features into the global ladder, it still calculates points based on ratings etc. - This helps the health of the global ladder.
Playoffs could be a bit different, the games wouldn't count in the ladder because Playoffs would fall outside of it, but they should certainly effect your rating.
Advantages
- More competitive worms games going into 1 global ladder would show more activity, this would hopefully attract more players and keep players interested. Then the same number of league games that the current community is playing would count towards the main ladder and activity would look much higher. This increase in activity may then encourage more league play and a positive snowball.
- bigger player pool
- No duplicating scheme ratings, instead of two t17 ranks in two leagues, all my t17 games are now 1 rating. Same with inter.
- scheme specialists can still have their scheme specialists playoffs and championship - it might encourage more activity for a roper, bng, elite etc and new season champions in specific schemes
- The system would encourage players doing a bit more cross play and trying other schemes and developing their skill, at their choice!
- A flexible system where you can still play competitive worms but only take part in playoffs you were interested in
- More recognition for most popular schemes.
DisadvantagesPotentially more moderation for playoffs - we'd need strict rules about playing games on time and moderators who are happy to remove someone who didn't show enough effort. Screenshots of direct messages and pm's with mods cc'd in are recommended to show players trying to arrange.
Some people may feel there are too many trophies to keep up with but in theory it's just the same as having a winner for ONL, TTL and TRL right?
Challenges Finding a layout which is nice and shows allround ladder but can easily see the ladders for the other popular schemes like inter and t17
Getting ONL to stop ONL and become a part of something bigger.
Let's take some examples.KRD only enjoys playing island t17, he can still play this scheme against opponents who also like this scheme, he has no problems finding matches. But now int he t17 ladder, the games of players like free who t17s in tus allround are also in the scheme ladder. Free might play 20 t17s over a season and he might decide to opt into the t17 playoffs, KRD makes the playoffs too, but his position in the overall ladder is just based on his t17 wins and he opts out of the allround ladder.
KRD struggles to find a game of t17, but stills someone is searching for tus. That player is a defaulter, its free. Free fancies playing elite that evening, t17 asks if he's ok doing t17 for KRDs pick. They both play and now the activity of worms is slightly increasing because all the t17 games for league are in one place.
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There is just all blue sky thinking but personally i think it would be a better solution to what we have now where all our ladders are separate and we are splitting limited activity across too many leagues.
