i think reducing season length to 2 months and a change on the visual experience of browsing and navigating the site for first time users will improve things, MI has agreed to making it a bit more simply to see the most active and current league. It might be worth hiding TEL, rope league and all those other variations somewhere for historical data browsing and not to overwhelm us with so many links and places to go...
I like the idea of scheme classes, but i personally would only enforce them at a PO stage? And the POs could be very minimum at this stage due to active of only 4 playoff spots? Bo3 or Bo5 from the different 'classes'? Whatever those classes are is indeed up to debate and probably should be done in a separate topic.
I don't see an issue in including moleshopper and ariel into the mix personally, but i do understand the point of views of people saying its too many schemes to master, however it doesn't matter if you can't master them all surely? Because you make up your skills in another area, and as long as the playoffs have the right 'classes' you'll be ok knowing that if someone was the best ariel/hysteria player in POs, you've still got a chance to pick elite/inter, roper, or ttrr/bigrr if you know what i mean?
finding the right class groups won't be easy.. but lets worry about that in the POs and see if we get increased activity? even if POs are picking an approved scheme in order, and as long as the highest seed player has first choice, its still fair and the best allrounder should still win?
If an allrounder today means being pro in moleshop and ariel then so be it, they are the more active player and popular schemes on WA and PO seeds will be determined by your activity and skill level which should reflect the current state of wormnet right? The league should represent what people are playing in AG and people are still playing classic and people are playing newer schemes, so lets have an inclusive league of what represents today's wn. I've got no issues with someone who totally owns these new schemes being in POs because they deserve their place there for taking the time to learn and enjoy that scheme.
its just the same as 10 years ago, technical experts in one scheme like ryan and lordhound in rr, or komodo in bng could nearly get a 100% win, but thats why we've got rating schemes now to encourage allround activity. Imagine if mablak and random00 were active with all their allrounder schemes maxed out with elite rating, add a new scheme and they would need to train and learn it before seeing that rating increase, so a pro in moleshopper, at somepoint is going to start picking their weaker schemes if interested in points to be champion of wa.
thinking about this more, with 2 month seasons, 4 place POs and maybe 30 games to reach POs spot, highest points earn a PO spot. That would be enough to sustain a league and system perhaps for todays level of activity? Players like dibz, oldsock, csongi, sentator, etc could easily play enough games to have POs and be the season champion again and that might be enough to encourage old players to return, but newer players to take part, especially if schemes in that system included schemes they enjoyed. Look at the tournaments, they are still active and popular, WA isn't dying, its just evolving and we need a league that represents the interest of todays players, but new gen and classic.