Re: Advanced Study Room
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 6:10 am
i got this email a few days ago from a league player
i replied like this
i wonder how you guys think about these points, if we have enough data we might be able to change some rules and improve the league:)
Hello! Vortex gave me your e-mail address.
I've been thinking a long time about the league and I think I may have identified a serious psychological problem. I actually like the current system somewhat but I've noticed some people are becoming discouraged.
What I think is, the league structure right now, may actually discourage participation. The reason why is that the league is getting choked up with strong players at the bottom. Allow me to explain by example. Let's say ten strong players joined the league -- doesn't matter all at once or even just two a month. say, 4-dans and 5-dans like raptor, cyc, even myself if I may be so bold and give myself an extra stone or two. Given the current structure of the league, assuming that each of these ten players were promoted each month (at the rate of two per month) it would take seven months for them to all reach Alpha. That's because as two per room in delta and gamma are promoted, that becomes two per beta (but four joined beta). That means after a while, the system becomes bottom-heavy; there are too many active and strong players below who simply cannot get promoted - perhaps, ever. The theory here is that due to the popularity of the ASR, it is attracting increasingly stronger players. So this post is really about catering to the stronger players in the league, making it more popular as a whole, and so on. As for me personally I think it's clear I am benefiting from the system as it stands as I'm not the strongest player in Gamma III (cyc, mafuchin and raptor are all stronger). So I hope my comments are not seen as self-serving.
The problem is actually a little worse than I described. Because not only does it take a minimum of 7 months for the league to right itself, during that time no one can promote other than those people. In the third month for example, Gamma and Beta would each have four strong players, meaning the normal players wouldn't stand a chance at promotion for months until they all passed through. I believe this is causing extreme discouragement and is why some people aren't caring about their matches.
I think there are a few approaches to this problem. I'll try and avoid the ones we have previously discussed, just because I just wanna bounce my new thoughts off you.
ONE. Introduce a rank requirement to join the league. If players are weaker than (for example) 5k, perhaps they shouldn't be allowed to join the league. REASONING: This will make the league smaller. As a result the two-person promotion rule will not choke up the league to the extent it does with 170+ people in it. I know the league wants to encourage participation but clearly the system as it stands is choking up at the bottom end.
TWO. Consider temporarily seeding any new mid dan on the waiting list directly into alpha or beta. Theory being if the league was top heavy it would be a much better place for learning. As it is now most people in a room simply have zero chance of promoting because the rooms are too uneven.
THREE. Increase the number of games required to stay in the league from four to eight and do NOT allow exceptions!!! If someone can't even play 2 games a week they are not going to improve, seriously. Four games is extremely low considering no one in the top 4 positions in any room played less than 16 games this month. If you are going to reward activity like that it just doesn't make sense to keep people who can't play 8 games in a month. If the reasoning here is mainly to make the league smaller, then increasing the number from 4 to 5 is also good.
FOUR. Cap the participation reward. Some rule such as "you must have a 50% win rate to be considered for promotion". This can be worded in a number of ways; A way I think is very good is to state that you cannot have more points from lost games than from half your wins. Meaning, if someone has ten losses against different people and three wins (in a 14 person room) their total points are 6 for the wins, and 6 (not 10) from the losses.
In closing I hope you consider the "solutions" I proposed. I think that they would really tighten up the league and as a result of that it would actually attract many more stronger players by offering them a slightly more "quality" oriented environment (versus quantity).
i replied like this
let me go over every solution one by one and let me rant about what i think is right or wrong about it.
ONE. Introduce a rank requirement to join the league. If players are weaker than (for example) 5k, perhaps they shouldn't be allowed to join the league. REASONING: This will make the league smaller. As a result the two-person promotion rule will not choke up the league to the extent it does with 170+ people in it. I know the league wants to encourage participation but clearly the system as it stands is choking up at the bottom end.
Introducing rank requirement is one of the things i dont want in the league, i think everyone is allowed to play in this league no matter what their strength is. most weak players know in advance they have strong players in their class, the downside is that the players of similar rank are not as active as the stronger ones and thus they tend to play only stronger players. I know of this flaw and ive been thinking about promoting/demoting 3/6 ppl per class but that makes the demotion range way too big i think so thats a problem. furthermore, i know gamma class chokes every strong player now. delta layer is supposed to have 8 classes (so that the 2 promote 4 demote in gamma is correct) and since i ALWAYS seed strong players (this month was bizarre with sign ups) it shouldnt be a problem.
TWO. Consider temporarily seeding any new mid dan on the waiting list directly into alpha or beta. Theory being if the league was top heavy it would be a much better place for learning. As it is now most people in a room simply have zero chance of promoting because the rooms are too uneven.
This is the thing i REALLY want to avoid. in the old system (which was classes beneath eachtother with unlimited room) i thought it was REALLY unfair that a new player got high in the league immediately solely relying on the rank. Also with the upcoming huge prizes, is it really fair to have a new player seed into alpha while another player has struggled really hard to get there? i think the system should be equal to everyone to avoid being in a role where i put ppl in front of others because i think that it is right.
THREE. Increase the number of games required to stay in the league from four to eight and do NOT allow exceptions!!! If someone can't even play 2 games a week they are not going to improve, seriously. Four games is extremely low considering no one in the top 4 positions in any room played less than 16 games this month. If you are going to reward activity like that it just doesn't make sense to keep people who can't play 8 games in a month. If the reasoning here is mainly to make the league smaller, then increasing the number from 4 to 5 is also good.
i want to keep the league active but also make it "social". The point is that quality is also (in my view) a small review of what went wrong or right in the game, although some might play less then "active" players, they might still enjoy a good review or talk about the game afterwards. I think you are right about 4 being not enough, im being lenient as it is just accepting 4 games, not as the rules say "at least 4 different opponents". i will have a talk with the other admins and try to raise the minimum to 5 or 6 games.
FOUR. Cap the participation reward. Some rule such as "you must have a 50% win rate to be considered for promotion". This can be worded in a number of ways; A way I think is very good is to state that you cannot have more points from lost games than from half your wins. Meaning, if someone has ten losses against different people and three wins (in a 14 person room) their total points are 6 for the wins, and 6 (not 10) from the losses.
if a player play 39 games (all ppl in their class three times) and loses them all their point total is 22,75 this is equal to winning 12 games versus different ppl (12 x 2). the point is that an active player SHOULD be rewarded, they are that eager to play. at some point for the weaker players it will be impossible to promote due to the opponents strength. this is still balancing out and i reckon it will take another 2 months to get a good balance, after that a weak player will hit a huge wall at beta and will have a hard time staying in their class. you could argue that the stronger player is "lazy" but i wont:P
i hope to hear more productive thoughts from your side.
on a side note, is it good to post this discussion on the website or on the L19 forum?
greetings,
Bas (stalkor)
i wonder how you guys think about these points, if we have enough data we might be able to change some rules and improve the league:)


