Life In 19x19

I agree to make one big class - it will be more interesting with a big class and easier to find players to play

Knotwilg wrote:Apparently I'm on the small side of the poll. Here are my (largely anecdotal) arguments:

1. I don't have a problem finding games in Delta VI. In fact, I already have foregone 2 occasions to play because I just didn't feel mentally up to it. I want to take the league seriously and currently I can. And I'm not online all the time.
2. If Delta merges to one big pot, I don't see the difference with the English room. I came here to find a controlled, respectable environment where I could be assured a long game did not go to waste. In a big opaque group, that feeling of mutual trust can easily vanish. With 26 people there is social control. "Oh yeah, know that guy, never mind him.
3. I saw the name of a notorious flamer among the ASR league members. It doesn't fill me with confidence that ASR will allow me to avoid the morons who regularly ruin online play.
4. Maybe with the current members you will not fall into the hyperactivity trap. But you might attract more of those.

I like the cosiness of a class of 26 people and I'm looking forward to proceed to gamma, based on a decent winning rate.

Oh, and ever thought of organizing the delta classes according to time zones?

i have to be very clear here and say that delta VI is exceptional in comparison to ALL other delta classes. Why? Its a combination of things i think, but what is truly different to delta VI is that it consists of ONLY new players. What i do know is that they are ALL from different timezones and almost all of them played a game. So my guess is that we found a bunch of truly motivated players and this is RARE somehow in delta.

Also i would like to point out the following thing why i think delta is pretty inactive.

Consider all delta has 15 of 30 active players and all gamma have 15 of 20 active players.

In gamma the 5 who demote to gamma have played only 5 games on average, they go to delta.
In delta the most active players players rise up to gamma while the worst promoting player (no 7) played around 7 games.

You end up with the 5 almost not performing gamma and the 8 not active enough players in delta which both got a mental hit for either demoting or not promoting. That 13 demotivated players who play on avg 5 games a month!! Will they play again next month?? Imo unlikely.

To get back at the 1 dollar motivation, a transaction costs money (2 percent or smth) so you can never be fully reimbursed, also if you do this i am suddenly a organisation and this comes with a ton of stupid taxes and so on.

I "liked" this post, but I also just liked it. I think the best opportunities to improve the league experience will arise when those who know the league best really put their minds to thinking about what has happened up to now and what it means. What really drives the experience that people have throughout the different levels, etc.? People like me, with no real experience, can drop by and spout off, but it is the admins and players who have been deeply involved over the life of the league that have the best background for analyzing the experience to date. There are quite a lot of posts with suggestions, but there is not much real analysis. Each individual's experience is different. It is hard work, but I think necessary, to accept that some people have had a great experience while others have had a poor experience, and then try to work out how to preserve the great experiences while introducing changes aimed at improving the poor experiences. I do not think there is an easy solution (despite my user name! ). It is a matter of finding the right balance. It can only come from some real insight into how the league works. Thanks stalkor!

golem7 wrote:Let me suggest something rather controversial. As topazg said, people are more dedicated when they invest something. So why not add a small monetary investment?

I don't think the ASR was ever something that was about money. A league with a membership fee would look /very/ different than the ASR. Just me personally, I actually like it "free". There are paid leagues out there if you are interested, I would suggest Breakfast's league, it's an excellent paid league on KGS with pro and 8d+ teachers.

ok now im seriously scared of the following conversation i had with a league member:

stalkor: yep looks like one big group is the outcome
AOA: I am asking because in all honesty, I so like this idea of a huge group that if it's the case I want to request to not be promoted to gamma
stalkor: gonna look ugly but oh well
AOA: I want to experiment this
stalkor: you will be promoted if you are in the promotion zone
AOA: well,
AOA: it is my right to request that otherwise I'll just rejoin on another account
AOA: your call
AOA: I decide what I do

this is a part, not the full convo but this seriously is something i cannot allow EVER (see eternal beta's thread)

My reaction is - don't worry about it in advance. There are two outcomes more or less. First, it turns out not to be a big issue in practice. In that case worrying turns out to be simply a waste of time. Second, there turns out to be a significant block of players that are active/successful enough in big delta to be promoted but find the experience in the current class structure unsatisfactory to the point that they will not accept promotion. To my way of thinking there is then an opportunity to use that feedback to tweak the higher classes until it is possible to have both the entry level and the higher classes provide a satisfying and attractive experience for everyone. However, the time to consider that is once it clearly happens so that there is real information to use if appropriate. One step at a time!

"It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time."
- Winston Churchill

Is there enough information available to chart some typical "life cycles" within the ASR? There is obviously a large group that signs up in delta and then fails to play enough games to continue. Are there other typical paths, e.g.:
* Players that come into delta, play enough to continue, but never score enough to get promoted.
* Players that go steadily up through the classes, peak at some point, and settle in for a long stay in the same class.
* Players that go steadily up through the classes, peak at some point, and then drop out all at once/fall back through the classes.

Do we know whether some paths are extremely common or does the ASR tend to be unique for each person?

if i think about it i cant see a particular standard pattern, its all different.

We have the standard sign up and never play again.
The play, get promoted but then doesnt play anymore (for some reason ppl don't get that if you promote, you are playing next month. Also ''forgetting'' to tell ''i quit'' is common too )
the slow riser.
The infinite gamer who only stops playing go to crash into bed or worse.
The disapearer who is very active but doesnt tell he is on vacation for a month hence signing up a month later again.

Did i miss one? Probably:p

stalkor wrote:if i think about it i cant see a particular standard pattern, its all different.

We have the standard sign up and never play again.
The play, get promoted but then doesnt play anymore (for some reason ppl don't get that if you promote, you are playing next month. Also ''forgetting'' to tell ''i quit'' is common too )
the slow riser.
The infinite gamer who only stops playing go to crash into bed or worse.
The disapearer who is very active but doesnt tell he is on vacation for a month hence signing up a month later again.

Did i miss one? Probably:p

Can you freeze your ASR division for vacation?

not exactly freeze and we don't do it most of the time unless you really are away over a month.

what we do is that for every month you are away you are treated as if you are the last person in that class (without being visible) so you are demoted for every month you are away. So it only applies to alpha and beta since if youre in gamma, youre in delta anyway next month.

I've done it once or twice over the last 3 months, so its not common. This is reasonably ok to do on a small scale because:

- another player gets promoted in his place for that month (more activity)
- adding the vacation player a month later adds only 1 to a class extra (so class size +1) which is not a big deal.

btw the votes have been cast and next month delta will be 1 big enormous humongous titanic unbelievably large class.

one thing that will change with this is the way we give out prizes. I've already seen that if you are in delta you are having an advantage for getting whole league activity prizes etc and topazg pointed out (correctly imo) in chat that there are little to no perks for being in alpha. so were going to do things a bit differently and will post about that when i come back after the tournament in Brussels this weekend (yay, tourney time!)

what do you guys think, prizes too bottom heavy or not?

stalkor wrote:if i think about it i cant see a particular standard pattern, its all different.

We have the standard sign up and never play again.
The play, get promoted but then doesn't play anymore (for some reason ppl don't get that if you promote, you are playing next month. Also ''forgetting'' to tell ''i quit'' is common too )
the slow riser.
The infinite gamer who only stops playing go to crash into bed or worse.
The disappearer who is very active but doesn't tell he is on vacation for a month hence signing up a month later again.

Did i miss one? Probably:p

You forgot the "It's the already the 30th and I still need 3 games or I get mod killed. PLAY ME1!!11" type of player.

I was playing with the class listings for the last few months (March through October 2011) to see what kind of picture they give of the activity in the league. Some (interesting?) facts:
* The league varied in size between 511 and 263 members in those months.
* There were a total of 1033 distinct members.
* A total of 591 people joined and 790 left the league.
* By class the average percentage of leavers was: Epsilon 39%, Delta 36%, Gammma 30%, Beta 19%, Alpha 14%.
It appears that there is a core group of about 90 members who persist across all the months. A third of all members appear for one month only, while three quarters stay for one to three months.

The challenge is to build an experience in the league that takes into account the significant range of people. Hopefully it is possible to make the league something that more people will be attracted to for longer periods of time.

posted on site but posted here too for discussion

with the new implementation of the huge delta class we have thought about what this would do to prizes we give out. I've already said for a while that prizes are bottom heavy, this means that you have the best chance for prizes if you play in the delta layer. This is obviously not a good thing, because you worked yourself all the way to alpha just to have a minor chance for 1 prize. Furthermore the win% prizes are against the spirit of the league. you win points and you should be awarded according to that.

So we are making a change, making alpha a place with perks and more prizes.

first of all, all full league prizes will be from now on only from alpha to gamma, delta has a serious advantage towards activity prizes so they are therefor excluded from it.

alpha:
Top 3 prizes mainly the pro tgame, the kgs+ and an audio lecture. furthermore if you get 25+ points in place 4 to 6 you get 1 audio lecture.

beta: 1st prize is a donated teaching games from high dans (tabemasu or the likes), interchangeable for 1 audiolecture
2nd prize a audiolecture

gamma: 1st prize donated teaching games from mid to low dan, interchangeable for 1 audio lecture

delta: 1st prize donated tgame by low dan or 1 audiolecture

activity and kyu prizes remain the same but apply only from alpha to gamma.

we cant give away prizes if you dont help us out by donating! please donate here or speak to an admin about donating a teaching game or the likes!

stalkor wrote:ok now im seriously scared of the following conversation i had with a league member:

stalkor: yep looks like one big group is the outcome
AOA: I am asking because in all honesty, I so like this idea of a huge group that if it's the case I want to request to not be promoted to gamma
stalkor: gonna look ugly but oh well
AOA: I want to experiment this
stalkor: you will be promoted if you are in the promotion zone
AOA: well,
AOA: it is my right to request that otherwise I'll just rejoin on another account
AOA: your call
AOA: I decide what I do

this is a part, not the full convo but this seriously is something i cannot allow EVER (see eternal beta's thread)

It's a very large step you've taken, Stalkor, with making the bigroom. And I am very proud and excited for you and to be a member of the league. So I don't want to rush you. But I will be blatantly honest as I am known to be; there are still three things left to be done:

1. Before someone gets invited to the league, check to make sure they have 3 to 6 month's of existing game records.
Reasoning: Exactly the conversation above.

2. Before someone gets invited to the league, check to make sure they have been playing at least 10-15 games per month.
Reasoning: How many people habitually play 1 game a month only to be kicked out the following month for doing what they've always done? I'm not talking about entry requirements. I'm talking about asking someone why they think they can make our "stay a member" requirements if they obviously have not been able to do so in the past. It's a simple check (like #1) Ask your admins to do it? ^^

3. Change the activity reward on a room-by-room basis.
Reasoning: Now that you have a bigroom, the 2 for 1 reward system of the past, which worked so well for lower levels, has become passe at top levels (alpha and beta). Please make them more competitive. This month in Alpha I only got ~2 reviews out of 8 losses. I played 23 games. Look at teach with 16 wins, and he didn't get even 3rd place. For Alpha, at least, the 2 for 1 system does not work so well. If you want to attract strength to the league, reward it. For alpha, please make 4 points for 1 point loss. For beta make it 3 to 1. You should think about this, Stalkor. Alpha is going to become more active than ever with the new promotion rules and the bigroom. Quelling the activity reward there is a very good thing. Seriously, teach should have been 1st place. Of course in a 4 for 1 system Teach would have been first place. So this is not a self-serving request. True strength should win in Alpha. The most active and the strongest players congregate there. We need to increase the competition there a notch. I am so tired of playing an alpha game and the player leaves immediately after the match. This would change that. Think about doing this please.