League General Discussion Thread

[TheVeteran]

how often do the league standings get updated?

[gamerman01]

Daily when Gamer is in a hot A&A game
I try for at least weekly but when I get busy and distracted, sometimes it’s a bit longer.
Congratulations on finishing 3 games, 2-1, and a 3.67 Points per game average! Welcome to the league
@bretters

[gamerman01]

I don’t think I’ve ever asked anybody this, but I would like to ask you - how did you discover the league and decide to try it out? How long have you been playing A&A? Thanks

[TheVeteran]

@gamerman01
Nice, thank you!

[TheVeteran]

@gamerman01
Well I knew my buddy (IRL) Captain Napalm was playing league on here and so I decided I’d join him. Feckingwrecked was one of my wins on league we have been playing games casually (we know each other in person as well) and just brought our game to the league this time.

I learned Axis and allies back when I was in college so sometime between 2006-2009 and then didn’t play much for years (except for games against the AI on TripleA lol) until recently been playing a lot sense I met Joel aka feckingwrecked back in May of 2019.

[aequitas-et-veritas]

@gamerman01 Wittman introduced me to the League. He said I should join and I did.
Never regret it. Found tons of people for a nice challenge and a couple new friends on top!

[gamerman01]

Sweet, guys, thanks, good to know

[Curtmungus]

@gamerman01 said in League General Discussion Thread:

I don’t think I’ve ever asked anybody this, but I would like to ask you - how did you discover the league and decide to try it out? How long have you been playing A&A? Thanks

BOOM!
Did I scare you?

I was in a bar in Vancouver BC called the “Junction” and started hearing some regular nerd call @Gargantua talk about some game. He said it was better than chess but he would tell me its name so I put him in a headlock and made him squeal! He never came back!

I play A&A only with weights. 2 45lbs on each end baby! Boom all day!

[gamerman01]

Pretty epic, to first hear of the game from Gargantua in the flesh

[Colt45554]

Could someone tell me when the new season starts? Is it just calendar year January 1st? Would like to try League then.

Are the “moderators” for the site also the League moderators? Or is there specific/main League mods?

As for Gamerman’s question, credit again goes to Witt for suggesting League to me long ago.

[farmboy]

@Colt45554 Jan 1st is when it starts. Although games that finish after Jan 1st count towards next year’s season so it is quite possible that games that start now will count towards next year. I believe the moderator here is gamerman but there might also be others. I’m pretty sure it is separate from the site though.

Also, if you are new, it can sometimes be a little hard to find your first game. But @chaptim expressed interest in a game a few days ago and I don’t think he found it yet.

[chaptim]

:+1: let’s do that

[WindowWasher]

@gamerman01 was looking for strategy guides when I was just getting into G40, found the site and the league earlier this year. If we want more players, you could post something advertising the league in the Facebook group.

[simon33]

If you want a game to count for the 2021 league and both players agree, just post that in the opening post of the thread. Then if there is a dispute, gamerman01 will have something to refer to.

[gamerman01]

Thanks farmboy and Simon, for answering the questions!

They are correct - January 1 is the start of the new league year and all records go to 0-0. If you haven’t already, read through the stickied thread for the league rules here:
https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/28660/2020-league-rules

I am the only league moderator at this time, and I am also a site moderator, but none of the other site moderators are a league moderator. I maintain the rankings spreadsheet and administer the post-season tournaments that also start January 1.

[gamerman01]

Simon is also correct, that if both players agree in the game thread, even if your game concludes in December, it can be counted as a 2021 game result, so you could start now and not worry about it being stuck in 2020, if you get your opponent to agree

[ksmckay]

What is the plan for the league playoffs this year.

The league rules are a bit outdated and I don’t believe they reflect the league as it is being played. Up until the release of PTV this year 99% (didnt actually calculate but its close to this) of the games the last few years have been BM3. The 2018 playoffs and 2019 playoffs were both conducted using BM3 since that is the game the the league actually plays. This year things are a little different as PTV was released and allowed with league rules.

The rankings as they are (with one exception) reflect BM3 play. I dont see how its reasonable to have any game other than BM3 used to determine league champion. I also think league champion means absolutely nothing outside of the context of this community so I think its perfectly reasonable for the community to decide how things are considered which is why I am asking.

I think at minimum there should be a league playoff where the sole game played is BM3. If there is enough interest I think there could also be a PTV bracket. But I think that would be better for next year when the game has time to be further developed. The PTV game as it is has been changed several times throughout the season and while I like the idea of a PTV tourney, I dont think there is a real way to determine participants based on exisiting scoring. Cant just take the top 8 and put them in a PTV tourney since a good portion of the top 8 have played almost no PTV.

I will admit that I am biased to this discussion. As things stand now if everyone in top 8 were to participate in tourney I as the 4th seed would probably be forced into playing OOB which I wont do as I have played zero games of OOB. I rejoined the league after a several year hiatus 3 or so years ago and at that time the league was playing BM3 almost exclusively so recognizing that that was the game the league was playing, that is the game I chose to play. Having an OOB game determine playoffs in a BM3 league makes no sense (and would only be considered because the league rules were never really updated and so a loophole exists that doesnt reflect play in the league).

Sorry for the long post…

[AndrewAAGamer]

One of the reasons I signed up for League play was because the rules said the League and Tournament was OOB. My gaming experience is all OOB with the exception of one BM3 game. So if I had to play BM3 in the Tournament I would be at a large disadvantage.

Having said that I would not want to force players to play OOB if they absolutely would not want to. So like @ksmckay I probably would decline to play in the Tournament if it is just BM3 so the rest of the players, assuming they all want to play BM3, can play and have fun and not be forced to play a game they do not want to. Perhaps at the end of the year the top 8-10 players can vote on the versions they are willing to play?

[Amon-Sul]

BM3 is the dominant version. I think it should be the version played, unless both players agree to play some other version.

[farmboy]

I also think BM3/4 should probably be the default although OOB does still get played here too. I do think BM3 and OOB are fairly close and maybe appropriate bids would make it easier for folks who have strong preferences one way or the other. PTV strikes me as more substantially different. But if there is willingness to organize it, there is no reason we can’t have more than one playoff organized around different games. So we could have a PTV tournament alongside a BM3/OOB one. And players could also choose which one to play in or even play in both (although it may make sense to avoid that to widen the # that can play).

An issue here is that the work of organizing falls on @gamerman01. I don’t know what that looks like so I’m not sure if it is a reasonable expectation. Or maybe someone else can volunteer to help with the moderating?