…and always has been.
We’ve gone from putting up with to indifference. The ClanBase European Ladder is broke and nobody cares.
The CB admins don’t – if they did we’d see them being proactive in fixing it.
The community doesn’t – if we did we’d be hounding the CB admins to fix it.
I could conclude this column now, the ClanBase European Ladder is broke and so it should be. The ladder system employed by ClanBase is doomed to failure, it’ll never practically work, let’s cut our losses and scrap it. We prefer short cups anway...
We could do that, but then we would cut out the life blood of our community. There’s a hierarchy in Enemy Territory, as you become more engrossed, obsessed with the game you rise up the ranks. From peon to rabid Crossfire reader, without the ClanBase ladder system where would the new players go to ply their trade? How will they discover the wonders of competitive Enemy Territory? The one good thing about the current ladder system is that a clans results are laid out before you, clan leaders can select their opponents so both teams are guaranteed a relatively even match. This in turn allows you to further develop tactics and rise upwards, increasingly improving your skill and enjoying new levels of the game.
Those are the positives, and they’re great; sadly they pale into insignificance when compared to the negatives.
Where Are The Big Guns?
GunSlingers, Roistot, Iron Cross, Mirage, insAne and rewind. Those are just six of the great clans that used to actively compete in the European ladder. When winning meant something, you competed because you wanted to win – you wanted to play. These teams didn’t form solely for EuroCup – there was more to life. What changed? At what point did the ladder become meaningless?
I try to answer that question, and in turn give some constructive feedback.
Ladder Leaders
Problem: An appropriate starting point, the flavour of the month. Sunday night saw “stronger than hate” successfully defend their position as ladder leaders. All they needed was a draw, and cynically that’s all they played for. Your prime example of a 1 map wonder. That is the second time in a row they’ve defended the top spot by only earning a draw. Both times they won their home map Supplydepot2. That itself poses the questions should a ‘3 in a row’ system be implemented similar to the cups?
Fix: A title match should be just that. The winner is awarded the top spot – points become irrelevant. Only clans in the top 5 should to allowed to challenge the ladder leader and a decider should always be played. This both detracts from the ‘1 map wonder’ and gives us a clear indication of who the better team are. It also gives clans something to aim for, getting into the top 5 becomes an achievement.
Motivation
Problem: The total lack of. Under the current system anything beneath top 5 is irrelevant. ClanBase don’t have a transparent system when seeding groups for the OpenCup, they offer no motivation to clans competing. Being higher in the ladder could increase your standing, that’s about it.
Alongside that you’ve got the problem of clans picking and chosing their opponents. Intentionally selecting “weaker” enemies to ensure they continuously win. This is demoralising for teams around them and gives an unrealistic ranking system. Making the ladder itself defunct.
Fix: Only clans competing in the ladder should be considered for EuroCup and the OC Premier Division. This may exclude an elite minority as collateral, so be it. This will ensure stability and help give a more realistic ranking. A more transparent system when ranking teams would also offer more motivation to less skilled clans. We’d avoid the current system where any clan that’s not known is lumped in the 6th division. Clans can compete and know that winning will actually have a direct result on their future.
As an after thought I’d also only allow clans to challenge teams 10 ranks above or below either side of them. This ensures clans that are punching above their weight are quickly found out and a truer ranking given.
Fear Of Losing
Problem: In my few years of playing Enemy Territory I’ve become aware of a fear of losing within most clans. Most seem reluctant to lose practice matches, let alone officials. I believe this mentality is largely down to the relative lack of activity within ET. If you lose one official you usually don’t have the chance to rectify this for at least another week.
Fix: Increase activity. This would require the CB Ladder system to be simplified. Currently you can’t have 6 players on one night and easily find an official war. You need to challenge and plan ahead – which can obviously be problematic. This hinders the activity and inevitably infers a fear of losing – as officials become a rarity.
Cups
Problem: Small cups are great. People play cups because they offer you something to achieve. Any random clan can win a cup. Cups are great for motivating your team, they’re fun. They ensure you get several officials in a short period.
Fix: There is none. Ladders must coexist alongside smaller cups.
Promotion
Problem: When was the last time you saw a ClanBase admin actively promote the ladder system? The last I recall was Cash pre-EC XI (Spring 2005). Since then I’ve not seen one admin comment on how the ladder is going, how they hope to improve it or simply broadcasting a game on ETTV (where GamesTV handle 99% of the hassle). The only reason stronger than hate matches are broadcast is because a non-admin requests coverage. There are 163 “active” clans in the European Ladder, there was 183 matches in the last 30 days. 183 matches equates to every team in the ladder playing 1 match within the last 30 days. That to me implies that the ladder is relatively healthy – why is ClanBase never telling us this?
Fix: We need proactive work from ClanBase. Bombarding us with news, updates and progress reports. We need matches to mean something, for people to care.
To do this we need a few changes. Initially the ladder should be segmented into seasons, these are your ‘splits’ from a stopwatch. The ladder continues to roll on but it allows teams to reflect on how they’re doing. A report from CB every three months commenting on how clans have done, who the biggest movers are and who’s top of the table – everyone loves publicity. This small gesture would help increase the importance of matches as they actually produce an end product.
If all of those ideas where implemented, in my opinion activity in the ClanBase ladders could increase. But the admins aren’t magic, they can’t conjure up teams to compete. That requires you.
We’ve gone from putting up with to indifference. The ClanBase European Ladder is broke and nobody cares.
The CB admins don’t – if they did we’d see them being proactive in fixing it.
The community doesn’t – if we did we’d be hounding the CB admins to fix it.
I could conclude this column now, the ClanBase European Ladder is broke and so it should be. The ladder system employed by ClanBase is doomed to failure, it’ll never practically work, let’s cut our losses and scrap it. We prefer short cups anway...
We could do that, but then we would cut out the life blood of our community. There’s a hierarchy in Enemy Territory, as you become more engrossed, obsessed with the game you rise up the ranks. From peon to rabid Crossfire reader, without the ClanBase ladder system where would the new players go to ply their trade? How will they discover the wonders of competitive Enemy Territory? The one good thing about the current ladder system is that a clans results are laid out before you, clan leaders can select their opponents so both teams are guaranteed a relatively even match. This in turn allows you to further develop tactics and rise upwards, increasingly improving your skill and enjoying new levels of the game.
Those are the positives, and they’re great; sadly they pale into insignificance when compared to the negatives.
Where Are The Big Guns?
GunSlingers, Roistot, Iron Cross, Mirage, insAne and rewind. Those are just six of the great clans that used to actively compete in the European ladder. When winning meant something, you competed because you wanted to win – you wanted to play. These teams didn’t form solely for EuroCup – there was more to life. What changed? At what point did the ladder become meaningless?
I try to answer that question, and in turn give some constructive feedback.
Ladder Leaders
Problem: An appropriate starting point, the flavour of the month. Sunday night saw “stronger than hate” successfully defend their position as ladder leaders. All they needed was a draw, and cynically that’s all they played for. Your prime example of a 1 map wonder. That is the second time in a row they’ve defended the top spot by only earning a draw. Both times they won their home map Supplydepot2. That itself poses the questions should a ‘3 in a row’ system be implemented similar to the cups?
Fix: A title match should be just that. The winner is awarded the top spot – points become irrelevant. Only clans in the top 5 should to allowed to challenge the ladder leader and a decider should always be played. This both detracts from the ‘1 map wonder’ and gives us a clear indication of who the better team are. It also gives clans something to aim for, getting into the top 5 becomes an achievement.
Motivation
Problem: The total lack of. Under the current system anything beneath top 5 is irrelevant. ClanBase don’t have a transparent system when seeding groups for the OpenCup, they offer no motivation to clans competing. Being higher in the ladder could increase your standing, that’s about it.
Alongside that you’ve got the problem of clans picking and chosing their opponents. Intentionally selecting “weaker” enemies to ensure they continuously win. This is demoralising for teams around them and gives an unrealistic ranking system. Making the ladder itself defunct.
Fix: Only clans competing in the ladder should be considered for EuroCup and the OC Premier Division. This may exclude an elite minority as collateral, so be it. This will ensure stability and help give a more realistic ranking. A more transparent system when ranking teams would also offer more motivation to less skilled clans. We’d avoid the current system where any clan that’s not known is lumped in the 6th division. Clans can compete and know that winning will actually have a direct result on their future.
As an after thought I’d also only allow clans to challenge teams 10 ranks above or below either side of them. This ensures clans that are punching above their weight are quickly found out and a truer ranking given.
Fear Of Losing
Problem: In my few years of playing Enemy Territory I’ve become aware of a fear of losing within most clans. Most seem reluctant to lose practice matches, let alone officials. I believe this mentality is largely down to the relative lack of activity within ET. If you lose one official you usually don’t have the chance to rectify this for at least another week.
Fix: Increase activity. This would require the CB Ladder system to be simplified. Currently you can’t have 6 players on one night and easily find an official war. You need to challenge and plan ahead – which can obviously be problematic. This hinders the activity and inevitably infers a fear of losing – as officials become a rarity.
Cups
Problem: Small cups are great. People play cups because they offer you something to achieve. Any random clan can win a cup. Cups are great for motivating your team, they’re fun. They ensure you get several officials in a short period.
Fix: There is none. Ladders must coexist alongside smaller cups.
Promotion
Problem: When was the last time you saw a ClanBase admin actively promote the ladder system? The last I recall was Cash pre-EC XI (Spring 2005). Since then I’ve not seen one admin comment on how the ladder is going, how they hope to improve it or simply broadcasting a game on ETTV (where GamesTV handle 99% of the hassle). The only reason stronger than hate matches are broadcast is because a non-admin requests coverage. There are 163 “active” clans in the European Ladder, there was 183 matches in the last 30 days. 183 matches equates to every team in the ladder playing 1 match within the last 30 days. That to me implies that the ladder is relatively healthy – why is ClanBase never telling us this?
Fix: We need proactive work from ClanBase. Bombarding us with news, updates and progress reports. We need matches to mean something, for people to care.
To do this we need a few changes. Initially the ladder should be segmented into seasons, these are your ‘splits’ from a stopwatch. The ladder continues to roll on but it allows teams to reflect on how they’re doing. A report from CB every three months commenting on how clans have done, who the biggest movers are and who’s top of the table – everyone loves publicity. This small gesture would help increase the importance of matches as they actually produce an end product.
------------------------------------------------------
If all of those ideas where implemented, in my opinion activity in the ClanBase ladders could increase. But the admins aren’t magic, they can’t conjure up teams to compete. That requires you.
