The ongoing Clanbase NationsCup is moving into the Playoff stage, and although the group stages themselves went in general 'according to plan' the playoffs have the potential for an upset here or there and the playing field is that bit more level. For me, this is something that draws me in to watch the games and read the news - ET 'Club' teams, you might say, lack the sort of competitive edge until the very late stages. Are current top teams too stacked?
The current downsides being 'at the top of the scene' are of course lack of options for practices as well as in general practicing less. I know more than most that playing a game but not having many good teams to practice against generally demotivates you to play said game all together - we don't want to lose players due to this. So what other options are there?
Tighter competition would lead to a more open playing field
With the success of the recent CDT could this perhaps be viable to be permanent? A draft system would make scrims more exciting as you would be playing against a different mix of skilled players most games. It would add some flavor to the scene which would bring more reads to news items and views for ETTV broadcasts as the games would be that more competitive at earlier stages, not just the last three games. In short, it would provide more better quality entertainment.
Highlighting the recent Crossfire Draft Tournament where the winning team, Team Clown, had -0.06 lower odds to win their first game, +1.03 higher to win their second and -1.09 to win the grand final making games less obvious and a bit more attractive to the viewer. The biggest game differential in the entire tournament was Team Night's opening game against Team An7ho which had 1.25 | 4.95 in favor of Night's lineup, with the rest of the games being much more closely rated.
Other than LAN, where anything can happen™, I normally ignore or don't pay much attention to team based competition, although I may pick up the odd replay here and there, until very late on - I am probably not alone. NC like mentioned I find much more enjoyable and it is purely down to the win being up for grabs for both teams - I WANT to see a competitive match, it makes actions that more important and impressive and at the end of the day it is why I am watching.
The main issues surrounding the future of the current team system is the lack of stability in higher tier clans. Every season you'll see 5-6 newly formed lineups with the same mix of players and for whatever reason they don't continue playing together. A permanent long term draft system would help stability and improve competition at the same time, which should improve enjoyment for players and spectators alike. Do you think the clan system is currently working? teams being formed for LAN and demanding full support and disbanding after the event hindering ET? Would higher competitiveness make you enjoy playing more?
The current downsides being 'at the top of the scene' are of course lack of options for practices as well as in general practicing less. I know more than most that playing a game but not having many good teams to practice against generally demotivates you to play said game all together - we don't want to lose players due to this. So what other options are there?
Tighter competition would lead to a more open playing field
With the success of the recent CDT could this perhaps be viable to be permanent? A draft system would make scrims more exciting as you would be playing against a different mix of skilled players most games. It would add some flavor to the scene which would bring more reads to news items and views for ETTV broadcasts as the games would be that more competitive at earlier stages, not just the last three games. In short, it would provide more better quality entertainment.
Highlighting the recent Crossfire Draft Tournament where the winning team, Team Clown, had -0.06 lower odds to win their first game, +1.03 higher to win their second and -1.09 to win the grand final making games less obvious and a bit more attractive to the viewer. The biggest game differential in the entire tournament was Team Night's opening game against Team An7ho which had 1.25 | 4.95 in favor of Night's lineup, with the rest of the games being much more closely rated.
Other than LAN, where anything can happen™, I normally ignore or don't pay much attention to team based competition, although I may pick up the odd replay here and there, until very late on - I am probably not alone. NC like mentioned I find much more enjoyable and it is purely down to the win being up for grabs for both teams - I WANT to see a competitive match, it makes actions that more important and impressive and at the end of the day it is why I am watching.
The main issues surrounding the future of the current team system is the lack of stability in higher tier clans. Every season you'll see 5-6 newly formed lineups with the same mix of players and for whatever reason they don't continue playing together. A permanent long term draft system would help stability and improve competition at the same time, which should improve enjoyment for players and spectators alike. Do you think the clan system is currently working? teams being formed for LAN and demanding full support and disbanding after the event hindering ET? Would higher competitiveness make you enjoy playing more?
Also, maybe if some sponsors drop in, then we could see some old players back in action!
+ what zaNc said
So instead of having real clans and teamwork battling it out there it would get replaced with some draft games because they would be less obvious and more attractive to spectators? It's like a message for everyone out there, dont join clans, play this drafty-thing and experience a random result every time! Where is competitiveness in that? From my perspective it almost sounds like a complete opposite.
I like the the draft-idea. Sounds like something which would provide activity and also get lesser known/newer players into the system. Also, it provides environment to play ET we enjoy and should give some good "clanmatch" type matches but after all those aint real clanmatches. Permanent? How long would you play those kind of things? Why would this attract more players than real clanwars? Finally, if you try to move towards with this draftthing, THINK PLAYERS first and NOT spectators.
Also you managed to pick up on the spectator benefits but missed the part about benefits for players and teams, let me re-iterate. News items between draft teams would likely get more views, comments and this is a bonus not an aim as is ETTV pops, a 'side-effect' if you will, but it most likely would happen if structured properly (IE not all games sunday 21CET) as would the entertainment value of games being tighter, more on the edge etc. as said - this would be a side effect, not the aim.
As a player, the games I remember are the ones that were hard fought, against quality opponents. If the gaps are too big, you have less of these games because you are either raping a team with your amazing team or being raped by an amazing team, of course you will have some good tight, hard fought games too - but not as many if the playing field was more even.
The stacked teams in ET are damaging the game, not improving it. They will increase pops etc. for one maybe two games every 6months - but in general will not prac much and in general will lose interest because of it. If the top teams instead of being 2-3 amazingly skilled teams were 7-8 very skilled teams at the top, there would simply be more opponents to play in scrims and higher quality games for each player.
I think the clan scene is stagnant and has been for a long LONG time, its mainly due to teams not continuing to play, reshuffling a lineup with the same group of 40 players and 6 teams pop out the other side - its generally the second tier teams too which is quite baffling.
I like to see something beeing tried out to spark things up but not sure if thats what a fix to anything. I mean after all you see a spike in activity before every EC season (but which only lasts 3 weeks for half of the clans and some are offionly so its not really longterm solution). Point beeing that if there were properly run tournaments the clan scene could do much better than it does now, but things are just too messed up. Tournament platforms change pretty much every cup, sunday would be a good day to organize something but its filled up with ESL matches etcetc.. There's no routine and nothing to aim for. I think thats far more bigger problem than "stacked teams". I mean cmon, if you could create/motivate these 7-8 very skilled teams who would care if theres few amazingly skilled teams in top of that? Gaps aint that big you wouldnt able to beat them.
At the same time, teams have never stayed together for long, in general, when they really should. From SAGE the nordic and nevo lineups were making the push to the next level they had a legitimate chance to start to challenge and then they stopped playing together, for whatever reason - perhaps one guy could play etc. but to disband a lineup for such small things for me is quite a stupid move considering such progression.
Stability of lineups is something I would love to see personally, it is not and has not been in ET outside the top 2-3 teams. The draft system I have talked about would enforce some level of stability but like you say, how could they be pushed into playing with that lineup etc for a while. It is just an option that has popped up as like I mentioned I think the clan scene in ET has never truly worked due to lack of stability / motivation / loyalty etc.
i cant even enjoy anymore playing with a mix / playing vs a mix
Amen
The sooner these "free agents" combine together to form teams, the better. There's a couple of lineups that can certainly contest for a decent spot at LAN given enough time.
I think you can expect to see some tournaments coming from Adroits and others which will hopefully cause this to happen. In addition to helping the scene grow together and form teams to compete against each other, these tournament can create coverage and evidence of a solid community to potential sponsors.
I think teams should get in touch with well-known orgs but have no expectations of support. If you're in a reputable org, it's good to be there at least for the name because it brings attention to the game you're playing - believe it or not. When this community has attention from people on the outside looking in, this is one of the doors to getting prize cups, more LANs, etc etc.
Make it happen people : )
In terms of these tournaments to form teams with the more skilled players, that is great for the LAN and probably this season but come August/September, sadly we will be in exactly the same position as those teams will not stay together long term, It would be nice to know why and how stability can be improved.
Personally I am only interested in playing with a few other players (and I'm sure that there are only a few players who would be interested in playing with me) and I am not particularly interested in playing in a draft competition as I'm more than likely to be playing with randoms. I'm not going to be the only player in this position and then you have those who don't mind playing with randoms and those who do mind, and only one of these groups will be available for a draft cup, cutting down your target audience significantly.
While there is a certain amount of stagnation within the top teams, I think that this is caused by lack of competition and nothing else. Players play to win and if there's nothing to win then why shuffle the deck?
However, i would actually enjoy taking on 5 players that i hardly/didnt know at all and battle it out against a team with another "skilled" player with 5 other draft players to win. I would rather this than get a mix with a bunch of ego "skilled" players just constantly playing for dmg and frags. At least you could see the positives and improvements from the players that you are showing and playing with.
Also, playing with players that you have never played with before can build relationships and even teams (hopefully - this is the key!)
in order to doing that u will be able to spot new tallents
I am also guessing that after signups for LAN you could guess 2nd and 3rd spot too. For people outside of ET it must seem pretty shit to have the favourites win everything they enter.