IFL Conclusion/Future

[Zakken]

tl;dr: captain drafts a visibly disastrous team that ends up being a disastrous team, lets his vindictive side loose and retaliates by messing with team balance and griefing the season for teammates he doesn't like to attain self-perceived moral superiority.

That said though, it's all been said and done, so arguing this anymore will produce literally nothing useful. Ideally, captains should always do what's in the best interest for their own team, but you can't always get every captain to feel the same way. Live and learn, I guess.

Should we go for three seasons a year?
Hell no. People are going to get burned out no matter how optimistic they are about playing. Just keep it at 2 seasons per year with enough breathing room in between. The break in between can be used to make changes or improvements.

There are mixed opinions about this it seems, some want, some don't.. I'm currently not getting too much out of it, hehe.

If you've got the time and resources to pull off three seasons a year, I don't see why you shouldn't go for it. "Player burnout" shouldn't be much of a problem, because realistically, most people who play a league season wouldn't ditch on the next one just because it's happening not too long afterwards. Keep in mind that not every player will think and function the same way in terms of how they experience said burnout. Hosting more seasons is hardly an objective detriment to the scene if you can make that happen; if you asked me, I'd say that what the scene needs right now is more opportunities and options to compete, not less.

On the flip side though, having only two seasons a year allows you to plan and do more things during the off-seasons that could easily contribute to growing the scene more. Be it new features, stats dumps, or even simply discussion threads, there are plenty of ideas you could get from looking at other Doom leagues and other competitive games too.

[John Zombie]

In order to quit something you must have joined it to begin with. I told Dragon I had a busy schedule for the timeframe when the league was going to happen and I most likely couldn't attend reliably, yet despite that and the fact I haven't been around for almost a month before the draft started I've not only found myself in the player pool, but picked in a team as well
Either way I'll take my responsabilities, it was just a misunderstanding between me and Dragon and I should've been clearer about the fact I couldn't take part in this season.

[Shane]

open sign-ups yes

and if or when ifl gets bigger why not play with the idea of ifl-b similar to idl-b where all the free agents get to star in their own league, mid seasons, and give them a shot to be noticed by the 'official' captains. I remember the only way I even got into the idl in the first place was by playing in idl-b then not playing for 3 years then I warmed a comfy bench and was gift wrapped a master toilet bowl. excellent times

[Zakken]

Also, while auction draft is an objectively fair system, it really doesn't work as well if the skill gap between captains is large. Presumably, the skill gap between these players is larger because it's very hard to find enough good and competent players to captain. In older IDL seasons, captains who ranked higher in the previous season would have a lower draft pick the next season in an attempt to make the teams more balanced. While this may seem unfair for better players, it usually led to more intense and close seasons, especially since there usually aren't enough "good" players to fill a team.

The auction draft is a gimmick employed by the WDL to draw player interest, and while you could argue that it's more hype and adds a new layer of mindgames to it, I don't think it's any fairer than a regular snake draft; in fact, I think it's even more susceptible to generating unbalanced teams. This isn't obvious because in a scenario with six strong and smart captains, you'd still hardly see much disparity in teams, but as soon as someone makes a small mistake in mismanaging funds, making risky bids or simply getting played by other captains, they're pretty much screwed. There's a hectic nature to the said draft, and there are many strats that can be employed to bait other captains into making bad decisions; it is overall a draft system that creates an environment where you have to take risks and gambles, and adopt strategies to hurt other captains' drafts that wouldn't otherwise exist in a traditional snake draft. It requires a level of scheming that does nothing but favour the opportunistic and the adept and screw over those who aren't as experienced even harder. Drafts should be about picking the best players in terms of skill, reliability and compatibility in your given turns, and anything else that's been incremented to it acts as more of a detriment to the quality of the draft than an improvement, in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, the auction draft itself can be a good system and it definitely can shine in certain places, but I'd say a regular snake draft is heavily preferable in the Doom scene, at least.

Uh easy because they didn't draft the players that could have made them go to the end??????? Do you have brain in your head or something? Let's not forget that a team is only as strong as the players and the team dynamics, need both to be strong and you can look at the week 5 discussion/results to see which teams were stronger overall.

If Mobius and Armi didn't draft the right players to win (or at least, go as far as they possibly could), then their draft was most likely bad, period. I value end results far more than what only looks good "on paper".

[Razgriz]

If Mobius and Armi didn't draft the right players to win (or at least, go as far as they possibly could), then their draft was most likely bad, period. I value end results far more than what only looks good "on paper".

Right, but this has nothing to do with the auction draft meta, thanks for agreeing.

[Yellowtail]

If Mobius and Armi didn't draft the right players to win (or at least, go as far as they possibly could), then their draft was most likely bad, period. I value end results far more than what only looks good "on paper".

Right, but this has nothing to do with the auction draft meta, thanks for agreeing.

It actually does and it doesn't. Zakken has a point in the sense that you can easily just take the best players out from under everyone else, but at the same time everyone else is going to be trying to outbid you for the same player because they know how valuable said players are. However, the problem with his point is that the captains are low if not out of money to get someone else from the pool, let alone trade (although, this may not have even been necessary after the auction if the trades aren't even worth any money).

Your point, on the other hand, Raz, is generally a better situation if you want to potentially switch other players out later on in the season. Spending all your money at the start would remove the ability to potentially get another player (or more) during the season itself should you have people unable to partake in the season at all. If you have money left over after the initial auction, however, you can potentially trade people out, but you do lose out on better players should you be severely outbid on. It's a bit of a trade-off, and with a a pool of this size, it may be bigger than you realize.

[Ru5tK1ng]

I don't know what I'm talking about - The Post

Have you ever even played in a league before? Free agency doesn't count.

[Razgriz]

It actually does and it doesn't. Zakken has a point in the sense that you can easily just take the best players out from under everyone else, but at the same time everyone else is going to be trying to outbid you for the same player because they know how valuable said players are. However, the problem with his point is that the captains are low if not out of money to get someone else from the pool, let alone trade (although, this may not have even been necessary after the auction if the trades aren't even worth any money).

Your point, on the other hand, Raz, is generally a better situation if you want to potentially switch other players out later on in the season. Spending all your money at the start would remove the ability to potentially get another player (or more) during the season itself should you have people unable to partake in the season at all. If you have money left over after the initial auction, however, you can potentially trade people out, but you do lose out on better players should you be severely outbid on. It's a bit of a trade-off, and with a a pool of this size, it may be bigger than you realize.

The problem is with the former, depending on how much you spend on one good person, you're subjected to the remains of the player pool at the end of the draft. In other words, if majority of the good and decent players went out the first two rounds, you have a team (presumably) of two really good people and two other question marks in terms of quality and punctuality. Imagine if Mobius had swiped up Rosking first round, or an average player took him up for about $28, they are literally fucked because they are at the mercy of whoever is left from the signups, and can only buy people when everything else has been taken. In this case it worked out for a few people because they were already strong captains doing this, and if a strong captain were in the same position as Armi and Mobius and knew who to pick up, they would have a very well rounded team, and probably could still get a decent 4th. It's not about trading, it's about getting what you need at the front end so you don't have to worry about trading between other captains and the pool.

In this case it really is all about how well you handle your money, who you pick up and how strong the captain is. You never want to really dip into the free agency pool post-draft unless you have to because that means you are already going to be at a disadvantage. Money is about buying players in the auction, not trading. Being outbid means you invested everything in one person in hopes they can help you carry the season with questionable 3rd and 4th. It has it's ups and downs, and anything can happen. It didn't work out for some but it is what it is, maybe next season everything can pan out better and not have a few teams just struggle all season.

And I suppose in terms of Zakken maybe he should captain next season and show us all how to captain with this setup, I place 100 dollars he will turn into blamesucka somewhere in the season.