As others have mentioned, similar things have been run in the past and trying to get games arranged was a pain.
Like the idea of 'home' team picking the game speed etc, and if you come up with n agreeable deadline for games to be played even better.
Also like the fact its £1 BI so it doesn't cost a fortune to play, instead it's more for the bragging rights and the bonus of a prize from Sky if any are forthcoming.
FlashFlush's idea about home team picking date seems like a win - home draw picks 3 date and if away team can't make any of them then they forfeit... gives plenty of option to make sure everyone makes the effort to get games played.
Hopefully we're all able to play fair and don't purposely pick 3 dates that someone is out the country for, when there are options to play games when they are back and still meet the FA cup calendar deadlines
On fixture making whether we go with the exact FA cup weekends as deadlines I'm not sure yet, let's see what the numbers look like and how keen people are to get started.
While there were some difficulties in the fixtures the competitions were completed over a couple of months which seems pretty good to me. I am hoping for a bigger field, Lambert got 64 pretty quickly on the first attempt - maybe 256 is a touch ambitious.
I have been picking up some pointers from Lamberts threads and there were clearly some issues and there are bound to be again.
FIXTURE ARRANGEMENTS
I will have some clear guidelines before we start so we all know where we stand.
I think it is important that there are deadlines, as long as we give people a reasonable amount of time to sort things out.
I am thinking something like this but all open to suggestions...
1. After draw, away player contacts home player and gives dates/times when they definitely cannot play. E.g I am away all of the week commencing xxxx but generally any evening 8-11 is fine except Tuesdays and Saturdays. Sundays I am ok from 7.
2. Home player then offers 3 time windows of 2 hours when they can play and doesn't clash with away players absences
3. Away player then picks one of those options and its game on.
That might seem too rigid? But I think an open just let them sort it out themselves may cause more problems?
Obviously if both players are on the site and start a game there and then then that's clearly fine too.
I don't think we should insist all games are played on one specific day
The forum thread, PMs, findaplayer and chat can be used to make the contact.
If you have had no contact or haven't fixed a fixture confirmed within a week of the deadline - make sure you post on the forum.
If it isn't played to a deadline then both players are scratched by default unless it is clear that one player has been making the running and the other has not made contact or simply been unavailable to play, in which case the defaulting player only will be scratched and the active player awarded a walkover.
SPEED
The "home choice" seems to be popular, however I would like to get some input from those who played in previous versions.
One was Turbo and One was Hyper. Would Speed or regular be too slow? Is there enough play in a hyper to make this a worthwhile challenge?
If we go for 1st to 3 wins then that is up to 5 games which could take a while to play out over regular structure.
SITTING
Any tips to make this easy? Fish like me better not sit first or else all the bumhunting regs will insta sit.
I saw a suggestion of sitting a free table and chatting to synchronise sitting - social media could be used too if players have that available - I wouldn't insist on forcing people to join any well known social networks just for this - but if they already are then they could make that known in the initial contact via a PM.
Please don't publish any personal contact details in the forum but if you want to exchange mobile nos / facebook ids / email addresses with your opponent then that's great but do it in a PM.
Obviously not quite the same thing but I used to run an online FIFA league which relied on competitors communicating with each other to arrange fixture times. My rules were just that it was up to the individual players to use our forum/PMs to get in contact with each other and sort out whatever time they could play. If the game wasn't played and one person could provide proof that they made a reasonable effort (i.e. at least three PMs/forum posts/messages on the gaming network) to get their game played then they'd get a default win, otherwise it's just a void game. In practice that seemed to work quite well, the vast majority of games were played though I took it upon myself to do a bit of chasing as the gameweek came to an end. I wouldn't recommend you chasing people though since there's potentially 10 times as many fixtures as I was organising!!
But I think I prefer the idea of giving one of the players the responsibility of opening the lines of communication. I found with the FIFA league that some people adopted the "I'll let them get in touch with me" approach, which was just lazy and unhelpful and raised the risk of unplayed fixtures. If it's agreed before the start which player does that, then everyone knows the score going forward which is a better way of working.
Happy to chip in Phantom with anything you may need help with in terms of organising/setting-up etc.
Yup I think I'll think I'll stick with the Away player is responsible for making contact - then if there is none, the home player gets a walkover.
My rules above seem a bit too rigid - flexibility and the goodwill of entrants will hopefully be what gets the games played.
I like the idea of a HUFA too. I would suggest that in the event of any dispute over who's fault it is a fixture isn't played then comments posted in the public forum take precedent.
1 match seems a bit too short? Cooler first hand and its game over.
Maybe 1st to 2 wins for the 1st 2 rounds?
PS YounGun thanks for the offer - a volunteer is worth 10 conscripts and all that. Given the length I am currently planning to be running this for there are bound to be times when I cannot update and it will be great to have a small group of co-organissers to bounce things off - vent - and help arbitrate if required.
Stick us in please. I remember one H/U comp where the draw was done live on the channel.....and it all ran smoothly with no issues....oh, the good old days.
PS.I have had no contact from my opponent yet, so put me straight through to round two.....cheers
Comments
In for a spin.
While there were some difficulties in the fixtures the competitions were completed over a couple of months which seems pretty good to me. I am hoping for a bigger field, Lambert got 64 pretty quickly on the first attempt - maybe 256 is a touch ambitious.
I have been picking up some pointers from Lamberts threads and there were clearly some issues and there are bound to be again.
FIXTURE ARRANGEMENTS
I will have some clear guidelines before we start so we all know where we stand.
I think it is important that there are deadlines, as long as we give people a reasonable amount of time to sort things out.
I am thinking something like this but all open to suggestions...
1. After draw, away player contacts home player and gives dates/times when they definitely cannot play. E.g I am away all of the week commencing xxxx but generally any evening 8-11 is fine except Tuesdays and Saturdays. Sundays I am ok from 7.
2. Home player then offers 3 time windows of 2 hours when they can play and doesn't clash with away players absences
3. Away player then picks one of those options and its game on.
That might seem too rigid? But I think an open just let them sort it out themselves may cause more problems?
Obviously if both players are on the site and start a game there and then then that's clearly fine too.
I don't think we should insist all games are played on one specific day
The forum thread, PMs, findaplayer and chat can be used to make the contact.
If you have had no contact or haven't fixed a fixture confirmed within a week of the deadline - make sure you post on the forum.
If it isn't played to a deadline then both players are scratched by default unless it is clear that one player has been making the running and the other has not made contact or simply been unavailable to play, in which case the defaulting player only will be scratched and the active player awarded a walkover.
SPEED
The "home choice" seems to be popular, however I would like to get some input from those who played in previous versions.
One was Turbo and One was Hyper. Would Speed or regular be too slow? Is there enough play in a hyper to make this a worthwhile challenge?
If we go for 1st to 3 wins then that is up to 5 games which could take a while to play out over regular structure.
SITTING
Any tips to make this easy? Fish like me better not sit first or else all the bumhunting regs will insta sit.
I saw a suggestion of sitting a free table and chatting to synchronise sitting - social media could be used too if players have that available - I wouldn't insist on forcing people to join any well known social networks just for this - but if they already are then they could make that known in the initial contact via a PM.
Please don't publish any personal contact details in the forum but if you want to exchange mobile nos / facebook ids / email addresses with your opponent then that's great but do it in a PM.
I had better get used to checking PMs regularly if running this!
Obviously not quite the same thing but I used to run an online FIFA league which relied on competitors communicating with each other to arrange fixture times. My rules were just that it was up to the individual players to use our forum/PMs to get in contact with each other and sort out whatever time they could play. If the game wasn't played and one person could provide proof that they made a reasonable effort (i.e. at least three PMs/forum posts/messages on the gaming network) to get their game played then they'd get a default win, otherwise it's just a void game. In practice that seemed to work quite well, the vast majority of games were played though I took it upon myself to do a bit of chasing as the gameweek came to an end. I wouldn't recommend you chasing people though since there's potentially 10 times as many fixtures as I was organising!!
But I think I prefer the idea of giving one of the players the responsibility of opening the lines of communication. I found with the FIFA league that some people adopted the "I'll let them get in touch with me" approach, which was just lazy and unhelpful and raised the risk of unplayed fixtures. If it's agreed before the start which player does that, then everyone knows the score going forward which is a better way of working.
Happy to chip in Phantom with anything you may need help with in terms of organising/setting-up etc.
I like the idea of early rounds just one leg until the numbers dwindle , then more legs if its felt needed, sudden death maybe easier logistically.
Great idea count me in please, can you make sure no game's are played at 2.20 please.
All the best.
Rainman397