Action Season Conclusion
First we would like to kick it off by congratulating our winners, The Junkyard Dogs! Featuring Nkotb4evah, RageMoreNerd, S1lentNDeadly, AtoneMilitant, AwareMosquito, and ImAPlant, they came out with one of the lower seeds going into playoffs. Playing against The Smurfs in round one with their first come from behind victory they won a 2-1 series. Round two they found themselves up against the one seed, with again a comeback from being down against the likes of 42 Duggas, featuring Dhmon and Star. That brings us to the triumphant finals, the showdown between the old men. Junkyard Dogs versus Team Alpha started off the same way as the previous series with Junkyard Dogs being down a game, and down 4-1 in game 2. It was “lights out and away we go” after that, with the Junkyard Dogs taking the series 3-1. Valiant effort by all, and a major congratulations to the winners!
How the season went
Games played
Speed of season
Highlight key stats
Map selection (41 of foundry 57 of sandbox)
Playoffs (9 Foundry 4 Sandbox)
Color Win/loss (51/47(40.8%) red 47/51(37.6%) blue)
FF = 25
Games Played = 125
Substitutes = 59 total used
Playoff hosts:
North Central = 4
Central = 3
South Central = 1
East = 2
West = 1
Grade Drops:
ASpence501 - B to C
NKot - C to D
Ace B S to A (purposely stayed A due to playstyle)
AwareMosquito - D to E
AlphaTurtle - B to C
Frnzh - C to D
AJ - A to B
Silva - B to D
Diablo - C to E
Mungo - E to F
Digital - S to A
RDG - B to D
Robot - B to D
Mavbrid - D to E
Boss Tycoon - C to E
Myst the Cold - C to E
Doerstopper - C to D
Grade Ups:
Zeg - C to A
Kev - D to C
King Rick - D to C
Nihilus - C to B
Zim - B to A
Poptart - E to D
Low Mane - E to D
Star - B to S (Would have been A/S initially but needed to nerf him at season start)
Teams with average grade of C surpassed teams with average grade of B in playoffs.
What percentile based grading would look like:
What we learned
So as many of you know we did some new things (and some old but with a new name) this season. With the season coming to a close we gathered some feedback through a survey to determine how the features were received. We are grateful to anyone who filled them out seriously, because after all that is what determines where we go from here!
First on the list was host, where we traveled across the country, changing host week to week. This was one of the hottest issues of the season, and was a very polarizing one at that. We had a fairly even mix of love and hate, which typically is the sign of a feature but I do not believe so in this case. The general consensus of those who disliked the feature was that changing up such a major aspect of the game week to week did not lead to the most competitive environment. Ultimately the vanity of “traveling” is not worth a less competitive game, so from the perspective of one admin (nkot) I would say the more stable and predictable the host, the better, going forward.
The next feature I would consider a success despite some obvious kinks, and it was clear that the community (specifically those who participated in the draft portion) agreed. We ended with teams from the front, back, and middle of the draft in the playoffs. Now certain teams definitely seemed to suffer, some of that from draft position and some from card usage, but I believe with more feedback from captains who participated and some more testing, the cards and new variables in drafting can make it a more entertaining and less predictable affair, that does not break the balance stability of the league.
Now onto the least interesting feature, with almost entirely a 3 rating as per those who completed the survey, season cards. I will admit that the cards were rather uninspired and many were specific to weird situations and circumstances. I think with more effort and theory crafting the cards could be more useful and interesting, but ultimately it comes down to a return on investment. While the cards may have some return, the next feature seems to be a better use of time and effort.
That next feature was Season Missions. While there were some issues, of course, specifically with terminology and reporting, overall this seemed to be something looked upon quite favorably by the community. It gives a unique opportunity for teams to strive for something a little different in game and a chance to spice it up. We will continue to explore this avenue, as well as alternate avenues to incentivize this feature without the board game aspect of the Action Season present.
All in all I would say that many of the features had promise, but some would need way more work and testing than others. Interesting ways to spice up drafts (for games we have a good understanding of player skill on) and missions for the season are the two areas I feel will be the easiest to squeeze some delicious juice out of. Any specific feedback on those two topics is very welcome!
Going Forward
With the hopeful Infinite Forge on the horizon it seems dubious to run a full league, especially considering the very spread interest in various games. With that said we believe the best direction for the immediate future is to run events, be it tournaments or mini seasons. As you may have seen, we have our own Luxe looking to run tournaments side by side with AGLA and we hope to coordinate together to make sure all game needs are satisfied and the schedule leading up to the eventual release of forge to be packed with action.
That said, the game we plan to focus the first event on will be Halo 5. This is available on PC through the xbox app store. Our goal will be to flesh out the details of a tournament in the coming days and to announce official times and dates very soon (as in the next week or so). After that we will continue to gather feedback and work with Luxe to make sure we are giving players access to the game of their choice while we hope for a speedy Infinite Grifball!
Thank you all for your participation in this season, and I look forward to smishing you on the court in the near future!
