You realize it was provided maybe 10 minutes before the start? (if not even later). And most players even got it working, only some couldnt. Its really ridiculous to expect all that from the players. Seriously, tell me... What was done to avoid the fuck up from game #1? Absolutely nothing. In fact it ended up almost the same and even with the same map. Game #1, map being tested and fixed 1 hour before the start. Game #2, same map being tested and fixed 1 hour before the start. Why do you think the first league worked? There were rules, requirements, much more communication, much more organizing done and much more care... In second league, we have a thread with the most basic info, and a big hope and expectation that everything is gonna work out allright (if we pray enough).
b2_f, yes. But did people have b2, the version available on the main servers for years at this point? I will not deny that the sudden map change shenanigans should not have happened, but there surely were people that didn't have even the version in rotation. Anyway, this should have been handled drastically differently. Edit: Look, the big problem was the playercount imbalance. Sure the download problems were the final nail in the coffin, but a last resort method of solving the problem was to switch to b2 as that version worked just fine and was still, you know, glacial. And how do you address the playercount issue? You establish a rule ahead of time that concerns this. For example: You must have 11 players minimum. The other team has to figure out any surplus the antistack squad can't cover. Boom, suddenly everyone knows what they have to deal with. I even asked about this way before the game, but was straight up ignored: At the end of the day, it's still a shame this ended up like it did.
People in the teams should either be individually messaged and/or they must write into the forums (emp/steam group) if they are attending a match. Victor had absolutely no clue that nobody was coming. I think Spike was first told about this maybe 10 minutes AFTER the supposed start. Thats when he and Victor leader realized that Victor had almost nobody coming. (I lold) I wrote atleast one post to each league game forums (emp/steam group). It was rather ignored. (This is also when I thought of that Unified Empires Notifications, which could IMO help with this atleast a tiny bit.) In the first league, Trickster and even Reznov at some point (atleast in my team), did quite good job notifying/messaging players....and simply kept the league in the mind of the players. Reznov made a very good job making everybody in the team subscribe to steam group forums and it was very nicely used for knowing whos coming to play the next match. (not sure how it was in the other team) Everybody was pretty much required to say if they are attending or not (it was pushed much more). This way, you could anticipate possible team member shortage and probably come up with a solution beforehand. (not 10 minutes after) The fact that the players must stay in the teams is rather a very hard thing to manage, especially with number like those. There was no keeping done in League 2.
Honestly with how bad people are at saying if they can attend and people getting notified about events I really feel like the squad thing reznov was thinking about doing would be a good idea. For a quick recap the basic idea was players would organize themselves into 5 man squads, and commanders for that round would pick the squads. So basically like a sped up captains draft. The main goal was squad leads would basically inform their own squad members, which is good because if it's someone you wanted to play with anyway people are more likely to come, and respond to the call. Now that said, I would do a couple of small changes. The first was people don't have to organize themselves into complete 5 man squads, it can be any amount, but no more then 5 for obvious reasons. The second would be allowing floaters, commanders from the previous round, and possibly leave the server unlocked, it would be like a pug but with semi predetermined teams. This we don't have to do, but if we do keep the server locked I would expect squads to step it up and grab someone if one of their squaddies can't make it ahead of time. Just a quick thing about floaters, you don't have to be in a squad to join in, BUT, it's on you to keep yourself informed. You also don't have a guarantee about being able to play with the people you want to, so it's something to think about. The last thing would be when captains or commanders rather start picking squads, they would pick in equal batches. Meaning if captain 1 chooses a squad with 5 people, captain 2 can choose a squad with 2 people and one with 3 people. Basically just keep the amounts even. I'll be honest, I kinda want to organize that. It sounds more fun in general then a usual scrim to me at least. I'd have to talk to server owners first if I can host it, but if I get the go ahead would you guys want this?
Oh please, you just had those happen like a flash mob, mine was organized ahead of time and all that :p
That's because my squadmates would always play.....until recently. Seriously though, pre-organized squads in scrims isn't really a fresh idea. You got a long line to wait.
