I encourage everyone to keep playing their matches in this final month of the regular season. Only 13 matches were played over the past week to give us a total of 753 matches complete this season (54% of total matches scheduled). With 83% of the season complete, its obvious not all matches will be completed by the end of the season. Unfortunate, but a reality in a voluntary league. Personally, I only have 5 more matches to play with each of my fighters, however, the remaining 5 members I need to play have not been online from two to four weeks. After no responses to my PSN messages and emails, my hope of playing 100% of my schedules may not happen in the end.
Looking forward to see how the three SUPER BRAWL IV tournaments play out. My intent for splitting the tournament up to give everyone a chance to win a SFCCL tournament against equally skilled fighters. While playing other members who are clearly better than you is the best way to learn the game, it isn't much fun. In a league this big, it makes it difficult to see where you exactly rank among your peers. By the end of the season, when everyone has had a chance to play every one else, we can get a realistc ranking of all the fighters in the league. From there, it is easy to break those rankings into equally skilled groups and have a tournament. I expect the Gold and Silver tournaments to be very competitive, however, the Bronze tournament may suffer from apathy. Below are the average number of matches played/completed by the fighters in each of the rankings:
A DIVISION (average number of matches completed):
Gold rankings: 21 matches
Silver rankings: 14 matches
Bronze rankings: 8 matches
B DIVISION (average number of matches completed):
Gold rankings: 21 matches
Silver rankings: 13 matches
Bronze rankings: 9 matches
NOTE - these numbers have the 5 free 'wins' subtracted out from the 5 members who have forfeited their seasons
What these numbers tell you is that the most active, ready-to-play members are located in the Gold and Silver rankings. The best, naturally, make their way into the Gold rankings, while the lesser skilled fighters drop to the Silver division. The Bronze tournament figthers only average 8 or 9 matches played this season. Out of the 32 possible matches played against other active members, that is only 25% of the their schedule. And that 25% is heavily weighted by the more active fighters in the Gold and Silver rankings who most likely sought out these less active members. So, these fighters may not necessarily be the lesser skilled fighters in the league. Just simply the less active. As a result, the Bronze tournament should be competitive.......if they actually play. And that is a big "if".
CUBANILE_WL still leads both divisions. Currently, 7 of the 8 Gold rankings are occupied by the same members. The only members with only one figther in each division are TEAMEMPORERA (Division A) and SKRFACE_13 (Division B). In the Silver rankings, 5 of the 8 fighters are occupied by the same members (including yours truely). The Bronze rankiings also have 5 of 8 fighters occupied by the same members.
Just food for thought...
Reminder that the final live event of the season is a week from this Sunday on October 28, 2012. FALL BRAWL III will begin at 3 PM Central (4 PM Eastern / 1 PM Pacific). All members, including former past winners of live events this season, are invited to play. The event will be played within the Tournament Mode online. The winning member must win 3 tournaments in the Final Lobby.
Until next time...good luck!