Back in January, I didn't think there would be a 4th season of the SFCCL simply because interest in SF4 was dying. I wasn't interested in expanding the SFCCL to the new flavor of the month, Street Fighter X Tekken. So, the future looked bleak. However, after a 4-month hiatus and time for members to sample the new flavor, the league is back and ready to rumble once again. We have a great mix of veterans from seasons past as well as brand new blood in the league. To begin the season, we have 22 members confirmed, half of which are brand new to the league although two (Jay19000 & King-Sun) have been in previous seasons. For the newcomers...welcome to the SFCCL!
Over the past couple of days, I have received 3 more signups (2 brand new members), which will increase our numbers to 25 members by next week. There is at least a one-week waiting period before a new member can be added to the season.
Hopefully, everyone will take the time to explore the newly updated SFCCL website. I've organized the past seasons into sub-categories for convenience. I plan to add more 'picture buttons' to help with the navigation of the site since the drop-down menus are a bit tricky. For the current season, all the vital data is located across the top of the webpage. I've also split the various bits of data from members into different pages for convenience, including member profiles, locations of members, most popular characters, Player and Battle Points of all members, member/fighters schedules, divisions standings, and live tournament events. These pages still need some improvement as I am seeing them for the first time live today. Prior, I was only seeing them from the design point. Please leave any feedback to better improve the website.
Some of the 4th season pages are very heavy in terms of images loading. There is a strong reason for this. If you view the 3rd season fighter schedules on a mobile device (iPad, Kindle, tablet, mobile phone, etc.), the schedules are impossible to read. Weebly has done a lot of improvements to their webpages in the past 4 years that I've used it. However, when using mutiple columns to display data, mobile devices will not display the date correctly horizontally. Instead, the mobile versions of the pages stack the columns on top of each other, which makes them impossible to read correctly. Therefore, whenever possible, I will use images/graphics to display data (see Schedules). I hope everyone likes the new look to that page!
Now that the season is officially underway, here are some tips for all the new members playing for the first time in the SFCCL. The "older" members already have an idea how the season works, but these tips may be of use to them as well:
* Set up an Endless Lobby before inviting your opponent. Be sure to select "5" rounds when setting up your lobby.
* All SFCCL matches are best 2 out of 3 five round matches.
* Place all (or as many members) on your PSN Friends List. This makes meeting up online much easier and allows you to see who else is online at any given time. All members must keep SFCCL-SALONGHORN on their Friends List.
* Send Friend Requests or PSN messages to members to setup times to play your matches. Don't wait to be contacted. If everyone is active, more matches will be played.
* All members have 2 matches versus each other. One is with their Main Character, and the other is their Secondary Character. See the SCHEDULES page to see who each of your figthers play. Technically, you only have to meet up with 21 time with other members as you can play both of your matches back-to-back. Of course, you can choose to only play one of your matches per meeting. Just be sure to meet up again to play your other match at a later time.
* This season, like season 3, is to be played at your own pace. Some members may play all of their matches in the first two weeks. Others may play a couple of matches each week. Some may play one of the character's matches first. And some members may want to wait a few weeks before starting their matches. All options are available, just as long as you plan to play ALL of your matches by the end of the season (November 18, 2012). Personally, I am contemplating about playing my secondary character's matches first, and then playing my Main.
* Always be sure to save the REPLAYS of your league matches. These replays have proven important when trying to settle a disagreement between members. Feel free to upload replays to YouTube. Let me know and I can then add the videos to this website under the VIDEOS page.
* As I receive results, I will update the DIVISION STANDINGS on a daily basis when possible. Remember, the top 8 figthers from each division with the most number of wins advance to the season-ending tournament known as SUPER BRAWL IV. Most number of wins are important, not best winning percentage. A fighter who is (8-8) will advance over a figther with a (6-0) record because of the number of wins. This also rewards the figther with 16 matches played versus the figther with only 6 matches played.
* Please report ALL results directly to me via email ([email protected]), PSN message, SRK SFCCL Season 4 post (http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?threads/sfccl-4th-season-discussion-ps3-online-league.154935/), or SFCCL Group post on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/sfccl.salonghorn#!/groups/SFCCL/).
This is a brand new event to the SFCCL. The name originates from the opening tournament designed for my offline league with friends and family earlier this year. That tournament was designed to generate the first rankings for the offline season. However, for purposes of the SFCCL, this new event will have the same intent......to give one member the opportunity to become the league's first "star" this season while making all other members turn to "dust". Get it? The event, similar to Super Brawl, is an invite-only event. Meaning, members will have to earn their right to participate. We begin the season with an invite-only event just like we end the season with an invite-only event.
Two things makes the STARDUST Tournament unique. First, it is a 39-fighter single elimination tournament. Each of SSFIV:AE Ver 2012 characters are represented in the tournament just once. Who plays these specific characters? That is the second reason this event is unique. The characters will be played by the member who holds the #1 spot in Battle Points in the league (see current Battle points here: http://sfccl.weebly.com/player-points--battle-points.html). Whoever holds that top spot will automatically play the character in the tournament. This is how a member 'earns' their right to play in this event. We have 4 weeks until the event, so start raising your points for your favorite characters. The winner of the event will receive an additional win to each of their season characters. In a season where every win counts, this is a very valuable prize.
Since this is a live event being held on Monday night, June 25th, any member who does not show up will give up their claim to a specific fighter. The next member on the Battle Points list for each character will then have the option of playing him/her. If no one is present from the list, any participating members can play the character. If no one wants to play that character, their match is forfeited. For example, I currently hold the #1 spot for in Battle Points for Ken, Bison, and Fei Long. If that remains the case for the event, I will be the only member playing Ken, Bison, and Fei Long in the STARDUST Tournament. Final point standings will be posted the Saturday prior to the event.
This is the first time the league has used those independent number for an event. For this event, all matches will be 3 rounds max in a single elimination tournament.
The character matches are already set. I used the random feature at Challonge.com to create the matches. So look for your favorite characters down below, and start practicing!
I plan to post weekly blog updates every Friday during the season as way to keep everyone updated in the standings and other league news. So check back weekly or stay updated by joining the SFCCL Facebook group. Be sure to check out the SFCCL Season 4 trailer in the blog post below. The trailers have become a suedo tradition every season and part of the advantage for signing up early!
I do expect to make the following two changes soon:
1. With new members joining the league, more matches will be added to everyone's schedule. Currently, to begin the season, we all have 21 matches to play with each of our fighters. With 3 more members confirmed to join next week, that number will increase to 24 matches per fighter. For this season, it is not required to play all of your matches on your schedules. However, only the figthers with most number of wins will advance to SUPER BRAWL IV, so play as many as you can can to get as many wins as you can.
2. With more fighters playing, I do expect to make a change to the number of fighters who can qualify for the SUPER BRAWL IV tournament. With 25 figthers in each division, the number of spots to qualify will change from the top 8 to the top 12. The first 4 spots will receive a 1st round bye in the tournament and the remaiming fighters will fight to advance to the 2nd round to play the fighters with byes.
Stay tuned for more info in the coming weeks on these slight changes.
Let the games begin! Good luck!
* SFCCL-SALonghorn