Let me first begin by explaining my thought process for this season. When I finally decided to commit to second season, I wanted to take the time to better plan the upcoming season. This included taking a critical look at how the first season went. Overall, I was very happy with how the season played out, especially the SUPER BRAWL tournament. From the feedback I received from the committed members, they thought so too. However, there is always room for improvement. I wanted to create a schedule of the weeks and events for the next season in advance instead of 'playing it by ear'. I wanted to change some of the rules to give the opportunity for the best fighters to rise to the top of the rankings, and thus divisions. All of these tweaks I will address in future blogs. For this blog, I want to address the biggest problem I saw last season which was the constant unplayed matches. I wanted to minimize (as much as possible) this problem for season 2. People did not join this league to not play. Others expressed their frustration in being unable to contact their opponents or always having to chase down their opponents every week. This is something I constantly wrote about in my weekly updates last season. I promise to curtail my rants this season, but I also hope that it won't be something that I have to mention. The main reason the league is now being limited to 40 members versus an open league is primarily to keep the best members. Now, the "best" doesn't necessarily mean the best players of SSFIV. I mean the 'best' in terms of the most committed players that played their matches every week. To do that, I consolidated the records of each member's two fighters for season 1. From there, I sorted them to identify the members with an 85% completion rate or higher of their matches. These were the members, win or lose, that I felt did their best to play their 2 matches every week. These are the members I feel will make this league stronger, and more importantly, my job easier!
Below is the list of the Top 40 members invited back for season 2 and their completion percentage from season 1 (note - the % below include mirror matches which counted against the completion rate unfortunately):
1 . Zti890 100%
2 . ND2130 100%
3 . Haduken3 100%
4 . Fran_Gil 100%
5 . Flashfan7 100%
6 . xx_Von_xx 100%
7 . Leagueofitsown 100%
8 . Karate_Fingerz 100%
9 . Epedemicc 100%
10 . SolidxPanda 100%
11 . Zabi- 100%
12 . Kirkj 100%
13 . K-Money83 100%
14 . Mad_A187 100%
15 . Orkanmuoh23 100%
16 . Marcopolo177 97%
17 . SALonghorn 97%
18 . Deltron2020 96%
19 . Anakiny2k 96%
20 . Ciigloman 95%
21 . XxUltimaCloudxX 95%
22 . Wild_X_187 94%
23 . ElGeneral 92%
24 . Ccinoone 92%
25 . Sbl21 92%
26 . Subes88 92%
27 . BankerD 92%
28 . DJCacara 91%
29 . SFGodfather 91%
30 . Tigerz_Bone_21 91%
31 . Feiinweltall 91%
32 . CapitolC 90%
33 . Allukko 90%
34 . EncodedNybble 90%
35 . Suikakuyju 89%
36 . Skrface13 88%
37 . CooI_Breeze 87%
38 . Bryanconroy 86%
39 . BPKing 85%
40 . Hollowman1288 85%
The only other criteria I set on these members were that I wanted all members to have been in the league for at minimum 7 or 8 matches. We had a lot of new members join just before starting the SUPER BRAWL tournament. For those newcomers that advanced far into the tournament, like HADUKEN3, it gave them the opportunity to play more matches, and thus, solidify their commitment to playing their matches. Those that lost in the first round would obviously be left off this list.
As of this morning, 24 of the 40 members have checked in. I will contact the other 16 members this weekend to find out if they will be coming back for season 2. If not, then I will begin inviting the next players on the Waiting List. Now, the way the Waiting List will work is quite simple. I will first invite back the remaining 24 members that were part of the league going into the SUPER BRAWL tournament that did not make the cut to be part of the Top 40. I do this as my commitment to them since they were never officially dropped or quit the league. The season simply ended. If those 24 members do not want to play this season, I then will move onto the list of players that have signed up on this site since last week. As of this morning, we have 21 members waiting to join the league. All players that signup will be placed on this list on a first-come, first-serve basis. Once an opening becomes available, I will contact the player to confirm their interest in joining. If they join, their 2 fighters will be added to the league in the lowest division. If not, then I will move to the next name. Simple.
Now, if the list becomes very long, I am open to growing the league from the original 40 members. There is one program I may install that would allow players on the Waiting List to 'earn' their way into the league. In esscence, proving their commitment to playing their matches. I have not yet decided to use that program yet, but it is a possability of the list becomes too long. My hesitation to do this resides with members again not playing their matches. These types of members are the players that join the league and then forget they joined or move on to another game. Let me be clear to all those interested players: THIS IS NOT A TOURNAMENT. THIS IS NOT A SINGLE EVENT. THIS IS AN ON-GOING LEAGUE IN WHICH WE PLAY NEW MATCHES EVERY 10 TO 14 DAYS. Please honor your commitment to the league out of respect for me and the other members.
I did also want to address how the league will begin on June 28th. My preference would be to seed all 40 members (80 fighters) in another tournament to determine the first rankings of the season. However, doing this would result in another 6 to 7 weeks of play just to set up the league. For those members who lose in the opening rounds, they would be forced to wait until the tournament ended to play again. For that reason, I don't want to do an opening tournament. Instead, I think it would be fair (and much quicker) to simply rank every fighter based on their record in season 1. This would give us our rankings and divisions going into Week 1 and allow all members to being playing at the same time. Also, based on the actual records from season 1, it will automatically place the fighters with the best records in the Gold Division, and so on. This should place everyone in a competitive division that gives everyone a chance at success from the start. Obviously, if your skills increase, your fighter should begin rising up the rankings and divisions over time. This will also keep everyone motivated to play matches that should be winnable or at least competitive. So it is entirely possible that a member may have their main fighters beginning in the Gold Division while their second fighter is in the B Division. If you don't like your beginning rank, don't complain. It's just a starting point. Week 1 gives everyone the opportunity to begin changing that rank.
Now, with SUPER STREET FIGHTER IV, there are an additional 10 characters to choose from. Of the 24 members that have checked in, 20 members have changed one or both of their fighters for season 2. Since I'm deciding to use last season's records to rank everyone's fighters, the new fighters chosen will simply take the place of your old fighter. This will be a one-time rule exclusion of the character changing rule. EAny member can freely change their fighter(s) without any penalty going into Week 1. After Week 1, as per the new rule for season 2, if any member wants to change their characters, they will be allowed to as many times as they want with the only consequence being their new fighter starting at the bottom of the next lowest division. For example, if I decide to swap out my Bison in the Silver Division for Dudley, my new fighter will begin the next week ranked #15 in the Bronze Division. I will lose my ranking in the Silver Division, and 'auto promotions' will be used to fill in the gap. This rule was put in place to satisfy the complaint that a member could swap out characters frequently yet hold onto a higher division ranking. With this new rule, frequent changes will drop the fighter down quickly.
I will post the final roster of members on June 25th, the Friday before the beginning of the season. The following Monday, June 28th, I will post the opening rankings, divisions, and matches for season 2. Currently, I am planning on 14-day weeks for the league, but I hope with a smaller, more dedicated group of players, we could shorten that time frame to 10 days as long as all matches are complete. If we can complete the matches in a shorter time period, I will gladly update the rankings and post the next week's matches. It all depends on the results.
Thanx again for everyone that has checked in or has joined the SFCCL facebook community. All blogs updates are noted there. My next blog will discuss some of the new rules in more detail and some of the new things added to the website.
FYI - be sure to check the VIDEO section for an exciting exhibition match to 10 between xxUltimaCloudxx vs. Wild_X_187. The match takes place over 4 videos, but the back-and-forth action is great.