Fortress Clan League (FCL)

[compguygene]

This is something that Arilou and I have been talking about for over a month now on the ID Member Forums. This is NOT a true League or competition for Tronpions. FCL is an alternative competition that is for Clans/Teams that have never won a Ladle to "meetup" every Saturday, the same time as the Ladle is on Sundays.
Here is how it works.

It is a maximum of 8v8. Basically, 2 clans show up, say ID v Una. To make the gameplay as fair as possible, you just have to keep the same number of people on each team. Teams can only be made up of people listed on the roster, with only one exception. If the other team allows you to bring in people from off the roster, to have enough people to play, no problem.

The Third Saturday of every month will be an actual tournament. The brackets will be fully randomized. Rosters are set from when sign-ups close until the Tournament. So, sign up every possible member of your clan/team.

The servers will be hosted in Virginia, Germany, and Ireland. During meetups, the FCL Server will be the only running server on the hosting server to ensure solid performance. I can accomodate up to 12 teams right now, more if needed.
Sign-ups and more information are to be found at http://fortressclanleague.wordpress.com/

***compguygene now is prepared now to be trolled hated and maligned.

[Word]

so if i show up alone the other loser has to duel me?

As i've stated on ID forums there's one thing I don't like about that notion, otherwise I'd sign up immediately. I don't want to stay part of the 2nd/3rd tier even if I have been part of it for so long. It's true that we had some problems to get members, less wars and not many wins (and that was unrelated to the ladle). It's not that painful for me to lose to a decidedly better team, it's more bitter when I know that we could have won, I fully accept that there are better players who somehow represent "the elite" but I think everyone should do one's best to get better and become part of it. I doubt that it'll help anyone to learn only from teams that aren't good either.

[.pRu|Nani]

The TPL was designed without seeding to encourage activity from all. The lack of seeding allows any team the potential to get far/win. You say it's not made to rival the TPL, yet you offer it as an alternative. The site quotes a fixture list that may clash with our fixtures too.

I hope you would encourage people to signup for the TPL, including your own clan, it's a noble idea.

[compguygene]

@word

Yes, if you show up alone, somebody duels you. Or....
If you show up alone, and I have 7 ID's, we could just play a 4v4. The stats recorded count nothing toward the tournament at the end of the 2 month cycle, but we end up having an ID practice 4 ID's vs 1 pru+ID's so we at least have a match. I know that tronpions is a great idea for a League for the Fortress community. FCL is more about getting clans that are NOT top tier to at least duke it out with each other, with the hope of somebody winning a Ladle and gettting kicked out.
It may some counter-intuitive, but the goal here is to get kicked out of the FCL, which will make room for more new teams. This is more about having a Bi-Monthly Fortress Tournament for the second tier, and weekly gameplay for the second tier to get the second tier playing Fortress more.

Edit:
This is a way to help teams like Una, Pru, or ID to push up to the top tier. Also, its a way of developing a new "feeder system" for players. Right now, new players join clans like Una, Pru, or ID to learn to play, then they move on to CT, SP, R, MyM, or uNk, when the want to move up to the first tier. Really, I am trying to enlarge the top tier and give a place for newer teams like Ha, H8d, and the TronZero team to play more against each other. Right now we have a constant cycle of second tier teams getting to the semi-finals, not being able to go further, and then the Key Players that helped to get them there leaving to go where they feel they can get a Ladle win. The hope is to use the FCL to stabilize the second tier teams so they play more and are more motivated to push up to the top tier.
Wouldn't it be nice if every ladle 24-32 teams played?

[.pRu|Nani]

The TPL is for all teams though! You seem to suggest that teams that deem themselves "lower tier" shouldn't take part in ladle/TPL.

[Kijutsu]

So teams who are too good can't enter? Or just the ones that won a ladle?

What.

[compguygene]

I am only excluding teams that have won a ladle. If a FSC team wins a ladle, then they will be done too. If a group of you would like to play on saturdays as some "open team", go for it. The idea, as counter-intuitive as it may seem is to have a "second tier" league and bi-monthly tournament for teams that have never won a Ladle, but want to play more and build the experience needed to win a Ladle. I would encourage all FSC teams to compete in every Fortress event possible, and play tons of pickup.

Edit: I didn't really post here expecting teams to sign up. I have chatted in-game with the leaders of a few of the "second tier" clans, and 4 of them are interested and will be signed up soon. I am not looking to make some huge event here. If all we get is 4-6 teams signed up, I will consider this a smashing success. However, I am going to be putting up servers and making announcements on a number of clan forums. I felt if only out of respect for the community here, that it would be wisest to just put my first announcement here

[FoFo]

/me says PL will win .

[Slickster]

/me says PL will win .

[Kijutsu]

lol.... yeah okay.

Congrats PL!

[sinewav]

/me says PL will win. EVERY TIME.

Here are some thoughts. Think of this as more of a lucid rant rather than an endorsement or rejection of the FCL.

1) 2nd-tier teams (I guess we'll call them that) usually don't win Ladles because they have commitment problems in one form or another. Some players can't even be bothered to show up for Ladle, let alone practice with their mates. How can they be expected to attend yet another commitment?

2) Teams playing together makes for good practice. Playing someone on your same skill level only goes so far. To get really good as a team, you need to play tougher teams. 2nd tier teams will get better, but will they eventually get good enough to take on top-tier teams? I know the FCL is just for fun, but why not use it as a launching pad to more serious competition in Ladle?

3) Creating a sub-Ladle competition is an interesting idea, but might not get a lot of traction if people come to think of it as the LLC - Ladle-Loser's Club.

4) The FCL might be a good way to explore the potential merging of various players into a special Fortress team (which exists just for Fort competitions and is not a replacement for their current clans). Many clans some have very enthusiastic Fort players, but not enough of them to field a strong team. Taking the most enthusiastic players from these fortress-deficient clans and making a solid team of them would do the community good, possibly.

None of the above requires a response. This is just me rambling.

[-*inS*-]

You would be better served just having another fortress brawl.

[compguygene]

The TPL is for all teams though! You seem to suggest that teams that deem themselves "lower tier" shouldn't take part in ladle/TPL.

I apologize for the implication. Let me clarify. I am pushing in ID to make sure Dal, our Fortress Leader signs ID up for TPL. It looks like Dal may sign up the same team he did for the ladle which includes 3 VcL members. I am saying that FSC is an alternative. I never said that one excludes the other. Did you notice that FSC is on Saturdays, not Sundays? That was deliberate. I would suggest that any Fortress Team that wants to ever win a Ladle sign up for TPL, FSC, and have clan challenges! Quite frankly, as FSC teams improve, I expect them to drop out of FSC. You guys don't notice this, but I play a lot of Fortress with noob teams, like the TronZero, Ha, and H8D players. I have taught many of the players the basics of def, sweep, etc. I am creating FSC more for these teams, ID, Una, etc.
So, if you all want to mock the FSC, and don't care, that is fine.

It is really meant for noob teams. So why would you pros even want to play? After all, we know you pros are all well paid....

Edit: just saw your post come in sine, while I am finishing mine.

Good points sine. Without me posting about it, you are getting at the real objective here. To give these newer teams another venue to play and build skills, etc. As to the "merging of teams" to cover commitment issues, that is what is happening with ID/VcL. The last ladle was a combo of our 2 respective clans, and future ID/VcL teams are going to be the norm. ID, for example, is now much more focused on Sumo/HR/DF/CTF with Fortress really being played seriously by only about 1/3 of our members. Similar things can be said of VcL. Thank you for making my points for me.

[.pRu|Nani]

Okay, I accept the points you have made, I just worry that players will fob off the tougher competition to play in the more relaxed atmosphere if they're being asked to play 4 games a month by taking part in the Ladle, TPL and FPL.

[compguygene]

This FCL is so relaxed, it is pretty much gonna be whoever shows up, lets make some matches, even if we have to play uneven or get a few extra Fortress players to fill in. The only thing that is really gonna be formal is the Bi-Monthly Tournament. This is a Saturday event. That alone means many players that play on Sundays won't be available.

The first team to sign up is SpeedDemons! Three other teams are talking about signing up...

To assign the rights that I want to give the players, I need Global ID's for every participant, not just team leaders.