Season 5 format finalised

[RogueOne]

There's been a lot of discussion about season 5 maps and rules lately and since I'm planning on starting season 5 very soon after season 4 ends, I've come up with some "final" plans for it. At this point, changes will only be made if there's *massive* outcry.

The size and format of the league will remain unchanged. A 90 clan round-robin tournament seems to work well.

WONID checking will continue and will be fully automated.

There will be no other major rule changes. Round and bomb timers will remain as in season 4. Friendly fire will be staying on. Pausing rules will be kept as they are in season 4 and will hopefully be a little more regularly implemented.

The CO/MR12 split will remain. One more div3 may go MR12 if there's demand for it.

And now the bit you've all been waiting for... the mapcycle. There's been a lot of discussion of this and I know that in one or two areas here I'm ignoring popular opinion, but this is the cycle that I believe is best for the league. The order the maps are played in is still open to question, but I consider the maps themselves to be locked now:

Week 1- de_prodigy - solid and uncontravertial. This way, whatever other problems come up in week 1, the map won't be one of them.

Week 2 - de_dust - I know, I know, it lost the vote by a fair old margin, but having done some tests, I am of the opinion that the viable alternatives are both inappropriate next season. de_chateau hurts our servers too badly and de_vegas is extremely unpopular, although I don't quite see why myself.

Week 3 - de_nuke - Nice and tactical, so it should be a good break from the tedium of dust.

Week 4 - de_piranesi - My tests show that this doesn't cause server-lag anything like as severely as de_chateau did, so it's in.

Week 5 - de_inferno - Another solid, safe map

Week 6 - de_dust2 - And another

Week 7 - de_train - seems to work well as a league map, so no reason to leave it out

Week 8 - de_aztec - another favorite

Week 9 - de_cbble - and another

If week 10 playoffs are needed, de_vegas will be used.

I'd also like to pr-empt some of the questions as to why I didn't use X map:

de_chateau - too harsh on servers

de_vegas - generally very unpopular, although I quite like it myself

de_vertigo - fun on a public, but very poor for matches

cs_anything - Very poor maps for high-division games, since they tend to produce 12 - 12 draws, (or 0 - 0 in CO games).

as_anything - Oh please. Do you even have to ask?

Custom maps - Would cause too much disruption, since players would inevitably fail to download them in time.

Old "official" maps - The same argument as applies to custom maps applies here. In addition, many of these old maps tend to be remembered just a little more fondly than they deserve

 

[[pp]Ripper]

still not sure about piranesi, but keep the rest of the maps, and dont listen to the gonk who did his own thread for maps.

 

[Dr_Vegas]

Dag Nab it.. Please dont take the WONID checking out now. Its just taking me a week of therapy and weekend of Glastonbury to come to terms with having members chucked for an invalid WON and us just losing a match.

If the reason the checking is there this season was to prevent merc's, then why should this change for next season.

I realise that some people have been allowed to play even though there WONS dont match, whilst others have been kicked. But the reason behind WONID checking is sound, even though it screws up any tactics U might have when it happens. .

We will certainly be keeping a closer eye on our WONID's from now on anyway. . Once U been stung once, U wont be stung again.

Map list looks cool btw.

Dr. V.
-------------------------------------------------
Please sir, can I have some =|MawR|=

 

[RogueOne]

The decision to take out WONID checking is not one I have taken lightly. However, after considerable discussion of this with splidge, and having run the idea past bigfoot, it seems that we're mostly agreed that the system is too much work to implement and overly prone to causing unnecessary problems in matches. There are too many valid reasons why somebody's WONID may not match. Every clan must have had moments where a member's PC or connection has gone down and they've not been able to play from their usual PC. We have other methods of catching aliasers and although they aren't quite as reliable, they should pick up the most important cases.

 

[RogueOne]

As an addendum to the above, after further discussion on IRC, the status of WONID checking is back "under consideration", so don't throw away your lists just yet.

 

[blunt^]

I think the idea of WONID checking is great and should stay in next season, although on the other hand i do understand there is alot of reasons why not to keep it but maybe you should try to meet somewhere in the middle to keep away the likes of "merc clans" and maybe allow each clan a certain amount of times they can have a miss WONID match.

Its a hard rule to police but i dont think you should get rid of it completely.

 

[Dr_Vegas]

Just as an addition to all of this, we had a WONID change on us last week due to a re-installation. The same CD Key was used yet the WON changed and caught us out.

Basicaly Value assigns 3 WONS per CD key, normaly you only
ever get one WON, the default one, however in rare cirmustances the CD key can switch to one of the other WONS on install or even at random without any re-install, in fact there is a hack to make it do it as well.

I got the above off Dr_Silent btw. .

This indeed does suck, but I do think the only way to stop
merc'ing is to check WONS. It would have been nice to know
this before the season started mind so that we kept checking
our WON's each week and did'nt have to play with men down. .

Still, thats life ai..

Dr. V

 

[Moön]

I think wonid checking could be left to the clan members themselfs as it'l be good for people to do their own detective work
Obviously this would have to be done after the match has been played though, maybe using a screanshot of the status screen in console and matching it up with the information on the site .

Week 4 - de_piranesi

I persoanlly cant get enough of this map and think it brings a new edge to CS .

Shame about vegas, however I'm glad about de_chateau

Custom maps - Would cause too much disruption, since players would inevitably fail to download them in time

Just a note, not a complaint or disagrement but over in BWTFCL we use over 50% custom maps and never have trouble with people not having them, just upload them to bw ftp and have a webpage with descriptions and links

 

[old.amoeba]

Looks good to me - I like Chateau/Vegas though, and am a bit sick of dust/dust2.

As for the WONID, if its too much hassle then get rid of it - I cant see many clans trying to field some 1337 player pretending to be someone else - they'd just add that player to the clan anyway!?!?!?

 

[-adz-]

Keep the wonid, if clans can't get their act together and submit them all properly and in time there are more than enough waiting that probably will.

Not sure how much work it is for the admins, but it is a useful thing to have.

What if someone joined under another clan's tag and name with a cheat? If no wonid lists were kept either by clans or by the league someone could be falsely accused.

 

[g-shock]

first of all i aint knocking the way the league is run (coz i love it) but there seems 2 b a few unwriten rules that should be made common knowlage i.e the part about clans leaving and if in this event there results being overturned into default wins for all who faced them or were gunna face them. this is a bit of a sickener 4 my clan coz it has cost ur the div 3b title which we greatly wanted (and deserve in my opinion)

 

[RogueOne]

Actually, G-Shock, with FF withdrawn, your draw against them becomes a win and puts you on equal first place with Raaar

 

[g-shock]

O....M....F....G

 

[Ch3tan]

The WONID system is good, its just taken a season for everyone to adjust to it. Clans will realise that they have to get their arses in gear if you keep up the automated kicking.

For unforseen problems, like connection problems, why give a team an hour before the match to put across their case for why a player doesnt have his normal wonid.

 

[Ivan.]

I think the idea of leaving any exceptions to the rule down to the opposition clan is a good idea.

 

[cannonfod]

i think there should be no exception to the wonid rule, most teams in bwcsl have plenty big enuff squads to deal with this and just leaves u open to the possiblity of mercs

 

[[TNN]Aardvark]

I'll tell yer this for nowt. Take out wonid checking and 90% of the top 2 divisions will draft in mercs over the course of the season from time to time. There would be at LEAST one merc playing in the top division each week.

SO I say keep it in, or the good work will all be undone just as it was beginning to work out. Clans should be organised and have their WONID lists up to date, no excuses. Or maybe VERY good ones.

Oh yeah, I'm still (just) around, pissing about with a crap net conection and too much work for one person to handle. Will be back full time towards the end of summer, or failing that in the autumn