MalloryWhen does the season start, I can't find it on the website, unless I'm blind?
The schedule information is on the home page.
http://puu.sh/trP9U/4fb5894886.png
MalloryAt this point since both ESEA and UGC are established leagues with 8-week seasons, you might want to consider doing your seasons a little differently from UGC and ESEA. Maybe try short condensed ones or something (8 matches over 4 weeks), that don't start at the same time as the ESEA/UGC season is running. I think that might be up a lot of people's alley, and you'll be able to pick up a lot of teams that couldn't make the UGC/ESEA deadline or people who can't for various reasons commit to 3+ months of stuff. You might also be able to draw in some of the "retired" players who got burned out of long seasons but would want to play with friends for fun while it lasts.
We actually have a system in place that could allow for that. Basically, we'd generate two matches per week, and let the players more or less choose when to play the matches. They'd have about 6 days to play the match before the next week is generated. So basically, the schedule is generated every Sunday, and teams have up to Saturday to play their matches.
This however brings with it some issues, especially for lower ranked teams that are used to the way UGC is operated. I ended up polling around 20 UGC 6's teams, and give or take 10 highlander teams. The 6's teams were heavily against the two match per week schedule, with most saying that it was simply too much for them to reliably handle. At the same time, every single highlander team said two matches per week was overkill, and they sometimes can't even get all 9 players for the single Monday match.
That's one of the main reasons I decided to do one match per week, with an 8 week traditional season. But instead of putting the default days during the week, it'd be played on the weekend, which is when a large number of teams prefer to scrim. The idea was to take away one of their scrim days, and turn it into a match day. This was a middle ground approach. Sadly, it's kind of backfiring, as teams are either taking TFCL too seriously, and end up using TFCL as their secondary or even primary league. Or they just don't use it at all.
Also, the first matches are scheduled for the first week of February, which is two weeks after UGC, and *was* two weeks after ESEA. Now, it's basically one week apart, with UGC being first, ESEA second, and TFCL third. So yeah, the idea of grabbing teams that didn't make the ESEA or UGC deadline, was kinda one of the bigger plans for TFCL's first season. It just didn't end up working out that way.
MalloryBecause while I think you're a cool guy and you're earnestly trying to make this work, I think a lot of people just get enough TF2 between scrims and UGC and ESEA matches (both leagues with established history and competition so players are reluctant to leave them) that they don't necessarily feel like they want to play a third league with the same exact set-up as well. At least that's the boat I'm in, between playing for a friend's UGC team and leading a team in ESEA.
I agree with you fully. One of the main things and intentions with TFCL, was to try and create a league that offers the same level of features as ESEA, but to bring it down to a free level. Also introducing things like automated scrimming, misc leagues and tournaments like bball and ultiduo, and other things that no other major league provides. I want TFCL to be an alternative league, while also being a serious league for practically anyone to play and have fun in. I know I can't realistically compete against ESEA, nor do I really intend to. You're paying for ESEA, so it only makes sense that you'll get and compete against the best of the best. But at the very least, I was hoping that a number of ESEA teams would consider giving up one of their usual scrim days, and playing in TFCL instead. They might even win some money if they end up taking home first place.
With all that said, TFCL isn't intended to be a clone of UGC or ESEA. Once we're a little more established, we'll be hosting things like bball tournaments and seasons, ultiduo, mge, heavy boxing, 3v3 (custom format), a Wipeout-style obstacle course competition, and pretty much other random things to draw in a more casual crowd, and introduce them to competitive TF2. Things like an intro division, where teams can play to learn and grow, as well as a coaching service, and rewards for people opting to coach newer teams and players. Undecided on how to handle the coaching thing yet, but it's definitely a planned feature moving forward.
In the end, I want TFCL to become the home of competitive TF2, for both high and low level players alike. To be a sort of learning ground, while still offering high level competitive play in the form of 6v6. Right now, we're more or less the same as UGC, feature for feature. But come March, we'll have an auto scrim service up and running, and then a little further in the summer, we'll have a pug-like system for self-hosted competitions and tournaments.