[FSPA] READ ME! Preplays vs. Drop 2 Survey!

steve flynnibus at yahoo.com
Fri Sep 3 20:48:41 EDT 2021


 >I know it wasn't the perfect example and I love the ladder system. It keeps things balanced, but say what you may, we all have good nights and bad and the player who has been steady throughout the season shouldn't get bumped >because somebody had a hot night
At least in the current model, you get 'bumped' because someone actually did good - the outcome is based on real performance.
If that 'steady' aspect is important to you, regrouping is the worst outcome.  Regrouping on the fly due to absences has the consequence that one player's negative space has the potential to impact MULTIPLE groups.  So now you have this ripple effect, impacting many players... based not on performance, but literally 'nothing'.
People are bound to get pulled over the skill boundary and punished because some 3rd party wasn't there.  That's poster child for 'unintended consequences'.
I've made a proposal for regrouping due to absences - but one of the key consequences of the move is people are artificially moved around... maybe even to their detriment.  Seems trivial until people start getting artificially high or low scores due to moving over a skill-gap boundary unnecessarily.  
No re-grouping is 'free' of impacts to other players .. which in itself is unfair.
-Steve
    On Friday, September 3, 2021, 08:33:07 PM EDT, Jon Stephanou <stephanou81 at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 I know it wasn't the perfect example and I love the ladder system. It keeps things balanced, but say what you may, we all have good nights and bad and the player who has been steady throughout the season shouldn't get bumped because somebody had a hot night. I agree with Joe if we're going to keep drops we should regroup. I've played quite a few seasons and I've never seen so many one or two player groups like I did this season. It really can screw you when you're scoring a two-player game and you're fighting to get into the finals. 
I know we're trying to grow interest in the leagues and Pinball as a whole. I've played in Bowling & Dart Leagues and there's no mulligans. You paid money to play, it's only 10-weeks and I understand life happens but if you don't make it then you take the hit. Otherwise, if I'm cruising along through the season and I have a lead, it may be advantageous to skip a week. I could pit two others in my group against each other and possibly eliminate one and my zero gets forgotten.  
On Fri, Sep 3, 2021 at 8:13 PM steve via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org> wrote:

 >I understand why FSPA uses groups, however I have played in leagues where the match ups were random. As in they were not set until everyone was there and we knew who was playing. >If making sure you keep the better players together for competition then keep groups but still make them random.
Using random groups eliminates a key principle of the FSPA match play format - the ability for players of varying skill levels to compete with people of similar skill (comparatively).  
The reason you ARE NOT in a random group but a specific group of adjacent players is to allow players of different skill levels to compete and have their league points compared without extra modification.  Players are ranked based on their performance.  You play players adjacent you in this ranking.  The grouping is the handicapping in the system.  This way the points earned in Group 3 can be reasonably compared with the points earned in Group 1.  The players in Group 1 played what should be harder competition matching their better ability, why the player in the lower group earns points against a group of peers...  
Obviously this is idealized as player skill gradient is not perfect linear across a league - but the scheme works to function to allow people of different skill levels to play without fear of getting stomped the majority of the time by players that are radically better then themselves... or to prevent a top player from walking the whole season by cleaning up on far less experienced people.
When you assemble groups by random - you effectively have one competition bracket - everyone is in the same pool.  And it becomes less and less a fair competition when skill levels vary greatly.
Unless you divide people into different skill levels (Divisions) prior - random grouping will always be at odds with the fundamental concept of the handicapped scores.  And doing that basically breaks you into 2-5 different leagues per location.  Some may like that...   but then you take on the whole drama-ball on how you determine limits on divisions, worth, etc.  Historically, the FSPA leagues have rewarded all divisions and encouraged equality even though the skill varies.

(See the openness to how league prizes were picked, etc).   That said, at Ocelot we didn't do 'equal' prize pools, but a 40/30/30 split.
-Steve

    On Wednesday, September 1, 2021, 05:47:36 PM EDT, frederick butts via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org> wrote:  
 
 I understand why FSPA uses groups, however I have played in leagues where the match ups were random. As in they were not set until everyone was there and we knew who was playing. 
If making sure you keep the better players together for competition then keep groups but still make them random.
Another aspect we used was the lowest ranked person was first on the list and picked the game they wanted to play. Then number two… etc… if it was only a three person group then the person with the lowest point total through 3 games would pick the fourth. The player order went from 1-4 from the pervious game. I played in quite a few 1 player groups because the other two or three were not there and it was preplays. 
Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 1, 2021, at 4:27 PM, Matt Wycoff via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org> wrote:



For ocelot, we will plan to continue the Drop-2 format, without regrouping.  We will work to make the tiebreakers and forfeits more clear, if rule changes are necessary (which I doubt) we will announce those to players at the league location and on the FSPA Web site.  If you are planning on playing Ocelot this season (Sept 15th) and have questions or concerns, please contact me directly. 

On Wed, Sep 1, 2021 at 1:50 PM Deb Kapke via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org> wrote:

Last season was summer.Summer traditionally has more no-shows if I’m not mistaken.
Plus Covid. 
And crazy rainstorms. 
So I’m not sure this one small summer of leagues with a new rule provides data usable to assess attendance resulting from D2.
(And I like D2 for locations with many machines, particularly if those locations have shorter hours.) 





Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 1, 2021, at 12:57 PM, Stephen Jonke via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org> wrote:



I’d be curious to know what long term affect drop 2 has on attendance. I’d guess it would be worse, but we’d have to see how it plays out long term. Last season were there more no-shows than usual?

Steve


On Sep 1, 2021, 12:25 PM -0400, Gregg Giblin via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org>, wrote:
Adding my thoughts, having to pre-play 2 sets at a large location (MOM’S) is horrible.

Gregg


On Sep 1, 2021, at 11:56 AM, Edward Most via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org> wrote:

Just my two cents here, Having played 2 FSPA leagues last season and many many more prior I have to say that the last season was by far the worst. This has no reflection on the folks that managed the leagues, in fact quite the opposite. Kevin Rich Edan and  Matty Y worked their butts off. One player games are bad. It goes against the spirit of playing and competing with friends. If I wanted to play pinball by myself I could do that home. Much luv to the pinball Tribe.Ed

-----Original Message-----From: Stephanie Traub via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org>To: FSPA main discussion list <fspa at fspazone.org>Cc: Stephanie Traub <stephsharer at gmail.com>Sent: Wed, Sep 1, 2021 9:39 amSubject: Re: [FSPA] READ ME! Preplays vs. Drop 2 Survey!
Hey all, going to close the survey now as we have more results than Survey Monkey will let us view for free  .... heh.  Thank you for all your responses!  We will analyze the results and get back to everyone.
On Wed, Sep 1, 2021 at 12:16 AM Wei-Hwa Huang via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org> wrote:
Maybe people like playing against people in one-player groups.
On Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 7:15 PM Austin Mackert via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org> wrote:
The survey says, people like playing in one-player groups, apparently.
Weird.
On Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 9:30 PM Edward Most via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org> wrote:
and the survey says???


-----Original Message-----From: Daniel Reynolds via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org>To: FSPA main discussion list <fspa at fspazone.org>CC: Daniel Reynolds <daniel.j.reynolds at gmail.com>Sent: Tue, 31 Aug 2021 15:06Subject: Re: [FSPA] READ ME! Preplays vs. Drop 2 Survey!
regardless of the results, i appreciate FSPA management reaching out for general opinions.  thanks for all you folks do.
On Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 11:20 AM Stephanie Traub via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org> wrote:
SURVEY! SURVEY! SURVEY!
At the request of FSPA Exec, please find a link below to take a survey regarding your feelings about drop two vs. preplays.  Please take it only if you played in this past season and thus were exposed to this new system.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G5KBHK5
I will close the survey at COB FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3. So don't delay!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G5KBHK5https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G5KBHK5https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G5KBHK5https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G5KBHK5
Thanks!Stephanie
_______________________________________________FSPA mailing listFSPA at fspazone.orghttp://lists.fspazone.org/mailman/listinfo/fspa
_______________________________________________FSPA mailing listFSPA at fspazone.orghttp://lists.fspazone.org/mailman/listinfo/fspa_______________________________________________FSPA mailing listFSPA at fspazone.orghttp://lists.fspazone.org/mailman/listinfo/fspa
_______________________________________________FSPA mailing listFSPA at fspazone.orghttp://lists.fspazone.org/mailman/listinfo/fspa


--Wei-Hwa Huang, onigame at gmail.com-----------------------------------------------------------"Where are all the time travellers?" -- generalizing the Fermi Paradox to four dimensions_______________________________________________
FSPA mailing listFSPA at fspazone.orghttp://lists.fspazone.org/mailman/listinfo/fspa

_______________________________________________FSPA mailing listFSPA at fspazone.orghttp://lists.fspazone.org/mailman/listinfo/fspa_______________________________________________
FSPA mailing list
FSPA at fspazone.orghttp://lists.fspazone.org/mailman/listinfo/fspa

_______________________________________________
FSPA mailing list
FSPA at fspazone.org
http://lists.fspazone.org/mailman/listinfo/fspa
_______________________________________________
FSPA mailing list
FSPA at fspazone.org
http://lists.fspazone.org/mailman/listinfo/fspa

_______________________________________________
FSPA mailing list
FSPA at fspazone.org
http://lists.fspazone.org/mailman/listinfo/fspa

_______________________________________________
FSPA mailing list
FSPA at fspazone.org
http://lists.fspazone.org/mailman/listinfo/fspa

_______________________________________________
FSPA mailing list
FSPA at fspazone.org
http://lists.fspazone.org/mailman/listinfo/fspa
  _______________________________________________
FSPA mailing list
FSPA at fspazone.org
http://lists.fspazone.org/mailman/listinfo/fspa



-- 
Thanks,Jon  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.fspazone.org/pipermail/fspa/attachments/20210904/71e214b7/attachment.htm>


More information about the FSPA mailing list