OOC Out of Bounds (The ELL OOC Thread)

Ugh, ten days until the Draft. Can't come soon enough . . .

 

We actually haven't set an official date, but I was thinking of doing that early this week since we'd have most draft positions nailed down. I was thinking that maybe I would move it back a little bit so as to give a bit more time for postseason wrap up for those in the Final since we're guaranteed two players in it (scores to influence that to come shortly). Anyone have dates that I should be aware of when doing draft planning?

EDIT:

Spoiler

REMATCH! A great rivalry in the making, right here. And what a Skywalker Final. Holy cow.

 

Great game, Vehn.

Even after that loss, a little more time for wrapping up the Final would be appreciated, as I have quite a bit of stuff to resolve between the Final and the start of the draft.

For the first time in I can't remember how long, I have absolutely nothing going on in RL during the offseason.

 

You guys played us down to the wire the whole way, what a finish, what a finish! Great game to yourself as well. I had privately hoped that you would make it to Euceron and face whoever won against the Solo folks. I'm speechless....

CPL_Macja, get ready for a rematch....going to be great

 

I'm on the fence about pushing things back. Yes it provides more time for the Finals teams, but there are eight players not in the Finals who then have to wait longer to get to the Draft. And it could only be pushed back a day at most, since I am not a proponent of four-week offseasons. They are long enough as it is.

 

Can't wait Vehn, Monarchs/Smugglers once again for all the marbles!

Sent from a Galaxy far away via my comlink

 

I guess the Sandskimmers and Rebels are just that good.

 

The only reason the Crusader's lost that badly is that LaBron Jaing wasn't used to the heat on Tatooine and his legs cramped up on him...

 

Kaat Stun

 

Two very dominating LFL games today setting up a great Final there. Going to be a hot one on Euceron! 276 all over again...man, it's going to be good!

 

They're probably hopping mad about being demoted from the Elite League. Should be a good game.

(Realizes that the number generator probably doesn't care about making it a close one )

 

I have a concern about moving the draft. Last year the draft ended 6 RL calendar days before the start of the regular season. I am concerned that if we move it back we will have even less time to set our rosters and prepare for the game week one. This effects anyone scrambling to pick up any undrafted players as free agents even more. It also effects those of us who likes to play friendly games because we can't even play players yet to be drafted or picked up in free agency. I am all for giving more time for players to wrap up their season, but if we do we may want to consider lengthening th off-season. Just my two cents. Feel free to contribute your thoughts or call me crazy

 

Well, last season, the first round went to the maximum possible length IIRC. That doesn't typically happen; usually we can move on to the second round a few days early (especially if I can make my pick in a reasonable amount of time ).

That said, while I know some people here (*cough Jedi Gunny cough*) are not a fan of a four-week offseason (hell, they used to be just two weeks), I would be a proponent of exactly that. IMO four weeks has been needed since the implementation of a draft. It was one thing when we had three weeks to just tell our own stories about contracts, training camp, friendlies, players' personal lives, and whatnot at our leisure; back then three weeks was more than enough. But with half or more of that time being taken up by the draft now, it's very difficult and awkward to jump forward in time to tell one story without knowing the makeup of your roster yet, then jump back to make a draft pick. Or to do something immediately after the season that took you a few days to develop, when you're already on the clock for the first round. And not all of us have the ability to squeeze multiple posts into a few days (hell, I don't know how I'm going to write three posts in one week this week).

The ideal offseason for me would have the draft starting on the first Friday (giving us a couple extra days for postseason stuff), then aim to wrap up around the second weekend, or early in the third week. Then we have a couple of weeks of breathing room to discuss free agency, training camp, friendlies (which can be third Wednesday, third Sunday, and fourth Wednesday), etc. at a leisurely pace.

(As a bonus, going to four weeks this offseason will, importantly, put Thanksgiving in the offseason instead of between Weeks 1 and 2, so people aren't scrambling to find time to post amid family get-togethers and travel plans.)

 

Let the week of Galactic Cup Final posts begin!!!

 

This is one of the primary reasons that a longer offseason may be required. As Runjedirun and jcgoble3 have pointed out, people in this game enjoy telling certain offseason stories. However, the Draft limits when those stories can begin. As someone who dedicates what I believe is a relatively large amount of his discretionary time to the game, even I find it hard to get through the current offseason. Even so, I'll admit I have an instinctual reaction against a four week offseason just because I like more regular season limmie. I also understand that for non-playoff teams, that means it's eight weeks between ELL games with a three week playoff and three Sundays off from limmie.

While I can't remember when the offseason moved from two weeks to three (it's possible that the Draft was actually the reason), in recent offseasons the Draft has dominated large parts of the offseason. Many of you have expressed to me the opinion that the Draft is one of your favorite parts of the game. As a result, I feel that it is important for it to be a primary feature of the offseason. What I don't know is how important it is to everyone else that you have sufficient time to tell other stories in the offseason. As most of you know, storytelling is my lodestar when it comes to making decisions.

So, this has prompted me to create the...

Spectacular...​

Wonderful...​

And All-Around Amazing...​

279 Elite League Limmie Offseason Survey!​

​

(Which, admittedly, I was going to do anyways, but it just made it more important I do now. )

Just so everyone feels like they can be open with their thoughts, please PM me your replies to the questions below. If I could get them by Thursday at the latest, that would be helpful. I'd actually like them earlier, but want to give everyone flexibility since I know we're all busy folks.

1. How important is it to you to be able to tell offseason stories, like training camp or "friendly"/non-regular season limmie games? Let's use a Likert scale of:
   • Very unimportant
   • Not important
   • Neither important nor unimportant
   • Important
   • Very important
2. To accommodate the schedules of all players in the Draft and enable other stories to be told, would you rather:
   • Add an extra week to the offseason
   • Modify the Draft format to make it quicker, but potentially eliminate the first round IC draft picks
3. Should the ELL season be extended by two weeks to 11 weeks so that every team plays all other teams every season?
4. Should the All-Star Game return to a Skywalker Conference vs. Solo Conference format?
5. If the All-Star Game remains a pro-am event, like it was this year, does it deserve its own week of the season?
6. Should the All-Star Game even be a game, or is it good enough to have an All-Star team announced at the end of the season to simply recognize the outstanding play of certain players?
7. What is your optimum season cycle length?
   • 15 weeks (current cycle), roughly 3.5 seasons per calendar year
   • 16 weeks (extend offseason by 1 week or give ASG its own week), exactly 3.25 seasons per calendar year
   • 17 weeks (no offseason extension or ASG week, but 2 extra regular season games), roughly 3 seasons per calendar year
   • 18 weeks (extended offseason by 1 week or give ASG its own week and 2 extra regular season games), roughly 2.9 seasons per calendar year
   • 19 weeks (extend offseason by 1 week, give ASG its own week, and 2 extra regular season games), roughly 2.75 seasons per calendar year
8. Anything else I'm not asking about you think needs to be fixed about the game? (Aside from your team not winning, because you can email all your comments about that to these guys at Random.org )

Thanks in advance for taking some time out of your day to answer these questions, of which there are admittedly a lot. I had already been thinking that I wanted to ask everyone about these issues going into 279 and this discussion helped prompt me to actually do it. TAGs for everyone to make sure that you all see this important post: @Bardan_Jusik CPL_Macja galactic-vagabond422 jcgoble3 Jedi Gunny Rebecca_Daniels Runjedirun Tim Battershell Vehn

 

So I'm not good enough for a working tag? I see how it is. I am going to appeal to the Limmie gods now for an undefeated 279 season capped off by a Galactic Cup championship.

I'll get working on answering these questions via PM ASAP.

 

You're going to have to get in the queue.

 

Take it up with a mod.

 

Not even worth it, those guys never do anything anyway.

Kind of like the Mercs this past season.

 

Nothing for the home team? Just kidding.

Congratulations to all of the award winners!

 

What, the pleasure of hosting the Final and just missing the opportunity to play in it by one measly over the bar point isn't reward enough for you?

 

22 + 6 = 29?

Must be that new math they're teachin' nowadays...



Sent from a Galaxy far away via my comlink

 

I don't know what you're talking about. You must be mistaken.

 

I'm stealing that.