Rolling Thunder Forums

So as we reach the climax of season three I want to look ahead to season 4 (partly to ensure that everything is organised properly).

Firstly, how do you think this season has gone? Are there any structural changes you would like to see?

The only optional change I can think of is to add a playoff section to the end of the round robin for the top placed 2/4/8 teams. Gandalf correctly notes that this rather devalues the league section, although it does make for an exciting climax where the two top teams come together for a spectacular cup final.

Organisationally, I hope to do better than I did at the start of this season. It got away from me big style although I think we're fairly on track now. I'll try to do better with matching weeks where people can't play.

In terms of sign up, can I have the usual, Race, Team Name, Likely dates you can't play. Ta!

Race - Khemri
Team - Pinewood Carrions
Dates I can't play: 5th October, 26th October is a maybe.

Feedback: I liked the league and the number of games. Would equally support keeping as is or adding a playoff final for the top two to decide the winner - I like the spectacle potential of this season's being decided by the final matchday.

Sign up:
Race - Underworld
Team - The Mighty Undercheesers!
No unavailable dates I know about yet.

I liked the large league, better, where everyone got to play plenty of games.

A final day play off might be fun, though with League positions having an effect.

e.g.

Top 3 in play offs, over two weeks? Top 4 seems to many as that would be nearly half the league.

3rd play 2nd for the chance to get into the championship/playoff game, while the top placed team sits out a week (finishing top of the league should have some advantage IMO)

Then Have a final winner takes all championship game?


Don't know who i will submit for next season. I think my beast-men are eyeing up a role playing tournament on the other side of the mountains, so may go for another break season.

Was eyeing up Vampire silliness perhaps, or trying some absurd passing team (as I ain't tried that yet). Trying a few races in SP before I decide for sure

Rav has already covered my #1 complaint in the first post so I'll gloss over that.

A small point, and maybe it's just me, but when the fixtures are listed and only team names are used... I have to go refer to the first page to see who the race and manager is.

Just an idea but maybe we could have a league as per season 3, AND a simple knockout cup? With 8 or 9 teams the numbers work out fairly well. I have a preference for the league staying as it is, but don't mind much if consensus would rather a playoff.

When do you need to know what team, I'm really torn between my new ogres and the wood elves. It may depend on how the end of this season goes.

I'll stick with my elves, as I will probably not win the league.

I'm with Gandalf. Keep the league and add a knockout cup so the lower ranking teams have a chance to win something.

RT premiership followed by RT cup? Sounds good to me as long as both winners are considered to have won (so neither counts as winning overall unless you do the double).

For the cup tie weeks weeks weeks be nice to play friendlies where possible amongst the eliminated teams, although we might all want to watch the final.

Raveen wrote:For the cup tie weeks weeks weeks be nice to play friendlies where possible amongst the eliminated teams, although we might all want to watch the final.

Or (if the planets align) they might allow some players to catch up on missed matches etc.

Either way it sounds decent.

notjarvis wrote:Or (if the planets align) they might allow some players to catch up on missed matches etc.

That never ever works out apparently :I

I'm defo in for Season 4 - a League and Cup sounds good to me - will mean things will go on a bit longer - are we entering the same team into both competitions?

Feedback - If we could stick to a schedule a bit more I'd appreciate that; I felt a bit shafted some weeks with planning to play against someone and then finding out at kick off I'm playing someone else. It's only a little thing, I've still enjoyed it, even with the horrible luck I've had.

A suggestion for format - (and this depends on the right numbers really) is that the main league happens; then gets split down the middle; top teams go into one play off, and the bottom teams into another, so it ends up like the Champions League and the Europa Cup. So the league is used to rank the teams (everyone plays each other once again), then a knockout for the best teams (I.e. with 4 teams 1st Vs 4th, 2nd Vs 3rd, over two legs in the semis, aggregate scores and a 1-legged final) and the same for the bottom teams. This theoretically means that similar 'level' teams will play one another, and everyone would still have something to play for. Then we'd have a Champions League Winner and a Europa League winner.

We could even have a European Super Cup after that, where the two winners play off.

As for next season's team, I haven't decided yet. The lads are eager for more, but could really do with some rehab time to get over their mushroom addiction that's been a heavy burden all season. There are rumours of an All-Skink team floating about, but apparently team training has so far resulted in a LOT of casualties that has put off potential recruits....

DaigaroOgami wrote:I'm defo in for Season 4 - a League and Cup sounds good to me - will mean things will go on a bit longer - are we entering the same team into both competitions?

Given that the cup would, as a standard knockout, only last 3 weeks I think that it would be wise to enter the same team. Also, with our current numbers we can take at most 8 out of 9 into the cup so it'd be unfair to qualify with one team and then play another. If we grow some more then this can be checked again.

DaigaroOgami wrote:Feedback - If we could stick to a schedule a bit more I'd appreciate that; I felt a bit shafted some weeks with planning to play against someone and then finding out at kick off I'm playing someone else. It's only a little thing, I've still enjoyed it, even with the horrible luck I've had.

Agreed! It's been a bit haphazard this season and that's mostly my fault for not paying attention to which dates people couldn't make. For season 4 onwards I think it would be best if the games for Sunday are posted on Friday at the latest and don't change after that. People may always have stuff come up and if we can move things to accommodate that then we should, but Friday seems a fair time to draw the line.

DaigaroOgami wrote:A suggestion for format - (and this depends on the right numbers really) is that the main league happens; then gets split down the middle; top teams go into one play off, and the bottom teams into another, so it ends up like the Champions League and the Europa Cup. So the league is used to rank the teams (everyone plays each other once again), then a knockout for the best teams (I.e. with 4 teams 1st Vs 4th, 2nd Vs 3rd, over two legs in the semis, aggregate scores and a 1-legged final) and the same for the bottom teams. This theoretically means that similar 'level' teams will play one another, and everyone would still have something to play for. Then we'd have a Champions League Winner and a Europa League winner.

We could even have a European Super Cup after that, where the two winners play off.

I'll bear that in mind if we gain a few more people but for now I think it's a bit much. I fully expect that teams not in the cup will play each other in friendlies where possible.

DaigaroOgami wrote:As for next season's team, I haven't decided yet. The lads are eager for more, but could really do with some rehab time to get over their mushroom addiction that's been a heavy burden all season. There are rumours of an All-Skink team floating about, but apparently team training has so far resulted in a LOT of casualties that has put off potential recruits....

Have you been listening to 3 Die Block, because they tried that build in their early days...

Agreed! It's been a bit haphazard this season and that's mostly my fault for not paying attention to which dates people couldn't make. For season 4 onwards I think it would be best if the games for Sunday are posted on Friday at the latest and don't change after that. People may always have stuff come up and if we can move things to accommodate that then we should, but Friday seems a fair time to draw the line.

I agree with this.

I'll bear that in mind if we gain a few more people but for now I think it's a bit much. I fully expect that teams not in the cup will play each other in friendlies where possible.

I was thinking that at least up until the semi-finals, the cup games would just fit in wherever, I'm sure we could've managed that this season as there were always teams sitting out from week to week. The SF and finals would be more organized. If we hadn't got to the SF stage by half way through the league season then we could be more organized.

Also - can we state & agree on some rules for friendlies? I originally thought we were just talking about the off-season but this quote suggests not. I suggested some rules earlier in the thread, along with some other stuff that no-one really responded to directly.

As regards "counts as winning" I think just the league should count for the purposes of high TV teams sitting it out. The cup is a bit more random.

As far as friendlies go, I prefer if we just didn't have them at all.

And creating a spiraling expenses limit is probably a must.

Gandalf wrote:I was thinking that at least up until the semi-finals, the cup games would just fit in wherever, I'm sure we could've managed that this season as there were always teams sitting out from week to week. The SF and finals would be more organized. If we hadn't got to the SF stage by half way through the league season then we could be more organized.

For the cup to work properly it needs to have extra time, the only way to get that is to set it as a cup in blood bowl so therefore the cup will have to happen after the league stage. Otherwise I'd be more than happy to mix it up like football.

Also a cup needs a power of two number of entries so the league will be used to eliminate the extra team(s).

Raveen wrote:

Gandalf wrote:I was thinking that at least up until the semi-finals, the cup games would just fit in wherever, I'm sure we could've managed that this season as there were always teams sitting out from week to week. The SF and finals would be more organized. If we hadn't got to the SF stage by half way through the league season then we could be more organized.

For the cup to work properly it needs to have extra time, the only way to get that is to set it as a cup in blood bowl so therefore the cup will have to happen after the league stage. Otherwise I'd be more than happy to mix it up like football.

Also a cup needs a power of two number of entries so the league will be used to eliminate the extra team(s).

Ah OK. So you can't have one team in two competitions simultaneously then?