Monkeybowl VII - GAZZA'S TEARS WIN

[Jimjimjimany]

Bitter Mancs!

Whose bitter?

[SillySod]

Whose bitter?

I think I can see a Geordie in the reflection. Hard to tell if its Don_Vito or if the curvature of the trophy has made Stan look fat

[Pipey]

Wise man say: you're only as good as your last tournament.

[stick_with_poo_on_the_end]

So Bitter you and Joe had to jump in bed with 2 Blackshirts to win?

[Podfrey]

Points Stick =======> here

[Joemanji]

I'm sure there won't be any accusations. Just that an unscrupulous person in my position might use the knowledge of all other teams' races to give his team an advantage.

I won't be doing that of course!!!! I believe Don is going to submit his race choices very soon. Once submitted, there' s no going back!!

Of course there isn't. Fo sho. A Geordies' word is bond.

[Don__Vito]

Way Farming aye!

[Pipey]

Thank you to captains Don_Vito and Mamapepe - race choices received for Gazza's Tears and The Four Js.

Get a move on everyone else!!

[Indigo]

Train tickets booked, hopefully accomodation being sorted kindly for me, team picked and painted. Skill deliberation to continue!

Looking forward to this!

[Pipey]

Thank you Parmo Pirates for race choices.

KEEP EM COMING!!!!

[Pipey]

This message sent to captains today. Please all read it. Comments and questions very welcome.

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Dear captains,

A few very important announcements about Monkeybowl:

ONE
4 race selections received now (the 3 GBBL teams plus Teesside Alliance). The deadline for everyone else is Sunday (25th March).

TWO
Regarding drop outs and the effect on the tournament structure... there have been 7 drop outs leaving us with 41 players. As a result we will move to a 10 team structure (40 players) - it is preferable to keep an even number of teams so any possible 11 team structure would be awkward or unworkable.

Currently this would leave 2 guys as 'freebooters' i.e. non team members. One of the two will be my spare man from Hartlepool , ‘Reaver’ (Stuey).

THREE
EDIT 23.3.12: Finalised freebooter rules now added to title thread, page 1

FOUR
Important bit: how do we decide which players will be freebooters and which will play in teams? Of the four teams who had drop outs, two had a single drop out, one had two drop outs and one had three drop outs. The fairest way is unfortunately for the two teams with the most dropouts to be disbanded, namely ECBBL and Flame On.

This leaves us with Hangus, Vmcat (ECBBL) and Barney_the_Lurker (Flame On) as potential freebooters. Two of these will join Swim Team and Team Special Tactics (the teams with a single drop out) to make them up to four. One will join Reaver (my Hartlepudlian spare man) as the freebooters. I believe the fairest way to do this is to decide randomly. EDIT: This random draw has been done. Vmcat will be the freebooter, Hangus will join Team Special Tactics and Barney will join Swim Team.

I would add that even though I am in close contact with all the captains, I can’t guarantee that there won’t be any more dropouts. If there are then don’t worry I’ll find a new way of working this out. Truthfully we won’t know the picture for sure until the Saturday morning of the tournament, however at the moment the above ‘10 team + freebooter’ plan looks likely.

I hope this is reasonably clear. If anyone has any questions please ask. If I’ve made any glaring oversights then please let me know about them!

Thanks
B

*************

[Podfrey]

Bren,

I think you're handling a difficult situation very well. It may be a bit chicken and egg with the race selections for some teams though (I'm thinking Swim and Tactics teams) - the captains would probably like to know who exactly is in their team so that they can decide on races. Also it requires the freebooters to have to bring a couple of races/rosters in case they are drawn on a team that already has their preferred race(s). For this reason it would be better to assign them early, but as you say that's not fair on the freebooter who misses out being in a team. Tough one.

Regarding the two freelancing freebooters, would it be better to have each as the auto pick for Matchups 1 & 2, with each freebooter then drawn against a random opponent from the other team, and then proceed as normal? This would mean each team now has one of their players randomly removed from the lineup (as per everyone else). It's just that "Captains can never choose for the freebooters to play during the later phases of the picking process, they must always choose another match where possible." seems a bit clunky as a forced mechanic.

Keep up the good work, and if there's anything I can do to help (short of dropping out to even up numbers ) let me know.

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"Freebooters" might be a tricky term to use for both the two guys who permanently join teams and also the two who join different teams each round. Maybe "Journeymen" for the ones who permanently join teams, and "Freebooters" for the ones who change teams?

[Don__Vito]

Pains me to say this, but Geoff has some very good points and I agree completely with the ,"matchup 1 & 2" part. Ugh, I feel dirty...

[phil78]

Should we worry about what races the 2 freebooters use? Would it be fair if one team had the chance to gain points vs a tier 4 team while th other was facing a tier 1 race.

[Pipey]

Agreed, all very sensible points. Thanks!

The first two random games each involving one freebooter seems a much more elegant way of doing it. Tis done! Will edit.

I will also randomly allocate the three players this week then. I'll speak to all three first before I do this.

To be clear on who is a freebooter: those who join existing teams will not be freebooters, they will become part of the team as much as the other three. It will only be Reaver and one of Hangus, Vmcat, Barney who will be referred to as freebooters.

Another couple of small things I should have mentioned:
1. The freebooters can choose whatever race they like, if this means that there are duplicate races within a team of 5 then so be it.
2. I'll need to come up with a new first individual tiebreaker for the freebooters, rather than 'position of your team within the team rankings'. Will have a thinky about that. Any suggestions welcome.