With a flurry of cali events featuring regional competitions, (Norcal vs Socal) I believe it makes sense to have a set team ready to go with a few alternates, rather than hosting a qualifier every single time.
Our current process involves hosting qualifiers everytime before the showdown and selecting a new Norcal team. While this is a fair method, it is resource extensive and difficult to pull off so often.
So my proposal is to determine a set team ready to go with a few backups. This is very similar to how sports teams often operate. Once a team is set, they enjoy the privilege of getting auto spots for competitions. Of course there will be regularly scheduled opportunities for other competitors to try for a spot on the team.
1st String (Guaranteed spot on a team. Immune from challenge events)
Ricky Ortiz
FChamp
Vangief
Note that the above three are 1st string as of today. This may change over time according to their performance and they may drop to 2nd string status.
2nd String
TBD
I’m looking to get 5 people on the 2nd string list so that in the case of a 5on5, we have a 5 man team ready to go with enough backups in case someone can’t make it. We can determine this 2nd string list by hosting a round robin event and taking the top 5 spots.
Once the 2nd string list is set, those players are guaranteed the position until the next qualifier. There will be regularly scheduled challenge events every 6 weeks (frequency may change). Whoever gets top 5 in the challenge will become the new 2nd string list and this process will repeat. If a 2nd string player does not participate in the next challenge, he naturally loses his spot.
So whenever a Norcal team is needed, the 1st string list is automatically selected and the 2nd strings will fight amongst themselves for the remaining spots on the team.
Hopefully this eases the burden of organizers/competitors and makes things more predictable.
I plan to organize the first qualifier some time in January.
Also note that this is a first pass at this idea so details may change as needed.
considering there aren’t THAT many team events, does it really make sense to hold consistent qualifiers to choose the top5 2nd strings? frankly it seems like too much work for maintenance versus the benefits. it also creates corner cases where people in the 2nd string are obligated to attend every qualifer in case some tourney gets announced before the next qualifer is held.
maybe it’s not… it does create a chance for people to get together consistently, but still, i wanted to throw out there that this is a concern.
it’s a great idea to keep 1st strings around, and it does make team choosing much easier, but i think we need to brainstorm further and think of a different approach at least regards to how to handle the 2nd strings.
i don’t think anyone is going to argue regarding the 1st strings, but i think it also needs to be said out loud what can change the status from 2nd to 1st, or 1st to 2nd string. so far it is very open to interpretation and it might cause controversy down the line.
CBK: Sorry but the Norcal team is only open to residents of Northern California. Reno is in Nevada and thus excluded.
The area I’m kind of murky on is Fresno which is central cali. Not sure if they should be grouped with North or South or have their own region.
LB: I envision the qualifiers as not just for that purpose but a way for Norcal folks to have a more serious practice session than typical casuals. A lot of us practice/attend different casual sessions and don’t really get a chance to play against everyone. So the quals will serve a dual purpose of maintaining our team and improving our overall level.
Depending on tourney performance, perhaps we can hold a vote to see if someone should be boosted to 1st or demoted. The process is a work in progress so we can fine tune things as we go along.
Personally I’d rather see an entire team of “2nd String” or lesser known NorCal players. I feel like 5v5’s are getting really stale because it’s generally the same players going at it each time. Nothing against these guys of course, I just think having a team full of players that SoCal may not be familiar with makes things far more exciting.
That said, I think this is really the best way to go about it if we’re going continue to put together the strongest team.
