National Grifball Association

Alright well here's my opinion on the whole situation...

1. Pro/Ammy separation -I think just about everyone wants this here, but I could be wrong. It's not fun for the amateur teams when they have no chance at winning, nor is it fun for the Pros when those teams forfeit later on in the week. Teams need a reason to get better, much like new players need a reason to get involved here. Therefore I believe the combination of better prizes and making the distinction between both leagues is the best way to accomplish this.

When I first joined Grifball I wanted to play with the best. Even though I joined amateur for my first season, I always kept tabs on the Pro league, and made sure to follow whoever was good. The Pro/Amateur setup gives people a reason to prove they can play with the big boys. This would be even better if we come up with a HoF system too. After all, everyone loves a little recognition.

2. Team Naming and Roster Lock rules -Pro teams need to be more creative with their name, if we want to draw in big crowds to our streams. In order to accomplish this I think team names should be monitored carefully. We should urge everyone to pick something that sounds professional so we don't end up with teams like Jackals with freaking laser beams, Sallys Exotic Dancers, Captain Crunch and the Cereal Killers etc... These restrictions should apply to Pro teams only for the time being though.

As for the roster lock rules, I'm in favor of letting teams trade up until makeup week. In order to prevent trade abuse, we could make it so that once a player is traded from a team they can't be traded back to that team for the remainder of the season. If a trade is proposed both teams captains must agree to it, and no player should be allowed to leave on their own free will. Once they sign up with a team they should be "locked in" until they're traded somewhere else. Administrators will reserve the right to veto any trades if we suspect you're abusing the rule.

3. Prizes/Fees - The amateur league should have a very small prize like an avatar prop or something, while the pros either recieve cash or 800-1600 MSP per player. We could make the Pro league a pay to play league, but of course there's always the issue of money. If we do $10 a team that's a cost of $2.50 per player to earn a shot at their share of a $100 prize pool ($25). If players can't pay their way in, then they could either ask someone on their team, or we could try to provide more payment options.

4. Roster Sizes and Restrictions - In my opinion roster sizes should stay at 8. The AGLA already tried a roster limit of 6 and it only ended up hindering the ability for teams to get their games played. Besides, there's not many teams that hoard more than 4-5 eligible players on their roster anyways.

In regards to restrictions amateur teams shouldn't be allowed to pick up more than one pro caliber player. Say for instance a player like Determined dropped down to amateur, a player like Priest shouldn't be allowed to join him. We should have a certain rating system for rosters to determine their overall strength, and once a team passes a certain threshold they should be denied access to the amateur league. This should also work for denying teams access to the Pro league if they fail to meet the set requirement.

5. Division Choices and Scheduling - This shouldn't be a problem for Pro teams since most of the captains communicate well enough to schedule their games themselves, however we should still give lots of options to the amateurs. They're the ones that need someone to hold their hand since some of them don't even show up to begin with.

6. Inter Division play - I'm in favor of it for Pro league only. In fact, I don't think we should have divisions in Pro so everyone has the exact same schedule. As I said before the veteran teams are fully capable of making due with whatever when it comes to scheduling. It's those amateur teams you have to worry about, so I would so no inter divisional play for amateurs.

7. Length of season - I'm leaning towards either sticking with what we have, or increasing it slightly for Pros only. I don't want to increase it in amateur especially if a division has multiple forfeit factories in it.

8. Playoffs - I don't think every team should make playoffs, but I don't want to see pros only get 2-3 rounds of playoffs either. If we're going to make it an exclusive league keep the size of playoffs in mind.

9. Gametype - I already posted my thoughts on this, and think we should reallly do that scorefest setup I suggested earlier. If someone could find that and paste it here in the next few minutes that would be great. Otherwise I'll paste it here once I get on my computer. Basically I think the traditional 9 rounds is a little boring, and believe we can spice the games up with halftime shows and such.

@Lightsaber

The team names idea has been tossed around a bit because I feel it would allow teams to develop followings and a little more history behind them. Being able to change your team name is a bit absurd seeing as how some teams do it every season. How is someone new to Grifball supposed to recognize any of the teams from last season if they're watching a stream? Permanent team names make the league easier to follow for people that aren't yet in it.

As for the names themselves, I believe they reflect the image of the NGA. For instance a stream titled Seperate Intelligence vs Power Outage would be a lot more appetizing than That Nobody Team vs Another Group of Noobs. You get my point here? All this is to make the league more appealing to our audience to prove that Grifball can be competitive, and is taken seriously by our community. In my opinion the name restrictions would only have to apply to Pro teams only seeing as how they are the permanent franchises of our organization, and represent the face of the NGA.

In regards to the gametype I posted something quite similar in the Offical Maps and Gamtype thread, it's the last post on the first page. I think what I suggest was...

Pro league regular season games
2 15 minute halves for a total of 30 minutes
Unlimited Scoring
5-10 minute halftime

Pro league playoff games
4 15 minute quarters for a total of 1 hour
Unlimited Scoring
5 minute intermissions and 15 minute Halftime

Ammy league regular season games
2 12 minute halves for a total of 24 minutes
Score limit of 9-12
5-10 minute halftime

Ammy league playoff games
4 12 minute quarters for a total of 48 minutes
Score limit of 9-12
5 minute intermissions with 10-15 minute Halftime

The score limit is there for Ammy games so decent teams don't destroy rookies 100-0. Also there would be substitutions allowed in between each quarter or half. This means playoff games won't necessarily have to be best of 3 because your team will have ample oppurtunity to make adjustments to come back and win the game.

Edited by user Sunday, March 3, 2013 2:14:55 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I really like any game types with no shields. And just regular shields for the runners

Welcome to the site! Unforunately Season 3 has just ended, and we're waiting to announce the beginning of Season 4. You see, we run "seasons" which are practically longer tournaments held over several weeks. You play a set number of games per week, and the teams with the best records make playoffs. Once we announce signups for Season 4, you will find a link on the front page.

In the meantime you can sign your team up in our regular BOMBs. BOMB's are single day tournaments that we hold every so often. You'll always find a tab at the top with information regarding any scheduled BOMBs, but so far we haven't announced the next one. It should be within the next few days, just keep checking the site, and post in the forums to get involved with the community!