Challenge Room

Based on Ladle Feedback, we are experimenting with another way of self-organising the competition. Team Captains are encouraged to use the Challenge Board to establish the provisional games to be played that night (Sun 3rd Sept). Otherwise Team Captains will have to organise play-offs by visiting the common chat-room to ensure all teams turn up and deal with any problems that may arise. If the preparations are abused in any way, then let us rely on Team Captains to organise it as they did in the first Ladle.

One critical problem to solve: recruiting last-minute. I was most disheartened to discover that one of AW's established team-mates was effectively locked out of a server because it was full. We must be more careful about last-minute additions, as well as recognise that without these last-minute recruits the Ladle would have crashed at the outset. So... any practical suggestions..? See Last Minute Solutions below.

Team Captains
Players must elect a member from their LADLE team-lists, and all captains must put their names here to prepare for the night. Please make sure you have a reasonable form of communication with your team-mates, whether it is IRC, Skype, Team-speak, etc.
 * anarchic wanderers - gArIsImO
 * WPN - Durka
 * LOL - DDX
 * Wraith Squadron - BlAzE
 * Shadow League - Sky
 * Crazy Tronners - Xevi

T-room chat-room and Challenge Board

 * Durka
 * I configured my server for the Ladle Chat room. It's in colors and called Ladle Chat room or something like that. We will be using this instead of 2020's T-room. Team captains please report there around 30-15 minutes before the first round.

Team Captains use the chat-room to register their team: their team is assembled at the appropriate server and they are ready to play. Team Captains should register at 6.45, 7.30, 8.15 and 9pm GMT. That is, at the beginning of every round...

If the Team Captains verify the listing of teams on the Challenge Board before the first meeting, then the competition might run smoothly. If things get messy, then we must resort to trusting one another and allowing Team Captains the opportunity to challenge other teams and allocating servers on the day.

Team Captains should familiarise themselves with Joda's web interface or connect to our IRC Channel using any IRC client. If there's a need for private talk between teams they can make their own channel or use private messages.

Last-minute Solutions
The following solutions need to be aired... check them out... and we must decide on one of them before the big day.

Captain's Lock
One simple rule: The Captains are the last player of their team to enter the server, and by doing so, they will fill the server and effectively lock it. That is, a match will only start when both Team Captains have entered the grid.

During the time the Captain is out of the server, there can only be a maximum of 7 players since team-mates need to leave a space for the captain. Hence, the server will always remain open for last-minute additions and for late team-mates to join.

The Team Captain should be in some form of communication with team-mates, whether it is a chat-room, team-speak, Skype, IRC, or whatever. They should know how many players have turned up for the day's play. If they have a full team, then everything will run smoothly, visiting the Captain's T-room to register and then returning to play the match. If, however, they lack a player or two, they have the opportunity of going around the different servers and doing some last minute recruiting. Their team should fill out and eventually the other team-mates will tell the captain they have 7 players and the Captain can return to the server, being the 8th member of the team, filling the server, and thus starting the match.

This system should allow the flexibility for team-mates who are a little late. If, while the Team-Captain is out recruiting, a regular team-mate arrives, the team can ask any last-minute additions to leave, while still retaining the space for the 8th player -- the Team Captain.

Of course, this doesn't work if we field teams with less than 8 players. The only solution using this system is to limit the number of players per team on the actual server and therefor we require the assistance of the admin.

Ideas & Discussion
Just throwing out this idea to see what others think. Generally in the past it has been hard for all teams (even some large clans) to field 8 players. Also in general we are falling off on number of teams participating. If we had a recommended team size of say maybe 5 it would leave more players to form up in additional teams, or even have a (SL knights, SL samurais) split. You can only guess who the final teams in the playoffs would be, lol. Also having 10 players on the grid as apposed to 16 would solve some lag issues on underpowered servers. --Manta

max number of players
(Will the player count be locked at 8 plus spectators? Alowing a few exra spectators really helps with switching out team mates mid game.) Otherwise sounds good to me. -- Manta

Not sure... thought it was maximum of 16 in a server. I just don't want regular players locked out of a match like Madmax was in the last tournament. I had no way of knowing he was waiting outside. Also, one of the major delays was waiting for players to attend. I think we should be super-strict about time and everything else should follow. I agree about spectators, or subs -- but does the standard fortress settings enable a few extra spectators before being filled? 2020.

US Servers
I notice that for Quarter Finals and After all the servers listed are European. During the Last ladle Bugfarm was very busy with looky loos do to that being the usual server people play on. Perhaps after the first round the US server could replace bugfarm on the list. Most US player average around 100 ping vs European players getting 30 - 60 on local servers so it seems that would be more than fair. Plus concidering Durka's pionts in the Feedback section. - GREAT job laying out the page 2020, it just gets better and better.

Good thinking... the actual server matches are played on should be decided by the team captains with only provisional listings above. Wraith Squadron has already chosen to be Team 8 which means they want to play on the US server and it would make sense to have the continuity of the US server with Quarters between Team 5/6 v Team 7/8 and semi's Team 1/2/3/4 v Team 5/6/7/8... though I see no problem in adding it to the options for the Quarter Finals and later. Does this make sense? Please remember this is all just provisional to assist Team Captains make their decisions on the day as quickly and as efficiently as possible without anyone being in charge. 2020

If someone wants to give me a yell a day or two before the Ladle I can offer up Swamplords Teams as a US server and increase MAX_CLIENTS, change admin pass and give it to the team captains who will use it. Lag is a serious concern on my server though. It didn't get much play during the SPOON because of that. --Lucifer 23:21, 27 July 2006 (CDT)