AFBL 3.0?

[captainspud]

The PvP thread in the Callboard got me thinking about the AFBL. Here's a recap of my observations of the first two rounds:

AFBL 1
-2 Tanks, 2 Scrappers, 1 Blaster
-Many pool powers banned

Pros:
-Balanced teams
-10 players makes just the right level of chaos

Cons:
-Half the league dropped out
-Touch of Fear was bah-roken

AFBL 2: Brute Bowl
-4 Brutes
-Touch of Fear banned
-Same pool powers banned

Pros:
-I dunno. Fun?

Cons:
-Brutes are a momentum-based AT, so once one guy falls on a team, the rest of the team immediately follows. Allows crushing defeats.
-Even worse attendance problems than the first time

AFBL 3.0
Sooooo... I was thinking of a way to do the third one, keeping the theme of rotating formats. The original idea of the AFBL was that it was all smashy ATs, with no "technical" fighters from the Troller and Defender pools. To turn this one on its head a bit, I propose two possible formats:

1: Inverse AFBL
-2 Defenders, 2 Controllers, 1 Blaster

Pros:
-More Chaos
-All squishies causes higher kill counts

Cons:
-More Chaos
-Possibility of crazy debuff combos slowing down fights
-Possibility of mez chains

2: Tag Team
-Any team of 2 (still level 7)
-No bans

Pros:
-Greater freedom, more customization

Cons:
-Loss of regimented team structure-- experienced PvPers will probably pick better combos than others

3: Battle of the Super Babies
-All players are level 50, exemped to Straw Weight (level 5, I believe)
-Not sure about the team format

Pros:
-Goofy fun
-Exemped SOs > Trainers
-People are already good at using the toons

Cons:
-Some builds don't exemp well
-Novelty may wear off fast


*****

Sooooooo... any thoughts? Any other formats we might try?

I'm mostly just musing here... the first two AFBLs were fun, but ultimately they were ruined by drop-outs. I think if we do another one, we need to restrict it to people we know, and make sure people know only to sign up if they're positive their schedule is solid for a couple months. Another possibility is to abbreviate the time frame-- impose really brief time limits (10 minutes) and run multiple rounds in a night.

Blech. That's all I've got, someone else figure out the details.

[MJB]

I've been playing a lot here lately so I can be available for some team-ups. Just let me know the details.

-MJB

[Midnight]

Not sure what to do about the AFBL's previous probleme, but the obvious problem is attendance. The only other competitive league I was in was a ranked Madden league. It was the players' responsibility to schedule games and if you didn't schedule, the game was automatically simulated. Obviously, that's not available in CoH.

[Tortuga]

I would love to see a return to the previous AFBL format, but attendance was absolutely the biggest problem.  Therefore, fewer and smaller teams would make a lot of sense (1 blaster, 1 scrapper, 1 tank).  Not sure if any villain ATs work in that mix, unfortunately.  It think the rules from Season 1 combined with a few changes from Season 2 would work well.

I think another downfall of AFBL 2, as superficial as it sounds, was the team naming convention...which was totally my fault.  Part of AFBL 1's success was due to TJ's kick arse logos and the feeling that teams belonged somewhere.

Restricting to folks WE KNOW are committed would be huge, but may leave out a lot of interested folks.

I've been thinking a lot about AFBL over the past few weeks, so if folks are interested, I'd be more than happy to get Season 3 organized.

[captainspud]

Small teams definitely sounds like a good idea to me. Either tag-team or trios. Scheduling's easier, and you can do shorter fights.

I would like to see the ATs expanded past the smashers this time around-- perhaps in the Blaster slot, you get to pick any squishy. Or something. It'll help differentiate the teams a bit. If you're worried about heals dropping kill counts, just ban heals.

The logos were definitely a big booster for the first one. If TJ's willing, that'd be a huge help to get interest up. :D

[Verfall]

One of my biggest complaints was the pvp accuracy nerf. Level 7's running around with 50% accuracy and no decent way to boost it since we have access to TO's only made things annoying as hell, especially in a melee only environment.

With blasters and scrappers it might be a bit more fun, since there would be less sitting there whiffing and more movement.

[El Condor]

Pardon my insufferable newb-itis, but I'm assuming this is some sort of arena smacky-fun event?  I've done precious little PvP and no arena whatsoever, but this sounds like good times.  Condor's a level 43 scrap and I have two baby heroes, a tanker and scrapper that are both pre-10 (hopefully not for much longer), as well as an L7 brute. 

I'd love more info, but count me in if my characters are a fit!

EC

[Ephemeris]

More info about the AFBL can be found here:
http://afbl.af.funpic.org

[Tortuga]

If we were to bump up the level cap to lvl 12 or lvl 17 (so DOs are accessible), what would that mean in terms of available powers?  Tankers and scrappers would have resisitance to Controllers holds and maybe some Defender debuffs, which could make for some interesting battles.

Personally, I loved the format and rules for Season 1.  The changes for Season 2 were partially done out of necessity, and partially done to cater to particular complaints.  I'd rather limit less and allow more strategy, then limit more and force repetitive matches.

[Dweomer Knight]

RL forced me away from the game during the Brute Bowl so I can't comment there.

Five people, I thought, was a great size for a team.  Especially on big maps, it could take a bit for a killed toon to make his way back to the fight.  With 10 toons total, it more or less balanced out though I think.  Just my opinion, but I don't think anything less than 3 to a team would work (or be very entertaining).  RL can crop up for anyone but attendance seemed to have problems beyond that.

Higher levels means more of a chance of someone hitting an overpowered (by comparison) combination.  14+ opens up travel powers, not sure it you'd want to allow those.  Not sure how many total people you'd want in the league either.  Many people have at least one or two times during the week when they can't play.  Also, without some other source of influence, DO's are out of the price range for most low to mid-teen toons.

If you do go with smaller teams (which, unfortunately, might be a necessity) do you make everyone take the same AT's as before?

If you allow Defenders do you allow Empaths and FF'rs?

If you allow controllers people are going to stock up heavy on Break Free's before every fight.

The attendance problem is a sticky issue.  No matter how small you make the teams RL will still rear its head from time to time no matter how open someone's schedule normally is.  Even apart from attendance, I noticed in Season 1 that very rarely did a fight ever get under way at the scheduled time.  More time was often spent waiting for the fight to begin than the actual fight itself.  It shouldn't take an hour+ from the scheduled start time to resolve 2-3 10 minute fights IMO.

I'd love to have a Season 3 but, I admit, I have no brainstorms to solve any of these issues.

DK