This first series of leagues is just a sort of qualifier to determine what leagues people belong in. Your performance in these set of games determine your placement for the first official season, where new players will have to start at the bottom.

That makes sense, thank you.
I read somewhere that there will be seasonal leagues; ie. a Spring League and a Summer League. Is that accurate?

There are seasons, two or three a year. At the end of each season there will be promotions and relegations, as well as mix-ups at the lower levels. The seasons are designed to coincide with actual seasons so there won't be games in the middle of the vacation happy summer months (and perhaps christmas next time)

Sing me up for the noobiest league you can find.

Hey, I'd love to get involved in League play too. Sign me up and keep me updated please?

So there is Leagues and then there is the GDFT?

"Sign me up for the noobiest league you can find."
Same.

Yes, the GFDT is a tournament and the Leagues is a group of divisions. Like the English Premier League and Championship etc vs The FA Cup.

They are run by seperate people: TheGhostMaker and Wonderllama respectively. They are completely seperate competitions. They are collaborating in some sort of champions cup though which includes winners from both competitions.

I love how much the letters in GFDT are mixed up. I always say GFTD. =)

curly and Draugnar, when this series of games finishes which will probably be in a month or so then announcements will go around to recruit more players into the leagues. Be wary though, it's a heavy investment and you may not be able to join too many more games outside of the league while you're participating.

If I may offer up an opinion, I completely agree with Chrisp, you shouldn't be in a league unless you are willing to offer up devotion to your league games, since NMR's and CD's are some things that are even more severely frowned upon in league play. Also, the level of competition is far more intense and challenging, and you have to be prepared to communicate with everyone on a regular basis in your games.

However, the competition is invigorating and it's wonderful to be involved in an organized set of games with the same set of people, as opposed to randomly created games where you don't necessarily know all the players you'll be competing with (who may CD and NMR more often than not). All in all, loads of fun!!

And if you end up in a League below the top one after the initial phase, it is going to be extremely cut-throat to gain promotion. I actually think that League B (for want of a better term) will be every bit as tough as League A, if not tougher.

I cant wait for the message about next set of recruiting as I also would like to join a league.

aye. same here.

they are good games....but.... it can be difficult to play with the same 7 people all the time, we have some much baggage with each other and due to the promotion system all our games are ending in draws.
i would prefer it if instead we had a system in which if you played a game with any league players it was included in your league results and registered on the league table, im not sure how that would work but. or maybe limit it to 4 games not 5., maybe 3 games and one gunboat no press game.

That is not entirely different from the GFDT (got it right, didn't I?)

I believe that sort of thing might be your bag, baby!

If people want to sign up to the leagues, drop me an email.

Include:

Name
Link to profile
Any Questions you have.

I think we need to amend league rules for future seasons to encourage solo victories.

I shall be looking into every aspect of the league to make sure that next season runs really well and gives the best possible diplomacy play in terms of skill and enjoyment.

What is your email adress? And are there any stat requirements? I'm pretty new to the site. Will you take a look at unfinished games as well?

my email address is found in my profile. If you just click my name you should see it.

When I say to include your name, I mean your phpdip nickname, to clarify.

email sent.

And there are no stat requirements

I think the real discrepancy is that it's far more advantageous to trade victories + strong seconds than it is to trade two way draws between games. Should that be the case?

Group C has been a massive exception in that respect actually:

Victories: 2
2-ways: 4
3-ways: 6
4-ways: 5

I'm a bit relieved the season is almost completed. Group E was only slightly stronger than the other to begin with, but the addition of stragos and now Argento has made our roster simply absurd-- destp, Ivo_ivanov, alamothe, TheMasterGamer, Argento, stratagos, and myself. That being said, the play has been of the highest caliber and thoroughly enjoyable. Thanks for the time and effort you've put into this, Ghostie, and I can't wait to start next season.

I'll email later tonight after lifegaurd practice

dangermouse... tempted to agree with you that need to stress importance of solo victories more.

The downside of this is that it could actually make solo's even harder to come by given the advantage it would infer on the victor for the rest of the league season. Which could make 3 way draws more likely and even 2 ways harder to come by (as easier to set-up a 3 way draw without a stab than a 2 way).

So need to be careful about tinkering too much (for rugby followers think about what the bloody Aussies have done to the sport by pushing through the ELV changes).

Whatever set up is given, the players will soon start to trade between games. I think the value of a solo win should always be such that it is a significant encouragement to achieve it.

I am wondering whether for the next phase, there should still be a further qualifying round - say two league groups at equal top from which the final monster group is formed? That would give the players in Group E, for example, a fairer crack otherwise they could be in the position of having to struggle out of the lower league groups for more than one season.

I cant believe this is the first I'm hearing about this whole 'league thing'. do you have the rules/structure etc written out somewhere?

ghost - i'm emailing you now...

and wanderlama - thats the 2nd league how do we find out about yours?

I'm curious for far more info on this anyone that can point me in the right direction please do - much obliged.

Actually, this is a good point and one raised by Edi earlier: only a small % of players look in here: if we want to publicise something on a truly Global basis, how do we do it?

Global announcement is what Kestas uses.

WonderLlama organised last year's diplomacy tournament, which is still running due to difficulties. This is the end one, but the general format is they start around November, hoping to finish the first round by Christmas, then a 2nd round, follow by a final that runs until around Easter

http://phpdiplomacy.tournaments.googlepages.com/home2

This is the website for all info and standing in the current league and tournament.

Wow, I both pity and envy Group E. That group is by far the most stacked.

Yeah. Group C used to be the best, until all of those changes happened to Group E

I'd also like to join this league system, so I too have sent an e-mail!