i can understand that CG, one won and on track to win the second.

CG, I feel your pain as a strong contender to usurp your throne. =D

That pain being a knife in the back I assume... ;)

I can't wait myself. Should be good fun, and add a touch of spice...

As I was lying in bed, something occurred to me.

Meta-gaming - i.e. making alliances over several games between two players, is frowned upon/banned if possible. Basically, Player A agrees to help Player B in another game if he helps him win/achieve an objective in this game. Certainly efforts are made to name and shame players doing this in the forum. It is 'not cricket'.

The League system is all about getting to the top and trying to win. Over seven games, players will begin to look at the table and think of ways to ensure not only that he achieves the best possible results, but that others do not. What is to stop a player making deals with other players to 'knock out' certain players, such as rivals, or good players, in the first few games early? Essentially, that is metagaming - several players making alliances against one player over the course of several games.

Do we believe that it is an acceptable part of the league system? How would you prevent it, if indeed you wished to do so?

I think that there will be attempts to do this. I am inclined to think that the power of diplomacy should counterbalance this - if you are a good diplomat, you should be able to persuade others to think of the game situation, rather than the league. But it may prove that this league system throws a couple of spanners into the works.

Thoughts?

yes, good point chris.
i think this will be a problem. i noticed in the 1st league 2 games we played that some thoughts occurred to me that were decidedly in a grey area.

consider this situation
game 1- you and a,b,c go badly. d, f and e draw it.
game 2- you either want to ally with a,b or c in order to reign in the league point leaders and knowing that a,b and c will be as desperate as you to get on the score tables. or you might want to choose d, f or e in order to accept that you wont be number one but that you can keep a,b and c at the bottom while you move up.

what can we do about this? we cant "not" think about the league tables as we play our games but i think the worse outcome would be for 2 players to team up every game within their league.

It may be self correcting situation but.
The league leaders might want to destroy the players nearest them in points and thus team up with ones they didn't in the previous game (ie the losers)

I think that it is a self correcting situation. Well put. Identifying alliances is a part of the game. If a couple of players want to make it easy for everybody else by teaming up every game, whatever their Great Power, then that's fine with me.
I like to keep my options open.

I also think that if two players agree at the outset to metagame... the one who helps his partner to the first game is the mug because he will likely get stabbed - in the next game by not getting support in return.

Name and shame! I'm all for that.

And will there be any adjustments to the league groupings as two new leagues are scheduled?

What is the difference between League play and a central scoring/ranking system>?

Edi, the league system was just to add an extra level of competition for players wishing to distinguish themselves in such play. It's just a series of games played by the same players with promotion and demotion into higher and lower series between seasons. It's scored and organized unofficially.

I believe that there are seven leagues (or 9 flash?), each with seven players who play seven games (if we can arrange it, each player will play all of the countries in turn, if not, assignments are random).

There was a seeding system, done on (I think) ELO rankings, and each league should be roughly equal. At the end of the first season, the top seven will go into a premier league, etc.

One thing though, can someone kindly explain the ELO system? I think I was on holiday when this was introduced...

And another query, is it possible to organise it so that we can do each of the seven countries in turn for the leagues only, or is that too difficult to code? I have no idea as my understanding of computers extends to Word, Outlook etc...

It is seven leagues at the moment, but the last one ore two did not start with one of the top seven players in it by the preliminary ELO rankings...

They could be much more even in standard though and pretty tough for that.

Maybe Ghost can repost his ELO stuff?

Come on Tom, we know you're out there!

And how did you manage to get to go away just as the new term starts?

I say we cap it at 7 leagues, a perfect number for ease of use when each game has 7 players. If other players wish to join they'll have to wait for an opening. TOM COME BACK!

1. I was at Bath University. A clever ruse I know.
2. Woah, when did we all decide that pseudonyms where a lame idea, or rather, my pseudonym was?
3. Gawd, I'll repost Elo stuff when I've caught up with myself from being away. To everyone, this has been news at least three times already, and each time I have had to explain in five or six times.

Dumb question - I was waiting for an email - how/when is this going to start?

Soon and it'll all become clear as day soon enough.

It is day here now, and it is clear...

who will open the games

The Ghost, appropriately...

Flashman you're in a hurry!

By the way, I know these games are WTA (which is a good thing as we don't want some hippy-do-gooder coalition forming..... good old stabs are the best)...
BUT!!!

Has anyone addressed the fact that this is likely to end up as one long meta-game rather than 7 individual games? I'm wondering whether this is a good thing, and whether there is anything we can or should do to prevent/discourage it?

read Cg long post above in this thread and the few after it

We addressed this in the trial leagues. Things actually worked very well. The games were intense and the fact that everyone wants to be a winner gets rid of the back-scratching that goes on in PPSC games.

What was very interesting was the way that selfish considerations caused the games to go to wins rather than draws. Classic Game Theory I believe.

How does one become part of the league games, or is this by invite only?

No, stick your name down here, it will be added to the list. There are bound to be a few who drop out from the original list and you will have a chance to be added...

The whole thing is due to kick off very soon. That's why we are teasing The Ghostmaker who is setting this all up (great job being done there).

Gryncat, if you are boared (bored) then there is a spare spot going in the Intensive Press game below. 40pt ppsc - see the thread titled 'Intensive Press', which will explain the idea.

Thanks CG, I replied to that thread.

Flashman: So, this is me sticking my name down here. CC to Ghost as well. Thanks.

Weren't the league games supposed to start today?

I thought that too.
Are we supposed to get contacted through email?

I though so. Haven't received anything yet.

Originally it was said that games would start the second week of September, so it'll start up before long I'm sure...

if at all possible i would like to be added to the list for the league. my email is on my profile