Reserves/Development League

[Cestrian]

Hi,

Myself and three other friends have recently begun a tournament in the style of the Six Nations (though, obviously with four teams, like the original). We meet up for a weekend, play each other once and then crown me the winner.

It's brilliant fun of course, but there is a problem. The bloke who is bottom (with humans) has very little chance of being able to even draw a game for several tournaments as during one fateful match against my brother's Orc team two of his blitzers were killed in one turn. Whilst this was hilarious, it does kind of screw his chances up for the foreseeable future and it'd be great if we could start every tournament with a reasonably level playing field.

Now, I've been looking around the internet and haven't really seen a good way to balance teams in a 'naturalistic' way - giving the guy loads of cash seems a crass way of doing it - so I was thinking about a reserves/development league.

In short this would be a 7-a-side league where all of us could play an unlimited amount of games with any race with the view of developing players for the 'big' league. I was thinking that we could use these developed players for two purposes 1) we could have some kind of draft system to buff the team at the bottom a bit, 2) if a player in our tournament wishes to change teams he can do so without needing to start completely from scratch.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this idea? Both the concept and how it might be properly implemented?

Cheers!

[Elyoukey]

That's why most of IRL touneys use the resurection system. You don't get your whole week end screwup by just 1-2 early bad casualties.
i did not understand what a "7-a-side league" is.

[Cestrian]

That's why most of IRL touneys use the resurection system. You don't get your whole week end screwup by just 1-2 early bad casualties.
i did not understand what a "7-a-side league" is.

Cheers for the reply Elyoukey.

What is the resurrection system? Also what does IRL mean?

The 7-a-side idea is simply there to develop players for the tournament proper. So, much like a football team has a development squad where players can (theoretically) get better so they can challenge for the first team, I would like to run something similar among my friends so that any players who get some bad casualties can draft a player for the next season and become competitive again.

Obviously it'd be 7s blood bowl (which I'm certain I've come across somewhere), with a team of your choice. The players that develop would then be made available for drafting depending on the need of each team. Currently I'm thinking something along the lines of:

1st - no drafting allowed, 2nd no drafting allowed, 3rd 1 draft pick allowed, 4th 2 draft picks allowed.

However, it'd be great to hear further suggestions.

[Elyoukey]

IRL = in real life (i guess you tourney is IRL)

the resurection system is pretty simple, you just don't get CAS nore SPPs. This is used in most tourneys: you build your team with whatever TR the organiser decide to(105, 110 are the most common), and at the end of each game you get your team fully back, no matter how dead your players are.

I am no league player, but your 7 a side concept may be interesting. as far as i understand you will play some games
with your classical team and some games with your bb7 team, and you will allow some transfer from the bb7 team to the main team ?

problem may arrise when the winner of the tourney will get his team beatenup while winning. you may win a game or a tourney and get your team destroyed making it unusuable for the next tourneys. i would allow at least 1 pick for the winer, actually to make it simple i would make 1 pick according to your ranking (1st->1pick 2nd->2 pick etc...)

[Darkson]

One house rule I've seen for progression tournaments (i.e. those that use SPPs and Injuries) is the "Magic Sponge", which is basically an auto-heal of an injury, but only after the game has finished.

[Cestrian]

IRL = in real life (i guess you tourney is IRL)

the resurection system is pretty simple, you just don't get CAS nore SPPs. This is used in most tourneys: you build your team with whatever TR the organiser decide to(105, 110 are the most common), and at the end of each game you get your team fully back, no matter how dead your players are.

I am no league player, but your 7 a side concept may be interesting. as far as i understand you will play some games
with your classical team and some games with your bb7 team, and you will allow some transfer from the bb7 team to the main team ?

problem may arrise when the winner of the tourney will get his team beatenup while winning. you may win a game or a tourney and get your team destroyed making it unusuable for the next tourneys. i would allow at least 1 pick for the winer, actually to make it simple i would make 1 pick according to your ranking (1st->1pick 2nd->2 pick etc...)

Ah right, yes it is in real life. Thanks for clearing that up.

The resurrection idea is interesting, but we want to have player development over the course of the seasons, so isn't for us.

And yeah that's pretty much what I'm thinking. The classic team will play the tournament - which are the only matches that really matter - and the 7s team will play games in order to develop players for the classic team.

That's a good point about being beaten up whilst winning. The system you propose may be too simple though, as by winning the tournament the player will have a decent amount of money (as they'll have normally won at least two games) so could replace players with their money.....

[Cestrian]

One house rule I've seen for progression tournaments (i.e. those that use SPPs and Injuries) is the "Magic Sponge", which is basically an auto-heal of an injury, but only after the game has finished.

Yeah again, I'd like to keep away from that kind of fix. Though maybe there could be a post-match, final, apothecary roll available as a free inducement for the bottom club? The Ambulance or something...

[Elyoukey]

That's a good point about being beaten up whilst winning. The system you propose may be too simple though, as by winning the tournament the player will have a decent amount of money (as they'll have normally won at least two games) so could replace players with their money.....

well.. looks like your league does not include elf coach.

But the 7 a side is a good idea i think, it allow a coach to have a pool of potentially very good players. And buying a rookie positional does not always compensate. (think about a dark elf team fully blodged, forced to put a rookie blitzer on the los because he is not worth a lino).
What i see as a drawback is that you may have to play more games and if you are not all as motivated it may be an issue.

[Cestrian]

That's a good point about being beaten up whilst winning. The system you propose may be too simple though, as by winning the tournament the player will have a decent amount of money (as they'll have normally won at least two games) so could replace players with their money.....

well.. looks like your league does not include elf coach.

But the 7 a side is a good idea i think, it allow a coach to have a pool of potentially very good players. And buying a rookie positional does not always compensate. (think about a dark elf team fully blodged, forced to put a rookie blitzer on the los because he is not worth a lino).
What i see as a drawback is that you may have to play more games and if you are not all as motivated it may be an issue.

Ha! No it doesn't! We have Necromantic, Lizardmen, Orc and Human.

Yeah that was my thinking really. You'd have to have limits on the players that the best teams can get, it could really help teams lower down the league. Perhaps there could be a points system in place to help police it. So, each finish in a previous tournament gives you a certain amount of points - 1st 1 point, 2nd 2 points etc - and you need 5 points to be able to promote a youth player up to the full squad. If we applied it retrospectively then the worst team would be able to get a good player in for the third season.

What do people think of this?

And you're right, motivation will be an issue. I was thinking the 7s league could be on fumbbl to make it easier for us (though I haven't checked if it's possible), and we won't need a huge amount of games to get appropriate players I think.