BOT Flush

crisco10

Blackout Rugby wrote:

Due to many clubs moving to new countries, and a change to how demotions will work in lower divisions, we will be doing a complete bot flush for season 9. All possible bot clubs will be flushed out of each division, and human owned clubs moved up (based on rankings).

After all clubs have promoted/demoted, and all clubs who are relocating have moved. Any bots left in the system will be pushed to the bottom, while human teams move upwards until all bots are as low as they can go. This may include right to left movements only in the lowest division where human owned clubs still exist. All movements will be based on country rankings.

We understand this may upset some managers for various reasons, but we remind you that this is a one-off, and is being done in the best interest of everyone as a collective.

This will also coincide well with a change in how demotions will work from season 9 onwards. If under normal rules, a club would demote/relegate into a league below, this demotion will now only take place if the league below contains one or more human managers. This is to ensure people don't end up in a league by themselves, significantly diminishing their game experience.

Great idea to be honest, don't understand how teams are in Div V on their own while there are so many Bots floating around Div IV on a permanent basis.

Also ,the idea of bots in Div 1 or 2 is crazy. lol.

eoferrall

woooo! FREE PROMOTION! haha!:D

Damn I was actually looking forward to a season of consolidation and squad development. was aiming for the top four rather than first and then push for promotion, ie WNWIM as much as possible.

But might be nice to get some experience in DIV II if I am pushed up (but doubt it!)

jprender

Once all the bots are flushed out, the top 8 ranked teams will be Div I.

9 - 40 will be in Div II, so I don't think I will be making a jump up as I am currently ranked 64. I reckon the most I will move up will be about 15 places.

Div III for me again next season but at least it will be a competitive league for me.

eoferrall

jprender wrote: »

Once all the bots are flushed out, the top 8 ranked teams will be Div I.

9 - 40 will be in Div II, so I don't think I will be making a jump up as I am currently ranked 64. I reckon the most I will move up will be about 15 places.

Div III for me again next season but at least it will be a competitive league for me.

Hadn't thought of that aspect, with my end of season losses I rocketed down the rankings to #85, so I am staying put I would expect!

Wylie Luke

WOW, having just won promotion to Div IV I wonder what this means for me, I'm 215th in Ireland but going into a league with only 1 real person, surely this won't mean promotion to Div III cos that would be a disaster for UCG 3rds at the moment! I mean I've concidered playing with 14 men cos some of my players are so bad!

jprender

I think 215 will still be in Div IV but it all depends on how many teams leave

Wylie Luke

Ah I think I get it now, I presumed the 1 guy in the league would be promoted up but not nessessarily cos it's down to rank, I should really read thiese things properly first!

mar-z

jprender wrote: »

Once all the bots are flushed out, the top 8 ranked teams will be Div I.

9 - 40 will be in Div II, so I don't think I will be making a jump up as I am currently ranked 64. I reckon the most I will move up will be about 15 places.

I don't think thats quite right. That assumes that all Div II managers are ranked higher than Div. III managers, etc. I was ahead of a Div. II team for a lot of the season so its not guaranteed (I don't think anyway)

It will roughly end up as you say but if say after ranking has been sorted we have rank 41 who has stayed up in Div. II and rank 40 hasn't managed promotion from Div III, then they wont switch them around.

I'm 48 at the moment and with 8+ managers leaving I'm right on the border of promoting/not promoting. I'm so confused

jprender

mar-z wrote: »

I don't think thats quite right. That assumes that all Div II managers are ranked higher than Div. III managers, etc. I was ahead of a Div. II team for a lot of the season so its not guaranteed (I don't think anyway)

It will roughly end up as you say but if say after ranking has been sorted we have rank 41 who has stayed up in Div. II and rank 40 hasn't managed promotion from Div III, then they wont switch them around.

I'm 48 at the moment and with 8+ managers leaving I'm right on the border of promoting/not promoting. I'm so confused

Actually, I think you are right on this.

It is just a matter of replacing bots, not redesigning leagues.

shame really.

crisco10

jprender wrote: »

Actually, I think you are right on this.

It is just a matter of replacing bots, not redesigning leagues.

shame really.

Yeah, the direct rankings wouldn't work but as indicator not too bad?

Just did a quick count and there are 20+ Div IV teams ahead of me in the rankings. Not enough to have me benefit from the flush I suspect. I didn't bother counting V teams, because I assume despite them having higher rankings, I would come ahead of them in the flush.

Lol, got blocked from BR for an hour though. Apparently BR doesn't take too kindly to multi tab browsing. (I just went through the rankings opening every team in a new tab).

BR wrote:

Your IP address: ttt.xx.yyy.zzz has been temporarily blocked from Blackout Rugby for 1 hour.

This has happened in defense because the number of requests from your location has surpassed 100 requests per minute.

mar-z

jprender wrote: »

Actually, I think you are right on this.

It is just a matter of replacing bots, not redesigning leagues.

shame really.

It is but on the other hand imagine you were demoted by a reordering of the leagues by ranking, it wouldn't be happy days at all.

Phonehead

On the offsite I did up the new Div 1 and Div 2 teams - had to go through who was promoted and relegated and then see who from div 3 or div 2 would move up! I missed out by 3 but there are 3 foreign division 2 managers who may be going, I have a slim hope of being in Div 2 next year.:)

mar-z

Phonehead wrote: »

On the offsite I did up the new Div 1 and Div 2 teams - had to go through who was promoted and relegated and then see who from div 3 or div 2 would move up! I missed out by 3 but there are 3 foreign division 2 managers who may be going, I have a slim hope of being in Div 2 next year.:)

Just in before the cut off! Div. II here I come!

If all stays as on the offsite I'm the lowest ranked div. II team. Anyone want to sell some good players on the cheap?

daveharnett

Ok, I'll say it: I don't like it. I can see the upside - it gets all of the weirdness out of the system in one go, rather then spreading it out accross 2/3 seasons. It's a huge immersion breaker though, and it renders the outcome of the last season almost irrelevant.

That being said, I can't see way of resolving the bot problem that would be less arbitrary. It's always going to be tough for the admins of an mmo to step in and shake the status quo this much I suppose.

It's some consolation that this will probably leave me the strongest team in my league

crisco10

When do the new leagues get put up usually? Be v. interested to see how this affects my division, even without it meaning any move for me.

daveharnett

crisco10 wrote: »

When do the new leagues get put up usually? Be v. interested to see how this affects my division, even without it meaning any move for me.

AFAIR it's usually not until Sunday evening.

satory

Okay I've skimmed over this but let me get this straight...


Their removing the bots, and pushing them all down.. and all this is being done on National rankings right?

So this will be the make up?
Division 1, - 1 to 8
Division 2, - 9 to 40
Division 3, - 41 to 168
Division 4, 169 and above?

Looks like double promotion for me lads, ranked 168th in the Country

eoferrall

Sorry satory, gonna ruin your buzz here! It won't work that division I. & II etc will be 1-8, 9-40 etc as no one is demoted, so each bot is moved down and humans are moved up in order of rankings, so highest ranked in Division II moves up to division I when a bot is moved down.

mar-z

satory wrote: »

So this will be the make up?
Division 1, - 1 to 8
Division 2, - 9 to 40
Division 3, - 41 to 168
Division 4, 169 and above?

Not quite (at least I don't think so), although that should give a good indication of where you could be.

I think this is something like what will happen.

All promotions and relegations will take place as always, then remove teams leaving to other countries which will be replaced by bots. Those bots are then removedand people will get moved up.

However if say you are 168th after the teams leave (you will move higher once teams leave), than if 169th are in div 3 they will stay there and you will be div 4 rather than promoting.

Edit: eoferrall explained it better

mar-z

daveharnett wrote: »

Ok, I'll say it: I don't like it. I can see the upside - it gets all of the weirdness out of the system in one go, rather then spreading it out accross 2/3 seasons. It's a huge immersion breaker though, and it renders the outcome of the last season almost irrelevant.

I agree, even though it looks like I get a promotion out of it. It isn't the same as masterminding my own promotion. And it means all the teams I knew how to play against are replaced by teams I'll have to learn over, which is a challenge I like admittedly.

satory

Bah!!

Well will wait till Sunday to find out what happens, but im getting my earned promotion so at least thats something

FewFew

Damn it! I just got into Div 3 on my own steam and it seems I probably would have got in anyway!

It also makes rankings, which I always took as a bit of a joke, quite relevant after all. Damn, I just played a friendly last week and put out a complete oddball team and barely lost, but it knocked me down about 6 places in the national, out of the top 60ish loike. BAH!

Still, it makes sense I guess, especially for those stuck in div IV with nothing but bots.

They might have gone for a best of both worlds approach and flush the bots from IV to V and leave the one or two bots in the higher leagues. They'd be knocked out soon enough anyhows, and one bot in a league doesn't tend to affect play too much.

TheVoodoo

Hmmm.. I honestly dont know if i'll go up or not, slipped down about 10 places after loosing my last 2 games.

Although, financially i would'nt be able to do much if i went up due to the fact i've pumped about 400k into development/facilities. I'd prob be straight back down. I would like a change of scenery though.

Is there much of a difference, sponsership wise between III and IV?

eoferrall

Fewcifur wrote: »

It also makes rankings, which I always took as a bit of a joke, quite relevant after all. Damn, I just played a friendly last week and put out a complete oddball team and barely lost, but it knocked me down about 6 places in the national, out of the top 60ish loike. BAH!

oh no you lost 6 places... my loss in the final to coyotes cost me THIRTY places!! dropped to 85 from 55!:(:eek: (and fell down in our little area battle... look at me in 5th!

Orizio

eoferrall wrote: »

woooo! FREE PROMOTION! haha!:D

Damn I was actually looking forward to a season of consolidation and squad development. was aiming for the top four rather than first and then push for promotion, ie WNWIM as much as possible.

But might be nice to get some experience in DIV II if I am pushed up (but doubt it!)

A load of bollocks. I competed with Cork Coyotes, you got annihilated. Myself and Jeremy are good friends, we'll see who gets undeservedly and absurdly promoted... :mad:

Orizio

Actually, we are ranked 85 and 87 respectively - neither of us are going anywhere. :pac:

eoferrall

Orizio wrote: »

Actually, we are ranked 85 and 87 respectively - neither of us are going anywhere. :pac:

You'll see I said that above also! we are staying nice and pretty in Div III!:D

Orizio

The ratings really are a joke. There some really **** teams ahead of both of us - Fewcifur and Dave's sides for a start.

Orizio

Seriously though, Fewcifur's team is playing a load of bots week in week out, has maybe two players that would get on my first 15, and he is a dozen places ahead of me.

eoferrall

Orizio wrote: »

Seriously though, Fewcifur's team is playing a load of bots week in week out, has maybe two players that would get on my first 15, and he is a dozen places ahead of me.

Because he is constantly winning and thus continually climbing bit by bit. whereas we win most and then lose one and drop a load of places and then slowly work up again.

he'll lose now that he is in Div III and put him back in his place soon enough!:p

FewFew

eoferrall wrote: »

Because he is constantly winning and thus continually climbing bit by bit. whereas we win most and then lose one and drop a load of places and then slowly work up again.

he'll lose now that he is in Div III and put him back in his place soon enough!:p

*cough cough correction time* Bot matches don't change your ranking.