UGC FF - The good, the bad, the ugly!
 

Mkay people...seeing as I have been completely off the grid for god knows how long. I wanted to touch base with the competitive community and see what feedback you all have regarding the UGC FF division. From the looks of it I see that most of the admins that took my place couldn't take it and quit (jk...but seriously what happened there?), and I know that the general feeling toward it is probably about what it was when I left, but I know that it can't all be bad...and I know that it can and will work out!! Especially now that I'm back!

So lemme have it guys...what did you like, hate, wanna see happen that did / didn't. What changes to FF do you think are totally being messed up / missed. What is happening with other leagues that you think UGC could benefit from adapting or looking at...etc.

* Be warned this is not an open invitation to be disrespectful and / or a license to flame. Keep it clean and be helpful or I will gladly hand out infractions for doing so. I need practice with this new system anyway :twisted: *

but by all means please speak your mind :p

Hmm Well we need one that communicates well with clan leaders (sorry infy) and one that is not biased (sorry illo).

We need one that dedicates and shows interest in UGC League for FF. Something we have no had since you left Satan.

That is pretty much it on issues with past Admins

From attempting to run a 4v4/2v2 league, I found that the teams don't take an active enough role in leagues to make them successful. I don't know if that's true or not, but it's what I thought.

Ding! Ding!

You can have the best admin for any league, but if you don't have the active interest within teams to play then you're just shit out of luck.

Also which was the problem at the end stages of TFC shortly before TF2/FF came out. Teams and people just lost interest.

Well.. various things happened with me.. but squeek pretty much says it all.. Id tell all the leaders to check the leaders forum and about 2-3 teams would out of the 8 or so. Also running 3 ladders is no party even if it is during the summer. Lack of people showing up never helped. Overall on my half lack of time management and inexperience didnt help. Oh and of course computer crapping out for a good 2 weeks doesnt help at all

well but that's exactly the point of this thread...what can I do or should we (UGC) do to interest the teams to play? I mean as it stands my time is going to be limited. And if it's just gonna be a complete waste of time to even try to keep UGC alive the wtf is the use of me trying? BUT I love FF and I am competitive and want to see an outlet for that so I am willing to give every second I can if that's what it takes to keep the league going. UGC is a great organization and the leadership is 1000% committed to the game, but you can't fix something if you don't know how it's broken.

also <3 infy!!

I failed.

<3333 Satan... man it got crazy there.. ill send u pm to explain for stuff

First off good to see you again satan :)
The community is... how can I say this nicely.. not good.


He kicked HIS OWN CLAN out of the league. How can you consider him biased?

Anyway, I never had a problem with UGC admins when I played. the only downfall on their end that I can think of was putting up the schedule late sometimes. Other than that it's the clans that made my interest in UGC slowly but surely die.

A lot of FF's players just don't play as consistently as TFC's, whether they lose interest or are generally an older crowd and have busier lives. That, and the fact that there are generally more fps selections out there, especially from Valve ( not turning this into a why-ff-dead debate, just for competitive purposes ).

I think league play should wait until a big patch with some more exposure comes along so it can scoop up a few more consistent players, whenever that may be.

yep what squeek said. I am currently running http://www.ultimatemulchers.com/ and it was originally intended for just MULCH but then people wanted more and I provided but just not enough interest but I am trying. Come check us out!! Plus with squeeks league and UGC down I figured I could fill the void :P

Exactly, Maybe once 2.4 or OB comes out then we will get a bunch of new players that hopefully will be interested in league plays.

cool...keep it coming, this stuff definitely helps.

I always felt that the UGC league was far too exclusive and designed for only those who have played in a league before. There wasn't a desire to create a level playing field which probably contributed to the slow decline of UGC and league play in general in FF. There were generally 2 or 3 clans with all the talent and the other clans are simply too inexperienced to be competitive. The FF community is small, and the UGC community is smaller. Towards the end of my time with mimic, there probably needed to be a "realignment" of sorts to allow for all the clans to be competitive and add a little parity to the league. I'm not sure how many people would be interested in a "player draft" of sorts, but it could really create a more competitive atmosphere and the parity that hasn't existed. I wrote a thread a while back about a player draft...I'll dig it up and post a link when I get a chance to dig through the forums.

Edit: Link to Player Draft idea thread

http://forums.fortress-forever.com/s...r+Draft+League

The 5v5 format sucked too. It was really boring, and it really made you dread some maps. It left very little room for variety on D and O, almost every map was Solly/Demo/Engy, and O was almost always scouts or medics

The pickup community is basically all about 4v4 OvD, if it's not 4v4, it'll be 3v3 or 2v2... the trend here is equal number of O as there is D. But the preference is still 4v4. Even if a pickup has started and a few other people join to spec, and someone even mentions having a 5v5, it's pretty much unanimously vetoed. The only time 5v5 is really considered is the odd AvD pickup.

There was a 4v league but with ugc taking wednesdays and it being hard enough to get people to show up for that night, it was very difficult to get people to schedule 2 nights a week for FF.

I'd love to see the ugc league turn into a 4v4 OvD, with a touch of highlander in it. Forcing people to play 4 different classes on O, and 4 different classes on D would not only offer a wider variety of strats, it would force a wider variety of strats.

Same strats over and over and over and over, got...well repetitive and boring.

Plus people bitched about certain classes being played like pyro, which is ridiculous, just another example of the competitive community being set in its ways, creating a very stagnant competitive game.

Also a 4v4 would allow for trying to organize one less guy a night, there was soo many games played with 1 ringer it wasn't even funny. Teams just couldn't seem to produce the 5th guy consistently.

Also a roster limit of 6 per team in this format could potentially create more teams, instead of having these giant ass rosters that we had. You could look at these rosters on UGC and some teams for a 5v5 had 12+ members. You'd of course think "Well if you could spread the people around you'd have more teams". But you seriously needed that many just in hopes you'd get your 5 for wednesday.

i agree with most of what has been said here. i stopped playing ugc because 5v5 was horrible, and the skill level of all the clans was all across the board, making for lots of blowouts and forfeits. on top of that, the clan that consistently lead the standings had no sense of sportsmanship, causing other clans to lose their own sense of sportsmanship and simply forfeit playing them out of spite. it got to be a big pissing match with a bunch of annoying twats e-thugging each other.

squeeks 4v4 pickup league was awesome, but only had a few active clans to start, and a few of those few dropped out after the first couple weeks, leaving only 2 or 3 clans to finish out the season. if i were ever going to play in a league again, it would only be a 4v4 ovd or 7v7/8v8 full. or a avd/hunted/waterpolo type league :D

Unfortunate as it may be...people now associate UGC with what it was before in regards to league play...it may be hard to attract people in to FF UGC simply because of what it was. UGC has done an exceptional job dating back to TFC...but with FF it's kinda been labeled as an undesirable sort of atmosphere...

sweet...I don't think a 4v OvD would be totally out of the question, although i don't think the community is really ready for a 7v or 8v but we can definitely test the waters. A cap on rosters is a great idea. And I also really like ruta's idea of a draft.

Seriously great help guys...keep it coming!

Also HIIIII skanky, you sexy beast you!

Would be nice but I think the general consensus is leagues are dead for good and I really can't see there being anymore than 4 active clans. Unfortunate but it's reality.

That's the spirit!

To be honest, I'd say start a fresh league with zero rules and try to build it from the ground up. The current "competitive" community either fakes interest in league play or has no real interest to begin with. Somehow, FF leagues need to begin again as if there were no leagues before them, and attract (if possible) a new set of people.

Maybe even try a variety league with many different maps and gametypes (AvD, CTF, hunted, waterpolo, etc, etc).

That actually would kill any sort of variety in strats. With the requirements for only 1 of each class, it would basically always be: Offense - scout, med, spy, demo Defense - soli, engi, demo, hw.