The 2nd National Online League of Season 6

[Jeffers]

Personally I"d def choose option B, as had more fun in this format, than the large sized regional teams that took place.

I don"t see any reason why numbers would be hit either, if a regional side is struggling and not going anywhere people would more than likely just stop playing, where you"d feel more keen to carry on playing in a smaller team with friends / family.

It would be necessary to also have a player market for those that may struggle getting 4 - 6 players, so noone is getting excluded. You could also have an option for new people to join your sides if they wished, during the cause of the campaign.

Overall a smaller team format is far mor equally balanced. One region has 20 players, one has 10. Doesn"t seem fair. Only way to stop that is by limiting number of people per region, but then you"re driving players away. With a smaller team format this wouldn"t be an issue. Teams are in an equal footing.

I think with a format of smaller teams also gives you more room to develop the league. Multiple divisions, promotion, relegation etc etc.

[NellieG]

To be honest I really enjoyed the National League before it changed last year, though I must say it was mainly due to our brilliant Captain Waz. Last year I lost interest as there were not many in our team and I hardly knew anyone.  If it is based on the previous format or something similar I would be interested in playing in the on-line league again.

[shug]

A for me
Couple of points
1. Seems Scotland and Wales are being criticised for having too many players and this affects the league.. Given their population in comparison to the regions of England is the problem not the lack of recruiting by the regions. Paul did a great job getting people to play for Scotland. Population of London is greater than my wee country.

2. If you go for the small team format over that length of time, player availability may become a big issue if teams have players who cannot play every week.

Time for a compromise

[Tiger-flash]

To be honest I really enjoyed the National League before it changed last year, though I must say it was mainly due to our brilliant Captain Waz. Last year I lost interest as there were not many in our team and I hardly knew anyone.  If it is based on the previous format or something similar I would be interested in playing in the on-line league again.

Very true, my team only had 33 players but tbh i think only less than 10 only played at all. Too many say"ers and not enough do"ers    You guys and gals know who you are  

[Jeffers]

A for me
Couple of points
1. Seems Scotland and Wales are being criticised for having too many players and this affects the league.. Given their population in comparison to the regions of England is the problem not the lack of recruiting by the regions. Paul did a great job getting people to play for Scotland. Population of London is greater than my wee country.

2. If you go for the small team format over that length of time, player availability may become a big issue if teams have players who cannot play every week.

Time for a compromise

Perhaps a compromise could be regional teams, limited to x amount of players, but each region can have more than 1 team (A,B,C etc)? This way would seem to keep regional identity, develop more leagues because of the larger number of teams and keep peoples interest in more, because its more tight knit.

[Tiger-flash]

Good quote,
Like the premiere league having a limit to 25 players or with apat 20 players. This means Scotland and Wales could still have 5 teams. This could generate more payers to join the league and even new teams could join up to join the national league and merge as long as they play in the apat forum.
Years ago i played in the veterans footy league with 5 teams and now there are around 7 leagues of around 90 teams in total... get it? This could work.
Just think of a league with Scotland A & B, Wales A & B, the other national teams and any of the top national cup teams but with 20 Players for example  

[chrish1976]

i prefer b, as it was a much better tourney with equal numbers. I think teams of 6 or 8 with top 4 scoring works would prefer 8 i think as 15 weeks playing is a long time on 6 people.

[ck1888]

A. Scotland for the win

[ck1888]

it makes it much harder for new players to APAT to join in.

This is key in my opinion in pushing up members as we had a fair few join up during league due to all the boys talking about the league matches on Facebook etc

[Swinebag]

My personal preference would be B but will side with A for the following.

1. B would struggle to attract new players

2. B would be a problem with player availability

Think both of these have beenemtioned anyway.

I would like to see a change to the scoring of this event as it clearly favours the team with the most players (despite the best efforts to counter this)

My proposal would be that the point scoring system stays the same on an individual basis. This determines who gets the VA packages. However on a team basis, the top 3 players in the tourney score the 3 2 1 for their region. This would reduce the team dynamic in the latter stages.

[poker_jason]

Didn"t play nations cup.

Personally think this type (B) leads to small cliques which is not what I understood to be APAT ethos. Also I suspect a few teams captains will cherry pick which will lead to a few very strong teams (great if your in them). The remainder "weaker" teams, especially where they are "put" together, would probably just drop off ater a few weeks.

I prefer option A - as DWH103 said - add an ironman to keep interest/people in.
If possible also consider regular prizes, e.g hendon mob league has monthly winners.

Also creating group A + B for larger regions is also a reasonable call (with Random allocation)

I"d play in an option A type league, not sure about option B.

Tired, so hope the above makes some sense.....

[kohan]

Good quote,
Like the premiere league having a limit to 25 players or with apat 20 players. This means Scotland and Wales could still have 5 teams. This could generate more payers to join the league and even new teams could join up to join the national league and merge as long as they play in the apat forum.
Years ago i played in the veterans footy league with 5 teams and now there are around 7 leagues of around 90 teams in total... get it? This could work.
Just think of a league with Scotland A & B, Wales A & B, the other national teams and any of the top national cup teams but with 20 Players for example  

     


            at least that would be fairer than having 4 or 5 teams having more than twice the amount  of players  and gaining a huge advantage  

[Sugar_Free]

Didn"t play nations cup.

Personally think this type (B) leads to small cliques which is not what I understood to be APAT ethos. Also I suspect a few teams captains will cherry pick which will lead to a few very strong teams (great if your in them). The remainder "weaker" teams, especially where they are "put" together, would probably just drop off ater a few weeks.

You may be interested to know that the team "put" together from the leftover players won the bronze medals in the national cup

[MintTrav]

it makes it much harder for new players to APAT to join in.

This is key in my opinion in pushing up members as we had a fair few join up during league due to all the boys talking about the league matches on Facebook etc

There"s that Facebook again, whatever it is.

[Scousebill]

I like either format but the main thing that has been said is how to keep the interest with all teams until the last game of the season. How about after 2 or 3 games that the team (or teams) in bottom place(s) plays for double points. Unless one team still doesn"t score then it should hopefully keep the teams at the bottom closer to the teams at the top. How about also having a knockout competition at the end of the season with a handicap system based on positions in the league.
Eg.. Winners off scratch play the bottom team who have a 10pt start or more if we use format A with large teams..

Whichever format is used then I can lose gracefully at either of them... I will still be playing..