How do I join?

Your welcome, Terry. And I second the thanks to Ghost for creating them. I think they are starting to level out well where the competition in a level truly is on par with each other. This years competitors in C2 are well matched over all and it has been a great set of games.

Well, you'd normally eMail TheGhostmaker for next season, but I don't know if he is passing the leagues off now that he is off to uni or if they are one he will still continue to handle.

I'm passing them on to gjdip, who has agreed to run them. For now, if you email me, that will still work.

When would next season start? I'm quite interested in joining a league, if possible.

Probably a couple of months off.

I'd love to start back up late October or early November. I'll help gjdip if it encourages getting a fall league going this year.

Are the leagues anonymous yet?

Nope, thank the Ghostmaker, they aren't.

@draugnar
You don't like anonymous games?

The leagues should not be anonymous. I think the idea is that you DO know who is who for all 4 games, because the overall score after the 4 games determines who is promoted to the next higher league. Explicit metagaming (I'l sacrifice my centers to give you the win in Game 1 if you do the same for me in Game2) is still prohibited, but you are allowed to consider overall league position in your diplomatic negotations (If Player X wins this game, he'll win the whole league, so lets unite to stop him)

Having said all that, I think htere would be a place for a different sort of anonymous league.

anonymizing the league games was discussed previously. My 2 cents were (and are) that one of the advantages of playing in a league is that you play the same 6 opponents 4 times and get to learn what makes them tick, use that to your advantage.

Making the games anon would greatly diminish the league, imho.

@gjdip Thanks for taking it over @Ghost I hope you get to play this round

@orathaic- Exactly!

Do you play all 4 games at once or one at a time in sequence?

I would like to see some way to include some top players such as Ghost and MM in the next round without making them come up from D league. I know we want to treat everyone the same, but I think they will skew the D league games, they will be bored and the others will be intimidated, etc. But there has to be a way to encourage some of these top people to join, if they want to, because it enriches the quality of play for everyone. Maybe something like if you are in the Top 10 of the GR you get an automatic pass into the Premier League? I'd really like to hear people's suggestions on this.

@Peter-in a sequence, but usually there are 2-3 games going on at once. In my league, we finished Game 1, Game 2 and 3 are still going, and we just started Game 4.

see - http://tournaments.webdiplomacy.net/thephpleague

the third game usually doesn't start until the first is well into the mid-game.
The fourth usually doesn't start until the first is finished, so you can be playing three games at the same time - but they are not all in the same state (my current league games are 1902, 1908 and 1914 - though i have been eliminated from the 1914 game.)

There is room for me to slot back in, since I was eligible to play in the Premier League last season but had to withdraw. If someone from the top 10 places withdraws, I can slot in at no. 10, which is the worst possible performance for me had I played.

Madmarx doesn't play because it isn't anon. I have been strongly tempted to make games anon, but it would cause two major issues as I see it. Firstly, it would ruin the 'getting to know people' social aspect of the leagues; secondly, it would cause a forever of 'work out who is playing France' issues.

Top GR players do get an advantage, in that they can often be seeded into the C-level league from the first season, and failing that they are likely to be asked to fill in in the C-level at some point quite early in the season (V+ will play 4 games in C-level this season, in spite of the fact that he didn't quite make the cut, because of a no-show)

Allowing, say, 1 player direct entry into Premier League, A-level and 2 direct entry into B-level might be something worth looking at, though there is a concern that it would devalue the leagues, particularly if players fall below the point of their direct entry.

@crazyter - i'd prefer to see an A* league created, if 7 of the top players can be convinced to paly, those that are promoted can play in the premier leagues, everyone else becomes the top seeded replacement players (so replace A/B league dropouts with A* players instead of just promoting someone who is happily playing in the C leagues... i know i was happy enough being promoted to the C leagues; the B's are much more difficult)

Just a thought.

@peterwiggin - I mostly play anon, but the leagues are four games with the same players. As has been pointed out, going anon would alter the league and it may as well just be one game and not the best score out of four games. If you want anon play for "cup" competition, play the masters.

No. If a B-Leaguer drops, this is an opportunity for a C-Leaguer. You can always pass on the promotion, but some of us want to move up (and up and up). Usurping the structure to allow some one to jump in straight to A or B when they never competed at even the C-level punishes the top players in C or D who through a bad stroke of luck (coin toss plays and high risk moves can fail) just missed moving up.

I did consider having it so that new players could go into a withdrawal if they were higher Ghost-Rated than the person who would otherwise fill the slot, but this presents problems when you've got high ghost-rated players, say, 2nd in line.

As has been discussed, anon would change the leagues in ways I wouldn't want to see. But anon in the Masters should be great.

I realize I'm bringing this back from the grave, but I wanted to throw in my 2 cents:

First, I really like that the Leagues are non-anon. I feel like every "high quality" game I play is now anon and I like the change of pace the Leagues offer. And, as Ghost mentioned, I like the social aspect that goes along with playing the same people for 4 games. That would be lost with anon games.

Second, I would be very strongly against allowing people into higher League games just because they have a high GR. There are plenty of ways for highly ranked players to play good games and I think it would be a real disappointment if people who had worked hard in the Leagues started getting bumped because someone "more prestigious" wanted to play.

abge, I think the idea is that high-GR players might be allowed in higher as replacements. I'm still skeptical of that idea too, though.

Well, there seems to be two type of replacements:

Before the next League starts: In which case, players from the lower brackets should have preference.

After the League has started (CDs): In which case, we should have a list of replacements. I think it would be OK if these were arranged by GR.

I like abgemacht's idea. I'm more than likely moving to B-leagues (would take a real screw up not to in C2 right now) and would be ticked if a top 100 GR came in cold and was given my B-spot. But if one of the players had to leave mid season, to have a GR player who is the rough equivalent to the mean or median of the remaining players in that league take over woul dbe very appropriate.