Team discussion

**Pokemon Trainer Sarah** · 05-16-2017, 02:19 AM

Original proposal:

TEAMS

Individuals sign up for PXFIRE and state which sections they are likely to participate in.
At the end of sign ups, members are distributed semi-randomly into teams with an effort made to spread skill among the different sections.
Where possible, each team will have the same number of members.
Each team will have a leader and possibly coleader. Those interested in leading a team can indicate this on their sign up form. Team leaders will be chosen by the PXFIRE leaders.
Once members are assigned to a team, the team works together to develop a name and theme. The leaders will be in charge of pulling it together and making sure their team is ready by the start date.
Members who join after PXFIRE begins will be assigned randomly to a team, keeping the numbers as even as possible.

So our idea was to operate on a draft kind of basis where teams would be random but have even numbers to make it as fair as possible. We would try and distribute people among the teams so that every team has people to enter every event, for example, make sure every team has someone interested in entering sprite art.

We have identified some issues with this, such as certain members not wanting to be on the same team as members they don't get along with and that even if teams have equal numbers of people, not everyone is going to participate to an equal extent and some might not be very active at all.

The other option is to have teams like in previous WARs where people can sign up for whichever one they want, but there will be a cap on members. Like if Team A and B have 3 members each and Team C has 2 members, then A and B cannot accept new members until Team C also has 3. The problem with this is that some teams will be more popular than others no matter what, and people might be forced to join a team they don't want to be on because the other teams are full. Or they will wait around for Team A and B to open up and then no one will join C and we get to a standstill. xD Not having a cap is not really something we want to do at this point as it was the biggest issue with the last WAR and caused too much drama. xD

I still think the original proposal of the draft can work. Every option will have a downside unfortunately, so we just have to do what we can and then use this experience to make it better for next year.

Any thoughts or ideas? :)

**Caite-chan** · 05-16-2017, 02:56 AM

I think we should have 3 teams that people can be drafted into. We should have them fill out a form and PM them to one or two people like Neo and Sarah for example and they can say who they don't want to be on a team with and give a good reason for it. That way no one will know and people won't feel anxious about posting it in public. The only ones that will know are the leaders of those making the teams.

We also need to make it perfectly clear that we can't make everyone happy and that you should still work with the team you're placed on. If you join a team you should participate and help them out and not disappear because of one or two people.

This is something we are trying out and that nothing will be perfect no matter how much we try. We just ask that people work with us as best as possible. We can always fix things for next time but we can't know what may or may not work if we don't try things.

**Morzone** · 05-16-2017, 03:13 AM

The draft sounds fine to me.

Though I think before we decide on the number of teams, we should find a way to pinpoint, or at least get a good estimate, of the number of people who will actually join and participate.

AD · 05-16-2017, 04:50 AM

I like the sound of a draft. I actually love it.

And i am pretty sure we will get a good number of people to join. Positivity coming from a pessimist, you can count on it folks

**Soups** · 05-16-2017, 09:06 AM

I vote for a draft. While both methods may have their flaws, the draft's flaws aren't as troubling as the latter option. A draft creates fairness and prevents the construction of super-teams. Like Caite said, it would be wise to have those who sign-up for PXFIRE message the PXFIRE leaders if they don't wish to work with certain individuals... and it would have to be a legitimate reason (gotta' learn to suck things up sometimes).

**Neo Emolga** · 05-16-2017, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by Caite-chan

I think we should have 3 teams that people can be drafted into. We should have them fill out a form and PM them to one or two people like Neo and Sarah for example and they can say who they don't want to be on a team with and give a good reason for it. That way no one will know and people won't feel anxious about posting it in public. The only ones that will know are the leaders of those making the teams.

We also need to make it perfectly clear that we can't make everyone happy and that you should still work with the team you're placed on. If you join a team you should participate and help them out and not disappear because of one or two people.

This is something we are trying out and that nothing will be perfect no matter how much we try. We just ask that people work with us as best as possible. We can always fix things for next time but we can't know what may or may not work if we don't try things.

Boom, definitely all of this, though I'll second what Morzone said and say let's wait until we see how many people are interested. If there's a lot, we could go for four or five teams. I'd say play it as if there's going to be roughly seven people on each team. If we start getting more than twenty-one people joining in on this, I'd say let's maybe add some extra teams in.

I would like to try drafting, though. Draft, and then have members talk out how they would like the team to be, just so as long as the basic theme is flexible for just about any kind of RP situation. Once they see how the RP is created, then they can decide exactly how they'd like the team to fit into the setting and what the goals would be like.

**Morzone** · 05-16-2017, 08:30 PM

Has the RP planning started yet at all? (even if its just a basic idea in someone's head?)

So for each team we'll have:
1 leader
1 co-leader
5(ish) normal members (totaling 7ish, which will be balanced out by admins during the draft process)

They'll need a team name, theme, and I think each team should have some kind of art piece to display (probably in the signature)
The leader I'm assuming would make the team's personal thread...

what other rules should we have for teams? or are those basics enough?

**Neo Emolga** · 05-16-2017, 08:50 PM

Originally Posted by Morzone

Has the RP planning started yet at all? (even if its just a basic idea in someone's head?)

So for each team we'll have:
1 leader
1 co-leader
5(ish) normal members (totaling 7ish, which will be balanced out by admins during the draft process)

They'll need a team name, theme, and I think each team should have some kind of art piece to display (probably in the signature)
The leader I'm assuming would make the team's personal thread...

what other rules should we have for teams? or are those basics enough?

We haven't uttered a peep about the RP. The big thing is we're not sure who will actually be judging it. Judge applications haven't started and I think it might be best if the person who is the judge leads the discussion on it and toss in some ideas to build things on.

Also, I like that setup for the team. People will apply to be leader, but the leader selects who their co-leader will be. Then, once all the members are drafted, they talk about their ideas of what they want to do for the team as you said. But yeah, it would make sense for the leader to create the thread so they can edit the first post and do their own organization.

But yeah, first, I'd say get the interest thread up and get an idea of how many people want to get in on this. Then we can go from there regarding how many teams we'll have and then follow-up with team leader applications.

**Morzone** · 05-16-2017, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by Neo Emolga

We haven't uttered a peep about the RP. The big thing is we're not sure who will actually be judging it. Judge applications haven't started and I think it might be best if the person who is the judge leads the discussion on it and toss in some ideas to build things on.

Also, I like that setup for the team. People will apply to be leader, but the leader selects who their co-leader will be. Then, once all the members are drafted, they talk about their ideas of what they want to do for the team as you said. But yeah, it would make sense for the leader to create the thread so they can edit the first post and do their own organization.

But yeah, first, I'd say get the interest thread up and get an idea of how many people want to get in on this. Then we can go from there regarding how many teams we'll have and then follow-up with team leader applications.

Should we find judges before doing the interest check? Or would it be enough to just have a solidified list of all the different categories? Since we'll have to know what people are likely to participate in for the drafting and balancing.