Honestly, I think we need to focus discussion and possible solutions for this year's WAR rather than next year's WAR, mainly because by the time next year rolls around, we would have forgotten pretty much everything that was said here a year ago. However, in light of this, last year's WAR didn't start until July 7th, so if we really wanted to implement a whole new system and start it at a time that worked for last year, we could totally pull it off given it's still May and pushing the starting date back is actually still a possibility. We'd need to work quickly though. Having all of June to work out a new system is possible.

Frankly, part of me feels like crumpling up everything and trying to go with something totally fresh and new that we haven't tried before.

We've never tried a system where we had both a pre-team draft PLUS a member draft (we've only had it where it was one or the other, so I think that's a big point). The pre-team draft would be a system where anyone who aspires to lead a team could post their profile and credentials in a team leader sign up thread and the team idea they have in mind, which would be the team they would create if they were voted to be a Team Leader and would be the stuff everyone else would be looking at when deciding how to vote. These submissions go on for about a week and then people decide and vote on which six teams they'd like to see become official WAR Teams. This would ensure most people are generally happy with the six teams that are being created, which would be an important precursor to making sure they are happy with the six teams they're being drafted into later. The chances of a person being drafted into a team they don't really like are minimized considering whatever team they're called into was voted for by the people because they liked it (big important detail there, because people being drafted into teams they don't like is the thing we'd like to nip in the bud).

Once those six teams are created, the team leaders then draft members one at a time from a member pool of those that want to participate in the WAR. Latecomers to the WAR can still take part, but they'd need to wait until the end of the week to be drafted in subsequent drafts (draft order of the teams would continue from where it left off).

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On a side note, I'm not really a fan of messing around with the scoring system (seems like it would get awfully complicated) or how people can submit (I agree with Sarah, a limited number of submissions forces only the best of the best to participate, which isn't good because we want new people to get in on everything they can as well). It also doesn't work for certain sections like RP and competitive battling areas that have ongoing participation. Plus, I think balancing the teams is the main concern.