Idea Ideas for a Few Changes

Hey, it's yung burnt chicken nugget, back at again with the complaints. I have two today, and take them as you will. You may agree, you may not, but consideration of these things would be MUCH appreciated.


First, PPM times.
It never fails, but it should not be a player's responsibility to anticipate a PPM starting twenty minutes later than it's time listed. I know some CTFers are younger, and this is not to be condescending, but if you believe that in day to day life you should "anticipate the time listed is going to be twenty minute later," you're going to be late to A LOT of things in your life. If I'm trying to fit something into my schedule, and they tell me it's supposed to start at 4 pm, then I am ready to go and start immediately at 4 pm. This takes a little more planning or communication from the host/staff in order to start the server, set the maps, and get everyone on. It is far too widely accepted for someone to hop on at 4:19 pm without anyone batting an eye.

Consider this hypothetical: An official match is scheduled at 2 pm EST, and we are actually playing Blackout for all three maps. It is common in larger matches for Blackout to fall to a stalemate and last the full duration. Let's suppose the match starts at 2 pm EST sharp. A full stalemate on all three maps, with Blackout timer set to 20 minutes, would take an hour. Plus the little time in between maps when they end, and the next starts, and let's assume the timer is unlocked as soon as it hits 2 pm. Let's be generous and say the time between, when combined, totals to 5 minutes. It's almost never that long, but just go with it. So an hour and five minutes would be the duration of the MAXIMUM time, which may be shorter dependent on if people cap, and the map finishes sooner. This means that if the match starts at 2pm EST, and I have to leave at 3:15 pm EST, I will have enough time, though it may cut it close. NOW consider if the match starts 20 minutes late, if not MORE, as it has in some cases. This now means that I would have to leave mid match, and suddenly it's my fault for having to leave.

Blackout is NEVER all three maps, and in that event we save 5 minutes per map, and that's assuming they all are stalemates again. Now the match time should be 55 minutes, instead of an hour and 5 minutes. So 2:55 pm EST would be the end of it, so if I have to go sooner than 3:15 pm EST, I should still be able to make whatever it is in time, as long as things go as planned.

Now, if you're in the PPM server, go take note of the format of announcements made for PPMs. They don't put "around 4 pm EST PPM" or "a little after 4 pm EST PPM" they put a direct time. I see a few solutions to solving this.

Solutions:
Set a PPM say 15 minutes early. That way everyone is on time, everyone is ready to go at 4 pm EST, and that gives everyone a buffer zone. Teams will have 15 minutes to assemble roles/strategies, and hosts/staff will have time to ready the server so everyone can be prepared to start at 4 pm EST. Since this buffer is set, it would be fair to say players that are NOT logged on will get pinged at 4 pm EST, and then at 4:05 pm EST, they will be struck and we will either cancel the PPM, or roll with what we have at that time (i.e. rebalance teams quickly and move on.

Make PPM's occur 15-20 minutes after. Put the PPM at 4:20 pm EST (blazeitgang lmao), and have roles set/server start being set at 4pm, and then it is understood when a PPM occurs TWENTY MINUTES LATE. The same rules for striking would occur as the previous solution.

I saw someone complain that striking people would hurt PPMs as many of the same people play multiple PPMs, but punctuality will eventually be the downfall also. CTFers are not stuck at the same age, and they will eventually get jobs. This will eventually hurt PPM attendance also. So that's my take on this issue, as I typically get a lot of flack from people because I'm the bad guy for not carving out an extra half hour "just in case this PPM isn't punctual."
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Next issue, class restrictions:
I spoke with Netflix (aka burnt toast, aka the pyro, aka tvisthebomb, aka "get out of the way of my frenzy", aka Señor Passive Aggressive) about this, as well as a few others in the PPM discord server. Instead of beating the same horse into the ground as far as meta goes, or instead of running "only one class," constantly, PPMs should be prime time to take community ideas, and put them into action. We can sit here all day and discuss how we should restrict this class, or restrict that class, but I find often times people label stuff as "busted" and just straight up ban/restrict things without having any clear evidence.

I play competitive Smash Bros, and they get a lot of hate for wanting nerfs or bans too hastily. Though we may want them, these things are tested. People run tournaments, collect data on which stages are used/struck, and what characters are the most popular or used in a tournament setting. I'm not saying CTF needs tournaments, but before we restrict engineer to 1 per team, which is ridiculous because I have seen no rationale for this, I believe it's important to let it ride for a few PPMs and see.

Scout has been out for 8 months, and one week, and even it is restricted to one right away. I feel like things being restricted to heavily put a damper on the meta. Not to mention, Netflix got lectured yesterday in a match for switching off pyro. Netflix was putting in WORK as pyro, and as any good offense should, their elf started using water element to neutralize the threat of a pyro. Netflix, as any good DEFENDER should, then swapped off pyro because it had since become ineffective. Members of our team, who have a habit of being stuck in their ways, began to tell Netflix what to do, as if they didn't trust his opinion. I stepped in, saying, "The elf is just shutting pyro down, it's smart to switch."

You may or may not agree, but many CTFers have a habit of seeing a team comp as, "right or wrong," instead of a tool to counter what the enemy is doing. A few years ago I used to make up team comps for Dream Team 2.0, and chikincows brought me on to do exactly that. I would look at team rosters, see who they played, and think of ways we could work around what they had. Also, team roles would be much more specific than, "Defense and Offense." This way, primary targets, both class and player targets, would be clear, as well as specific jobs so everyone could be working together and efficiently. Ever since I began playing, people seem to run either the EXACT same comp over and over again, or something extremely close to it. With as many classes as we have, I think loosening the restrictions could be incredibly healthy or the game, and extremely healthy for class counterpicks. This makes the game more dynamic from an adaptation standpoint.

Now you may think this is a bunch of bologna, and you may think that running the exact same defense and offense for every match you play for the next year may be fun. In that event, I'd recommend you go play chess, as that game is never going to change, and you can become perfect at it in an ideal world. For those of you that LIKE the variety and dynamacity of the game, less restrictions = more variation = more counter play for typical defense.

To relate it to other things, imagine a card game. If any of you play Hearthstone, you know that when a patch rolls out, the FIRST thing people do is find what's busted right away. If you continue to play at a high level, you know that you have to find what decks are GOOD against what's busted. If you keep playing, the game is then about the counterplay to the new strategy, which is only good because it is good against the old best strategy. This creates a cycle of how the meta shifts over time in order to keep beating what is currently good.

If anyone plays competitive Pokemon (the video game competitions, not card game competitions), you know it is essentially the same. A Pokemon raises as a strong one, and strategies are built around it. Now, you CAN run the exact same strategy, but if you do this, it comes down to a coin flip, whoever can do it better. That can make a game boring, because you know that whenever you play/watch it will be the exact same thing again, and again, and AGAIN. A more effective way, and entertaining way, to dealing with this is to now find the Pokemon that counter what's powerful. It takes a long time to ban stuff in Pokemon, because there is almost always counterplay.

Solutions:
Loosen restrictions. Dwarf may be overpowered if it gets the chance to snowball, and I somewhat agree that 1 pyro, 1 assassin, and maybe 2 medics more than likely need to be in place, but other restrictions just seem odd. 1 engineer? That's whack. 1 mage? That one is also kinda whack, and I'd suggest removing that restriction, and if 8 mages gets to be too strong, maybe setting it to 2, or 3. 3 heavies? That one is also kinda whack. Seldom do we EVER see that restriction met in any PPM. I heavily suggest removing a LOT of these restrictions, that way counterplay may be developed within teams and PPMs. Dream Team 2.0 had a ton of success due to having dynamic players that could fill many jobs and overall countered a lot of the other teams. I still have Google Docs from 5 years ago with detailed write-ups of what's strong, and what are the weaknesses of those strong things. I think CTF would become a lot more about counterpicks, team comps, and overall strategy, rather than it now being based on timing, and winning the stalemate.
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Wrap-up:
Now, the second point is heavily rooted in personal opinion, and some players may enjoy running the exact same composition into the ground time and time again, but it's just food for thought. As for the PPM times, I see it being discussed by many people, not just myself. I have a few more gripes such as Chemist, and other things, but these two are the main two that I find myself returning to time and time again.

IF YOU AGREE let me know down below. Share your own stories/thoughts about one of these, or both if you fee like it. I am in no way trying to stay that restrictions should be removed, but I feel like it may be healthy for this game overall.

IF YOU WISH TO DISCUSS 1 ON 1 FURTHER my discord is Notched#8441, or my twitter is @Notchedd and my DMs are always open.

I'm also currently looking to fill Heavy/Necro defense on some current team if anyone is looking. I am also open to discuss/strategize about the game if anyone wishes to at any point in time. If you've reached the end, thank you for reading. Keep on capturing!