The Dustbin

[stockwellpete]

PM's have been sent to the players involved in the remaining 3 matches reminding them that the deadline is this evening and any unfinished matches will be subject to adjudication.

[stockwellpete]

Division C

Received by PM

Questar17 (Norman) beat sunnyboy (Scots) 4-0 (sunnyboy conceded, out of time)

(4-0)

[stockwellpete]

Division B

Received by PM

batesmotel (Achaemenid Persian) beat sunnyboy (Syracusan) 49-40 (sunnyboy conceded)

(4-0)

[stockwellpete]

Biblical A-D Tables.jpg (703.9 KiB) Viewed 1412 times

[stockwellpete]

Biblical A-B Charts.jpg (726.82 KiB) Viewed 1393 times

Biblical C-D Charts.jpg (561.08 KiB) Viewed 1393 times

[stockwellpete]

Early Middle Ages A-D Tables.jpg (888.8 KiB) Viewed 1423 times

Early Middle Ages E-F Tables.jpg (489.66 KiB) Viewed 1423 times

[stockwellpete]

Early Middle Ages A-B Charts.jpg (745.87 KiB) Viewed 1443 times

Early Middle Ages C-D Charts.jpg (731.52 KiB) Viewed 1443 times

Early Middle Ages E-F charts.jpg (722.67 KiB) Viewed 1443 times

[Questar17]

Division B

Questar17 - Ptolemaic 166-56 BC beat Trogilus - Thracian (Triballi) 350 BC-46 AD with Thracian (Getae) 279 BC-46 AD allies 60:36

thx for the game

[stockwellpete]

The End of Season Round-up will be available tomorrow.

[stockwellpete]

Classical Antiquity A-D Tables.jpg (991.11 KiB) Viewed 1479 times

Classical Antiquity E-F Tables.jpg (575.04 KiB) Viewed 1479 times

[stockwellpete]

Classical Antiquity A-B Charts.jpg (815.71 KiB) Viewed 1444 times

Classical Antiquity C-D Charts.jpg (831.35 KiB) Viewed 1444 times

Classical Antiquity E-F charts.jpg (834.4 KiB) Viewed 1444 times

[stockwellpete]

This has probably been the most difficult season ever for me as the tournament organiser. Things started off very well with 92 players registering to play, a record, but before too long players began to drop out, necessitating the introduction of reserves at regular intervals for the rest of the tournament. A total of 7 players either had to be replaced, or had to have a significant number of their matches adjudicated because they had withdrawn. And then we had the revelation that one of our very top players, dkalenda, had been repeatedly re-loading his matches in order to achieve better outcomes. This lead to a very shaky period where some players expressed concerns that cheating was widespread in the FOG2 multi-player community and there was some questioning of the integrity of the FOG2DL. Fortunately, Slitherine moved very quickly and conducted a full review which showed that there were no other players in the FOG2DL who were being flagged for breaking the rules. They are now in the process of upgrading their monitoring systems to prevent any re-occurrence of such a troubling event. My own view has always been that cheating is minimal in the FOG2DL and almost everyone who has ever entered the tournament is an honest player. If you do not share this view then please do not enter the FOG2DL in future.

There were also examples of players surrendering matches prematurely just to get their fixtures completed, even though there was plenty of time left in the tournament to finish the match properly. I want to put a stop to this as players doing it are effectively denying their opponent a proper match, so Rule 5 will be amended for next season to introduce a 15% deficit threshold before a player is entitled to surrender a match. A record will be kept of matches that are still surrendered prematurely and players ignoring the new rule will have their entry rights reduced in the following season.

As you can tell I am a bit concerned about developments this season and I will be taking a firmer line with players who do not complete their matches in future without giving a reasonable explanation of their actions. Already, the tournament operates a “yellow card, red card” system, whereby a player withdrawing from the tournament (or just going AWOL) without completing their matches will be excluded from the next season completely, and on repetition will be permanently excluded.

But, in addition, in future, if a player withdraws without explanation in their very first season then they will not be invited to play in the tournament again. I appreciate that some new players will enter with the best of intentions, but then may not be enjoying it for whatever reason, but I do not think it too much to ask that they send me a brief message to explain they are withdrawing so that I can make alternative arrangements. It is just a common courtesy given that somebody else has taken time to arrange a tournament for them to play in and other players are looking forward to playing their matches.

The new champion of Classical Antiquity is Ludendorf, who returned to FOG2DL action after a break of 18 months. He finished just two points ahead of Nosy_Rat in Division A at the end, but he was always in control of the division after notching up some wins in the early weeks of the tournament. herm withdrew before the end of the tournament and will be ineligible next season and dkalenda was placed bottom and is banned permanently now. There was a fabulous tussle between nyczar and XLegione for the automatic promotion place in Division B which ended up in a tie, the first time that has happened in the FOG2DL! Questar17 continued his steady improvement to finish just 3 points back in third place, while rexhurley also made a decent return to FOG2DL action winning six of his matches to finish fourth. At the bottom ulysisgrunt found the going much too tough and he was relegated for a second season in a row. In Division C a rejuvenated NikiforosFokas just edged out Swuul for the automatic promotion place with General Shapur filling the relegation place after losing the early season tie-breaker match to MikeMarchant. Another tremendous contest was spoiled in Division D when one of the frontrunners, elrawen, withdrew suddenly leaving Challenge1 with a small advantage over SLancaster which he was able to maintain until the end of the season. elrawen will be ineligible to play in the FOG2DL again. At one stage there were six players involved in the relegation battle but in the end ggarynorman went down after losing the tie-breaker match to Rob123. Division E and F were filled by a lot of the new players who had signed up for the first time this season and it was BishUK who stamped his authority on Division E to win automatic promotion by 8 points. Stew101, kraff, Aetius39 and snooky51 all had good first seasons winning more matches than they lost. MadMaxBot filled the relegation place after failing to complete all his matches and he will not be eligible for future seasons of the tournament. And newcomer DanZanzibar was the clear winner of Division F with random27, Blagrot, Tratmot and TomoeGozen all winning more matches than they lost in their first season. And it was Brenmusik, one of our most revered wooden spoon “specialists”, who won the wooden spoon this time to move level with GeneralKostas at the top of the all-time wooden spoon table with 4 wooden spoons each (Barrold713 is now trailing in third place with just 3!).

ConstantinIX is the new champion of Late Antiquity in his first season in Division A. In a very close contest, he edged out klayeckles by one point with Nosy_Rat a further 3 points back in third place. Snugglebunnies also won 6 matches to finish fourth. XLegione was relegated after failing to register a win all season, although he did manage four draws. In Division B, fellow-adjudicator and all-round tables and charts person hidde returned to winning ways by gaining automatic promotion back to the top flight at the first attempt, finishing a comfortable eight points ahead of Cunningcairn. There was a very tight relegation battle involving up to five players at one stage, but in the end it was cromlechi who had to give way and he will be playing in Division C next season. Division C was very close this time with only 14 points separating first place from last and it was IMC who bounced back straight away from relegation last season to secure the automatic promotion place ahead of GDod and phoyle3290. Swuul was very unfortunate to be relegated, having won three of his matches, which is usually enough to keep a player in a division. DanZanzibar won his second automatic promotion in Division E by completing a clean sweep of nine victories, with Aetius39 finishing second with a very creditable seven wins. gamercb was relegated after a very late revival by Tratmot who won his last two matches. Warg1 won Division F comfortably by six points ahead of fellow-newcomers Thunderbird, random27, Morat and Stormcrow who all won more matches than they lost. Unfortunately this division was disrupted by two players who did not complete their matches, namely hyme and gioe07, who both will be ineligible for future seasons. gioe07 finished in the wooden spoon position.

Nosy_Rat retained his champion’s position in Early Middle Ages for the third time in a row by completing another unbeaten sequence of results in Division A. In the 36 matches he has played in this section over the last four seasons Nosy_Rat has been beaten just twice! pantherboy was the runner-up with seven wins, which looked very much like a return towards some of his very best form, and pompeytheflatulent finished third. dkalenda was placed bottom of the table. There was a titanic promotion battle in Division B, narrowly won by ConstantinIX, who finished just two points ahead of Macedonczyk. I expect both players to be putting down a strong challenge to Nosy_Rat in the top flight next season. schmolywar was eleven points further back in third place. While at the bottom markwatson360 was relegated after seemingly losing heart towards the end of the season. Challenge1 continued his steady improvement by winning Division C ahead of Questar17 in what was a very strong division. MikeMarchant was narrowly relegated by just one point. Swuul was too strong for the opposition in Division D, completing a clean sweep and finishing nine points ahead of second-placed bomber23. The relegation battle went down to the very last game and it was ggarynorman who succumbed after losing the tie-breaker match to baldrick52. Another promotion for DanZanzibar, his third of the season, saw him also complete a second clean sweep, yet he only finished one point ahead of Stew101, who won eight of his nine matches. Aetius39 and Conteshard also won six of their matches in their first season. Supervark was relegated after failing to complete his last two matches. In Division F it was another newcomer kraff who eclipsed everyone by completing a perfect clean sweep to score a 36 point maximum to finish ten points ahead of Nikobeg and random27, who tied for second place. Warg1 also registered six wins to finish fourth. hyme finished in the wooden spoon position after failing to complete his matches.

Nosy_Rat also secured the championship in his first foray into the Biblical section, completing a clean sweep in Division A and finishing ten points ahead of Snugglebunnies who finished second. Everyone else finished in quite a closely matched group with herm and dkalenda, the two players who did not complete the season tailed off. Division B saw another very impressive performance from Macedonczyk, who completed a perfect clean sweep to bag 36 points and a place in the record books. He was gallantly challenged for much of the season though by batesmotel and sunnyboy who finished second and third respectively. The relegation battle involved half of the division for most of the season and this time three wins was enough for Swuul to escape and it was ulysisgrunt who suffered his second relegation of the season by just one point. baldrick52 started off his campaign in Division C like a player possessed and looked odds-on to have it all wrapped up by the half-way stage. But SpeedyCM, sarmation and rs2excelsior kept nibbling away at his lead and it looked as if rs2excelsior might overtake him before losing two matches late on. In the end baldrick52 held on by just one point from SpeedyCM with sarmation another point further back in third. MadMaxBot finished in the wooden spoon position after failing to complete all his matches.

harveylh narrowly triumphed in the Avar Themed Event after an exciting final with paulmcneil. Ludendorf was a beaten semi-finalist while dkalenda was disqualified at that stage. The continuation of the Themed Event continues to be a bit precarious as it usually only attracts around 12 players. It may be the case that it will not survive once the High Middle Ages section opens up next year. An option then may be to rotate the “themed approach” through the different sections season-by-season to bring some of the less popular armies into play. I would like to be able to say that all the armies in FOG2 have been used in the FOG2DL at some point by the time the last season has ended.

I think Nosy_Rat has the strongest claim to be our “number one” player now. It will be interesting to see what the new player ratings say, but his overall record in this tournament is played 36, won 30 with 3 draws and 3 defeats. The results are impressive in their own right, but if you take into consideration the “unfashionable” armies he has used to produce them – Indian (much nerfed now), Western Huns, Franks and Cimmerians – then it really is a stand-out performance. Well played Nosy_Rat! And my “players to watch” for next season include ConstantinIX, DanZanzibar, kraff, Macedonczyk and Stew101.

I would like to thank everyone who has participated this season. Although it was a bit stormy, and a bit disrupted, there were still some fabulous divisions and most matches were played in the same spirit that they have always been in the FOG2DL. It was great to see so many new players join the tournament and get into the swing of things very quickly. Also, a very big thanks to the reserves who came in – gamercb, Stormcrow, snooky51 and Captainwaltersavage – and took up the slack so quickly. My thanks to Anders and Ian as always for tables, charts and adjudications and to Richard for liaison with the people at Slitherine, particularly Daniele, Iain and Paulo.

See you all next season, starting October 1st. Invitations will go out during week commencing 14th September.

stockwellpete (tournament organiser)

[stockwellpete]

Slitherine has, once again, sponsored this season and has provided $25 vouchers that must be spent in the Slitherine store (no time limit). Please note that they have stipulated that a player may only win one voucher per season to ensure they are shared out as much as possible.

Here are this season's winners . . .

Classical Antiquity - Ludendorf 34 points and BishUK 32 points. The third voucher has not been allocated and will be held over until next season.*

Late Antiquity - Dan Zanzibar 35 points, hidde 32 points and Warg1 31 points

Early Middle Ages - kraff 36 points, ConstantinIX 35 points and Swuul 35 points

Biblical - Macedonczyk 36 points and Nosy_Rat 35 points

Themed Event - harveylh

* the next players in line for a voucher were nyczar and XLegione who tied for first place in Division B with 30 points. But, as I cannot split a voucher, I have decided to hold it back until next season. It does make my job a bit easier at times if I have a spare voucher to allocate.

I will send out the voucher code numbers this afternoon (all PM's now sent out).

[harveylh]

Thanks again to Pete who did his usual great job despite the problems he mentioned in his end of season report. In many respects I think this was our best season because there was a record number of players and many exciting and close races in the divisions. In addition, a player (dkalenda) who had aroused suspicion from several players in previous seasons, was permanently banned. This has caused Slitherine to upgrade their monitoring systems which will provide reassurance that any future cheating will be quickly detected and resolved. So despite the disruptions caused by a few players, it was still a good season.

[stockwellpete]

End of Season report done.
Prize vouchers sent out.
Tournament records update done.
Player statistics update done.
Medals Table (Anders) done.
Tournament archive update done.
Army records update done.
Player ratings update (Anders) done.

Still to do
Clear data from old charts and replace damaged tables and charts
Finalise schedule for Season 9

[kronenblatt]

Thanks again to Pete who did his usual great job despite the problems he mentioned in his end of season report. In many respects I think this was our best season because there was a record number of players and many exciting and close races in the divisions. In addition, a player (dkalenda) who had aroused suspicion from several players in previous seasons, was permanently banned. This has caused Slitherine to upgrade their monitoring systems which will provide reassurance that any future cheating will be quickly detected and resolved. So despite the disruptions caused by a few players, it was still a good season.

+1 => Many thanks, Pete! I haven't played in the DL but I have followed the games closely and you administering it all in combination with recaps and the roundup above (all very entertaining to read even for an "outsider") have been very impressive. Keep up the good work, Pete!

[CONSTANTINIX]

$25 voucher : This is the beginning of my new professional career. I told my wife I will be soon self-sufficient

[CONSTANTINIX]

+1 Many thanks . But I strongly protest against Pete's addictive behaviour . I found myself checking every thirty minutes for the weekly roundup on sunday morning !

[Triarii]

Pete
Really very well done and many thanks for all of your hard work.
Especially this time around dealing with a set of challenges and issues quickly and effectively.
A triumph of organisation.
Thank you so very much.

[General Shapur]

Nice write up. Enjoyed with a coffee and digestive. Formulating revenge plans after my failure in classical div - I'll be back.