wrong way

@very-rusty said
Don't I know it! 😛 🙂

-VR

😍

now rusty claims that the metalheads are just not able to get challenges
not true
last year the averaged .66 challenges per day
this year they are averaging .70 challenges per day
the big difference is that their win/loss ratio is much lower this year
why is that?
either the matches were more fair
or the metalheads just got outplayed
either way
their reign of terror is over
long live the winos!

being a competent clan leader is hard
mghrn55 couldn't handle the job
better ones then him have failed
no disgrace should be attached to his failure

@lemondrop said
being a competent clan leader is hard
mghrn55 couldn't handle the job
better ones then him have failed
no disgrace should be attached to his failure

It seems to me that you miss me.
Just to let you know, I am away for a temporary period only.
I'll be back before you know it.
Nice to see other clans doing well.
Have fun. And good luck with your clan. 😛

@mghrn55 said
It seems to me that you miss me.
Just to let you know, I am away for a temporary period only.
I'll be back before you know it.
Nice to see other clans doing well.
Have fun. And good luck with your clan. 😛

😞

the leader of the winos must be spending 25 hours a day pumping out them challenges
no romance in this dudes life

@lemondrop said
the leader of the winos must be spending 25 hours a day pumping out them challenges
no romance in this dudes life

Not really, lemon

.... we have 3 challenges underway against nearly all clans, and although we have a fair few pending challenges, its now 'one challenge ends, a rematch challenge issued' .... takes no more than 5 minues to issue a challenge .. and we don't have many challenges completing each day ... and some days we have no challenges completing 😀

Actually we just lost one today .. Expats gave us a bashing ... rematch on its way to the Postie shortly 😉

@maxtheminnow said
Not really, lemon

.... we have 3 challenges underway against nearly all clans, and although we have a fair few pending challenges, its now 'one challenge ends, a rematch challenge issued' .... takes no more than 5 minues to issue a challenge .. and we don't have many challenges completing each day ... and some days we have no challenges completing 😀

Actually we just lost one today .. Expats gave us a bashing ... rematch on its way to the Postie shortly 😉

you are what the metalheads used to be
let them eat your dust

@maxtheminnow said
Not really, lemon

.... we have 3 challenges underway against nearly all clans, and although we have a fair few pending challenges, its now 'one challenge ends, a rematch challenge issued' .... takes no more than 5 minues to issue a challenge .. and we don't have many challenges completing each day ... and some days we have no challenges completing 😀

Actually we just lost one today .. Expats gave us a bashing ... rematch on its way to the Postie shortly 😉

"Takes no more than 5 minutes to issue a challenge " ?
All I can say is you can't be doing much investigative work to make sure the challenge is fair.
It used to take me hours to compile challenges,only to get rejections, ridiculously biased alternatives or just no response at all.
Most annoying was when I found a good match up to then get the message "this clan is no longer accepting challenges" when I forgot to check that first.
That is the main reason why I got fed up with being a leader and also I believe why so many clans are inactive.After the initial enthusiasm,leaders just can't be bothered.

@venda said
"Takes no more than 5 minutes to issue a challenge " ?
All I can say is you can't be doing much investigative work to make sure the challenge is fair.
It used to take me hours to compile challenges,only to get rejections, ridiculously biased alternatives or just no response at all.
Most annoying was when I found a good match up to then get the message "this clan is no longer ...[text shortened]... believe why so many clans are inactive.After the initial enthusiasm,leaders just can't be bothered.

venda,
Option1: Perhaps this is a person who has been a clan leader before and knows all the players as many have been here for years. A good Clan Leader knows his opponents strengths and weaknesses. Someone like that may not be exaggerating the time to make the challenge when they know all the players. ( I should check this out with Shortcircuit) It is my opinion only of course. "Takes no more than 5 minutes to issue a challenge " ? I find it hard to believe, but may not take much longer knowing all the players.

Option 2 is something better for a P.M.! 😉

-VR

I agree with venda
it takes time to set a match
especially if you are looking for that little advantage
the back and forth between leaders is sometimes annoying
often leading to a waste of time
at least to me it seems that's the way it was
it takes time to know the actual playing strength of players
most successful players play better than their rating would indicate
having some sandbaggers on a clan helps a lot if you want to be a serious contender
you can throw integrity out the window

@very-rusty said
venda,
Option1: Perhaps this is a person who has been a clan leader before and knows all the players as many have been here for years. A good Clan Leader knows his opponents strengths and weaknesses. Someone like that may not be exaggerating the time to make the challenge when they know all the players. ( I should check this out with Shortcircuit) It is my opin ...[text shortened]... not take much longer knowing all the players.

Option 2 is something better for a P.M.! 😉

-VR

You have a point.
It all comes down to memory.
I could remember seeing potential opponents before but I couldn't always remember their performance stats!
I suppose I'm a bit of a stats geek.
I used to put all my potential players numbers(ratings) into a spreadsheet and the potential opponents alongside.
I then devised a formula which told me if it was a good challenge or not .
A bit over the top I suppose but that is what took the time.
Some leaders, including Fred from Metallica, didn't agree with my method and had their own formulae.I recall some interesting conversations Fred and I had(by pm as you suggest),but we rarely agreed I seem to remember.
In the end, I was glad to pass on the job.
Unfortunately, not all leaders have been so lucky,hence the decline in clan play.As I said earlier,leaders just get fed up with the hassle.

@venda said
You have a point.
It all comes down to memory.
I could remember seeing potential opponents before but I couldn't always remember their performance stats!
I suppose I'm a bit of a stats geek.
I used to put all my potential players numbers(ratings) into a spreadsheet and the potential opponents alongside.
I then devised a formula which told me if it was a good challenge or n ...[text shortened]... n so lucky,hence the decline in clan play.As I said earlier,leaders just get fed up with the hassle.

You both could have been doing great jobs... just went about it in different ways. I believe knowing your opponents true rating and weaknesses and your own players well would be a big help.

As a Co-Captain on another site I use to have to make up challenges to help the Captain. After awhile you get to know all your opponents and your own teammates strength and weaknesses. I found it tough at first and made my share of mistakes.

The best I've ever seen and I've seen some good ones is Shortciruit, we can't argue about his success I know is one thing we can agree on. After a time you really get to know everyone's true rating. Sometimes opponents do well against others because of their style of play and can beat higher rated players simply because they don't know the opening or defense as well.

I know being a Clan Leader or a Team Captain or co-captain involves a lot of work and I use to put a lot of time into it. You don't learn everything over night it takes months sometimes years to figure it all out. What I love about the other site I am a life time member on is if anyone caught cheating or trying to fix points or game Challenges are gone never to return.

There is no arguing what so ever in the forums which make them very boring, but does work if you enjoy playing the game. My rating is actually higher on that site than this one for some reason. I could probably look at the forums as being high on the list....LOL....I have to start concentrating more on my games on this site and less on the forums as has been suggested by some people I do respect and listen to and know they are correct about that.
Even goad (Ghost of a Duke) has told me if I slowed down my moves and took more time on them it would increase my rating. I think in this case he knew what he was talking about. He is an above average player himself in my opinion and doesn't play a lot of games. I am retired so have more time than many for making moves. I do like moving fast which is probably a bad habit, especially once into the middle game.

Being a Clan Leader or Team leader whatever you happen to call it can indeed be a hassle, yet enjoyable and a feeling of accomplishment.

I enjoyed making up the challenges part and getting to know all the players how they played over time, but didn't like the politics so much. I am on another team now on the other site and have been approached several times by the team captain to become a co-captain. I've held off so far, but am in discussions about not having to deal with the Politics and just make up Team Challenges. I've been on that site pretty much as long as I've been here.

So I have been giving it a lot of thought. Do you think a lot of the hassle you talk about has to do with the politics or making of the challenges themselves as one needs a lot of patience when they start getting bounced back at you? As you know everyone is looking for that little advantage at the same time making the challenges fair but like to have that little advantage just human nature.

There are some things I've seen on here which are better discussed in a P.M. as I said in my previous posting to you. I don't have plans on leaving this site of course!

-VR

@very-rusty said
You both could have been doing great jobs... just went about it in different ways. I believe knowing your opponents true rating and weaknesses and your own players well would be a big help.

As a Co-Captain on another site I use to have to make up challenges to help the Captain. After awhile you get to know all your opponents and your own teammates strength and weakness ...[text shortened]... . as I said in my previous posting to you. I don't have plans on leaving this site of course!

-VR

I certainly didn't consider "politics" when I was leader.and I think the "hassle" is just the frustrations of finding the challenges
I presume with "politics" you mean things like "This challenge is from xxx, so I'll bounce it".
I considered each challenge on it's merits where ever it came from.
Similarly I had no bias when issuing challenges.
The co captain idea is an interesting one.Would take some of the pressure off.Can't see it happening on here though.
I did sometimes consider the policy of the "Cheeky Monkeys" of "one massive challenge per week"
They just found a big clan,and put all of their players in seemingly regardless of ability.They weren't very successful but I bet it was good fun!
They don't seem to play anymore so perhaps the leader got fed up with doing even that!!

@very-rusty said
You both could have been doing great jobs... just went about it in different ways. I believe knowing your opponents true rating and weaknesses and your own players well would be a big help.

As a Co-Captain on another site I use to have to make up challenges to help the Captain. After awhile you get to know all your opponents and your own teammates strength and weakness ...[text shortened]... . as I said in my previous posting to you. I don't have plans on leaving this site of course!

-VR

That was the best way of explaining it in my opinion. In my case I have been on about 12 years. I know 98% of all the clan members, and I know all the leaders.

In some cases I know some a little better then others. Rusty is also correct that some things that have been going on can only be spoken about in a PM. Although I have no idea what he may be talking about, and I am sure what I am thinking of is most likely different. But I am confident that Rusty knows what he is talking about. You can't spend the amount of years he has playing chess and done the things he has done without having a full understanding on how a clan works.

Although this is the best the clan has been in years, there are still issues, a lot of issues that are going on, and it is nothing that Russ can fix nor should he have to. It's not a coding issue.

I will say when I make a match, I look to make the match as even and close as I can, with no advantage to win. Example: If I play Metallica, if there are ten points total to be won. And if we win or lose by one point or up to three points, that to me was a fair match, and if we lose that is fine. I like it so that each player and leader has a equal chance of winning.

Not all leaders like this. Which is perfectly fine. It's just when leaders send over matches where you know they either did no research at all, or they just did not care and just sent you a player or players that are so much better then yours it's like they did it to insult you.

Also, some leaders will play some clans but not others, making it hard to get matches. And if you look and research the wins of clans but look at how long the matches took to finish? That will tell the story. My matches take forever and against the same clans other leaders play but their matches are done in 4 to 6 weeks. Mine are 4 to 6 months.

Many issues that need fixing, however I don't have the answers, and I am not even sure if there are any.

But everything Rusty said seemed to be spot on and he obviously knows what he is talking about.

And guys and gals, don't count out Metallica. It's early yet. It's only been 3.5 months so far. I would not bet money against them would any of you????

Lastly, when I make matches, it does not take me long. I know my players and I know others players, and I know who matches up well against who. So it is easy to just put them together. Leaders make it harder then it needs to be based on Ratings that change all the time, and TER which also can be used as a tool, but a great way to make a final choice on a match. But still not a bad tool.