EURO 2012 Scheduling - FINAL

Wow, this is crazy.

I must admit, that between the time zones, family, work and occupational commitments between the members on here, I do find scheduling to be quite difficult. Plus, having to constantly check your desktop in case of an alert isn't the easiest task when so many other things are going on.

Why not use Live as well?

I personally prefer to play when something is at stake. My H2H encounters are, for the most part, against assisted players. If I were to only settle for manual players, I'd probably be still 'searching for an opponent.........'

this is the main reason why i specifically browse around for manual leagues. Now that I'm in a few, it's mainly what I play, or what I actually care to play. H2H is basically the 'Arena' for me. Couldn't care less what division I'm in. Just want to play some friendlies.

Maybe the passion just isn't there with everyone. i.e, while some play C.O.D 1st and foremost, I play Fifa and nothing but.

I don't think using Live is prohibited. I do look at who's online from my desktop and message them if I can. For me I can't keep my xbox on due to my settings in my living room. So it works better for me to communicate from my laptop rather it's live or forums. And yes we all have different schedules, and that's conflict. I'm not saying one way is rather more right than the other. I wouldn't be opposed to being involved with only those that are available during the times I am available. Maybe seperate people by their availability might make sense to get scheduling an easier thing to do.

Well there's a difference. I play only and only FIFA. But then I do not quit a league when I figure I am stuck at the bottom. Some do. That's what I meant by something being at stake. Some just can't take losing, and they'd rather not play. In real life, if a team just stopped playing in the EPL because they figure they're going down, then they probably would be facing serious penalties, including not being able to play in the EPL for a good time. Maybe it should be that way, people shouldn't feel the comfort of "oh I'll leave now, I can come back when it starts again for another shot".

If they had anything, anything remotely close to that, they'd be bragging all about it everywhere like it's the new biggest thing ever done. So I wouldn't keep my hopes up if I were you.

I also think another particular conflict could be the match scheduling.

Releasing 1 match at a time can create drawbacks.

For example, during the regular league and the Group stage of the EURO cup, I randomly run into other opponents from time to time. However, because our fixture is not released yet, we don't play. Well, if we're in the same league and Group, why can't we? The matches have to be played anyway, so wouldn't it be more efficient to be able to knock them out early if possible?

Plus, a full release of the fixtures keeps the ball rolling, people are more anxious to get going because it's open house.
When you knock out one fixture, and then have to wait another few days to a week to play the next, it can lose it's momentum. Next thing you know, ppl start checking the site less, then forgetting about fixtures etc etc.

Call me daft, but in one league I played in once, I even forgot what team I was using. lol. Probably just a senior moment though.

In saying all that, I of course don't have the slightest clue how things work from the administrators side, so please do explain if you wish.

I can imagine that things could get hectic when it comes to keeping the tables updated, but maybe you could just update them periodically. Say 3 times a week.
Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

One thing is for sure.......while someone is waiting because another is currently unavailable, (which seems to be the most dominate factor) that someone could be banging out matches against the other opponents in the mean time. Maybe the 'season' could have a deadline, rather than the 'individual' fixtures.

As I've already stated though, I don't know how the set up is behind the scenes, so maybe this way would not be effective or even implementable.

Well I can only speak from my point of view, but I know I dropped out of TFL when it went manual before last season. Playing the MLS was fun for me because it was players and teams I knew and followed, so as much as I hated going manual (and while I've accepted it, I still don't enjoy it nearly as much), I enjoy the league itself. Maybe the Euro tournament would have been helped if it'd just been 2 weeks to get your 3 group games done in whatever order is convenient? I know for realism sake and all that, you wanted to play in order, but if player x and player y are scheduled for round 3 but it takes 2 weeks to get to round 3, now maybe one of them isn't available as much as they were the first 2 weeks, so we end up waiting another 2 weeks to get 1 game in instead of just playing when's convenient right off the start.

I'd love it if FIFA 13 had a more legit online leagues feature. As much as I enjoyed the promotion and relegation stuff, knowing I'm locked in with a core group of guys might help create some rivalries, make season 3 as interesting as season 1, etc... But hopefully the waning activity is just due to the long summer days, the fact FIFA 12 has been out almost a year now and 13 is coming in a couple months, NCAA is out soon... I dunno. But the reason I look for online leagues like this is so I don't have to play meaningless H2H games, because those are pointless to me, lol.

This is why there are so many different pathetic cups in the EPL. Plus the expansion of the Europa and CL competitions. It gives everyone something to play for. Daft if you ask me, but i suppose everyone can't be number 1.

I'll be short since I have to leave.

I liked that EURO games had to be played in order.

I am completely against the open schedule. It doesn't make sense to me when I have 10 games played while the kid that doesn't have a job plays all 30 games and sits there on top. And that is not my fault, we all have different commitments. I play as much as I can, but I would not want to be a part of something like that where it doesn't look like a league at all. I like a more realistic flow of the league standings where games played is kept as close as possible all around the table.

Agreed 100% in the full season leagues. Release them 5 at a time, or by month as we're doing in MLS. That makes sense. but for the Euro tourney, I don't think opening the 3 game group stage would have made that much difference.

But we keep giving people 3rd and 4th chances to join these leagues for some reason. I get it if it happens once.. Life will happen and it will happen to every single person in this league at some point. But when guy's keep dropping early and then all of the sudden want to come back when the new season starts and are welcomed with open arms, it kind of annoys me a bit. The TFL always ends up with about only half of it's members by the end of the season only to be full again once the season starts. It's all the guy's that quit then want to come back once they think they can win again. A guy recently came back after quitting probably 3 times before. I mean, just left us without saying a word to anyone but yet, he's put back on the waitlist and I guarantee you it will happen again. It's a problem we'll always have though so I may be with hedache on this one. It's tough for Rich to find a perfect solution.

I have to agree that the pace for the EURO has been agonizingly slow but the friendlies for the qualifiers were awesome.

One way to keep folks from coming and going so frequently is to have a minimum amount of friendlies that must be played against other TFL members while they are waiting for league spot. Also if someone drops a league then they should be required to sit out a minimum of one season when they try to rejoin, while they wait they should have to maintain the level of activity mentioned above.

I'm all for expanding the league but I also think that the commitment from the members has to be demonstrated to a certain extent.

Obviously scheduling with other members have been the biggest issue slowing down the league. Since I am the most brilliant mind about solutions for these situations that I know of (and while some of you may not agree with this, I know Anton would have agreed with me about himself for this), here is a starting point for better pace:

We still have our two divisions, TFL Red and Black. We draft our teams in the most exciting way we can, ofcourse me being Arsenal and nothing else is acceptable.

What is the major problem with scheduling? Our availability matching others'. Obviously everyone is somewhat committed to playing, just can't at times others can. My suggestion is to have assistant managers. Each member has an assistant from the other division and vice versa to back up for situations they are not available. Either The Richuation can do assignments based on availability to cover each other's asses or we can pick our own assistants as long as it serves the cause. When you can't schedule with the main manager of a team, whichever side can schedule with the other team's assistant earlier can play the game officially and such. More rules can be expanded to make everything clear but this is the basic idea. If it comes down to it, even assistant play assistan in some situations, I bet this will speed up the league. When you have to be away for a week, your assistant will cover for you and such. etc etc....

Do I really have to answer that? AJ Hart MN ofcourse

What time do you want to try to play tomorrow?

you around?

He was half an hour ago, he's gone to bed I believe.

.....because they could just go out and play freely, rather than having to wait around for 1 match a week. Look what happened the very second matches were restricted. Same teams, same players yet it, for some reason, slooooooooooooowed right down.

Assistant? No chance.

You'll get the majority of members saying, 'dam it, I could have won that one' if the assistant lost or drew. ....in other words, don't make me your assistant. lol

Then either they should have scheduled their game in time or if they can't be available fully do not join the league. It's very simple. You can't make everyone happy anyways. There's no perfect solution. But this is a solution that can add pace to the schedule.

You're a believer of the open schedule. I am totally against it. That's pretty much the difference.

I don't know I have been on every night and we have tried to find a time but our schedules are very different.