Team ballista LS - First ever live commentary!

[Vyiv]

Well, I suppose that I could provide a brief overview of what our LS does before anyone gets his shoes dirty. We focus on playing Ballista at a competitive level with a variety of well-respected and experienced JP players. Now, I realize that people may dislike the fact that I put emphasis on JP players, but the unfortunate truth is that the population of their competitive players severely outnumbers ours. Currently, there are only six NA players who are capable of playing on even footage with the hundreds of JP Ballista players. Of course, people will propose claims against this, such as, "I've beaten every JP player on my server"—or something similar to that regard. I personally find these remarks to be rather ignorant for a lot of reasons—one of which is that Ballista is team-based, so being able to single-handedly "defeat" everyone in a team game. If anyone makes such a claim, they probably lack understanding of what Ballista really is. Obviously, there seems to be a tendency for people wanting to be the lone hero, which won't work out too well in a competitive team environment.

But I digress. We play both mixed (auto-balance) and fixed (NA vs JP) Diorama games with the JP Ballista community everyday. For clarification, Diorama is actually the highest form of Ballista with standard rules that the JP have been using for several years. Indeed, there have been controversies against the rules, but the standard format has evidently produced the highest quality of games time after time. Moreover, the JP are strict with those rules and have little to no intention of changing them. For further information of the standard rules, please refer here:
http://vyiv.wordpress.com/2012/05/15...-diorama-hako/

The JP are notably serious about the game, even keeping records of every Diorama match played. With such records, they have recently developed their own ranking system based on the win rates of each individual player. Here's an example of the current JP system, taken from Saraphy's blog (http://saraphy0826.blog.fc2.com/):



The left, middle, and right columns respectively list the players’ names, win percentage, and number of games that they’ve played. With the data on each player's individual win rates, they manually organize people into different letter rank groups. For example, having a 65%~70% win rate after playing—say—100 games would put a player in "rank S" while a 55%~65% win rate would place a player in "rank A".

Of course, their current ranking system has its own flaws, which I won't get into detail here, but nonetheless, it illustrates how seriously they take the game. Anyway, I just wanted to convey this information so that people can have a better understanding of the gravity of the situation before recklessly jumping into the decision of server hopping and such. If you earnestly believe that this environment is suited for you, then feel free to contact us. Also, I just want to add that we've had several recruits in the past, and practically every one of them gave up after a week or two. I personally got rather frustrated with this which is why I wanted to explain the magnitude of the situation beforehand. If you do, however, believe that you have the conviction and dedication to climb to a competitive level of play, then I sincerely offer any help needed. Anyway, feel free to contact us if interested.

[Alhanelem]

but the unfortunate truth is that the population of their competitive players severely outnumbers ours. Currently, there are only six NA players who are capable of playing on even footage with the hundreds of JP Ballista players

You're going to scare people off with how elite you're sounding.

Frankly I don't agree or believe that there are "only 6" players who can compete with JP players. But even if I did, you're not making this very enticing. Balllista should be accessible to all, not just hardcore players. Currently it's not very easy to get into and that's a big part of the reason for lack of popularity.

Taking it so seriously is very oppressive to prospective participants. Those special, structured rules may facilitate hyper-competitive play, but don't serve at all to attract new participants.

Ballista is fun and enjoyable. Ease people into it rather than putting out all the hardcore details right off.

[Vyiv]

Maybe this doesn't seem appealing to you personally, but I don't think you have the right to speak for everyone else, as everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Simply because you don't find a competitive environment enjoyable doesn't automatically imply that other people don't either. The hundreds of JP Ballista players who are currently playing by the standard system clearly find the competitive environment enjoyable; otherwise, they would have stopped playing altogether. Who's to say that other people aren't equally as interested?

The goal was to inform, not necessarily to persuade. I outlined the facts as sincerely as possible, allowing the option for individual people to form their own opinions. Clearly, this isn't the first time that we've heard your opinion; we've heard yours several times over. So, please, I wholeheartedly ask you to let other people make a judgment on what they want, what they find enjoyable, and what play environment is suitable for them, instead of forcing your own emotional ideals onto them.

[Alhanelem]

Maybe this doesn't seem appealing to you personally, but I don't think you have the right to speak for everyone else, as everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

Ballista is appealing to me, and I'm not speaking for anyone else. I'm just stating my feelings and predicting the likely outcome.

So, please, I wholeheartedly ask you to let other people make a judgment on what they want, what they find enjoyable, and what play environment is suitable for them, instead of forcing your own emotional ideals onto them.

I'm not doing anything of the sort.

The hundreds of JP Ballista players who are currently playing by the standard system clearly find the competitive environment enjoyable

The thousands of players JP and NA alike who are not currently playing ballista at all clearly don't. I'm sure it works for the people that are doing it and i'm sure they're having fun. But it shouldn't be presented to others as if it is the norm and how ballista 'should' be played.

I want to play Ballista, and I want to get better at it, too. But before that can happen, more players need to be attracted to it. and, -and I stress this is just my opinion- I don't think introducing people to the top tier of play is the best way to do that. Before you can gain the conviction to play at a high level, you need to start at the bottom first.

[Vyiv]

Like I said, I'm simply laying out the facts and letting the people make their own judgments. I'm not here to out-talk you but to convey information to the public. Again, if people are indeed interested in a competitive environment, feel free to contact us.

[Alhanelem]

Again, the problem is there aren't enough players at even the basic level to consider being interested in a competitive level. Because of the talent of the people around you, you'd be in a very good position to help introduce the game to the masses to get more people into it. Then you might have more people interested in taking it to the next level.

This is not intended to be criticisim, it's just a thought.

[Sayomi]

Catsby! long time no see! Yea man don't do it I already did, once you xfer you get treated like **it by the LS leader it aint worth the bread/25$

I'd get into it more but Id rather not stir drama just save your money catsbycats.