Warrior General Games

You asked and I'm gunna deliver a top 15 as some people have pointed out that there are some competative teams lurking in the 5 ranks below top 10 and Daddy helped prove that. So New season new pretty changes lets break this down shall we?

#1(30) Hawaii Bulls vs #18(Pro)Oklahoma Outlaws
First match up and we already have the bulls in the top 30 facing a top 20 pro team I am already liking the new ladder logic. From what I remember about this team from my days as the Maine (RIP) OC is that they love to blitz and run a balanced attack but if Hawaii has shown anything in its scrims its that they are ready for this. Storm is a freak of nature and Jones is no slouch either. I fully expect this to be a very close game with Hawaii winning this one to represent Journeyman tier

20-17 Hawaii

#2 (31) The Salty Runback vs #12 (Pro) Dakota Dire Wolves
Ouch While Hawaii gets a solid mismatch I think Salty got the short end of the stick. They face one of the nastiest defenses in pro and that William guy is no slouch on offense either. Dakota is a team who beat the likes of DD and the Generals in a defensive slug fest and hung tough against the monstrous Sunday Fundy Offense. They only got better too in the off season I think Salty will hang tough but they are gunna need a lot of luck to win this.

28-10 Dakota

#3(38) Yorickshire Vase Breakers vs #19 (Pro) Alpine
Did I mention the ladder changes are awesome? Another exciting matchup as we got the Vase Breakers who brought in a new S* wr in the offseason vs one of the original passing juggernauts of GLB 2 I expect this to be a fun and hopefully high scoring game but I dont think Vase breakers is just quite ready for this yet but hey they love to show me im wrong so lets see it, represent Vase Breakers!

30-24 Alpine

#4(42) Glasgow Rangers vs #38(Pro)Tampa Bay Belligerent Recovering Alcoholics
this will be an enjoyabgle season for me to write up and see who can handle the pros. Glasgow gets its shot vs an underrated pro team in the Drunks who run that trademark DeeVee offense. This wont be easy for Glasgow and they are certainly the heavy underdogs but Glasgow happens to be my favorite underdog of journeyman with a wicked defense and a balanced offense that has the skills to hit you from all over the field. Its about time I showed some love to my favorite underdogs this time,

28-24 Glasgow

#5(43) Air Raid vs #26(Pro) Warsaw Wrath
Ill be honest I have never heard of this Pro team but they look like they wont be a push over. Air Raid is my second favorite team in journyman (behind Andes obviously) and I always love to pick them but I dont think I will this week. Air Raid lost its first game against a team they should of beaten pretty easily. They looked sluggish, almost human on offense but the defense looked solid. The big question is this a product of Galithor not scrimming like he should have after the changes or is this the product of what got Lost Lounge and Clevland is not properly fitted for this new coverage stuff? I want to believe its just karma biting Gal in the ass for not scrimming but I guess we will have to wait and see

24-20 Wrath

#6(44) Atlantic City Hookers vs #27(pro) DeepRoute Allstars
Atlantic is looking to get a sneaky scrim in vs a team I have again never heard of but they come the dreaded Osprey League where it houses one of the most if not the most competitive leagues in GLB 2. They run a 2 QB that seems to be almost non existent anymore and a balanced offense I would call them the generic version of the name brand Maine (not meant as an insult). Vs the ever dangerous but also very streaking Hooker passing game lead by the Stud Randell Cobb. I think this will be pretty close though

28-20 Hookers

#7 Harrisonburg Bulldogs vs #9 Cobra Kai
back to same tier match ups again and I cant believe how far Harrisonburg has fallen. However Tdiddy brought in 3 superstars in this offseason. Despite this Dropping Bombs looked pretty avg today vs Sandy and continues the trend of S* qbs struggling out the door. This will be a good game to turn it around as Cobra Kai has always had pass defense issues and rely on that amazing offense to get them through. I expect Tdiddy to show hes back and plans to take this tier by storm again.

24-17 Bulldogs

#8(48) Lost Lounge vs 45(pro) Budapest Tigers
Right back to Journy vs Pro and another struggling S* QB. I dont know much about the Tigers outside I know their OC/DC and will probably be discussing this game with him since I cover This tier every ladder match. Though knowing the OC?DC hie will be unpridictable and loves to play the game of breaking down morale and energy and just try to outlast you. Lost Lounge needs to solve the S* Qb issue that is plaguing them if they want to win this one and I think they can do it but not this game

24-17 Tigers

#10 Andes Chinchillas vs #16 Savannah Stingers
Savannah was one of the teams that made me move to top 15 as they have provided some good competition. They face a reloaded Andes team that looks much fresher than last season and Paul M has a new offense that hes rolling out for Andies this season. As always Andes has its stud running bcks and have QB Jim Plunkett who has some flashes of brilliance in the game today and could prove to be a leathal threat as he comes well prepared in the pass power department. The stingers are definitely a pass heavy team looking to try to get a shoot out vs Andes but Andes runs a pretty tight defense that has been revamped in the LB and Cb department and I expect a fun one here

32-24 Andes

11 Berkley Bowlers vs 18 Hollywood Knights
Berkeley has been ravaged by players being cut. I'm not sure what their doing but I don't know how competitive they will be against the solid and balanced Hollywood Knights. Until they fix it I doubt they win many games.

30-10 Knights

12(63) pelicans vs 40(pro) Hillfield Dinos
Pelicans got upset by a lbless team and they get the difficult draw of a pro team that looks to be decent. I don't expect the pelicans to win this one unless they figure out what went wrong in their first and game and tighten up on defense

24-14 Dinos

13 Sacramento Hornets vs 14 Los Cabos Sharks
Hornets are a pretty underrated team much like Daddy and they face a decent team in the Sharks. The Hornets are a pass heavy syndicate team that struggled against an avg team in 2013 rookies but Cabos is looking a little flat so I see this as a low scoring affair.

20-17 Hornets

15 (69)Daddy vs 63 (Pro)Faber Animals
Daddy coasted in their win vs a CPU team and Faber took their lumps vs a very good Dakota team. Though Faber has a solid core of wrs that could give daddy fits. Daddy has to avoid getting morale spiraled on defense if they want to win this one.

34-30 Faber

Nice write up!

Were the ladder changes posted?

Originally posted by Thunderoo
Nice write up!

Were the ladder changes posted?

Ya, they were sorta mentioned in the change log. Rookies will only play rookies. Sophomores will only play sophomores. All other tiers are open season. I like that part a lot.

The other part on more variation seems to be translated as "up to 20 spots away" instead of the old 10. I'm not quite so sold on that, especially as it looks like the top of the journeyman tier is about to get shellacked by having several teams playing pro teams quite a bit higher than they are.

Great write up USC, thanks for doing this.

With regards to our match up, we haven't faced a team from the level above us in a long time, I'm sure it's been well over a season, I'm not sure how how we'll handle it.

Wow lots of journey and pro matchups. Fun stuff.

Originally posted by Xavori
The other part on more variation seems to be translated as "up to 20 spots away" instead of the old 10. I'm not quite so sold on that, especially as it looks like the top of the journeyman tier is about to get shellacked by having several teams playing pro teams quite a bit higher than they are.

I guess it could be "up to 20".

The script runs until it has 10 available teams to choose from, so if the 9 below you happened to play the 9 above you, then it would get close to "up to 20".

Originally posted by Xavori
Ya, they were sorta mentioned in the change log. Rookies will only play rookies. Sophomores will only play sophomores. All other tiers are open season. I like that part a lot.

The other part on more variation seems to be translated as "up to 20 spots away" instead of the old 10. I'm not quite so sold on that, especially as it looks like the top of the journeyman tier is about to get shellacked by having several teams playing pro teams quite a bit higher than they are.

This plus none of the journeyman teams play each other. Why have a separate ladder if we are basically just going to play pro teams?

Originally posted by Rom_Fox
This plus none of the journeyman teams play each other. Why have a separate ladder if we are basically just going to play pro teams?


would make sense to put them all on one ladder page for sure.

Kind of dilutes the journeyman rivalries if we don't actual play each other often. I applaud the attempt, but I wonder if the pendulum swung too far.

Originally posted by sieg76
would make sense to put them all on one ladder page for sure.

Like this page here - http://glb2.warriorgeneral.com/game/rankings ?

Originally posted by Corndog
I guess it could be "up to 20".

The script runs until it has 10 available teams to choose from, so if the 9 below you happened to play the 9 above you, then it would get close to "up to 20".

I think I still don't really understand. The #12 overall team is playing the #31 overall team. And the only team lower than #12 that's playing a team higher than #12 is #8 vs #15. #23 is in the same league as #12, so it's out too, but other than that - as far as I can tell, #12 should have been pulling from a pool of 13,14,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,24 - and it somehow matched them up with #31?

Matchups of teams 1-11:
1 v 9
2 v 4
3 v 5
6 v 7
8 v 15
10 v 11

I do see that a lot of Osprey teams get a wide spread, but that's more understandable since there's so many teams so very close in rank that the pool to be drawn from has to reach out to farther teams.

I'm wondering - has ELO been tweaked at all?


When you have 12 vs 31 or 77 vs 97 -- unless the ELO gain (or loss) is capped -- isn't this likely to make for some dramatic ladder swings?

By increasing the gap to 'could be up to 20' - isn't that going to make the 'luck' of the ladder draw matchups over a season a pretty significant factor?

I guess I just don't understand the need for such a large spread.

1. Choose a team within 10 spots at any level (if seasoned +)

2. This gives you 18 teams to choose from -- opponent is selected using an NBA lottery type system: all teams start with 5 balls in the pit -- if you've played a team 1 time this season (league or ladder) - remove 1 ball. If you've played a team 3 times (league and ladder) that team only has 2 balls in the pit.

Originally posted by TxSteve
I'm wondering - has ELO been tweaked at all?


When you have 12 vs 31 or 77 vs 97 -- unless the ELO gain (or loss) is capped -- isn't this likely to make for some dramatic ladder swings?

Should be enough games in the season to sort everything out amongst the top teams at each tier. However I don't know if there has been any analysis ever done on an Elo system where some participants have more resources than others.

Originally posted by TxSteve
I'm wondering - has ELO been tweaked at all?


When you have 12 vs 31 or 77 vs 97 -- unless the ELO gain (or loss) is capped -- isn't this likely to make for some dramatic ladder swings?


Only if the underdog wins - in which case they probably are supposed to have a much higher rating than they do anyway. This isn't really a big concern.

Also, there was no cap on the difference between teams before - especially when you consider that the difference in rating between two teams that are 5 ranks apart can be arbitrarily large.

Also, your method doesn't work that well either. It's okay if you were just creating a single game, but you have to create simultaneous matchups across the whole ladder, and those are inter-related.
Look at the top - the #1 team can only match up with 2-10? They get #9. Now the #2 team can only match up with 3-11, except #9. So they only have 8 choices. And so on. And even then you should probably count scheduled league games in your method, and you should also continue to have another tier of 5 games vs or something like, because it will happen.

The system as explained by Corndog is fine, I just don't get how #12 ended up playing #31. Not that there's a problem with it, I just have an incomplete understanding of how something in the process works.