apterous.org

Matt Gould Just a thought for future editions...if you are the higher ranked player then clearly you are already the favourite to win a given match and having home advantage just cements this further. Can it not be randomised to level the playing field a little?

Sarah M I have zero chance of winning a game in my group. I'm the equivalent of Dagenham & Redbridge being in a group with Real Madrid, Man City & Barcelona ! :)

Stu Harkness There's a good chance one of you two might win a game in your group!

Good ol' Dag&Red :D

Sarah M Come on The Daggers!

Dave Kempshall Matt - it's a dilemma, but one I'll take on board. There is a request in from Philip Aston for a new more even format that could be used in tournament play. Given how many football themed tournaments there are, hopefully it'll be implemented soon.

Sarah M makes absolutely no sense why a higher rated player gets home advantage. it gives players like myself no chance in these tourneys and no point in entering them

Stu Harkness I get that, but tbf Dave puts a lot of time into his tournaments and they're so well organised

Sarah M yes i know a lot of effort is put into these tournaments but it does deter lower ranked players like myself from entering them. when i saw my group i knew straight away there's 3 losses. competition over straight away.

Stephen Elsley I've got absolutely no chance in my group with the players I'll be up against. I seem to be the only player with a low rating that enters these tournaments. Maybe there needs to be a tourney for just lower ranked players.

M S R Possible solutions until then

-Make each game two legged (not accurate to IRL, but gives each player a chance)
-Make it a 9R, but keep the same scoring rules (i.e spotting a max the other misses scores you a goal)

And if you haven't already, vote up on Philip proposal :D

Fiona T Most tourney organisers welcome constructive feedback, but try keep it constructive. If you want tourneys for lower rated players, plan them and run them! Adam's "reach your rating" tournament strongly favoured lower rated players - but neither of you entered that?

Fiona T Also aptoleague sorts players into divisions so have a look at that if you're not already in it!

Fi Thorne I'm also a lower ranked player, but I love playing in tourneys and massively appreciate the effort the organisers put in. You just have to go into them with the attitude of having fun and maybe learning some new words or achieving a new personal best. Also, just like football, even the best Apterous players have bad days, so you never know what might happen!

Sarah M I was only agreeing with Matt's comment so why is my feedback not constructive? I don't think it's fair that a high rated gets home advantage. I was just having a laugh saying my group is like Dagenham being in the champions league but I feel a bit picked on here when I was just giving an opinion and joking about my group. You didn't react to Matt's comment but say something when an unpopular player comments :(

Sarah M And I didn't enter Adam's tournament as it wasn't standard 15R and I don't understand them other crazy formats apart from a couple

Dave Kempshall Appreciate the feedback guys. I think M S R and his 9-round suggestion is a good shout, so I will consider that in future (although hopefully Philip's ticket will be implemented before the next one). In terms of groups and people having no chance of qualifying, sadly that is the nature of different levels of players. Running lower ranked tournament too wouldn't work as we simply wouldn't have enough entrants. Perhaps I could have separate lower ranked players in the Copa, so will bear that in mind for the next one of these.

David Holmes I'm still a pretty new player here and this is the first tourney I've entered. To be honest I'm not sure I fully understand it all yet (I thought I'd drawn one of my games but was wrong!) but as a relatively weaker player I fully expected to be on a hiding to nothing. I appreciate the effort put in to organising this and (like every game I play on here) am just trying to enjoy the experience and hopefully keep learning/improving so if they ever do let me on the show I won't disgrace myself.

Fiona T Agree that the suggestion to not give the home advantage to the stronger player is a good one, but some of the comments then became negative, for example saying there was no point in entering. My intention wasn't to pick on anyone, just to remind people that negativity can dissuade people from running tournaments and that would be a real shame!

Stephen Elsley Fiona, as a lower ranked player I know I'm not going to do well, and I appreciate the effort people put in to organise tourneys. I can't devise my own tourney as I wouldn't know how to and as I play on my mobile, wouldn't be able to design the spreadsheets. You mentioned that I didn't enter Adam's tourney geared for lower ranked players. This is because I rate myself good enough to enter normal format tourneys, 9, 11 or 15 rounders. That's why I entered Everything Counts. I check what the formats are before I enter tourneys. I know I'm on a hiding to nothing in this tourney, like David said, but still thought I'd enter it.

Dave Kempshall Please don't worry about feedback. Even the stuff that sometimes comes across as negative doesn't worry me and does actually give me food for thought - i.e. the idea to place the lower ranked players being placed in the COPA and the ranked players in the Euros wouldn't have occurred to me, but is actually a really good way of levelling the playing field. Too late for this one, but certainly something to look at next time. I may implement the 9-rounder idea from M S R for the knock-out rounds in this one.

Dave Kempshall My only concern re: having two legs is that with Human v Human tournaments it's always a concern every game being played, so I prefer not to have too many in the schedule.

Dave Kempshall Finally - if you are a lower ranked player. Dream the dream. You could cause an upset and go further than you think. Wear some appropriately coloured face-paint when representing your nation to give you inspiration :) Buy the official replica shirt and wear that. Your country needs you!