Ed. Scott Emery yobbo@shell.portal.com
Contents of this issue:Letter FROM the editor: Who's Who in releagation
Pontification: There is no 18 man team
Pontification: Training and Cranking
Features: The astonishing recovery of Petawawa
Features: '93-'94 stats in review
Features: Training Woes from the Borg
Advice Column: The Borg advice to newcomers
Words of Wisdom A Letter from the Commissioner
Adverts: doSPARF
gamestats
SPP
WBRG
Begging: Out of submitted articles again
Letter FROM the editor: Who's Who in releagation
Keeping this fairly short, I did a quick analysis of the results of releagation. This might be of interest to the crowd that wants to push for the top of silver having a shot at the CUP.
Gold League '95 California Sluggers - G Havana Spaz Attack - G California Redwoods - G Livermore Rowdy Yobbos - G New York Hungry Vultures - S Air-Pacific Groundhogs - G The Borg - S Victorian Mandarins - S Darwin Destroyers - G St. Louis Cattle - G Manix Maulers - B Spring Creek - S The Mythstics - S CSUA - S The Black Company - S New Sturt Blues - GSilver League '95
Wallamaloo Science Department - G Christminister Clerics - S Unforgettable Fire - B Silicon Valley Angels - G Newcastle Novas - G Limboland Mists - S Buffalo Knights - S Petawawa Purple Platypi - B Uluru Dingoes - S Seren City Supers - S Viking Raiders - S Lost & Found - B Greymoor Gladiators - B Northfield Noogies - B Sherwood Bandits - B Port Credit Circus Stars - B
Former Gold - 12 (floating gold - 1) Former Silver - 13 Former Bronze - 7
Promoted to Gold - 8 Promoted - 15 Stable - 14 (floating - 1) Demoted - 3
Pontification: There is no 18 man team
In a recent ruling the 20 man forfeit line has been upheld. Some games were played last season with fewer than 20 players. This shall not happen this season.
Pontification: Training and Cranking
Okay, everyone should have done this analysis by their second year, so I will go ahead and make this explicit.
Assumptions made for convenience:
4 on/4 off - this is an invalid assumption because you will have to soak always - extra fatigue off your mobiles.
optimized for - this is invalid because you will want to adjust player's skill increase - relative skill levels to make mobiles, "repair" injuries.
all playable - invalid if cranking
Max team skill change (for info on the programs that generated this, email) 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 on (+4 fatigue) 146 147 146 145 144 143 143 144 off(-4 fatigue) -18 -21 -26 -31 -36 -41 -46 -51
Fatigue Neutral chart
# of players max total/pair av/player/pair av/player/season (@ 11 pairs) 20 128 6.4 70.4 21 126 6.0 66 / 4 = 16.5 22 120 5.4 59.4 23 114 4.9 53.9 24 108 4.5 49.5 25 102 4.1 45.1 / 4 = 11.3 26 97 3.7 40.7 27 93 3.4 37.4 / 4 = 9.5
Notice that while incremental changes in the number of players rarely impact the change in a/p/s by more than 5 points, the amount of skill change per player doubles by cutting a quarter of a 27 man squad. After a couple of seasons the skill gained by cutting one or two players can *really* add up. It can also take your team through the razor's edge (a painful prospect indeed). All of this is fairly straight-forward, but what about cranking?
Cranking
More assumptions
a/p/s - The a/p/s of a partially cranked team is equal to the a/p/s
of the uncranked fellows plus the a/p/s of the cranked fellows
divided by the number of players. False on a number of fronts.
All Crank stats # of players max total/train av/player av/player/season (@ 22 trains) 21 147 7.0 154 / 4 = 38.5 22 146 6.6 146 23 145 6.3 138.7 24 144 6.0 132 25 143 5.7 125.84 / 4 = 31.5 26 143 5.5 121 27 144 5.3 117.3 / 4 = 29.3
Let's take the example of a 21-man playing squad and a four man cranking squad. The 21 players take on skill roughly like a 25 man squad above which leads to an a/p/s of 45. The crankers on the other hand take on skill like a 25 man all crank team with an a/p/s of 126. The peak gain in skill is 1449 for the team for an a/p/s of 57.96. Note that this is a lower a/p/s than if the manager had stayed with a 21 man squad. A team with some crankers on it is harder to train optimally than one which plays all players, so you wouldn't see these numbers in actual practice. I haven't tested all of the cranking combinations, there may be a combo which would allow you to do better than your uncranked team. Until someone can demonstrate that combination, cranking should be looked at as an extreme and costly method of distributing skill rather than a source of "free" skill.
That said, I crank. Though I have not yet done the calculations, I look at skill added to player as having immediate and lifetime value. The immediate value is, of course, how much I can stuff the opposition for. The lifetime value is how that point of skill will serve the team over the life of the player. In this view a point handed to a zero level scrud is more valuable than a point handed to your older fave mobile. Fractions of the youngsters' skill (determined by the aging chart) will come back year after year to contribute to the club, whereas the older player only has a few good seasons left and the fraction that will come back is much lower. In order to get more points to these valuable newcomers (and to get them up online for their second season) I find that I prefer to use extreme methods to move skill around. This is all part of the Livermore Rowdy Yobbo: Perpetual Flux Plan which means that it can change at any time.
Features: The astonishing recovery of Petawawa
TURNING AROUND A PERRENNIAL CELLAR DWELLER
(How the Devils/Platypi became a respectable club)
I don't think I've written in anything to TOW before, but it has been an invaluable insight to the game, so I thought I'd contribute something to help out beginner's to the game. This may not be the best season to write this article as the number of teams is being cut down, and therefore there will be a limited number of beginners, but maybe through the historical archives, it may be of some assistance to future teams.
I don't really remember why the Petawawa Purple Platypi came into being. I undoubtedly saw a call for players which Mel put out in 1992 or thereabouts. Nothing spectacular, but I was on a fairly short waiting list for teams, after a week or two wait, Mel offered me to take over an existing team, the Tasmanian Devils. He commented that they were "in pretty bad shape, but with some dedicated coaching and a bit luck, they could be competitive by the end of the season." I figured great, here's my window of opportunity to get into the game. I reviewed the roster, not knowing what most starting players throughout the league have for skill ratings, moved the team to a new home in Petawawa, and decided on a 4 year plan.
The basic idea was that by my fourth season, I would have a team roster comprising of players acquired by the new team management. Any player associated with the Devils would be history, and the Platypi would be doing battle in the gold division, and hopefully on their way to a SPARF championship. While the latter two steps are still out of reach, the Platypi should be a dominant force in the silver league this season.
Little did I know then, but the Devils were in more than "pretty bad shape". They were absolutely terrible. I kept 21 players from the Devils, added six free agents, and drafted 10 $1k SPARF rookies. The starting lineup for the Playtpi's first game featured a lineup where all 80 skill ratings for the players involved in the game were 20 or lower. Seeing the results of the first game, something like a 230-0 loss, I knew I was trouble. The WBRG (or whatever it was back then) let me see that the Platypi were drastically behind even the next best team in the Bronze division, and given that everyone, barring injuries, would gradually improve through the season, this squad was hopeless. I quickly decided that my 10 rookies, which were already at 8 or 12 fatigue, would be divided into 3 cranking groups. For the rest of the season, and playoffs, 3 coaches were dedicated to improving these 10 rookies. Of course this meant that the rest of the team would stagnate in their development, and in most cases, deteriorate through the course of the season. But a roster of 27 players was used to its fullest, playing with 8-16 fatigue, but always with enough players on the bench to prevent the rookies from being brought in to the game. The season ended with the Platypi establishing what I believe to be SPARF records for least points scored in a season, and most points given up, as they trudgeoned to a 0-16 regular season, and an 0-5 playoff showing. However, season 2 was quickly approaching....
The start of season 2, and the Platypi were still in bronze based on their pathetic showing from the season before. But thanks to a mass expansion in SPARF, we were seeded 8th in the 16 team league. The rookies from season 1, had lost some skill in the off-season, but were now age 1, fatigue 0 SPARF warriors with ratings across the board around 33, give or take a bit each way. Most of the refuse from the previous season could be fired (for gross incompetence would be my best bet), but a few players had to be kept around, and they were the age 2,3,4 players who had been trained in the smaller, non-cranked groups during the previous season. A threesome of age 5 and 6 forwards were picked up as free agents to play the front line (They were something like 25-25-25-10). With what I thought was a reasonably competitive lineup, the pre-season draft saw the Platypi acquire 6 more rookies, who were quickly divided into 2 cranking groups. The 10 age 1 players were kept with the 3 coaches from the season before, and the remaining two coaches struggled with keeping the 'B' Squad in game shape. This worked fairly well, as the Platypi managed a 10-5 season, and placed in the top five of the bronze league, and split there playoff matches with 2 wins and two losses. But now we are on to season 3....
With only a gold and silver league, the talent pool should be quite strong this year, but by using similar strategies as employed in previous seasons, I'm confident that the Platypi will be a dominant team and show up in the gold league next year. There is only 1 player on the team that was with the Tasmanian Devils when I took over them, but he was an injured age 1 back then, so he is a fairly useless player this season. But mark my words, next year, season 4 in a four year plan, he will be gone, and the Platypi will finally have arrived. Who knows, I may even start to write legible press.
The lesson to be learned? Have a plan, floundering around in SPARF will get you nowhere. If you are going to be outclassed in a season, there's nothing wrong with cranking a large group of rookies to create the heart of your team for the coming seasons. And when this core of players is settled in and playing in your everyday roster, keep control of the fatigue. Fatigue levels between 0-7 should keep them out of the hospital, keeping your team strong for each and every weekly game. Good luck to all, but may your mobiles be sent to the hospital the week before you face the Platypi.
Garth Werner Petawawa Purple Platypi
Features: '93-'94 Gold stats in review
Training Woes from the Borg
Here's a file of team statistics I compiled over the off-season. It is just for the gold league of last year. I was trying to figure out how important mobiles were to a team's overall performance. I don't know that these statistics are all that interesting - I haven't made any startling discoveries looking at them. I just want to engage in some SPARF-ish activities!
1993-1994 SPARF statistics - Gold League
Overall Team-Opponent averages per game played (from rawstats data)
Team Name Defgd Mark Shots Goals Behnd Miss Score Scor/Shot ------------------------ ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ------- --------- California Sluggers 22-23 24-17 43-35 25-17 15-15 3- 3 164-119 3.83-3.38 Giant Redwoods 21-21 27-19 45-37 24-18 18-16 3- 4 162-121 3.62-3.28 Havana Spaz Attack 21-22 22-22 40-38 23-18 15-16 1- 4 156-124 3.90-3.24 The St. Louis Cattle 25-22 23-20 41-35 19-18 17-15 6- 3 129-120 3.13-3.39 Livermore Rowdy Yobbos 20-23 26-18 42-34 20-17 20-14 3- 4 138-114 3.26-3.30 Darwin Destroyers 22-21 22-21 41-37 20-18 18-15 3- 4 141-121 3.39-3.31 Air-Pacific Groundhogs 22-23 25-20 41-41 20-19 19-17 2- 4 139-134 3.41-3.29 Wallamaloo Science Depar 20-22 21-23 38-42 20-20 14-17 5- 5 135-136 3.51-3.27 Candyman Nightmare 20-19 25-21 44-38 18-18 20-15 6- 4 130-125 2.95-3.32 West Coast Eagles 20-21 23-22 38-40 19-20 17-15 3- 5 129-136 3.36-3.37 New Sturt Blues 24-22 22-23 40-42 18-20 16-16 6- 5 125-138 3.08-3.33 Montreal Maulers 21-23 23-23 40-39 17-20 15-15 7- 4 119-136 2.98-3.47 Silicon Valley Angels 20-19 20-22 39-40 21-20 15-16 3- 4 139-136 3.54-3.39 Roxburgh Kittens 20-22 19-28 37-47 18-23 15-18 3- 6 125-155 3.41-3.26 Bodoe Glimt 22-20 16-29 36-47 15-23 14-20 7- 4 103-157 2.86-3.37 Newcastle Novas 23-21 18-28 34-47 14-22 13-20 7- 4 96-155 2.84-3.29
Mobile Only Team-Opponent averages per game played (from rawstats data)
Team Name Defgd Mark Shots Goals Behnd Miss Score Scor/Shot ------------------------ ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ------- --------- California Sluggers 10-12 11-10 20-18 13- 9 7- 7 0- 1 84- 63 4.13-3.58 Giant Redwoods 12-10 13-10 23-20 15-10 9- 9 0- 1 98- 71 4.18-3.48 Havana Spaz Attack 11-11 13-11 19-19 11-10 7- 8 1- 2 70- 65 3.79-3.46 The St. Louis Cattle 14- 9 14- 9 19-18 9-10 8- 7 1- 1 63- 64 3.37-3.6 Livermore Rowdy Yobbos 10-12 12- 9 21-16 11- 8 10- 7 0- 1 75- 53 3.55-3.43 Darwin Destroyers 12-11 12-11 22-17 9- 8 11- 8 1- 1 67- 56 3.08-3.29 Air-Pacific Groundhogs 10-12 11-10 20-19 10-10 10- 8 0- 1 71- 66 3.50-3.44 Wallamaloo Science Depar 10-11 11-11 18-20 12-10 6- 8 0- 2 78- 69 4.32-3.47 Candyman Nightmare 10- 9 11- 9 20-17 9- 9 9- 7 3- 1 60- 62 2.99-3.60 West Coast Eagles 10-12 11-12 18-20 9-10 8- 8 1- 2 60- 70 3.43-3.46 New Sturt Blues 12-11 11-11 20-20 8-12 9- 8 3- 1 57- 78 2.84-3.83 Montreal Maulers 11-12 12-11 20-20 10-10 8- 8 2- 2 71- 68 3.44-3.47 Silicon Valley Angels 11-10 10-11 20-19 11-10 8- 8 1- 1 76- 66 3.80-3.53 Roxburgh Kittens 11-10 9-12 17-23 9-12 8- 9 0- 2 64- 80 3.71-3.48 Bodoe Glimt 10-11 7-14 17-22 7-11 6- 9 4- 1 49- 78 2.87-3.54 Newcastle Novas 11-11 8-15 16-23 7-11 7-11 3- 1 50- 77 3.02-3.36
Percentage ((Mobile/Team)*100) Team-Opponent Shows importance of mobile contribution to team performance
Team Name Defgd Mark Shots Goals Behnd Miss Score Scor/Shot ------------------------ ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ------- --------- California Sluggers 44-52 45-57 47-50 51-53 48-51 11-29 51- 53 108-106 Giant Redwoods 56-47 49-51 52-55 62-59 47-56 0-32 60- 58 115-106 Havana Spaz Attack 51-51 59-50 46-49 45-53 47-48 61-36 45- 53 97-107 The St. Louis Cattle 57-43 62-43 45-50 49-54 49-46 22-47 49- 53 108-106 Livermore Rowdy Yobbos 48-54 46-49 50-45 55-47 51-46 7-33 54- 47 109-104 Darwin Destroyers 56-53 54-52 52-47 45-46 60-52 48-33 47- 47 91-100 Air-Pacific Groundhogs 49-52 46-49 50-47 51-50 52-49 15-30 51- 50 103-104 Wallamaloo Science Depar 51-50 54-48 47-48 59-52 44-48 0-35 57- 51 123-106 Candyman Nightmare 49-48 44-45 45-45 46-50 44-46 47-27 46- 49 101-108 West Coast Eagles 49-59 48-51 46-50 47-51 46-54 34-32 47- 51 102-103 New Sturt Blues 50-51 50-49 49-49 44-58 54-46 52-21 45- 56 92-115 Montreal Maulers 54-50 52-50 51-50 60-50 55-51 23-44 59- 50 116-100 Silicon Valley Angels 56-56 50-51 51-46 55-48 50-49 29-26 54- 48 107-104 Roxburgh Kittens 57-47 47-44 47-48 52-52 49-51 11-27 51- 52 109-107 Bodoe Glimt 48-55 44-48 47-47 48-50 44-48 52-30 47- 50 100-105 Newcastle Novas 47-54 43-56 49-49 52-49 50-52 39-29 52- 50 106-102
e.g Mobiles were responsible for 60% of Giant Redwoods points totals and only 45% of Havana's point totals. When playing the Redwoods, other teams relied on their mobiles for 58% of their totals, while those teams playing Darwin had their mobiles contributing 47% of their score.
It looks like Havana's mobiles could have used some kick training. Their mobiles took 46% of shots on goal, while accounting for 61% of misses. The mobiles scored only 97% as much as the rest of the team per shot.
* Mobiles are players who had both Defgoods and one or more Shots (Goals, Behinds, or Misses) in the game. It is possible that some Mobiles have been overlooked due to this restriction.
Features: Training Woes from the Borg
Here are some words on training strategies tried (un)successfully for the Mighty (inferior) Borg.
=> 28 players, balanced training.
I thought at first that this would be a sensible strategy for building a nicely rounded team. I figured that lots of medium skilled Units would be more effective than a few stars on the other squads. Well... we did learn from it... 8) HINT: screwing up like this will cost you!!! The Borg didnt really recover until after another whole season! and in some respects, we are still trying to catch up.
=> 27 players, 24 regulars + 3 trainees
Much nicer than before. Has good depth at playable positions (injuries suck...), with the future being looked for. Coaching was not as good as hoped for, as I felt there were a couple too many players still on the squad.
=> 24 players, 21 regulars + 3 trainees
Well.. this is an interesting one. Works well in that the players get good coaching (4 groups of 3, 3 groups of 4), really nice for the Mobiles if you coach them as a group. Again allows for development of rookies. Problem is depth of useable players. The Borg got lucky in that they didnt have a serious injury problem at any point in the season until the last game or three in the playoffs (which is why the measly Yobbos clobbered us so bad.. 8). HINT: injuries really suck! and if you dont have subs you are willing to use (for risk of death due to fatigue around 40) you can lose games quickly with only 1 causulty.
Speaking of injuries, it has been my observation that you can expect somewhere around .5-1.5 injuries per session with your players at or under FATIGUE of 8. Playing against more equal opposition will bring this number up a bit. PLAN FOR THESE INJURIES!!!
(note: I just saw Mel mentioning something about "scabs" (well, they are plugging bleeding holes..) for next season, and all I have to say is, i will try my hardest to never have to use one, a low skill player is not something to look forward to having to play)
DISCLAIMER: Borg management takes no responsibility for anyone who uses these ideas and does poorly. If you do use them and do well, we will be quick to claim credit however.. 8)
Matt Galer Borg Management Spokesman mg@grove.ufl.edu
Advice Column: The Borg advice to newcomers
Newcomer's Guide (or how to avoid the Borg 1st season syndrome)
[Ed. note: I usually have 4 or 5 "mobile ready" players. This way if one of them hits the hospital you aren't crippled. They make great Centers or Offensive line people when you aren't using them as mobiles or need to rest them due to high fatigue]
[Ed. note: the Forward's DEF is compare against the Defender's SCRAM and MARK, not to mention it's effect on KICK. Approximations of the formulas used are in previous versions of TOW which you can grab from munch.]
SPARF has survived another season, and is looking healthier than ever.
Everything but bidding is automated, and most of the managers have the process of sending orders to munch down pat. The game practically runs itself (as long as the machine it runs on stays connected to the net).
My biggest disappointment was the a large percentage of the code which was written during the off season was lost in a disk crash, so a lot of the changes I had hoped to include haven't happened (not to mention the big delay in getting the season started). That SPARF survived at all was due to the fact that the end-of-season state of the code and teams was sent off-site to Van Boughner (manager of the California Sluggers) in the form of a compressed archive, and that he was able to return it after all else was lost. SPARF owes Van inestimable thanks for that favor.
A second round of thanks goes to the managers who contributed to replacing some of the lost code in the "pre-season 5 slave labor" effort. In particular I want to thank Evan (dingo), Russel (owls), Scott (yobbo), and Albert (angel) for performance well above the call of duty, and for helping to remoralize me as well as the practical benefit of the code they wrote.
I'm not feeling all that wise right now, so my apologies if this collumn doesn't live up to it's title this month, but in closing I'd just like to say that given the help I've got in writing the administration-side code, it's just that much more likely I'll be able to return to writing the simulator stuff which I can't farm out.
Thanks to everyone for sticking with us over the long break, and here's to a fierce season of good competition. SPARF season 5 is underway!
Mel
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GameStats produces slick football field shaped output in wide (Xterminal) or short (80 column) mode with abbreviations for all the players' skills! All statistics are reported in full including injuries and offensive percentage ranges, as discussed in ToW 3.2!
Example (partial) output (80 column mode): ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ivan Albright Collin Spencer Gary Lyon 5 TVTA 0 1 1 0 1 5 TVTG 0 1 2 2 0 2 VVVA 0 2 2 2 0 51-62 47-57 45-55 42-51 38-49 38-49 Shin C. Kao Gary McCoy Emily Ihara 5 VMAT 1 0 0 0 0 4 TMAO 2 0 0 0 0 3 TPMT 1 0 0 0 0 38-49 42-52 45-55 43-52 51-62 45-55 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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{\microfont
SPP
My own analysis utility is useful, if behind the times. I still haven't added the code that does the percentage guess-tamite (from some back issue of TOW). The design criteria was that all of the information fit on a standard sheet of paper, which it does nicely. Matt Galer of the Borg uses it to do his WBRG analyses which you should have seen by now.
This isn't a utility, but it does provide you with information for use with gamestats and SPP. WBRG is a way of getting scouting reports on teams that you *haven't* faced this time out. Send the scout report on your opponent (cutting your team out) to Matt Galer of the Borg with a subject line "WBRG: game#: yourteamcode", and he will collate the scouting reports and send them out to everyone that sent one in. He also provides analysis of matchups that he has received both scouting reports to.