I&#039;m glad we brought this discussion to a public forum because (a) they should have a say, (b) forums can be more helpful for staying on topic and preventing off-the-cuff arguments, and (c) it is hard to take #idlb seriously sometimes.<br /><br />Obviously, we can never achieve total parity (or antiparity), so we aren&#039;t really discussing whether parity is a good thing or not, but whether having a more even league (closer to parity) or a less even league (further from parity) is a good thing.&nbsp; Of course, it is possible that the current state of the league is the best possible state, but that would be an extremely convenient coincidence and is probably not the case.&nbsp; Because the decisions of the administration can and inevitably will affect the parity of the league, it is important that we decide what we want for the league before we make important decisions.<br /><br />To be clear, my position is that parity is a good thing for the league--its virtues outweigh those of nonparity--and that the administration&#039;s decisions should aim to increase evenness.<br /><br />Some arguments against parity:<br /><br />1.&nbsp; There won&#039;t be upsets.<br /><br />Since we can never achieve parity, there will always be favorites in every game, and there will always be a top team.&nbsp; Since the favoritism won&#039;t be as extreme as in a less even league, there will actually be [i]more[/i] upsets in an even league.&nbsp; It is true that there won&#039;t be the possibility of incredible game-of-the-century upsets, but that possibility is not worth the trade-off.&nbsp; If Summer 2010 BBC beats DMR 99/100 games, the awesomeness of that 1 game does not make up for the unfair and boring shittiness of the other 99 games.&nbsp; I would rather mix up the teams and watch or play in 100 good games whether I was on DMR or BBC.<br /><br />2.&nbsp; Uneven games are as instructive as or more instructive than even games.&nbsp; They develop different kinds of skills in players, so we should have as many uneven games as we have even games.<br /><br />This may or may not be true--it requires some argument in its favor--but I think that it is not.&nbsp; Mike&#039;s worry is that even games do not force players to develop interesting strategies, but instead promote conservative plays, while I feel the opposite is true.&nbsp; In general, the more even the game I&#039;m in, the more my actions matter; the less even the game, the less my actions matter.&nbsp; As Fast said, there is nothing I can do on DMR that will allow us to beat BBC; in the same way, there is little I can reasonably do on BBC that will prevent us from beating DMR; and any player who is smart enough to realize this will immediately stop formulating strategies.&nbsp; In an even game, on the other hand, far from being random, each player&#039;s actions make as much difference as they possibly can.&nbsp; This puts the [i]most[/i] pressure on the players who should be [i]most[/i] conscientious of their actions because one slip-up can lose the game while one pro move can win the game.<br /><br />But that doesn&#039;t matter because it isn&#039;t the primary function of the IDL to improve player performance.&nbsp; This isn&#039;t a training camp for CTF players.&nbsp; This is a league that organizes fun games for people who already know how to play.&nbsp; And toward this end parity is [u]without a doubt[/u] what we should strive towards.&nbsp; A small minority of players might enjoy quickly losing 0-5 again and again or quickly winning 5-0 again and again, but most do not.&nbsp; I base this on the fact that we call some games ggs, and other games bgs.&nbsp; Ggs are fair, even, exciting, close, and fun; bgs are unfair, uneven, boring, or in some cases depressing.&nbsp; This is evident even in the prediction threads, where everybody is excited about the evenly matched games and unexcited about the mismatched games.<br /><br />Please understand that this is not about winning or losing.&nbsp; I do not feel bad for bad players because they lose games, nor do I feel jealous of or wronged by great players because they win games.&nbsp; I am not trying to organize things so that I or anybody else gets more wins (or so that Jenova or anybody else gets fewer wins).&nbsp; Just as DMR does not have any fun losing to BBC, BBC should not have any fun winning against DMR.&nbsp; Easy wins are hilarious for [MWC] in pub, but not for the IDL.<br /><br />Player improvement takes place through priv and team practice.&nbsp; IDL games are between 20-30 minutes, and take place once a week.&nbsp; You cannot improve much playing 20-30 minutes of Doom a week, 18-21 weeks out of the year, compared to 2-3 hours a day for 52 weeks a year.&nbsp; And there are plenty of uneven games in these cases already.&nbsp; IDL is for the culmination of developing these skills, not for developing these skills itself.<br /><br />Even games are better games than uneven games period, and providing good games is (or should be) the [i]only[/i] aim of the IDL.&nbsp; For this reason, no arguments about how much play fourths get or how predictable or glorious games are will carry more weight than one about good or bad games; that is, none of these peripheral benefits could make it OK to promote or intentionally allow bad games in our league.&nbsp; There are lots of ways we could do this: fill out the talent pool, prune the talent pool, change the draft, change trade rules, change the number of teams, change the number of players on each team, whatever, as long as we keep in mind that our goal is to cultivate the best CTF games in multiplayer doom.<br /><br />Fast:&nbsp; We will post the winter schedule soon.&nbsp; Hope you can sign up.<br /><br />Stallion: Nobody&#039;s twisting your arm--we just play this game for fun--but the season would probably be better and we would probably get more of the other good players to sign up if you did.<br /><br />Hatred:&nbsp; You are a very good captain, and I think everybody appreciates the time and effort (and skill) that you offer to the IDL.&nbsp; Get in the pool.<br />BFG:<br />[IMG]http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l594/massvc/BFG-2.png[/img]<br />