Free's Suggestions to the Hate!

Before a mod sees this and wants to lock it right away, read it first!

Ok so I try to be a quiet player with no real beef against anyone. And it's apparent the match yesterday opened a can of worms, underground hatred, and overall tension with a majority of players in the league. I don't want to see this. Yeah there's going to be conflicts, we're a bunch of testosterone filled rowdy boys, it's gonna happen. And we're not gonna get alone with every person in the league. But I want to bring up some suggestions I think might help with the growing tension.
If you feel the need to reply in this topic, please keep it professional. Name calling and stuff like that.

Pre-read note: I find it interesting that back in the SSL and transition to PSL, we were young and pretty much all got along. There was hate and conflicts yes, but there was nothing like what happened last night. But we all got along. Now that we're older, it seems like we got less mature. Maybe it was the string of new players that all joined relatively in the same time frame. Maybe this caused an imbalance in our "tight" group we had. I don't know the cause, but it's apparent that as we got older, the immaturity level increased.

Let's jump right into it. I thought long and hard (in the shower) about what happened, and how we can prevent it from happening again. SO, LET'S SEE WHAT WE GOT HERE.

Not-so-extreme Solutions

• Throttle the pugs. What's this mean, you ask? Time restrain the pugs temporarily. I'm not really sure how this would help, but kind of like a 2nd option to shutting down completely.
  
• Harder enforced punishments against hate. We can all agree the thread should have been closed very early last night, and it should have been taken to PM or steam messages. I'm suggesting if this happens again, or if there is any name-calling, (such as the word faggots *cough*) then punishments should be enforced RIGHT THEN AND THERE. Not just a 24 hour ban, but maybe 2 or 3 days. Something needs to get the point across. But I'm just joking! you may say to this. But obviously things have gotten out of hand, and it hurts more than you think to the receiver.
  
• Mercy Rule. Probably the easiest to implement. When a team is losing by a set amount of goals (I say 15, 10 to me seems like a comback-able margin) in the second half then the game is automatically given to the winning team. This also gets rid of stat padding. Dill suggests it be optional, another great addition. Maybe it can be agreed upon before the match whether or not the competing teams use the mercy rule.

Extreme Solutions

• Shut down server for a week (or more). You may shrug this off, but if it works for relationships, why can't it work for us? What I'm suggesting here is just to shut down the server for a week (or more) and disable all pugs.
  
• Get rid of seasons. Yeah, this is pretty extreme. But I feel this is where most of the tension starts to boil. Before you think this is stupid, think of it this way: We can still keep teams (kind of like the pre-draft days) and still have scrugs/scrims, but no more seasons. Personally, I like this one the best.

Final note: We're not going to stop all the tension, that's human nature. But we can control it. Last night was evidently not handled the way it should have been handled.
I'm open to all open suggestions to add to this post. In fact, I welcome it. This is not an attempt to start anything again. If you reply, don't bring up past events, don't add fuel to any fires, and don't start any fires. I want to attempt to bring this league back to the way it was. Laugh at me, whatever, but you know I'm right.

I <3 you all.

Well you get rid of the seasons, I'm gone and I'm pretty sure alot more than me are done too. So I'd rule that out. The competitiveness is the only reason I play.

The situation should be forgotten about because we have a great League Official in Stinger. But like I said before, I'll say it again......

WE NEED A MERCY RULE. FFS.

Free wrote:...long and hard (in the shower)...

Alright, now that I got that out of the way...

I agree that people are getting out of control somewhat, and it is obviously unnecessary. I don't particularly like your proposed solutions, but I do agree that something should be done. Not sure what, mind you, but I like the fact that you are thinking about it and trying to actively do something about it. When I have time to compose my thoughts thoroughly, I will make a post here with other possibilities. I personally don't think cutting down on playtime will change anything to do with the "drama" apart from the fact that it will keep people away from each other.

Nad wrote:Well you get rid of the seasons, I'm gone and I'm pretty sure alot more than me are done too. So I'd rule that out. The competitiveness is the only reason I play.

The situation should be forgotten about because we have a great League Official in Stinger. But like I said before, I'll say it again......

WE NEED A MERCY RULE. FFS.

I brought it up last season, but for the most part there wasn't really any serious blow out games last season (bar 6 v 5) so it didn't really come up that much in discussion. Worth talking about though.

Nad wrote:WE NEED A MERCY RULE. FFS.

As long as it's optional I don't see a problem with it.

In the softball leagues I play in they have a 10 run mercy rule that is up to the losing team captain to use at any time they are down by 10 or more

I added mercy rule to the list, and I don't know if you were being sarcastic Dill or not but also added it can be optional before the start of the match. That's an option to prevent raging, but not current tension that's already here. A nice option though, thanks Nad.