Hey everyone,

I wrote up another season recap on the Prototype Toronto League - this time we did a roundtable discussion (http://dockingbay416.com/prototype-toronto-league-season-5-recap/)

PTL is a fairly casual league with over 120 members. The main rule is that you can't use a unique pilot more than once per season, and you can't use a list with the same number of generics (e.g. 3 Contracted Scouts) more than once per season. We've also been using Fab's Squad Generator a lot for random squad challenges - those have been particularly entertaining.

Any comments and feedback would be appreciated. I'm thinking of using this format again for the next few seasons since the article pretty much writes itself

Thanks,

Complaint: You guys gotta get more active on the west end.

Seriously, that sounds like a fun setup that would draw out creativity and prevent things getting too stale.

Nice write up! It really is a cool idea for a league.

I look forward to the day when I can finally take part in this (and go to Regionals/Nationals!). Perhaps next year...

I'm currently thinking about how to improve our local (Quebec City) league for our season 2.

I have one question, how would you deal with this obnoxiousness?

BBBBZ, BBBXZ, BBXXZ, BXXXZ, XXXXZ

Celebrating. Most people don't fly those ships any more.

But if you did want to eliminate it, it would be very hard to change that one with rules. Interesting problem to have...

I'm currently thinking about how to improve our local (Quebec City) league for our season 2.

I have one question, how would you deal with this obnoxiousness?

BBBBZ, BBBXZ, BBXXZ, BXXXZ, XXXXZ

I think it starts with the environment that you create.

If the climate is competitive to begin with, your players will find ways to circumvent those rules no matter how good they are.

At PTL, we just encourage innovative or silly builds. It shows that having fun is the priority over winning. In the GTA at least, there are tournaments every weekend so we try to present PTL as your chance to let loose with casual games. I would suggest convincing your league vets and top players first. If you can get them to get on board with this mentality, then it should spread without much maintenance (we've only had to talk to people once or twice who were powergaming).

Our league has been having a ton of fun with Random Squad Challenges too (using Fab's squad generator) which I highly recommend.

In the previous Season 4 recap article, I briefly summarized what I think makes our league work so well. But it's also the small stuff. We do ship giveaway raffles instead of giving them to the top players. Donations are optional but will give you more raffle tickets. We're also lucky enough to have some really talented members that make acrylic rulers, alt art cards, and design t-shirts for us... those all help, too!

Raffling prizes or "everyone gets something" does temper the competitive edge a lot.

I'm currently thinking about how to improve our local (Quebec City) league for our season 2.

I have one question, how would you deal with this obnoxiousness?

BBBBZ, BBBXZ, BBXXZ, BXXXZ, XXXXZ

I think it starts with the environment that you create.

If the climate is competitive to begin with, your players will find ways to circumvent those rules no matter how good they are.

At PTL, we just encourage innovative or silly builds. It shows that having fun is the priority over winning. In the GTA at least, there are tournaments every weekend so we try to present PTL as your chance to let loose with casual games. I would suggest convincing your league vets and top players first. If you can get them to get on board with this mentality, then it should spread without much maintenance (we've only had to talk to people once or twice who were powergaming).

Our league has been having a ton of fun with Random Squad Challenges too (using Fab's squad generator) which I highly recommend.

In the previous Season 4 recap article, I briefly summarized what I think makes our league work so well. But it's also the small stuff. We do ship giveaway raffles instead of giving them to the top players. Donations are optional but will give you more raffle tickets. We're also lucky enough to have some really talented members that make acrylic rulers, alt art cards, and design t-shirts for us... those all help, too!

All good points. I was just exploring a potential corner case, I'm not saying it happened or anything.

Our season 1 had lots of our players asserting that they liked this more relaxed freer format, away from the season kit competitive 1-day tournaments we also often have with 3 stores.

We practically had prizes for everyone, including a little set of custom acrylic tokens (palp, kallus, c-3p0, EPT) as well as a range 1 ruler for everyone who made it to 12 games played. We had store certificates scaled by how many times people used those stores for league games, randomly drawn and that prize pool outsripped the ones reserved for special feats (top season place, bottom place, top 4 elimination, grand elimination winner). Some veterans even added stuff to the pile, like a modular stackable set of trays, Imperial Aces expansion pack, Love Letter Star Wars custom made, etc, etc.

In my own experience of my 31 games played, I saw a lot of diversity and tried to bring every interesting idea I had along the way that would normally get cut out for a real tournament. I had very, very interestingly narrow wins but managed to pull off a 30-1 standing, only to be crushed in top 8.