Why is the OWL format so strange?

Competitive Discussion
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While watching the games yesterday I immediately got triggered and had I wrote this comment yesterday it would have been just to vent. But it still bothers me and I’m now just curios why is the system as it is. We have team who played 5 matches and still one who played only 2. How is Paris in 3th place Philly has more won games shouldn’t they be ahead?!

So I checked the next week to make sure at least all teams play the same amount of matches per stage. I was relived and shocked. Yes they all play 7 in this stage, good, but then I found out Paris has only one match per week in the fist three week and the last two week two per week, on the other hand Gladiators have 3 week with 2 games and only one week with one game (and one by-week at the end). I would consider this a huge advantage when you have to prepare for only one match and not two. I didn’t check if at least booth teams have to prepare for the same amount of games (ok I did it right away. No, e.g. Toronto only played Houston in the first week and Houston had to play vs Boston too)

I would like too see a format where all teams have the same conditions for a fair league. Every team should only have one match per week, each team has to play against each other once (or all teams twice)
With 20 teams there are 19 weeks with 10 games per week, very close to the current timing on the league, but only one game per week and all play against each other once.

This beings me into the side notes. I know this is a video game and it has frequent changes but i wish it would be more stable during the league. The currant PTR plans are terrifying. I see the league as a test of strength, who is the best Team but with radical changes between stages it is more a “who adapts faster” or is just lucky to have three week with only one game to get more practice. At this point a pick and ban phase would be highly recommended so teams can change and decide the meta on there own without pressure from outside (or even worse from the “league officials”)

It’s getting hot in here, I should grab a beer and ready up for the matches tonight :wink:

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OWL is still a thing?

3 Likes
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It’s because they’ve been reorganizing the schedule to allow for easier viewing of home teams from around the world. Obviously, they still have some matches at US prime time, but there is a weight towards getting home town teams in viewable hours.

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hm, is is getting stranger. Now Washington is above Valiant but they have a worse map diff. With Paris I can see they had a better win percentage but here it is 0%. So what are the exact rules?

  1. won games
  2. map difference

that’s all what the info sad. (Throughout the season, teams are ranked by match wins, with ties broken by map differential.)
But so the standings are just wrong.

Then we have Shanghai vs Dallas again, a week later?! This could have gone better right? It should never be in the same stage preferable it should be two stages later (first match in s1 rematch in s3 or first s2 rematch in s4)

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They do all have the same conditions, and it is a fair league.

To elaborate, yes this week X team has two matches, and Y only has one match, so Y team seems to have the easier week. But as you stated, this rotates on a schedule.

This is fair because it taxes each team in different ways. Team A may have the best analytical sense in the world, which helps them on the weeks where they only have to focus against one team. But when they have to play a weekly ‘double-header’ they won’t be able to solely focus as much on the singular team, and will have to rely a little bit more on their general game sense and “seat of the pants” abilities.

The reverse is also true: Perhaps team B isn’t the most coordinated or organized especially when it comes to evaluating and overcoming a specific technique, but their general mechanical skills are very strong and they can actually do very well in the weeks they have double-headers.

Hope this helps you understand why scheduling in OWL (and baseball, and football) is often done this way.

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How they do the scoring isn’t obvious and the broadcasters spend more time talking about random things that don’t matter than how the schedule, scoring, and divisions work. They should be covering this more often in my opinion. To be honest, I have no clue how these + and - points apply to a team and I was confused by Win/Loss ratio as well.

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It would be fair if all teams would be equally strong (each match is 50/50) AND there are no meta shifts from start to finish. But even than take this scenario on how this schedule can put a team in a disadvantage. Team A has 2-2-1-1-1 Team B 1-1-1-2-2 in the last stage both are equal on top. What is the best strategy for Team A? Win as many games as they can, so they have to prepare for every opponent. Team B gets an advantage they can react to the standings and might need only one game to win. As you say a double-header is different from a single game. For me fair doesn’t mean all get f’d, it means all matches have to have the same conditions and have to be consistent, otherwise you compare apples and oranges.

On top there is a forced meta shift what is a terrible idea for me. Imagine they switch from football to rugby mid season and superbowl with flagball rules… Because all teams are not equal this brings a big part randomness into the game all the sudden it depend on who you play when rather then the actual skill of the team.
As I said before I want to see the best team win the league not the “cheesiest” or who just got lucky.

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In practice, having the mix of schedules and such just brings variety and also a more dynamic feel to the season. With its current setup, yes you can have times where you can feel rested a bit based on the current upcoming games, and there is a “stretch” where you will get tested with double matches for a couple weeks in a row and your mind might get exhausted and such.

I see your point, just trying to explain how a varied schedule more imitates other “sports” in how the schedules are built. Add to that now OWL is split into Atlantic and Pacific divisions, and I think they play more games in their division than they play in the opposing one.

All pointing to a schedule more similar to baseball or basketball etc. There are times they might want to try a new roster setup based on upcoming games etc, or times when the schedules show a Chinese team playing Houston twice in 3 weeks or something. That might have to do with travel expenses and such. Maybe the Chinese team is just staying in USA and enjoying tourism for the week between the games, idk.

I feel fairly certain we’ll see the best team win the league… right now NY is looking unstoppable, with Vancouver in a close 2nd.

Third? IDK, Paris looks super strong in Goats, but they were completely dismantled this past week by SF Shock i think (and SF has super dps carriers that think outside the box etc.) Paris will most likely fall in Stage 2 once Goats is gone (according to “experts.”)

What will happen in Stage 2 (post-Goats?) Anyone’s guess, but I believe we’re gonna see a variation of dive with Hammond and Dva usually, and I’ve seen some pro scrims this week where it looks like a triple tank Dive (Ball, Winston, Dva) super super oppressive. We’ll see.

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i’m not a fan of this format either but for me it is because we see things like dragon and fuel, back to back with dragons having to play 2 matches both weeks, where as the fuel only has one match both of those weeks. i dont like the way that they have this format and yes i find it really unfair for truly seeing what the teams can do. i dont know how they can do it better other than having each team only play once a week but then you have the problem with not enough content to fill along with more bias and chaos for the stage playoffs ( think of how many teams would be at 5-0 )

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…this is the last post in this topic, I promise … at least till the finals.

so, final week of s1 and we have team who have to watch and hope - ok NY don’t need to hope but they can lose first place without any saying - and teams who have to play 2 games and change a lot. For me this make the standings almost useless. There might be a greater plan but for me it is just weird and I guess I’m not the only one. This format make OW look random, the game itself looks random at times, beside from flashy graphics why should a new/none player get interested in OWL? Do you want to be unique? It is 200IQ or 50IQ? I think it would appeal to more viewer when the format would be closer to the known formats.