Hello, everyone.
After writing some pre-playoff material for the S13 playoffs (a piece that would not have been possible without some help of a colleague of mine - London_Calling), I made the conscious decision that I was going to continue writing next season on a weekly basis. I believe that it would be pretty cool if newcomers to Open could play in a league and actually read material about teams they know and face regularly. I was considering doing a piece that takes some inspiration from the work of Bill Simmons in his site entitled "Grantland" (see: http://www.grantland.com/).
I want to avoid turning this into a weekly power ranking as we already have a writer in place for this. (I don't like "traditional" power rankings anyways)
Some ideas that I've thought about for early weeks include:
- Pick six: I'll take the most compelling six matches of the week and provide a little early hype.
- An interview with the Portland Burnsiders: I'll be addressing the ideas of being "locally sponsored" and how you balance the pressures of sponsorship with learning the game in Open.
- S14 obituaries: I'll do a narrative write-up to tell the tale of high-profile Open teams that ultimately fail to reach expectations (or ones that die mid-season).
- Rookie Watch: I'll highlight players that are newer to the scene that put up decent numbers now that they're in the limelight (of sorts). At mid-season and at the end of the season I will do an All-Rookie lineup consisting of the better new guys in Open.
If anyone has any ideas for additional material, please let me know. I want to have a clear direction for my weekly writeup (or at least a concise set of ideas) before I present it to rk for "review".
Thanks, radium
Hello, everyone.
After writing some pre-playoff material for the S13 playoffs (a piece that would not have been possible without some help of a colleague of mine - London_Calling), I made the conscious decision that I was going to continue writing next season on a weekly basis. I believe that it would be pretty cool if newcomers to Open could play in a league and actually read material about teams they know and face regularly. I was considering doing a piece that takes some inspiration from the work of Bill Simmons in his site entitled "Grantland" (see: http://www.grantland.com/).
I want to avoid turning this into a weekly power ranking as we already have a writer in place for this. (I don't like "traditional" power rankings anyways)
Some ideas that I've thought about for early weeks include:
- Pick six: I'll take the most compelling six matches of the week and provide a little early hype.
- An interview with the Portland Burnsiders: I'll be addressing the ideas of being "locally sponsored" and how you balance the pressures of sponsorship with learning the game in Open.
- S14 obituaries: I'll do a narrative write-up to tell the tale of high-profile Open teams that ultimately fail to reach expectations (or ones that die mid-season).
- Rookie Watch: I'll highlight players that are newer to the scene that put up decent numbers now that they're in the limelight (of sorts). At mid-season and at the end of the season I will do an All-Rookie lineup consisting of the better new guys in Open.
If anyone has any ideas for additional material, please let me know. I want to have a clear direction for my weekly writeup (or at least a concise set of ideas) before I present it to rk for "review".
Thanks, radium
Pick six: I'll take the most compelling six matches of the week and provide a little early hype.
- Rookie Watch: I'll highlight players that are newer to the scene that put up decent numbers now that they're in the limelight (of sorts). At mid-season and at the end of the season I will do an All-Rookie lineup consisting of the better new guys in Open.
Those two ideas are probably the most interesting considering no one has done those yet.
[quote]Pick six: I'll take the most compelling six matches of the week and provide a little early hype.
- Rookie Watch: I'll highlight players that are newer to the scene that put up decent numbers now that they're in the limelight (of sorts). At mid-season and at the end of the season I will do an All-Rookie lineup consisting of the better new guys in Open.
[/quote]
Those two ideas are probably the most interesting considering no one has done those yet.
just an idea..instead of the rookie watch which talks about an individual putting up #'s, i personally think it'd be better to do a "team play" of the week of sorts...
since most if not all of open will read your article, i think they'd benefit more from watching a clip/reading a write up about teamwork/chemistry. whether it be a crazy coordinated last push/repush or just a team with weaker dm winning off of coordination i think that'd be pretty dope if you did a write up on it.
just an idea..instead of the rookie watch which talks about an individual putting up #'s, i personally think it'd be better to do a "team play" of the week of sorts...
since most if not all of open will read your article, i think they'd benefit more from watching a clip/reading a write up about teamwork/chemistry. whether it be a crazy coordinated last push/repush or just a team with weaker dm winning off of coordination i think that'd be pretty dope if you did a write up on it.
looking to be a good season for tf2 :)
looking to be a good season for tf2 :)
Great ideas! hopefully you can make these series a real asset to a new open team.
Great ideas! hopefully you can make these series a real asset to a new open team.
OK guys, I'm going to be doing the Pick Six and Rookie Watch in this week's column. I will also be doing a Bubble Watch which will glance at teams .500 or better. The Bubble Watch segment will begin after all teams have finished their 10th game.
The Rookie Watch segment this week will consist of a few interviews as there are no played games to re-watch and analyze.
What are the Open matches that you all feel will stand out in week 1?
I'm going to write this from now until Friday, and release it to the public early Saturday.
OK guys, I'm going to be doing the Pick Six and Rookie Watch in this week's column. I will also be doing a Bubble Watch which will glance at teams .500 or better. The Bubble Watch segment will begin after all teams have finished their 10th game.
The Rookie Watch segment this week will consist of a few interviews as there are no played games to re-watch and analyze.
What are the Open matches that you all feel will stand out in week 1?
I'm going to write this from now until Friday, and release it to the public early Saturday.
Match of the week is probably Graveyard of IM Dreams vs. M42 and the Running Men
After I get through the schedules I can hit you up with some more good matches (imo)
Match of the week is probably Graveyard of IM Dreams vs. M42 and the Running Men
After I get through the schedules I can hit you up with some more good matches (imo)
Other matches that I find interesting:
we kings now vs. Team Echelon
Crack Clan Yellow vs. Yoshi's Island
Fashion Police vs. Fried Green Tomatoes
M42 and the Running Men vs. The Best Team in Open
Work in Progress vs. Street Hoops
Work in Progress vs. Team Echelon (i guess your team is just lucky radium)
Other matches that I find interesting:
we kings now vs. Team Echelon
Crack Clan Yellow vs. Yoshi's Island
Fashion Police vs. Fried Green Tomatoes
M42 and the Running Men vs. The Best Team in Open
Work in Progress vs. Street Hoops
Work in Progress vs. Team Echelon (i guess your team is just lucky radium)
Sounds awesome! Bill Simmons is the man, good on you for picking out that style of writing :D
Sounds awesome! Bill Simmons is the man, good on you for picking out that style of writing :D
Not to toot my own horn but I think both of the process matches for my team, The Fashion Police, should be pretty good. Especially the one vs Fried Green Tomatoes.
Looks like owl beat me too it.
Not to toot my own horn but I think both of the process matches for my team, The Fashion Police, should be pretty good. Especially the one vs Fried Green Tomatoes.
Looks like owl beat me too it.
My team could very easily start 0-2 this season. I don't know what "luck" you are referring to.
My team could very easily start 0-2 this season. I don't know what "luck" you are referring to.
I've always really enjoyed reading player interviews. Interview a player from one of the 'matches of the week' either before the game to get some additional hype or afterwards to hear their reflective thoughts on how it went. Hearing words from individual player's mouths is good, and I think it helps the game as a whole if people are able to have 'favorite' players or recognize actual names on a team. Just have to make sure that the interviews are worthwhile and the person responding is serious about it. Interviews with "i duno lol we are just better than those n00bz" type answers are just a waste of time and reflect poorly on everyone involved.
I've always really enjoyed reading player interviews. Interview a player from one of the 'matches of the week' either before the game to get some additional hype or afterwards to hear their reflective thoughts on how it went. Hearing words from individual player's mouths is good, and I think it helps the game as a whole if people are able to have 'favorite' players or recognize actual names on a team. Just have to make sure that the interviews are worthwhile and the person responding is serious about it. Interviews with "i duno lol we are just better than those n00bz" type answers are just a waste of time and reflect poorly on everyone involved.
The Super Hash Bros. / WuTang roster has played Echelon every season since S11. This fourth installment should be entertaining.
For the Pick Six set, you should definitely interview / ask a few questions to a player (maybe the leader) of each team. Insight is always good especially for such a huge division of Open. Ask them how confident they are, what's the gameplan, etc. etc.
Since that would end up being a lot of work, perhaps only do questions for the three biggest matches so it's only six interviewees.
The Super Hash Bros. / WuTang roster has played Echelon every season since S11. This fourth installment should be entertaining.
For the Pick Six set, you should definitely interview / ask a few questions to a player (maybe the leader) of each team. Insight is always good especially for such a huge division of Open. Ask them how confident they are, what's the gameplan, etc. etc.
Since that would end up being a lot of work, perhaps only do questions for the three biggest matches so it's only six interviewees.
I like all those ideas Radium. Should be a good read :)
I like all those ideas Radium. Should be a good read :)
What 13 said. Interviews would be super awesome.
What 13 said. Interviews would be super awesome.
clamWhat 13 said. Interviews would be super awesome.
Interviews, for sure imo.
Frankly, I think the Obits would just be insulting to the teams in them. Like, if my team doesn't live up to expectation and there is an article glorifying our failure, I wouldn't be exactly happy about it.
The Portland Burnsiders tbh, doesn't seem interesting to me. Sure they are a local team and thats cool in and of itself, but other than that they have nothing I would label interesting.
Rookie Watch might be cool, but only if its people in their first season.
Pick 6 seems like a good idea, and frankly most of the rundowns arn't worth ready, it would be interesting to see someone else do them. I'd say give both of those a try.
[quote=clam]What 13 said. Interviews would be super awesome.[/quote]
Interviews, for sure imo.
Frankly, I think the Obits would just be insulting to the teams in them. Like, if my team doesn't live up to expectation and there is an article glorifying our failure, I wouldn't be exactly happy about it.
The Portland Burnsiders tbh, doesn't seem interesting to me. Sure they are a local team and thats cool in and of itself, but other than that they have nothing I would label interesting.
Rookie Watch might be cool, but only if its people in their first season.
Pick 6 seems like a good idea, and frankly most of the rundowns arn't worth ready, it would be interesting to see someone else do them. I'd say give both of those a try.
radiumThe Rookie Watch segment this week will consist of a few interviews as there are no played games to re-watch and analyze.
black by association already played their first week. You could start with them.
[quote=radium]The Rookie Watch segment this week will consist of a few interviews as there are no played games to re-watch and analyze.
[/quote]
black by association already played their first week. You could start with them.