Scrim Scheduling; Can it get any better?
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I think it can
#anchor(TL;DR)
Looking for scrims as it stands is really terrible. The RGL discord lacks many features which would be important for finding scrims, and the RGL forums method is a poor attempt that does not recognize the volatility of scrim scheduling. I propose the extremely time-consuming and potentially very difficult to implement idea of as part of the RGL website redesign, each team has a calendar other teams can view, where teams can talk via Discord (or maybe RGL DMs ) and then confirm times on scrims. Along with a few other features, I think itād be a phenomenal way of scheduling scrims.
Iāll try and keep this short, since I donāt know if any attempts are currently being made at fixing a system that technically isnāt broken. I searched the forums and did not see anything.
#anchor(The RGL Discord)
The RGL Discord is a pretty good solution. It works well enough to quickly nab scrims.
Pros:- Easy to use and already a major part of RGLās ecosystem
- Respects volatility of scrims with the ability to quickly LFS if you get baited
- Easily notified of potential scrims; can easily schedule while not at your computer
Cons:
- Must copy someoneās Discord username to RGLās website in order to actually verify they are a) a team in your division and b) not someone who slipped through the verification systemās cracks or is someone who is currently banned
- Users are stupid and do not always post their division (I recognize that user error is user error but we can minimize it by design)
- Multiple team leads can make double booking an easy pitfall
- Difficult to know if teams have already found a scrim unless they go back and edit their message (this never happens)
- You may miss messages if the channel is particularly active; you may have to scroll through a list of scrims you do not want to play in order to check and see if thereās a LFS you missed
- If RGL gets more popular, the above problem will only become worse
- Cannot be notified of a player looking for a scrim in your division; you either have to get all notifications, or none
- Could be a pugscrim, which is undesirable to some and hard to check for
#anchor(RGL Forums)
Dead for a good reason.
Pros:
- Notification system
Cons:
- Finding the forums via the main RGL website in the first place is strangely difficult (Iām sure this will be addressed in the redesign)
- Does not respect team leads time
- Does not respect the volatility of scrims
- Hosted on a dying medium of communication
#anchor(A Potential Solution)
We want a system that:
- Respects users time with an easy to use interface
- Allows other players to see if a teamās scrim slots are filled
- Accounts for pugscrims/players outside of RGL
- Notification system
- Respects volatility of scrims
- Allows people who LFS to specify who is playing easily
- (Potential) ability to communicate via a direct message system on the website (using Discord to DM would not be terrible; but at least being able to send a team the connect info would be nice)
Iād like to introduce; a calendar!
Look up Outlook calendar (or just any online calendar really) via Google and youāll get a good general idea of what Iām talking about.
Important Things to Note:- Having individual forum-like āpostsā is a bad idea; simply having the time, the division, and the team initials is enough, with more information available by clicking on the post and having a dropdown occur. Scrims sort by recently bumped
- Filter system; we need to be able to filter certain types of scrims, players, or teams. People talk a lot about āif you donāt like x type of player in RGL, donāt scrim them!ā We need the tools to be able to make that happen more easily. Also be able to filter by date
- Team leads are notified via Discord bot DM or through email (preferred Discord bot methinks)
- If a team/player is LFS within 10 minutes of the scrim time, those messages stay at the top until the request is fulfilled or twenty minutes have passed
- Subs/ringers need to easily be added and removed
- Pugscrims need to be a possibility. Just have RGL players be able to post LFS pugscrim with their roster in the dropdown. The roster being optional
- Teams should be able to mark usual scrim times in their calendar as āBusyā; they cannot scrim those days/times. Additionally; teams should be able to mark when they have regular scrims with other teams
- Should obviously be incorporated with the current match schedule system
- Players should be able to mark said calendars as they wish; either by using keywords supplied by RGL to prevent abuse, or just reactive punishment if players use it for malicious intent
- Teams should be able to notify other team leads with potential scrim times and dates via sending an invite that they can accept, decline, or say āmaybeā to. Obviously add punishment for abusing this notification system to spam
- Teams should have the ability to mark their entire calendar (or certain days) as private if they so wish, but still be able to use the system
And probably a couple other things Iām forgetting.
This idea came after multiple people have made multiple attempts to create an alternative to RGLās scrim finder that all end up failing in one way or another. I believe the only solution to improve scrim scheduling rests in RGLās hands.
Let me know what you think! I recognize how much this probably isnāt needed in the face of a lot of other stuff, but at the very least I think itās a cool idea that RGL can maybe shove at the bottom of the to-do list.
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As the forum guy, I can confirm that we will not be changing how the forum functions in regards to scrims. Forums are for long form discussions, and anyone that posts LFS to the forums should be doing so before the start of the season to help find scrim partners. It is also clearly visible on the main page of the forums.
as far as the other ideas, one think I think that is vitally missing from your post is the fact that scrims are something that are heavily determined by communication between team leaders. Most teams develop regular scrim partners at the start of the season and make them apart of their regular schedule.
There is nothing that RGL can really do to facilitate this beyond a team leader forum or discord channel which iirc was already tried in the past.
While I 100% understand that being a team leader is a very difficult job, and being able to find scrims are also difficult, you are looking for a catch all solution that does not actually do anything to make things easier in the long run.
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czarchasm
hi yeah weāre gonna do it on the new site
site is coming along already but donāt wish to share much more at this time -
@Mothership
Apologies for the delayed response. Been busy.anyone that posts LFS to the forums should be doing so before the start of the season to help find scrim partners.
It was not clear to me that the LFS forum was solely used for finding regular scrim partners. In that case, then it serves a good purpose. The LFS Posting Guidelines donāt really indicate towards that purpose though.
It is also clearly visible on the main page of the forums.
Yeah, that criticism there was shit lol. In hindsight, Iām not sure why I put that. Sorry. Iāve removed that.
Most teams develop regular scrim partners at the start of the season and make them apart of their regular schedule.
Iāve slowly found out about this being a thing as time has gone on. In NC/AM/IM divisions, no one seems to really push for regular scrims like this and/or itās not common knowledge. I have 2 scrims out of my weekly 6 as regular.
From looking at the RGL Discordās scrims channel, I see that once you hit Advanced, you stop looking for scrims and just have your regulars every single week. Iām leaning towards the idea that this is not common knowledge, or that maybe itās better for teams with lower skill to scrim versus different teams more often, as players in these divisions are worse at adapting.I think if the leagueās intent for all divisions is to have regular scrims be a thing no matter what division you are, I think just putting a notice somewhere saying āHey, consider doing regular scrims with a teamā would be a good idea. I canāt speak for everyone though, and I donāt have any actual statistics backing the idea that itās not common knowledge. Something to consider, I guess.
@arcadia
Cool stuff. Excited to see what it ends up as. Thanks for the info. -
To be frank, the LFS forum is not solely meant for finding regular scrim partners, however the reality is that no one else uses it for anything else. The discord is infinitely better for finding last minute scrim partners when you get baited.
As far as the common knowledge stuff goes, honestly a lot of that could be solved through team mentors. Someone there to specifically help the team to learn things, instead of specific class mentors. I do not know if there is a program for that, as I stopped following those types of productions a long time ago. Honestly, It might be good as a video series for the RGL video team. QueeQuey cough cough