OP
League Administrator
👑
Weekend Custody
For those who don't know me well, I'm a longtime Infantry player, though most of that time was spent in a different zone. More recently, I've found a lot of enjoyment playing and contributing to USL, and ultimately that's led me here in a capacity that I hope proves beneficial to our community of shared-interest gamers.
I believe strongly in servant leadership, both in gaming communities and in my professional life. My goal here isn't to come in and change things simply for the sake of change, but to help support the people who continue to invest their time into this game, improve areas where we reasonably can, and represent the community in whichever capacity best fits.
Due to the recent turnover in USL at both the squad and staff levels, we're currently at a holding point while we wait for enough squads to begin the next season. Our minimum threshold to move forward will be 4+ active squads that are ready to play.
In the meantime, we want to keep people playing and interested in USL through activities throughout the week and weekend. A lot of that is only possible because of community members volunteering their time to organize and host events, so a genuine thank you to everyone continuing to do that while we're between seasons.
Our staff is actively working through several areas we believe can improve the league and gameplay experience, including: map corrections and adjustments, class balancing, automated camping deterrents/punishments, a pass through the existing USL rules to address ambiguities, outdated language, and areas needing clarification.
Going forward, much of this work will be visible and continuously updated in the Development channel on the USL Discord so we have a centralized information-hub for what changes are being tested/prepared for voting near the end of the offseason.
The intent is for proposed gameplay changes to be visible during the offseason while they're being discussed and tested rather than appearing immediately before a season. Once we reach initiation weekend, the changes that are ready for consideration will then be voted on by squad captains or their representatives before the season begins.
Not every idea will work. Not every tested change will ultimately make it into league play. The goal is to create an iterative process where we can propose, test, collect feedback, adjust, and ultimately allow the participating squads to determine what moves forward.
Once we reach the minimum threshold of 4+ registered and ready squads, we'll begin a brief waiting period to provide an opportunity for a 5th or 6th squad to potentially register. At the end of that period, we'll move into initiation weekend. During that weekend, squad captains or their designated representatives will vote on the gameplay changes that have been tested throughout the offseason. Those results will then be provided to our developer for implementation of the accepted changes.
Administration will also use that weekend to finalize and communicate the regular-season maps, schedule and structure, along with the playoff maps, schedule, and structure.
The following Monday, the approved game changes will go live, giving everyone time to play with the final configuration before Week 1 begins the following Sunday evening.
As mentioned in previous posts, we're excited about the technology recently created to track and accumulate statistics from community-hosted mixes throughout the week. The purpose of that work is to give us better insight into the game and provide players with statistics that previously weren't available. It is not an attempt by USL administration to replace the traditional squad-vs.-squad competitive gameplay that the league is built around. We're also conscious of the possibility that public statistics can change how people approach casual mixes. If players begin worrying more about protecting a rating, K/D, or other statistic than simply playing the game, we've worked against our own goal.
We'll continue working with our advisors, community, and developer to find the right balance between collecting useful data and preserving the gameplay loop that makes mixes enjoyable in the first place. Features such as public Elo/rating systems will continue to be evaluated with that principle in mind. Our hope is that the data enhancements the game, not dictates how its played.
In addition to my recent move into the administrator role, I'll be looking to add one advisor to the existing panel. This is a replacement position resulting from the vacancy left by Eric's recent departure. I'm looking for someone who has a passion for the game, an open mind, and a willingness to engage constructively with people who may have different opinions about where the game or league should go. If that's something you may be interested in, please reach out to me in the coming days.
More broadly: we need volunteers. We're always looking for additional referees, commentators, and analysts. We're looking for people who enjoy the game and are willing to contribute some of their time toward making league play more enjoyable for the community. If you're interested in helping in any of those areas, please reach out to me or another member of the existing staff.
Things can move quickly in a small community with a passionate and engaged developer, which is a unique and valuable position that USL (and CTF) currently finds itself in. I want to make sure we're respectful of the time our developer and testers contribute while also making it as easy as possible for community ideas to be seen, discussed, and evaluated. Going forward, I'd like to centralize gameplay and development suggestions within the existing Development forum on Discord. If you have feedback or an idea related to a topic that already has a thread, please add your thoughts there. If you have a genuinely new suggestion, create a new thread for it.
I'll be helping organize and parse those discussions, identify feedback, and work with the appropriate people to move viable ideas toward testing. It's great that we're a small enough community that many of us can communicate directly with one another, including our developer. At the same time, centralizing development discussion gives ideas visibility, prevents the same conversations from happening in several different places, and most importantly helps protect the time of the people actually doing the development and testing.
In closing, I haven't been exposed to every group or every member of USL during my few seasons here, but I've gotten to know quite a few of you. I've had the opportunity to play with different squads, different groups, and plenty of different personalities. I intend on bringing what I've learned from those experiences into this role and approaching decisions impartially, regardless of who or which group is involved. I also genuinely appreciate the people who have spent their time helping me learn not only how to play the game better, but how USL operates and how I can contribute to the community.
There will inevitably be decisions we don't all agree on. My commitment is that people will have an opportunity to provide feedback, that decisions will have reasoning behind them, and that we'll continue adjusting when something isn't working. At the end of the day, we're all investing our free time into a very old game that we apparently refuse to let die. We will do our best to make it enjoyable.
Thank you for trusting me with the opportunity. I'll do my best not to let you down.
I believe strongly in servant leadership, both in gaming communities and in my professional life. My goal here isn't to come in and change things simply for the sake of change, but to help support the people who continue to invest their time into this game, improve areas where we reasonably can, and represent the community in whichever capacity best fits.
Due to the recent turnover in USL at both the squad and staff levels, we're currently at a holding point while we wait for enough squads to begin the next season. Our minimum threshold to move forward will be 4+ active squads that are ready to play.
In the meantime, we want to keep people playing and interested in USL through activities throughout the week and weekend. A lot of that is only possible because of community members volunteering their time to organize and host events, so a genuine thank you to everyone continuing to do that while we're between seasons.
Our staff is actively working through several areas we believe can improve the league and gameplay experience, including: map corrections and adjustments, class balancing, automated camping deterrents/punishments, a pass through the existing USL rules to address ambiguities, outdated language, and areas needing clarification.
Going forward, much of this work will be visible and continuously updated in the Development channel on the USL Discord so we have a centralized information-hub for what changes are being tested/prepared for voting near the end of the offseason.
The intent is for proposed gameplay changes to be visible during the offseason while they're being discussed and tested rather than appearing immediately before a season. Once we reach initiation weekend, the changes that are ready for consideration will then be voted on by squad captains or their representatives before the season begins.
Not every idea will work. Not every tested change will ultimately make it into league play. The goal is to create an iterative process where we can propose, test, collect feedback, adjust, and ultimately allow the participating squads to determine what moves forward.
Once we reach the minimum threshold of 4+ registered and ready squads, we'll begin a brief waiting period to provide an opportunity for a 5th or 6th squad to potentially register. At the end of that period, we'll move into initiation weekend. During that weekend, squad captains or their designated representatives will vote on the gameplay changes that have been tested throughout the offseason. Those results will then be provided to our developer for implementation of the accepted changes.
Administration will also use that weekend to finalize and communicate the regular-season maps, schedule and structure, along with the playoff maps, schedule, and structure.
The following Monday, the approved game changes will go live, giving everyone time to play with the final configuration before Week 1 begins the following Sunday evening.
As mentioned in previous posts, we're excited about the technology recently created to track and accumulate statistics from community-hosted mixes throughout the week. The purpose of that work is to give us better insight into the game and provide players with statistics that previously weren't available. It is not an attempt by USL administration to replace the traditional squad-vs.-squad competitive gameplay that the league is built around. We're also conscious of the possibility that public statistics can change how people approach casual mixes. If players begin worrying more about protecting a rating, K/D, or other statistic than simply playing the game, we've worked against our own goal.
We'll continue working with our advisors, community, and developer to find the right balance between collecting useful data and preserving the gameplay loop that makes mixes enjoyable in the first place. Features such as public Elo/rating systems will continue to be evaluated with that principle in mind. Our hope is that the data enhancements the game, not dictates how its played.
In addition to my recent move into the administrator role, I'll be looking to add one advisor to the existing panel. This is a replacement position resulting from the vacancy left by Eric's recent departure. I'm looking for someone who has a passion for the game, an open mind, and a willingness to engage constructively with people who may have different opinions about where the game or league should go. If that's something you may be interested in, please reach out to me in the coming days.
More broadly: we need volunteers. We're always looking for additional referees, commentators, and analysts. We're looking for people who enjoy the game and are willing to contribute some of their time toward making league play more enjoyable for the community. If you're interested in helping in any of those areas, please reach out to me or another member of the existing staff.
Things can move quickly in a small community with a passionate and engaged developer, which is a unique and valuable position that USL (and CTF) currently finds itself in. I want to make sure we're respectful of the time our developer and testers contribute while also making it as easy as possible for community ideas to be seen, discussed, and evaluated. Going forward, I'd like to centralize gameplay and development suggestions within the existing Development forum on Discord. If you have feedback or an idea related to a topic that already has a thread, please add your thoughts there. If you have a genuinely new suggestion, create a new thread for it.
I'll be helping organize and parse those discussions, identify feedback, and work with the appropriate people to move viable ideas toward testing. It's great that we're a small enough community that many of us can communicate directly with one another, including our developer. At the same time, centralizing development discussion gives ideas visibility, prevents the same conversations from happening in several different places, and most importantly helps protect the time of the people actually doing the development and testing.
In closing, I haven't been exposed to every group or every member of USL during my few seasons here, but I've gotten to know quite a few of you. I've had the opportunity to play with different squads, different groups, and plenty of different personalities. I intend on bringing what I've learned from those experiences into this role and approaching decisions impartially, regardless of who or which group is involved. I also genuinely appreciate the people who have spent their time helping me learn not only how to play the game better, but how USL operates and how I can contribute to the community.
There will inevitably be decisions we don't all agree on. My commitment is that people will have an opportunity to provide feedback, that decisions will have reasoning behind them, and that we'll continue adjusting when something isn't working. At the end of the day, we're all investing our free time into a very old game that we apparently refuse to let die. We will do our best to make it enjoyable.
Thank you for trusting me with the opportunity. I'll do my best not to let you down.
12.7mm 
hot tub boys