This thing on?
I'm gonna quickly reflect on PMPL2 as a whole (every angle) and give a pretty honest take on how I perceive things on this site after sticking around for a couple of years. I'll keep it short as my interest in things here is just as drained as the energy that half of this post will give off.
The Good Stuff
The energy given off during this tournament, overall, was awesome. Spirits were high, and a lot of people seemed to be having fun. The memes have been absolutely exquisite, like
this,
that and
these. On top of that, specifically, I have no idea wtf was going on over on the Daves' server but it seemed like you lot were tearing the damn roof off of this place
Also being involved in this tournament without having a proper horse in the race meant that I could talk shit with little repercussion. Specifically for my Hoenn Gaiden VRs, I put Jimothy at #1 while slotting in the tournament's MVP, SEA, 5th out of 6 players. This was an earnest ranking - Jim came out of winning two double elim tournaments without losing a single set, into this tournament while SEA hadn't played a proper game of HG in his life (citation needed???) - and it was an honest ranking that I could only really make as a bystander not having to worry about what people think.
I'd imagine these tiers have had a lot of metagame development thanks to this tournament. Hoenn Gaiden is in a much more grounded position thanks to these games, and while it is ultimately one which is hard to progress from, I'm glad that it did eventually come to this. I can't talk much for most of the other tiers in the PMPL but I'm sure they benefited to a similar degree.
The Bad Stuff
This and the next section are why you're really reading my post I imagine.
Being a tournament host is a pretty thankless job. Outside of people I've become friendly with in Pet Mods, the only person who's said anything good about me for hosting is, interestingly, the captain of Dave's Dachsbuns. The main team manager who actually has no direct connection with Pet Mods at all.
People who host tournaments on this website are not thanked enough. It's a lot of work man, respect your tournament hosts more for Pete's sake. Any Senior Staff members reading this -- offer more appraisal to keep your tournament hosts around. You simply aren't doing enough in my opinion.
The Ugly Stuff
The current gold standard for dedication for team tournaments is honestly appalling. I simply don't believe that I'm in some quiet minority of people around here who are adverse towards joining tournaments because of the sheer length of these things. I do not know (and simply cannot know) if I will be free for the next 9 weekends of my life and if I will helplessly be paired up with someone halfway across the globe who cannot make a time work with me.
Like, the fatigue is real from how long these tournaments are drawn out. Week 3 of the PMPL was the most unhype thing ever. All teams drew with each other and on top of that people were literally just less engaged. I got bored of writing GPT posts, despite how little effort they take, because of how much of a nosedive generally the excitement had dipped from weeks 3-6.
And to drive the point home further, people also just zoned out and stopped downloading their replays a few weeks in. Like if there's any stronger sign of people getting bored, it's that they stop following the rules of the PMPL and mindlessly do what they do in all the other tournaments they spam join lol
I'll offer a suggestion on how I think this could be addressed, though I simply don't expect this to gain any traction whatsoever because people's minds are too ingrained in how things work.
There should be quickfire team tournaments more often. I'm talking tournaments that go on for like 2 weeks (3 at a stretch when tiebreakers are needed) with tighter organisation and a specified availability window for sign-ups to offer to play their sets over the weekend. This isn't something I'm suggesting should replace the current format, but my goodness, would it make scheduling so much easier for some of us.
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That's about it really. I'm never hosting or even participating in any group/team focused event on this website unless there are huge changes made to the tournament structure. The current method of running large-scale tournaments is hilariously outdated.
Have fun y'all, I'll see you around elsewhere maybe
