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Player Ability Bans - ECL '25 Season Discussion


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After giving it some thought and reading others' takes on this... I'm also team BanThemAll. And here's the reasoning why:

The whole X-Factor ability shenanigans were added to the game in order to highlight superstar players with their superstar abilities. I totally understand that concept from an offline mode or online versus point of view, it's a great addition and does what it's supposed to do: recognize greatness. But in WOC game modes, we don't need that at all - everybody can already spend their XP however they see fit under the ruleset of preset builds and be the superstar they want (even though I'd love to see the return of the old custom build system). In WOC the X-Factors don't make anyone a superstar in the way they were intended in the first place if evvvveryone on the ice has them. What the X-Factors bring in 6s especially is instead

  1. lower skill gap
  2. RNG to a vast variety of in-game scenarios
  3. an even stronger meta for each wingers, centers, defencedudes & goalies where everyone exploits weaknesses in the game

Therefore a competitive setting with no superpower abilities would balance not only the meta but also the dreadful RNG. EA made the decision on our behalf to remove EE from WOC, which, if you think about it for a second, is actually is a huge step towards the direction I'm suggesting here. And absolutely nobody is complaining about it. Now it's all about finishing what EA started this year and play without the honestly quite unnecessary X-Factor abilities in 6s.

Edited by markalla2
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6 minuuttia sitten, Janikka kirjoitti:

The traits exacerbate the randomness of the gameplay that's pretty random to begin with, so I'm all for banning everything. The boosts can stay. I've disliked the traits since they were introduced.

Yes u can (At least it was possible in NHL24)

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Im casting my vote for team BanThemAll. However, that means that the grudge matchup needs to get fixed asap. Banning all traits but still having one player (most often the center) with all offensive or defensive traits would mean that all teams exploited that one player, because why not? 

Im hoping that if we come to a conclusion to ban all traits, we start seeing even more diversity with different builds. 

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3 tuntia sitten, J0HTAJA kirjoitti:

We all know that u cannot set Up build without golden trait so can u tell me excatly how this ban them all is going to work ? I am really concerned either my own intelligence or your’s…

You can remove it by pressing square I believe 

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I'd like to reiterate a couple of points I made earlier. This was way back in early September:

På 2024-09-06 på 22:11, l-Furyan-l säger:

All I ask is that, whichever way this goes, there is a definitive, non-reversible decision from League Administration (on bans/no bans) at least a few weeks out from when the first official tournament is set to begin.

Give us a fair chance to practice for a reasonable amount of time under game-like conditions.

We got that definitive, non-reversible decision when @Kenu & LA on October 15th announced the following:

Citat

 

"After deliberating, and weighing the pros and cons of instituting X-factor bans, the League Administration has decided to NOT ban any traits or abilities for the upcoming season. We appreciate the desire for some traits like Big Tipper to be axed, but we first want to see how the meta develops and what teams end up favoring.

As such, we will monitor your feedback and the Pre-season tournament, the first ECL season of the year, as well as any changes that EA makes by adjusting tuners and/or in patches. Last year especially they were making changes quite frequently - so we believe tying ourselves to a blanket ban would be a misstep at this point."

 

This was later adjusted, albeit slightly, when Kenu & LA on October 22nd announced that, based on community feedback Big Tipper (Gold and Silver) would be banned.

Citat

After further deliberation and seeing the unanimous motion for the ban of the Big Tipper ability, the League Administration has decided to ban Big Tipper (both Gold and Silver) from the ECL ’25: Winter season. The change will take effect in the Warmup Season from Sunday, October 27th and will also apply to the ECL Qualifiers.

The discussion continued at a brisk pace, and some good points were raised. Two ideas seemed to take off, both quite radical; the banning of all traits and the "one player type for each skater"-suggestion. The banning of all traits seemed to be the more popular one, and it is a suggestion I'd probably support myself (under the right conditions).

However, I once again highlighted the importance of foresight and consistency:

På 2024-10-23 på 07:09, l-Furyan-l säger:

I do think if something quite radical like that, meaning "Ban all abilities" (or for that matter the "1 Player Type per Skater"-suggestion voiced earlier), were to be put in place, I would urge SportsGamer to lock in that decision WELL ahead of time - like say announcing now that this will be the prerequisites for the Spring ECL. 

With just days to go until the first official tournament of NHL 25 (Qualifiers), I would like to emphasize foresight, consistency and structure one final time.

LA laid out the proposed structure of the upcoming tournament back in early September. They confirmed the prerequisites and structure for the upcoming tournament in mid-October.  They confirmed the tournament structure a second time about a week later (with one small adjustment, that had about a 99 percent approval rating). 

To completely rip up everything and start over from scratch at this point would be a disservice to SportsGamer, the League Administration and to the competitive structure of the ECL as we know it. Knowing that we can trust what is said in official statements and rulings from LA and SportsGamer, should (and must) be a core tenet of this league.

If we don't have that core tenet, if every decision made and communicated is up for suggestion and is subject to change with the proper lobbying, then the rules, trust and structure built over the years are essentially worth nothing.

Not to mention the fact that for a radical change like the one suggested - and let's be frank here, it IS a radical change when compared to every other tournament ever played on the website - there should be:

- a proper period of time for the topic to be discussed,
- a proper period of time for various different official suggestions (on competitive structure) to be drafted,
- a proper period of time for these official suggestions to be voted on by the community, 
- a massive effort made to make sure that as many people in the community as possible get involved and get to have their voices heard (perhaps by way of an official news story, social media posts and emails sent out to all members)

We're talking about a process here that could, and honestly probably should, take months. And a process that should be completely transparent all the way, allowing all members - regardless of how active they are on these forums or the website in general - to understand what is going on and to have their voice heard. 

My personal philosophy has always been that change and innovation works best when applied by the proper amount, with the proper support, over a proper period of time - so yeah, I might be biased. But on this topic, based on the points I've argued, I really believe that it is the only reasonable way to move forward.

Edited by l-Furyan-l
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20 tuntia sitten, l-Furyan-l kirjoitti:

I'd like to reiterate a couple of points I made earlier. This was way back in early September:

We got that definitive, non-reversible decision when @Kenu & LA on October 15th announced the following:

This was later adjusted, albeit slightly, when Kenu & LA on October 22nd announced that, based on community feedback Big Tipper (Gold and Silver) would be banned.

The discussion continued at a brisk pace, and some good points were raised. Two ideas seemed to take off, both quite radical; the banning of all traits and the "one player type for each skater"-suggestion. The banning of all traits seemed to be the more popular one, and it is a suggestion I'd probably support myself (under the right conditions).

However, I once again highlighted the importance of foresight and consistency:

With just days to go until the first official tournament of NHL 25 (Qualifiers), I would like to emphasize foresight, consistency and structure one final time.

LA laid out the proposed structure of the upcoming tournament back in early September. They confirmed the prerequisites and structure for the upcoming tournament in mid-October.  They confirmed the tournament structure a second time about a week later (with one small adjustment, that had about a 99 percent approval rating). 

To completely rip up everything and start over from scratch at this point would be a disservice to SportsGamer, the League Administration and to the competitive structure of the ECL as we know it. Knowing that we can trust what is said in official statements and rulings from LA and SportsGamer, should (and must) be a core tenet of this league.

If we don't have that core tenet, if every decision made and communicated is up for suggestion and is subject to change with the proper lobbying, then the rules, trust and structure built over the years are essentially worth nothing.

Not to mention the fact that for a radical change like the one suggested - and let's be frank here, it IS a radical change when compared to every other tournament ever played on the website - there should be:

- a proper period of time for the topic to be discussed,
- a proper period of time for various different official suggestions (on competitive structure) to be drafted,
- a proper period of time for these official suggestions to be voted on by the community, 
- a massive effort made to make sure that as many people in the community as possible get involved and get to have their voices heard (perhaps by way of an official news story, social media posts and emails sent out to all members)

We're talking about a process here that could, and honestly probably should, take months. And a process that should be completely transparent all the way, allowing all members - regardless of how active they are on these forums or the website in general - to understand what is going on and to have their voice heard. 

My personal philosophy has always been that change and innovation works best when applied by the proper amount, with the proper support, over a proper period of time - so yeah, I might be biased. But on this topic, based on the points I've argued, I really believe that it is the only reasonable way to move forward.

Great post and my previous comment still stands: whatever SG decides, please consider doing it at the beginning or end of the competitive season cycle. For NHL25 it probably is too late now unless there's a summer season next year.

Edited by markalla2
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