Thursday, August 25, 2011

2011 Game of the Week Procedures



With the season virtually upon us, it seemed appropriate to explain to players and fans how the popular (though at times very controversial!) Game of the Week Contest (GOTW) would work in this seventh season of the USCL.

First off, the prizes for the GOTW contest shall remain the same as last year namely:


1st: $200 ($150 to the winner, $50 to the loser - split evenly if drawn)
2nd: $75 (all to the winner - split evenly if drawn)
3rd: $50 (all to the winner - split evenly if drawn)


However, the method by which the top three games will be picked shall be very different than recent years. For the past four seasons we have had a judging panel of five judges (or three judges earlier) who independently voted on their top five games and then the scores were tallied to determine the winners.

While that system seemed to work fairly well and certainly had a knack for starting interesting debates, it also definitely seemed to have some problems. One big issue was that, other than Greg and myself, the judges did not typically watch all (or even most) of the games live which naturally meant that an important facet to GOTW (at least in our eyes), a game's feel/excitement were difficult for the other judges to properly take into account. This also lead to the most notable problem, that being that looking through so many games in such a short time frame (due to having not watched them live) was a huge task, and at times this was a tremendous burden on the other judges.

Taking everything into account, we have decided to revert back to the system used in the two initial seasons of the USCL - that being that GOTW results will be decided behind closed doors by Greg and I alone. That is, unlike the past few years, rather than voting independently, he and I will discus everything together and come to an agreement on which three games should take the prizes.

While I am certainly somewhat skeptical as to whether this is the most effective way of doing things (I anticipate many a broken bone when he and I have irrevocably different opinions), we nevertheless feel it is the best way of doing things at the current moment and therefore what will be done for the 2011 season.

Any feedback about this change is appreciated, but remember you must register a Google account to comment - there will be no anonymous commenting on the USCL blog this season!


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whooo boy! You guys are asking for it!

Can we at least get a rundown on what you each feel is important criteria for a GOTW?

-Matt

Arun Sharma said...

Well we've been asked in the past to list criteria, but I personally don't think that's too helpful - anything we list can be interpreted in many ways. Just as the contest itself is subjective so would any interpretation of any "set criteria".

As for "asking for it", we've been enduring it for the past four seasons, and basically nothing would surprise me in that regard anymore. Plus now that people can't make ridiculous posts while hiding behind anonymity, I tend to think it will make things better rather than worse overall, even if both Greg and I will be held much more accountable for any perceived injustice than previously.

Anonymous said...

You are a brave man. I wish you well.

My glee at getting out of the USCL increases each day :)

-Matt

Craig Jones said...

The best way, IMO, would be for the games to be judged anonymously meaning the judges didn't know who played the games. There is a huge built in bias, its normal, and to take that part away would level it out greatly. Obviously this would take away from the variable of the significance of the games effect on a given match and so forth.

JaredDef said...

No matter how you work it the system will still be controversial and subjective. I like the idea to keep it simple, and good luck to you guys.

Ilya said...

This thing was never meant to be democractic. USCL is run like a plutocracy and so is GOW contest, from the point of view of simplicity and in order to squash the level of complaining this was clearly the easiest thing to do, from the standpoint of actual judging work its a lazy, half-ass decision.