Demurity
Level 35
IGN: demurity, Cencres, & skinnylettuce
DATE: 4/26/2021
WHAT YOU NEED TO SUGGEST OR MENTION: To put it simply, encourage, give the opportunity to, and publicize sports faction-based events more than they are now. This may sound a bit weird when summed up, so there'll be a lot of elaboration below.
Introduction → The nonstop decline of motivation in teams
To anyone with a sports team tag or with access, this is probably already sounding quite relatable. Whether you check the team inactivity channels or hear a personal anecdote from a teammate, it's a no-brainer that most players involved in teams have fought battles with finding the motivation to get online along with remaining within the teams themselves. Even teams that arguably are given the most hype such as cheer and football have had issues with motivation here or there.
Quite simply, even with practices and occasional, under the rug tournaments, there doesn't feel like there's much for team members to look forward to, because even though every practice involves improving at the skills alluded to with the sport, sometimes it feels like there isn't really anything to practice for. While obviously inactivity can also be caused by many different real-life aspects all of which are valid, a lack of motivation makes it all the more difficult to want to return.
Potential → Teams!! You tried out knowing what to do, so do it!
Note: This section is essentially just here to break down some of the arguments against sports not being able to have competitive events as well as giving suggestions as to what these types of things could be. Feel free to skip on over to the end if you don’t care about potential issues.
Tryouts, from our perspective, are typically something that you pursue with the team’s typical activity in mind and what it expects. Ball sports like basketball, football, volleyball, and baseball (although baseball’s plugin certainly needs a bit of TLC) have players tryout with the gameplay, strategy, rules, and plugin in mind, teams like track and swim with the techniques and different skill levels, and cheer with a well-rounded knowledge of terminology and performative ability to DetailRP.
Team practices further reinforce these concepts once one is to get on. So why not apply them?
The first couple we wanted to address in terms of applying sport concepts into fun, sport-based events would have to be track and swim. Thanks to some lovely information I got after speaking with @oeols , even a while backtrack practices would not only focus on roleplayed out speed but would also put in-game hurdles and obstacles to introduce a wild card parkour aspect so that competition would not be merely based on a 100% running speed. Even just having events like this, perhaps represented in the way that different schools have ‘Track and Field’ days (different lengths of running incorporated into a fun way of competition), track, an underrated team in my mind can certainly get in on Spartan / Bobcat competitions in this way with certain entertainment in store for those watching.
Swim, on the other hand, is an interesting one because of the different perspectives on swim competitions compared with what has actually been done. @skinnylettuce, from their time on swim had suggested competitive events such as swim relays (which were shot down because after 100% swim speed is reached it can become redundant in competition) and synchronized swimming (which was apparently shot down because cheer already existed?). These contrary arguments don’t necessarily work, because, during swim tryouts that occurred during the winter, @MikeShotZ ’s basketball team crashed the tryouts with the goal of entertainment in mind (as they usually do with my aid) in the form of DetailRPed swim relays with their team- the preexisting crowd seemed to thoroughly enjoy the two teamed competition, and while not all of the team’s swim speeds were as high as a typical swim team, relays can still easily be appreciated for the roleplay aspects involved with describing strokes and dives. As for synchronized swimming- I mean, come on. Cheer doesn’t exactly dabble underwater, nor do we specifically dabble in dance.
The next sports to address all come sort of under the same category of team ball sports; basketball, football, and volleyball. This is because tournaments have happened if not have been in the works for all of them, but unfortunately, because of chunk lag, most tournaments are merely streamed. While these occasional tournaments are certainly fun, having potentially preorganized and announced watch parties for players that want to roleplay out some of that good old school spirit would certainly be something fun- such as Super Bowl watch parties, but perhaps because of the School/College rivalry, done on school grounds so all of the students can get together to cheer on their mates. Volleyball is one of the most consistent sports to do these tournaments, but the reach feels limited because of the streaming and isolated discord, making preorganized watch parties ICly still allow players to play without lag.
Football and basketball tournaments, which have happened every once in a while, can easily also fall into the volleyball solutions; not to mention, both school areas for these sports have accessible bleachers! Even if it’s merely announced a day before to avoid huge turn-ups because of lag, more casual Bobcat vs. Spartan games, especially for these sports, could get so much hype.
Naturally, because cheer is the sport of routines and chants based on games and teams themselves it's easy enough for us to piggyback off of these events and put together crowd entertainment in advance; such as the pre-tryout Spartan Football routines which were done in March. Overall, just a slight bit more of competition between sports completely allows cheer teams the opportunity to apply practice knowledge of stunts, tumbling, chants, and more to any sort of event. A cheer competition of sorts is also quite simple to set up and both teams would likely be happy to participate.
Proposition → Give us (all) something to cheer for
We’ve presented a lot of different ways for teams to be able to do competitive performance whether based on their plugin or rules for the things that are done at their practices; we’re not saying do these suggestions, we’re simply trying to point out that there is so much opportunity for these sorts of fun and friendly competition events.
The hope with this suggestion is to implement a very light system in place that allows for SLT to potentially encourage teams to start applying practice knowledge to competitive sports events that encourage team effort and activity and through that jumpstarts player motivation as we’ve heard from so many people about how cool these sort of events would be to attend and react to ICly if not participate in.
Whether creating an alternate channel in the Academics Discord that allows for players to see sports game or event announcements that typically range around Bobcat vs. Spartan competition, making game information more accessible would help spark greater roleplay interest and hinder the daunting demotivation that players get on teams after feeling like they’re doing ‘nothing’.
This suggestion isn’t at all intending to blame captains nor trying to rush them into these kinds of things; when practice concepts are learned and both Spartan / Bobcat teams feel as though they’re ready enough to have competitive games/competitions as school teams often do, the opportunity should be made accessible to them to take advantage of. And as we said earlier, if there’s a worry about player count going overboard, there are still ways to organize group interest while avoiding lag.
Hopefully, this made some sense- it’s a lot, but it’s something that we feel has been on a lot of people’s minds in regards to teams for a while.
DATE: 4/26/2021
WHAT YOU NEED TO SUGGEST OR MENTION: To put it simply, encourage, give the opportunity to, and publicize sports faction-based events more than they are now. This may sound a bit weird when summed up, so there'll be a lot of elaboration below.
Introduction → The nonstop decline of motivation in teams
To anyone with a sports team tag or with access, this is probably already sounding quite relatable. Whether you check the team inactivity channels or hear a personal anecdote from a teammate, it's a no-brainer that most players involved in teams have fought battles with finding the motivation to get online along with remaining within the teams themselves. Even teams that arguably are given the most hype such as cheer and football have had issues with motivation here or there.
Quite simply, even with practices and occasional, under the rug tournaments, there doesn't feel like there's much for team members to look forward to, because even though every practice involves improving at the skills alluded to with the sport, sometimes it feels like there isn't really anything to practice for. While obviously inactivity can also be caused by many different real-life aspects all of which are valid, a lack of motivation makes it all the more difficult to want to return.
Potential → Teams!! You tried out knowing what to do, so do it!
Note: This section is essentially just here to break down some of the arguments against sports not being able to have competitive events as well as giving suggestions as to what these types of things could be. Feel free to skip on over to the end if you don’t care about potential issues.
Tryouts, from our perspective, are typically something that you pursue with the team’s typical activity in mind and what it expects. Ball sports like basketball, football, volleyball, and baseball (although baseball’s plugin certainly needs a bit of TLC) have players tryout with the gameplay, strategy, rules, and plugin in mind, teams like track and swim with the techniques and different skill levels, and cheer with a well-rounded knowledge of terminology and performative ability to DetailRP.
Team practices further reinforce these concepts once one is to get on. So why not apply them?
The first couple we wanted to address in terms of applying sport concepts into fun, sport-based events would have to be track and swim. Thanks to some lovely information I got after speaking with @oeols , even a while backtrack practices would not only focus on roleplayed out speed but would also put in-game hurdles and obstacles to introduce a wild card parkour aspect so that competition would not be merely based on a 100% running speed. Even just having events like this, perhaps represented in the way that different schools have ‘Track and Field’ days (different lengths of running incorporated into a fun way of competition), track, an underrated team in my mind can certainly get in on Spartan / Bobcat competitions in this way with certain entertainment in store for those watching.
Swim, on the other hand, is an interesting one because of the different perspectives on swim competitions compared with what has actually been done. @skinnylettuce, from their time on swim had suggested competitive events such as swim relays (which were shot down because after 100% swim speed is reached it can become redundant in competition) and synchronized swimming (which was apparently shot down because cheer already existed?). These contrary arguments don’t necessarily work, because, during swim tryouts that occurred during the winter, @MikeShotZ ’s basketball team crashed the tryouts with the goal of entertainment in mind (as they usually do with my aid) in the form of DetailRPed swim relays with their team- the preexisting crowd seemed to thoroughly enjoy the two teamed competition, and while not all of the team’s swim speeds were as high as a typical swim team, relays can still easily be appreciated for the roleplay aspects involved with describing strokes and dives. As for synchronized swimming- I mean, come on. Cheer doesn’t exactly dabble underwater, nor do we specifically dabble in dance.
The next sports to address all come sort of under the same category of team ball sports; basketball, football, and volleyball. This is because tournaments have happened if not have been in the works for all of them, but unfortunately, because of chunk lag, most tournaments are merely streamed. While these occasional tournaments are certainly fun, having potentially preorganized and announced watch parties for players that want to roleplay out some of that good old school spirit would certainly be something fun- such as Super Bowl watch parties, but perhaps because of the School/College rivalry, done on school grounds so all of the students can get together to cheer on their mates. Volleyball is one of the most consistent sports to do these tournaments, but the reach feels limited because of the streaming and isolated discord, making preorganized watch parties ICly still allow players to play without lag.
Football and basketball tournaments, which have happened every once in a while, can easily also fall into the volleyball solutions; not to mention, both school areas for these sports have accessible bleachers! Even if it’s merely announced a day before to avoid huge turn-ups because of lag, more casual Bobcat vs. Spartan games, especially for these sports, could get so much hype.
Naturally, because cheer is the sport of routines and chants based on games and teams themselves it's easy enough for us to piggyback off of these events and put together crowd entertainment in advance; such as the pre-tryout Spartan Football routines which were done in March. Overall, just a slight bit more of competition between sports completely allows cheer teams the opportunity to apply practice knowledge of stunts, tumbling, chants, and more to any sort of event. A cheer competition of sorts is also quite simple to set up and both teams would likely be happy to participate.
Proposition → Give us (all) something to cheer for
We’ve presented a lot of different ways for teams to be able to do competitive performance whether based on their plugin or rules for the things that are done at their practices; we’re not saying do these suggestions, we’re simply trying to point out that there is so much opportunity for these sorts of fun and friendly competition events.
The hope with this suggestion is to implement a very light system in place that allows for SLT to potentially encourage teams to start applying practice knowledge to competitive sports events that encourage team effort and activity and through that jumpstarts player motivation as we’ve heard from so many people about how cool these sort of events would be to attend and react to ICly if not participate in.
Whether creating an alternate channel in the Academics Discord that allows for players to see sports game or event announcements that typically range around Bobcat vs. Spartan competition, making game information more accessible would help spark greater roleplay interest and hinder the daunting demotivation that players get on teams after feeling like they’re doing ‘nothing’.
This suggestion isn’t at all intending to blame captains nor trying to rush them into these kinds of things; when practice concepts are learned and both Spartan / Bobcat teams feel as though they’re ready enough to have competitive games/competitions as school teams often do, the opportunity should be made accessible to them to take advantage of. And as we said earlier, if there’s a worry about player count going overboard, there are still ways to organize group interest while avoiding lag.
Hopefully, this made some sense- it’s a lot, but it’s something that we feel has been on a lot of people’s minds in regards to teams for a while.
