Well, we teased it earlier in the week, but we're all set to get King of FFA: III kicked off! For those of you who missed the last post with all the information you can check it out here.We'll be starting off with a bang by playing our 12 player round first! If you'd like to sign up for it go ahead and do so by commenting on this post. Please use the following format, account name - Time & Date.
E.G. - FML|Mage Saturday 20CET. We'll then edit you into the schedule to guarantee your spot. You can only RSVP for one game, however feel free to show up to all of them and presuming there's room you can play in as many games as you want and your best score will count! The maps and times for Round 1 will be as follows:
After a well received April Fools prank, we've come to learn that you all are really, really desperate for any information that we might provide. So, it is with great pride that the FFA Masters League presents:
King of FFA: III
FML|Renaud will be forced to try and defend his crown as the field tries to take him down. Will our two time king be able to hold off the uprising, or will the blood bath lead to a new king? That is something that we'll just have to wait and see. What I can tell you though, is some information about how this works.
I realize that there are probably a good number of players now who weren't around for KoFFA II, let alone KoFFA I. The idea is much more laid back than the FFA Masters seasons are, but no less challenging. In fact, I suspect that a lot of people will find it even more difficult to take home a crown as opposed to a title. Regardless, both distinctions are impressive feats, and anyone that wants to have a shot at this crown had better be in top shape.
Now, we listened to your feedback about what you wanted from FML Season 21, and while we aren't starting that up yet, we have incorporated quite a bit of your advice and we'll be testing certain things out. The format for King of FFA: III can be found below, and it should adequately explain how this will work. As always though, if anyone has any questions feel free to ask them in the comments!
Format
KoFFA III will have 6 rounds to it.
Round 1 - 12 Player Round 2 - 4 Players with a timer added in. Round 3 - 6 Players Round 4 - 8 Players Round 5 - 6 Players Round 6 - 4 Players with a timer added in.
Finals - 6 Players.
Players are allowed to just show up for the games, however we encourage them to sign up beforehand. This will guarantee you a spot in the game should we have a ton of people, and will also allow us an opportunity to prepare beforehand for the matches. Signups will be posted a few days before the weekend.
Each round will consist of games being held at a set time on each day of the weekend. For example, on Friday the games may start at 20 CET, on Saturday 22 CET and on Sunday 18 CET. These are just arbitrary times I made up for the sake of example. What will happen once the time rolls around is that we'll host the games, and those that signed up will get the first shot at them. Once everyone that signed up and showed up is in the game, those that just showed up will fill the games. We'll start as many games as we have people for. So if 16 people show up for Round 1 that means we'd only be able to start one 12 player game. However if 16 people show up for round 2, we'll start 4 4 player games.
Scoring
The exact scoring for each round will not be released yet as we are fine tuning it, however there will be more points awarded for the games with more people in them. Players are allowed to play in multiple games over the weekend, and their highest score will be counted for them. However, one and only one score will be counted per round, not a sum of the scores. Should a player win in their first match they will not be allowed to play later on in that round unless desperately needed so that we can prevent drama about players suiciding those that it would be beneficial to do so for. Also, players who have not yet played will always take priority over someone who has. We want to encourage as many players as possible to play!
Timing
The start for KoFFA III will be imminent. At the moment we are just doing some last minute testing on maps to ensure that we'll be able to implement some new features that we want to! We expect these to provide an enhanced viewing experience for our observers, but we want to be 100% sure that the maps are fully functional before we start. That being said we're confident they're in good shape now, and it's just a matter of finalizing it.
More details will be announced shortly, but we wanted to get people excited for our next event! Let us know what you think in the comments, feedback is always welcome.
Well, we've been teasing Season 21 for long enough, and we're happy to announce the format today! Dates are TBD, however this weekend should provide an update on that. So, without further ado:
Season 21 Format
Rounds - Season 21 will feature 6 different rounds. This is to extend the amount of games that matter for every player, as we feel that in some past seasons round 4 comes about and a lot of players have nothing to play for.
Players - Season 21 will feature 16 of the best players in FFA. This season all but 4 of the players will be hand selected by the admin team. The remaining 4 player slots will be determined by a large FFA tournament. The 4 players who make the finals make the season! The winner of that FFA tournament will also get a special advantage going into Season 21!
Maps - Season 21 we've decided to go back to preset maps, however this season we'll announce them at the start of the season. We have carefully balanced the maps to include 2 small maps, 2 medium maps, and 2 large maps. The breakdown of what rounds they'll be used in is below.
Small Maps FML Emerald - This map will be used in Round 2 FML Twisted Meadows - Round 5
Timers - We've seen quite a few good arguments both in favor and against adding in timers to FML. As some of you probably noticed with the updated map that Worpex created this weekend, there is in fact a timer on it! While we greatly appreciate all of your feedback, it has always been our prerogative at FML to push the envelope and try new things. It's for that reason that we can safely announce Season 21 will be the season of timers. They'll work as follows.
Small Maps - 65 minute timer Medium Maps - 75 minute timer Large Maps - 90 Minute timer
We feel that these are reasonable amounts of time, and it will help to increase the diversity of our games. We'd love to hear your feedback though, so much sure to let us know!
After asking for applicants for the open FML admin spot, it has been decided that Magadansky will be forced to drop his previous 3 letter tag of XoZ and replace it with the unfortunate acronym, FML! Maga has been around FML and FFA in general for just about as long as anyone at this point, and he has always been a staple of the community. An active chatter, and ever present observer, and a player who has taken it upon himself to lighten our burden without us asking before, it seems like a natural fit that Magadansky would join the FFA Masters League team.
Not only will this improve the efficiency of FML, but it will also drastically increase the skill level of the admin team! What we hope to gain by adding Maga to the team is an increased presence in the community (a lot of the FML team no longer plays FFA, and we'd like an active player on the team), more admin presence at matches, and a fresh perspective. We have every confidence that Magadansky will provide these and much more!
I've included the Game Time episode with Maga below for those who'd like to know more about him, and feel free to congratulate him (or us) in the comments!
No, we aren't going to pay you. That being said, I've taken a new job and don't have spare time during the week to commentate on FFA or solo games. Soso has done a wonderful job at it, and honestly is probably more valuable than I am to the FML twitch channel at this point. That being said, he can't always be available, and when he is he might prefer to have a cocaster. The scene is coming back to life and FML has done a nice job of staying intertwined with it all. Ideally I'd like to add as many people as possible for both casting and streaming, so if you have any interest then let me know! We've had a ton of great people express interest in the past, but computers and internet have been a problem
FML is once again looking for an admin. With Persuade perusing a career in modeling now, we hope to find another admin willing to take his place. Preference will be given to admins who are able to attend matches during the week (usually between 18-22CET / 12-16EST) but that is not a requirement.
Admin Responsibilities Include:
- Helping with the brainstorming process for FML seasons and events - Attending FML Matches - Helping players schedule their matches.
Applicants should be well known in the community, and not have any black marks on their record. A history of timeliness and responsibility is important.
Please send the application to ffamasters@gmail.com and include the following information.
Account Name: Skype: Previous Admin Experience if Any: What Would you Bring to the FFAMasters Staff?: General Availability:
Well, it's been a few days since we crowned our Season 20 winner, and a big congratulations again to Tyrant66. That does mean it's time to start thinking about Season 21. We've had numerous comments asking when it will start, and we hope to be able to provide a rough overview here.
When is Season 21 going to start? At the moment it appears FML will start sometime in mid to late April, with applications opening up 2 weeks beforehand. This means that applications will start somewhere between April 1st - April 15th.
What will the Season 21 format be? We'll be going back to our roots most likely. For those that have been playing FML for a while they'll remember a time when the seasons were smaller. We don't have exact numbers at the moment, but you'll know before the season starts ^-^. There will be at least one major change added in though.
Well folks, it feels like there's a somewhat overdue and important announcement here! That announcement would be that Valefort has won the fourth season of FML Bets. Congratulations Valefort, and that is all.
Oh, right and Tyrant66 won the FML Season 20 finals, and is now inducted into the FML Hall of Fame. He becomes the only Undead besides his fellow finalist Magadansky to ever win an FML finals, no small feat.
After a brutally long semi-finals game that Tyrant barely managed to squeak out, he came into the finals as somewhat of an underdog due to a less than stellar semi-finals performance, and being the only one of the 4 players who didn't directly qualify for the finals. However, he came out guns blazing when he took down Eshan in the first 15 minutes of the game. Despite starting in a surrounded position, Tyrant never lost his head and executed his strategy as well as he possibly could have.
Early on it appeared that he would be behind in hero levels since Magadansky had some of the best heroes from creeping I've ever seen on Twilight, and then proceeded to start to tome J33. Things became even more interested when Tyrant and Magadansky started to duke it out, leaving J33 to hoard by himself. The first fights went in Maga's favor due to some superior garg micro, and higher hero levels. However, as Tyrant was hitting one of Magadansky's expansions the unthinkable happened: Maga lost his DK since he didn't have another TP on it.
Things snowballed quickly for Magadansky as he soon lost another hero followed by the majority of his base. It's quite possible that he was only saved from complete destruction thanks to J33 attacking Tyrant's base and forcing Tyrant to TP to it thus saving Magadansky to fight another day. This is where the game entered the typical threeway phase, and while there was some mining, hoarding, and manipulation there also continued to be quick fights and skirmishes. It quickly became apparent that Tyrant's heroes were pulling away. As Tyrant tried to finish off J33 though, Magadansky struck at the perfect time and took out a large portion of Tyrant's base and army. By this point both Maga and J33 were down to their last armies, however Tyrant had gold.
The problem for Tyrant though was the he was foodblocked! It briefly looked like Maga might end Tyrant which would have been a travesty after how well he had played. For reasons unknown though, Magadansky tped back to his base, allowing Tyrant to rebuild both his food cap and his army. A base race between all three players began at this point, and ended up with Tyrant only have 2 buildings, J33 being defeated by building kill, and Magadansky having a necropolis that was hidden in the woods. It looked like the odds might have tipped into Maga's favor with the well hidden building, however it quickly became apparent that Tyrant had better scouting than any of us had given him credit for. He quickly went straight for the final necropolis.
It looked like Tyrant had it in the bag, however he was caught out of position when Magadansky tped in and started to destroy his army. Tyrant tped out in the nick of time, however he was now only a little above Magadansky's supply. Tyrant managed to catch Maga slightly off guard for a split second, sleeping the Death Knight and killing of Maga's lich. From here it quickly became apparent that Tyrant was going to kill off Maga's building or he himself was going to die trying. Without a Lich Maga was unable to prevent the building kill though, and walked away from another FML Finals without his 4th title.
The story for Tyrant66 ends quite a bit happier though, as another up and coming player pulled off a huge win that most people didn't expect. Someone who was once considered a rather average FFA player has rapidly ascended into the top ranks of FFA. The past year or two has really shown that the dedication that Tyrant has put in to improving his game has paid off. So, with that, we all congratulate you Tyrant, well done!
Tyrant66
***Yeah I know that some of this is not in the proper order or may have some artistic liberties, sue me. If you want to see it all live then go download the replay!
Just a reminder that this season of FML Bets will end with today's game! zTsoso is in first place, so it's a race to see if anyone is capable of catching him. There's no prestige in being second, so go big or go home.
The eagerly anticipated PlayFFA Cup V is only 9 days away! The registrations have now opened and everyone should make sure that they go ahead and sign up for it here.
For those not familiar with the PlayFFA Cups, they're a series of FFA cups with significant cash prizes and some of the largest sign up lists of players out there. With big names from both the FFA and solo communities it guarantees an interesting day!
Make sure to guarantee your spot and sign up now! Sign Ups
It's been a while since we've had a showmatch, and in the spirit of the next PlayFFA cup coming up I decided that FML and myself should put on some entertainment for you! So, we will be doing so by having a showmatch with 4 of the best FFA players in the game right now, and 4 of the best solo players (or at least the ones that are willing to play FFA ^-^). We will announce 3 players today, 3 on Friday and the final two on Saturday! The showmatch will be on:
Fantastic article/writeup from chobopeon on Team Liquid's forums. Source
His introduction can be found below, highly recommend everyone give it a look. It's not completed yet, but we're getting close to the WC3 era!
Quote
Last month, I was peeing in the urinal next to Artosis when we locked eyes and began to speak to one another. All good stories begin like that. Dan acknowledged me by way of saying “Chobopeon! This guy is like the third or forth best journalist in esports!”
Ouch. I used to be cool, right? People used to retweet me, no big deal.
However, after leaving MLG, I fell off the face of the earth. Well, in recent weeks I’ve found my way back to the pale blue dot and back to esports. I’ve been working on The Executives with Jason Lake from Complexity and Odee from Dignitas. Now, I’m getting ready to put out my own content.
“The Chobopeon Show” will premiere this Monday at 7pm Eastern (Midnight CET) with “A History of Esports Part 1”. The episode is an hour long. I’ll release the entire text of the show with the new episode.
For those of you who know radio shows like This American Life and Radiolab, you’ll recognize the big influence those shows are on this new project. For those of you used to Live of 3 and State of the Game, this will be something new for esports. I think you’ll like it.
So, new show on Twitch this Monday. If you can’t make it live, it’s the kind of show you can watch any time. However, if we have enough live viewers, we may take Skype calls and tweets (@chobopeon, duh) for those of you who like talking about esports history.
All in all, this is over 60,000 words dedicated to esports. If you see a mistake or anything you'd like changed, please let me know. I'd love for more relevant images and videos to be added.
If you'd like to translate or repost the thing, please ask first. The text may not fully match the spoken portion because the text is being continuously updated.
All feedback is welcome. Thanks for checking it out.
Today something happened that I suspect isn't a big deal for most people. Hell, some people manage this in a single day. What I'm talking about is that we've gained 300 subscribers on YouTube! While this is not a big number in the overall scheme of things, it means a lot to FML as well as me personally. The WarCraft III community is not a huge one, though I think we've continued to prove it is a dedicated one, and to have so many people regularly want to listen to me, Purebe, Soso, Maga, etc prattle on for hours at a time is somewhat hard to comprehend. Our average video time is around an hour, that's almost 4% of a day!
I'd also like to think that we've come a long way in terms of production value. Our very first shoutcast on the channel can be found below. I'm not embedding it purely for the comedic value (though there certainly is some to be found), but also as a reminder of how awesome the community is. If I randomly saw that I suspect I'd never watch anything by the creators of that again. Instead most people were supportive and gave suggestions on how to improve. Following that video I've embedded one of our newer videos. While I wouldn't call it perfect by any means, I think it's safe to say we've come a long way.
Thanks to YouTube, we also have some pretty cool analytic tools at our disposal. Below are some of the more notable ones.
Minutes watched - 509,795. This is the equivalent of 354 Days and 35 minutes. You love-able bastards have really spent almost a full year watching our content. That's unbelievable.
1255 Likes, 6 Dislikes. Now, certainly no need to go start spamming that dislike button =D However, again I'm blown away by the overall positive attitude the community has taken. I've never really thought of the gaming culture as a supportive one, but I can say without a doubt that the FML family is.
Videos over 1k views - 2. However we have several others that are getting very close, and I hope the next time we have occasion for one of these writeups that this stat in particular will be quite a bit higher.
Views - 35,128. A surprisingly small number for the amount of time watched. This means that the average view accounts for 14 minutes of view time. This might not seem like a lot, but given that some of these views are people clicking and moving on after watching for a few seconds, or are for the trailers this is huge.
Comments - 485. Now, this is by no means a bad amount, however it's something I want to work on increasing as we go forward. And I don't mean with negative comments haha. However, it's absolutely wonderful to get feedback on what we're doing right, what we're doing wrong. Even if it's just dropping a line to say you enjoyed it we love to hear from the audience as you all are the reason that we're doing it!
Now, that brings us onto the other platform where we've been doing very well recently. Twitch.TV! A large part of the reason we're doing so well is the wonderful zTsoso who has been streaming up a storm and gaining followers all the time.
We currently have ~360 followers on Twitch (site isn't working properly so can't grab the exact number at the moment) and 28,700 views. First I'll say that's an incredible amount of followers for the limited number of views that we have. I hope that I can say with confidence that it's because we are producing quality content and people want to come back and watch it again and again! Second I'll say that the number of views we have is ridiculously low, and I'll take the blame for that. Twitch is a different beast from YouTube and until recently I've been treating them pretty much the same. On YouTube I can get away with just uploading videos now and then (though it works better when they're constantly coming), however to really build up a Twitch fan base you have to be consistently streaming, and it needs to be for extended periods of time.
So I'm hoping to fix this, but I know that I'm not going to be able to do it on my own. Instead the plan is to recruit the players from the community as an opportunity to entertain the community while showcasing their skills on a prominent platform. Renaud was the first to take up the idea, but real life has interfered with his time (a terrible excuse I think). zTsoso was the next to take up streaming his playing, and has done a fantastic job. Easily able to pull in 50+ viewers while streaming his games, he's gained countless followers for the channel. Junkerz, Alien, and Maga have all shown interest in streaming on the channel as well and we welcome their additions! The more streamers the better, so if you're interested in streaming on the FML account shoot me a PM.
Our last platform is one that's struggling quite a bit more. This may just be due to the nature of it, however our Facebook Page still hasn't hit 100 followers. I won't say this is a huge shock, however it's something we do want to improve upon because it's a valuable tool for getting information out there! If you have any suggestions on improving it then please let us know in the comments.
Lastly, we have started a fundraising project for FML. Proceeds from this will go towards server/bot costs, organizing events, and improving the quality of our productions. More information can be found out on our Patreon Page.
I've been rambling on long enough now though I think, so I'll just wrap this up but coming full circle to how I started it and saying simply this; Thank You. Thank you to each and every one of you who has watched our videos. Thank you to each and every one of you who has played in the league. Thank you to each and every one of you who visits this site and makes the community as wonderful as it is today. And thank you to all those who have helped us along the way. The list of people who have contributed in some way or another is too long to be personally addressed, however you all know who you are so know that we appreciate it.
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FML|Renaud will be forced to try and defend his crown as the field tries to take him down. Will our two time king be able to hold off the uprising, or will the blood bath lead to a new king? That is something that we'll just have to wait and see. What I can tell you though, is some information about how this works.
Tyrant66. That does mean it's time to start thinking about Season 21. We've had numerous comments asking when it will start, and we hope to be able to provide a rough overview here. 
Valefort has won the fourth season of FML Bets. Congratulations Valefort, and that is all.
Tyrant66
htrt.
WarchiefRich
Seksi
Noexxx as backup player)