2020 Review

[FML|HighTac]

I wanted to take some time to take a look back at this turbulent year 2020 from an FFA perspective.

Reforged and W3Champions

Many of us saw the disaster coming well before the actual release, when Blizzard dropped their Reforged beta around October 2019. Still, there was some hope that what we played on the PTR would not resemble the release version. As we know now, it did. In retrospect, I’m still quite certain that Warcraft 3 wouldn’t be more alive today without Reforged. Sure, we would have preferred a better game and positive buzz, but it is what it is. The FML community was always able to adapt and survive in their niche.

Maybe it was naive of me to think that this niche could blend flawlessly into the broader Warcraft 3 environment. When Pad first created W3Champions I realized that this would be our only chance to ever implement a maintained FFA ladder again. While mostly before my time, so many players embraced FFArena as the gold standard of FFA ladder history. On one hand, the hype around a custom W3Champions ladder was great for Warcraft 3 as a whole, but on the other, FFA not really a priority for the development team at the time.

Around the mid of May, Pad decided to ask by poll again what W3Champions features people would be most interested in. And while FFA sneakily found its way into the poll, I was doubtful if it could make it to the top of the rankings. The following days were proof of the dedication of the FML community and I was very proud that we pulled this through and raised 800 €. And not even a month later, we had what we wanted. After 1vs1 and 2vs2, FFA became the third available mode on W3champions and much more players than I anticipated were willing to give it a try.

Sure, FFA is not for everyone and probably never has been. I was pleased to see the attention for our beloved game mode, but also disappointed how quickly some people made their judgement. What wouldn’t have been an issue a decade ago, was now amplified significantly via Twitch, Reddit and Twitter. Of course, it is much more difficult to take wins on the highest solo level than winning an FFA match with whatever players. But that doesn’t mean every skillful Warcraft 3 player grasps FFA at first glance. Ironically, ToD was referencing the Dunning-Kruger effect on his stream back then, in the context of backseat gaming. I guess we can conclude that FFA does not work for people without a certain level of frustration tolerance to cope with teaming and manip. Also, if you stream for many viewers without a delay, you summon sad stream-sniping creatures that show up and try to ruin your game.

On the flipside, I was disappointed how short-sighted many FML community members behaved in ladder games and on the W3Champions Discord server. Sure, it’s very annoying if new players pretend to know it all and spread bullshit about FFA, but we all started at some point. Who should serve as an ambassador for FFA if not us? To this very day, community members try to get each other banned on a ladder that is already dead. I’m sure that it could have survived longer without being sabotaged from our very own people. I guess we just can’t have nice things.

Events and Outlook    

In some ways, the FML year 2020 was a full success. Unlike with some of the seasons before, I had a lot of fun with FML Season 31. Interesting players, exciting games and a much greater reach. In total, our semi-finals and the final got more than 50k views on the Back2warcraft YouTube channel. For a brief moment in time, it felt as if FFA had arrived in the Warcraft 3 mainstream. Not sure if that was ever someone’s goal, but it felt good to see that many more people could appreciate FFA as we do.

While we only had one FML season, there was a smooth Team Battle Royale 5 this summer, the Quarantine Cup, Ugri’s FFA Challenge, a map contest and we are ending the year with the Team Battle Deluxe.

As I learned early in my three years of admining FML, there is no perfect way to run this league. Sometimes there are unsolvable dilemmas, but even if the decision is obvious, endless discussions are always mandatory. I guess that’s predictable of a bunch of players that is willing to play 3- or 4- or even 5-hour matches. It might be annoying, but I never expected to be appreciated or liked for what I do, as long as I felt the necessary respect to run this thing. I still do from most people, but my joy of FFA games has declined. Maybe it’s just a phase, maybe it’s not.

In my eyes, the quality of games always depended on three player-dependent factors. The skill, the level of “tryhardness” and the willingness to invest gold and play aggressively. No one wants to watch or participate in games were all players are only sitting and chatting for two hours. Sure, it’s an easy way to win games, even for good players, if they pretend to be broke with a 20k gold bank. Maybe it’s just a general lack of skill that prevents it from being punished more often. Either way, I wish there were fewer useless chat battles in games, especially from players that are capable to win without them. When I started to play FFA, manip was my best bet to take a win here and there. But I was fortunate to play and watch FFA with enough skilled players to realize that less chat means more fun for everyone. And in a small scene like this, everyone can influence the way FFA is played and perceived.

The same applies to the community in general. There has always been some sort of toxicity and trolling in FFA, but it is almost all there is in our Discord chat nowadays. Not sure if that is a welcoming or interesting environment for anyone but the handful of active chatters. As long as it is no hate speech or racist stuff, I won’t spend my spare time any longer to moderate it.

What will 2021 bring? I don’t know. While I still love FFA, there are private reasons that may prevent me from being overly active, at least in the first half of the year. Time will show who steps up or how active the inhouse scene is going to be during that period of time. I want to thank all of you that participated and supported FML in 2020. Have a good transition to 2021 and good luck, have fun!

[ena1337]

Thanks HighTac.

You are very important for FML!

[junkerzam]

Thanks for all your efforts hightac, you have almost single handedly (credits to other admins as well) kept the scene alive the last 2-3 years.

The discord server is a sad place these days, you would think you entered a locker room for 14y olds but sadly its grown ups discussing anal sex, gay jokes, what hot girls they would do or not and other wc3 related topics. This mentality obviously taints ladder games as well and until most of these trolls are rooted out, understandably no new players will join.

For the game format, maybe a timer could increase activity on ladder. Most players coming from the solo scene will leave the game 30min into the 3h sitfest, its also hard to play the occasional ladder ffa when u dont know if u can commit your time or if u will have to leave because gradient hides trees in every corner of the map. These games can be saved for FML/TBR etc

[FML|red7z7]

I was very grateful to find a very active community still enjoying FFA when I came back earlier this year. I was drawn in by the map making contest and stayed around to play in TBR 5 - both very fun events that helped me stay entertained through the pandemic. Of course I really appreciate all the work you've done to keep FFA afloat Hightac!

Here's to keeping the format and community alive for another few years. Cheers!

[FML|Mage]

Late to this, but just wanted to echo everyone's thanks for keeping the FFA scene alive for the past few years.  I think most of us would have burned out much quicker, and some of us have done so.  The work that you've put into a sometimes unwilling and ungracious community speaks volumes about you, and there's certainly no doubt in my mind that the main reason FFA is alive in any competitive state today is thanks to these efforts.