Denied Monthly Featured Replays

[Hippopotas]

Just gonna crosspost this from YFC since nobody else has.

Basically, some group of (currently undetermined) trusted/experienced smogon users pick out maybe 8-10 notable replays from some sort of submission post. I was thinking a post in the PS forum, where each user could submit 1-2 replays per issue. Then, each replay could be summarized as to what was notable in it, and key parts to pay attention to.

I don't think there will necessarily be a lack of submissions, as people are posting their battle links in the sim chat all the time, but so far I know only me and Crestfall have volunteered to sift through the submissions.

 

[colours]

If it's just you and Crestfall, then I'd personally want a bit more man power to help with this project, should one of you feel unable to complete the task in the near future. I'd love to help myself, but being someone who doesn't battle at all, I'm really not the best person to make summaries. That's just about my only concern with this.

I also assume these 8-10 replays obviously encompass every major tier and including OMs as well, or are OMs not going to be included in this? Just a clarification of what's eligible for these Monthly Featured Replays, since that'd certainly help.

 

[scalarmotion]

I don't really battle either so I can't really help with replay selection (even though I suggested this, oops), but I'd be willing to help with some writing and maybe a css format for this.

 

[Hippopotas]

I also assume these 8-10 replays obviously encompass every major tier and including OMs as well, or are OMs not going to be included in this? Just a clarification of what's eligible for these Monthly Featured Replays, since that'd certainly help.

Hmm, OMs can be included, but the chance of an OM replay being picked is likely lower due to a smaller audience that will appreciate them. This does emphasize the need for more people willing to staff this project though, since I doubt two people can cover so many metagames. I'll ask around the staff chan.

 

[colours]

Just wondering, does the user in question have to be a PS! staff member? The reason I ask is primarily because of this:

Basically, some group of (currently undetermined) trusted/experienced smogon users

Which implies that they don't necessarily have to be PS! staff, but I'm curious. If not, then I'd suggest perhaps recruiting some help outside of PS staff, maybe, if that doesn't work out? As I said in the staff chan, a kind of project of this magnitude, while on the surface seems to be relatively simple, needs quite a sizable team to give knowledgeable summaries and to keep things interesting and fresh with each month.

I'd also suggest that, if OMs were to be included, that whatever Other Metagame is chosen for that replay is alternated within every month, at random. For example, one month might be an interesting STABmons match, another month might be an exciting Monotype replay, and the next would be PU, etc. Just some food for thought, if that makes things easier.

 

[Hippopotas]

Actually, going off of that idea, I just thought of accepting one replay from each major metagame, and then have one for an OM, one for the OMOTM, and then one or two for random unorthodox tactics or whatnot (such as the 11-poke chomp sweep at the top of the current list). However, the last part could be taken out, since it could be argued that this could fight in the other categories. This would result in a total of 6-8 replays total.

I feel like this would make finding people to judge the replays much easier, especially if we asked submissions to be submitted with a tag of which metagame should be included.

One downside I can see is varied participation between metagames, because many more people play OU than anything else. Maybe OU deserves 2 replays or something?

Here's my current plan:
2 OU / 1 UU / 1 RU / 1 NU / 1 LC / 1 Doubles / 1 OM / 1 OMOTM (Total: 7)



Besides this, I found a potential problem with the 1-2 submissions per player - namely, that people will wait until the last minute to decide on their best replay, flooding the judges with entries that they don't have the time to go through since there would be like one day left or something. A deadline could be implemented, say, 1 week before the Player deadline for entries so that judges can have adequate time to review the replays.

Edit: whoops, forgot to say: no, the judges don't have to be PS staff; I'd be willing to take on anyone who a staff member recommends or otherwise has enough accomplishments in their specified area of interest (such as tour wins, elo, etc.).

 

[colours]

Before I comment on the rest: can we include Doubles and LC, or is that not feasible? 1 Doubles and 1 LC match should suffice.

 

[Hippopotas]

Whoops, thought I included LC. And I thought Doubles would fall under OM? I'll include it for now anyway. I'll edit the post to include them.

 

[colours]

Antemortem, do you have any comments on this?

 

[antemortem]

I don't suggest you guys undertake choosing replays from a metagame that you have no knowledge in. To mitigate potential issues, why not choose one or two metagames (maybe three: one you each know, then another you don't) and choose a member from the community that knows the third metagame and can help you write on that replay?

 

[colours]

Agreeing with Dave here. If it's too much of a hassle building a big enough team to cover all of the major metagames + OMs, then it would be wise to start small and go with the metas that you guys know the best. Those who wish to showcase their own standout battle replays of other formats are welcome to join the staffing team in order to do so, so they can write knowledgeable summaries of their own.

 

[Crestfall]

I don't suggest you guys undertake choosing replays from a metagame that you have no knowledge in. To mitigate potential issues, why not choose one or two metagames (maybe three: one you each know, then another you don't) and choose a member from the community that knows the third metagame and can help you write on that replay?

Then we'll need more volunteers, I personally don't mind extending the services out to non-badged or non-staff users as long as they have proper metagame knowledge and would be willing to volunteer. Thoughts on this? Or should we restrict it to 'known' users only (ex. Barton could help for RU but perhaps we wouldn't use a random voice from the room etc.)

 

[Slayer95]

What about making this vote-based? That way we can get some degree of interaction with the readers of The Player other than for the interviews.

 

[colours]

Making this voting based would be cool with me. The more interacting that we have with the readers, the better. Also, after voting, we could put the featured replay on twitter, maybe? Depending on whether or not it's significant enough.

 

[Hippopotas]

Yeah I'm not really involved with the social media aspect of PS, so I don't really know who to contact. A twitter post for a featured replay would be awesome though!

Anyway, I'm assuming the vote would be placed in the PS! general forum? Or would it be here? They would be voting on the tiers to include, right?

 

[colours]

tennisace, would this be okay with you? Like, say, if a certain battle replay won the most popular vote or whatever, would it be significant enough to tweet about it?

Uh, the thing is, because you're writing an article about it, I'd assume it'd be in The Player main forum. After players have picked out which replays interest them the most, we write out the descs and other stuff and be done with it for that month. o.o

Apologies if that doesn't make sense; I think this is rather straightforward, though!

 

[tennisace]

yeah sure this would be a neat thing to do i guess

i'd prefer it to be like a replay of the week type thing where you just tweet out a link but if you want it in the player then yeah go for it.

 

[colours]

Weekly can also be done in a sense; like one week it would be Ubers Replay of the week, and then OU, UU etc. Problem is, The Player is released once a month, so it can't be done here, which is quite a problem.

Scene Vacate Antemortem, isn't there a way around this, though? Or does it have to be monthly? I'd rather the material be fresh and keep people interested l so they'd be looking forward to it instead of waiting all the way until the end of the month for it which does seem like quite an unnecessarily long time just to see some replays.

 

[colours]

i am fucking awesome

[12:24:03] @shaymin: after a period of time, the polls close, the thread is closed
[12:24:06] @shaymin: and a new thread is made
[12:24:08] %Hippopotas: well
[12:24:12] %Hippopotas: that would be kinda spammy
[12:24:18] %Hippopotas: or does it happen on the forums al ot?
[12:24:26] @shaymin: well
[12:24:35] %Hippopotas: I was thinking something like the OMOTM thread, but then I realized it could get confusing
[12:24:54] @shaymin: there's also the option of closing the thread and just announcing it
[12:25:05] @shaymin: actually
[12:25:06] @shaymin: hm
[12:25:16] @shaymin: it could be like the OMOTM thread
[12:25:48] @shaymin: we can just
[12:25:51] @shaymin: update the OP
[12:25:54] %Hippopotas: yeah
[12:25:55] @shaymin: with weekly winners
[12:25:56] @shaymin: that'd be easy
[12:26:02] @shaymin: to keep track of them and shit
[12:26:16] @shaymin: YES THIS IS ENTIRELY POSSIBLE ok i will make a post about it

So yeah this is how I imagine things going. The thing is, we'd have to scrap an actual poll seeing that it's going to be a big megathread or whatever, but other than that, seems fairly easy to set this up!

also this;

Hide

[12:36:11] &Slayer95: assuming there aren't like infinite voters :x
[12:36:25] &Slayer95: also people nominating replays should post a small description
[12:36:39] @shaymin: hm
[12:36:40] &Slayer95: emphasis in small

 

[Hippopotas]

As a sidenote, who would be in charge of editing the replays page on the sim, and who is writing the PS Latest News next?

 

[colours]

I'm not sure about the former, but as far as I know, Detective Dell handles PS Latest News.

 

[Vacate]

This is very much possible. It can be a weekly thing with stuff going on social media. It can still be in The Player, though, as we can go for the last of one month and the first 3 of the next and analyse them in an article. Thoughts?

 

[colours]

It can still be in The Player, though, as we can go for the last of one month and the first 3 of the next and analyse them in an article.

Just wondering, can you go into more detail about this? Meaning, how would there would an article on it, and how would this work?

 

[Crestfall]

I imagine it'd be akin to warstories perhaps shaymin. Let's say I'm doing the OU replay, I'd only be writing on that tier replay and trying to describe the thought process from both players to explain their moves/switches etc.

However I don't think funny replays that win need to be given too much space in the article. Unless magic or I wanted to perhaps analyse it in a satirical manner.

 

[Hippopotas]

Just wondering, can you go into more detail about this? Meaning, how would there would an article on it, and how would this work?

I'd assume they would be posted (on twitter and maybe on-site) at weekly intervals, it's just that The Player would provide a convenient collection of them, in case people either missed them or just preferred seeing them in one place.

However I don't think funny replays that win need to be given too much space in the article. Unless magic or I wanted to perhaps analyse it in a satirical manner.

Yeah, wins using extreme cheese or gimmicks are self-explanatory, and adding a description would likely spoil the surprise/novelty of the replay.