BuzzerBeater Forums

My point is that deathnail is not only fatalistic, but hyperbolic. People have gone on and on about this LI thing, and at the highest levels I feel it is a valid point given the current players in the game. I also believe that, given time, a change in the current training best practices paradigm, and inclination, someone could put together a team that would defeat an LI team.

My real point, however, is that since the vast majority of teams play in d.iii and lower, I think that there are a great variety of tactics that can and do succeed. That's where I believe you to be misinformed. You consider only the competitions for the top teams to be important or "major", when actually the opposite is the truth. The d.iii and d.iv leagues are equally important and "major" for the people involved in them, and there are far more of those. It is fairly selfish of you to consider only the top level leagues and the last rounds of the Cup as the only "major" competitions. Even a cursory glance through the finals of last season's d.iv leagues in the USA, Italy, Poland, or France shows that a number of tactics were used and successful.

If people get to the highest levels, discover they cannot find ways to either compete or keep themselves entertained, they leave. Sad, but understandable. I myself enjoy the game because it is a daily diversion for me, so I won't be leaving anytime soon, even though I have been playing in a non-competitive tiny country since season 3. Actually, the user numbers in Thailand have increased slightly lately, and the caliber of teams in d.1 has gotten more competitive, so the entertainment value has actually increased the last two or three seasons.

And finally, the number of users right now is 49746. Two years ago, the number was roughly 50000. Four years ago, it was about 40000. I just don't see huge movement away from the game over any significant historical time frame.

Is there room for growth? Questionable, Since the number of users has been roughly static over the last four years.
Are there areas for improvement? Obviously. Especially in new features, as Yellow Cake endlessly reminds us.

Is LI a deathnail? I don't think so.
That is my point.

i don't think that it is such a deathnail, motion is not so much weaker ;) And the first reaction on the new engine, which hold those two season was you can not play inside anymore then we adjust the roster and say the opposite. I was enver so freaky about the superiority, since mostly i could play both tactics maybe not at the same level but not so far away from each other.

What is the LI advantage?

I've seen some motion teams go up early with good shooting and go cold in the 3rd.

Engine seems to be bugged when it comes to third quarter. Often enough you will see timeouts after five seconds, which makes no sense at all.

Same for the hot/cold streak - happens onely in 3rd quarter. I dont think it has anything to do with tactics or stamina, but I will watch closely whenever I see it happen in the future.

If you cant beat them, join them - I know its lame, but if LI is the way to go, then the easy way to fix the problem is to play LI - as boring as this tactic might be.

Great post, and thanks for the timeline.