2nd SIM Olympics

[Carole Hanson]

Eric I feel choosing one's team wouldn't work. Here's a scenario:

We have player 1 who is a very successful and kind player, very much sought after. This player is asked by player 2 to join their team. They agree as player 1 likes player 2 and they reckon the team is quite strong!

The next day, player 3 asks player 1 to join their team as player 3 and 1 are very good SIM friends. However player 1 must tell player 3 that they already have a team and cannot join theirs. Player 3 calls it betrayal and the two players have a massive SIM row leading to The Steward having to sort out massive issues.

See what I mean? Also, some players may get left out which wouldn't be particularly nice.

[Tyler Anthony]

So how exactly does this sim Olympics works.

[Amanda O'Brien]

Happy to play but the teams must be even - and if you have a team member that drops out then can there be a pool of reserves?

[Laura Cameron]

Neither way seems particularly desirable to me. Option 1, some team gets screwed over by having me as their "veteran". Option 2, I don't end up on a team at all.

[Amanda O'Brien]

Dont forget that time difference will play a big role - I am 8hrs AHEAD of the game time but 12hrs BEHIND the Australian players..... it does make it tricky to meet deadlines.

[Madelene Gilbert]

I just thought of this, surprised no one mentioned it before. I'd like to see a draft pick a la NFL or something similar. Team captains chosen either at random or from those who volunteer, then round picks from the remaining pool of players. Status be darned, because I found that was unbalanced last time.

[Lauren Haggerty]

That's probably even worse than picking your own. I'd feel awful if I were picked last! At least if we formed our own teams we'd either have to stick with certain rules and so *would* have to add people that might not necessarily have a group of friends to join with or there would probably be some kind of place were people could post "We need two more people" or "I don't have a team" and someone would say "Join ours!"


Though I didn't play, I do agree that the status thing didn't seem to work very well last time.

There really just doesn't seem to be a good way to pick teams, so I'll just wait to see what the Steward wants to do before I decide to play this go around or not.

[Gigi Gofaster]

It might be kind of fun if we had regional teams, like in the RL Olympics. At least that way time zones wouldn't get in the way of teams communicating with each other.

As someone who always gets picked last for teams, I don't mind that at all. but I would hate the responsibility of being selected to represent a level of player I don't feel I have the skills to match.

[Eric Nalbone]

Eric I feel choosing one's team wouldn't work. Here's a scenario:

We have player 1 who is a very successful and kind player, very much sought after. This player is asked by player 2 to join their team. They agree as player 1 likes player 2 and they reckon the team is quite strong!

The next day, player 3 asks player 1 to join their team as player 3 and 1 are very good SIM friends. However player 1 must tell player 3 that they already have a team and cannot join theirs. Player 3 calls it betrayal and the two players have a massive SIM row leading to The Steward having to sort out massive issues.

See what I mean? Also, some players may get left out which wouldn't be particularly nice.

Carole - I understand this, which is why I suggested a blend of the two methods if at all possible. The flip side is "I have a limited amount of time, I prefer not to be shoehorned into a group of people that I may or may not quickly and easily get along with, and I'd like to pick a group of people I know I can work with and can work with me. Otherwise I'll sit it out and simply avoid putting myself into a situation I could potentially wind up wanting out of halfway through the event." I know that ultimately there's no way to please everyone and I think the best approach is probably to just roll with what the majority seems to prefer, I'm just pointing out that there's two sides to the coin.

As I said, I'm unlikely to participate one way or the other since I have no ability to make the commitment that I'll be able to get to this each week (that decision could change based on what I learn about how this year's event will be structured!), but I just figured I'd put in my $0.02 for the side I'd fall on given my preference. I'm certainly not out to try and stir the pot, I just think there's two valid options and points to recommend each side - one had been getting significantly less play than the other, which makes it pretty clear where the majority lies, but there still IS a minority viewpoint to consider even if once carefully consider that option is dismissed in favor of assigned teams.

[Jack Meyer]

Hello All,

For us new people, could you please explain exactly what this is, and how you participate in it?????

Thank You

Jack

[Laura Ferguson]

The Equinics is a team competition. It was last run about two real life years ago. There were a series of "events" and the team with the most points at the end of the events won Wonder's last foal. Each team member raced that filly for half a SIM year, and then we bred her first foal before giving her back to the Steward. We're taking turns racing this baby, and then when she retires, we'll each get a foal, possibly two, out of her before she is pensioned.

Anyway, the events. Each team ended up with six to seven members. One member was among the top 50 in earnings - that was to make sure that Susie, Ara, Eric and I didn't all end up on the same team. One member was a newbie, one was a junior high, and the rest fit none of those categories. The first two events were a puzzle and a round of SIM trivia, if I remember correctly. We worked together to come up with a team answer for the team captain to submit. The next round was a round of workouts of unworked yearlings. Each team member had to submit one entry. You got points based on how fast your yearling worked a particular distance compared to the other team's yearlings. The next round was a series of races at different categories, some mixer races, a 2yo filly stakes (although the stakes may have been a separate event), and some allowances. Each team member had to submit at least one entry. The trick with the racing/workout categories was that you could give a horse to another team member, but that horse had to stay with that team member for at least the rest of the SIM year. The final event was a handicapping contest based on how well you could pick the exactas on several races.

One of the big problems last time was that some teams had trouble reaching consensus, other teams had several team members stop participating midway through, and in at least one of the events, the designated "captain" didn't submit the team's responses by the deadline. Some teams had problems with the deadlines - I think one or two required players to put in time during the week, rather than the weekend.

I would guess that there may be some tweaks to this year's edition to address some of those problems, but that was pretty much how the last one went. For that contest, there was a special thread in the Contest forum, which doesn't exist right now - otherwise I'd point you to for a better reference than my somewhat rusty memory. Hope that helps!

[Randell Johnson]

Count me in. I loved it last time.

[Jack Meyer]

Thanks Laura,

I understand most of it....sounds like a lot of fun....if this happens...count me in as a newbie...if im selected of course.

Jack

[Karl Smythe]

Maybe it would be fun to do a country (continent) simolympics.
example.
Australians together.
Europeans together.
Canadians, Western USA, Central USA, Eastern USA. South America and so forth.

It might work out the 'kinks' from the time difference.

[Tyler Anthony]

I am down with it, if I am selected as well.