I posted, recently, an article to cover the Season IV feedback and how it fed into Season V plans. As a follow-up to that article, there are a few other bits we wanted to communicate.
Match concessions
During the board meeting, we reviewed how BB2025 is rather harsh on (pre‑)match concessions. Given that we don’t have a widespread problem with unplayed fixtures, we agreed to soften the consequences for pre‑match concessions to be more like BB2020. Note: In-game concessions will continue to follow BB2025 as written.
The working proposal is to award a 1–0 result and 1 MVP awarded to the “winning” coach. Fans would behave exactly as described in the BB2025 rulebook, but we would ignore the rule that allows players to quit the team. A concession would still use a coach’s 1 ‘life’ per season.
Coaches will still resolve who is “at fault” for the match being unresolved, but they won’t need to liaise to start/finish the match on TourPlay, which can be a painful process for coaches when done remotely. A TourPlay admin will resolve the match and award the TD and MVP as per the “winning” coach’s choice.
Of course, there is always the caveat that there could be scenarios which fall outside of the above process and require an alternative solution… those will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
Dice and dice cups
We’ve added some recommendations to the Season V ruleset to cover:
- Dice size. All coaches should endeavour to use dice no smaller than the ‘standard’ 16mm GW style dice.
- Dice cups. Whilst we are not mandating dice cups, coaches should look to use dice cups (or other such devices like dice towers) to help ensure dice are rolled sufficiently and not ‘plopped’ onto the table or projected across the room like a Gnoblar projectile!
Ruleset and the F.B. Cup
We’ve covered repositioning Season V’s F.B. Cup to balance the risk and reward. However, there’s another element to Season IV’s F.B. Cup I want to touch on – how we revealed the rules set well into Season IV. Whilst the round special rules will always be kept under wraps (mainly ‘cos we only think of them 5 minutes before they’re announced)… it wasn’t fair, clear or consistent of the board to implement such an impactful ruleset on coaches well into the season. Moving forward, we’ll always confirm the main aspects of the F.B. Cup as part of the seasonal rules pack, so each has a full picture of what they’re signing up for.
Tournament
To touch on this, as we’ve left coaches hanging since Back to School ’25 in September. We have a ruleset, we have the special rule… we’re just having a little difficulty securing a venue (for this year). Our top people are working on it… so fingers crossed!
Staff role
Season IV was the first time we had Divisional Officers. Their role, as communicated as part of their recruitment, covered:
- To be the first point of contact and to foster a community spirit between coaches in your division.
- Duties:
- Regularly prompt coaches within your division to organise/play matches: a) At the start of each round, post the match-ups and the round dates. Encourage coaches to organise their matches without delay and post the match date on TourPlay. b) Mid-round post updates on matches which have occurred, and which are yet to take place. Enquire when the outstanding matches will occur. c) Final week of each round, same as above.
- Be the first point of contact for coaches having issues scheduling/resolving their matches. Staff members can grant the +2 day extensions per the rules pack. Further extensions or other complex scenarios are escalated to Commissioners/all staff to discuss and resolve.
- Foster a community feel within your division – encourage bounties, chat to the coaches, guide progression, etc.
For Season V we will expand this to also bring staff more into the decision-making process. Staff will have sight of proposed changes before publication, with the opportunity to provide feedback and ensure any updates are the best we can achieve. In fact, we have already done this with the Season V ruleset.
Round incentives
These went down well during Season IV, so will certainly continue into Season V!
I think that about covers it. Any questions or feedback, please let us know.
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