As Season 57 begins, I post my final newsletter as the administrative mod. After fourteen seasons at the helm, I’ve started to run out of steam a bit and feel like it’s time for some new energy and a new voice at the top. I will still be around as a regular moderator and continue to serve as the Setup Chair, but in Season 58 I’ll be handing the reigns over to the fifth admin in league history: tracer. tracer has a strong handle on league operations and is already doing countless things behind the scenes, so I am confident we will be in great hands moving forward.

It has been an honor and a pleasure serving as the admin these past 2+ years. However, I could not have done it without the help and support of a great team. As I was doing some record keeping between seasons, I looked at the tenures of league moderators. The eight moderators with the most seasons of service, and 12 of the top 16, are currently active. All of these mods have at least 17 seasons of experience. The league and I have been extremely lucky to have such dedicated members of the community help make things run smoothly.

Moderator Updates

Season 56 marked the final season for muenstercheese. muenster joined the mod team in Season 45 and continued on for the next 13 seasons. During her time as a moderator, muenster was instrumental in helping integrate League matches into the Dominion calendar and channel feeds, served a stint as the Recruiting Chair for new moderators, and was a positive contributor to many discussions around rule changes and player experience. There is an indication that this is merely a hiatus and not a forever goodbye, so we hope to have her rejoin the team in the future. It was a blast working with you, muenster, and I wish you the best of luck in what’s to come.

Feedback and Rule Changes

Season 56’s feedback form focused on the length of breaks between seasons and how moderators handle players who fall behind in completing their matches. In terms of break length, there wasn’t a strong push amongst league players to extend breaks to 4 weeks or longer. 52% of players were in favor of 2 week breaks, 39% in favor of 3 week breaks, and 9% in favor of breaks of four weeks or longer. Given that most league breaks are already 2 or 3 weeks long, we didn’t find it necessary to explore adjusting the league calendar at this time. We will continue to alternate 2-week breaks with 3-week breaks, with the exception of the 4-week break around the Shuffle iT Championship.

Responses to the question on moderator action regarding players who fall behind did spur a change to our benchmark system. 80% of responses were in favor of mods erring on the side of encouraging players to catch up or doing everything in their power to make sure a division finishes without drops. In response to this, there will now be a third way that players can meet the current benchmarks. In addition to playing or scheduling a match, players can now request an extension to a benchmark. This will be analogous to players requesting an extension at the end of the season to finish any final matches. When making a request for an extension, we will be asking players to explain how they plan to catch up on their matches and get back on track. This action will help us distinguish between those who have disappeared and those who have simply fallen behind but are making an effort to get back on track.

And with that, I wish you all a successful season. Good luck and have fun!