(All dates are US time)
March 10th-13th
The day after the third TL Attack, we started discussing the idea of a Starleague. By the 13th we had most of the details worked out (TL staff + proper motivation = holy crap).
In the comments of Plexa's Ambition FE. Chill described some of the discussion that went on in those first few days:
+ Show Spoiler +
On April 01 2008 01:31 Chill wrote:
The staff put a lot of thought into the format. I'll walk you through the thought process so hopefully you can agree with us that it will work out well.
Everyone agreed we want a lot of known names in the finals. They are consistent (that's why they are known) and will provide exciting games in the final rounds of the TSL. Our goal then became coming up with a format that rewarded consistency, while having a realistic time frame.
We also fought to make sure anyone can play. This is very important in the spirit of competition and legitimacy as a foreign league. Can you imagine the OSL being invite only? It cheapens competition by adding an arbitrary amount of invitations. In the end, we decided to search for a format that is open to everyone, but rewards consistent play. I think that's why the TSL is so exciting, it's not the same 16 players you see in every league. If some unknown players or underdogs scrape their way into the top 48, that's great! I'll be cheering for them.
In having a league that's open to everyone, there are only two formats to use: Tournament and ladder. Given that there's about 1000 people signed up in 24 hours for the ICC team, running a tournament would be a logistical nightmare. So we planned a ladder.
Here is why a ladder rewards the best players. Let's assume you are going to play infinite games with a 50% win percentage, which any number of unknown foreign players could do. Once you hit A-, you lose 130 points for every game you lose, while you gain 130 for playing on MotW. Weaker players with 50% win percentages will get stuck at this point. Even if they have a slightly higher win percentage, say 55%, they will be getting so few points that stronger players should be able to get passed them during the pivotal final week. This is also helped by the shorter time frame. If the ladder was 3 months, someone could grind to Olympic Rank 10 points at a time; however, with a 3 week time frame there just isn't enough time for weaker players to achieve a rank they don't deserve.
Next we needed to solve the problem of rewarding the #1 player, to prevent people getting to #32 and then stagnating. We played with the idea of seeding, but there wasn't enough reward to warrant grinding up the last 32 places. This is why the top 16 get a bye, it gives you a reason to continue climbing the ladder even once you've secured a qualifying position.
You'll notice everything is best of 3. LDT2 is double elimination. This stops one-build wonders and all-ins from being as effective. It rewards solid play. It allows strong players who have one weaker matchup to have a better chance of getting through.
And after all that, there will be 16 solid players in the TSL.
The staff put a lot of thought into the format. I'll walk you through the thought process so hopefully you can agree with us that it will work out well.
Everyone agreed we want a lot of known names in the finals. They are consistent (that's why they are known) and will provide exciting games in the final rounds of the TSL. Our goal then became coming up with a format that rewarded consistency, while having a realistic time frame.
We also fought to make sure anyone can play. This is very important in the spirit of competition and legitimacy as a foreign league. Can you imagine the OSL being invite only? It cheapens competition by adding an arbitrary amount of invitations. In the end, we decided to search for a format that is open to everyone, but rewards consistent play. I think that's why the TSL is so exciting, it's not the same 16 players you see in every league. If some unknown players or underdogs scrape their way into the top 48, that's great! I'll be cheering for them.
In having a league that's open to everyone, there are only two formats to use: Tournament and ladder. Given that there's about 1000 people signed up in 24 hours for the ICC team, running a tournament would be a logistical nightmare. So we planned a ladder.
Here is why a ladder rewards the best players. Let's assume you are going to play infinite games with a 50% win percentage, which any number of unknown foreign players could do. Once you hit A-, you lose 130 points for every game you lose, while you gain 130 for playing on MotW. Weaker players with 50% win percentages will get stuck at this point. Even if they have a slightly higher win percentage, say 55%, they will be getting so few points that stronger players should be able to get passed them during the pivotal final week. This is also helped by the shorter time frame. If the ladder was 3 months, someone could grind to Olympic Rank 10 points at a time; however, with a 3 week time frame there just isn't enough time for weaker players to achieve a rank they don't deserve.
Next we needed to solve the problem of rewarding the #1 player, to prevent people getting to #32 and then stagnating. We played with the idea of seeding, but there wasn't enough reward to warrant grinding up the last 32 places. This is why the top 16 get a bye, it gives you a reason to continue climbing the ladder even once you've secured a qualifying position.
You'll notice everything is best of 3. LDT2 is double elimination. This stops one-build wonders and all-ins from being as effective. It rewards solid play. It allows strong players who have one weaker matchup to have a better chance of getting through.
And after all that, there will be 16 solid players in the TSL.
Hot_Bid wanted to start the timer immediately, more for motivating the staff than for generating hype. So the next day PoP set the timer for noon on the 30th, EDT. I think it was originally supposed to be some other time, but time zones are so darned confusing.
We had an actual deadline now; if the timer expired and we had nothing to show for it, we'd all be burned at the stake.
March 14th
Reading the first timer discussion thread, we realized the 31st was the 10 year anniversary of Starcraft's release. The first of several convenient coincidences (and the reason for the "EE HAN TIMING" calendar message). The Starleague music lyrics were probably the biggest clue of all.
On the 14th we were discussing maps, so FA suggested a poll. (In the end we decided to stick with current maps anyway, despite our affinities for old school favorites. <3 RoV)
March 14th, 10pm
The enigmatic ConJonner makes his first post.
March 16th, 2pm
The first hype image goes up. The hype images were all pretty subtle, just lots of star references.
"Destiny", by pachi (from the "Ambition" news post)
One bright star that stands out among the rest. Also, the stars form a constellation:
+ Show Spoiler +
Good catch, LTT!
March 16th, 8pm
Mani (I think) is a jerk, and puts up this poll, as well as posting:
I happen to know for a FACT, that there is a certain organization in Korea which is looking to form a new proteam. Could it be the same organization which recently sponsored a huge invitational tournament and have English casters? Could it be the same organization which I just recently interviewed, and they said they wanted more English content?
you know.
you know.
March 16th, ~10pm:
"Ambition - Reach for the Stars", by alffla
Hot_Bid wanted to hide this somewhere where it would be found fairly quickly. I make a little page for it and linked it in the bottom image on the right sidebar, but HB was convinced it wouldn't be found. I think the MSN conversation says it all:
+ Show Spoiler +
[21:53] Sonuvbob: link is up
[21:53] Sonuvbob: i give itw like 24 hrs to find it
[boring stuff removed]
[21:55] Hot_Bid: i would point the top right white to it for now
[21:55] Hot_Bid: then change it to something else for later
[21:55] Hot_Bid: i dont think someone will find it
[21:55] Hot_Bid: the bar
[21:56] Sonuvbob: you underestimate tl's free time =P
[21:56] Sonuvbob: it's right above the timer too
[21:57] Hot_Bid: [21:56] <dronebabo> http://teamliquid.net/questionmark.html
[21:56] <IntoTheWow> OPMG
[21:56] <IntoTheWow> how did you do that
[21:56] <IntoTheWow> dronebabo
[21:56] <zulu_nation8> dual skadi qop + guinsoo
[21:56] <dronebabo> the secret button
[21:56] <dronebabo> the secret button does something!!!
[21:56] <IntoTheWow> where is it
[21:56] <dronebabo>
[21:57] Hot_Bid: like 2 minutes
[21:57] Sonuvbob: rofl
[21:57] Hot_Bid: LOL
[21:57] Hot_Bid: WTFFFF
[21:53] Sonuvbob: i give itw like 24 hrs to find it
[boring stuff removed]
[21:55] Hot_Bid: i would point the top right white to it for now
[21:55] Hot_Bid: then change it to something else for later
[21:55] Hot_Bid: i dont think someone will find it
[21:55] Hot_Bid: the bar
[21:56] Sonuvbob: you underestimate tl's free time =P
[21:56] Sonuvbob: it's right above the timer too
[21:57] Hot_Bid: [21:56] <dronebabo> http://teamliquid.net/questionmark.html
[21:56] <IntoTheWow> OPMG
[21:56] <IntoTheWow> how did you do that
[21:56] <IntoTheWow> dronebabo
[21:56] <zulu_nation8> dual skadi qop + guinsoo
[21:56] <dronebabo> the secret button
[21:56] <dronebabo> the secret button does something!!!
[21:56] <IntoTheWow> where is it
[21:56] <dronebabo>
[21:57] Hot_Bid: like 2 minutes
[21:57] Sonuvbob: rofl
[21:57] Hot_Bid: LOL
[21:57] Hot_Bid: WTFFFF
March 17th:
Hot_Bid requests a new image to be hidden.
+ Show Spoiler +
"The Greatest Show on Earth" aka "Pink Monday", by pachi
Being part notpron fan, part asshole, I made the previous image an image map with 1 pixel (199,299) pointing to the correct page. I figured I'd increase the area every few hours to make sure it was seen within a couple days. As it turned out, I didn't need to. That night, LTT wrote a script to check every pixel on the image. Conveniently, he PM'd be on IRC with updates on his plan.
Hot_Bid and Mani added some vague hints ('100 makes all the difference' and the 498 user). 498 was the sum of the pixel coordinates (199+299), and obviously a reference to SC's release date in April 1998. Or a complete coincidence, either one.
Somewhere around this time HB tried adding some hints to old calendar entries. But apparently there's a bug with editing events, where the form defaults to the current year instead of the event's year. HB didn't notice, so some old events randomly showed up in the March 08 calendar and were quickly deleted. This confused pretty much everyone, including HB.
Around the same time, this poll went up. As Yubee and Kennigit aren't exactly popular around here, I had to rig the poll a little bit. I starting adding 5 votes at a time, then 20, then 50, and culminated in adding about 500 right before LTT's script found the showmatch pic.
March 18th
I was expecting to wake up to an angry mob, but apparently my math sucks, and LTT's script didn't find the right pixel until about 2pm (coincidentally about 3 minutes after Hot_Bid reminded me about it).
Surprisingly, even after he posted the link people were more confused than angry.
Later that day ConJonner made another 5 posts, as well as a B.net account. Several other TL members tried to get in on the action, but were quickly revealed as fakes.
Kennigit manages to accidentally delete the ONE correct guess on all of TL. Way to go, Kennigit.
It was getting a little too crazy, so we decided to take a break from the hype until TL Attack.
March 23th
Yubee's hype video was shown on the fourth episode of TL Attack, and HB posted another vague image.
310308, by pachi.
pheer reveals it to be the work of reptilians.
+ Show Spoiler +
and LTT formulates some kind of crazy red carpet/camera conspiracy.
+ Show Spoiler +
IntoTheWow reveals that he is 'JonConner', but no one seems to care.
March 24th-25th
A week before, that sicko Hot_Bid came up with a new fake idea: expanding our coverage to other games. After another red herring poll went up, Xeo provided us with this sexy image:
+ Show Spoiler +
and we set to work creating wc3.teamliquid.net. By the next day we had a full wc3 layout: http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/SonuvBob/tlwc3/ (all images by Xeo)
But we had no idea how to leak it. Eventually I thought I had a foolproof plan: I put the image in the topic of our staff IRC channel, and had LastRomantic 'accidentally' leak the password. IntoTheWow quickly hopped in and said hi, and I kicked him a minute or two later. Annnnd he never looked at the topic.
So eventually Mani leaked it on gg.net, and since no one found wc3.teamliquid.net in the first hour, impatient HB had someone post that there too. Oddly enough, no one bought it.
March 27th
"Discipline", by pachi (from the "Determination" news post)
Three days left. We stop giving clues/red herrings, and start openly taunting people.
March 30th, 9:30am
T-2.5 hours. Mani is a jerk.
March 30th, 12pm
News post goes up. Several of us post "APRIL FOOLS" in IRC and on the forums.
tl;dr: We're all jerks. Enjoy your Starleague.
P.S. Our graphics team is AWESOME
"Marine", by alffla
"Zerg Base", by SigrUn
"Dance Dance Dragoon", by d.arkive
"Mutalisk", by alffla