Archive for Percy896's Tennis Forum This is a new tennis forum to discuss professional tennis, vote and create polls, and ask advice about equipment, fitness, or anything regarding tennis! Now with a new Fantasy Tennis League!
Season 5 will be the start of multiple changes in FTL. Here are the new rules being put into place.
The Days in FTL - Tournaments
Tournaments will now be spread out, each round calculated in one (real) day, and the semifinals and final calculated on the same day. So with the exception of grand slam events and the Federer Masters Cup, each (FTL) "Day" will be spread out over three (real) days. This will allow for much more detail in individual matches, which will be discussed below.
Live Scoring and Game Plans
Because there will be many less matches each (real) day, all matches will be calculated game-by-game. This way people can watch their players or any other players in their matches online, adding excitement to each match. Not only this, but players will actually have some control now over their players in matches. Before each match a players can send me (admin) a PM with a game plan they wish to use in that current match. There is no list of possible game plans, so the player will have to use their best judgement about what is a reasonable game plan or that match. The better you know your player and the more experience you have, they more likely your game plan will be successful. For example, if you are a huge hitter and your typical style is hit-or-miss tennis, then "being consistant and never missing a ball" is probably not going to work too well. However, the more you use a similar game plan, the better you will become at putting it into practice, though it is still unlikely that your player will completely change their game style in a short period of time. A player's mental game will also affect his or her ability to adjust from a game plan that is not working. Your game plans can be as short as two words, or as long as a few sentences. The whole concept is very abstract; that is the point of it though. It will never be like, "Constistant beats heavy hitter on clay" or "serve and volley beats retriever on grass" or anything like that. It all depends on the player, the situation, the surface, and all the complicated things that factor into the calculation of matches. Most importantly, everything is still largely based on luck. You could do everything "right", have high confidence, and still have a bad day where you lose in straight sets. You got unlucky. That is FTL and that is how it always has been. Now with game plans though you will have slightly more control over your player.
In addition to before a match, people can change their game plans between sets, as long as they are online at the time. If a person is not online before their match or cannot submit a game plan, guess what? IT'S FINE. Your player will just play in their default style that they have played in for the past how many years, which in many cases is their most comfortable game plan. In fact, you can choose not to have a game plan for a match and just stick with your player's instinct. Of course if things are not going well you can always change it between sets.
How will you know when your player is playing? There will be a daily schedule in each tournament topic for matches.
Match Schedules and "Courts"
As stated above, each (real) day the match schedule for that day with be posted in the tournament's topic, listing the starting time of the first match and then an order for the following matches. Next to the match will also
be listed the court it will be played on. Usually the higher-ranked players, popular players, or best matches will be showcased on the bigger courts (for example, Arthur Ashe Stadium at the U.S. Open) while unknown players wll usually play on smaller courts (for example, Court #6). The courts will change depending on the event. What court you are on will only slightly affect the match, in ways which you can guess (big courts=slightly more pressure for youngsters).
Davis Cup
In addition to Team Cup during the Off-Season, there will now be a Davis Cup that occurrs during the season. Each country will pick two player for each round that they wish to represent their country. In Season 5, there
will be eight countries competing. Check the tournament schedule for when Davis Cup will take place.
Tournament Entries and Qualifying
This season qualifying matches will be included in any tier I or II tournaments that exceed 16 applicants. However, what this means is that players will have to get their tournament entries in to me a couple of (real) days before the tournament starts so I will be able to determine if qualifying matches are be needed. Because of this, all players must commit to tournaments 2 (real) days in advance, or else they will be considered late entries. If there is a late entry, either a wildcard will be given to that player or they will not be allowed to enter the tournament.
For Day 0 of Season 5, there will be no qualifying draw and players can apply the day before the tournament.
Doubles!
That's right. There will be a doubles tour starting in Season 5. Although the season will be much lighter than the singles season, there will still be a full season of doubles. Doubles events will occurr at all of the tier I and Grand Slam events and teams will be made individually (by yourselves).
The rankings will be based on an individual's doubles performance, not by team. The seedings for tournaments will be based on a combination of the ranks of both players on a team, and the YEC will be based on the Rankings as there will be no Race in doubles. You may request to partner with a computer player, but they will have to agree to play with you. You may be asked by a computer player to play doubles as well.
