Going to call BB Season 2 here. I dragged everyone, kicking and screaming into the playoffs, but I'm not going to push them any farther. I may still do our All-Star game I was so excited about, but that seems awfully irrelevant at this point and most coaches aren't even around anymore.
This run lasted an entire season longer than my online attempt, along with a substantial run-up/training period, but ultimately was called at around the same point for almost identical reasons.
The issue with the online Cyanide run was it was not compelling; there was no attachment to your team, no context/history in the league, no interaction with your opponent. It became an impersonal chore, and right then one coach rose up who delighted not only in killing his opponent's players but making it well known, to the point where everyone hated playing him. Given that enthusiasm was already pretty low, his future opponents (as well as the league leader who completely lost interest) stalled things out to where it was pretty obvious there were going to be a lot more outgoing players than returning + new players.
These issues were fixed in tabletop, and it was a perfect system in its heyday. The tradeoff was ridiculous game times, with matches regularly taking 4 hours including lengthy setup, and coupled with travel time and scheduling chores that was literally all you would do that night. That really wore on people, myself included (no one wanted to fool with turn timers btw), and y'know right here I was going to copy-paste the above paragraph... but that's not quite right. Sure, there was the rise of yet another gloaty killer coach absolutely no one enjoyed playing (sure, have a gentle talk with him, but is it worth risking losing a friend for a defunct BB league?). There was a league leader (the Norse) who finally suffered a couple stinging defeats and soured heavily against the game. But two coaches had kids, one started a business, one got a divorce, a few got new jobs, and ultimately there wasn't enough enthusiasm to bother pushing through all that. Maybe if a couple things had gone differently we'd have this, or that, but who knows.
It had a great run, and I am proud to have been behind this, but it was a tremendous amount of work, and I wish I had more to show. I still have the posters and leaderboards I made, I still have my rosters, I'll still play an occasional game of course, and in 6 months or so I'll once again be itching to get back in. And, I have this blog, which was meant to give a play-by-play of an amateur league because this is something I would have found worth its weight in gold when I was looking to start this up. I hope it helps you.
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