Sunday, January 25, 2009
New Season, New Faces
In the National League, looking at a glance like the weaker of the two, you have Sexy Poolerz technically making a debut, though the team is primarily made up of former United Pool players. As such, they'll be captained by Pete (king.2068) and Pete and his team will look to make a return trip to the World Series after stunning 8 Ball Runners in the American League Championship Match in Season 10. Their room, Bicycle Race, may sound familiar - it was once home to Lucky Pool (LKP.)
Pool Dragonz joins MLP for the first time, after dashing into the interleague scene in the Universal Interleague Competition (UIC) and World Pool Championship (WPC.) They've drawn comparisons to an upgraded version of Breakers Alley - aboard for the ride, never demanding to be center of attention by causing trouble, and with the bonus that they have a few good shooters in their midst. Pool Dragonz will play in the first regular season inter-conference match since Season 2 - an idea that had been in the works since the middle of Season 12 - against the American League's Cue Killers. More on them later. Pool Dragonz, coincidentally, holds their league in the place where I first played an interleague match - Straight Into Darkness, formerly home to the Wolfpack league.
Finally in the NL, Xtreme 8Ball. One of the most active, and busiest leagues in Yahoo! Pool has made its way into MLP. After a successful campaign in the Pro Players Association this past season, X8B figures to have instant success here and could legitimately threaten to make a deep post-season run in the National League. They'll play in the room Alive and open up their season with Pool Loverz - a chance for PZ to show what signs of improvement there may be, pr a chance for Xtreme 8Ball to make a statement right out of the gate.
In the American League, one new league jumps on-board with perhaps some familiar faces, while another league returns at long last.
High Timez, formerly Booze-n-Spliffs (BZNS) comes into MLP for the first time, but they certainly won't be newbies to this sort of thing. Former Cheap Shotz Captain Mickey (IMHIGHER) calls this place home, though he will not be captain of HT this season. More importantly perhaps, former National League MVP BooMann (yes, that guy, Robbie) is expected to make his return to MLP. They'll certainly need him, ranked #1 on the High Timez ladder, to be their #1 guy on the team if they expect to compete in a very tough-looking American League. HT makes Aneurysm their home room, and plays the nightcap on opening night against Break And Run - sure to be a quality match.
Finally, there's Cue Killers finally returning to Major League Pool after an absence of about ten seasons. They now call the room Mama Kin their home, after a failed attempt at resurrecting the Pool Fighters league in that room. Cue Killers were last seen in MLP back in Season 2, by my recollection anyways. Their Head Admin, sapphireskyuk, at one point a long time ago had run World Interleague Pool (WIP) - a tourney-based interleague rather than the match play interleague format that dominates interleagues today. They return to MLP just in time to play an inter-conference matchup as mentioned before with Pool Dragonz, just as they had played across conferences in Season 2 (the last season of inter-conference matches in MLP.)
As for some of the changes in MLP this season, in addition to the inter-conference matchups:
BIG LEAGUE TOUR:
The Big League Tour has expanded to allow a maximum of 15 players (which surely Pool Legends and Straightshots will reach a majority of the weeks.) The monthly 2 vs. 2 tourney will allow for 8 teams now, improving on the previous total as well.
There have been a handful of rule changes and clarifications - most notably the requirement that players report their own losses. This has been changed primarily to help keep track of player IPs, rather than always seeing admin IPs in the log. While there are still ways of getting around that, it also serves another purpose - leaving the admins with one less task every night. And it should be noted that this will be a requirement - and there will be penalties for not following along. The first offense will only result in a warning, but after that match suspensions will occur and eventually, on the 4th instance... The player is done for the season.
The last major change in the rules, comes with aimer accusations. No, they're still boxable offenses. But one thing players have constantly done is say "I did not specifically say aimer." - Well, now you don't have to. Any harrassment of a player or mention of their play as a result of not playing on cam, is going to be treated as an accusation. It will carry the same penalties - 2 matches for the first offense, season ban for the second. The Admins want to stress that this isn't a cam competition, and the usual asshattery that goes on within them won't be tolerated. Frankly, there are other interleagues that allow for that, and MLP won't be one of them.
Lastly on the rules front, a slight tweak to the solid and stripe + ball in hand rule. Normally, if an ill-informed player takes the ball in hand as a result of making a solid and a stripe either on the break or with open table, they have to tap the cueball back to the opponent to give them ball in hand. Now, the opposing player has two options: They can take the ball in hand, or they can force a rerack. With the break sometimes playing a bigger role than usual in a captain's strategy, this gives a captain, rare as the situation may be, a chance to change up who has the break and when, if they so choose.
And the final change to mention here, is the Playoff format. With 2 fewer leagues and now seven teams to a Conference, MLP will go to a Bye-free 4-team format. It's your typical 4-team bracket - 1 hosts 4, 2 hosts 3, winners play off and then the World Series comes.
So that's what's new in Major League Pool's 13th season. Now all that's left to do is wait for Feb. 8th, and get this season kickstarted.
