Posted by Mikey98 (Ranked on Fun For All (Safe Harbor Games) Ladder) on May 10, 2020 at 14:36:01 PDT:
Please understand this post is my opinion and does not reflect any team I may have been on or team members that I played with.
It has been almost 20 years since the game zone closed down and all the players and friendships went their different ways. Recently I saw a post on Facebook about joining a spades team and playing competitively again... This interested me so I replied and ended up in FFA.
Overall FFA is an excellent place to come and play spades. For the most part, the members are very friendly and helpful and I have enjoyed renewing old friendships and making new ones.
With that said I do have some concerns about the lack of being able to get open games during tournaments times. It is nearly impossible to get a game from 30 minutes prior until after the 1st round is completed. For members that either do not care for or have the time to play in a tournament this leaves them sitting in the lobby asking for a game for an average of 45 minutes.
In my opinion, this could be corrected by simply limiting the number of teams. As an example:
1. limit the tournament to 8 teams
2. with 8 teams there would be no bye's
3. the tournament would be over with in 4 rounds
4. which in turn would put more people in the lobby for open games
Again, this is just an example and I am not sure what the team limit should be, but I do believe my suggestion has merit and should be considered.
During my time in FFA I have tried to bring this up to a few of the Admins and was always told to talk to someone else... I understand the Admin position is a volunteer and you want to enjoy your time playing too, but when a member has a concerned someone should be willing to listen and address it.
After getting nowhere with the admins I took my concerns to the lobby... Pointed out how long teams were sitting trying to obtain a game... But that effort fell on death ears too.
The only respond I got was a private message from an admin telling me to take it out of the lobby... You are welcome to go back and look at any message I posted in the lobby and it was always wrote in a respectful format and I never attached any single person!
If the admin reads this she will know who I am referring too and I am still waiting on an apology. When I asked her what I did wrong she could not answer my question and just kept saying take in out of the lobby. After not being able to come up with a suitable reply she said he had a game and needed to let this drop. Again, another person passing the buck!
I understand that people enjoy their tournaments, but this room is supposed to be a ladder where people can come and get games. Tournaments should not stop play and take over the ladder.
For anyone that has took the time to read this post I say thank you.
See you at the tables,
Mikey98