FSPA Fall 2021 Survey Results

Purpose

The FSPA Exec committee sent a survey to the player base via the FSPA mailer on Dec 16, 2021.  This is the summary of the survey results.  Commentary is limited to breakdowns intended to help interpret the responses or in some questions provide more insight into highlighting responses based on location.

Survey Responses

Q1:

Response Participation by league

Lost Rhino 5 out of 20 – 20%
Moms  13 out of 41 – 31.7%
MSB 10 out of 37 – 27%
Ocelot 15 out of 37 – 40.5%
Spinners 6 out of 39 – 15.4%

Q2

Comments:  42 out of 52 (80.7%) Agree or Strongly Agree with the need for absentee system.

Q3

1 – Not a Factor
5 – Very Important

Q4

Q5

1 – Player Flexibility
5 – Maintaining Competition

Q6

Comments:  34/52 agree or strongly agree with the question.  One ‘strongly disagree’.

Q7

Q8

Q9

Q10

Options were:
Maintaining the level or fairness of competition
Accommodating player schedules
Accommodating unexpected absences
Maintaining promptness for league start times
Encouraging live in-person play

Rank 1 is most important

Q11

Comments:  34/52 (~65%) answered ‘it matters’ or more.

Q12

Comments:  Only 11 (21%) chose a ‘not at all’ or neutral stance..  while ~42% feel it’s a concern or worse combined with another 37% noting it more than neutral.  A total of 78% noting some level of concern about this risk.

Q13

Q14

Q15

Q16

Q17

Q18

1 – 3 player group
5 – 4 player group

Lost Rhino  answered 5,4,4,3,3
Moms answered 5,5,3,3,3,2,2,2,2,1,1,1,1
MSB answered 5,5,5,4,4,4,3,3,3,1
Ocelot answered 5,5,5,4,4,4,4,4,3,3,3,3,1,1,1
Spinners answered 5,5,5,4,2,2

Q19

1 – Strongly Disagree
5 – Strongly Agree

Comments:  34/52 (~65%) responded more than middle/neutral that two player groups are a negative.

Q20

1 – Strongly Disagree
5 – Strongly Agree

Comments:  Over 88% provided a more than neutral response that one player groups are a negative.

Q21

Comments:
Drill down into responses for those that answered Sad or Very Sad for Drop2 to see what their other season response was:

Drop2 Other
Sad Happy
Very Sad Very Happy
Sad Neutral
Very Sad Happy
Very Sad Very Happy
Sad Happy
Sad Very Happy
Sad Happy

Breakdown of how many steps each respondents answer changed between the different seasons.

Change Qty
Dropped 4 2
Dropped 3 2
Dropped 2 5
Dropped 1 6
Same 26
Up 1 7
Up 2 7
Up 3 0
Up 4 0

NOTE: These stats were not updated after removing two dupe entries

Q22

Comments: Breakdown of how many steps each respondents answer changed between the different seasons.

Change Qty
Dropped 4 1
Dropped 3 1
Dropped 2 7
Dropped 1 9
Same 27
Up 1 5
Up 2 5
Up 3 0
Up 4 0

NOTE: These stats were not updated after removing two dupe entries

Q23

1 – Strongly Disagree
5 – Strongly Agree

Q24

1 – Fun
10 – Competitive

Q25

1 – Simple to understand rules
5 – Rules that ensure competitive play

Q26

Comments:  57% Happy or Very Happy, only 5 with negative responses

Q27

Comments:  50% happy or very happy… but negative responses increased here vs Q24

Q28

Q29

Q30

Some of the write-ins:

  • I didn’t personally have to deal with 1 or 2 player groups. The top few players tend to be there every week. That said, 1 and 2 player groups put players in the lower tiers at a disadvantage.
  • It’s not fair for those who have no choice about traveling (business travel) and it’s very hard to be competitive with the drop2 format. There is no room for error
  • Not being able to use preplays instead
  • Confusing to understand the league standings;The absent person did not move up or down. I felt often resulted in better group standing the following week

Q31

Q32

Write in Comments:

  • Y’all fuckin’ rule for doing this tedious-ass homework stuff. Thanks.
  • Preplays are the fairest if rules are tightened to ensure legitimate scores are used, e.g. requiring pre-plays to be performed during week 0 or prior to league with scores give to SLO directly. However, that is also the pain – having to do pre-plays. Large locations suck more. As an operator, I’m also in favor of pre-plays. So overall – even though I hate pre-plays, if the rules were tightened to ensure the integrity, I’d probably prefer going back to pre-plays.
  • Reduce amount of absences needed for forfeit after drop 2 (currently at 4 misses or 16 game scores?) (Allow Preplays if person desires to avoid drop 2) (Allow preplays without needing another person to be present. Require selfies if needed.)
  • Instead of a zero, give the folks who are not able to attend a “5” or the minimum points obtainable and move them down a group. It’s not fair in the slightest to give a 15 and the other two 0’s. Or bring back pre-plays and hold people accountable for cheating.
  • Drop 2 with regrouping is preferred for me. It’s easier on the players overall. I can’t imagine going back to dealing with preplays at this point.
  • Maybe preplays with one drop would be good? I’m really not sure and I leave it in the committee’s capable hands! Ultimately I’m playing to have fun in a competitive atmosphere but I also think it’s important to accommodate to schedules so everyone can play as much as possible. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ good luck guys!
  • Drop2 with preplays might be an interesting compromise to test out
  • The groupings have never been very fair and don’t really matter. Someone is going to kick my butt so it’s fine. I’d prefer not to wreck the season because I have to work late and can’t PLAY. Just build the groups when the people that show up after the 15 minute window. Build it into the start time. People that show up after can join a smaller group and have to forfeit or 1 of the drop 2 available for the games they missed.
  • Drop2 with grouping at start time is ideal. Consider having Drop2 and Preplays where players must play with a league player.
  • preplays with anti-cheat, on league nights only (before/after league play), and turned in to the league manager. Good for operators, gotta keep them going!
  • I dont really feel strongly one way or another – I am in it for fun, and I think there are pros and cons to anything you can come up with. I would vote for whatever makes it easiest for those who are volunteering their time to make all of this work. As long as we’re all playing by the same rules, I think it’s fair.. I would say if we do pre-plays, I think they should be counted only if played with another player from the league, to discourage cheating.
  • Beatings for the late and absent until compliant
  • There needs to be a way to spread points out better in smaller groups. Groups of 4 have more points available and 2 people can steel. In the higher tears with lots of groups of 3, it is more difficult to earn points. Groups of 2 is terrible. It seams the people in the lower groups had an advantage for total points. The ladder ranking should some how count towards points as well. Because the higher ranking groups played more 3 player groups.
  • 10 weeks too long. Look to get closer to IFPA minimum weeks. Get more seasons in.
  • Hybrid of drop X and preplays