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The final and fairest schedule we can produce taking into account all factors:

RS Round 1: Monday, April 7th, 2025
WAG v TRO
LGM v BIG
ED v HAD
HCH v HEY
BUC v SUM
D v LMS
WMO v SRS
RAJ v SED

RS Round 2: Friday, April 11th, 2025
BIG v WAG
HAD v TRO
HEY v LGM
SUM v ED
LMS v HCH
SRS v BUC
SED v D
RAJ v WMO

RS Round 3: Monday, April 14th, 2025
WAG v HAD
BIG v HEY
TRO v SUM
LGM v LMS
ED v SRS
HCH v SED
BUC v RAJ
D v WMO

RS Round 4: Friday, April 18th, 2025
HEY v WAG
SUM v HAD
LMS v BIG
SRS v TRO
SED v LGM
RAJ v ED
WMO v HCH
D v BUC

RS Round 5: Monday, April 21st, 2025
WAG v SUM
HEY v LMS
HAD v SRS
BIG v SED
TRO v RAJ
LGM v WMO
ED v D
HCH v BUC

RS Round 6: Friday, April 25th, 2025
LMS v WAG
SRS v SUM
SED v HEY
HAD v RAJ
WMO v BIG
TRO v D
BUC v LGM
HCH v ED

RS Round 7: Monday, April 28th, 2025
WAG v SRS
LMS v SED
SUM v RAJ
HEY v WMO
HAD v D
BIG v BUC
TRO v HCH
LGM v ED

RS Round 8: Friday, May 2nd, 2025
SED v WAG
RAJ v SRS
WMO v LMS
D v SUM
BUC v HEY
HCH v HAD
ED v BIG
LGM v TRO

RS Round 9: Monday, May 5th, 2025
WAG v RAJ
SED v WMO
SRS v D
LMS v BUC
SUM v HCH
HEY v ED
HAD v LGM
BIG v TRO

RS Round 10: Friday, May 9th, 2025
WMO v WAG
D v RAJ
BUC v SED
SRS v HCH
ED v LMS
SUM v LGM
TRO v HEY
BIG v HAD

RS Round 11: Monday, May 12th, 2025
WAG v D
WMO v BUC
RAJ v HCH
SED v ED
SRS v LGM
LMS v TRO
SUM v BIG
HEY v HAD

RS Round 12: Friday, May 16th, 2025
BUC v WAG
HCH v D
ED v WMO
LGM v RAJ
TRO v SED
BIG v SRS
HAD v LMS
HEY v SUM

RS Round 13: Monday, May 19th, 2025
WAG v HCH
BUC v ED
D v LGM
WMO v TRO
RAJ v BIG
SED v HAD
SRS v HEY
LMS v SUM

RS Round 14: Friday, May 23rd, 2025
ED v WAG
LGM v HCH
TRO v BUC
D v BIG
HAD v WMO
RAJ v HEY
SUM v SED
LMS v SRS

RS Round 15: Monday, May 26th, 2025
WAG v LGM
ED v TRO
HCH v BIG
BUC v HAD
D v HEY
WMO v SUM
RAJ v LMS
SED v SRS

So, the finished schedule!

Volunteer teams are either scheduling 11 or 12 games.
And non-volunteer teams or scheduling 3 or 4 games.

I am sure you will agree that this is as close to as equal as we can get.

Given that all teams were asked to save tokens and should easily have a minimum of 4...we are done and ready with this schedule.



Last edited by MrJ at 3/21/2025 4:18:15 AM

When do you think we should go ahead and start scheduling the first round games?

Two things need to happen before anyone starts to schedule/organize any games of HGL Season 1:

1. It needs to be decided whether official declared time for matches is required. If you have read my posts, I'm sure most have been able to conclude, that this is very likely going to be the case that we have a fixed time for each match, and for the reasons mentioned before, there won't be exceptions. So we/I just need to decide which time it will be, and no match organizing can take place before that. Such time will always be a compromise for all, but that's a small price to pay for the benefits it produces.
One of likely best times (that isn't catastrophic to any/most participants) would be maybe 15.30EET or 16.30EET, which is 3.30PM EET or 4.30PM EET (not Daylight Savings Time, DST, but a standard time all year around no matter what part of year we are living in).
With the countries residing over multiple time zones, there would be differences on what the actual starting time of the match would be (for instance, in the case matches start at 3.30PM EET, it could be 5.30AM in US West coast, and simultaneously it would mean 9.30 for the East coast of US).

Here's the important question though: if we would make the official/declared time of the match to be 4.30PM for all, how does that seem in a box score when you view it from another country?
Example 1: match is played in New York 4.30PM local time. Does it show as everybody who takes a look at the box score that match has been played 16.30?
Example 2: take another location, any other really, but for illustration purposes let's say San Francisco on the West coast where time difference is 4 hours to East coast. Does it show as everybody who takes a look at the box score that match has been played 16.30 if the team who has sent the challenge chooses 16.30 local, West coast time (PST?)?

If it does, then it might be possible to use this "typical BB match time of 16.30" (aka. 4.30PM) as an official HGL match time.
If it would show another time on the box score, based on what location I view the box score from (dependent on location/country setup of my account etc.), then we would need to resort to one single designated time (for example 4.30EET) for all HGL matches.

Benefit of such one designated time (which would mean matches are played in some locations in times that are more difficult on terms of live following of a match) would of course also be that no game scores would be "seen" before all games would practically have finished, just as in regular BB leagues, and especially in playoffs (where it would count the most) all the scores would be revealed almost at the same time (at the earliest).

2. We will sort out this challenging responsibilities-issue first (that also MrJ is currently working on), and then I will let managers know on the Official HGL thread (and likely also here) when it's time to start sending challenges/organizing matches, after both of these issues have been solved/decided.

And we will actually schedule all regular season matches within one time window before season starts, not only first round of games.

Last edited by Wagner at 3/18/2025 8:30:45 AM

Let me simplify and solve the challenging of teams.

Volunteer = team willing to schedule all games if necessary as they have plenty of tokens - 8 in total (see previous list).
Non-volunteer - the other 8 teams

Below is what we can go with:

1. I have taken into account the 8 managers/teams who have 'volunteered' to schedule all their matches. I have bolded each of their team names where they came up against a non-volunteer.

2. Now, each of these 8 volunteers also plays the other 7 volunteers. So, we can't split it evenly. Therefore, considering these volunteers already have enough tokens for every game, I don't think it matters if 4 of these volunteers schedule 4 games while the other 4 volunteers only schedule 3 games. We are splitting hairs.

Here is the finished and fair schedule taking into account the volunteers and non-volunteers:
[....]
So, these are all the games where volunteers are involved. As you can see, it still leaves games where non-volunteers v non-volunteers. This means that all non-volunteers will still have 7 games to schedule. I will go through next those games and distribute them as fairly as possible.

With the above list, all volunteers are now scheduling either 11 or 12 games. That's as even as I can get it. Given we volunteers all have enough, whether it is 11 or 12 seems irrelevant.

I will now fairly distribute the non-volunteer games and finish the schedule.

It seems you already took a strong initiative (and took an effort to bold most teams on the list), so we can solve it like that if (and as) it works that way.

I agree it's totally irrelevant whether volunteer uses 11, or 13 tokens - they are volunteers for a reason.

In order to possibly save trouble for the forthcoming seasons, after you finish your work, I'd appreciate if you'd take a loot at my previous message (324689.509) and see what you think of that solution, as it is at least to me very clear what my responsibilities would be using that strategy.

Benefit of using your strategy is token usage being more evenly distributed, but as you mentioned, that's hardly a problem for any of us volunteers (as I can easily use 15-20 tokens each season for HGL).

On the other hand, my proposition (for possibly used in future) would include the benefit of not having to mark (bold, etc.) those teams responsible for sending challenge to league schedule. I don't know how it is for supporters, but at least for non-supporters BB text editor is a pain to use when adding anything but basic text as it doesn't accept formatting as is if copy-pasted from another source (if you want to bold or underline something and need to do that regularly, it'd be something that's better done somewhere else than in BB text edtor).

Another, possibly a major benefit (if that system I proposed works) would actually be the uneven distribution of tokens required, so it would be possible to make exceptions to accept teams with currently very little tokens.
Like I mentioned in a previous messages (link above), "a non-volunteer" list would only challenge themselves, so requiring at most 7 (the uppermost team of the list) and for that bottom team on that list would require no tokens at all to complete the whole schedule for the season. So based on the situation/request we could then position teams based on their possibility to use tokens. What do you think of that for future use (not for this season)?

I did read your previous thinking regarding scheduling, however, given we are only a few weeks away from starting, and rather than continue to debate every little detail, I thought I would just create the schedule taking into account those teams who have volunteered to use their tokens, while evenly distributing all factors as fairly as possible. The end result is a very neat version of who will or won't schedule each game. Those who volunteered are scheduling 11 or 12 games, while those that didn't volunteer only have to schedule 3 or 4 games. I'm sure everyone will be happy with this.

With that said, if this proves cumbersome and problematic then please go with your version in season 2. I just think we are getting close to the start of the season, and we hadn't finalised who was challenging who...now it is done.

Once you decide on a set time, which you are determined to do, then we will almost be ready. [we can agree to disagree on this...however, as Commissioner, you can just make the call].

We still need everything to go to plan; the real challenge with this PU system. We still need everyone to actually schedule their respective matches.

I am confident we will get there. However, as Gccsteel and others have noted, we are discussing perhaps too in-depth every little detail.

If you feel strongly about something, Wagner, as Commissioner, just do it and we will accept it...with a smile

Here's the important question though: if we would make the official/declared time of the match to be 4.30PM for all, how does that seem in a box score when you view it from another country? (Wagner)

No idea. And to be honest, I'm not sure you are going to get all the answers you need from managers to do this accurately within the time we have. This is why we either:

1. Don't have a set time (I know you disagree with this); or
2. Just decide on a time and it is done. We will follow your choice whether we agree or not at this point.

Time is ticking and we still have to remind everyone about what to do, check their schedule, make sure they are ready with their tokens, make sure they are ready to issue challengers...and things we haven't even planned for yet that may arise...

Last edited by MrJ at 3/18/2025 8:27:48 AM

So, the finished schedule!
[....]
Volunteer teams are either scheduling 11 or 12 games.
And non-volunteer teams or scheduling 3 or 4 games.

I am sure you will agree that this is as close to as equal as we can get.

Given that all teams were asked to save tokens and should easily have a minimum of 4...we are done and ready with this schedule.

Thanks for helping out with the schedule! When you (and everyone else) can take a look at my previous, alternative way to solve this in future seasons, if it works in their opinion (post found earlier), please do.

However, now to the more essential things:
While above list shows who is responsible for sending challenges, do not start booking/arranging/organizing matches before we/I have reached a decision on fixed time issue. You will lose those tokens if and when a fixed time for matches is applied as a new rule/practice of HGL, so patience, please. We are not in a terrible rush here yet.

Here's the important question though: if we would make the official/declared time of the match to be 4.30PM for all, how does that seem in a box score when you view it from another country? (Wagner)

No idea. And to be honest, I'm not sure you are going to get all the answers you need from managers to do this accurately within the time we have.

Well, let's wait if I get a response, but in the case not, let's try it with a Pickup game challenge. You have a lot fewer tokens, but if you want to spend one here you can also send me a PU challenge at 3.30PM EET which is like 45 minutes away, and I'll anyway send you challenge for a PU match starting 3.00PM, that is about 15 minutes away. Then we'd at least how they would look like in both of our schedules.

Here's the important question though: if we would make the official/declared time of the match to be 4.30PM for all, how does that seem in a box score when you view it from another country? (Wagner)

No idea. And to be honest, I'm not sure you are going to get all the answers you need from managers to do this accurately within the time we have.

Well, let's wait if I get a response, but in the case not, let's try it with a Pickup game challenge. You have a lot fewer tokens, but if you want to spend one here you can also send me a PU challenge at 3.30PM EET which is like 45 minutes away, and I'll anyway send you challenge for a PU match starting 3.00PM, that is about 15 minutes away. Then we'd at least how they would look like in both of our schedules.

Okay. Let's do it.

Here's the important question though: if we would make the official/declared time of the match to be 4.30PM for all, how does that seem in a box score when you view it from another country? (Wagner)

No idea. And to be honest, I'm not sure you are going to get all the answers you need from managers to do this accurately within the time we have.

Well, let's wait if I get a response, but in the case not, let's try it with a Pickup game challenge. You have a lot fewer tokens, but if you want to spend one here you can also send me a PU challenge at 3.30PM EET which is like 45 minutes away, and I'll anyway send you challenge for a PU match starting 3.00PM, that is about 15 minutes away. Then we'd at least how they would look like in both of our schedules.

Okay. Let's do it.

Only problem...

I just tried to do that but there is no option for any particular time-zone. I can choose a date. I can choose a time. But I cannot choose a time-zone.

Okay. Let's do it.

Yes.. You have a request waiting that will expire in... 8 minutes. :)

EDIT: First match successfully organized, but even though I have accepted your invitation (at match starting 15.35 local time) , and getting a red confirmation text on top of Friendly matches-page to confirm it has been successfully organized, it still doesn't show up in my Schedule (first match shows correctly immediately after accepting).

EDIT 2: Still, even after our first match has started, even if I repeatedly go to Friendly matches page and accept your request (at 15.35) and it confirms it has been successfully organized, I can't see a match starting at 15.35 on my team schedule.
This could be a very worrying sign...

Last edited by Wagner at 3/18/2025 9:04:10 AM

So, the way around this...

You say 3:30PM EET and you say it is 45 mins away. You posted this at 8:50 roughly (my time)

So, 45 mins from now would be about 9:35pm my time...which should be about 3:30pm EET for you?

I will try that and we see how we go.