Did PUGs help the league or hurt it?...

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Useless

Useless

Bravo
Jun 14, 2002
5,886
63
Scotland
I've been reading some recent posts about the league and about changing the format, etc. and pugs get mentioned a lot of the time in comparison to the league. Pugging is now a much more popular thing to do in UTA since people prefer the lack of organisation, the mixing and matching of teams, the fact you can hang around in the same channel for a good reason and the fact that pug results have no effect on anything, including the players' egos, as there is no real record of what 'clan' won what pug, what team is best and so on.

I remember when pugs came out and lots of people said 'yay, this will really help the league', but I don't think it did. I just think it helped the UTA community, which is not the same thing as the UTA league. It helped keep this community together but I think it hurt the league side by simply being more fun (or fun in a different way), more spontaneous, more flexible and with much less responsibility. I just wondered what people thought about this opinion :\ I know the league has gradually and steadily lost a lot of players in the last two or three years, but even the ones still here often cba playing a match. Whether that's owing to comparative skill levels, laziness, or whether it's because people prefer pugging I dunno. But I just wonder what the league would be like if pugs didn't exist. Would people be more dedicated to league matches because that's all they had beyond pubs? Or would half the players still here today be long gone?

Disclaimer: this is not an attack on the pug designers or whatever, I'm not blaming them for the state of the league, I'm just wondering about popular opinion.
 
It's helped in some ways... although it prolly has replaced the league for a few people.. personally I rarely play league games, and i dont care much for them, yet i play a lot of pugs. I just prefer the fact you can pug when you like.. dont have to schedule it etc.

Also some people may have left due to the harsh atomosphere in the channel, if you dont know people are taking the piss, it is easy to get offended I suppose. Overall I think it has probably prolonged the league though :)
 
Personally i prefer league games to pugs, but pugs are good to play instead of publics.

i agree with you that people are to scared of bruising there egos , and thats why they play pug only. bless them x
 
I'm not sure PUG has helped the league or not, but it has given a gr8 alternative to public servers. I think it also has helped some players with their tactics and understanding of how other users play.
 
Without PUG there probably will be more activity on the public servers.
Is that good or not?
Will it help getting new players into UTA?
Or will newbies be p0wned and scared away quickly?
As far as I see it many of the better players have disappeared from public and given newbies a chance to have a little fun.
The PUG-players can't fill up a server all night long anyway.

Activity vs. being p0wned?
 
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i agree with UzI, i don't remember the last time i played in a uta match.

i didn't like the fact that i needed to be at a specific time in front of my pc playin UT.

and yes it's alot better than pubs.


pugs ftw :cool:
 
Played a couple of pug games.. Its a small amount of people who play pug games the rest are on the public servers..doesnt really matter imo
 
I thought pugs was great when they came BUT now i think they are to ineffective, takes way to long time before you even start to play.
I dont have that time.. Just to captain seems hard to do.. I often capped up just to get the match started.

Now I play more publics just because of the time issue.

WELL someone says, you can play public while youre signed at pug!
OH REALLY, maybe thats why no sign up as captain, they play instead and just wait for pug to start..
And when pug actually start, they leave public server middle maps and screw up the public play.

:satan:
 
killerdude said:
i agree with UzI, i don't remember the last time i played in a uta match.

i didn't like the fact that i needed to be at a specific time in front of my pc playin UT.

and yes it's alot better than pubs.


pugs ftw :cool:
Click to expand...


hm nothing wrong with spending sunday evening playing with ur mates and recovering from weekend, it is better then watch tv or go to the cinema watching some bs hollywood piece of shit aka fast food 4 the brain.

pugs r usually played by annoying lil twats who should be shot at sight
 
come to the league, look at the forfeits and all this, you may think league is dead and not even 20 ppl play in it....when you join pug channel you think wow thats a big community still playing UT Assault. Yet people might pugs are a good alternative to public servers....but I think it is an alternative to league games, and due to the mostly excellent flexibility of pugs, players enjoy this more than league games.

Personally I prefer league games to pugs because I like to play with clan mates and have good fun on TS, PUGs always give you other teams and no way to learn proper tactics with certain launches so that everyone knows what to do. That is just not possible with different players on each team every pug. I dont know, I could say league games have made way for the PUGs, but you cannot say it since you do not know where the league would be now without the pugs.

In conclusion I think pugs keep the league alive and give it some fresh power.
 
I don’t get the hurt ego comment for majority of people they have huge losing streaks, MOD, -8-, etc all had many losses. Then by going with the same comment you would expect no one to sign PUG for the same ego bruising issue?

PUG is an alternative, no one forces a gun to anyone to come and play a PUG. Publics are available and often dog customs are full. But how that constitutes from deciding where you play in your spare time to playing in a league is beyond me.
League is a league, pug albeit the fact it’s setup in a league fashion and it’s normally (not always) of a high standard is not the same thing. There are no rewards, but the gain from winning can be as satisfying as playing a league game because you must play tactically if you want to win.

League is dying for many reasons; people are bored of the same old maps, the same old results. There is no variety in the league. I brought back Mi5 but I already know the results give or take one or two matches. So where is the enjoyment and thrill?
With PUG you never know and often the underdog teams have shown the stronger teams that you can’t always rely on the team on just a player by player skill factor.

You have a community channel now, in its peak you have 60 + players, always at least 20+ idle. Players who are there most of the time flame one another but still it’s where you go to find people.

Someone made the comment that keeping the better players of the public’s allows new players to have a chance to learn and play, so from that respect it improves the very rare chance at this stage of UT life for a new player to join the league.
This issue is not a blame game of PUG having a negative effect, there are many issues why the league is dying, I only mentioned some above. But imagine without PUG, just publics, I personally would have quit long ago.

The entire leagues skill level has improved via pug, you may not see it, but it’s a fact, I remember some players before and after its incredible, the flames and strife’s on PUG bring people to want to bring on the next league game as revenge...as childish as these antics are it does create some tension and motivation which the league needs, but sadly with the other issues it’s not going to be enough to keep players around.

Now just imagine to yourselves that the pug element was gone...do you think in all honesty that people are going to mass up and reform new clans? We already have some clans, AAK, FDC, Mi5 coming back to try ‘save’ the state of league, but not being a pessimist that is only a temporary caught in the moment endeavour, will take more than this to save a 9 year old or so game.
 
Bringing PuG to UTA was a great idea, as said previously the biggest advantage is keeping the more skilled players away from the new players, as playing together can get frustrating for either player. That's not to say PuG is restricted to a certain skill level

Although playing PuGs may deter people from playing league games, I dont think it has harmed the league - that was down to the auth system killing off the majority of div 4-5 and people getting bored of such an old game :P

The most annoying thing is forum whores who visit PuG maybe once every two months and trash talk it from 1 or 2 bad experiences they have had
 
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well refering to new players:
to get some new people we should add a welcome msg with www.utassault.net blah blah for every open server... how else should a newbie know we exist? some people are even too stupid to use google.

i dont play pugs that much, but every time i did, it was pure fun. so leaguematches are, but mc is right... some new maps and a change of the system would make it a competition again.
 
I like to think that adding the PuG was a positive thing. I can only speak on my behalf and from my point of view but I really enjoy the pugs I play, no matter the outcome in the specific game. And like Mcneill pointed out I think the skill level has increased - if not dramatically - then by a large margin and that's only positive to me.
 
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