League Balance Strategy

The League Balance Strategy was a strategy implemented for the 2010 Buce League. It involved the co-operation of several teams, players and captains, in an effort to balance out the league coming out of the 2009 Winter Buce League.

Now a relic of the 2010 Buce year, the League Balance Strategy has since been ousted by analysts as a failure, and was unable to balance the league out in favourable ways.

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Guy Bevan, Charlie Rogers and Theo Rogers were some of the major players responsible for the balancing of the 2010 league.

History

The issue of balancing the league became a talking point by the end of the 2009 Winter Buce League, where The Avalanches had consecutively won both professional 2009 Buce Leagues in a row, without losing a single match in that period. The other Quad Team-hailed group The Sunflowers also came second in the competition. On the other side of the spectrum, Novice Strike Force came dead last, conceding 83 points in the competition and only scoring 1. Some sceptics complained that the league left much to be desired for other players, if the same teams continued to dominate every single league. This led to turmoil for Buce organisers.

After the finish of the 2009 Winter Buce League, at the 2009 Winter Buce League Awards Ceremony, Charlie Rogers tried addressing the problem by announcing the split of long-time successful team, The Avalanches, promising to help accommodate all the players into teams that would not only help spread individual skill throughout the league, but also not compromise the Avalanche's players' future in Buce. Soon after, Guy Bevan and Lewis Freeland announced that their team The Sunflowers would also share the same fate as The Avalanches, in order to help accommodate the large skill gap that the Avalanches' breakup would incur on the league.

Challenge

During the off-season, talks begun between captains of all teams, and players of the league, in order to accommodate the Quad Team players left teamless following the post-Winter 2009 purge. This involved heavy discussion between Theo Rogers, Lachlon Willis, Michael Read, Lewis Freeland, Jackson Cowan, Guy Bevan and Charlie Rogers, the latter two of which acted as managers for the Quad Team players. The difficulty of the task was not only finding teams for all the 10 players previously part of Avalanches/Sunflowers, but making sure they were balanced. A strong priority was held to ensure none of the players would be put in situations or teams which they didn't feel comfortable in; either playing for teams they previously disliked, or teams with no hope of becoming a premiership team. All in all, this proved a challenge for organisers of the balancing strategy.

In terms of balance, priorities were set aside by Rogers in the form of splitting up The Avalanches, namely Jacob Dawes, Rick Osman and himself.

Guy Bevan was also to be split from the three Avalanches, despite attempts by Rogers to have himself and Bevan join the same team in NSF, however there was more resistance than there was support by league captains towards this option.

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Michael Read acted as a consultant for Quad Team manager Charlie Rogers.

Solution

After heavy speculation and extensive discussion, the player's futures were finally announced in the coming months before the 2010 Buce League. Guy Bevan, Tim Murdoch and Rick Osman were to join Novice Strike Force remake The Giants, still under the captaincy of Lachlon Willis. Charlie Rogers would join the Wu-Tang Clan.

Jacob Dawes, Alec Forbes, Nick Cherrie, Ashley Everson and Joel Steele were chosen to be put into one team, similar to the old Quad Team of 2007. Lewis Freeland was asked by Rogers to captain the team, an offer he accepted.

Impact

The League Balance Strategy, a year on, was analysed by pundits and organisers and was thought to mostly have been a failure.

Immediate impacts involve the level of change within the league- though not as publicised as other Buce phenomena such as the founding of National Buce News or the introduction of the Three Square Rule, the Balance Strategy saw the pioneers of Buce- the Quad Team and the Original 8- part ways for the security of the league, and for the dilution of skill into more teams. This was, at the time, foreign to Buce Leagues, as cross-team transfers were still incredibly rare, due to the fact that clubs and teams are made up of social groups rather than competitive factions, so this was the first example of transfers in Buce happening en masse.

The Balance Strategy was also significant because it was the first time every captain in the league actually worked together and discussed ways to help the future of Buce and all its players. It was the first collaborative, communicative effort within the Buce League and was signified by the co-operation of not only all involved teams, but the Quad Team players who chose to accept their futures at the hands of the league managers.

Despite this, there were many issues that plagued the strategy throughout the 2010 Buce League. The Toecutters, who were favourites for the league, forfeited so many of their matches that it ruined the balance considerably. Also, the splitting of players had a considerable affect on some teams, but not on others. The dream-team-like Snowflowers had a lackluster year, while Giants fought to a surprisingly high spot and Wu-Tang Clan generally dominated the competition, which was undesirable in the eyes of the Strategy.

The failure of the strategy, and its disheartening result on the league, was a main reason the 2010 Winter Buce League was postponed and eventually cancelled.