Counter Strike Confederation

Why do you want to become an Admin? To improve player experience and representation through meaningful changes in rulemaking, marketing, and communication. What prior experience do you have that you believe will help you as an Admin?

I currently am admin of a discord with over 1000 members responsible running the largest North American non-affiliated ten mans hub.

What things do you hope to implement, reinforce, or remove as an Admin?

Increase specificity of rules and language used within the rulebook. Increase players' access to information during key parts of the preseason. Explore methods of increasing non-player exposure to CSC.

Anything else you would like to add?

With the incredible growth of CSC over the past two seasons, it is imperative that the league continues to evolve around its growing player-base. While not everyone can be satisfied, player satisfaction is paramount for maintaining player retention and increasing exposure throughout the broader CS community, especially as newer players join at the advent of CS2.

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Hey bango. From your application you said you want to work on improving the rulebook and exposure to csc. These areas might be best addressed by working as a player rep within csc and joining media committee to focus on projects for it. With that in mind: what makes you want to work on these goals as admin, and what type of information do you want to improve access to during preseason?

What is one thing you've seen past admins do that you don't agree with and would like to correct? What is one thing you've seen past admins do that you agree with and would like to improve?

Hey bango, just a question for all of the candidates with some preface. While I firmly believe that IRL should take precedent over anything CSC, signing up for certain positions, such as admin, does come with some reasonable expectation that the person is available and free to put out fires, attend meetings, and perform many of the "labor" tasks during the offseason. That being said, what are your expectations of the level of time commitment that it takes to be an admin, and how confident are you in your free time to meet those commitments?

In the past members of the community including myself have asked for more transparency from the upper staff of CSC. Be it numbers, moderation or future admin plans. The argument is that additional information will improve trust in the system and help players to be more aware (such as numbers for players during the draft when they are already locked). Do you agree with the sentiment that all of this information should be public, or do you think only some or none of this information should be shared with the public?

Thanks for all the questions. I'll try to answer them as well as I can, but let me know if something I say isn't clear.

TFR | 42Firehawk

Hey bango. From your application you said you want to work on improving the rulebook and exposure to csc. These areas might be best addressed by working as a player rep within csc and joining media committee to focus on projects for it. With that in mind: what makes you want to work on these goals as admin, and what type of information do you want to improve access to during preseason?

I am planning to apply for a player rep position if I am not elected admin. As for increasing exposure to CSC, I was more interested in providing CSC resources for advertising or setting up the media committee to find partnerships, rather than personally pursuing these goals due to a significant lack of experience in that area. As for information that I would like to provide to players: I am primarily referring to is releasing numbers before the draft takes place, with time for manual adjustments to take place between the final combine and draft day. However, there are very few things that I do not think could be done with full transparency. I would prefer the league to have all information public unless it poses a real-life risk to a person or their property. From the last two seasons, I have found that many players, when information isn't given freely, will put little to no trust in the system leading to feelings of disenfranchisement and general anger. Numbers is the most obvious example here, but the idea can be broadly applied to all aspects of CSC.

PFA | Crispy

What is one thing you've seen past admins do that you don't agree with and would like to correct? What is one thing you've seen past admins do that you agree with and would like to improve?

Starting with the positives: I liked the active engagement between admins and the community, both in an "official" duty and in a community member sense. An admin trying to make a league good for those who play in the league should play in the league themselves and communicate with community members regularly to understand where frustrations lie and how to remedy these issues. The things I have thought were negative from the admins are essentially the opposite of the above statement.

COW | Saunce

Hey bango, just a question for all of the candidates with some preface. While I firmly believe that IRL should take precedent over anything CSC, signing up for certain positions, such as admin, does come with some reasonable expectation that the person is available and free to put out fires, attend meetings, and perform many of the "labor" tasks during the offseason. That being said, what are your expectations of the level of time commitment that it takes to be an admin, and how confident are you in your free time to meet those commitments?

I currently have a lot of free time, though, I am starting my PhD this fall and will (obviously) put that over CSC at all times. That being said, assuming no conflict with ESEA, I anticipate being available during every match day as well as being available throughout the week as needed. As for the hour commitment that I expect, I'd reckon it changes from week to week, but somewhere between 2-16 hours a week in active work with maybe 8 or so hours on a normal week. I would anticipate there will be weeks that I may be relatively unavailable due to travel/exams/etc, but I generally would be able to meet this requirement.

AVI | Fuffy 🏆

In the past members of the community including myself have asked for more transparency from the upper staff of CSC. Be it numbers, moderation or future admin plans. The argument is that additional information will improve trust in the system and help players to be more aware (such as numbers for players during the draft when they are already locked). Do you agree with the sentiment that all of this information should be public, or do you think only some or none of this information should be shared with the public?

This is mostly addressed in my response to Firehawk. I would prefer all information to be public unless it "poses a real-life risk to a person or their property", i.e. not doxxing them, opening them up to harrassment, etc. If it doesn't fall into that category, I do not see a reason to prevent players from seeing the information unless it would lead to major issues in player retention or player happiness (which seems unlikely but possible I suppose)

OS | bango

I currently have a lot of free time, though, I am starting my PhD this fall and will (obviously) put that over CSC at all times. That being said, assuming no conflict with ESEA, I anticipate being available during every match day as well as being available throughout the week as needed. As for the hour commitment that I expect, I'd reckon it changes from week to week, but somewhere between 2-16 hours a week in active work with maybe 8 or so hours on a normal week. I would anticipate there will be weeks that I may be relatively unavailable due to travel/exams/etc, but I generally would be able to meet this requirement.

Congrats on starting your PHD! Sorry if it felt like I was digging into your personal life, but apparently before both of us joined there was a period of time where admins weren't as active. Given that other admins have been college students, I'm sure the admin team is used to working around school schedules at this point. Good luck in the election!

COW | Saunce

Congrats on starting your PHD! Sorry if it felt like I was digging into your personal life, but apparently before both of us joined there was a period of time where admins weren't as active. Given that other admins have been college students, I'm sure the admin team is used to working around school schedules at this point. Good luck in the election!

Thanks! I can see why it is a worry, but I whole-heartedly believe that admins need to be active in the community to be able to properly represent players and would hold myself to the same standard.

Hello, I am asking this question to all candidates as I have noticed this being a consistent issue. I have been a participant in this and its sister league RSC for 10 seasons in total, and one of the things I have witnessed repeatedly is the burnout that admins experience. This has often led to, in my view, decisions made for expediency or to avoid a fight over enforcement of rules as written, instead hand waving away infractions and keeping them a secret/not allowing them to be discussed in server. I am not someone who thinks the rule book is perfect or that discretion shouldn't be used, but consistency is incredibly important to maintaining trust and legitimacy. This leads into my two questions: 1) If elected, how do you intend to mediate and hopefully avoid the potential for burnout? 2) Will you vote to enforce the rulebook as written or if you see an issue with a rule, will you be willing to actively work to have it corrected? (I know admins dont make the rules, but often find themselves involved in the adjudication process.)

AVI | tinyelephant 🏆

Hello, I am asking this question to all candidates as I have noticed this being a consistent issue. I have been a participant in this and its sister league RSC for 10 seasons in total, and one of the things I have witnessed repeatedly is the burnout that admins experience. This has often led to, in my view, decisions made for expediency or to avoid a fight over enforcement of rules as written, instead hand waving away infractions and keeping them a secret/not allowing them to be discussed in server. I am not someone who thinks the rule book is perfect or that discretion shouldn't be used, but consistency is incredibly important to maintaining trust and legitimacy. This leads into my two questions: 1) If elected, how do you intend to mediate and hopefully avoid the potential for burnout? 2) Will you vote to enforce the rulebook as written or if you see an issue with a rule, will you be willing to actively work to have it corrected? (I know admins dont make the rules, but often find themselves involved in the adjudication process.)

Thanks for the question. I think that transparency can help solve this issue. Making admins' responses to issues public allows a check on the power they are given. As for avoiding personal burnout, I don't have any plan, but if it were to become an issue I would obviously address it before burning out. With the short lifespan of the rulebook so far, I would definitely want to see continual change as needed. There are a few issues I would like to see change, most importantly I would like to increase transparency at the top level of the league, allowing for players to both be more involved in the decision making process, as well as allowing players to act as a check on admin mismanagement of the league.

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Transarency is something I have seen be run on over and over again. How do you plan on being different than every other person who ran on the same thing before and what info do you think is hidden that you think the community should know about/see more

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scraps

Transarency is something I have seen be run on over and over again. How do you plan on being different than every other person who ran on the same thing before and what info do you think is hidden that you think the community should know about/see more

Honestly, the only person I remember running on full transparency was Comrad. Due to my relatively short time in CSC, I don't have a clear picture of where previous admins/admin candidates fell short. I certainly would appreciate an explanation of previous stances and why, if possible. As for what information I think should be public, I stated it above a few times, but to paraphrase: I think all information should be publicly available unless it poses a risk of harm to a person or property whether that harm is physical/mental.

OS | bango

Honestly, the only person I remember running on full transparency was Comrad. Due to my relatively short time in CSC, I don't have a clear picture of where previous admins/admin candidates fell short. I certainly would appreciate an explanation of previous stances and why, if possible. As for what information I think should be public, I stated it above a few times, but to paraphrase: I think all information should be publicly available unless it poses a risk of harm to a person or property whether that harm is physical/mental.

You say relatively short time, but of the four candidates you are tied for first in number of seasons. Coming in at the CSC Renaissance has probably made you less jaded to some of the struggles others have seem. It may seem short to some people like scraps and Andrew but I'd bet you have been here as long if not longer than half of the voters peepoLove

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Second question for the candidates: One of the responsibilities of the admin team is determining the schedules for the year and the season. With the massive expansion, many tiers saw conferences for the first time in the longest time, which was met with mixed reviews from the people I've talked to. What are your thoughts on the use of conferences and overall effectiveness of how the conferences functioned in S12?

Adding on to Fuffy’s discussion. An alternate solution to public numbers that has been proposed is: Numbers soft locking earlier before draft, publishing those numbers to all, and allowing a short period for manual adjustments/numbers reports before the draft. This solves the issues of people being able to easily abuse numbers to fit a team, and allows time to solve misplaced players. How would you feel about a less drastic change as outlined above?

COW | Saunce

Second question for the candidates: One of the responsibilities of the admin team is determining the schedules for the year and the season. With the massive expansion, many tiers saw conferences for the first time in the longest time, which was met with mixed reviews from the people I've talked to. What are your thoughts on the use of conferences and overall effectiveness of how the conferences functioned in S12?

I haven't played in a tier with conferences, so I am not entirely sure. It does seem like they are going to be a necessity if CSC continues to grow to mitigate scheduling issues and allow teams to face more than once per season. I would prefer to listen to player criticism on conferences before making any changes. Personally it seems as though conferences will have to continue to be implemented, though some changes may be necessary to unsure fair conferences.

djtl

Adding on to Fuffy’s discussion. An alternate solution to public numbers that has been proposed is: Numbers soft locking earlier before draft, publishing those numbers to all, and allowing a short period for manual adjustments/numbers reports before the draft. This solves the issues of people being able to easily abuse numbers to fit a team, and allows time to solve misplaced players. How would you feel about a less drastic change as outlined above?

This is also what I proposed. It seems worth trying this method before moving to fully public numbers, and I would choose to do this for a season or two before making more drastic changes. I do worry for manuals mental health during the period between public numbers and the draft though :(

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I think conferences are a necessity for larger tiers, but it would be nice if we committed more to the idea of conferences in the playoffs. For example, in contender, playoff seeding sort of co mingled conferences rather than find the conference champions and putting them against each other in the final.

OS | bango

This is mostly addressed in my response to Firehawk. I would prefer all information to be public unless it "poses a real-life risk to a person or their property", i.e. not doxxing them, opening them up to harrassment, etc. If it doesn't fall into that category, I do not see a reason to prevent players from seeing the information unless it would lead to major issues in player retention or player happiness (which seems unlikely but possible I suppose)

I appreciate the reply ❤️ For admins specifically, do you have any plans or goals to inform the public on the work/direction of the admin team?

AVI | Fuffy 🏆

I appreciate the reply ❤️ For admins specifically, do you have any plans or goals to inform the public on the work/direction of the admin team?

I am in favor of (possibly via a viewable chat for all players that only admins/RC can message in) a less formal method of distributing discussions that admins have and allowing players to see what issues are being brought up and how admins would respond to said issue. I would also like a way of sharing notes from admin meetings when applicable so that these discussions are also known to the player base. afaik neither of these are currently happening and would allow players to see what the admins are doing to quell some of the unrest that comes from inherent inactivity due to the seasonal structure of rule changes

OS | bango

I haven't played in a tier with conferences, so I am not entirely sure. It does seem like they are going to be a necessity if CSC continues to grow to mitigate scheduling issues and allow teams to face more than once per season. I would prefer to listen to player criticism on conferences before making any changes. Personally it seems as though conferences will have to continue to be implemented, though some changes may be necessary to unsure fair conferences.

Iirc prem had conferences but you also lived the FA life so maybe you didn't feel the impact as much as others.

COW | Saunce

Iirc prem had conferences but you also lived the FA life so maybe you didn't feel the impact as much as others.

yes

OS | bango

I am in favor of (possibly via a viewable chat for all players that only admins/RC can message in) a less formal method of distributing discussions that admins have and allowing players to see what issues are being brought up and how admins would respond to said issue. I would also like a way of sharing notes from admin meetings when applicable so that these discussions are also known to the player base. afaik neither of these are currently happening and would allow players to see what the admins are doing to quell some of the unrest that comes from inherent inactivity due to the seasonal structure of rule changes

In the past #admin-updates has shared notes and such, though not recently.

1:34 PM

Ty for the reply and glhf in elections

OS | bango

I am planning to apply for a player rep position if I am not elected admin. As for increasing exposure to CSC, I was more interested in providing CSC resources for advertising or setting up the media committee to find partnerships, rather than personally pursuing these goals due to a significant lack of experience in that area. As for information that I would like to provide to players: I am primarily referring to is releasing numbers before the draft takes place, with time for manual adjustments to take place between the final combine and draft day. However, there are very few things that I do not think could be done with full transparency. I would prefer the league to have all information public unless it poses a real-life risk to a person or their property. From the last two seasons, I have found that many players, when information isn't given freely, will put little to no trust in the system leading to feelings of disenfranchisement and general anger. Numbers is the most obvious example here, but the idea can be broadly applied to all aspects of CSC.

Could you expand on your statement about providing CSC resources to advertising/pursuing partnerships? As the league is community funded and our servers are sponsored, I’m not sure what partnerships CSC should be pursuing(I say this as someone who has pushed something in a similar vein in the past and ran into this question)

Hello Mr Bingo Bango, I originally asked this to Tuwtles based on one of his responses but I thought it'd be a good question for everyone. As I believe it currently stands, the head mod picks people they think would make a good moderator with the approval of the other mods (who were also previously picked by the same head mod). If the current head mod were to step down, their replacement would be elected by the body of existing mods (who technically submit approval to admins but admins have previously self-admitted that they usually prefer to defer to the judgement of the moderation team). If this is incorrect, happy to have someone correct me. Do you believe the current way the moderation team is constructed creates or could create unnecessary friction with the community and breed a lack of trust?

With your experience in managing the biggest 10 man hub in North murica, do you have any plans on improving the 10man experience here at CSC and if so how and why would it involve weekly 10man nights?

NAN | Kirel

Hello Mr Bingo Bango, I originally asked this to Tuwtles based on one of his responses but I thought it'd be a good question for everyone. As I believe it currently stands, the head mod picks people they think would make a good moderator with the approval of the other mods (who were also previously picked by the same head mod). If the current head mod were to step down, their replacement would be elected by the body of existing mods (who technically submit approval to admins but admins have previously self-admitted that they usually prefer to defer to the judgement of the moderation team). If this is incorrect, happy to have someone correct me. Do you believe the current way the moderation team is constructed creates or could create unnecessary friction with the community and breed a lack of trust?

I see no reason why moderators can't be voted on the same as other positions. Or at least require a community vote as a yea or nay to ensure that the mod team does not have issues

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Hey bango! Most assume admins have the ability to implement or make sudden changes that would change how things have been running within CSC (ie. transparency, more elections, public availablity etc) and perhaps don't know or realize that it requires a lot of talking and agreement between various parties to make any major change. That being said, assuming you were to win the admin election, how would you react or try to bring a conversation about something you wanted to change yet have no or little support from other committee heads or admins?