Counter Strike Confederation

Why do you want to become an Admin?

I've been known to be a personable and friendly person within the server and there is a lack of admin representation in the lower tiers of the league. I am quick to respond to people and I'm always looking for ways to help people out whether they're new to the league or are experienced.

What prior experience do you have that you believe will help you as an Admin?

I have played two full seasons in CSC, developing many personal connections with players across all tiers. I have also served as a Numbers Manual for Season 11.

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

I'm most interested in keeping CSC as a fair and balanced place to compete. As difficult as it may be to balance people's skills, I want to ensure that the parity of skills are as high quality as they can be.

Anything else you would like to add? sletong really wanted me to apply (edited)

Hey @WET | cool guy! Besides my clear endorsement, it seems that out of the pool of candidates, you are the only one with staff experience. Do you think this gives you an advantage in being admin in this coming season?

Hey cool guy! Do you have any areas you want to focus on as admin? Or types of jobs you've seen filled by admins you want to learn how to do?

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 cool guy, 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?

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.)

WET | sletong

Hey @WET | cool guy! Besides my clear endorsement, it seems that out of the pool of candidates, you are the only one with staff experience. Do you think this gives you an advantage in being admin in this coming season?

I think it gives me an advantage, but only a slight one. There's so much more to being an admin, at least from what I've seen, than just being a staff member. So while I think having that staff experience can help, it isn't a large advantage over the other candidates.

TFR | 42Firehawk

Hey cool guy! Do you have any areas you want to focus on as admin? Or types of jobs you've seen filled by admins you want to learn how to do?

At the moment I'm not super sure at what I want to do particularly as an admin. Right now as an outsider looking in I'm not super certain on what exactly needs to be filled as a new admin coming in to this coming season, but I'm willing to take on any challenge I need to handle.

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?

At this time I'm not really certain on what needs to be addressed. Frankly I've been a bit out of tune with the actions of admins past, so I don't really have a definitive answer.

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COW | Saunce

Hey cool guy, 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 expect that Admins should be available throughout the majority of the day and into the night. I should be available to be contacted throughout most of the day until around 12am-1am EST. I don't mind doing a lot of the manual tasks, as I've been known to arrange things like standings and the like for my tier in my free time. I apologize if this is an inadequate response.

Honestly you could have said that my personal life is my business and I would have accepted and defended your answer. Your willingness to always be available for the league is admirable, but I'm sure other admins who have tried and done the same will tell you to be careful of the inevitable burnout that follows that kind of dedication. Best of luck in the election and thank you for all the standings stuff you've done!

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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?

I agree that more transparency is needed between the admin and moderation teams and the general populace of CSC. As it stands the numbers system can be quite confusing for newcomers and having it be more accessible should allow for more people to be comfortable with the league and its inner workings.

1) I intend to do my best to maintain a healthy work/life balance. I'm not 100% confident in myself that I can do it, but I will try my best to ensure that my personal life does not get affected too harshly. 2) I'm a fairly by the book person, so I will make decisions as such, however if there is an issue with a rule I will be readily willing to suggest a change to the rulebook.

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Also I suppose it should be said that I am not running for admin solely on the desires of sletong. I wanted to run for admin on my own merits but sletong gave me the spark to apply.

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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 fully 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?

WET | cool guy

I agree that more transparency is needed between the admin and moderation teams and the general populace of CSC. As it stands the numbers system can be quite confusing for newcomers and having it be more accessible should allow for more people to be comfortable with the league and its inner workings.

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

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?

Conferences are a double-edged sword. While they're extremely effective for solving scheduling, they can cause a lot of confusion especially when involving standings and playoff seeding. In Recruit for example, the conference system allowed for a more typical length season [13 MDs] compared to a single round-robin [9 MDs] or double round-robin [18 MDs]. However this caused a lot of confusion with the playoff seeding system. I propose keeping the conference system where needed and a better and more transparent way of explaining the seeding system and overall structure of the conferences.

WET | cool guy

Conferences are a double-edged sword. While they're extremely effective for solving scheduling, they can cause a lot of confusion especially when involving standings and playoff seeding. In Recruit for example, the conference system allowed for a more typical length season [13 MDs] compared to a single round-robin [9 MDs] or double round-robin [18 MDs]. However this caused a lot of confusion with the playoff seeding system. I propose keeping the conference system where needed and a better and more transparent way of explaining the seeding system and overall structure of the conferences.

could you expand on this a bit? One of issues all leagues like this have is the lack of reading skills from its many members, what suggestions would you have for addressing something like conferences in terms of improving clarity/better explaining the structure? (edited)

djtl

Adding on to Fuffy’s discussion. An alternate solution to fully 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?

The way you framed this makes a lot of sense and can be used as a way to allieviate the issues that can arise from the inability to adjust the numbers of a signed player. I am overall in favor of this.

AVI | tinyelephant 🏆

could you expand on this a bit? One of issues all leagues like this have is the lack of reading skills from its many members, what suggestions would you have for addressing something like conferences in terms of improving clarity/better explaining the structure? (edited)

Potentially making visual graphics or more often announcements within a tier to give teams and players a better understanding of how the system works and/or standings placement.

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WET | cool guy

The way you framed this makes a lot of sense and can be used as a way to allieviate the issues that can arise from the inability to adjust the numbers of a signed player. I am overall in favor of this.

Could you expand on those issues and how that’s related to making numbers public in preseason?

ATL | RedondO 🏆

Could you expand on those issues and how that’s related to making numbers public in preseason?

The numbers team is very good at what they do, but they aren't perfect. In my opinion, having more eyes and opinions from the wider community can help redirect players to where they should be in terms of MMR.

Hello Mr Guy, 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?

NAN | Kirel

Hello Mr Guy, 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 don't see anything wrong with the current mod selection system. As you said the admins have previously chosen to defer the choice to the mod committee as it is their business.

9:30 PM

Are you suggesting that mods should be elected like admins?

WET | cool guy

Are you suggesting that mods should be elected like admins?

I'm simply asking if the current process could produce distrust in the impartiality of the moderation stuff even if everything is above board.

It does not because Arbiters, who are elected, are effectively used to check and balance the Moderators. I could be wrong about this but I'm fairly certain that this is the current system

Arbiters are elected, they are a sub committee of mods. They do handle appeals, but are not a check on mods as they only judge whether mods follow the guidelines that mods have set. They basically can modify which rule is applied or decide no rule applied, or remove punishments after certain conditions are met. Admins can remove mods and are the only check on them. (I think our current mod team is great so we havent really seen any sort of check enforced.)

That makes sense

Hey cool guy! 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?

ATO | Beans

Hey cool guy! 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?

I would attempt to add addendums to the idea that could bring it to a more compromising or median solution