IBL has been officially terminated. See the announcement.
See the final ratings and player by player game summaries for the entire season.
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 14:02:23 IBL devotees, Well the season is over! The motto for the last week was "Fux IBL!" and that turned out pretty well actually. There were lots of people on Sunday night, including 5 from Duke alone (Pins, Flag, Jolo, Max, Nutz), but possibly because of our recent routing switch from MCI to Sprintnet, Duke surprisingly lagged to many low-lag sites such as CMU or UM, yet we had sweet connections to Californians like ultra and Magrathea... go figure. After 20 frustrating minutes of trying to set up IBL games, we finally said fux it and went straight to PBL, with the 5 Duke players and the aforementioned Californians. We had a night of great 6-8 player games culminating in some TTPB as usual. Sorry for the others who couldn't get in on the action. I just want to say that Magrathea is easily the most improved player I've seen in a while. In game after game, this alleged newbie held his own as much as possible, defended his team's pills capably, made valid attempts at lgm killing, base raped effectively when that was needed, and in general played like a man (better than I did easily -- hey stop snickering). Monday night we had only Samhain, BM, and 3 Middleberries. Since Samhain and BM lagged to each other, only one of them could play, and the resulting games would be fairly predictable. Anyway they decided to fux IBL as well and I noticed several pickup games instead. What's in store for IBL's future? Nutz pointed out to me that at the end of every season I am all gloom and doom and always threaten to cancel IBL. Well here are some facts we should consider: 1. The last 3 weeks had really low turnouts, often resulting only in 1 division with big mismatches. 2. People are still not willing to take more responsibility in organizing themselves (e.g. when only 5 people show up), resulting in a lot of frustration for Will and myself. 3. The time we spend each week organizing IBL is getting to be much more than the time people actually play the games. 4. Lag isn't getting any better, esp. with Duke's recent and unexpected routing lag. 5. Will and I both have other commitments. We each lose 1-2 nights a week plus our daytime IBL duties e.g. maintaining the rankings, web site, and handling emails. Let's just say I am pessimistic about the future of IBL. I suggest we all spend the off-season thinking about whether we really want to keep it going. I said a long time ago that I will run it as long as people want to play, but see #1 above. There are other alternatives, such as going straight to PBL, which many people seem to enjoy more anyway, although that too will depend on Duke fixing its routing lag. We could try dropping it to only Sunday night (or any other single night). I am tempted to go to a "free form" IBL where people just try to self-organize and report results to the web site when done, but I fear the lack of leadership would effectively kill it. Talk to me baby, JoloIBL was officially ended the next day, see the announcement.