We were discussing team formation in the organizing committee meeting and immediately my mind went back to an email that I received from a friend of mine, about team affiliation in competitive sport. It said the following:
"In a way, it's not so surprising; provenance always decided which team you rooted for in English football. If you came from a particular area of London, you'd support West Ham; if you came from another, you'd go for Arsenal. Julian Barnes, one of England's finest living novelists, once described how and why he supports Leicester City, a thoroughly and determinedly unsuccessful football side: "Leicester City are my team because I was born there, though we moved to London six weeks later," he told the Observer Sport Monthly in 2001. (I mean, six weeks?) "Starting to support them when I was four or five was a sentimental way of hanging on to Leicester. An emotional bond is formed at an early age and, unless you are a complete tart and transfer to a rich side, you stick with your childhood team.It isn't merely English football. Indian cricket fans old enough to remember a time when our first-class game mattered anything at all, a time when Test players actually captained zonal teams, and the Ranji and Duleep Trophies were followed with fervor, will recognize the same impulse at play while determining support. (If there's anyone from Mumbai who supported South Zone or anyone from Bangalore who rooted for West Zone, I'd like to know.) "
Last year team organization was based on some provenance that "We all belonged to the same project team, at least most of us". This year the TCS Sports teams will not be formed on basis of any known association or provenance but would be rather churned using an inhuman computer generated random algorithm.
There are distinct advantages of this approach:
1) People will get to know each other so sport will serve the purpose of creating new associations
2) Less passion in the game so jobs of referees and coordinators is much easier
3) No Malice in team formation..its random ..you see..
However there are significant cons too..
1) No affiliation makes it difficult to gel together as a team and think as a team.You could be indifferent because you are in different teams in different sports.
2) Its difficult to decide which team gets the overall champion trophy
3) Logistically its easier for people from same team to communicate
4) You will not be able get a team jersey..there are different teams for different sports..
5) Audience know whom to cheer for and it can create some magical cheering and jeering moments.
Well..Its easy to see which side I am on..however we have decided as a team that we will have no provenance and will use random numbers to pick our teams..What do you think?? Am I the only one sweating too much about it..
Your thoughts will help the next Organizing committee come to a better team formation next year around..lets plant the trees and not think about the fruit!
By the way..What about team Jerseys.we need some identity .how will we identify players in Basketball/Football..cos we might end up in teams where we don't know a lot of other players..this will true for lot of people who have just joined the account.
Thoughts?
3 comments:
Dude ,
You are right this all lacks team enthu and game fever. But anyway lets pave it for furure playesrs.
Ankur
True that. Nice post !
I agree with whatever you've said. Initially I thought that the idea of no provenance was rather odd, but the point which turned the decision in favor of random team formation was a convincing one.
Unlike last year, when we had a rather even distribution of strong players, this year due to the "October Massacre" we've lost many of our star players. Some teams like say Photo, are not in their full strength, and would have struggled to complete a cricket team.
Also, horse trading and the evil nuances of politics surfaced in the later parts of the tournament, when bad will was generated due to some players joining teams, after their own team had been knocked out.
Still, an association with a group, clan, project, etc. helps in bringing in supporters and generates passion.
Another thing which bothers me is the committment aspect. When I was inviting nominations, there were many people who took their own sweet time in submitting nominations. And even after that, these guys fail to turn up in their respective event !!!
Sports are an interesting case study indeed. It does depict the inner reactions of individuals on the sports field.
The jersey idea is good, but we did not have enough time to implement it.
I would urge the individual coordinators of the game to take their responsibilities seriously, and coordinate with the individual teams on time, for them to prepare well for their matches.
Rest, have fun :)
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