Before I go into my farewell spiel, first off congratulations to Deadstrokes on winning Season 5. A nice accomplishment indeed considering the lopsided nature of the divisions this season. And also hats off to Freedom for their efforts, nearly becoming the only team to win back-to-back championships. Also, congratulations to Joe for taking the regular season MVP title this season.
But, I also want to again congratulate all previous winners and MVPs. We've had some great competition here at WSOP, so it didn't come easy to take home any of those titles.
As you may have heard, WSOP has come to an end. I'm sorry if this comes as a disappointment to anyone, but it's time. It has been an awesome experience for me running these 5 Seasons. I've met a lot of new people, played in some exciting matches, and dealt with plenty of headaches while coding up the website.
For those of you that don't know a whole lot about me, read on. For those of you that don't really care, skip to the bottom :) I just turned 23, and I'm at a point in my life where I just don't have the time necessary to run an interleague. I graduated college 6 months ago with a Bachelor's in Computer Science at Cal Poly SLO and it's about time I find myself a job. WSOP has taken up a lot of my focus and attention. So, I hope you can understand that it's time for me to turn the page and move on.
I had a talk a few weeks ago, and this person asked me to hand the interleague over to someone else, to not let WSOP die. I gave it some thought afterwards, and the idea of someone else running this interleague me and James created just wasn't appealing. I would much rather see it come to an end while it's in my hands rather than risking it falling apart in the hands of someone else. I'm not saying no one else would be capable, but I feel like I've done a good job keeping everything updated, reffing as often as I possibly could, all while staying neutral in dealing with the week-to-week issues.
That, and the website code I've done is highly customized and it would take too much effort on my part to try to explain it all to someone else.
As I close the doors on WSOP, I'm asking no one try to start it up again. Please respect what I'm saying and just let it come to a finish. Feel free to start up a new interleague with the same format, just leave W-S-O-P out of it :)
I have plenty of people I want to say thanks to:
- All of my fellow Admins dating back to Season 1 through to today (James, Steve, Andy, Shan, Dina, Steven). I know I took on much of the burden of running this interleague, but it was still good to know I had your support.
- The referees that have volunteered their time through the Seasons. Even if you only did one or you've done many, your help was much appreciated.
- The captains and co-captains of the 20 leagues that have participated. Obviously without the time you put in organizing your teams and making sure players show up week after week, there wouldn't be any leagues competing.
- The players from each and every team that has participated. You all have kept this interleague successfully running at a top level of competition.
- The Predictors (James, Cubby, Brice, Joe) for putting in the effort of giving everyone some interesting material to read.
- And Nigel for supplying high-quality trophies through all 5 Seasons.
I've enjoyed running WSOP as much as I hope you've enjoyed playing in it. Good luck in your games from here on out.
See you around.
- Ben
