The TRBF: History Rewritten...again

[VaCubbie]

Hey everyone! Another day, another Inside the Ropes universe narrativeJ! While this might be a proto-typical “History of Boxing” circa 1900 same-ol’, same ol’ kind of thing, I really want to do this to keep a running log of my uni's history, as well as possibly establish some rapport with some very knowledgeable boxing fans. So if you are interested and like what you are reading…please follow along and provide any feedback you wish.

As for me, I suppose I am a sport sim geek. I started playing OOTP baseball a couple of months ago and got totally hooked on it and frequenting the OOTP Developments website frequently. In spite of never being much of a boxing fan, my eye kept getting drawn to TB 2.5 and eventually I decided I had to give it a try. Suddenly I am totally engrossed in boxing history and rarely do I sim a fight where I don’t take a few moments to do a little research on a great fighter from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, or whenever (I probably know a lot more about 1901 boxers than I do the current day fighters). Needless to say…my evenings are now spent scheduling fights, watching boxing careers begin and end, and seeing titles won and lost. I love it!

The only thing missing from my TB2.5 experience is structure and discipline, and that is where this fine forum comes in. As mentioned before, I would sort of like a journal to keep track of my happenings, but maybe also to stir up a little interest, which might grow into a groundswell of die hard fans, which maybe could turn into demands for daily updates, finally turning this game into a fulltime burden of trying to appease hungry masses and their insatiable appetite for fictional boxing results and off-color storylines.

So with a beer in one hand, a mouse in the other, I proudly present the highly repetitive and wildly unimaginative "Third Rock Boxing Federation."

Cheers!

[VaCubbie]

The following is a narrative as to how the simulation will run. Many ideas are largely taken from others, so if you see one of your methods in action here, please know that it is much appreciated.


The year is 1900, I’ve imported all the boxers up to 1900, and retired all boxers whose career ended prior to 1900, obviously, all others are set to ‘active’. Auto aging is activated, and for the time being all fighters are activated in auto-scheduling.

For ease of scheduling, I am using a 4-stage system as suggested by Non Compos Mentos way back in a 2005 post I read yesterday. I like this system because it accounts for experienced fighters, as well as takes away from the administrative tasks and provides for a realistic enough scheduling environment. To paraphrase Mr. Compos Mentos: Title Bout is a simulator, I just let the sim do what the sim does and enjoy the show.

The four stages (or divisions) are: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum (blatantly stealing the idea now J)
Fighters begin their career fighting 4 round fights for their first 4 fights. After 4 fights, the fighters move into the silver stage (fighting 6 round fights) where they remain until they’ve fought 10 bouts. Fights 11-18 are spent in the Gold division (8 round bouts), with a fighter automatically moving into the Platinum division if they are ranked in the top 20. All fighters with 18 bouts under their belt move into the Platinum division (10, 12, or 15 round bouts) where they spend the rest of their fighting days. I may at some point feel the need to “force” poor quality fighters out that are taking up space in the Platinum level, but for now I am going to assume that that won’t be too much of a problem. If a change is made, it might involve limiting Platinum division fighters to being a particular rank while those not meeting the ranking will remain in or move back to the Gold division.

Fighters only fight fighters (say it 5 times real fast) in their own division. Bronze fighters fight bronze fighters, platinum fight platinum, etc. Title fights only occur between platinum division fighters. If a fighter doesn’t have 18 bouts or isn’t ranked in the top 20 they cannot be involved in any title fights or fight any title holders. They have to earn their way.

All fighters are starting with 0-0-0 records and at the beginning of their careers. Therefore I anticipate a couple of “sim” years before any title fights occur. Once all four divisions have healthy representation, then I will really begin to get into the week to week operations. Again, there will be no title fights outside of Platinum division. However, the platinum division will fill up quickly as fighters get to 10 fights and become ranked. There will be title fight as soon as a weight division has 10 ranked boxers in the platinum level.

Once the universe is in full swing, here is the “flow of operations.” Each week, 10% of the fighters (rounded down) will fight. That is, each division will fight 10% of its fighters. For example, the silver division has 104 fighters, therefore 10 fighters will fight, and 5 fights will be auto-scheduled. This method will proceed through the four divisions.

First I will auto-schedule the bronze fighters. From the generated fights, I will select one “key” fight (my opinion J), note it and remove it from the auto-schedule list of fights. Next I will do the same with the silver division, removing one fight from the list of my choice, and noting it. The Gold division the same, only I will select my 2 key fights, and finally the platinum/championship division, in which I will select two more key fights and remove them from the auto-scheduled list.

The six fights removed from the auto-scheduled list make up that week’s 6-bout feature fight card, of which I will provide my “expert” analysis and opinions J. I speed watch all the fights and act as sort of a ringside expert and blah, blah, blah…you know the rest.

After that is complete, I look at the admin side and move fighters to the appropriate groups and prepare the ground work for the next week of action.

Every month the top 10 fighters from each weight class are posted for you to peruse and be entertained by.

Each year I update the fighter pool with the next years fighters. They are all set to inactive and I will randomly activate approximately 25% of the fighters in January, April, July, and October. This will help keep the divisions a little bit evened up as each year progresses.

Finally, one word about title holders. Title holders are moved out of the platinum league (sort of) and place into the title holder group. They are not auto-scheduled, but must fight one title defense every 3 months (usually the first or second week of January, April, July, and October)for a total of 4 title defense bouts a year. If the previous title holder is not selected for a rematch, then he may demand a rematch to occur no later than 1 year to the day he lost the title. Otherwise, the title holder chooses his opponent (from the top 10 fighters) and may only fight a selected opponent once per year. The title fight will be announced 60-90 days from the scheduled fight date and the challenger or chosen one, rather, will be removed from auto-scheduling and placed in the title holder group also. Thanks to previous work by mh2365, I am going to bias 2 out of the 3 judges to favor the title holder to ensure that a real ass-kicking takes place before the title holder loses his title.

[VaCubbie]

1900 came and went as boxers worked hard to establish themselves as contenders for the TRBF title. Generally, fighters fought between 3 and 6 fights throughout the year. 323 fighters began in the Bronze division, and by years end, only 54 fighters remained as the rest moved into the silver division. There haven't been enough fights to establish official rankings, however pundits like myself are starting to pick the men from the boys, and here is how the picture is shaping up at years end:


HW
Bob Armstrong USA 6-0-0 (3)
Jim Scanlon AUS 5-0-0 (3)
Jack Johnson USA 4-0-0
James J Corbett USA 3-0-1 (1)
Nick Burley USA 5-1-0 (2)


LHW
Philadelphia Jack O'Brien USA 6-0-0
Bob Fitzsimmons ENG 3-1-1 (1)
Jack Root USA 3-1-1
Jack Sullivan USA 2-3-1
Joe Choynski USA 1-3-2


MW
Tom Duggan AUS 4-0-1
Charles McCoy USA 5-1-0
Mike Donovan IRE 3-0-2 (1)
Charles Goff USA 4-1-0
Charles Turner USA 3-1-0 (2)


WW
Rube Ferns USA 5-0-0 (2)
Young Corbett USA 5-0-0 (1)
Tom Couhig USA 5-0-1 (2)
Mick Dunn AUS 4-0-1 (2)
Jim Janey USA 5-1-0 (2)


LW
Bob Turner AUS 6-0-0 (1)
Rufe Turner USA 5-0-0 (1)
Battling Nelson DEN 5-0-0 (1)
Tommy Cleary IRE 5-0-0 (2)
Rufe Turner USA 5-0-0 (1)


FW
Mississippi Joe USA 5-0-0 (1)
Abe Attell USA 5-0-0
Oscar Gardner USA 4-0-1 (1)
Benny Soloman USA 3-0-1 (1)
Tim Hegarty AUS 4-1-0


BW
Frankie Neil USA 5-0-0
Harry Forbes USA 4-0-1 (1)
Owen Moran ENG 5-1-0 (1)
Pedlar Palmer ENG 3-1-0
Jack Kid Madden USA 3-1-0


FLY
Frank Morecombe ENG 3-0-2
Michael Riley SCO 3-1-1
Charlie Exall ENG 3-1-1
Frank Brierly IRE 2-1-2
Jim Stroud ENG 2-1-2


The LHW and FLY divisions are pretty sparse at this point, so the records are indicative of a small group of men beating the hell out of each other all the time. The Welterweight and Lightweight divisions look like they will be an absolute blast when title bout time rolls around.

[VaCubbie]

1901 is about to get underway and the TRBF welcomes a new class of freshman fighters (albeit a very few freshman fighters). Among those fighters with the brightest futures is a Welshman by the name of Jem Driscoll. Two notable Americans making their debut will be Jimmy Walsh and Mike Sullivan. Other names to look out for are Irishman Jimmy Gardner and South African Arthur Douglas. 1901 should see official rankings begin and the picture of first title fights should become clearer.

[CONN CHRIS]

Welcome to the basement of OOTP - you'll find a good many folks interested in this era (myself included).


Christopher

[VaCubbie]

Originally Posted by CONN CHRIS

Welcome to the basement of OOTP - you'll find a good many folks interested in this era (myself included).


Christopher

Thanks CONN CHRIS...very interesting period indeed. Sports seem to reflect society a lot. It is rich in history and has a "romantic" quality to it, but it is a shamefully ugly period at the same time. It's hard to imagine how predominant racial attitudes were at the time. Fortunately...my little universe is free of such bothersome attitudes, at least for the most part. We only ask that our boxers throw punches, and our spectators don't leave any half drank beers behind

Nothing much to update...1901 crawls along at a snails pace due to a heavy work schedule and a ton of family goings on.

[Mad Bomber]

I have always been fascinated by boxing history since I was a kid, and have had a few boxing sims, but since 1979 Title Bout and TBCB have ruled the day, and I will certainly be watching this sim to see if history does indeed repeat itself, or can be altered somewhat.

Greg

[VaCubbie]

Thanks Mad Bomber for the comment. Hope you enjoy. The history is definitely going to be altered as the TRBF will be the lone recognized boxing authority and will act as an umbrella organization to 4 international regions. So starting in 1903 there will always be unification in my perfect little world.

The unfortunate part of this whole deal is that I'm an idiot who did a bad thing with adding and deleting groups and I am going to have to recreate the first year . It won't take long...but when I put out the first real rankings there may be some discrepancies with the fighter records that I put out the other night. The nice thing is that I got a whole commitment free weekend ahead, so once the damage is repaired I can get going full steam!

[bear]

Welcome
I've got a fondness for historical unis. Glad you are sharing yours.

bear

[bear]

Originally Posted by VaCubbie

Thanks Mad Bomber for the comment. Hope you enjoy. The history is definitely going to be altered as the TRBF will be the lone recognized boxing authority and will act as an umbrella organization to 4 international regions. So starting in 1903 there will always be unification in my perfect little world.

The unfortunate part of this whole deal is that I'm an idiot who did a bad thing with adding and deleting groups and I am going to have to recreate the first year . It won't take long...but when I put out the first real rankings there may be some discrepancies with the fighter records that I put out the other night. The nice thing is that I got a whole commitment free weekend ahead, so once the damage is repaired I can get going full steam!

Don't feel bad. I made the same mistake and messed up my universe history too when I started one. I think it is part of the learning curve.