Hello guys!

Alright, this is going to be a heavy one. Hence I am starting a bit with a very shortened history of ENSL.

The ENSL formed 2005 from the French NS League (FNSL) and became the host for competitive leagues and ladders for NS1, jumping from a national context to continental range. Since then, it ran over 15 seasons, 18 cups and several other events for NS1. (More extensive NS1 history here: http://www.ensl.org/articles/401)

With NS2 Beta, swalk picked up the dead NS1 scene under ENSL and reactivated it for NS2. He started very early with Gathers for NS2 under the ENSL page. Nadyli hosted the first ENSL Night Cup for NS2 and swalk started of with the very first Season signups on ENSL. With so many teams from all over the world (mainly Europe and North America) many admins came back and jiriki made me his successor to run the ENSL as head admin from then on (while swalk did most of the work in S1 ;).

We decided to name the very first Season of NS2 "NSL", relating to it as "Natural Selection Leagues" since we hosted divisions and groups for several regions, Europe, North America and Australia.

Already during this first Season we had discussions about the naming of the league since ENSL stands for European Natural Selection League while we hosted leagues for 3 different continents. But it was too young and early to jump on any conclusions there.

We finished the first season succesfully and I think most players and viewers enjoyed the contests so far. Season 2 signups also resulted in over 80 teams from across the world wanting to participate in the NSL Season 2 run by the ENSL.

And here we are currently, after organizing the NSL Invitational Cup sponsored by UWE, planning a Nations Cup for the summer break, preparing the Season 3 under new improved rulesets (and better seedings/division splits!).

My ambitions for this league are very clear: we want to keep hosting leagues from all over the world and make this the best-run and most enjoyable competitive scene for everyone in NS2, players and viewers. But we want to become more professional in the ways we organize things (I know we aren't perfect and work on improving things). Also, a new website is on the way and sponsors are being approached alongside with it. Prize pools are planned. Bigger events. Official casting stream. Lots of cool stuff. With one goal: deliver the best platform for competitive NS2.

So, standing on top of all the things in motion, I'd hate to throw away the brand NSL we created and love the ENSL with all its history. But we need to decide on our future, on what we are, on where we will go. The names ENSL and NSL at its current state spread throughout the whole NS2 community continuous confusion and we need to carry over to one stand: do we go back focus only on european contests or continue our work on a global scale?

The experienced reader and NS vet already knows where this is heading. Run the new website under a new name, transition from ENSL towards NSL with a new logo. I know this will result in heavy feelings in many veterans, the community who made what ENSL is what it is today. The teams who ran this thing all over the time and years and put their dedication towards it. I myself was heavily against any changes from start, but now I changed my views after observing our progress over time.

This is not about to "kill" the ENSL - it will live on, with its mission, with its philosophy, with its history. It would be a change like in 2005, when ENSL came ontop from a national contest to a continental one. This is the last step, going from continental to world wide scale (the leagues will still be regional due to ping issues, of course!). A big step which needs to be thought about carefully.

I can ensure you that we discussed endless hours internally about what to do and I think it is time to bring this to the public. To YOU, the community, who made us what we are. Without you, the ENSL would be nothing, and hence I need your honest opinion about our intentions. The competitive community will always play the biggest role here, whether it's named ENSL or NSL, so I want to hear what you guys think. We as admins just run this beautiful baby, you carry it.

Please handle this discussion in a constructive way, it will be moderated.

My short opinion: It's just a name, and as it is today ENSL as a name does not reflect what (E)NSL do today.

Names can change, what they repersent may always be the same, even with a new name/look.
So if the name must change for us to go forward then lets change it. NSL

As long as long you keep different regions separated for major tournaments and for the league. I'm for everything that makes competitive gaming bigger. Different name is small cost for that.

I've always thought this global project was megalomania, and potentially detrimental to the growth of regional communities. Can't say for sure that I'll be proven right when the dust settles, though, so do your thing I guess.

The ENSL has a long history with NS1 and the beginning of ns2. I am thankful that you guys were able to broaden your efforts and help out NS2 globally. Personally, I don't care what the name is. If many of you feel very attached to the name "ENSL" I wouldn't mind if it was never changed. With that being said, changing it to the "NSL" does make more sense.

i acctually thought its Electronic Natural Selection League :O

maybe simply rename it to that and you guys are all fine no name change and still international you could even use the old site ;)

It would be nice if there were different leagues run in each region, globalisation leads to a loss of diversity, if each region did it's own thing there would be more opportunities to learn try out different things and learn from each other. So personally, I would vote to keep ENSL as a European league.

That being said, I don't know if the NA or AU admins on here would be willing to go it alone in their own regions now that ENSL already has a somewhat established infrastructure, and it would be a shame to lose the worldwide community feeling that has started to spring up around here. So, tough call!

I would disagree with your first bit Trotsky, and agree that yes i would not be assed to create infrastructure to replace the NSL oceanic league. It is possible to have a globalised organisational structure that benefits both from the positives of regional flexibility as well as global standardisation and identity. In business literature, they would call it a transnational strategy. Well structured globalisation means increased learning as you are now actively connecting the knowledge and experience of 3 regions. The only thing holding any of this back is ofcourse a good website.

I don't see ENSL/NSL as an either or decision. NSL -> ENSL/NASL/AUSL etc. The only issue with doing something like that would be any 'politics' or ownership right issues you guys have, and i am not really interested in that quibble.

You guys are like Rome, and we the barbarians who want to be a part of it.

Does the name really matters, if the way is the right one? My opinion is it doesnt. So just do what helps grow to a bigger community...

ENSL did a great job throught many years.

IF you think (as head admin and player) that is the right time to move forward and upgrade this into something more global i couldnt do nothing but agree.

You all (the staff) managed very well to make 3 diferent leagues (EU, NA & AU) into one old website with all the work it makes, and that sacrifice is proven.

I still remember when ENSL came up, before ENSL just were some crappy leagues/cups at clanbase, and nothing more (in European scen i mean) and now we have a very big community with many teams, casters and players, and thats ver good =).

Go ahead with the changes, i bet that 90 % ppl will support you and will join the new web and competitions.

God bless NS (1 & 2) :)

Salutes

I don't think the name and site are such a big deal for me. For me it has always been more about certain people and the game being awesome, not so much about the name of the league or the site it's being run through.

I have to say I kind of share Fana's thoughts about megalomania though, but as also said, it's not my call to make. Please just make sure you've got the resoucres to properly pull off whatever you get started.

I won't mind the change and these websites are a mess.

ps. unban tunnels in vents

I kind of felt compelled to post here, since this idea was originally mine. I want to say a few things about what my thoughts were behind this when I started thinking about it, just around the time Season 1 began.

I love this game and especially the community around it. I came very late to ENSL, after the competetive NS1 era. It was practically dead and only gathers were played, but from talking to lots of community members I got an idea of how things were "back in the days". Lots of different smaller leagues for the different regions, some dieing out faster than others, with ENSL being the "last man standing". I wanted to change that, unite the different communities/regions in one place for a more solid, bigger and improved community.

After trying out the globalized regional-split leagues in one place, I have to say that this comes with alot of benefits, like sharing experiences, helping out with casters/referees across the leagues regardless of their own region. All the "behind the scenes" stuff really takes advantage from having everyone in the same place, more people fighting for the same cause.

All in all, I am happy to see some of you veterans are open to an idea like this one. I think in the end it will be very benefitial to have one "main" place to go to for competetive NS2. And with the history of this community, I am certain it will turn out to be great and have a long lifetime.

I have no right to question any of the decisions that will be made as I am with you only for about 2 months now. But I have couple points:
Imho global community is the really nice thing we have now and I would love for that to continue under one structure.
If you go for NSL, do you want to change the domain? nsl.com, nsl.org, nsl.net are all taken. From just a practical standpoint I like the idea of eNSL, electronic Natural Selection League, make the e small, change logo and off you go.

I guess everyone can agree that the name does not make any kind of difference! Noone cares about that.

And since it seems that all around the world noone really wants to start their own thing because ENSL is running things quite nicely i guess it wont change a lot in the future.

The one thing to keep in mind though when you make a new site .. make sure you preserve some stuff of the old site.

Like Contest history! .. It is nice to know who played in NS1 seasons who won and stuff. Also that ppl can see how much work went into the start of ensl!

But as i said .. name .. same diff !

Vindaloo

From just a practical standpoint I like the idea of eNSL, electronic Natural Selection League, make the e small, change logo and off you go.

you know, this is not a bad idea considering some of the...uh.. branding conflicts surrounding the "NSL" tag.

Don't care what you call it as long as you give the website a thorough upgrading.

rantology

you know, this is not a bad idea considering some of the...uh.. branding conflicts surrounding the "NSL" tag.

Branding conflicts? ENSL have been calling the leagues "NSL" since season 1 began, sounds more like a ripoff ;)

Lots of nazi-stuff calling themselves NSL. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSL

That and ENSL > NSL.

wiry

Lots of nazi-stuff calling themselves NSL. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSL

That and ENSL > NSL.

Ah, good point. Maybe NS2NL or N2NL would be better?

I kinda agree with the electronic idea. From the 'never change a running system' standpoint this seems to be the least dramatic change.

rantology

you know, this is not a bad idea considering some of the...uh.. branding conflicts surrounding the "NSL" tag.

i loled a bit ...

gamerkatze

[quote=rantology]

you know, this is not a bad idea considering some of the...uh.. branding conflicts surrounding the "NSL" tag.

i loled a bit ...[/quote]

OFC a German can laugh at that XD!

To my mind, name doesnt really matter. If you guys, organizers, think you will have more strenght, more motivation by doing a whole new website and use a different name, go on !

Starting to play NS2 only from the release, it's true i was a bit surprised to come back on this good old ENSL website... Graphics are quite sober, proper and good at the same time. But sometimes you keep switching between different pages with different url that show the same thing for example. Sometimes you can't even find quickly what you wanted.

If this whole new website and new "NSL" name gives you better start to make it look like more professional and make sponsors involved, just do it ! I think everyone will follow you guys.

All i want is moRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrre

There's simply been too much trolling on here, historically. If you want to be pro, you've got to move.

So basically what you are saying is .. you are the reason that this site should move and be renewed?

My job here is done. There's no room for drama in this brave new world.

We appreciate your hard work, sub. Live long and prosper.

I think you should change the name to INSL; Intergallactic NS(2) League...

Maybe some real aliens will come and join the fun!
I just hope they look less Kharaa-like and more friendly ;)