FloWrestling Improvements

[Lordnelson]

More Afton Quadrangular Results too.

[killdozer]

I think they need to make real improvements to the "Next Gen" Bracketing/datebase after this past season some things I noticed. I realize this was Beta. So here we go. 
1) The two rarely are synced up. If you do a tournament on track. Flo is very slow to sync the brackets/teams/wrestlers. I have been two hours into the tournament I am running and people will come up and say they brackets aren't on flo. 
2) The database for Flo is not a good replacement for tracks for various reasons
    A) it doesn't have the weight class mentioned at all. You have to go into brackets and search for the correct one.
    B) No placement/weight class mentioned in the header (Like track did have)
    C) No records mentioned (nitpicking I know)
3) as far brackets/tournaments go. 
    A) No records, class, or seeds mentioned.
    B) the brackets are worse than floarena. They place you somewhere in the middle and when you move you really can't gather what part of the brackets you are in. I know track looks old. But it is very easy to follow unlike floarena/flo next gen
   C) the movement on the brackets is jumpy. The one thing I will give floarena is that you can drill down to the round you want to see. 
   D) The team results and team lineups are not user friendly and lack information you may want to see. 
4) I think their wrestler database pails in comparison tracks. Although, it looks more "modern" it lacks the easy to find information and not as deep. I mean, I could look at someones matches by drilling on that season and it would take me to all matches for that season. flo next gen doesn't have that. It is just all lumped together. 
5) If you open a tournament in track. you shouldn't have to go track(Classic) to view it in track. Whatever site you are on. you should just go to that. But have the option to go to the other from both. (maybe a view in Flo on track/ view in track on flo)
I will say something nice now. I did see they are bringing matches and information from USA bracketing. So it is a one database you can use. But again my problem with their database format lingers. 

I am not going off on flo. I am just giving constructive criticism. 

Edited April 14 by killdozer

[ScottishSteel]

One of the Flo guys somewhat regularly chimes in here right? I can't remember which one or else I would tag him but someone should tag him

[MPhillips]

5 minutes ago, ScottishSteel said:

One of the Flo guys somewhat regularly chimes in here right? I can't remember which one or else I would tag him but someone should tag him

Spey and Kozak have both posted, but I couldn't find their handles...

[WrestlingRash]

get rid of pyles. he is atrociously bad. 

[ionel]

Filters!  Why should I have to search thru grade school info if I'm only interested in D1 college.

But we've made good suggestions for a decade+ now and they've refused to change so why would we expect change now?   ESPN+ is the way to go.  

[killdozer]

@ionel I agree with that. But maybe filters for little league, high school, college, off-season maybe?

[WrestlingRash]

Just now, Rassling said:

Hmm, let’s keep it content related please. We’re fortunate to have such ardent supporters of our sport. 

you asked for feedback. he is a problem limiting growth. if you want nice feedback, go ask your mommy. 

[TNwrestling]

55 minutes ago, ionel said:

 ESPN+ is the way to go.  

Espn+ has done a GREAT job expanding their wrestling coverage. Acc, SoCon, Big 12, Pac 12, MAC duals live streamed through Espn+. B1G+ has also expanded their coverage as well. 

 

Flo needs to find a way to work WITH these two. Not against them. That would also let them work the NCAA's as well. They certainly need more than a "watch party". Lame. 

[Idaho]

1 hour ago, TNwrestling said:

Espn+ has done a GREAT job expanding their wrestling coverage. Acc, SoCon, Big 12, Pac 12, MAC duals live streamed through Espn+. B1G+ has also expanded their coverage as well. 

 

Flo needs to find a way to work WITH these two. Not against them. That would also let them work the NCAA's as well. They certainly need more than a "watch party". Lame. 

It will be difficult for them to work with ESPN when they have a contract with the NCAA for all championships through 2032. Personally, I don't want the spinning on Flo in the middle of a great semifinal matchup. 

[ionel]

2 minutes ago, Idaho said:

It will be difficult for them to work with ESPN when they have a contract with the NCAA for all championships through 2032. Personally, I don't want the spinning on Flo in the middle of a great semifinal matchup. 

They could focus on other things like give us a doc on why Sparky is sparky.  

[Hammerlock3]

get pyles away from all cameras and microphones.

[TNwrestling]

13 minutes ago, Idaho said:

It will be difficult for them to work with ESPN when they have a contract with the NCAA for all championships through 2032. Personally, I don't want the spinning on Flo in the middle of a great semifinal matchup. 

I'd think those partnerships would bring certain upgrades to their systems...

[Yugdab]

Some tough love here jeez. I have no issue with Pyle myself. Anyone who loves wrestling as I do I am a fan. 

I have ESPN + Big 10 + Flo I pay for them all during wrestling season and although Flo  doesn't have the big contracts for the best duels and tourneys. Guess were I go first thing in the morning I can see an article, docu-series or rankings or watch some high school, college, documentary, International, World team trials ect. They blends it all together so you have all the info like recruiting, transfers, breakdown of the top duels, brackets. start to finish every year. They are the only place that has it all. Articles on plenty of teams but yeas more on the top teams and those most likely get the most views by a long shot. Maybe a little harsh

Edited April 14 by Yugdab

[Idaho]

2 hours ago, ionel said:

They could focus on other things like give us a doc on why Sparky is sparky.  

Docs are things of the past... we need reality shows where we put 8 wrestlers who were all rivals 20 years ago in a cheap hotel to live together during the wrestling season with Flo spinning during critical moments. 

Edited April 14 by Idaho

[TNwrestling]

11 minutes ago, Idaho said:

Docs are things of the past... we need reality shows where we put 8 wrestlers who were all rivals 20 years ago in a cheap hotel to live together during the wrestling season with Flo spinning during critical moments. 

They used to have their interns fight to the death. Winner got the job.

 

Joking, but they did have them play survivor-style games for content, once upon a time. 

[ionel]

23 minutes ago, Idaho said:

Docs are things of the past... we need reality shows where we put 8 wrestlers who were all rivals 20 years ago in a cheap hotel to live together during the wrestling season with Flo spinning during critical moments. 

Or maybe Flo could do a Wrestling Wheel of Fortune game show between the conference and NCAA sessions.  

[alex1fly]

2 hours ago, Yugdab said:

Some tough love here jeez. I have no issue with Pyle myself.

Same. He's a little annoying sometimes sure but we would probably have a good time talking wrestling and somehow I have this strange ability to *not engage with online content I don't want to*. It's a superpower and I recommend it to anyone.

Flo's improvements could really just come from some UI/UX tweaks to differentiate their content categories. They do SO MUCH - event coverage, technique videos, docs, interviews, latest news, match archives, multiple age levels, schedules, brackets, Floarena etc - that its easy to forget they started as a scrappy little start up. What they've done is truly impressive. But at some point with growth its good to re-evaluate the whole system. In my view with Flo's UI if you don't mind wading through mountains of content, you can find almost anything; if you enjoy browsing wrestling related content in general, you're set; but if you're somewhere in the middle, less tech-savvy, overwhelmed by content, maybe don't have a great computer or internet connection, or only get on Flo occasionally, it's easy to get lost and give up.

[MoveCountermove]

23 hours ago, Owen Rector said:

They need to do a better job of talking about a wider range of teams. Its all penn state, iowa, oklahoma state, and they make a whole dedicated 10 minute video if the smallest change happens to their lineup.

Crickets for any other team

Effin A, this. The entire site is wrestling, why can I not find a season preview for every team in the top 25 or every team that finished in the top 15 last season or something? Trickle out 1-2 season previews a week starting 2 months before the season or something, even if it’s just brief coverage over last season, who left, who came in, and expected lineups plus the bits coming out of the camps. Seems doable, but I’m just an internet troll who wants Michigan to be good don’t think season previews help there lol

[MoveCountermove]

13 hours ago, ScottishSteel said:

Less bombardment of click-baity articles; especially the ones that don't really go anywhere.  The College page was flooded with new articles in the lead up to NCAAs but most of it I would call junk; just regurgitating the same info w/ a different team in the title or be titled "Everything you need to know about the MAC tournament" and the article just says it starts on Friday or something like that

Agree here as well. Quality over quantity, in this regard.

[MoveCountermove]

I have a few things I would like to point out, but limited time and some thoughts are escaping me at the moment, will try to add them when I can.

One thing I enjoy is trying to filter through my schools recruits as well as the big boards and individual weight ranks by class etc. so I can look at how good Recruit A is compared to the top 100 in their class, and obviously plenty aren’t on there, so also viewing them vs. the top kids at their weights across multiple classes and their class. Idea is to get a whole picture of the recruit against kids their age and coming behind them, etc.

Being able to do something like that would be nice, vs. opening like 6-8 tabs. If they did this along cataloguing rosters or something (probably not really super possible considering the landscape; this isn’t football), I think we’d be cooking with gas.

Fixing organization is massive.

The app is less than great; I usually go to the website on my phone for simplicity and additional functions.

Do they have a message board? I mean, here we are on a different platform brainstorming how to help them over there…seems obvious they are lacking something in that alone.

[MPhillips]

5 hours ago, Yugdab said:

although Flo  doesn't have the big contracts for the best duels and tourneys.

Where is it that you watch international wrestling, not to mention HS wrestling. Only FLO, unless you go VPN for the international...

Not liking Pyle is similar to not liking Madden.  It seems a personality driven bias, not a lack of wrestling knowledge...

 

[mr.nonothingatall]

I like the flo docs. My wife enjoys watching them, I think she feels a little more educated and involved when we watch duals after watching some of the docs. 

I think flo has progressed really well over the years and is great for the sport, the only thing I would like to see them do to become better, would be getting actually announcers or go to a broadcasting classes or something of that manor. I like all the guys cp, tyler, bader, jd, and the gang. But they could be better on the mic. Almost wish they just had a designated broadcast team to be on the calls, but I get it.

I also miss Cieon? I'm sure I didn't spell his name correctly. I think he provided a lot of entertainment on the podcast portion of things. I don't think cp liked him on the podcast because he isn't as professional, but at the end of the day podcasts are for entertainment and he is a funny dude with some good takes. Would love to see him back on the podcast a few times a month. 

[Idaho]

4 hours ago, TNwrestling said:

They used to have their interns fight to the death. Winner got the job.

 

Joking, but they did have them play survivor-style games for content, once upon a time. 

Hmmm... I think something involving PD3, AJ Ferrari, Lucas Bryd AND his girlfriend, Braeden Davis, Kirk McHenry all living together while they train for the olympics in Las Vegas could be a winner. Bring in some guest coaches like Tom Brands and Cael. I would watch it. 

[killdozer]

Some more positive and negatives about Flo's Next Gen bracketing/database. I was still thinking about last night after I posted on this thread. It is still in Beta so these need to be passed on to them. I am sure they realize most of these things.
This is a list that can be attached to my previous post. (Also, I work in IT. So the criticisms are not meant as a rip. It is stuff to consider when making improvements. You would have to list even the most minute detail for QA)
New Positives:
- Getting videos on the individuals now quite nice when you look up a wrestler's profile. It has every video at their(flo's) disposal in the profile. Which would make it easy for them to send to college coaches or coaches review for the recruit. 

New Criticism:
- The bracketing system also makes it harder than Floarena or track to follow wrestlers seems to have more steps involved. 
- I don't like how you have to pick the brackets to add them instead just pulling them up via dropdown. But this could be a positive in that at bigger events you can just look at the brackets you want... Not all 100 of them. 
- Teams view (wrestlers) are done in alphabetical order instead of by division/weight class. Which is a bit annoying. 
- The tournament schedule page is annoyingly not user friendly as far as search and find. Once, you find it, you are good. But I have tried to look up a tournament on there and it was frustrating. (I will say, I like the map feature). But when there is a big list of tournaments on the day. It can be a bit buggy. 
- Again, the tournaments need more data included like class (for High school meets), records, even seeds (if involved), Like I would like to see in a state finals match if there are two undefeated wrestlers going at it. Personal preference there. 

As far as regular flo, I think to find historical matches should be easier (Outside of pulling up a profile and finding the matches in there). Also, they need to work on getting these kids with 5 different profiles combined into one. That can be complicated and very time consuming. Maybe have a feature where a kid can combine all his profiles into one. They have to fill out a page saying how they would want themselves listed on their profile and which profiles to combine. But there has to be a verification procedure for it and I haven't the slightest idea what to use (USA wrestling ID? and they would have to know it)