Alright, so I decided to try setting up this thing I called the ‘super 12 teams’ project. It wasn’t for work or anything super serious, more like a personal challenge, maybe something to keep track of a little side competition, you know?
Getting Started
First off, I just listed them out. Twelve teams. Easy enough, right? Gave them some basic names, just placeholders mostly. Stuff like Team Alpha, Team Bravo, you get the idea. I figured, okay, step one done. Felt pretty good, thought the rest would be smooth sailing.
The idea was to have these 12 teams interact in some way. Maybe compete, maybe collaborate on tiny simulated tasks. I wasn’t entirely sure on the specifics, just wanted a system to manage 12 distinct units.
Things Got Complicated
Then I actually tried to make them do something. That’s where it went sideways. Suddenly, it wasn’t just 12 teams. It was Team 1 needing to interact with Team 2, Team 3, all the way to Team 12. And Team 2 needing to interact with Team 3, Team 4… you see where this is going. The number of connections just exploded.
I initially tried using a simple spreadsheet. Put the teams down the side and across the top, tried to track scores or results or whatever in the middle. But updating it manually? What a nightmare. Every time one interaction happened, I had to find the right cell, update it, then maybe update some overall standing. It got messy real fast.
- Tracking who played who.
- Updating individual team scores or stats.
- Calculating overall rankings.
- Making sure I didn’t miss any interactions.
I spent a whole Saturday just trying to get a basic round of interactions logged. It was way more complex than I thought. My simple ‘super 12 teams’ idea felt less super and more super annoying.
Trying to Simplify
Okay, so the spreadsheet wasn’t cutting it. I thought about maybe writing a little script, something basic. But honestly, my coding skills are just okay, and the logic felt like it was spiraling. Defining different behaviors for each team? Making the interactions fair or random? Seemed like a whole other project.
So, I had to dial it back. A lot. I realized managing 12 entities with complex interactions was maybe too much for a casual side project. I decided to simplify the interactions. Maybe they didn’t all need to interact with each other all the time. Maybe focus on smaller groups within the 12.
Where It Stands Now
So, what I ended up with isn’t quite the ‘super 12 teams’ system I first imagined. It’s more like… a functional list of 12 teams that I can manually update with some key results when I feel like it. It works, kind of. It does the basic job I needed, which was just keeping a rough track.
It was a good lesson, though. Sometimes a number like ’12’ sounds small, but the relationships between those items can sneak up on you. Made me appreciate how complex managing even moderately sized groups can be. Maybe one day I’ll revisit it, make it properly ‘super’. But for now, it is what it is. Just my little log of trying to wrangle those twelve teams.