CyberGamer and SteelSeries are proud to present the Xbox 360 Black Ops Search & Destroy Leagues! After 11 weeks of season play and four weeks of finals, teams will be split up into three skill-based Leagues to battle it out for great cash-prizes!

These leagues will cover a total of 11 weeks, 24 teams and 102 matches!
The total prize-pool is over $6000 cash!

This thread is a long read. We've been working on the details of CGi/m/a since before Black Ops was even released (we like to be prepared...insanely early) and now we're finally ready to reveal all of what's been done. We felt it's best you guys know everything as early as possible to be prepared for what is coming up. Whilst we can't announce or even determine some details regarding the Invite Leagues, there's still a lot we were able to divulge to you guys/gals. Be sure to take in every minute detail. Below you will find all the information you need regarding the SteelSeries Black Ops Invite Leagues with the exceptions of some obvious things.

All questions, suggestions and comments are welcome.

Preview / Live / Finals / League / Schedule

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Since October 2010 SteelSeries has been partnered with CyberGamer in bringing you guys the best possible competitive experience on Call of Duty: Black Ops. SteelSeries contributions have made this CyberGamer's largest Invite League to date on CG Xbox. You guys own - definitely worth a thumbs up! Take a minute and say your thanks to SteelSeries by checking out their Facebook page and pressing the "like" button. Also, check out their upcoming Competitions for Australia too!

SteelSeries Facebook / SteelSeries Website / Buy SteelSeries Gear

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Entry Details
To nominate your team for selection in the upcoming SteelSeries Black Ops Invite Leagues, simply add '[CGi]' to your team name on the ladder. To those teams that are apart of an organisation with multiple teams on the same ladder you may encounter some difficulty in doing so. In this case, PM an Admin asking them to attach the '[CGi]' tag to your name.

You do not need to add '[CGm]' or '[CGa]' just because you want to be considered for this league specifically. Again, simply just add '[CGi]' and every team that does so will be taken into consideration for all Invites Leagues including Invitational, Main and Amateur.

Grand Finalists (Top 2) of the Pro CGo Finals will receive auto-invites into CGi.

Grand Finalists (Top 2) of the Inter CGo Finals will receive auto-invites into CGm.

Grand Finalists (Top 2) of the Amateur CGo Finals will receive auto-invites into CGa.


Previously we had announced that we will be auto-inviting the Top 4, however we have since decided to change this to the Top 2. Please also note that this is the 'Grand Finalists (Top 2)' from the Finals. It is not the Top 2 teams after the season is over, it is the Top 2 teams of the bracket after Finals; essentially, the two teams who compete in the Grand Final of each bracket.

Taking the below traits into consideration, the Admin team will hand-pick a further 6 teams for CGi, 6 teams for CGm and 6 teams for CGa (more if teams decline auto-invites).

Admin Team selections are based on the following criteria:

Performance throughout the season
Performance throughout the finals (if applicable)
Stability
Reliability
Longetivity
Maturity
Ability to pay entry fee

Teams that are auto-invited

• The teams that are auto-invited can decline their invite so they can be considered for selection in the league above their auto-invited league
  
• If a team chooses to decline an auto-invite, they will still be under Admin consideration for the league that they declined, as well as the league above (if applicable). They will not be considered for the league below the one in which they declined an invite. Example: Team is invited to CGm. Team declines auto-invite. Team can still make CGi or CGm, but not CGa .
  

Simply, if you think you can make the league above through Admin-invite, decline your invite - you will either be put into the league above or be put into the league in which you declined. If you think your automatic-invite puts you into the correct league, accept the invite. Auto-invited teams do not get to choose which league they are in. Admins do via auto-invite or if that's declined, Admin-invite.

• Declined auto-invites are forfeited, no other team can receive the auto-invite
  

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Participating Teams ~ 21/3/11

CGi	CGm	CGa
Cactus Down Defiance Malice Unit Taunted Closet 5 Legends Second Nature	Chemistry Team Legacy Devious Part Time Pros Syndicate Five Down Exposure Hairy-Ass	Zero Remorse Gaming valouR Afternoon delight Audacity Redemption Proximity baw5 Jetpack Ninja Dinosaurs

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Entry Fees

CGi	CGm	CGa
$35 per person	$25 per person	$10 per person

Payment Period: 21st March - 8pm 8th April

It is highly encouraged that these payments be made as soon as possible as not to hold up the commencement of CGi, CGm and CGa.

Teams who do not have at least 6 members paid for by the end of the payment period will be removed from the competition and shall be replaced by a willing and eager team. Members of the removed team that had paid will be refunded. The entire removed team will not be able to compete in at least 1 invitational league for the rest of the year (inc. any and all P2P or invite-based leagues).

In this occurrence it is likely a team from a lower league will be moved up; they will need to pay the remaining cost difference for their entry into the league. This will inevitably cause the league the replacement team leaves to be 1 team short. A replacement for this removed team will then be sought from a lower league or the CGo ladder.

If a team has six members paid and other members are not paid by the end of the payment period, those who have not yet paid will be removed from the team.

Refunds
Refunds will not be given in most circumstances. If you have played a match for your team then wish to quit and be refunded - you will not be refunded - you are more likely to get banned as you can only leave your team during Recruitment Week. Refunds will only be available up until the end of Round 1 provided you did not play your Round 1 match. Any requests for refunds after Round 1 has concluded will be denied unless there are impeding special circumstances.

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Format
The formatting of the SteelSeries Leagues, including matches, the teams competing and the leagues themselves include some of the following:

Teams: CGi, CGm and CGa consist of 8 teams in each league
Team Sizes: Teams are now required to have a min. of 6 members and a max. of 10 members
Gametype: 5v5 Search and Destroy
Map Setup: 1-Map Round Robin Matches
Scoring: First-to-Eight Halves: Play until a team reaches 8 rounds wins in both halves. Do not stop the game once a winner is determined. Play 'First-to-Eight' for both halves.

Example Round Image


League Scoring
For the duration of the SteelSeries S&D Leagues 'Rounds For' and 'Rounds Against' will be hidden. Places are earned from 'Match Wins' and 'Match Losses'. In the event of a tie at the end of the Round Robin play, the higher place will be given to the team with the highest 'Rounds Won:Rounds Lost' ratio. Mathematically, this is Rounds Won divided by Rounds Lost. The team with the highest number from that ratio will be given the highest position of the teams tied.

The Leagues system itself works off 'Rounds Won' first, so whoever has the most rounds won, gets the higher spot. If 'Rounds Won' is tied between teams, it then comes down to which of the tied teams has the least 'Rounds Lost'. We've decided to do it differently because not every match will contain the same amount of rounds. The Rounds Won:Rounds Lost ratio mentioned above, will be used to determine tied positions. This has been done mostly to ensure that the best team gets the higher spot. For instance, we'd rather see a team with 80 Rounds Won and 10 Rounds Lost, be higher than a team who is 81 Rounds Won and 50 Rounds Lost; hence the use of R+/R- ratio!

At the end of Round Robin play the CoD Admins will announce the teams who have made finals and provide the relative information regarding the ending ratios for teams that are tied.

Overtime Scoring
If a match proceeds into Overtime, these scores are now counted. Unlike the last Invite Leagues, rank will be determined by wins and losses first - but then refer to Round Win:Round Lost ratio - therefore we are able to include all overtime rounds. If you overtime ends up with a total score of 16-12, score it exactly as such, do not revert it back to 13-11 or use any other dumbing-down method.

Challenges
During the SteelSeries Leagues the CoD Admin team will set up your matches each week. We simply arrange the two teams to verse each other, meanwhile one team chooses some times to offer and the opposing team chooses a time to select. It's exactly the same as the current CGo ladder, except you don't get to click 'Challenge' - the Admin team effectively does.

Challenges will be issued every Monday. This allows teams to get their matches done Monday-Monday. All challenges and matches must be complete by the start of the next round.

These challenges will be sent after all matches are complete in the round, usually on the Monday @ approx 10pm. All challenges and matches must be complete by the start of the next round. The Admin team will keep tabs and endeavour to balance out the amount of times teams get to send times or accept times.

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CGo Finals Start: 14th Feb
CGo Finals End: 14th March
Ruleset Defined/Invites Sent: 14th - 21st March
Payment Period: 21st March - 8pm 8th April

Invite Leagues Commence

Round 1: 11th April - 18th April
Round 2: 18th April - 25th April
Round 3: 25th April - 2nd May
Round 4: 2nd May - 9th May

Recruitment Week
12:01am AEDST 2nd May - 11:59pm AEDST 9th May

Round 5: 9th May - 16th May
Round 6: 16th May - 23rd May
Round 7: 23rd May - 30th May

Invite Leagues Finals Begin

Finals Round 1: 30th May - 6th June
Finals Round 2: 6th June - 13th June
Finals Round 3: 13th June - 20th June
Grand Finals: 20th June - 27th June

Invite Leagues Conclude


This schedule as well as the fixture and some other information can be found on the League Schedule Page. This area is where all the teams will be placed and where they can find all relative information; as well as their corresponding Leagues Private forum which will be setup once the teams have been chosen.

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Recruitment Week
Recruitment Week will be replacing Trade Week. We are removing Trade Week, as we believe it basically just encouraged teams to break up and people to hop clans within the Invite Leagues. Although Trade Week did have bad traits, we also believe that it was essential for some teams that required those extra players to help them field a 5 man team for the remainder of the season.

The difference between Trade Week and Recruitment Week is that any player that signs up to CGi/m/a will be unable to change teams. They must play the entire season in their original team. You are only allowed to recruit players who are not participating in the current Invite Leagues. They could be a player who is just playing CGo, or a player who isn't even signed up to the S&D Ladder. Aside from the previously stated positives of this change, this will also open a huge window for up and coming players.

If a player leaves their team in any League (which is only allowed during Recruitment Week) they cannot join another team. Further, they will not get a refund of any kind (see: Refunds above). To reiterate; all recruits must not be or have been in any of the League teams (CGi, CGm or CGa) - they must be from CGo or not competing on the S&D ladder at all.

Recruitment Week
12:01am AEDST 2nd May - 11:59pm AEDST 9th May

Players recruited during this time are only eligible to play in Rounds 5, 6 and 7 as well as Finals. Players recruited will have to pay the full entry fee in order to be eligible (CGi: $35, CGm: $25, CGa: $10).

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Ruleset - TBA
This ruleset will be used for every league, including: CGi, CGm and CGa. It will not differ across the Leagues but it may differ from the Open Ladder to the Leagues.

At the moment we're taking all suggestions into consideration. There is a lot of push for a CG Variant to be used where classes are all set, the health differs slightly and movement speed is increase minutely. And of course, there are those wanting to just use the current CGo ruleset. Furthermore; the talk of trialling a restriction or banning of flashes has been quite strong.

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Maps
The map for each round will be announced at the beginning of every week/round of CGi/m/a on Monday after the Monday night matches are complete. This is to ensure all teams have equal preparation time for their matches. The map that is announced will be used for each league for the corresponding round.

The below maps are expected to be included in the map pool from where a non-competing Admin will randomly choose the map for each week. Some maps below may be discluded for the Invite Leagues and some maps may be added e.g. maps from the Map Pack or a previously removed map. We have no set number of maps for the map pool as of yet. If we deem the map to be competitive and well-made, it will be included in the map pool.

Cracked
Villa
Havana
Hanoi
Grid
Radiation
Summit
WMD
?????
?????

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Finals
After the Round Robin part of the Leagues, the top 4 teams of each league will go into their own finals series. This means ranks 1-4 in CGi, ranks 1-4 in CGm and ranks 1-4 in CGa. Each finals system will work as depicted in the image below.



Finals rounds 1, 2 and 3 consist of 3-map matches.
The Grand Final is a 5-map match.

The map and map system for finals will be announced at a later date much closer to Finals time.

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Prizes
The following cash-prizes are made up of entry-fee contributions and SteelSeries contributions. These prize totals are subject to change and cannot be 100% concrete until Recruitment Week is complete. These are well-educated approximations.

CGi	CGm	CGa
1st: $2500 2nd: $1100 3rd: $700	1st: $800 2nd: $400 3rd: $300	1st: $300 2nd: $200 3rd: $100

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Match & League Coverage
Like usual, you will be kept up to date on what matches are being Shoutcasted and/or Videocasted. Unfortunately, not all of these games can be Shoutcasted or Videocasted but there will inevitably be some great audio and vision to come from Gamestah's live feeds. As expected, Bio Acid will be heading up this component of the competition.

CyberGamer's very own YouTube Team will have access to all Invite League matches to capture all the highs and lows of the competition and upload footage for all to view. Make sure Theatre is always enabled and the host is on a team!

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Official Referees & Hosts
We will compile a list that contains the Referees and Hosts who have permission to Ref/Host Invite League matches. This list will be made available in each League's private forums. Each Official will be given the title underneath their name in the forums to convey their responsibility and role.

Invite League Referees cannot Ref matches within their own League that they are competing in. Invite League Hosts cannot host matches within their own League that they are competing in. The reasons why are obvious.

Our Head Referee Britt will look after all the Official Refs and Hosts for the Invite Leagues. Don't worry about contacting her, she'll get onto you guys when the time comes.

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Team Captains
While punishments for team indiscretions won't be laid upon the Team Captain as harshly as previously done before, they will still be responsible for the organisation of your team throughout the Round Robin and the Finals (if applicable). They are also responsible (partly) for matters concerning prize-money (see dot points below: T&C's). Each team that is accepted into the Invite Leagues will be required to nominate a specific Captain as well as a Vice-Captain.

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Pro League Report, Predictions & Stats
Each week what we call the 'SteelSeries Pro Leagues Report' will be created on the public forums. These will contain the results from the previous round just gone by, tid bits of information about each match, the teams and highlights - as well as the predictions for the upcoming round of matches. Who will handle all this is yet to be determined.

With the addition of 'Theatre Mode' in Black Ops, it has opened up an easier and more convenient pathway to record statistics of every match. Each week - within the SS Pro League Report - the statistics for the previous round will be collated and calculated. Those players with the best stats will get special mentions each week for their efforts. Such statistics will include: Most Kills, Most Bomb Plants/Defuses, Most Deaths, Most Team-kills and so forth. At the end of the Round Robin overall statistics will be shown to the public. Should make things quite interesting!

To make this easier team captains, referees and hosts will be required to take screenshots at the end of every half of the matches they spectate. We'll emphasise this later on to make sure it gets done. This means our 'CG Statisticians' won't have to fast forward through every single half of every game to collect the statistics. It helps us out and...it'll help you guys out too!

I'm sure we'll be able to rustle up some nice prizes for those that win the statistic categories at the end of the Round Robin. But alas, it remains to be seen.

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Terms & Conditions: Invited Teams

• Your team will abide by all forum, match, game and league rules.
  
• Your team will complete the entire competition and not drop-out
  
• Your team will play every match and every round of every match
  
• Your team will have 5 - no more and no less - eligible members playing in every match. This is not CGo, you cannot play with 4 players like usual.
  
• Your team understands that failure to adhere to the above two points will result in bans, their scores being set to 0-0.
  
• Your team name and team logo will not change throughout the season
  
• Your team understands that if they hinder a match or the competition in any way they can face harsh bans
  
• Your team understands that during the competition no team members can be kicked or removed from the team unless done so by their own free will and during Recruitment Week. Any player found kicking team mates will not be allowed to play in their team's next match. Strictly, do not kick people.
  
• Your team understand that none of them may leave their team, whether by their own free will or not, unless doing so during Recruitment Week where the team will be able to pick up replacements.
  
• Your team understands that for a player to be eligible to receive prize-money, they must compete in at least 4 matches, whether they be round-robin or finals matches. Prize-money can be given to players who do less than 4 matches, but only under the strict direction of the team captain.
  
• Your team understands that they must nominate 1 captain. This captain is responsible for the functionality and organisation of your team. They will also be responsible for the point above.
  
• Your team understands that the CoD Admin team reserves the right to make decisions at their discretion. Your team understands that instances of cheating, drop-outs and so forth can be resolved on a case-by-case basis, with all investigation and ruling being made by the CoD Admin team.
  

Bannings
As many of you already know, there have been a number of selfish individuals that have signed up to our most recent P2P tournaments, who have:

• Forfeited matches
  
• Quit midway through matches and forced their team to play 4v5
  
• Completely disbanded their team mid-season.
  

This is completely unprofessional behaviour which cripples our competitive tournaments vastly. There have been quite a few people guilty of these actions – which makes it hard for us to police. To ensure this kind of disrespectful behaviour doesn't occur again, we are introducing a system which we believe will drastically decrease these problems.

New Banning System
When you register up in a team that participates in CGi/m/a, your team have to finish every one of your matches with 5 rostered, eligible players. If you play any matches 4v5 (considered a forfeit), forfeit any matches or drop-out from the competition – all members of your team will be banned from playing in future Invitational and P2P tournaments. All members will also be removed from the competition and will be match banned. Match bans will be issued so the fine suits the crime, expect 3-6 months match bans. Bans will be harsher for those who the Admin team deems to be responsible.

A certain level of maturity and commitment is expected from everyone who competes in our Invite Leagues. If you are unable to adhere to the leagues requirements, then either simply don't sign up or ensure that your team has an adequate number of substitutes. Despite our new system and our warnings, we still expect a team or two to break up midseason. If this eventuates, regardless of the circumstances, the entire team will be banned for at least one Invite season, so don't try and weasel your way out of it, prevent the problem before it occurs.

To further ensure that we don't have any upsets in our Invitational Leagues we have changed a couple of things:

• The new player cap will be 10, with a minimum of 6.
  
• Each league will be capped at 8 teams, which means 7 weeks of round robin play + 4 weeks of finals. Despite such a short season, we will still allow the option of recruiting players at the end of week 4
  

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Additional Information
More information is on the way, but basically everything above is as much as we can possibly show you guys. The rest of it is still yet to be determined, or simply cannot be determined at this date. We'll be sure to keep you guys updated with any changes or additions i.e. the map pool, the teams chosen and so forth.

As you may have noticed from above, we're using team's logos in the weekly imagery for the Round Robin and Finals. If you think you're gonna make it to one of these Leagues and don't yet have an awesome logo, hop to it! To get an idea on the ratio for your image (how wide it is compared to how high) look at the image above. The overall image has been fixed to allow for higher logos unlike last CGi/m's imagery where things seemed to get a little cramped. Your image can be gargantuan in size, or fit perfectly in the round or finals imagery - either way it'll get resized to fit in nicely.

If your logo is ready and good to go - and you think your team is gonna make one of these Leagues, feel free to PM it to Twilife. Make sure it is saved as a .PSD or .PNG file and that is has no background. It must have a transparent background. Also please take note, we aren't changing your team logo mid-season. So don't change your team name either!

More individual and specific threads to come! As you would've noticed, we've still got to announce the maps, ruleset and the teams who make the leagues. Expect these announcements a lot closer to when the Invite Leagues commence.This thread now is pretty much home-base for what you need to know about the SteelSeries Black Ops Invite Leagues. We'll edit it with the relative information we release in the future independent threads. Stay tuned and stay keen!

Again, feel free to comment, suggest, critique and correct us on anything above! If you for whatever reason disagree with some of the ways we've initially decided to go about this - voice your opinion in an educated manner with reasoning.


Thanks,

CoD Admin Team

Bio Acid / Britt / Fitzy / GooseJuice / Neori / OzFalcon / Razmac / Twilife


Edited 6 times, last edited 2/6/11 - 10:47am.

Jared = best in aus.

Good read cant wait.

Interesting read, good job admins can't wait to see some shoutcasts and see who wins the tournys.

Yes, good read, well done Admins. Should be good competitions.

good read, cant wait to see what teams will be playing the leagues

Thanks twi now we can discuss what we want to do.

Wow, this is exciting.
Good luck to all competing teams.

this is awesome

So this is the 3k essay . Congrats to Jared and the rest of the Cod Admin team. This is very exctiting stuff for everyone. I cannot wait to ref/host.

ill dominate,
nice twi

Just making sure. Can players join teams after finals and play in the leagues?

geeze how long did that take you twi lol
Looks sweet, cant wait!

nice work admin team.

thanks admins and steelseries

Woohoo!

Huge thanks to SteelSeries. Best sponsors EVAR!