Hello CG!
Here we are again with another set of competitions for yet another rehashed CoD! Regardless, it is yet again gearing up to be a snazzy set of Leagues and tournaments.
We've made some obvious changes in how the Leagues will run, all of which will be detailed below. Our main aim with these changes are to address all concerns that have been brought up by the community, including the length of the comp, the prestige of the comp, gaining entrance to the comp and so forth.
We've divided the thread up into four sections; S&D CGo Finals, Fight For Your Invite, SteelSeries Leagues and Draft Competition.
Since October 2010 SteelSeries has been partnered with CyberGamer in bringing you guys the best possible competitive experience on Call of Duty. 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.
SteelSeries Facebook / SteelSeries Website / Buy SteelSeries Gear
CGo finals will run as per usual, with a total of 4 rounds spanning 4 weeks (1/week). The schedule can be found below.
S&D CGo Finals Schedule
CGo S1 Roster Lock: 11:59pm 24th January
CGo S1 Ladder Lock: 1-2am 1st February
CGo S1 Finishes: 7th February
CGo S1 Elim/Qualifying Finals: 7th February – 14th February
CGo S1 Semi Finals: 14th February – 21st February
CGo S1 Preliminary Finals: 21st February – 28th February
CGo S1 Grand Finals: 28th February – 6th March
The Finals will use the following AFL System finals format:
The following rounds are 3-map matches: Qualifying/Elimination, Semi and Preliminary
The Grand Final is a 5-map affair.
All the information regarding CGo finals for S&D, as well as all other ladders with finals will be announced shortly - this will contain each map/gametype every game is to be played on.
Fight For Your Invite is a system used to determine which remaining teams (those that were not yet invited) earn a spot in the upcoming Leagues. Only two spots per League will be allocated to FFYI top performers, as the 6 other spots per League will be earned through Admin-invite or by teams playing in their Open grand finals.
If you're invited and have earned a spot in CGm or CGa; you can decline this auto-invite or admin-invite, and FFYI into an above League. If you don't make your intended League after the FFYI, you will be reverted back down to the League you were previously invited to.
We will setup the FFYI teams into pools and have the teams smash out X amount of matches over a 14-day period. The best performers of each pool will be awarded higher League FFYI spots, as opposed to those teams who come 3rd in their respective FFYI brackets. Please note that teams who make a League via FFYI will generally have less time to get their entry fees in for the Leagues.
In the past, we've had multiple pools where the best two teams out of those multiple pools (in regards to their scores, wins etc) got into the highest League. This will roughly be the case with this FFYI competition; however, the Admin team will be inviting the best suited teams. This means that a team who perhaps placed 4th overall in the FFYI may still take a CGi spot provided they are deemed more reliable and more skilled than their higher-performing opponents in the FFYI, despite their scores - as the pools may be askew.
FFYI teams who do not make it into Leagues are more than welcome to opt to compete in the Draft Competition.
Exactly how this competition will run depends on the amount of participants - so further concrete details will be released at a later date!
An example of a FFYI Pool is as follows:
FFYI Schedule
FFYI Teams & Pools Allocated: 4th March
FFYI Pool Play Period: 5th March - 18th March
FFYI Teams Allocated Into Leagues: 19th March
Teams will need to organise their own matches. We will setup forums for the FFYI teams to use so organising matches is easier. Conversations between teams should be kept to these threads and forums, not via PM; this way we're able to see which teams are actually making the effort to get games done
Further, teams who make it through to the Leagues via FFYI will only have a short period of time to get their payments in so they must be on the ball! All League payments must be in by the 27th of March @ 11:59pm. So FFYI teams will have just over 1 week to make their payments.
There will be CGi, CGm and CGa Leagues for MW3. CGd has been replaced by the Draft Comp, which you can read about in the next section. Each League will consist of 8 teams. This means that 7 rounds of play is guaranteed in the competition due to the round-robin set-up (each team plays each other once), though it is sped up to two matches per week for the first three weeks. The finals will be Top 4 Double Elimination, as previously used in Leagues. This format should see the length of Leagues reduced by 3 weeks, enabling more Leagues and more time for any other little things we need to get done i.e. tie-breakers and so forth.
The first thing everyone should drop; the attitude that forfeits can't happen in Leagues. They now can. Once you forfeit, you're passed a GTFO card plus some spicy bans. We will forfeit teams in instances where they make no effort to organise their matches.
Teams will also have 48 hours to send times, and 48 hours to accept times once they've been sent. If your team does not accept a time within these period, you will forfeit the match, be ejected from the competition, banned nicely, and have all your matches turned into Byes. However, there will be some exceptions to this rule; for instance as we're doing 3 weeks that have 2 matches in each, there may be a bunch of times conflicting with one another. Provided we can see that both teams are actively trying to resolve this issue (mentioning the issue and discussing the times) we'll be fine with it. Don't rely on match chats to organise matches from the get-go; use the offer and accept functions!
League Teams Selection
The teams which finish in the top 2 of the CGo Pro finals (teams that make it to the Grand Final) will receive an invite into CGi. If declined, the team cannot compete in a lower league (CGm & CGa). Those teams that finish in the top 2 of the CGo Intermediate finals will receive an invite into CGm. Again, if declined they cannot compete in a lower league (CGa). The top 2 of the Amateur finals will be invited into CGa, they can choose to decline this if they wish.
Taking the below traits into consideration, the Admin team will pick 4 teams per League (not including those that gained entrance by competing in the Grand Finals).
Admin Team selections are based on the following criteria (applicable to most teams):
Performance throughout the season (CGo or your relative League)
Performance throughout the finals (if applicable)
Stability
Reliability
Longetivity
Maturity
Ability to pay entry fee
The remaining two positions (total of 8 teams per league) will be filled using a Fight For You Invite system, as discussed in the first section.
Format
You'll notice that there are two rounds every week for the first three weeks of the Round Robin period. This puts extra pressure on teams being organised, but also speeds up the process of the Leagues, so hopefully more Leagues can be had throughout the year.
We have done this simply to try and push the reasoning that it does not take an entire week of scrimming to play one match, especially after a 10 week season of playing the maps. Further reasoning includes: speeding up the season, fitting more seasons in a year and hopefully overcoming the stagnant nature that S&D has taken on board. Furthermore, this will allow better scrimming for matches, and there should be less 'waiting a few days to find out the next map' as maps for each round (2 maps, 2 matches) will be released each week. Generally, this method should dull down the tedium of waiting, or scrimming for 5 days to do one match.
The matches will still be played between Tuesday and the following Tuesday of each week. Challenges will be setup each Tuesday night (after all matches are complete). Teams have until the following Tuesday to complete their matches.
With two matches needing to be played per week, it is best that all teams are organised in not offering/accepting conflicting times. It is recommended to split the games up, whether it's one match on Thursday and the second on Tuesday, or one match on Sunday and the second on Tuesday.
Teams: CGi, CGm & 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
Round Setup: Two matches/rounds per week.
Scoring: 12/12: Play 12 rounds on Attack and 12 rounds on Defence. However, the match can be ended once a winner has been found.
Spawn Choice : Knife Round (Round Robin Only)
Example Round Image for 1 Round. Remember, there are 2 Rounds per week for the first 3 weeks.
SteelSeries Leagues Schedule
Leagues Invites Sent/Ruleset Defined: 28th February - 6th March
Leagues Payment Period: 6th March - 27th March @ 11:59pm
Leagues - Round 1 & 2: 20th March - 27th March
Leagues - Round 3 & 4: 27th March - 3rd April
Leagues - Round 5 & 6: 3rd April - 10th April
Leagues - Round 7: 10th April - 17th April
Leagues - Finals Round 1: 17th April - 24th April
Leagues – Finals Round 2: 24th April - 1st May
Leagues – Finals Round 3: 1st May - 8th May
Leagues - Grand Finals: 8th May - 15th May
Note above that recruitment week has been abolished. If your team can't last for the four weeks of round-robin play, something is very wrong.
Payments
You will have noticed that the payment period extends into the first week of the Leagues. Quite simply, this is to lessen the gap between payment and the start. The parameters of this are that every player must be paid by the 27th of March @ 11:59pm. Any player who is not paid for by then will be ejected from the team.
If a player competed in either or both of the Round 1 and 2 matches that week, they MUST pay the entry fee. If they do not pay their entry fee by the time the payment period ends, the team will forfeit the matches the unpaid player played in, and the unpaid player will be ejected from the team and be match banned.
Forfeits
Forfeits can happen. No longer can you post-pone matches without consequence! The following are ways you can forfeit a match:
- Don't turn up to an arranged match-time without giving warning
- Don't offer times within the 48 hour period
- Don't accept times within the 48 hour period
- Break the rules, whether using banned guns or playing with only 4 or less players, etc.
Matches cannot be played outside of the Tues - Tues period; with some exceptions allowing Wednesday only, provided some unforeseen issues arose.
Scoring and Play-Offs
Scoring will be done differently than in the past. We are scrapping round difference and round differential. If teams are on equal wins and losses and they're contending a seed for finals; a play-off will occur. Why? Because positions can be won or lost in the finals seeds; simply because one team versed a team who was already out of finals and gave no effort at all, whilst the other finals seed contender had to verse them whilst they were keen and ready. We'd rather not see teams lose out of a finals spot just because of the aforementioned situation. This method also enables us to allow 'forfeits'. No longer will teams be assholes because they think they cannot forfeit! Games won't drag out over the allocated time either.
If a play-off is needed, we'll be aiming to get this done within a week. So envision the above League Schedule, but with the finals pushed back by 1 week. Play-offs will be announced separately if they are to occur as they will vary depending on how many teams are drawn and so forth.
Ruleset
The ruleset is yet to be determined. It will be announced once it has been formulated! The most we know and can tell you guys is that it will be 12/12 (essentially, you attack for 12 rounds and defend for 12 rounds, however the game can be ended once a winner has been determined). Maps and such, are of course yet to be decided.
Entry Fees
| CGi | CGm | CGa |
| $35.00 | $25.00 | $10.00 |
Cash Prizes
| CGi | CGm | CGa |
1st: $1100
2nd: $500
3rd: $360 | 1st: $800
2nd: $400
3rd: $300 | 1st: $300
2nd: $200
3rd: $100 |
*Prizes are subject to change. At the moment they are made up of entry-fees only as we're hastily calculating our resources through SteelSeries.
Finals
The usual finals system will be used for all three Leagues. Below is a picture example of how it works.
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 above.
Match and 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..
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!
Official Referees and Hosts
We will compile a list that contains the Referees who have permission to Ref League matches. This list will be made available as a thread in the MW3 Discussion section of the forums.
League Referees cannot Ref matches within their own League that they are competing in. The same goes for Referees associated with other teams in other Leagues (same organisation, etc). The reasons why are obvious.
Our Head Referee Neori will look after all the Official Refs for the Invite Leagues. Don't worry about contacting him yet, he'll get onto you guys when the time comes.
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 (partly) responsible for matters concerning prize-money (see dot points below: T&C's).
Pro League Report
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.
Statistics will not be done this season, as last season had too many teams not getting screenshots and/or not having theatre on. If we can't get all the stats then there's no point!
Terms and Conditions: 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. Any player found kicking team maves will not be allowed to play in their team's next match. Strictly, do not kick people.
- 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. They are either given the full cash-prize, or none at all.
- 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 greatly. 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 that 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 has 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, so 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
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 going to 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 going to 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; the background must be transparent. Also please take note, we aren't changing your team logo mid-season, so don't change your team name either!
As you would've noticed above, there is no Development League. However, we've replaced it with something similar. What this is, is essentially a Draft League. Teams who would normally be playing in CGd will be competing against the best of CGo so further comparison can be made. The idea of this competition is to alleviate the 'supposed, yet imaginary' gap there is between the two (CGd and CGo) - as well as be the base for preparations and seeding of the next set of Leagues. Teams still have to stick together; team's still have to play in a highly competitive environment - there are just more teams and most likely, harder teams (upcoming CGo teams etc who could've made higher Leagues had they started earlier, for instance).
This will run separate to the CGo Ladder and the Leagues, though is related to both. A further key difference between Leagues and the Draft comp, is how the matches will run. Leagues will be a round-robin, meanwhile the Draft Comp will be Double Elimination with a Supplementary Bracket (minimum of 3 matches, maximum of 8). The Leagues and the Draft comp run over the same period of time as well (8 weeks), while the Leagues do 2 matches per week in the round-robin, the Draft Comp uses 1 match per week.
Teams dropping out of the Draft Comp, whether mid-comp or not, will get their obvious bans - but we'll also be able to replace their spots with any, perhaps late, entrances into the CGo ladder who are top performers. One bonus of doing such a formatted competition is that we can enforce forfeits without largely affecting the rest of the competition.
Teams will all be selected for the Draft Comp. A separate thread will be made for teams to nominate themselves for it. Only 16 teams will be able to compete in the Draft Comp from the beginning. Teams can compete in the Draft Comp and the CGo Ladder at the same time.
LEGEND
W = Winner of
L = Loser of
G = Game
Game = ...Game
Each number corresponds with a Game number i.e. W G17 = Winner of Game 17
The numbers in Round 1 of the Winners Bracket are just for seeding purposes.
Seeds are drawn from the rankings on the CGo Ladder. The higher the rank, the lower the Seed number.
The numbers for Games may seem 'odd' and are not entirely chronological. Regardless, the numbers still correspond correctly and are pretty easy to follow.
The above images will be updated as the competition progresses.
Supplementary Bracket
We're all reasonably familiar with how Double Elimination brackets work, right? Well, here it gets a little more complex, but hopefully it isn't too daunting or confusing for users to follow. With the addition of this Supplementary Bracket, one could almost call this a triple-elimination bracket. However, the obvious difference is that once you're into the Supplementary Bracket (have lost two games), you can't get back into the Winners bracket. Whereas if you only get down to the Losers Bracket (have lost one game) you can make your way back into the Winners Bracket near the end and possibly reach the Grand Final. Once into the Supplementary Bracket, you won't be able to make the Grand Final. However, Game 46 is a 'mini-final' in itself - the best team in the Supplementary Pool playing off against the team who finished 3rd overall and lost in Game 28
The Supplementary Bracket draws off the Losers Bracket and contains teams who have all lost twice in the competition. Teams who make it further in the Losers Bracket come into the Supplementary Bracket later.
To answer your obvious question: Why do this?
Here are the benefits of using this Supplementary Bracket
- Increases minimum amount of games from 2 to 3.
- Teams have more opportunity to play more matches and gain more experience.
- Teams who make it some way through the Supplementary Bracket don't get bored as they still have matches.
- Running in a Double Elimination format generally gives us a rough – quite rough – top 8. By using this system, it further lets us determine the better teams from ranks 3-10, rather than judging so from only 4 matches, we may be able to do so from 7 or 8! This is especially helpful where Team X may unfortunately play their bogey team or map and be knocked out - but they may beat a team who went better than their bogey team in the Supplementary Bracket – in all, it helps everyone gauge the capabilities of teams.
- Wildcards enable upcoming teams during CGo S2 to make their way into the Supplementary Bracket, so they and the Admin team can compare their ability to teams already in the Supplementary Bracket.
- Teams who make it at least half way through will get to play a diverse group of teams.
Wildcards
Wildcards enable upcoming teams during CGo S2 to make their way into the Supplementary Bracket, so they and the Admin team can compare their ability to teams already in the Supplementary Bracket.
Wildcards (teams) will be picked from CGo by the Admin team. Teams who are already in the Draft Comp, but have been knocked out – will not be selected as Wildcards from the ladder. If your team has more than three players who were/are in the Draft Comp, you will not be able to compete.
Overall, there are six Wildcard slots allocated. We will be choosing these Wildcards in Round 3 (4 Wildcards) and Round 5 (2 Wildcards).
Draft Comp Schedule
Draft Teams Allocated: 15th March - 20th March
Draft Round 1: 20th March - 27th March
Draft Round 2: 27th March - 3rd April
Draft Round 3: 3rd April - 10th April
Draft Round 4: 10th April - 17th April
Draft Round 5: 17th April - 24th April
Draft Round 6: 24th April - 1st May
Draft Round 7: 1st May - 8th May
Draft Round 8/Finals: 8th May - 15th May
Forfeits
Forfeits can happen. No longer can you post-pone matches without consequence! The following are ways you can forfeit a match:
- Don't turn up to an arranged match-time without giving warning
- Don't offer times within the 48 hour period
- Don't accept times within the 48 hour period
- Break the rules, whether using banned guns or playing with only 4 or less players, etc.
Matches cannot be played outside of the Tues - Tues period; with some exceptions allowing Wednesday only, provided some unforeseen issues arose.
All other match, game and team rules that apply to the Leagues also apply to the Draft Comp
For those that couldn't deal reading through most of it, here is a schedule that contains it all (somewhat chronologically), as well as the pages for each competition where they're needed.
SteelSeries Leagues Page / SteelSeries Draft Comp Page
CGo S1 Roster Lock: 11:59pm 24th January
CGo S1 Ladder Lock: 1-2am 1st February
CGo S1 Finishes: 7th February
CGo S1 Finals Start: 7th February
CGo S1 Qualifying/Elimination Finals: 8th February – 14th February
CGo S1 Semi-Finals: 14th February – 21st February
CGo S1 Preliminary Finals: 21st February – 28th February
CGo S1 Grand Finals:28th February - 6th March
CGo S1 Finals Finish: 6th March
Leagues Invites Sent/Ruleset Defined: 28th February - 6th March
FFYI Teams & Pools Allocated: 4th March
FFYI Pool Play Period: 5th March - 18th March
FFYI Teams Allocated Into Leagues: 19th March
Leagues Payment Period: 6th March - 27th March @ 11:59pm
Leagues - Round 1 & 2: 20th March - 27th March
Draft Round 1: 20th March - 27th March
Leagues - Round 3 & 4: 27th March - 3rd April
Draft Round 2: 27th March - 3rd April
Leagues - Round 5 & 6: 3rd April - 10th April
Draft Round 3: 3rd April - 10th April
Leagues - Round 7: 10th April - 17th April
Draft Round 4: 10th April - 17th April
Leagues - Finals Round 1: 17th April - 24th April
Draft Round 5: 17th April - 24th April
Leagues – Finals Round 2: 24th April - 1st May
Draft Round 6: 24th April - 1st May
Leagues – Finals Round 3: 1st May - 8th May
Draft Round 7: 1st May - 8th May
Leagues - Grand Finals: 8th May - 15th May
Draft Finals: 8th May - 15th May
Additional Info
More individual and specific threads to come! Such as Registration, League Referees, Ruleset and Prize announcements. Expect these announcements a lot closer to when the Invite Leagues commence. This thread is pretty much home-base for what you need to know about the S&D over the coming months. We'll edit it with the relative information we release in the future independent threads.
Again, feel free to comment, suggest, critique and correct us on anything above!
Some changes to the above in terms of competition structure and formatting may occur in the future as we learn and discuss more of what we want to achieve.
Thanks,
CoD Admin Team
Adohh / BPL / Katie / Kritikal / Neori / Nephix / Turkey
Edited once, 21/1/12 - 7:28pm by Brittany.
Posted on Saturday, 21st January 2012
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