Community eSports Sky League (March 22nd - April 26th)

[Urz]

The Community eSports Sky League is a six-week tournament starting with two weeks of group stage that seed into a single-elimination bracket, which will run at 4pm EDT / 8pm UTC from March 22nd to April 26th. The new premiere event for Guns of Icarus Online, Sky League will provide both teams and spectators with the highest level of airship competition! This will be a Community eSports production.

Signups begin now and end on March 15th. Here is a link to the signups thread:
https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,3561.0.html


Tournament Format (graphic):

Ruleset:

• A ‘match’ consists of one game during the group stage, three games during the bracket stage, and five games in grand finals.
• All maps will be picked at random from the available 2v2 deathmatch maps.
• Spawn side will also be rolled randomly for each match.
• Each game has a thirty (30) minute time limit. If at least one team has three (3) or more points, and is ahead in score when the time limit is reached, they will be declared winner. If no team has at least three (3) points or the score is tied, the game will be declared a draw.
• If a match would end in a draw due to one or more tie games, a shootout game will be played on Duel at Dawn to the first two kills.
• Crews and substitutes - once a player crews for a team, they are locked to that team. There will be a one-time reset of crew status on April 6th, at the halfway point of the tournament.

Group Stage (March 22nd & 29th):

• Best of one
• Groups of four (4) teams will be randomly paired and play one match each.
• The winning teams of the first two matches will play in the Winners Match. The winner of this match gets the first upper bracket seed.
• The losers of the first two matches will play in the Losers Match. The loser of this match gets the first lower bracket seed.
• The loser of the Winner’s Match and the winner of the Loser’s Match play for the final upper bracket seed.
• A total of five (5) matches will be played by each group.

   
Single-Elimination Bracket Stage (April 5th - April 26th):

• Best of three until grand finals.
• Grand finals will be best of five

Prizes:

Each member of the first place team will receive a copy of the upcoming Adventure Mode (when it is released), a championship badge to display on their in-game profile, and five cosmetic items of their choice from the in-game store.

The second place team will each receive a gift copy of Guns of Icarus Online, and five cosmetic items of their choice from the in-game store.


Broadcast:

Sky League will be dual streamed live each Saturday at 4pm EDT (8pm UTC).

• http://www.twitch.tv/cesports
• TBD

VODs will be available after the fact on the Community eSports YouTube channel.

• https://www.youtube.com/communityesports

www.cesports.org

As always, you can contact me (Urz) here on the forums or via email.

[Urz]

Thanks to Byron for making the sweet logo!

[Byron Cavendish]

Woot woot!

[RearAdmiralZill]

•Crews and substitutes - once a player crews for a team, they are locked to that team. There will be a one-time reset of crew status on April 13th, at the halfway point of the tournament.

Not a fan of this bit. It really hurts the potential of co-op teams coming in, unless that was your intent.

[Urz]

•Crews and substitutes - once a player crews for a team, they are locked to that team. There will be a one-time reset of crew status on April 13th, at the halfway point of the tournament.

Not a fan of this bit. It really hurts the potential of co-op teams coming in, unless that was your intent.

How does it affect co-op teams more than non-co-op teams?

[Shinkurex]

We would have to create 2 separate pools for subs, instead of having a couple for both teams. This was discussed back when you had called everyone in to discuss, and if I recall a potential compromise was to lock the sub to the team for a couple of weeks instead.

[RearAdmiralZill]

Well non co-op teams (ie, a clan team) will have a team and be done and dusted. If two clans wanted to make a co-op team, be it because they have extra people around or they are too small to field their own team, that stipulation is off-putting (to me anyway). With that in there, I have no want to make another co-op team with my extra members, and I feel itll limit who actually puts a team in.

[redria]

I... want to be a fan of this, but I have concerns. Isn't this a tournament, not a league? A league implies regular matches that last for a season. This is an elimination tournament. Sure, it is spread out over 8 weeks, but if you lose out in the group stage (which I don't fully understand, and the graphic doesn't give a better explanation), you can only lose once more before you are out for the tournament season. To make a comparison, this is like american football doing away with the regular season, treating the pre-season as a seeding system, and skipping straight to the playoffs. Oh, and if you lose in the preseason, instead of just being poorly seeded, you are given a straight up disadvantage.

Am I just not understanding something here? Because I want to like this. But it doesn't really have a league or seasonal feel. Just another tournament: one that is dragged out.

-Edit-
Welp, re-read that and it calls itself a tournament. Huh. This is not really the direction I would have liked to see this go. I'll be honest on that. I recognize that COGS may have not been the best system, but for the premiere "league" to just be a slowly run tournament... Meh. I never had the opportunity to be part of the discussion on designing this, but I'm kinda bummed out that this is the big reveal. Oh well.

[Urz]

The 'compromise' was that the subs are reset halfway (four weeks) into the event.

This is the same sub rule used in both of my previous large tournaments, and as far as I'm aware there were no significant issues derived from it. Subs will only become attached to a team after the first time they've played, so at the beginning of the tournament all your subs would be in the same pool. It's also important to note that a given team will play a maximum of either five or six (one team will play six) of the eight weeks.

Ultimately it is up to you to evaluate how many teams you are able to support.

[Sammy B. T.]

"and as far as I'm aware there were no significant issues derived from it."

You can check your skype logs for an example of a significant issue deriving from sub rules during the Anvalan Conflict.

[Urz]

To make a comparison, this is like american football doing away with the regular season, treating the pre-season as a seeding system, and skipping straight to the playoffs. Oh, and if you lose in the preseason, instead of just being poorly seeded, you are given a straight up disadvantage.

American football is a multi-billion dollar industry performed by professional athletes. I am a volunteer. Letonator is a volunteer. Our referees are volunteers. American football seasons are seven months long. Most of the teams in this game didn't exist seven months ago. You can make the comparison, but it is flawed in some significant ways.

This is by far the largest tournament I've organized for this game. There are limitations that must be considered, including how much of my time and energy I am able to devote to this, and the total duration teams can be expected to commit to an event. I decided that two to three months would be a good range to balance those things. Once that was set, there is only so much you can fit into that time span while keeping Saturdays manageable for everyone.

The name "Sky League" was chosen as it is planned to be an on-going event with multiple seasons. This first season is a pretty straight-forward tournament (as you pointed out), but as the community grows and the competitive side of the game evolves, I would like to explore other formats.

"and as far as I'm aware there were no significant issues derived from it."

You can check your skype logs for an example of a significant issue deriving from sub rules during the Anvalan Conflict.

That is a fair point, although I feel that incident was as much caused by the unique scheduling structure of Anvalan Conflict as anything else. Everyone going into Sky League will know upfront when matches are going to be played from the start until the end.

[Sammy B. T.]

That is a fair point, although I feel that incident was as much caused by the unique scheduling structure of Anvalan Conflict as anything else. Everyone going into Sky League will know upfront when matches are going to be played from the start until the end.

Dedicated timing does indeed help. The take away lesson from the AC for the Ducks is we like dedicated times.

[redria]

I guess I just have a different view of what the premiere event in GoIO should be. Since nothing will change, I'll not make a scene, but if there is discussion at some point in the future, I hope I have the opportunity to participate (as in please make it an open discussion, not closed door).

Regardless, the volunteers for these events do a wonderful job, and noone can deny that. We all appreciate your efforts. Thank you.

[Byron Cavendish]

I am confused, what exactly is the issue? We have a new exciting event here to compete in. Are we really gonna give him a hard time over something he labored on for free, for nothing in return? That's really sad, shame on you guys.

[RearAdmiralZill]

"Giving him a hard time" and asking about an aspect of his new event are different things. I wouldn't call it "giving him a hard time."