[iCTF.I] iCTF Announcement

[PACO]

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am proud to announce the first installment of iCTF on OwnedWell. We have a lot of cool features planned and are looking forward to a fast paced Fall season. As it stands, the draft will be held on November 2nd and it will be a 3 week regular season with the top 8/16 teams making the playoffs.

Schedule:

Final : Sunday 14th December
Semi : Sunday 7th December
Quarter Final : Sunday 30th November

Week 3 group: Sunday 23rd November
Week 2 group : Sunday 16th November
Week 1 group : Sunday 9th November

Availability:

Players who sign up with Full Availability will be expected to make at least 2/3 matches. If a player cannot commit to at least 2 of the matches, they can sign up with partial availability which will make them mercenary and not eligible to participate in the playoffs.

Match Times:

In the past, we have used 4pm/5pm/6pm EST however I am proposing that we bump that back that final hour making it /4:00pm/5:00pm EST. This will be more accommodating for the Euros and it will help us with our Fall stream schedule. We will be hosting a weapons duel tournament and want to cover both events.

Map Selection:

In previous iterations of draft leagues, both teams would each pick a map and then play them. It's an acceptable method of selection however we have been mulling over the idea of an elimination system. Most competitive gaming these days does elimination rather than picks and we are looking to move in that direction. Telling a captain your map pick 10minutes after match time is no longer an acceptable strategy. The picks will need to be made and placed on the website at least 30 minutes before the match.

How it would work: both teams create a list of maps on the match page that they would like to play in the order of least favorite to favorite. This information is not visible to the other team. The site takes both lists and spits out two maps based on blind elimination. Clean, easy, efficient. A captain can change their list up until 30mins before a match and set it once a match is posted.

Maplist:

This will have it's own thread as we decide what maps are worthy/unworthy and how many we actually want in the competition. There are some new maps that I would like to see playtested.

Rules:

These will be ironed out at least a week before the draft.

The league will be run from the website and the forums will be reserved for chatter. I'm excited about the new direction and more information will be made available as the draft approaches.

SIGNUP HERE: http://www.ownedwell.com/ictf/

There will be a lot more posts leading up to the draft. If anyone has any questions or issues that they would like addressed, post about them sooner than later.

Thanks,

PACO

[tigerclaw]

Do what we used to do in TDM and have set maps each week that everyone has to play, then do ordinary map picks in playoffs

That way no one can complain of playing scandi(rip scandi) because it's a week 3 map and they should have practiced it

3 weeks reg + dev upto 12 maps

[csnafk]

IIRC, I feel like one of the things much of the community wanted from last season was a longer regular season and now it's shorter. If you're not willing to extend it then I suggest taking the top 12 teams instead, giving more teams a chance if they happen to have a horrible week off the rip. Playoffs are what every player wants to get to, so give more of an opportunity to get there and it will create higher competition levels and more willingness to participate. I mean you're literally talking about half of the people drafted and showing up each week to not receive any kind of shot at winning after only 3 weeks to prove themselves as a team. With 8 teams not making it, you're going to cut out at least 2 teams who are playoff caliber but barely missed it when it could have created some epic playoff matches.

[Darkside]

The season correlates with holidays.
Dec 14th is the weekend prior to Christmas weekend, so season can't extend an additional week.
Is week 1 starting Nov 9th to avoid Halloween weekend? daylight savings time conflict hell Nov 2nd?

Christmas makes sense but idk about halloween. Why start Nov 9th? Why skip over October?

[ttocston]

That might be allowing dev time to get the site running for the iCTF season.

[RickJames]

Halloween is a major holiday that can't be ignored. Decorating my house and giving glory to satan dominate my free time during this season.

Also, viperzz and finalz need to go trick or treating. Not to mention miracle who needs to buy treats to attract children to his house.

[ramdrop]

Here to help out with whatever is needed, currently making a new map, hopefully before this starts, but needs to be sorted by next week.

I have offered to captain again if absolutely necessary, we'll see who has offered and maybe I will.

[Sauron]

1) No late signups please - set a date and time NOW for signups to close and hold it tight
2) 3 week season pretty much means no real teamwork, meh. I take it there will be divisions of 4 teams with round-robin matches? Playoffs for devs as well? Sucks terribly to be able to "pick" just 3 maps in a season...doesn't allow for much diversity, especially being that the opposition will dictate those maps (a team could theoretically never play their best maps). Maybe make the 3 regular season weeks best of 3?

[RickJames]

I like the 3 week reg season and map elimination process. I'm a fan of shorter seasons in general, with stuff constantly happening and new seasons coming with new mods being played.

16 teams with just 8 making playoffs is a big change, not sure how that will play out but I'm gonna trust the idea. Would be bad if teams that lost games in the first 2 weeks had no chance in week 3 (teams giving up etc), but I'm assuming you guys have the details worked out so that wont happen.

[Sens]

I might be interested if they had some extra mods or variables to iCTF. But that's asking a ton, to fuck with the beloved iCTF mode Re-invent the wheel. Signing up anyway but mmmmmmmmm D:

[RickJames]

<+^7ions> why am i already seeing people post their availability as "Pm me before the draft, im not sure of my availability", but they list it as full

I hate this too, screw people that do this

[Sens]

primary shock ctf g0 na0

[z4TaN]

[HULKSMASH]

Matches are always on Sunday, unless both teams agree to a reschedule.

Times:

In the past, we have used 4pm/5pm/6pm EST however I am proposing that we bump that back by an hour making it 3:00pm/4:-0pm/5:00pm EST. This will be more accommodating for the Euros and it will help us with our Fall stream schedule. We will be hosting a weapons duel tournament and want to cover both events.

[PACO]

[kevinsan1ty]

[Steel]

I really hope times don't get changed. I pretty much got off work right before reg matches started, new format would pretty much guarantee a ban given to yours truly if I were to sign up.

[InfamousRaider]

If reg times are moved up what are the new dev times?

[PACO]

[Sens]

[rain]

Nice, good luck & have fun peoples. I would sign up but I work till 4:30 normally on Sundays so there isn't much of a point unfortunately.

[Feisar]

I second Csn's sentiments about more games, just as you get going you can already be out, 1 bad results, 1 noshow from an anchor player and its game over, i just wanna play competative games, the more the better.

I have also long since been a champion of midweek games, could even potentially have 1 midweek game and 1 weekend game within the same week, a true power tournament. A week is a long time, long enough to lose momentum, impetuous and interest, i say keep the ball rolling and people engaged, hell a by week is probably one of the worst things that can happen to your team, 2 weeks without a game and suddenly everyones forgotten about UT again.

Great to see another season, look forward to it as ever

[csnafk]

[Sauron]

Add the link to the signups to the main page on ownedwell.com

[finalzje]

personally i'm all in favour for earlier match times, started to lose abit of motivation having to play matches at midnight on a sunday while being monged out mondays for weeks on end.
As for the tournament format i'd love to see a DE bracket, that way teams who didnt make playoffs can fight their way through the losersbracket into the grand final?

edit: Viperzz and me might need protection on halloween so our freshly acquired candy does not get stolen, still taking applications.

[rain]

[ramdrop]

The times at the moment are perfect, I think they should be kept.. but sometimes with the scheduling, if there is a almost full euro team (like mine last season), they should perhaps be given the opportunity for the earlier time slot (just a suggestion).

Secondly, to mix things up, why not have "lucky dip" system, so you don't know your opponent until the match week? Or perhaps after the draft on 2/11, do a draft for groups (like champions league) or even before once captains are known.

[Morpheus]

pls no dev games

6-7 player teams!!!! I will gather el capitanos if needed

[Sauron]

[maestroLOQ]

Does this mean reg matches start always 21/22/23 cet?
In that case I will consider signing up.