Time is a great healer.

so the previous formats ship has sailed... why?

Next season we will have 5 easy to define divisions.. D1 / D2 finishes can determine which should be D & E next time.
The perceived problem with the old format was with new clans. So if any new clans played in a qualifying division and then slotted into the divisions in the order they finish it should be workable.

could even have a volunteer clan play in the qualifier to gauge the strength of the new teams to best place them. ( a division C clan perhaps)

Then i don't see any real problem with reverting to straight P/r divisions

The qualifier could be played prior to next season or in conjunction with it meaning the new clans wouldn't slot in till the following season.

Surely it's best to keep as much parity in the divisions as is possible.

The previous format was shipped away because the road from Division E to Division A was considered too long and the divisions were also considered unbalanced.

well thats what i was saying, if a clan joins and destroys a division C team in qualification, then they would likely be slotted in as a division B or even A team, thus eliminating that trek from E

The divisions were only unbalanced because of this i think.

@Great Expanse: Random seeding for the inaugural new-format league seems like the most reasonable approach, despite the unsatisfying and possibly imbalanced qualification rounds it creates for some, because initially there's not enough data to seed teams 'properly' without making a set of assumptions. Granted, random seeding can be (and often is) quite flawed, but the issue with trying to do better is that you often end up making assumptions based on limited data that could actually make your matchups much worse. Seeding is a serious problem in just about any competition with significant gaps between iterations (that allow teams to improve/decline meaningfully in between), so while your reaction is fairly reasonable I don't think the CL people running this could've done much better. We could come up with a lot of hypothetical systems that would work better than this, sure, but I doubt they had nearly enough time to go through those, test the assumptions, and pick the best one- so random seeding makes sense as the natural choice.

Quick Update:

Only one game has finished since last time, so I will skip the comprehensive update for the week:

https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=13131701 (ACME Won vs poon squad on 2v2 guiroma.

This means that the 2v2 guiroma tournament ended in an unbreakable 3-way tie, with ACME beating FCC, FCC beating Hydra, and Hydra beating ACME, and all three beating FBG, Poon Squad, and Olympus.

ACME would like to make some round 2 substitutions.

Africa goes to ScarlettTD

Greece goes to ACL Tears

Europe goes to JT instead of Matt431

ok this is another thing that needs to be looked into next season.

Substitutions in this kind of format cannot work

A team finds themselves 2 points behind with 2 to go, they can easily swap in their best players who were going to play in Div C

or

A team leading the division can swap in their weaker players now they see they no longer need them to play in these qualifiers, meaning the better players they swap out can then play in Division C next time.

In other words, allowing substitutions encourages manipulation.

Manipulation? All those players are in the roster, submited way before the groups were drawn. If anything it's tactics and management, and has very limited impact.

Lest we forget,slots are still 3 max per player,and for both sub and subbed it still counts towards that limit.

Hahahahaha :D

Always refreshing to read the unqualified comments of indibob :D

Unqualified?

Quick somebody call the Elitist Bell! Story hating on the PoonCrew McDonald's king!

I am almost sure we'll pull the last game off anyways on RoR, so the problem might be resolved.

Edited 4/9/2017 02:24:27

You can now put Hydra in Division C :)! Hydra won against FCC on DRoR. IRGE!

Nice wp FCC and Hydra

Quick Update:

Folks, we have our winners for Q1! Congratulations to HYDRA and FCC for making it to C, and competing for a promotion spot. It was a very close race, too bad ACME could not pick up the pace.

I will do one final comprehensive update once all games finish. You also will get to look forward to the grades I give out for each clan!

Edited 4/20/2017 19:26:42

Nice one, congrats to FCC and Hydra. Looking forward to fight you guys in C division.

Can't help but feel for ACME, they were among top 3 clans again in Q1 and much like in CL8 they finished third by just a few points, fighting til the very end. With Q3 looking the way it does,2 good clans are gonna be part of D1 and ACME might end up in a similar situation yet again in the other part of the season.

Good job FCC and Hydra.

@Cloud yes, the divisions where arguably not even. Q3 was of course the strongest, but it would seem Q1 and Q2 were a bit more equal after all (meaning a 3-way battle for supremacy). 8 clans were supposed to be in the division C initially, but because of other clans dropping out, they had to modify the qualifiers groups the way it is now.

Edited 4/22/2017 17:47:04

Congratulations to FCC for winning and to HYDRA for promoting along with them.