The league format for season 3 will be kept as 3v3 using the current rules in place.

The cup format for season 3 will change to 4v4(using European rules). The pitch will be kept as regular big and NOT big easy. - ONE PLAYER MUST ALWAYS STAY FORWARD. THERE CAN BE A MAXIMUM OF ONLY 3 PLAYERS DEFENDING AT ANY ONE TIME. IDEALLY THE CHOSEN FORWARD MUST REMAIN AROUND THE HALF WAY LINE WHEN ON DEFENCE. THIS WILL BE ENFORCED AND IS TO ENSURE TEAMS DON'T OVERLY BUS.

Teams will have rosters of 5, so fielding 4v4 for the cup shouldn't be a problem if captains pick reliable players. All cup games next season will have 7 minute halves. Considering we will be playing 4v4 big we'll need the extra time for more potential goals.

We are expanding each division to 8 teams(16 total). 4 new teams will be formed, and 4 new captains will be needed. This also means the league will need about 20 new reliable players, of which there are already a few waiting in free agency, so if anyone knows someone reliable and interested, get them to sign up. Sing up threads for captaincy/new players will go up towards the end of season 2.



Because of the expansion, the way promotion & relegation for season 2 works is going to change. Instead of having 1 down, 1 up & a playoff, we are having 1 down, 2 up and a playoff. 6th place in division 1 is automatically relegated to division 2. 1st & 2nd place division 2 are automatically promoted to division 1. 3rd place division 2 and 4th place division 2 will have a playoff to determine who plays in division 1 for season 3. This playoff will occur on the same date as the playoff that was already scheduled. The 4 new teams will start in division 2 by default.

Season 3's cup will be a straight round of 16 knockout, no round robins. The matches will be draw randomly closer to the start of the season.


For the draft, each captain will have to release a MINIMUM of 2 players if they currently have a roster of 5, and a MINIMUM of 1 player if they currently have a roster of 4. Released players & free agents will be pooled together and a draft will take place to fill each teams roster to 5(new teams will be included in the draft and will have 4 rounds to fill the roster as opposed to existing teams 2 rounds). - NOTE: A captain may choose to release 2-4(keeping 0-2) of their players if they so wish and they will continue in the draft along with the remaining teams.


There will be no trade window next season and trades will be permitted throughout. Free Agency will close 2 league games before the season ends. Captains will be allowed a maximum of 3 cuts & signs from Free Agency throughout the whole season, so make sure your draft picks are wise. If you run out of cuts you will be forced to trade. Special circumstances may be granted by the HA in the event of an inactive player.

TRADING

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Trading in season 3 will also be a little different, you can now trade the next seasons draft picks to acquire that almighty player you've seen scoring all day long.
Basically as there is normally a first and second round pick guaranteed for each team no matter how many they release these picks can be traded with.

You can trade for a player and draft picks but can also give to the team you are trading with a player and a draft pick.

Example 1:

Cathletico trade Maddude and Season 4 Round 2 pick to AC Dead People for Aero and Season 4 Round 1 pick.

This means Cathletico get Aero on their squad and they get AC Dead Peoples Season 4 first round pick.
The value of the pick will be determined by where the team who's picks you have finish in the league.

Example 2:

Cathletico trade Maddude to AC Dead People for Aero and Season 4 Round 1 pick.

Here it is much the same, however Cathletico now have 2 season 4 round 1 picks and 1 round 2 pick.

If they then trade away one of their round 1 picks it will be the one they acquired from another team first before being able to trade away their own personal pick.

I will keep a list of which team has what draft pick and update it during trades.

The trade window will be 2 weeks in season 3.

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Manager/Retire Rules

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If you are a manager when you enter the draft you are not eligible to play for the first 4 weeks of the season.

If you become a manager and your squad is at the maximum limit you can come out of management if you are eligible too and the person you are replacing can be cut.

If you retire or leave a team without being cut or traded on purpose then you will not eligible to play for 5 weeks or until the next season (whatever is closer).

If you retire when currently in a team when you come back from retirement (if in the same season) the team you were previously on gets to decide whether to trade/cut/keep you.

If you were a free agent and retire when you come back (if in the same season) then you go straight to the free agency which you have to sign-up for again.

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DRAFT Things

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If a team enters the draft with more draft picks than the normal picks needed to bolster the squad to the maximum they need then they will still be able to pick players and before the first match day when the trade window closes their squad limit must be within the allowed limits (4-5).

A team can get rid of these extra players by cutting or trading them to try to acquire certain players they want or just to trim the fatties.

If you do not have enough draft picks in round 1 and 2 because you have traded them away you will get to pick at the END of the draft once every team with picks has finished. (learn to trade unless you went for league/cup win and wanted quality).

All draftees who are not drafted go straight into the free agency and be removed if they are not active.

New people wanting to sign-up will have to wait for 4 weeks of matches to be played before being able to sign-up for free agents, this is to stop people bypassing the draft and the team signing them straight away.

this doesnt mane and snese its terrible, I'm wedepibg its so bad.

Good decision:)

Division two teams will be happy reading this. Much more open with the added automatic promotion spot...!

Ok I'm just voicing my opinion here, and it is by no means correct, but I think it is a valid point.

Do you think it would be that necessary to expand the league to 8 teams per division. I mean, I'm not sure whether there would be enough players. That's especially with the probably need of 6 players per squad, considering the cup.

Also, with this, I think the quality might go down, if you think about it. You may imagine that some of the "fringe" players could bring the quality down. Right now, with the twelve teams, the quality is perfect, and the more "experienced players" are spread out over all teams.

However, I just thought that keeping it to just 6 teams per division could be better as it would not expand the quantity, but the quality and competition of the league.

V-11 wrote:Do you think it would be that necessary to expand the league to 8 teams per division. I mean, I'm not sure whether there would be enough players. That's especially with the probably need of 6 players per squad, considering the cup.

No, squads will be set to 5 maximum. It's up to the captain to sign players they feel will be dedicated enough to make the cup games. If done correctly there should be no need for 6 players per squad. It also helps the cup system as having a 12 team cup is the biggest pain in the ass to manage, making it a straight knock-out system will improve the overall quality of the competition.

V-11 wrote:Also, with this, I think the quality might go down, if you think about it. You may imagine that some of the "fringe" players could bring the quality down. Right now, with the twelve teams, the quality is perfect, and the more "experienced players" are spread out over all teams.

We've been attracting a lot of quality players recently, and there are not enough teams to be able to sign them. We have a lot of free agents at the minute who are great players yet there is no room in any teams for them to prove themselves. If people sign up and then are left rotting in the free agency for 3 months they'll quickly forget about the league and the entire community.

V-11 wrote:However, I just thought that keeping it to just 6 teams per division could be better as it would not expand the quantity, but the quality and competition of the league.

Expanding the quantity is the only way to expand the quality. Keeping it as 12 teams will just mean the same old players rotating around and people will lose interest very quickly. Having a wider variety of teams will create a more interesting league.

YEEEEEEEHHHHHAAAAAA love you ghose

I so wana be a captain!!!! So when I become a new captain. Do The new teams get to choose 2 players each? to come up to quantity of 3 players in the team that every other team would have. Then the original fair draft would go on from there once the new teams have caught up?

No, every team enters the draft, only when the already established teams have filled up their rosters the remaining new teams & teams that released more than 2 carry on drafting until all their rosters are filled. Then captains can cut & sign from free agency and trade between themselves until the season starts.

Dis Ghost instant reply. Stop stalking me man, damn.

For me at least, the idea having 8 teams in both leagues makes things more interesting. Two or three teams in Div2 look as strong as (or maybe stronger than) the average division 1 side. 2 of them being promoted would add to competitivness IMO.

WOOP

Ghost wrote:We are expanding each division to 8 teams(16 total).

Ghost wrote:Because of the expansion, the way promotion & relegation for season 2 works is going to change. Instead of having 1 down, 1 up & a playoff, we are having 1 down, 2 up and a playoff. 6th place in division 1 is automatically relegated to division 2. 1st & 2nd place division 2 are automatically promoted to division 1. 5th place division 1 and 3rd place division 2 will have a playoff to determine who plays in division 1 for season 3. This playoff will occur on the same date as the playoff that was already scheduled. The 4 new teams will start in division 2 by default.

Using that method would result in 7 teams in Div1 and 9 teams in Div2.

What Chef said

Yeah, my bad, didn't have paper on me when I wrote it out. Edited the post.

The way I had it out yesterday was keeping 5th place div1 up and having the playoff between 3rd & 4th div2. Gonna have to go with the original plan now, I wanted to involved 5th place div1 but it's too awkward to do.

dis ghoart and his maths xx

I think 6th place in Division 1 should stay up tbh.

Donny wrote:I think 6th place in Division 1 should stay up tbh.

Pls go.

Bump for reserved edit ghoat ninja post.

I think if a player doesn't have some part in at least 25% of the first 8 games, then they should be allowed to leave the team, with the team captain having no say. Or at least a system similar to this, just so we don't have players who never play.

can anyone explain to me how the draft works?

Needs more lasers and explosions

opc wrote:I think if a player doesn't have some part in at least 25% of the first 8 games, then they should be allowed to leave the team, with the team captain having no say. Or at least a system similar to this, just so we don't have players who never play.

Good idea IMO. Players who aren't getting game time only have the option of quitting the league without this.

can we just focus on getting more active players kthx

Mick wrote:can we just focus on getting more active players kthx

From where?

Bump, first post edited with additional trade & cup details.

When is the draft ? ..

Just a quick note;

The cup has been changed from 4v4 Big, 7 minute halves(with the 3 man defence rule) to 4v4 big easy, 5 minute halves. Playoffs will be 3v3, 7 minute halves & cup final will be 4v4 big easy, 7 minute halves. This is mainly due to the fact that managing the 3 man defence rule is stupidly difficult and annoying.

Ghost wrote:Just a quick note;

The cup has been changed from 4v4 Big, 7 minute halves(with the 3 man defence rule) to 4v4 big easy, 5 minute halves. Playoffs will be 3v3, 7 minute halves & cup final will be 4v4 big easy, 7 minute halves. This is mainly due to the fact that managing the 3 man defence rule is stupidly difficult and annoying.

Or just keep it 3vs3 big

We(well, those with hopes of qualifying for it) need the competitive practice for the Champions League, though.

4vs4 big easy is the standard format in most leagues and the ESL. It's safe to say that any international tournament (Champions League, national team matches) is going to be played this way too, so this is a smart choice.

4vs4>3vs3

The only problem is that, imho, the 5 player roster limit is now obsolete.

Luckily it's only the cup so for most teams it'll only be for 1 or 2 games, so there shouldn't be any problems with missing players.

Perhaps we should allow free agents to be played should a team lack a minimum amount of players for a game. That way they get a chance to play and perhaps even be signed to a team. Might even make it so that the host could pick the free agent needed based on..

1. who has yet to play a league or cup game this season
2. signed up as free agent the longest
3. is online

We did that in season 1, I think it's just down to a captain to pick consistently active players. I understand that sometimes it isn't always avoidable and 2 players may be missing through no fault of their own, but the odds of having 2 active players missing on the same night due to unavoidable circumstances is pretty slim.

What about giving teams an option of signing a 6th player, kind of like a reserve who's only eligible for cup games should there not be enough from the '1st team'?

With the "new" format with big easy 4v4. Does that now mean bussing all four players back is now allowed?

Rachel wrote:What about giving teams an option of signing a 6th player, kind of like a reserve who's only eligible for cup games should there not be enough from the '1st team'?

I doubt anyone would like to be held up by a team for the purpose of being reserve for cup games only. Might work though if they're allowed to be signed by other teams as regular members. However, it might just complicate things even more in the league.

Vargo wrote:

Rachel wrote:What about giving teams an option of signing a 6th player, kind of like a reserve who's only eligible for cup games should there not be enough from the '1st team'?

I doubt anyone would like to be held up by a team for the purpose of being reserve for cup games only. Might work though if they're allowed to be signed by other teams as regular members. However, it might just complicate things even more in the league.

Yeah I was gonna suggest that. Like they're a reserve for one particular team but any other team is allowed to sign them as a regular player (part of the roster).

Psykout22 wrote:With the "new" format with big easy 4v4. Does that now mean bussing all four players back is now allowed?

Yup, 4 man bus is allowed.

Are we going to play on Friday?

Taken from the calendar:

27th April

Division 1

Northern Lights v Arriba!
Masterchefs v DEJA Reloaded
AC Dead People v Cathletico
N.W.A v Deadly Monkees

Division 2

TI SPARTA! v Aquopolis
Action Men v Bayer Neverlosin
Seedstitch v CU Next Thursday
Le Poppy Crew v HK Flamingo