Great stuff keep up the good work!

Some thoughts:

1. Keep it to only one season before christmas and one immediately after - is there really a demand for more?

2. Make sure the amount of games pans out to maximum 1 game per week (this was not the case this season as it was a bit more cramped).

3. I think more than 8 teams in each division is probably too much, both amount-of-games-wise and due to the fact that the skill distribution becomes too wide.

4. What about experimenting with set dates and times for games? I realise it would be a gamble (could end up with 0 games played...) but personally i would probably like it and it would be a huge improvement for the scene regarding planning of coverage and knowledge of the games etc if it worked.

Thanks for the arrangement this season by the way, had some great games and hope even more teams will sign up next season. Good that you're announcing the plans early this time!

Cheers

1. Depends alot on how many clans sign up and thus affecting the division sizes. If we go with 2 larger divisions like this season I guess its better with just EQL 17 before christmas.

2. Yeah it was a little cramped perhaps but we, CSN, managed to play all games except vs SD2 and we didnt really went out of our way to get them played. Alot of idlemode made many clans hurry like hell in the end. This part hugely depends on the clens themselves, how cramped they want to make it.

3. I am hoping for 3 divisions, ie atleast 24 clans. But you also run into problems that way. Which three clans should have stayed in div1 with tvs, sd, c88, atg and oclan from the current list of div1 teams? Making larger divisions atleast minimize the whine since, even tho you might get piledrived in 5+ games, you have alot of even games to look forward to.

Current clans in 3 divisions could have been:

tvs
sd
c88
atg
oclan
sd2
dc
csn or tba or immortals

csn and tba or tba and immortals or immortals and csn
fu
pew
paras
mofos
ll

d99
fnu
tpa
frog
danube

But this would mean some extremely boring games with little fun for those 3 bottom clans in div1. Div2 could be pretty ok and the few clans in div3 would have a pretty boring season.

I guess we just need more clans.

4. I would be more than happy if that actually worked in EQL too, just like in Salvation. I guess I have been too afraid of WO's and idling to really try it out. Will give it another thought

Looking forward to (participate in) next season!

I am running a 1on1 tourney - old school TB3 - which will start in a couple of weeks. I have a 16 player limit but happy to go 32 players if more people register http://quakeworld.tourney.cc/

Will it run several times during the summer?
Great initiative dirtbox!

how about open signups right after EQL16 ends? Is there a reason to keep signup window nice and tight? Spambots? :)
Keep it open! I guess the hesitating oldies (hi reppie) would feel better seeing a signup list with atleast a couple of clans that break the ice.

1. One season is probably enough if it has a decent quality (games actually being played and some coverage). Agreed.

2. Agree with Hooraytio, don´t think the issue is amount of games per week but rather teams signing up with alot of members that has no real intention of playing.

3. It´s very complicated to do something that pleases all. In this season there was more positives than negatives in the division system I feel which is great. There will always be a worst team in each division.

4. Risky. Signing up to Salvation is alot different from signing up with a clan in a league. Many players feel that it´s an environment completely without any responsibility which is why Salvation made a big deal about being able to play sundays or don´t bother signing up.

Well I think you know why I dont have a page for EQL 17 up already bps... :D

im gonna get the slacking girliez together for next season so prep your ass!

Two seasons a year is enough. That leaves more room for other kinds of tournaments if anyone is bothered to run something.

Since we're going to stick with three maps, make all matches BO3 as well. It is so boring and ridiculous to watch the same teams battle it out on the same map twice in one match up.

Heck, in the group stage, each team could just play each their home maps also, so only two maps are played every match. One point for each map won, one point for activity. Save the nerves and the thrills for the playoffs.

Division structure was OK in div1 this time I think. It is a good idea to split the top and bottom at the end of the season into two separate playoffs. As things are currently, I would rather have even smaller divisions with tighter match ups, but all in all, pretty OK this season.

Also, a fixed WEEKLY schedule would be awesome. So, the first week you have to play team1, the second week you have to play team2, etc. If you fail to bring 4 players to the table for a whole weak, you deserve a WO against you. This way all the matches won't be played the last week, and you avoid that "we want to wait to play vs you until we have practiced more" argument. It should also encourage activity throughout the season, probably also increasing clan prac activity.

Ok, Im with you on the season pace and the weekly scheduele. Definately worth some serious consideration.

However, I think that it is nice with 2-3 maps in the group games since it gives a feeling of accomplishment when you win the decider and it also adds some nerve to the group stage.

I also disagree with your opinion about the best of 5 games when using a 3 map pool. I think it is nice to be able to get a second chance at a map that you lost by a small margin or you know you could do so much better on. Also if your clan is really good at one map you can really put some pressure on the other team by winning that map twice and have them making a hard choice about the 5th and deciding map.

If we make even smaller divisions we could either have clans meet eachother twice then or play 4 seasons per year.

Which would be more appealing?

Even if EQL have smaller divisions next year I would recommend going with just one season. Why?
Cause we really only need 2 EQLs a year, if we want more tournaments then we can run them under another name with another format.

Not sure there are many people stepping forward to run 4v4 tournaments zapp...

That said, 2 (maybe 3) EQLs a year is fine. Playing clans twice in a season isn't bad at all either.

i wish the admin could communicate better in terms of getting some information out there. maybe clans need to get better at planning games but it's been alot of "oh they're playing eql!?" shit now.

can you have something where the clans themselves fill in when/where they are gonna play? alot of games are off the cuff i guess but...

I'd like to see a bigger map pool.- I find it very boring to play the same maps over and over.

I'm not against short seasons with fewer clans in the divisions. But I think it would be more fun to be in a larger division. Even if you face alot stronger teams it is more interesting with at least 8 clans in the division.
6 Clans = 5 matches and season over... bit short, wouldn't feel like a big competition and maybe people would be less motivated?

I' would like a deadline for each match, and possible to claim W.O straight away.

Or disqualify teams that don't play a match for a month.

Perhaps also a minimum number of games have to be played to not get disqualified before season end.

But yes... more clans needed... Go ask random people on irc if they want to join your clan or give them a "salvation" type clan they can join :p

I don't see the need for playoffs really... skip the playoffs and you have time for another season :)

Well atleast for the playoffs I have tried to update this newspost with dates dahmer, but it is really hard for me to know when clans are going to play...

#18

Because of the overall low number of clans I really cut all clans some slack when it came to being active and getting games played. If we had like 50 clans I could be more stern with them and kick those who not play... As it is now I just gave everyone a chance to get even 1-4 games played just for the sake of seing some more games.

#17

Problem is also that the clans themselves dont know. Its more like "oh we have 4 now, lets see if some other clan can play". So noone really knows when its going down. You just have to monitor the qtv if you want to catch some clans in action really.

Twitter is awesome for real time communication.

Things like Twitter/Facebook/.qw only solve the symptom when it comes to announcing games though. Even then it is not certain one can get a confirmed date. I tried to do that for the div1 semifinals I believe, planning to announce dates and times in a post on Facebook, but it was not easy to get a confirmed date and even if I did, it was not certain the game would happen anyway.

Is there anyone who would not want a set schedule for games given that the date and time would be reasonable (i.e. Sunday-Thursday evenings kinda)

"Is there anyone who would not want a set schedule for games given that the date and time would be reasonable (i.e. Sunday-Thursday evenings kinda)"

Not really against it other than the fact that weekday evening matches (in EU time zones) are tough for NA players, since that ends up being right in the middle of a work day.

I'm all for a fixed weekly schedule though, where you must play team A in week 1, team B in week 2, etc... (Rikoll's last paragraph in #12).

Also, thank you Hooraytio for all your efforts and a great season :)

First off great work Hooraytio, and everyone involved in EQL.

Lots of good ideas in the comments too.

I like the idea of a set weekly schedule, I think that could work very well, and there would be constant matches happening, better to watch :)
I understand sometimes that teams would like more practice before playing better clans, but how often do they actually get round to it? Then teams like sd and tvs find it hard to schedule games.

Perhaps to combat this, in the week or 2 leading up to eql, we could have something like Salvation? just a small tourney or something.
All the eql signups could be invited to take part, along with any others who want to. This would mean players would be getting practice in, in fair teams (so not praccin for eql and gettin raped as can sometimes be the case).

This would obviously be with the aim of trying to raise activity a little right before eql starts, and possibly getting rid of some of the rustiness of players and clans. The knock on effect being that clans would be more likely to stick to a set weekly schedule, as they would not be as rusty.
Plus if activity has already been raised a little, maybe more pracs would be available?

I don't know, maybe I am just chatting bubbles, just a idea I thought I would share :)

Looking forward to next EQL :)

IMHO, make shorter season: 6-8 teams in division, 5-7 weeks for group games + 2 weeks for playoff.
2 weeks left before playoff and team didn't played any game - remove it.

Seemed like the general consensus was that having B-playoffs in division 1 was a good idea. Only one semi-final being played suggests otherwise however. Anyone who can shed some light on the situation?

CSN-FU wasnt played due to low interest from FUs side. We tried several times but even with Kippos best efforts there was always one or two guys missing.

CSN-ATG wasnt played due to both teams lacking players on 2-3 occasions. In the end it just dragged into summer and everyone lost interest in qw as always.

Bronze game FU-TBA wasnt played for obvious reasons.

I still think it would work, I guess this time the oncoming summer with its Nordic light just killed off the remainder of interest for some of the involved players.

Some people are suggesting smaller divisions with each team playing eachother twice. But I have disagree as I strongly feel that EQL16 was alot better than EQL14.

^_^ <3

Thanks cara!