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RGL HL Season 1 League Structure (Updated)

   exa   - 9/3/2018

Important Details


New Team Registration Ends
September 3rd


League Starts
September 10th


Roster Locks
Invite
November 6th

Advanced, Main, Intermediate, and Open
October 16th


Regular Season
Invite
9 September - 12 November

Advanced, Main, Intermediate, and Open
9 September - 22 October


Playoffs
Invite
19 November - 17 December

Advanced, Main, Intermediate, and Open
29 October - 19 November

Default Match Day
Monday 9:30 PM EST


League Format


As we head closer to the start of the RGL HL Season 1, there are some changes we have decided to go through with to reduce the skill gap between the top and bottom level teams of a division. We found that it was difficult to field 10 "invite" teams that are all competitive and can take rounds off each with other. This was also problematic in our Advanced division as well. This is really a long-term aspect, as we plan to do invite qualifiers during the next preseason -- where we push the bottom two invite teams down and use a qualifier to field potential invite teams for season 2. This also has the benefit of using Advanced as a breeding ground for teams that should have the potential to improve and make a stance that they can play competently in invite -- should they win and stick together.

Invite, Advanced, and Intermediate will feature a round-robin format (Invite is double). The Open division will feature a Swiss system with no team limit. We have also decided to split up Intermediate into two separate divisions (IM Red & IM Blue). Seedings for Intermediate will be done to make both IM divisions as balanced as possible.

Please note that a team’s division is still subject to change as the week goes on or if a team leader can make a compelling case for being a division. Players that leave and join new rosters during the season will also be monitored. If you believe that a team should be in a different division, you can contact us here on Discord.

This is our new list of available divisions in RGL HL:

Double Round-robin

  • Invite - 6 teams (High-Platinum)

Round-robin

  • Advanced - 8 Teams (Low-Platinum, Mid-Platinum)
  • Main - 8 Teams (UGC High-Silver)
  • Intermediate Red - 8 Teams (UGC High-Steel, Mid-Silver)
  • Intermediate Blue - 8 Teams (UGC High-Steel, Mid-Silver)

Swiss

  • Open - No team limit (Low-Steel, Mid-Steel to people who are completely new to the scene)

Placement


In RGL Highlander, there are no strict limits for each division and roster. These are simply guidelines that we have laid out to help allow teams to understand the rough skill level of said division. However, it should be noted that we will look at the higher level players of a team including scrim logs to determine the placement.

Invite Structure


Map pool


Stopwatch
  • pl_upward
  • pl_borneo
  • pl_swiftwater_final1
  • pl_vigil_rc4
  • cp_steel

King of the hill
  • koth_product_rc9
  • koth_ashville_rc1
  • koth_lakeside_final
  • koth_cascade_rc1a
  • koth_warmtic_rc4

Regular Season


6 team double-round robin with the weeks below:

Week 1: Product
Week 2: Stopwatch
Week 3: King of the Hill
Week 4: Upward
Week 5: King of the Hill
Week 6: Stopwatch
Week 7: King of the Hill
Week 8: Stopwatch
Week 9: King of the Hill
Week 10: Steel

Weeks 1, 4, and 10 will be normal weeks where every team will play the listed map. Each other week is a game mode rather than a map. This means there will be a pick ban for each matchup, but only between maps of that pool These pick bans will be done through match communications and must be completed by Friday night at 8:30 pm EST. This is to allow enough time for teams to practice the decided map. If the pick bans are not completed in time, the team leader who failed to complete the pick ban process will yield their right to make bans, giving the other team the ability to pick the map. To prevent this from happening, an admin will message you on Friday to help ensure the pick ban process goes smoothly -- if the process isn’t already completed by Thursday night. If a leader is unable to be around during this time, a member of the team may be messaged to assume the pick ban responsibility.

Bans will go as follows:

Home team bans
Visiting team bans
Visiting team bans
Home team bans

Playoffs


Top 4 teams participate in a single-gauntlet style playoff structure. This is where the 4th and 3rd seed will play in round one, and the winner will progress to play the 2nd seed. This trend continues all the way to grand finals. This means that the regular season is very important as your team’s overall seed is very important in the long run. This also means that the top 2 at the end of the regular season are guaranteed to win prize money.



Maps will be selected as followed (Using the first round, seeds 3 and 4, as an example):

Only maps that both teams have played throughout the season will be considered playable within this match. This means there are a few pick/ban scenarios that may playout during the playoffs. Here is how each case would playout.



*If Seed 3 played the following maps during the regular season: Upward, Product, Steel, Lakeside, Borneo, and Cascade. Seed 4 played the following maps: Upward, Product, Steel, Lakeside, Swiftwater, and Ashville. Then the matchup between team A and team B will feature a 4 Map pick/ban between Upward, Product, Steel, and Lakeside.

This is to prevent teams from forcing a map that the other team did not get a chance to play during the regular season. Only maps that both teams have had a chance to play and practice will be considered. This also makes the regular season more interesting. If you notice a team trying to only play Upward, Product, and Steel, you can use your bans to prevent them from only playing those three maps throughout the season, and to force them to be better at more than just the default maps.

Advanced, Main, Intermediate Red, Intermediate Blue, & Open Structure


Week 1 - koth_product_rc9
Week 2 - pl_swiftwater_final1
Week 3 - koth_ashville_rc1
Week 4 - pl_upward
Week 5 - koth_lakeside_final
Week 6 - cp_steel
Week 7 - pl_borneo

Playoffs



  • Advanced and Main - single-gauntlet structure - top 5 teams.
  • The top 4 teams from each Intermediate division will combine and play together in the playoffs in a double-elimination Swiss bracket.
  • Open division - single-elimination Swiss bracket - top 8 teams

Here is how the Intermediate Red and Intermediate Blue playoff structure will look like:



Bans will go as follows:

Away team bans
Home team bans
Home team picks
Away team picks
Away team bans
Home team picks

Other Changes


Config


Please make sure you have the latest version of the RGL highlander config. It should be noted that the default KotH config has a win limit of 2 per half. If you wish to play a scrimmage on a bo5 config, then exec the rgl_HL_koth5 config.

Team Sizes


RGL Highlander roster slots have been decreased to 15. This was done to further combat the issue of "roster riders" on teams that are there to simply take up slots of a team and not play a match.

Current teams with rosters above 15 slots will be notified to remove their excess players.

Prize Winnings


One of the biggest announcements that came out with the launch of this highlander format at RGL.gg was the Invite prize pool. All this money is being raised and funded by the community for the community. With the generosity of sigafoo, sponsorships, and individual player donations, we have increased the Invite prize pool to $1380. The new invite prize pool breakdowns are now as follows:

1st Place
$900

2nd Place
$300

3rd Place
$180


Advanced will not feature a prize pool this season. Although the prospects of having a prize pot in this division would be exciting, we want to save excess money for the following season as well as to not encourage teams or players to sandbag Advanced explicitly for the money. However, we are looking for other options to reward the placement winners of this division.

Bans


Here at RGL.gg, the core idea of having a “healthy balance between competition and community” is something that we always have wanted to strive and push towards to. Simply put, racism, bigotry, and harassment are not allowed on our platform. This is not declaring anything new, but just reaffirming the values and actions that have been a staple of this league since day 1.

We have worked to revise the sportsmanship / spirit rules to address harassment and verbal abuse on our platform and how to better enforce this type of behavior. Instead of a strict set of rules of what is permissible or not, we have created guidelines with examples and are also pushing to understand the context and intent of a player to better understand each case.

Moving forward, bans from other leagues will be mirrored. Full duration of previous league bans for cheating must be served before a player may participate in a sanctioned RGL scrim or match. Behavioral bans that are two years or longer will be directly mirrored -- whereas the duration of other bans will be subject to the discretion of the RGL admins rather than the league. Furthermore, we believe that players in RGL are representative of our league both in and out of matches. Usage of slurs or hate speech during an official RGL match, sanctioned scrim, or off-platform is subject to punishment at an administrator’s discretion.

Appeals


Any league bans for cheating will not be able to go through an appeal process. Behavioral bans may be submitted to staff to go through the appeal process. Any infractions that detail and confirm administration harassment, usage of slurs or hate speech will be subject to a minimum 1-week suspension.


We will be issuing the following bans:


The following players are permanently banned from other leagues and will not be eligible for any future RGL competitions:

  • Invader
  • Xenith
  • Trelan

The following players will receive a temporary suspension for violating behavioral rules:

  • Spu - 2-week suspension
  • Acclaim - 5-month suspension
  • Sovereign - 6-month Suspension
  • Bullet - 1 Year Suspension
  • Jim - Remainder of Season 1

The following players will receive a suspension for cheating:
  • Hyphen - 1 Year
  • RandyW - 1 Year
  • Gus - 1 Year
  • Mujet – 1 Year
  • High priest muffin - 4-months

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last updated 9/4 @ 5:00 PM PST