Season 56 has kicked off and we’re already seeing good progress made on the scheduling and playing fronts. One of the most encouraging things leading up to the season is that we’ve seen growth in participation for the first time since Season 50. While the number of players remained high between Seasons 50 and 55, we were seeing a net loss of players from season to season. With 100 new signups, keep an eye out for new players in your division and help them out if they have any questions. We hope that everyone, veteran and new alike, have a smooth and successful season.

Good luck and have fun!

Moderator Updates

Last season’s call for moderators brought us numerous applications from outstanding candidates. From those, we welcome three new members to the Moderator team: avi.arfin, saltroza, and Theman0613. Each of them has hit the ground running, bringing new energy, fresh ideas, and are learning the ins and outs of the league infrastructure. Players and mods alike will benefit from their contributions to the League community.

In addition to the growth of the team, we have a new Feedback Chair. tracer will be passing the torch to Theman0613. I would like to take a moment to recognize tracer’s hard work and dedication to the position. He took over in Season 48, and in that time led many successful League Town Halls, set up league exhibition matches, read and summarized every Feedback form response, and revamped our system for identifying where players will be most successful with regards to their time zone grouping for divisions. Thank you for your service and everything you have done to make everyone’s experience better!

Benchmarks

Our Season 55 Town Hall focused on the benchmark system. Aimed at alleviating player frustration with others waiting until the end of the season to play and schedule their matches, we implemented the benchmarks in Season 50. This system requires players to have no more than 2 matches left to play or schedule than weeks left in the season. We had a lively discussion and heard from a lot of players with varying perspectives. The polls conducted as part of the Town Hall showed that players feel the benchmark system is working and that scheduling matches to keep on pace was less stressful than being in a division with players who wait until later in the season to start playing and scheduling their matches.

A number of suggestions were made during the discussion. One idea that was brought up by a league player was to allow players to ask for an extension to the deadline to meet a given benchmark. This would be analogous to receiving an extension at the end of the season to complete your league matches. We’ve discussed these at length and are in the process of ironing out possible changes to the system. Some aspects of this will be polled as part of this season’s Returning Form feedback, so keep an eye out for that.

Additional Feedback and Rules Changes

On the Season 55 Returning Form, we asked players about how long they would like seasons to be. 66% of players, including at least 60% in each tier, were in favor of keeping the status quo of six week seasons. With the majority of players wanting to keep things the same, and with little to no push for other rules changes, we’ve only made the following changes heading into Season 56:

1. Matches played for other tournaments cannot also be counted as League matches. This change was made for two reasons. First, some tournaments are set up to use kingdoms curated in in a way inconsistent with league rules. Rather than complicate the rules by allowing a subset of tournaments to be allowed and others not, we’re going with the simpler approach. Second, situations could arise where there are differing incentives for the outcome of a game. For example, a player could be in a situation in which taking a tie guarantees that they will advance to the next round in one tournament, whereas they would be better off playing for the win in the other.
2. For a match to count towards reaching a given benchmark, it will be required to be on the League Calendar. This will make it easier for Moderators to track progress towards the benchmarks and adds an extra layer of accountability for players. If you’re already ahead of or meeting the next benchmark, matches will be encouraged to be added to the calendar, but not required. A link to a shortened version of the Calendar Form specific to your division can be found in the opening message pinned in your division channel.