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[-Stef-]

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I. Tournament Structure

The League consists of 5-week seasons with a 2-week break between seasons. During a season all players are divided up in 6-player divisions.
At the end of the season the highest ranked players promote to the next level, while the bottom 2 demote.
On the top level, only 1 division exists. On the next level there will be 2, then 4, 8, and so on. All divisions except for the ones on the bottom level will have 6 players.

II. Ordering
1. The number of games you won; a tie counts as half a win.
    --> We do not count matchpoints
2. Number of games won counting only games between the players that are now tied
3. for each game you won, add the total score of that opponent
4. Coin flip

III. Match Structure
A match always consists of 6 games. Both players get to be first player 3 times, the order of this is irrelevant.
I suggest playing pro-games until either player has gone first 3 times, then switching to unranked mode because you may have to restart.
It is suggested but by no means requires to play all 6 games on the same day. Please do post the results of your match in the results-thread as soon as its finished.
(This assumes you're playing on goko, as I expect 99%+ of the matches to be. If you decide to play your match in real life, I suggest you just take turns going first)
By default, we play with #vpon and with random kingdoms. You can change these settings on mutual consent.
Not all players own all sets. The default arrangement is that the player who owns the most cards will host all of the games. Other hosting arrangements can be set up, i.e. if a player is not comfortable playing with all cards, but both players must consent to it. Make sure you make this clear when you are scheduling your matches.

IV. joining, leaving, sitting out
You're not required to own any cards in order to sign up, and who owns what will not have any influence on the schedule.
If you join for season 1, you will be seeded based on the Isotropish Leaderboard I just copied to my harddisk.
Signing up for season 1 does not imply signing up for season 2, you will have to rejoin in due time.
If you want to leave the league after a season, please inform the organisation as soon as possible. This is especially important if you plan on coming back.

When people leave, free spots will be available, and it's up to the organisation to do something with them.
Although no formal rules exist, the following guidelines will apply:
1. If someone was sitting out for a season, we try to re-insert at previously earned level.
2. If a good new player joined, we try to insert at a sensible level
3. Free promotion for someone ranking #2.
4. Free non-demotion for someone ranking #5.

V. Scheduling
A schedule will be suggested where you play a specific opponent in each of the weeks. It's just a suggestion, you don't have to stick to it.
It would be appreciated if you don't fall behind more then one week.
Every division will be assigned to a specific person from the organisation, and please inform this person why/what's happening.
If you happen to be placed in a division with a good friend, please schedule your match first.

[-Stef-]

(This thread is locked. If you have comments please post them here)

Players apply very different strategies to get their league matches scheduled. Some methods may work out better then others, but it's clearly best to be flexible. Not just in the scheduling, but also in your scheduling strategy. Just because something worked last season doesn't automatically imply it will work again. Different people will cause different circumstances and may call for a different approach. Please be willing to switch during a season, multiple times if necessary.

post I'm online now. Anybody wants to play?
This is what I call the opportunistic strategy and can be very effective during the first couple of weeks of a season.
In fact, I would call it the best possible strategy for the first week. Sometimes people get to play a lot of their matches this way, without any scheduling involved.
It is probably more effective when you are in the same timezone as the rest of your group.

post I would like to play a game on Tuesday or Wednesday evening. Anybody?
A little more committing is to announce some times you could play and wait for someone to respond. This is my personal preferred method.
With a bit of luck someone responds either on the forum or by PM. Make sure to specify a timezone if you're not all in the same one.
Note that such a post is much more effective if you actually specify (multiple) time slots.
Final arrangements will probably be made after someone responds by PM, so you don't always have to be 100% sure you can keep all your announced time slots open.

PM Hi Mr. X, when would you like to play our match? I could play on Tuesday or Wednesday evening.
When approaching to the end of the season a post on the forum becomes less effective. There's probably just one or two players left for you, and you should just PM them.
Try to specify at least a couple of options for the times / days you can play.

The suggested schedule
Stick to it if it helps you. If you intend to, you should probably announce it on the forum and start using Personal Messages for scheduling right away.
If someone in your group wants to stick to the schedule, please do respect that wish.

Unresponsive opponents
If someone in your group continues to be unresponsive, both on the forum and to PMs, it's time to inform your group moderator.

falling behind schedule
Sometimes it happens, even with the best intentions. You may have had a very busy personal schedule, or some of your matches got cancelled, or your opponents just didn't respond for a while. All of this can happen to anybody. But the most important thing is: please do communicate about it. Post on the forum to explain it to your group, or at the very least PM your group moderator.

[-Stef-]

(This thread is locked. If you have comments please post them here)

Handling incomplete games
If a game unexpectedly ends because either goko breaks down or one of the players accidentally disconnects (internet connection lost, computer crashes, ...) please use the following guidelines.

• Discuss the game together with your opponent. Was the game completely open, or was either player ahead? And if there was a lead, was it small, significant or almost insurmountable?
• Convert the size of the lead into a game result. If your felt like the game was completely open or the lead was small, simply replay the game. If the lead was significant, report this game as 0.75-0.25. If the lead was almost insurmountable then the player who was ahead just won the game.
  

• Both suggesting an outcome and accepting your opponents proposal may be scary. You will never have a solid scientific argument why you picked the right one. Note that this rule doesn't expect you to pick the right one. All it tries to accomplish is make you feel less bad about the disconnect. If you really feel like you were ahead, and your opponent feels the same, then you are entitled to some equity and that's what you're getting here.
• Please be willing to lose some equity for the mere sake of coming to an agreement. E.g. If you estimate there was a 5% chance to win the game, resigning it just because of a disconnect won't feel great - you just lost 5%. It's still the best option, because 5% is a lot closer to nothing then to 25%.
  
• If you and your opponent cannot agree on an outcome simply because you continue to disagree about the game state, you have the option of leaving this decision to your group moderator. Your moderator won't enjoy making this decision for you either, so please do try to prevent it by coming up with a solution together, but if you really can't the option does exist. Both players should post in their groups thread what they think about the gamestate and what they consider fair before making a request to the group moderator to decide. There will not be any discussions about this - it's just the players stating their opinions first and then the group moderator making a decision. This decision could be a win/loss/replay, a 0.75-0.25 score or maybe a tie in case scheduling a replay is difficult.

[assemble_me]

Removing players mid-season

It's quite unfortunate and nothing anybody likes to happen, but sometimes things just don't work out with/for some players and they have to get removed mid-season. It's hard to find a solution that is totally fair for everybody if those players have played matches already. Here are the general guidelines in that case:

• If they've played 0 matches before their removal, they just get removed and the others in their group have one game less to play.
• If they've played exactly 1 match, the match result they've played gets voided.
• If they've played more than 1 match we keep the results unless their results seem suspicious (e.g. If there is evidence suggesting that the dropped player purposefully threw games prior to dropping. This very rarely happens and is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.). The average score (instead of total score) determines the standings in that group.