I just want to talk a bit about how it's going and ask some questions.
For starters, I think it's going really well. I see a lot of people playing a lot of matches and enjoying it. I especially liked the little sub-communities that arose in some of the groups.
In most groups it's also really close who is going to win.
The upcoming challenge for the league will be how to deal with people not getting their matches finished on time. I have just removed one player from the C level for not playing any match at all and not responding to messages either for over two weeks. That was a clear-cut case. However, how to deal with those that have finished one or two matches by the end of the season? Whatever happens, I don't want the influence of (semi-)inactive players to be too big. The league should be about the people that do want to play, not about those that don't.
I'm inclined to let it depend on the division you're in. In A, B & C, I just expect you to finish in time. Maybe I'll give you a few more days after the 5 weeks are finished, but that's about it.
If you don't manage to do so, I expect you to explain to me why on your own, and we'll see where we go from there.
I would like to apply the same thing to D-divison, but that's just not going to work. Some of those groups (D2, D6, D7, D8) are really active and no problem whatsoever.
D1 has a level of inactivity where I just don't believe the last week, or even the week after that, will solve anything. The resolution will be simple there: nobody promotes (unless of course they really surprise me in the last week). The hard decision will be what to do with the groups where some players finished all their matches, while others finished only 1 match.
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Next season, I'll introduce some rules on playing matches. They will probably be
* after week 2, you need to have finished 1 match
* after week 3, you need to have finished 2 matches
* after week 4, you need to have finished 3 matches
If at any point you cannot comply to these rules, send a message to the organisation and explain why. If you don't, you'll be removed from your group.
Also, I intend to get together an 'organizing committee' and assign a member to every group.
Currently I'm inclined to to create an E-divison even if the league doesn't grow. With the current numbers I would rather have had 6 groups in D and 3 groups in E. D would be for people that really want to play competitive dominion, just one level below C. Division E would be for people that still need to prove they really want to be in the league by getting their matches played. With those numbers the rule could even be "Everyone in E that gets all their matches played in 5 weeks gets promoted to D". It's too soon to decide anything for season 2 (I don't know the numbers yet) but something like this sounds like a good plan.
If you have any thoughts/suggestions on this topic - or any other change - please post them here.
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In the meanwhile, have fun with your remaining matches. After you finished your last match, please post a message in your own groups scheduling thread stating your intentions for next season (I'll be back / I'm quitting).