League Invitational!

Hello shugenja, samurai, courtiers,

Today we announce the first ever Discord League Invitational!

Taking place in May, 2018, this premier tournament will feature the Top 16 players from the League and have the swaggiest of swag prizes!

The Invitational will be a Double Elimination tournament, with prizes for all participants. There will be an Invitational every 6 months.

"How does one get an invite to this party?" you may be asking yourself.

1. Win a League Cup (5 slots)

Those things aren't just for drinking out of! All Cup winners automatically receive a bid to the next Invitational

2. Top Points Getters (7 slots)

tl;dr "Do good in League Cups"
Players will earn points by participating in League Cups:
3 points for Cup Qualification (note, Play-in  Round does not count as qualification)
2 points for Round of 64 and 32 win
3 points for Round of 16+ win

These points are cumulative across each season, ensuring the most consistent performers make the Invitational.

3. Last Chance Qualifier (4 slots)
In the month proceeding the Invitational a Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) Tournament will be held. Players who have qualified via the first two methods cannot participate in the LCQ. To participate in the LCQ players must have earned at least 5 Cup points (qualify for 2 Cups or 1 Cup and win Round of 64 game)

The LCQ will be a Single Elimination tournament, with the Top 4 advancing to the Invitational!

4. No Double Qualification
There is no double qualification, in the event a Top Points Getter has won a League Cup and autoqualified their Points spot will be given to the next-highest qualifier.

5. Points Reset
After every Invitational the leaderboard will be reset and all players will have 0 points.

6. Schedule
The month before each Invitational will not have a typical Season. There will be no Cup and the League will follow an alternate format.

The Invitational itself will run alongside a standard League. For instance, the May 2018 Invitational will run alongside Season 6, the first season for the October 2018 Invitational.

Brand New Cup Qualification Rules

Hello friends!

Today we have a couple cool things to announce - a streamlined Cup Qualification system and a Discord League Invitational (in it's own post here).

Firstly, new Cup Qualification guidelines:

As many of you know the previous Wildcard system just wasn't working, as the Wildcard round never took place. We're announcing a new system for Cup Qualification that is very similar to the previous system but improves a number of things, so without further adieu:

1. Group winners will automatically qualify for the Cup as before
1a. #2 finishers are no longer guaranteed a Cup spot, but mathematically most #2 players will earn a Cup spot
2.  Any player who achieves a 4-3+ record now qualifies for the play-in round, if not the Cup itself
3. Players will be seeded into the Cup under the following seeding rules:

1. # of wins
2. # of true wins
3. Random

This allows us to stack-rank all Cup participants which makes seeding the Cup easier as well as enables the new Play-in system described below.

4. The Cup is still a Top 64, in the event there are more than 64 qualified players after the criteria above a Play-in Round will be initiated. This round will include the lowest seeded players and will be a number of games equal to the number of players beyond 64 who have qualified.

That's hard to follow via text, so let's take Season 3 as an example. 67 players qualified under the new criteria. Therefore, the bottom 6 seeded players (#62-67) would play in 3 games as part of the 'Play-in Round', with the victors taking the final three spots of the Cup.

This season we're on pace for 73 players to qualify at 4-3+, which will require 18 players to play 9 games in the Play-in Round

The Play-in Round will be scheduled just like the other rounds, albeit with a shorter timeframe. Unlike the previous Wildcard system this ensures participants know who they're playing and it also affords them a short window to schedule their game.
5.  Sample Timeline Under these New Rules
 This information will be in a League Calendar SOON(TM) as well

25th Feb S4 Cup Deck submits goes live
25th Feb S5 Sign ups close
26th Feb S4 ends
27th Feb S4 Cup Deck submits ends
28th Feb S4 Cup Bracket goes live
1st March S5 Groups go live

March
1st - 4th S4 Challenger round 
5th - 11th S4 Top 64
12th - 18th S4 Top 32
19th - 25th S4 Top 16
26th - 31st S4 Top 8

April
1st - 6th Top 4
7th - S4 Live Final

You'll notice we're also extending the length of the Cups slightly, as this spills over into April.

We feel these changes make Cup Qualification a more fair and streamlined process. Players no longer need to wait for their whole group to finish to know their individual results and the Play-in Round replaces the Wildcard in a far more controlled manner.

As always, please feel free to leave feedback on this post, in the league channels, or via direct messages!

For Rokugan!

All the Things for Season 4

Hello friends!

Season 4 is here and will run through February 27th! Here's all the links you should need for Season 4:

League Reporting Form Report your Group matches here! Remember to play 3 by the 15th!

Stats and Info Sheet Cup 4 Bracket and Decklists will be posted here

Prize Contest! Submit a winning idea and receive a copy of the prize you suggested!