[deL]

I'm not happy with how the team league turned out, mostly because it doesn't "feel" like any representation of the teams of SEA. There are so many merged teams and made up teams and I think most of the appeal of a team league is having distinct teams playing each other rather than trying to force a close contest. It just feels messy and it's hard for me to get excited for despite all of SEA's top players being involved as well as some of the lesser known teams. Add to that the format had to be changed so much to accommodate the teams and the clans and all these hybrid teams rather than having ideal, distinct formats for both the low-player count teams and the large-player count clans.

I would prefer to see another tier added, and the playdays broken up over 2 or 3 days rather than require all this player juggling and team merging. By simply adding 1-2 playdays and another tier for just sponsored teams (with a more appropriate format and coverage) we could have a more meaningful competition and less messy alliances between teams.

Consider:

Pro League (Saturday, 3 x Bo5, round robin)
MiTH, ArcMSI, SQLT, Mski, xGKing, Herocraft, international team/s invited? (can help with this)

Expert League (Friday, 7 x bo3, round robin + playoffs)
aLt, TA, inFi, SPR, dtG, ToT

Elite League (Friday, 5 x bo3, round robin)
-Open

Adept League (Thursday, 5 x bo3, round robin)
-PDCL

Rookie League (Thursday, 5 x bo3, round robin)
-BSGCL

Something like this caters to the different format and exposure requirements for each team or clan. Face it, a team's sponsor will barely notice a relatively small clan league even when a team it sponsors is participating let alone when the team is padded by a bunch of other players from other teams, and is playing against people who are not even in sponsored teams.

This format above would be very easy to implement and not disrupt current signups, as for the top 2 tiers (Pro and Expert) players could and would overlap. Additionally it is a lot easier on the admins. Having a maximum of 2 leagues running any single night it means if one of the designated admins covering a league can be replaced by a volunteer from the other league admins because he or she won't be busy on the same night with their own league's games. Prime time on the weekend is given to the Pro Teams as they appreciate the additional exposure, and the leagues with a lot more players and so less chance of walkover is held on the day most likely to present walkovers (with people going out friday night).

What do people think? It's not too late to tinker with the format, as we have seen it's been mixed up right until the most recent signups (with xG and SQLT merging despite being seperate invites). If you need more detail I could whip up a liquipedia page to give a holistic view of the fixtures and format.

EDIT: If anyone is worried about the funds being spread too thin between this and the FA cup style games I think either ditching the FA cup completely would be an option, or save that for down time between the general clan league to keep clan interest and activity up rather than just spiking when SEACLs run. OR I am sure donors would be willing to bump the prizepool a bit to see more of their favourite teams included.

Quick Comments

	Cute:
	Maynarde:	Good idea
	ProAnnn:	Actually i would prefer this!
	syfChadMann:	Good idea! :D
	x5.Revenant:	Well thought out~
	Volition:	good post
	TADivinity:	yes yes and yes