The current seedings do not reflect the accurate skill levels of the teams placed in the division. Here is my proposal:
Create three different divisions.
Put only one group in Division 1 with the following 6 teams:
Nxzl
inversion
dn
bklub
KKG
ALL-in
Division 2 should include the other 6 teams from Division 1 plus a few others:
Ready up
atrox
156
CIB Highwind
CIB Goliath
DTPN
dys
Divison 3 should include the rest.
The reasons being there is a huge skill gap between my proposed division 1 teams and the other 6. For example: Instead of having nxzl, inversion, KKG and bklub go 4-0 against team 156 and CIB Highwind, I think it would be better for us to play against DN and All-in instead. These matches would be more fair, and more fun for people to spectate.
I know week 1 is this following weekend. But if there is anyway we can make this change and possible delay the season by 1 week that would be great.
I agree with this there is too big of a skill gap between the teams. It's not fair for teams like CiB and 156 to be in a group where they will just get walked over. It's also not fun for the better teams to play them. Would rather have good games every week for every team.
I would support this. I think many of the NA teams would benefit more from having several 6-team divisions with one group rather than a few 12-team divisions with two groups.
Using the current seedings (http://www.ensl.org/articles/746), we would get:
D1
- Nexzil
- All-In
- Damage Networks
- Inversion
- Breakfast Klub
- Ready-Up
D2
- AtroX
- Team156
- CiB - Highwind
- CiB - Goliath
- DTPN
- KKG
D3
- VexX
- flow
- aPx
- Next Level Gaming
- xoverzero
- National Gamers
D4
- Flying Chipmunks
- nuReign.K
- dysgorge
- The Caturday Killers
- Man Up
- Silvermoon
It's not perfect, but it does a better jobs of matching teams by skill than the current 12-team division/2-group system. I know S2 is starting now, but I really think the NA side of ENSL S2 would truly benefit if we delayed the start of our season a week or two to revise the divisions to the ones above. The NA S2 is already going to be shorter than the EU S2 because we have smaller group sizes (i.e. 6 teams/group = 5 weeks of matches vs 8 teams/group = 7 weeks of matches), so we could delay the NA side for up to two weeks and still be on-schedule with the EU teams.
As for semis/finals, just make it the top 4 teams in each division. Sure, it'll be a replay of the season matches, but is there any question that it wouldn't likely consist of four out of Nexzil, All-In, DN, Inv, Bklub, or Ready-up in the current D1? I'd rather play a season of really good matches with some rematches at the end, then having a shot at being ranked the best NA NS2 team.
I like your idea, but the only change I would recommend is having the top 2 teams from each play against each other in the finals, and maybe have more weeks in each season. Since there are so few teams, it doesn't make sense to have a 4 team playoff.
And this way, each season game has a higher stake.
This definitely makes more sense. As the seedings stand, there are several teams that are just going to get walked over and the match-ups will simply be a waste of time. However, I do think KKG deserves to be included in the first division with the other top tier teams.
The 4-team playoff within divisions isn't great, but it makes more sense imo than trying to do a playoff between the top 2 of the revised D1/D2 and D3/D4 teams. We already know that the D1 teams are more skilled than the D2 teams, because that was the basis for the ranking system used (i.e. the seedings).
In my experience, upsets are rare in NS2 when the teams are as far apart as the likely D1 top2 vs D2 top2 would be. You'd run into the same problem as the current divisional layout, with tons of stomps.
On the other hand, between the top4 teams within a division, the skill gap is likely small enough that things such as missing one of your regulars or just having a bad day can swing the outcome. A rematch would likely both be exciting and unpredictable.
However, if you really want inter-divisional playoffs, you could something like have a 4-team playoff between the bottom 2 teams of a higher division vs the top 2 teams of a lower division (with a 4 team playoff for the top 4 teams in the highest division). It would look something like this:
D1 Playoff = Top 4 teams in D1
D1/2 Playoff = Bottom 2 teams in D1 + top 2 teams in D2
D2/3 Playoff = Bottom 2 teams in D2 + top 2 teams in D3
D3/4 Playoff = Bottom 2 teams in D3 + top 2 teams in D4
This method would also take care of divisional up/down matches for S3. D1 would get the biggest benefit with all 6 teams in a playoff and D4 the least with only 2 teams in a playoff, but I think that's reasonable (i.e. there should be a bigger incentive for being in the highest vs lowest division).
While it's known that the way you div'd up your teams is accurate i think the division should be decided by a tournament. That's the only fair way. Otherwise this is a great idea.
I think it would be best to try to stick with a max of 3 Divisions with the current number of teams. As much as I'd like for Next Level to be in a higher division, I think xtc's lineup looked pretty fair. One thing I am worried about though is the possibilty of higher division teams being less likely to scrim lower division teams, as the only way to really get better is to scrim a better team.
That should really only be a problem for the top team or two in a division and would likely be quickly remedied via the up/down matches between seasons.
As someone whose played nearly every team from the best to the worst in NA NS2, the best way to improve is to play all of the teams within a certain level of skill as your own (both ones who are slightly better or slightly worse). Any team who tries to only play better ones is actually hurting themselves because 1) its hard to consistently and effectively determine which teams are better than you as both you and they are changing at the same time and 2) playing against teams who are way above your skill level can be counterproductive (e.g. its hard to improve if the other team can egg-lock or IP camp you 2min into the game).
Also, in my experience in comp NS2, many of the top teams such as Nexzil, Inversion, Archaea, Godar are willing to play against lower division and/or new teams, because it helps the comp community in general. They were new and inexperienced teams once too, so they understand what the new teams are going through.
I know on the NA side, the top teams are almost always clamoring for games against anyone who will play, regardless of skill level. They play almost every day, so as long as you can get 6 people together, I doubt you'll have any trouble finding a better team to play.
I strongly agree with this idea for all the reasons stated and I would go as far as saying it will hurt the competitive scene badly for half the matches in the season to be brutal stomps AGAIN. Having balanced divisions makes for seasons where each game actually matters and more importantly are FUN. I would adjust XTCs line up by dropping KKG down to division two but I can see why we might want to have a minimum of 6 teams in divison 1.
4677.38 miles from sao paulo (most populated city in brazil, rio is 2nd and is about 100 miles farther away) to richmond, VA which I picked because Ns2servers.com has virginia available as a location. I think the east coast NSL servers are in New York, which is 4780.84 miles. Houston is 4906.78 miles away.
3971.89 miles from berlin to new york
3459.34 miles from london to new york
3631.09 miles from paris to new york
4672.27 from moscow to new york
Why should North American div 2 be half-full of teams that live farther away from us than the majority of the euros do?
We went with 4 now. To do 3 divs, we'd have to decide what 2 groups should be shuffled together and we kinda went now with the petition splits. Don't wanna spin this all over again ;)
