I would like to brainstorm with you guys, what kind of activities you would like to see after Season 6.

I know Season 6 has just started, but to reduce organisational breaks it would help us to know what to prepare in advance.

Some ideas had been discussed/executed before and others people brought to me. This is an unreflected list, following the rule of brainstorming, that there are no bad ideas:

- Nations Cup
- Off-Season Ladder
- All-Star Game(s)
-- A serious one for the upper div
-- A crazy/funny one for the lower divs
-- Drawn from a potential players league
- Custom Map Cup
- Draft Tourney
- 7v7 or 8v8 Cup
- Summer Cup (just normal team-based Cup)
- Div1 Winner picks and leads a Div4/new team to battle
- Anti-All-Star

If you have more ideas just write them down and I update the list. There is enough time to think about this. Not needed on the list is a Newcomer-Tournament, as it is happening anyways.

Around the middle of the season we wrap the whole thing up and might create a poll to see what people want the most.

Feel free to ask questions about any of the above. But there is no need to discuss the quality of any of these ideas, atm.

Maybe a divisions mix-up cup ?

Teams would be like 3 players from a high div. + 3 players from a low div.

Chocapix says

Maybe a divisions mix-up cup ?

Teams would be like 3 players from a high div. + 3 players from a low div.

Maybe some Counter-AllStar game: the 6 worst players playing each other.

All the players from the team that wins div 1 select their own teams from lower div players(4 or newcomer teams) and have a short tournament.

Chocapix says

Maybe a divisions mix-up cup ?

Teams would be like 3 players from a high div. + 3 players from a low div.

A draft tournament? There were 4 of them during the summer and 2 more held by AusNS2. EU players weren't very receptive.

Zefram says

Chocapix says

Maybe a divisions mix-up cup ?

Teams would be like 3 players from a high div. + 3 players from a low div.

A draft tournament? There were 4 of them during the summer and 2 more held by AusNS2. EU players weren't very receptive.

Thats because you shut down shop for 6 months and introduced 4 random nights where random people could play. People want to play with their teams and the second you close down for summer teams disband and 50% dont come back in the winter.

east says

Chocapix says

Maybe a divisions mix-up cup ?

Teams would be like 3 players from a high div. + 3 players from a low div.

Maybe some Counter-AllStar game: the 6 worst players playing each other.

That would be kind of mean wouldn't it? :P
Also, I think it takes 12 players to get a proper game. ;P

I like all the suggestions in the OP, maybe with the exception of the idea of tourneys with increased playercounts.

If you can finish up the ladder system, so it's ready for the end of the group play, that would be amazing to fill in the off-season. Other cups could run simultaniously with the ladder.

I always found Custom Map Cups really fun to play, as you have to adapt to new maps that you might have never played before. It is also a better way to rotate the season map pool than just adding new maps. Gives the maps a smooth transition into competitive. Make sure that only participants can vote whether or not maps will be accepted into the map pool. That way you give incentive for teams to play something that is out of their comfort zone, this made most of the active teams actually sign up and play in the first Custom Map Cup. The second one didn't have this restriction on map voting for the season and it reflected badly on the signups imo.

Other than that I am thinking that you could make draft tourneys once every month or so. No need for sign ups, just show up on teamspeak at a specific time/date and pick teams. Fairly casual, no need for massive organization by the admins, practicly just announce when games are played and then show up on teamspeak and decide team captains and make sure the picking process goes without too many hold-ups. It really shouldn't take more than 20 minutes to get teams picked, if you have like 6-8 full teams of players showing up. Just have admins/teamcaptains in one teamspeak room and the remaining playerpool in another and move players into team channels as they get picked. Those tourneys can be single elimination or double elimination, depending on the amount of teams signing up. Have players join temporary NSL teams(Team1,Team2,Team3 etc.) and put it all on the contest page like any other tourney ;) I remember it was done this way during the late NS1 era and it was pretty damn fun.

Then I would also suggest to have a standard team based cup alá the Summer Cup, leading up to season 7. It brings alot of hype leading up to a season. Can also serve as a field-test for new teams wanting to participate in the upcoming season.

And you have my vote for more newcomer tourneys, I think it's a great way to attract new players. But should probably only have one every 3-6 months or so I guess.

Zefram says

Chocapix says

Maybe a divisions mix-up cup ?

Teams would be like 3 players from a high div. + 3 players from a low div.

A draft tournament? There were 4 of them during the summer and 2 more held by AusNS2. EU players weren't very receptive.

Pretty sure this was because the EU players had been left out in the cold for too long, not having any contests for their teams; teams disband/take long breaks/don't check site/lose interest etc.

Also, I think players would be way more receptive if they didn't have to sign up and commit to it beforehand. If they can just show up on the day and play as they like or not; I think it would have a greater appeal.