UnFreeZe Super League 2023

[adminless]

ok, now that hopefully I finally put together some updated full packages (very recommended to update or at least to try first) for this season and the summer is officially over I think it's then time to start with another UnFreeZe League (or something else) for the months to come after that hot UnFreeZe Summer tournament that crowned diamond clan as champions. as usual during the next days/week I'll go posting the typical initial tournament full sample with the full maxed plan, what will ultimately be played will depend on the turnout/the interest/the fitness or anything else as determined/discussed here. that being said, I think that probably this time the intention is for a around eight teams two legged league to be played around October/November/December the first leg before the Christmas holidays break and around January/February/March the second leg after the holidays. for this edition initially being a fully fledged two legs league instead of the typical league plus play off format the individual matches will be disputed at best of three home away format with no tie-breaks in fashion (similar) to the format seen at the last UnFreeZe Summer 23 grand final. the typical match schedules will be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday to start between 20:30-21:30 CET with the possibility of playing at the weekends or at other times eventually possible if necessary. being now best of three matches (i.e. approx one hour length) I think that now it should play more comfortable so there should be no more major issues with the schedules. in any case once established a calendar the teams must meet it in a reasonable time frame (i.e. week term) that doesn't disturb the rest of the development of the tournament and timely and clearly communicate about it with the organization (i.e. me) at all times. obviously failing to do so will be subject to any kind of penalization, even disqualification included, as deemed necessary and appropriate in a case basis. I'll hopefully detail all that and be as specific as possible on the tournament sample/revisions on the next days so stay tuned but additionally for this edition I'll also add map tiers for each specific game (i.e. game 1 map tier, game 2 map tier, game 3 map tier) to make it more exciting and varied as the blacklist did produce better results but it failed to deliver the variation intended altogether (matter of fact, it actually ended up making the matches a lot more predictable and repetitive altogether as each time someone picked a "low" tier map it immediately got blocked instead so in reality at the end of the day the only maps that really got a fair chance to be played were all the same common ground well known tie-breakers instead which of course deliver sensible results but not the variation that was intended with the change).

ok, so who's up for this? I think the deadline to sign up/prepare can be 2-3 weeks to start playing this by mid October approx. finally remember that this is a teams league and that to sign up you need to have your team registered and approved for overall fair balance competition in this site before the start of the league which obviously do require that at least one of you (that will act as representative) have a registered account in this forum. in that sense keep in mind that the teams here are assembled around a overall fair balance as to keep the competition fun and exciting for everyone (i.e. alive at the end of the day) so in general for the most part no registered team should far exceed the abilities of any of the previous champions (i.e. 2021 ILM Lineal champs, 2022 oKo champs, 2023 ultimate sbornaya formation champs or 2023 Diamond Clan which included shantu but heero in place of Miroslav for example) as a frame of reference to get started. additionally I think those interested in play that might miss a clan but want to participate anyways can sign up here all the same to assemble on a potential community team given there's enough of course.

[aimer]

Exciting to see there is a new league coming with more competitive games ahead!

One concern i have is about the length of the league as it seems like it'll require teams to dedicate time to play for up to 6 months if making it all the way to the finals.
I'm afraid that for some (older) folks with families/kids or jobs with changing shifts it may become too much of a commitment and/or fading interest over time.

[adminless]

yeah I know as I said, it can be discussed and it can be scaled down or up if necessary. to begin with the length will ultimately depend on the turnout, if no teams join, no games will be played so the length will be zero for example. I just posted now the initial sample with what I was taking about and I hope later in the evening or so I'll post a initial sample calendar so we'll see if it works out or not for the people. from what I spotted from previous editions the playoff phase always turned like something else different so I believe that the two leg league format can be better in that aspect. moreover with it you can also cut fights to best of three and get rid of the tie-breakers (i.e. you fight each other exactly twice one as home team and another as away team) that were both always controversial things.

[Semisek48]

I agree with Aimer, i will by happy to join another unfreeze competition, but two legs leauge for 6 mouths seems to be overkill to me. Acually i beleave that half would be better. Standart 3 months leauge with may be like one great final. Everyone will play with everyone. Everything above that will just end up letting people burned out in the middle, teams not even showing in full numbers, and hesitating to join next time.

But of course that's just my opinion. Maybe other teams feel differently.

[fau]

Hi, I was looking forward to next league as last year and glad to hear it's coming, great.

However each year the format gets bigger and more demanding time/schedule-wise and I don't really think I'll be able to commit to it and to my team this time unless it changes. The format you've proposed feels like something suited for professional players/broadcasting rather than what we are - bunch of guys playing the game at spare time after work/school/family/other interests.

1. Last year the groupstage part took about two months and it was great. there was a lot of games (one each week), a lot of practice games as we needed to learn new maps. I had a lot of fun and whole team was very excited to play.

2. The playoff stage was a drag. There was a 1.5 month break before it started, and then there were huge gaps between games. At this point I was already bored and only stuck around q3 to finish the tournament. Also other teams who didn't qualify already "disbanded" and it was very hard to organize practice games.

3. I would gladly sign up to a tournament that ends this year, but dragging it out for half a year is simply too much for me. Maybe I'm the exception then I'll just pass and others will play it out, but I think I'm not the only one who feels this way. Doesn't mean I'd certainly not play other events (or maybe even another unfreeze event) in jan/feb/mar next year. Just as a separate thing, not as 6-month commitment.

4. I've had experience organizing tournaments myself and after some practice (which you have a lot of already) I discovered that for these amateur tournament schedule needs to be fixed and announced beforehand because players have other obligations. Instead the format is flexible part that can be decided based on number of participants after sign up are closed to fill the schedule. Be it group stage, round robin, double elim, single elim or whatever else.

5. I don't think raising the number of scheduled match dates by having home/away games is a move in the right direction. Unless you are willing to sponsor plane tickets too Time it takes to play 5 maps seems to be ok with most people and it's a lot of work behind the scenes to schedule 10 player game.

6. I like the idea of doing something with map tiers and the huge map pool in general. As much as I like learning new maps the beginning of last league was quite chaotic, there was too many maps to pick up, each team would learn different maps. How about introducing new maps gradually with time so all teams learn the same new map each week? That's just one idea I had, maybe there are other solutions.

7.I still think that at this point it's almost impossible for public unfreeze players to join our tournaments because of the sheer size of the map pool. The only way would be joining existing team and playing specific maps. But maybe it's not so bad and maybe there aren't so many newcomers. I don't really follow what's going on public servers atm.

Sorry for the wall of text, Hope you can see it for what it is - a bit constructive criticism based on my experience as a player in last league
These are just my thoughts, discussed some of them with my team but not others.
As always appreciate what you're doing with the events.

[PacMan]

Perhaps some give in how teams are selected , if team has five players , it maybe someone drops out so they can have a max of three subs who can join if there's a problem

I still think you will struggle to get the teams to play with the general format ,


COVID 23 would help I am sure

[adminless]

@fau yeah ok don't worry we'll just talk it out along these days and then we'll see. by now I just updated now the sample with the full fledged max development to illustrate what I meant and how it would look like more or less. as said, that's for eight teams to begin with that are yet to be seen (i.e. forza is inactive and if [another] community team never really assembled I doubt it's gonna do it now and the other is a potential newcomer that so far doesn't even exist) with less teams the number of matches (length) would be much reduced. given the circumstance of finally having eight teams a good down scale option could be two separate two legged groups just as established there and then the finals playoff after that in the same fashion as this summer edition. that would probably all fit before the Christmas. in any case as usual what ultimately can and gets played depends on what teams finally join until that's really known all the rest are just drafts, samples and general ideas.

[adminless]

ok this afternoon I finally updated the announcements in this sub forum with the other format variation samples to illustrate the rest of the possibilities that I was talking about and then I think that should be it and it should just come to chose/determine one of those (if it's that it happens of course as said). in my opinion the best option is still the first one (the second it's just the same though but simply how the calendar turns out if there's less that seven teams, it gets fully done before Christmas) at the end of the day just as wrote there if the second leg end up being just too much for some it can be cut short. obviously it's meant to be played in full but just as with the ffa events for example the participants on the second leg doesn't necessarily have to be the same as on the first leg, so a leg can be played with let's say 8 teams and the other with 5 or whatever (even different teams/players, changes are allowed during the break). given the case withdrawing, normally, it's part of the game and it's accounted for in the format, that being said, obviously to end up winning the season you're gonna need to complete it in full as it can't be otherwise. in any case after actually computing the most usual calendars I think that at least one thing it has become quite clear/obvious if it wasn't already, under classic time space you can not determine a schedule from a undetermined number of inputs so in order to determine the actual calendar/format to be played first the actual participants need to be determined as it could not be otherwise and not the other way around.

[^ironmonkey]

Good evening Miguel,

ILM is on board and taking part in the league.

greetings

[adminless]

great news let's see who else join then. I was probably going to update this these days, I haven't explicitly said it but I think that by looking at the posted season samples it should be quite clear that for this to happen (in a meaningful/intended way not just another cup) teams should basically join along this week to then leave the next week for the usual final season adjustments/preparations to get started with the games the second week of October. given at least six teams join (which I think it's realistic) there shouldn't really be much room left when it comes to the dates. anyways, in case nobody else join you'll at least go as the first two times champ team (lineal and interim) so good luck.

[^Walnut*]

Hey adminless!

You know how we say it. ASS is ready!

[adminless]

great news noted you both then so at least there will be a rematch of that transcendental ass-ilm fight that shaped the previous season. the time to sign up is really starting to run out so let's see if more teams/people show up on the next days otherwise I assume it will just play a short version of what was posted. btw as usual do not forget to announce the lineups (in case of any changes) before the end of the next week, what I currently have noted is:

• ilm: blaze, ironmonkey, vortex, fusion, orgi, mike, makaveli
• ass: ricky, infinty, ang3lfish, walnut, rico, toxic, rabbaz, oab

[^Walnut*]

Hey Admin!

Can you remove Rabbaz from the list and add player 'Audaz'?

[adminless]

sure, I updated now the teams list then, thanks for the update.

[fau]

Signing up team community with the same squad as always. We will probably want to add 8th player some time later.