RULES & SCHEDULE TWDT Season 20

[zidane]

RULES

TWDT Head Ops: Zidane, Tiny
Contributors: Qan, TBD
Hot or Not Writer: TBD


Schedule

Dates:

February 9 -- Draft (3:00PM EST)
February 16 -- Game 1/2
February 23 -- Game 3/4
March 1 -- Games 5/6
March 8 -- Games 7/8 (FA Draft, 2:00 PM EST)
March 13 - Trading Deadline (11:59 PM EST)
March 15 -- Games 9/10
March 22 -- Games 11/12
March 29 -- Games 13/14
April 5-- Quarter-finals & Semi-finals
April 12 -- Finals


Teams will compete against every other team twice in each league throughout the regular season.


Regular Season Timeslots:

TWDT-D -- 2:30PM EDT
TWDT-D -- 3:00PM EDT
TWDT-J -- 3:30PM EDT
TWDT-J -- 4:00PM EDT
TWDT-B -- 4:30PM EDT
TWDT-B -- 5:00PM EDT

The games will start thirty minutes earlier this season, this will help European players show for the base games.

Playoff Timeslots:

TWDT-D -- 2:00PM EDT
TWDT-J -- 3:30PM EDT
TWDT-B -- 5:00PM EDT

TWDT-D starts thirty minutes early in the playoffs, to ensure games finish on-time for our European players who are up very late and have work the next day.

Lineups

Restrictions

TWDT-D: Not to exceed 40* total per lineup. Any lineup added that is 40* or below is valid.
TWDT-J: Not to exceed 40* total per lineup. Any lineup added that is 40* or below is valid.
TWDT-B: Not to exceed 66* total per lineup. Any lineup added that is 66* or below is valid.

These lineup restrictions apply at all times. You are not allowed, at any point of a live match, to exceed the maximum * total per lineup. This will apply to subs as well. If a player dies out in TWDT-D/J, his or her star value remains as part of your team's total. Captains should advise themselves and their assistants to have a calculator ready and to have valid substitutions mapped out before matches begin.

If there is an honest mistake such as subbing two players in quick succession and going over the cap for a short moment before quickly fixing it, you must have reasonable evidence that the player who made the lineup invalid did not impact the game (i.e. shoot, repel, attach, burst), for as long as the lineup was invalid. If an appeal is proposed about this error and the captain is unable to absolve himself with evidence, he will be forced to forfeit the game 50-0 or 15:00-0:00.

Borrowing

TWDT-D/TWDT-J:

• Only players already rated in the draft are eligible to be borrowed.
• Teams are permitted ONE 7* or below borrow per game if they're unable to field a valid lineup from their own roster. The player's star value in the specific league they are being borrowed for is what counts. A player may exceed 7* in another league but still qualify as a borrow.
• A borrowed player must be confirmed by a League Op before he's considered eligible to play. If a player is not confirmed eligible for borrowing, the team who added the ineligible player will forfeit the match 50-0. Captains and League Ops should always have ?log running to verify a borrow agreement in the case of potential appeals.
• Borrowed players are only eligible before the start of the game. Subbing in a borrowed player is not permitted and will result in a forfeit.

TWDT-B:

• Only players already rated in the draft are eligible to be borrowed.
• Teams are permitted TWO 7* or below borrows per game if they're unable to field a valid lineup from their own roster. The player's star value in the specific league they are being borrowed for is what counts. A player may exceed 7* in another league but still qualify as a borrow.
• Borrowed players must be confirmed by a League Op before they're considered eligible to play. If a player has not been confirmed for borrowing and is added, the team borrowing the ineligible player(s) will forfeit the match 15-0. Captains and League Ops should always have ?log running to verify the agreement in case of potential appeals.
• Borrowed players are only eligible before the start of the game. Subbing in a borrowed player is not permitted and will result in a forfeit.

Borrowing in the Playoffs:

• The same borrowing rules apply from the regular season, but the pool of potential borrows will be limited to rated players who have been eliminated from playoff contention.

Trades

For the first few weeks of the tournament, trading will be open from Sunday at 6:00PM EDT until the next Friday at 3:00PM EDT. This allows 48 hours for league ops to approve or deny proposed trades before the matches begin the following Sunday.

There will be no limit to trades this season.

The final trading deadline will be March 13, 2019 at 11:59 PM EST.

Trading pick order in the main draft will be possible this season.

Trading FA picks will be possible, but the value of the potential pick will be determined by the quality of player(s) who are expected to be available at the specific drafting position.

Before being official, all trades must be proposed on the forums under the TWDT Summer 2019 Trades thread and must be approved by the TWDT League Op team.

League Ops also have the right to veto any trades that are obviously one-sided or questionable due to malicious reasons (i.e. sabotaging their own team.)

All trades must be approved/denied within 48 hours by the league op team with an explanation of their reasoning behind the decision.

Bans

Players are subjected to bans or other punishments, to be decided by league ops on a case-by-case, common sense basis. Some cases will absolutely not be tolerated or negotiated:

• Trading names without notifying league ops or logging on someone else's name during a match is an auto-ban from participating in TWDT for a minimum of (2) seasons.
• Playing under an alias that is immune to proper alias checking while not providing your real alias. The league team can only properly rate a player if they've been identified. Overpowered players who abuse this will forfeit their opportunity to participate with a season long ban.
• Threatening a captain prior to the draft of not showing or refusing to play for them after being picked will constitute an immediate warning. If the behavior continues, the player will be banned for a minimum of (2) seasons. Be an adult and ask for a trade. If that doesn't work, be a bigger adult and soldier through for the sake of the community and your future in TWDT.

Appeals

Every captain will have a maximum of three appeals per league throughout the regular season. Every playoff match will be eligible to be appealed.

Appeals must be submitted within 24 hours of the incident on the TW forums. A detailed account of the situation and the argument for the appeal should be provided in the thread. Failure to submit an appeal within 24 hours will deem the appeal invalid and the results of the game in question will be considered final.

The league op team will respond to appeals within 72 hours after the appeal was posted with a verdict and an explanation of their reasoning behind the decision.

If an appeal is granted, the game will be replayed at an agreed time that works for both teams involved. If the opposing team is unwilling to reschedule their match at a reasonable date, they will forfeit the replay.

Note: If something unforeseen happens that isn't accounted for in the rules or has no precedence, league ops are responsible for coming up with a common sense, rational, and fair ruling on the situation.

Emergency Scenarios:

In the unlikely event that something catastrophic or completely unforeseen happens that has the potential to ruin the season, the league operators will do their best to solve the issue with the best interest of the TWDT season as a whole in mind. TWDT captains will all be consulted and play a role in handling such a critical decision.

Playoffs

• The six teams with the most total wins throughout the regular season will qualify for the playoff bracket in all leagues.
• The top two teams (overall wins) will have a bye to the Semi-finals. The quarter-finals will be seeded based on individual league, where the highest seed will play the lowest seed. The 5th and 6th (overall seed) will start the quarter finals down 0-1 in a best of three.
• Once in semi-finals, the four remaining teams will be reseeded based on the win totals in each respective league.

The same applies for jav and base.

• For purposes of tiebreak for seeds #1/2 and for determining which teams make the playoffs, the overall head-to-head record will be taken into account across all three leagues between the tied teams. If the teams are tied (3-3), the team with the highest amount of kills in wb, jav, and base (base minutes will be converted into kills, with 15 minutes equal to 50 kills) among the tied teams will rank higher for bye purposes, or for entrance into the playoffs. If for some reason the tied teams are tied in overall kills in wb, jav, and base against each other (with minutes converted into kills), the tiebreak will then shift to highest amount of kills in wb, jav, and base (base minutes converted into kills) across ALL teams. If still tied, randomly selected (via twitch stream).
• For tiebreaks among seeds #3 through #6 in quarter-finals and for reseeding in semi-finals in each individual league (with win totals separated by league), it will first be head-to-head record between the tied teams for each specific league. If the teams are 1-1 against each other in a league, it will then go to highest amount of kills between the tied teams in that league. If the teams are both 1-1 against each other, and tied in overall kills in that league from their two head-to-head games, it will then go to total number of kills in that league against ALL teams. If still tied, randomly selected (via twitch stream).
• When converting base minutes into kills, with 15 minutes equal to 50 kills, any decimal .5 or above will be rounded up, and any decimal .499999 and below will be rounded down.
• Star Cap Limits remain in place for the playoffs
• Only players who have been eliminated from playoff contention are eligible to be borrowed
• Borrowed players who play a full game in the Semis or Finals earn a medal for their contributions.
• Playoffs Format is is a Best of 3 in TWDT-D, TWDT-J, and TWDT-B. All warbird and javelin games are to 50, and all basing games are to 15 minutes.

Playoff Schedule

As mentioned earlier, to account for the best of three format, TWDT-D matches will begin thirty minutes early.

TWDT-D -- 2:00PM EDT
TWDT-J -- 3:30PM EDT
TWDT-B -- 5:00PM EDT

Main Draft

The draft will take place on February 9, 2019 at 3:00PM EDT. The draft will snake until the last player is selected.

Round 1: 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5 -> 6 -> 7 -> 8
Round 2: 8 -> 7 -> 6 -> 5 -> 4 -> 3 -> 2 -> 1
Ad infinitum


Free Agency Draft

The FA draft will take place on March 8 at 2:00PM EDT, 1 hour before the Week 4 games begin. The picking order will be based on the current standings before the Week 4 matches. The lowest ranked team will have the first pick in free agency, and then so on and so forth. If there are any ties between teams, it will be randomized to determine who picks first. This will provide teams that are struggling to have a better chance at turning their season around, while also giving returning players an opportunity to play a good amount of the season.

FA Players are immediately eligible to play all Week 4 games after being drafted.

Schedule:

1:00PM EDT: FA Draft Signups are locked. Players can no longer signup for TWDT.
2:00PM EDT: FA Draft
2:30PM EDT: Week 4 Games Start

Players asking to sign up after 1:59PM EDT may be allowed entry to the FA Draft at the TWDT Head Ops discretion, but is under no obligation to do so.

Signups

Main Draft:

Players must sign up by 2:50 PM EST on February 9, 2019 to be eligible for selection in the main draft, as captains must have adequate time to consider all prospects and adjust their draft sheets.

All signups after 2:50 PM EST on February 9, 2019 will be added to the FA draft pool.

The FA deadline is 1:59PM EST on March 8, 2019.

Message From The League Op Team

Thanks for participating in one of the two premier leagues of Trench Wars, the Winter 2020 Season of TWDT!

As a player, it's expected you conduct yourself like an adult throughout your time in the league. You're playing with a community full of other adults with jobs, social lives, families, and other commitments outside of trench wars. Acting childish and throwing temper tantrums, while not a bannable offense, will not go unnoticed by the community. Do not waste other people's valuable time with unnecessary bullshit. Learn to play with other people, it's really not that difficult.

If you're interested in contributing to TWDT in any way, reach out to Zidane or Tiny. If you enjoy creating content or want to help out with league work or staff duties, we would gladly use your services to help make this season as enjoyable as possible.

We also appreciate the recent herculean effort by the community that brought this game back to life. It's because of that effort that we're able to run another season of TWDT.

Welcome back, good luck and thanks for participating.

-TWDT 2019 League Op Team

[Rab]

Things I think we should consider changing for this season:

1. Base map change to make cramming weaker.
Discussion: https://forums.trenchwars.com/forum/...74#post1331374

2. Improve rules around FA draft order.
Discussion: https://forums.trenchwars.com/forum/...80#post1331680

[Nipple Nibbler]

66* count for BD not an option?

Also did we not like the all-star weekend idea?

[afghan]

I forget who it was (maybe rab or ogron) that calculated the ideal base freq as 63 rather than 67 based on comparing the star values for wb/jav. I think it should be considering decreasing the total cap to at least 65.

[Rab]

I forget who it was (maybe rab or ogron) that calculated the ideal base freq as 63 rather than 67 based on comparing the star values for wb/jav. I think it should be considering decreasing the total cap to at least 65.

https://forums.trenchwars.com/forum/...30#post1331030

[zidane]

Star cap per league is not decreasing. Thought process is 5 out of the 8 teams had no issue hitting cap and player ratings are going to increase far more than they will decrease so it's going to be easier to hit cap this season than last.

We want competitive and high quality games, the premise of DT is that players are drafted, not that games are catered to bad players.

Comments about captains etc, there are never enough volunteers to go with the 'let's let 8 new caps cap DT' route, there are always more vets volunteering. I'm sure the draft itself would be interesting but not the smartest idea for many reasons.

[Vehicle]

How would people feel about a rule for DTB that you have to wait 10 seconds in between shipchanges? The shark-swap because of bad mines is honestly just a bad mechanic that everyone seems to just accept.

[Spezza]

It would be nice if teams could borrow above 7 stars and just have a lower team star limit (or have the option of only borrowing 7 stars or below and getting to 67 star limit). I was thinking like having a 65 vs a 67 star limit. I know some teams might just throw a league and then still be able to field an ok lineup from borrows so that is I guess the problem.

Is there any solution for how to not waste games of the team that does poorly the first couple weeks and doesn't show from then on?

DT to me is supposed to all be about parity so this is why I would rather play a competitive game I might lose (with a slight advantage for showing) than show-up to a game where one team has no shot. It is also a waste of peoples time to showup to team games if your other important players don't showup. (I'm using base because it's 8v8 and has the biggest chance of not having a lineup reach near the star limit).

It is a common enough problem that 1-2 just have no shot of winning (or getting past 5 minutes) and stop showing up that it would be worthwhile to figure out a solution. If a team is fielding a 60 star or below lineup it's going to be hard to have a good match.

[zidane]

Updated for basing star cap being lowered

[Dreamwin]

I noted that finals are currently set on the easter weekend. Probably not the ideal time and date for that or what do people think?

[Zizzo]

Yeah shouldn't have finals on Easter

[zidane]

There will be no anticipated delays or byes, so games will play on April 12th. When finals roll around, if both teams agree they prefer to play the games the following week, that will be an option.

[Tiny]

If PL makes or misses finals, I propose as captain to move from Easter.

[Wirah]

When will first week schedule be up?

[Rab]

Would like to see lag limits written in the rules. Ideally then players could discuss whether those limits should be adjusted next season.