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This is likely the final year of competitive play, so let's go out with a bang with one last season of TWDT!
Signups:
1) Forums, replying to the Signup Sheet here.
2) In-game, leaving Ogron with a ?message
3) In-game, messaging !signup to the bot (preferred method)
Dates
TWDT 2016 (Fall) is headed your way, with a tentative draft date of Sunday, September 25th, 2016. Week 1 would start October 2nd, with the Finals taking place on November 20th, one week ahead of American Thanksgiving, and shortly before exams.
Schedule (6 Teams)
September 25 -- Draft
October 2 -- Week 1
October 9 -- Week 2 (Canadian Thanksgiving -- no cancel)
October 16 -- Week 3/4 (Free Agency Draft)
TRADE WEEK (October 16-24)
October 23 -- Week 5/6
October 30 -- Week 7/8
November 6 -- Week 9/10
November 13 -- Semi-Finals
November 20 -- Finals
This scheduling is important to avoid a deadly lull in the form of American Thanksgiving on November 27th, where everyone takes the day off to celebrate the resurrection of Cres. If we play TWDT with 6 teams instead of 8, the schedule remains identical -- there simply will be no double games the final two weeks.
It is important to finish the season before the 27th, because a canceled week during playoffs destroys showrates, and holding the playoffs after Thanksgiving pushes the Semis and Finals into exam weeks for a lot of players.
We'll be using the same time slots from the previous two years:
TWDT-D -- 3PM EST
TWDT-J -- 4PM EST
TWDT-B -- 5PM EST
For Double Games weeks, we'll be using this schedule:
TWDT-D -- 3:00PM EST
TWDT-D -- 3:30PM EST
TWDT-J -- 4:00PM EST
TWDT-J -- 4:30PM EST
TWDT-B -- 5:00PM EST
TWDT-B -- 5:30PM EST
Format
Eight teams will compete for six playoff spots, with the top two squads receiving byes to the Semi-Finals. You either make all three leagues or none during the regular season, however once the playoffs start you advance individually through all three leagues. We'll be using a reseed format again to determine the Semi-Final matchups.
If playing with six teams, four make the playoffs, with a Semi-Finals (1v4, 2v3) and Finals. Borrowing of 6-6-6 or lower players is allowed during the playoffs. Remember that 6-6-7s and higher cannot be borrowed, even if they're a 6 in the league you want to use them in. Only true low-stars qualify for borrowing.
Each team is required to play a 7-Star or lower, and a 6-Star or lower, player in each game (2 slots) in TWDT-D and TWDT-J.
For TWDT-B, we will be increasing the amount of low-star players in each game (3 slots), require two 7-Star or lower, and a 6-star or lower, in each game.
We'll be using a best of three format for all leagues in the playoffs.
Captains
This is perhaps the final season of TWDT, so I would like to see all the former champion and veteran players step up and make the effort to cap a team.
Specifically, I'd like to see former champs Commodo, Zidane, Stayon, Dreamwin, Ease, Hulk, Tiny, among other good captains from years past.
We were easily able to field 8 teams in the TWDT 2016 (Winter) campaign, so we'll see how signups go. If they are poor, we will reduce the amount of teams to 6, with 4 making the playoffs.
Alternate portraits for captains to choose from:
Major Changes
--Increasing the amount of low-star players in TWDT-B to 3 (7/7/6)
--Trade Week, which now takes place between Week 3 and Week 4, is now the only time trades will be accepted, meaning you'll only have played 3 weeks before it closes. This prevents captain's from dumping all their players in one league after accruing enough wins to make playoffs and stacking the other two.
--Trade Calculator, which will for the first time remove the human element from trade decisions. You can check out the beta here, and test out trades that will and will not be accepted. The parameters will be set before the draft and remain unchanged (except the Last Seen and Games Played columns, which are updated when a trade happens and affects the evaluation.)
--In addition to the eight low-star packages each captain drafts, I will be making eight basing packages (with 3 players in each) to reduce the sunken cost of competing in all 3-leagues. Each win in warbird, javelin, or base is worth the same, yet the investment in base is double for the same returns. Reducing this burden will better help captains trying to actually win all 3 leagues. A captain can now field a competitive team with only three picks (baser, baser, basing package), same as TWDT-D and TWDT-J.
--Trade Limits, each team will now be allowed a maximum of four trades (a trade is defined by a single transaction of any number of players between two teams, and counts as a 'trade' for each captain.)
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