3v3 League for AOE 2

Seeing League of Empires go after the 5th season, I want to revive the idea of a 3v3 league system for AOE II, across all ELOs!

It will be hosted through my (Akkal) discord, with signups ending at Feb 13th. The 1st edition of the handbook is added with most of the info as per now, though final details will depend on the number of signups and how many teams each division will end up having. There is no ELO limit, high or low, as we will divide by ranked ELO and (hopefully) get a lot of balanced matches at their corresponding ELO level. There is also no prize pool (for now), but should any donations come in, or some other initiative taken, a prize pool may be considered for the higher divisions.

Signups ( https://discord.gg/AHUJFCm ) for season 1 closes February 13th

League start: February 21st​

League time table:​

The time table will be finalized once the signup deadline ends. However, the general idea is to have 6-8 teams per division, round robin. A preliminary game week schedule will look like this:

Week 1: Feb 21st – 28th

Week 2: Feb 28th – March 6h

Week 3: March 6th – March 13th

Week 4: (Extra week, left open for “catch up”-matches) March 14th – 20th

Week 5: March 21st – 27th

Week 6: March 28th – April 3rd

Week 7: April 4th – April 10th

Week 8: April 11th – 17th

League format​

Teams are divided in divisions based on ranked 1v1 ELO. Players must have at least 30 ranked 1v1’s and recent 1v1 activity, to ensure proper assessment of their skill level, though for the lower divisions (below 1000 1v1 ranked), exceptions may be considered.​

Players may sign up a maximum of six players, to allow substitutes. However, the seeding will be based on the average of the three highest rated players on the team. The team roster cannot be changed after the signup deadline.​

Any number of teams may be promoted or relegated from the top and bottom of the leagues dependent on teams joining and leaving the tournament between seasons.

The format will always be “play at least one set per week”, but some flexibility in scheduling will be allowed with the “catch up”-weeks.​

Points system: One point per match win, three points if a team wins 2-0​

At the end of the season, if two or more teams are tied for points for the top position, tie breaker matches may be needed. This will deviate from the league structure, and be played as a BO3 between the respective teams.

To encourage the “one set per week”, and a fluent league progress, the following rules will apply to scheduling:

• Games can be played at any time, but contact between teams must be made by the end of the scheduled week (see Challonge bracket once the league brackets are ready).
• If by the end of scheduled week no contact has been made by the team captain then the result will be a loss to the absent team if requested by the other captain. (Will require documentation of communication)
  
  
  Maps
  
  
  There will be nine maps in a season, with four fixed maps, and the rest decided through a poll where all team captains get a vote (Vote happens between Feb 13th and 21st for season 1.)
  
  The fixed maps will remain the same through all seasons:
  
  
  • Arabia
  • Arena
  • Nomad
  • Team Islands
    
    One home map for each team. The higher seeded team gets to decide which map to play first.Any home map may only be used three times in one season!As long as a map hasn’t been used three times by either team, the home map can be the same for both.
    After home maps have been picked, civilizations for the match will be drafted. The home map team gets to decide who hosts the draft, which is found here: https://aoe2cm.net/preset/DXgID Bans have been left out, so map and / or civ-specific strategies can still be possible.

See the attached handbook v 1.0 for more info on rules and settings.

 

What's the prizepool?

 

What's the prizepool?

There is also no prize pool (for now), but should any donations come in, or some other initiative taken, a prize pool may be considered for the higher divisions.

 

UPDATE: The league is still open for signups, and I have started plotting the signups so far here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X0SROCPYLIhdhCpbrxHIttgZ4r76zrU3wuWzvmnwayQ/edit#gid=0
My ambition is to keep any division within 200 ELO average between teams, but in the end, it also depends on who and how many sign up!