So Aioros suggested to start a thread on this to discuss it, and I am pretty keen to play in this cup - but in its current format we just can't get our people available at this time.

So I am throwing in the following as a possibility:


* I think the idea of the competition is to get people familiar with the mod, test it for balance and get a bit of feedback from everyone?

* In my opinion the best way to get as many people seeing and learning about the new mod is by getting as many games streamed as possible.

And this would be my way of doing so:

I assume that the target is to get about 16-20 teams to sign up? On this post I will work on the assumption its 16.

You would have say 4 groups of 4 - each playing each other over 2 maps - so each team plays 3 games, 6 maps, 12 rounds.


In my opinion there is no benefit in having all teams playing at the same time on a Saturday, this just means more casters, more ref's, more servers etc required - and more to the point - less people watching the games.

So here's how it could work:

Group A - Play Saturday - 3 games EG: 7:00CET 8:30CET + 10:00 CET
Group B - Play Sunday
Group C - Play Monday
Group D - Play Tuesday

Perhaps the timings may be a little off - and perhaps it will only be time to play 1 map per match?

This means you really are giving:

The most option for teams to enter the cup
The most chance of people watching other teams playing the games
The most chance of having refs/casters for every match

You could even fan it out a little more with something like:

Group A - Play Saturday - 3 games EG: 8:30CET + 10:00 CET - 8:30 CET Weds
Group B - Play Sunday - 3 games EG: 8:30CET + 10:00 CET - 8:30 CET Weds
Group C - Play Monday - 3 games EG: 8:30CET + 10:00 CET - 8:30 CET Thurs
Group D - Play Tuesday - 3 games EG: 8:30CET + 10:00 CET - 8:30 CET Thurs


This doesn't slow the cup down, as it means all games will still be scheduled to play for the following weekend. It doesn't put any more strain on organisation - in my opinion it actually puts a lot less on.

The main thing is, and I keep stressing it I know - but it gives EVERY TEAM, the chance to be casted, and will maximize the number of entries and minimize the number of no-showing teams.


I don't want this to be seen as me criticizing the administration, I'm just offering alternatives that you could say are to suit my team (and you wouldn't be wrong in saying that) but I think it would suit a lot more also.

I like the idea, but I'm not sure it works with intercontinental play. Any NA-EU/NA-AUS/EU-AUS matchups pretty much need to occur on the weekend so that all teams involved can play during normal awake hours. However, I think a slight modification could work:
- All intercontinental matches are scheduled for the normal weekend hours
- Any intracontinental matches can be played at any time before the weekend of the Balance Mod Cup (at a date/time agreed to by both team leaders)

For this to work properly, several things need to work:
- The teams and the group assignments need to be made at a minimum of two weeks before the Cup weekend (to give teams time to schedule matchups)
- All match date/times must be quickly and prominently displayed so that both refs and casters can sign up for them

The NSL Custom Map Cup rules seemed to work well from my pov. Don't see any reason to change anything.

I have to agree with Bonkers. But at least im only speaking for my team and our situation with it. We "cant" play on fridays and saturdays. My mates are out at this time and try to get girls, alcohol and other stuff... so yes, we have a life! We try to attend Nexzil tournament and NSL. But at least this, that we cant play on a saturday or friday caused, that we have to play ALL matches of Nexzil tournament on a sunday. No we could think about that only "RadicaL" had this problems.. but i dont think that. In the NSL Cup we were able to play saturday, but we had much problems to got a full and good roster for that.

As is said in the first sentence, im only speaking for my team. Personaly i think Bonkers's option would be fine. I dont know how other teams think about that. Furthermore the point that more games could be casted if matches are set over more days would be nice too. This give us the option to cast interesting games out of other divisions too. If we run a cup over 1-2 days some games dont got casted.. i ask myself..why?

I like to watch matches like Godar against Archea, they are the top of NS2 yes.. but i think we have to push other teams of DIV2/3 too. The advertisment of the game "godar archea" was nice. Everyone know.. this evening i have to watch THIS game. Why dont do that for other games during the season. Matches where all know.. that would be interesting. As example "8to6 against Quoth". For some of you this isnt a interesting game. I know that our DIV 1 players dont watch it.. for which reasons is similar.. but what i saw or read was "war" betwen that two teams. And this makes SUCH games interesting.

What i want to say is, and thats my opinion:

Cups/Tournamenets over more days = more time for the teams, easier timetable for casters, better to schedule for the team leaders, more casted games.

As last sentence: Our game against QuothGaming.. we have 4 casters? english, french, german?!... thats a feeling which we have to give to other teams two! Why do we got so much casters? cause we scheduled our match out of the "default time"! (and out of the regular time!)

The is the thing for me that is really important.

You will generally find that the admins of most major leagues play in the top division, you will also find that most of the players agreeing with admins decisions are players from the top divisions also. Now whilst I'm not saying that it's done on purpose or having a dig at anyone, the tournaments etc are generally worked around them, its natural that this would happen but for me the "fun cups" etc should give the little man a chance to shine too. For example - how many people have seen OG of division 2 play? Not many I guess will have seen them casted - but one thing I can promise you is you would be surprised by the standard - and I'm sure there are other teams out there also.

One of the great things for me in NS2 is that the best games are by no means the best teams. As long as 2 teams are equally matched NS2 will always throw up something interesting.

For me, its not really a case of what I want, or what any other single individual wants. It would be nice to at least get a vote done by the community on how best would suit them to make the cup as all encompassing as possible.

For example - would it be possible to get the leaders of each team to speak with their team and vote on such a thing?

I second Bonkers.

The prime motivation for the non-top tier comp players are that comp matches can be much more fun and fulfilling than your standard public or gather play. Things such as endurance tournies, horribly imbalanced matchups, or awkward scheduling can really ruin that experience.

I disagree with Group D playing Tuesday. Since CET is completely BAD for our time zones.

Team NZ is GMT+12 Aus GMT+10 South Korea GMT+9

This means 1am, 3am and 2am games respectively. I think at least for our group we should be able to pick times that suit our regions.

We got 2 options for the teams from Australia regarding the time.

1. we make a timezone diffrent grp with teams more close to your time zone.
so only the second week would be diffcult to play because of the fixed times for the elimination round.

BUT: that myb would result in an unfair grp ... since atm only 2 teams move on.

2. We play on that fixed times.


The issue with father's day.

Many teams asked me to do something about it.

So i am still thinking about that idea. We could allow teams to reschedule their week 1 matches, IF the other teams agree.
If they dont agree on any time on that week, the team being online with 6 Players on the fixed date of play (saterday or Sunday) will win by forefeit.
So teams not being able to play on the weekend, can play their grp stage matches. But they need to be flexible for the other team.

If the system is abused by one team, not giving any possible replay datefor the other team.
The game will result in a draw.

Thats still an idea we'll consider. As soon as we are threw with all the pros and cons regarding that system. We gonna announce it or not.

Don't forget. Week 2 will be a dbl elimination round, with no possibility of reschedule of any game.