Coming into our fifth ever season along with 2020, there are a few changes, additions and news everyone should be aware about. First, we would like to formally welcome our new staff members in a more official capacity. We will be welcoming Sedna as Clari-tea’s partner in crime for the Asia region, along with our new Discord moderators, Aria, bird and Rias! We would also like to formally welcome (it’s a bit late but oh well) Max as a League Administrator for AU/NZ, along with inc and ohai as our Pug Administrators. Our Staff for 2020 are as follows:

Head Administrator

core

League Administrators AU/NZ

Eternal
Max
Michael
Kodyn

League Administrators AS

Clari-tea
Sedna

Tournament Administrators

Trippel8
UltraPhi

Pug Administrators

inc
ohai

Discord Moderators

Aria
bird
Rias

Now that all the introductions are over, it’s time to talk about some of the new changes & additions.

With each and every season we look to make improvements within our league that typically have a focus of improving competition at the top level, while finding ways to better introduce newer players not only to our game modes but to the game as a whole. We have the privilege of our AU community being a fairly small but tight-knit community, with this also brings challenges when trying to institute changes to a majority, especially when we only hear from a vocal minority. Going into this season, the roster limit will remain at 15 to collect more feedback and opinions from the majority in favor of it, and whether it should be reverted to 17 for season six. This process will be complete prior to the next season, and will be included in our seasonal poll as its own section once again. While we know this is not the answer some are wanting, we feel it is important that both sides are able to engage with us regarding their thoughts and opinions on this before we make this a permanent change.

To piggyback off of our roster discussions, we are lifting the total season mercenary limit rule to fall into line with other leagues, however the per match limit will remain. This change is made so those who are ever worried about going over this limit can rest a little easier, and we feel the rule is mostly voided anyway.

There are also changes to the way we are handling captaincy issues going into this season, with these changes focusing on forfeits and failure to schedule matches, two areas we currently believe are a problem. To view these infractions, please refer to our Infractions page, they are now under “Captaincy Infractions”

With the goal of trying to reach new players, we are working hard at making changes that the community can get behind, but for these changes to be things that YOU want to see, we need to hear from you. Whether it’s taking some time to quickly fill out our seasonal polls, using our #feedback channel in Discord, or even discussing with your team.

We feel there is the misconception within our community that we engage in conversations with users purely because we don’t want to take action and make necessary changes, but this has simply never been the case. By opening discussions with members of our community we are trying to ascertain what it is that you want to see changed, why you want it changed and who it affects. To circle back to the discussion on the size of our community, it is hard when only a small percentage of players voice their opinions on a matter and it typically leaves us with little to work on, but we also have to figure out if the feedback we are given is both actionable, and feasible. Sadly we do not have the security of player or team numbers that a format like 6v6 does, meaning we have to be vigilant regarding the changes we do make, as both too much and too little action are just as bad as each other.

While there is a lot of information to be dissected there, we believe it is better everything be conveyed in this way as to not leave anything out, and let you know where we stand on everything.

Also, some important information for Highlander in Asia! Signups will close Friday the 14th at 10PM GMT+8, giving anymore perspective teams time to signup. The season will then start on Sunday the 16th. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us in #admin-support in our Discord.