Yup, it's that time again. We would like to congratulate the Top 8 teams who have made it into the AUS / NZ Highlander Season 2 Playoffs. As always, the schedule for playoffs can be a bit hectic, but we have done our best to make the schedule easy to follow and spread over the four weeks in a better way for participating teams. If you have not made it to playoffs, we would like to congratulate you and thank you for your efforts this season. All badges will be distributed at the completion of the season.

Schedule

The below schedule is used to illustrate what matches are played each week, with the allowed days also being listed under the image. As you have made it to playoffs, we expect that you ensure you and your team's availability for these days, as matches will be tightly scheduled and closely monitored by each Sub-League's Manager (see our staff list here).

Playable Match Days for each set of matches:

Week 1: Upper Bracket Round 1 (BO1): Monday - Saturday
Week 2: Upper Bracket Round 2 & Lower Bracket Round 1 (BO1): Monday - Saturday
Week 3: Upper Bracket Semifinals (BO3): Monday - Saturday
Week 3: Lower Bracket Round 2 (BO1): Monday - Wednesday
Week 3: Lower Bracket Round 3 (BO3): Thursday - Saturday
Week 4: Lower Bracket Round 4 (Bronze Match) (BO3): Monday - Saturday
Week 4: Upper Bracket Grand Finals (BO3): Monday - Saturday

The BO1 & BO3 matches are marked with BO1 or BO3 in the above schedule.

Map Pool

pl_borneo
koth_product_rc9
cp_vanguard
pl_upward
pl_swiftwater_final1
cp_steel
koth_ashville_rc1
pl_badwater_pro_v12

Picks & Bans

Picks & Bans are different for Best of 1 Map and Best of 3 Map matches. BO1 matches are played with two halves, BO3 matches are 1 half for each map. The order of Picking and Banning can be seen in the below lists:

Best of 1 Map

Home Team Bans
Away Team Bans
Home Team Bans
Away Team Bans
Home Team Picks

Best of 3 Maps

Home Team Bans
Away Team Bans
Home Team Picks
Away Team Picks
Away Team Bans
Home Team Picks

Bracketing and Seeding

This season's playoffs are run using Double Elimination, which will pair the Top 4 and Bottom 4 seeded teams against each other for the Upper Bracket Round 1 matches. The winning team goes on through the Upper Bracket Round 2, with the losing team being moved down to the Lower Bracket to play a second match against other teams who have lost. An example of which seed is matched with the other, please refer to the line below.

1v8, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5.

If you are still unsure, perhaps a screenshot of the internal Challonge page may help.

Match Coverage

All requests to cast from unapproved Casting Organizations or Entities need to be run by the Sub-League's Manager. For official coverage of matches, follow our Twitch channel. If you wish to seek approval, please read this thread first.

Current Staff List | Competitive Ruleset | Match Casting