Before we get started, the Respawn League staff team would like to thank everybody for the previous season. Without your participation the league’s growth wouldn’t be possible. There is a lot of new and exciting changes on the way for this season, which means this post will be packed with information. To cater for this, we will be doing a small stream tonight (30th) at 8PM AEST to clear up some confusion, an edited version of this will also go live on our YouTube.

Tune into this over at twitch.tv/respawnleague

Division Split

We have received questions regarding splitting the division of AUS/NZ Highlander since the inception of Respawn League. To shine a light on the topic, AUS/NZ Highlander will be split into two divisions for this upcoming season - provided 16 teams sign up. ASIA Highlander, along with all other formats, will remain one division. The divisions will be named Premier, and Main, respectively. Premier will feature a Round Robin format over the traditional Swiss System. Main will remain under the Swiss System, but we are introducing new scoring and weekly match changes to improve upon our current system.

Season Structure changes

Amongst the changes, the length of the Regular Season and Playoffs Season will be shortened to reflect Division and System changes. The Regular Season will now run 7 weeks rather than 8, and the Playoffs Season will be shorter as only the Top 4 teams will get into Playoffs. There will no longer be any mid-season breaks either, so with all of these changes the entirety of a season will now run for 10 weeks over the original 13 weeks.

Scoring, Brackets, Matches & Match Days, etc.

With the changes in season length and divisions being split, we have made additional changes to how each match will be played, the Tiebreakers we use, as well as how we award points. All changes beyond this point will apply to every format. A summarisation of the changes can be found below:

• Tiebreakers are now Median buchholz, Round score sum and Round wins in that order
• Official matches will now feature two maps, which have the possibility to end in draws
• Playable Match Days are reduced from 6 to 5, with the available days being Monday-Friday
• In hopes to decrease the amount of disputes regarding scheduling matches, the default match day is now Wednesday 8pm
• A/D and Payload will have one round played in a match
• KOTH will be first to 3 Round Wins
• 5CP is capped to 30 minutes, highest rounds wins by time limit or golden cap scenario
• Max roster size is being lowered from 17 to 15
• Mercenary rules are being made significantly more lenient, for example: the new mercenary limit per season is 10
• All mercenaries are required to have registered league accounts

What is happening to 4v4?

Following the post-season poll, there was an even split among all of the options. So, going into this season, 4v4 in AUS/NZ and ASIA will be combined to 4v4 APAC, and the games will be played on Perth servers. Server choice is negotiable provided the teams are based in the same region (e.g. 2 Australian teams can play on a Sydney server)

Off-Season Tournaments

After this upcoming season of 4v4, we will be investigating other seasonal league, or tournament options. More information will be released at a later date.

Highlander Map Pool

With Highlander in both regions having two maps per match each week, we have added some more maps to the pool, the schedule can be seen below:

W1: Upward, Proside
W2: Logjam, Badwater
W3: Badwater, Vanguard
W4: Vanguard, Borneo
W5: Swiftwater, Product
W6: Product, Steel
W7: Upward, Ashville

Whitelist changes

Highlander:

Unbanned Pomson 6000
Unbanned Natascha
Unbanned Vaccinator
Banned Sydney Sleeper

4v4:

Unbanned Bazaar Bargain
Banned Sydney Sleeper