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The Season 14 Map Pool (In No Particular Order):Our Highlander Staff has been in a lengthy discussion regarding how we wanted to have the map pool for next season, and while we were initially torn on how to approach the map pool, we have ultimately decided to keep the maps the same as Season 13. This does not mean we aren’t looking to rotate maps though and we will have exciting changes for the upcoming seasons!
Regarding Survey Results
We value the feedback of our players tremendously. The answers to each question let us know where to go in future seasons to best serve our players’ interests. For the multiple choice questions asking for feedback on divisions and their admins, I have shared the results with the respective division admins to improve our overall quality throughout each division. For the questions asking for written answers, I have made sure to read
each and every response I received, whether it was serious or goofy, short or long. I would like to address some of the more common concerns in a future article but, for now, here are the results of the survey.
Update to Double-Elimination Playoffs
In our recent discussions, we wanted to look into off-season lengths for 2023. It’s no secret that last year, off-season lengths were noticeably shorter for a combination of reasons, and from the feedback we received, it wasn’t nearly enough time for teams to have enough practice before the start of the season. As such, we first wanted to look at possible reasons why the seasons may feel longer. One observation we made was that playoffs in double-elimination brackets can last up to five weeks, which is nearly the length of the regular season. Single-elimination brackets on the other hand have three weeks of playoff matches. As such we’re hoping to shorten the length of double-elimination playoffs by having Lower Bracket Finals be played on the same weekend as Grand Finals. This will place double-elimination brackets to have Grand Finals on the same weekend as single-elimination brackets. The exception is when a bracket reset is present, in which case the bracket reset is played the following Monday.
In the survey, we especially wanted feedback from Advanced and Invite players to decide the day Lower Bracket Finals would be played since they consistently use double-elimination brackets in playoffs. As such, Lower Bracket Finals for Season 14 will be played Saturday with Grand Finals on Monday.
Additional Matches
We recently polled whether players wanted to play an additional match at Sunday 9:30PM EST, which would take place the day before the standard Monday 9:30PM EST matches. This was motivated to improve seeding in divisions utilizing the Swiss system. While players were slightly more favorable towards playing a second match, our staff do not feel comfortable to implement a major system change based on a narrow margin. As such, we will not be implementing more matches into the season. We may poll this again in the future to regauge the viability of the potential change.
Prizepools
One major change we are looking to implement is the addition of prize pools in the divisions below Invite as well as player fees for entry. The intention of this question was mainly to gauge the viability of adding prize pools beginning with Intermediate.
Intermediate
Main
Advanced
Due to the lack of interest within the Intermediate division, we do not intend to add fees for that division, but based on the results, it shows that Main and Advanced are interested in becoming a paid structure and playing for prizes. Although we will not be implementing this for Season 14, we will be looking into this for future seasons!
General Map Results
General Division Results