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It would be cool if our div6 league games were as competitive as our scrims against particular teams, but I know that a random draw will give us four or five 10 minute rolls and maybe only a couple of really good games. As I understand it, the divisional winners getting promotion is a sop to the idea of an organised league, and it’s more accurate to say the entire structure is dissolved and reformed after every season.

So, in the interest of fun, is there any way we could be given a competitive division?

Like a lot of teams with new but talented 6v6 players, we aren’t div5, as we lack a lot of basic smarts. Established div5 teams thrash us with experience. I just think it would be cool if our etf2l games were more meaningful to us than our scrims with equally matched teams.

the way I see it divs have improved like tenfold dm-wise…

That are a bunch of div5 players with a dm skill that was by div 2-3 standards 1-2 years ago, same can be said for some div 6 players with a div 4 or so dm…

So, in conclusion it’s hard enough as it is, and we can’t have an entry level division with such a hard dm level, new-to-comp players and teams get rolled every game as it is on div 6, improving the div skill level would only put off more new players…

Solution would be creating a new (div7 or something) division for completly new players, with entry level dm and gamesense, or leave it as it is, increasing difficulty would be a really big mistake…

We rolled div 6 last season and we played against teams with 1 or 2 players div 2-3 dm wise already, it would be stupid to increase it even more.

TL;DR: Go div 5

Quoted from smziii

div 6 and div5 used to be the same level anyways

“Used to” is the key phrase there

Go div 5

Can’t possibly police it though, who is to say X is better than Y. Map dependencies as well, ie. which teams are just badlands heroes. You hit the issue where team 1 can beat team 2, but then team 2 can beat team 3 who beat team 1.

I do think the better players who are just playing more casually in div 5/6 do throw things off sometimes, but there’s not a lot you can do about it really. The fact some teams don’t get demoted (in the case of div 5 and above) because of drops has an impact as well because even though they lost every game they still sit in that div if they want to.

Making ‘more competitive’ division 6s basically means division 6 won’t be effectively standard across the board and thus, what you effectively have is a div 6 and 7 or whatever – or equivalent to 5 and 6.

Div 6 probably will have a bigger spread because of the experience differences, but if you want the challenge then go div 5 – if not, go win div 6 and work to go 5 next season. By the sounds of it, you’ll learn more from a bad season in div 5 than a largely pointless one where you roll people in div 6.

Quoted from fraac

Actual solution would be to have lots of competitive division 6s rather than randomly drawn ones.

How do you envision making a “competitive” division 6 based on teams with unknown names and no results?

Any teams that would sign up for an “ironman division 6” should just sign up for division 5 instead. In fact, the barrier of entry for division 5 is very low and applications are usually accepted if the team or its players have any ETF2L experience.

On that note, I’d prefer if people put a little more thought into their suggestions than “I don’t like this, make it better somehow”. That would at least give us something to work with.

You should also consider – beating div6 teams all/most of the time puts you ABOVE div6, that is in div5.

:)

From many years spent playing at the lower end I fear I may speak with a bit of knowledge here. I see where fraac is coming from here. If you’re fluttering between that low div 5 high div 6 level, you tend to feel an extra season in div6 will help cement the team. However div 6 can be very hit and miss in terms skill level the amount of teams that drop etc.
This can leave to some teams having a somewhat hollow season (a couple of rolls, a few drops and maybe even a forfeit as well). This just comes with the territory and what we currently have given the timescales and manpower is the best we can get.

It’s been mentioned in the past, but I think it’s worth bringing to the party are end of season divisional play offs. The best of each div thrown into a cup draw to play off for the mantle of Best Division x team Season xx.

I there is a overhead to this in terms of admining at the end of a season admining but I think a lot can be ticked off prior to the end of season.

Playoff windows should be as narrow as possible, realistically teams who have won there div and want to play in the playoffs are more likely to be motivated towards scheduling and playing.
Teams indicate before the end of the season whether they’d like to go in to playoffs if the should qualify.

No prizes required other then pixels, the Title of Divisional team of the season

This could add to the end of season casting extravaganza, maybe even put the word out for open mic casters who have played in the appropriate division.

Adds something to aim for even your division wasn’t the most challenging.

Also a bit of extra exposure for the more up and coming teams

TLDR end of season playoffs would be nice

edit, fraac beat me by 6 mins, I need to type faster