Ultiduo extension, playoffs and rules

UPDATE, Thursday 02:00 CEST – Brackets are up here. A team with fewer games played got the better position if on equal points, since that means they were likely to do better. This was the case in group 8, 9, 10, 14 (M+M were in the group!). Also, default dates will be added when I get back tomorrow.

While the deadline for all matches was set to be the end of today, there is a sufficiently large amount of games unplayed that it makes more sense to extend the deadline. This will be until Wednesday, 12th October 23:59 CEST. That is the final deadline. Any teams which have not played a game by that point will not get the chance to do so – it will be ignored, counting as 0 points for both teams. All the more incentive for both teams to play the game!

In terms of how the playoffs will run, it will be 32 teams. A team which qualified in first place will play another team who came 2nd in a different group, and vice versa. It will also be seeded (the groups all contained 1 seed – these seeds correspond to the position in the knockouts) accordingly. Once again, then – it is important to play your matches to get an advantage in the later stages.

The playoffs themselves will be played in two parts. The first 2 rounds, the round of 32 and 16, will be played on Sunday, 16th October at 20:00 and 21:00 CEST. Teams have the option to play their game before this time, up until Sunday at 23:59 CEST, in case they have other commitments. These times will be the default and teams will face a default loss should they not be able to play at that time and not played it before. These games will be one best-of-five. We encourage teams to try and be as useful as considerate as possible to each other when scheduling these games though.

After these first 2 rounds we will try to get the remaining 3 rounds to be played in one night, with all teams agreeing on a certain date. This means the Quarter Final and Semi Final will (probably) be one best-of-three. The final itself will remain best-of-five. More information (i.e. dates) will be given when decided.

So, a recap of the schedule:

• Groups finish on Wednesday, 12th October 23:59 CEST.
• Playoff rounds (best-of-five) 1 & 2/round of 32 & 16 to be played by Sunday 16th October 23:59 CEST, with default dates at 20:00 CEST and 21:00 CEST on Sunday.
• Quarter Final, Semi Final and Final to be played on the same day.

A final thing is a couple of clarifications with the rules, as follows:

• Mercs are allowed in the group stages, if the opponent agrees, but the same 2 people must play every knockout game.
• No class switching is allowed during a round, as it may give a slight advantage. Players are allowed to swap at the end of the round.
• The 3rd round of a map, if it gets to it, counts as a golden cap. This means a 2-1 victory means 2-1 in terms of points. This is only relevant for the group stages.
• Remember that matches are two best-of-threes, not one!

If there are any other rules that need clarifying, please feel free to contact an admin or post in the comments.