Highlander Season 12 Announcement and Preseason Cup Structure Update
March 13, 2017
Announcing Highlander Season 12.
As Season 11 is over with 
Strong Opinions claiming the crown once again, we are pleased to announce our next Highlander Season. All the information regarding the coming Season can either be found in this newspost, or will be released shortly!
Due to the slow decline of signups to highlander seasons we are shortening the regular season length from seven weeks to five. Not only will this allow us to return to all three tiers of High, Mid and Open but it will allow for three highlander seasons a year on top of a summer event such as a nations cup. This will mean that the number of teams competing in the Premiership tier will be reduced to six.
The map pool and whitelist for the season are still undecided and will be announced soon
Season Schedule
- Signups: March 12 – March 24, 21:00 CET (Premiership signup deadline is March 18)
- Publishing of Provisional Divisions: March 24
- Publishing of Final Divisions: March 25
- Pre-Season Playoffs: March 19 – March 25
- Main Season: March 26 – April 27 (5 Weeks)
- High/Mid/Open Playoffs: April 30 – May 14
- Premiership Playoffs: TBD
The structure of the premiership playoffs will be decided in collaboration with premiership team leaders once the six premiership teams are known.
If you intend to sign up for the Premier Division we encourage you to do so as soon as possible due to the Pre-Season Playoffs. We will only consider teams for the Pre-Season Playoffs that signed up before March 18 21:00 CET. Additionally we expect teams without a guaranteed Premier Division spot to be able to play all of the days mentioned above.
Sign-up Process
Make sure to choose your desired tier when signing up. If you created a new team, feel free to apply for the tier you believe you deserve you should be in. To prove you are capable of the tier you applied for, we require you to submit screenshots of results from your recent practice matches or tournaments where you scored decent results against teams that play on the level you aim for. The quantity is not the most important factor in this case, it’s more of a helpful measure for us to figure out if your team will be able to keep up with the pace. There is no magical, minimum or maximum number of screenshots that you have to submit.
Sending links to logs on logs.tf or similar are fine if you include a short explanatory comment for each linked log, e.g. who your opponents are supposed to be and where they played last seaseon. We will not accept plain lists of logs without any comments!
If you want to be more specific about a tier you request, send an application to [email protected](details listed below) with a suitable subject. Emails with subjects like “Hello”, “Hi” or anything else that cannot be identified as a team applying for a tier by mail may be ignored.
Additionally since it happens time and time again, you do not sign up by mail, you sign up on the site and apply by mail if you are a newly formed team playing in anything higher than Open.
Please note that the success of your request also strongly depends on the free slots in the tier you aim for. Established teams will be favoured over new teams or teams that request to jump a tier. The screenshots have to be uploaded to an online image storage service (for example, you can use imgur or Dropbox). Keep in mind that if you opt for a zipped archives with tons of pictures attached to an e-mail, your application will be ignored. Keep it clean.
Also helpful for us, but not a must however, is adding who the opposing team is in each screenshot (and maybe even the division they played in the last time). That makes it easier for us, because sometimes it can be quite hard (especially in the lower tiers) to figure out who the teams in the screenshots are.
If you are applying for Open (which is our entry division), you do not have to provide any proof that you are capable of playing at that level.
Please send your application to [email protected]. The tier assignment request has to include the following information in order to be considered. Incomplete applications will be ignored!
- Do not use HTML in your e-mail. If you want to add a link, just paste the link in the e-mail as you would enter it in your browser.
- Team name
- Team link on ETF2L.org
- Tier/Division you apply for
- Link to the online photo album
- Reasons why your team deserves to be placed in the tier you applied for (optional)
Season 12 Promotions
All Open and Mid playoff teams will receive a promotion to the next highest tier, unless their starting roster changed by more than half of their players. 
inVision will face off with 
Super Dickmann's JUNIORS! the winner will be promoted to the Premier Division with the loser being demoted to the preseason playoffs. While this is unorthodox it is to ensure that we get the best 6 teams in the Premiership tier.
Preseason Cup Structure
Fixtures for the Highlander Season 12 Preseason Cup are now out, along with the group tables.
In the knockout stage of the cup all teams from the Premiership and High groups will go into their respective single elimination brackets. For Mid the top two teams of each group will go into a single elimination bracket and for Open the top two teams will advance to playoffs.
However due to lack of time in Open there will be two separate single elimination playoff brackets of six team each with two random top seeded teams receiving a bye into the semi finals. This is not an ideal solution however there was not enough time in the schedule to have a large combined single elimination bracket.
If you have any feedback about the cup please leave in the forum thread not in the comments of this news post.
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Posted by MoistPenguin in Cup, Highlander, League
content rss
H Y P E
sounds gucci
ok
So i won prem spot just to fight for prem spot again, just cause you want other teams to play prem playoffs? Time to quit this bullshit i guess. Cu.
The wrap-up for Season 11 clearly said inVision would be promoted to Premiership (as they should be, they won High). The decision to make Premiership smaller makes no sense especially given the fact that 6/8 teams who played last season come back (counting Stacked who wouldn’t have a guaranteed spot either way, but still).
Its almost like you’re not even reading the post…
You cant have 8 prem teams in a 5 week main season, we weren’t fully certain about s12 setup by the s11 wrap-up post. If we stayed with 7 weeks they would have indeed gotten the spot.
i LOVE Highlander
Just making it clear, unless it was edited, it does not say Invision qualified for Premiership in the S11 Wrap-up post. http://etf2l.org/2017/02/25/highlander-s11-wrap-up/
I swear the Invision part was edited on this post. I read the post right after it came out and I thought I saw Invision had qualified for prem…
tfw you realise there aren’t 8 prem teams in highlander so you have to make the season shorter :D
I understand that there were 7 teams at the end of S11 and I would guess that whatever PremTech decide to call themselves won’t exist next season either. Is this the reason why there are only 6 teams for Season 12? Why not just let the preseason playoffs dictate whatever 8 teams can play?
I’m fairly certain that there are 8 teams that can contest premiership this season.
Strong Opinions
Tourettes Chessclub
SDCK
Budget Toucans
XDCK
Stacked
InVision
Opeen_Squad
Feila
The reason that we went to 6 teams is nothing to do with the fact that there were two free spots in prem, there have been more spots in prem previously.
It was changed for the reasons stated in the above article
There are no reasons for a 5 week season stated in the article. I mean if there are other reasons for a 5 week season that’s cool, maybe clarify that. The obvious conclusion is that a 5 week season is because of the lack of teams.
Ah sorry I was looking at the Season Schedule section for information on the season schedule, I stand corrected, sorry.
I suppose the plus side is that it may give teams who don’t make premiership the incentive to play in high because there will be competition there.
Well, it’s not first time when etf2l promised something, remember s10? There were prizes in high, I don’t know what happend with my prize I asked admins two times and nothing ( I don’t mind about prize, I don’t need few hats more), another example, my scout fuddls was asked to provide pov from our official and yeah, he got banned ( 2 years ago he didn’t provide pov from 6s official) and we lost fucking point and now this. There is slot for my team, but admins don’t give a fuck, coz they can just edit post and its their excuse. Now I was informed about that I don’t have guaranteed spot in prem just two weeks before season, one week before game and ofc through this announcement. Keep going things like that with highlander.
lol 6 teams in prem wtf
the best would be every season make prem playoffs for all teams so in prem would be only teams who deserve for being prem :) And noone would cry if he got promise being there or not cause everyone would fight for it.
PS. We don’t need 3 seasons of highlander, now 6s players don’t have time for HL, season during summer? Smh
what is going on
I find it weird that the admins decided on a 6 team prem season, I think it’s both unfair for invision and xdck. Invision clearly won high and like it has always been, they should be receiving a spot in prem. I agree with scrambled that there are 8 teams that could easily compete in prem.
I think we should have another discussion with prem players to ask for their opinion on this matter.
I tend to agree with Leila, at least this season. This is a whole new deal, make everyone play off. I know that is bizarre, but so is this conversion. The standings are not the same as at S11 end which makes this whole thing make no sense (basing who gets in mostly on S11).
I feel bad for invision. The usual system of 8 teams in prem and 2nd lowest playing off against 2nd highest and top and bottom swapping clearly isn’t happening anymore. That old method made a lot of sense. But now, I don’t quite understand why invision would play XDCK. If anything, make the preseason playoffs include XDCK and whoever else wants into prem. I don’t understand why invision would bunny hop over Stacked given we haven’t played each other. The old method, where we play who they beat, made sense. This way makes no sense.
I guess this is the alternative to combining two tiers in one.
Also, while I was pretty convinced myself that the wrap-up did mention that inVision got promoted to Premiership, I could not find a single word about it on a cached version of the page from two days ago. It could have potentially been edited before March 11th though, although it doesn’t seem likely.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://etf2l.org/2017/02/25/highlander-s11-wrap-up/
https://puu.sh/uH8Pm.png
How to rob a team that deservedly won 101
Why not have two groups of six for Prem, then the best two teams in each group play in playoffs in the current format.
@Adje, the post has been edited only once after it was published, and even then it was only to fix the typo that was mentioned in the comments of that post.
i wish quake would come sooner
Okay let me get all of you down to ground level here.
@Clark “The wrap-up for Season 11 clearly said inVision would be promoted to Premiership”
No it didn’t. It hasn’t been edited since the publish date like Bloodis mentioned.
@Scrambled “I suppose the plus side is that it may give teams who don’t make premiership the incentive to play in high because there will be competition there.”
Yes, I hope that that is indeed the case.
@Stinghan
We never promised you a spot in prem. Not in the Wrap-up post, rules, competition home page, …
You just assumed this. Although we could have potentially notified you earlier we were still discussing this until the announcement basically went live.
“my scout fuddls was asked to provide pov from our official and yeah, he got banned ( 2 years ago he didn’t provide pov from 6s official)”
I dont see how this is related to us promising anything. Not uploading demo’s doesnt age its the players’ responsibilities.
At this point in time I feel like giving your team a chance to get an easier chance for prem then the other high teams is also unnecessary.
If any team would be allowed to complain it would be XCDK.
@aoshi that was only example and you, I meant that I lost point just coz he didn’t provide demo. After one warn we lost point
@aoshi and yeah, from s8 winners of high are getting spot in prem, nobody told me that it will change
Last msg, I wanted to edit my post, but for some reason I can’t
@aoshi can you change my name back already u fuck
I feel that this change wasn’t executed very well, I think that it would have been much fairer to do an 8 team prem this season but make a big deal out of letting everyone know that next season no spots are guaranteed, and that every team has to playoff to a 6 team premiership.
A 5 game season wont feel like a season at all, i mean we are doing 3 games min in a cup tomorrow. Im speaking about non prem tiers here but if your pushed for time why not just scrap the playoffs. With 5 games I think your hard pushed to call it a season, its more like a cup, group stages and playoff.
Welp, situations like these are the ones that slowly kill highlander. Last season it was the highly controversial DR+RB ban that got cancelled at the last moment, but this year we’re decreasing prem teams from 8 to 6, this destroys so many moral for many teams that thought they’d be competing in prem, e.g. Stacked, Feila, Open_Squad, Invision, XDCK. It’s really demotivational when you play an entire season of prem and suddenly you need to compete to sustain your spot even though you met the criteria to stay, not to mention even though there’s no specific rule that states Invision would get a free spot in prem it’s still kind of a shitty move.
I agree with scrambled that this decision has been poorly implemented. With all due respect to the admins that put hard work in the highlander league, but is there any chance we could come up with a different solution?
7 week season twice a year — 14 regular season games per team per year.
5 week season thrice a year — 15 regular season games per team per year.
Not to mention there’s playoffs. And they mentioned events (cups) in the summer
Less time between seasons — promotes teams staying together and people are kept interested in HL more consistently across the year
IMO there should just always be 2 bottom teams being put in playoffs at the start of the next season and the relegation playoff is completely unnecessary. For example a team could qualify for prem HALF A YEAR before the next season starts. And then if they change half their roster, then within the rules they have to play qualifiers again.
Please stick to this admins, I think it’s actually better than 2 seasons a year with a giant split in the middle.
If your team is in playoff and you consider your team a premiership worthy team, then there shouldn’t be a problem beating the other “high” teams.
aoshi will destroy every thing trust me
what’s there to destroy tbh, the “we e-sports” dream is never coming true for hl, might as well enjoy more games each year
I completely agree with your points steve, however I feel that this should be planned well in advance, not sprung upon teams a week before they have to play. Its fine for my team because we are prepared, but teams like inVision and XDCK that are most likely out of practice really draw a short straw here.
This league has reached new levels of dead.
@bones, we’re not making the change because we’re pressured for time.
I massively support these changes, they have been necessary for many years to try and put Highlander on an even footing within this league. I applaud Aoshi and the team for actually doing it, I made a similiar sort of proposal years back and it was never taken forward and the main opposition was actual Highlander admins and prominent community members.
@Nightmare – More seasons + getting rid of that horrible 5 month gap is absolutely vital for HL, with the declining signup numbers being affected by this (among other factors but you can only address what you can), shorter seasons also help teams stay together as massive amounts of roster changes are very common throughout the season, reducing it to 5-8 weeks will only benefit this side. Reducing size to 6 is a necessity to accommodate this, the only issue is it’s slightly unfair for InVision not to have an automatic Prem spot, but they still have the opportunity to compete if they can beat the Lowest placed team that were also Guaranteed a spot. It’s not ideal, but necessary and tough decisions have been made.
IF you think this sort of thing leads to the death of a gamemode in decline then I am just glad Aoshi is Head Admin and not you. I agree it could have been implemented with more planning, and I for one would be the first person to argue for you but in my short time as a trial admin I seen Aoshi doing an absolutely huge amount of work behind the scenes on everything, the hours he has put in have been astronomical considering as a league we’re managing and planning several competitions at once, and when I say several I mean several. I am not exaggerating. He’s taken executive action and made risky, calculated decisions to change things that were clearly not working, that takes actual leadership and deserves a huge amount of respect to be honest.
It’s better changes happen now than in 5 months time, though in truth they should have happened 2 years ago.
There where only 3 prem level teams last season anyway. Changing it to 6 just makes it more competitive for the prem and lower divisions. Stop being salty and just win.
Just give invision the prem spot and make the bottom prem teams from last season / now play for the rest. If the format is being changed, the bottom teams might as well have to prove themselves worthy for prem. That’s the point anyway.