AFS Retrospective and S50 News

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Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the 6v6 AFS feedback poll.
Based on your responses and the frequently raised request to announce upcoming season details earlier, we will share the changes for the upcoming Season 50.

However, these are provisional changes and we will continue to listen to feedback up until the start of the season.

Regarding the length of the season, the feedback was generally unfavorable toward the shorter format.
This shortened season was primarily intended to fit some 6s play into the summer and was never meant to fully replace the regular 7-week format. However, with the recently announced Überfest LAN in November, we will aim to schedule season 50 so that it concludes before the LAN.

The removal of class restrictions received mixed feedback. However, based on the free-text responses, we got the impression that there were only a few issues with players who should have been restricted. As such, we will generally continue with this approach moving forward.

That said, we will still move up teams that appear too strong for their division. Additionally, we encourage teams wishing to play with a higher-division player to propose a class restriction themselves if they want to avoid being moved up.

Since the larger Swiss groups were met with strong positive feedback, we will be keeping this format for the next season.

The map selection system used for all divisions (except Fresh) was a new approach that received mostly positive feedback. The most common concerns raised were: difficulty finding scrims on specific maps, the loss of a scrim day due to fixtures being released on Monday, and teams feeling penalized for practicing the wild card maps.

To address these issues, we will make the following adjustments:

• Reduce the overall number of maps in the pool from 11 to 9.
• Reduce the number of maps in the weekly pool from 6 to 5.
• Revise the pick/ban order to increase the control teams have over getting their preferred map. (ban/ban/pick/pick)
• Move fixture releases back to Sunday to allow for more planning and scrim time.

Overall, the maps received positive review, with one notable exception: Villa.
This wasn’t entirely unexpected, as Villa is relatively unplayed in the EU scene and also suffered from some of the same issues as the wildcard maps, as previously discussed. However, it will be removed for next season.

The next lowest-rated maps were Granary, Product, and Reckoner. When comparing KOTH maps, Bagel was significantly more favored and will remain in the pool. Product, however, will be replaced with a different KOTH map (see below).

With the broader goal of reducing the total map pool from 11 to 9, we will:

• Remove Villa
• Remove either Granary, Reckoner, or both
• Add one or two replacement maps (see below)

Out of the potential new maps, Clearcut was the big favorite and will be replacing Product. Prolands received a close result and therefore will be featured as a potential replacement. Please vote below on the final map, you can vote for multiple maps.

That leaves the map pool for Season 50 to be:

Core:

• cp_sunshine
• cp_snakewater_final1
• cp_process_f12
• cp_gullywash_f9

Off-core:

• cp_sultry_b8
• koth_bagel_rc11
• cp_metalworks_f7

Experimental:

• koth_clearcut_b16a

• TBD (cp_granary_pro_rc17a3 / cp_reckoner / cp_prolands)