Swiss System FAQ

Welcome to the Swiss System FAQ page, this will guide you through any frequently asked questions about the changes:

Q: What is a Swiss System? How does it work?

A: The swiss system is used extensively in Chess and many other eSports events. It’s an alternative tournament system to Round Robin. Each team will not play every other team in their Tier, and teams are matched with other teams with a similar points total. You can not play the same team twice in the same Season. Seasons are currently the same length as before, however this be changed in the future if desired.  The winner is the team with the highest points total at the end of the Season.

Q: I can only see my opponents for this week, who am I playing next week?

A: That is intended behaviour. Since fixtures are created by looking at the points total for every team they cannot be made until the previous week has finished. You’ll be able to see your next opponent every Saturday at 23:59.

Q: Fixtures are created based on the points total of my team, right? How are Week 1 fixtures created then?

A: Within each Tier, teams are placed into either the Top 50% of the bottom 50% based on a seeding by the admins. Teams in the top 50% play another team from the top 50%, and similarly for the bottom 50%.  To compensate, teams in the top 50% are given some invisible points from which the fixtures are generated from for the first 2 weeks. It’s quite confusing, but widely known and completely fair! If you’re interested in a more in-depth explanation you can find one here.

Q: How do I schedule my game if I don’t know who I am playing until Saturday?

A: Every team needs to submit which days they can play next week before fixtures are created on Saturday. These days will be used by admins and ETF2L will schedule your match for you. You can submit your days here and clicking ‘Edit Availability’.

Q: How can I submit my teams availability correctly?

A: The first dropdown is to select the day your team can play. The ‘Preferred Time‘ option should be the ideal time your team would like to play at in CET/CEST. The ‘Time Window‘ option should be the range of times your team can play at.

For example, if my team can play Sunday, Monday, Thursday, the ideal time would be 21:15 and we can play between 20:00 and 21:15. I should select Sunday, Monday and Thursday all with 21:15 as the Preferred Time and 20:00 – 21:15 as the Time Window

Q: When I choose “Edit Availability” it only has Sunday-Thursday listed. Where are Friday and Saturday?

A: The weeks now run from Sunday to Thursday, with a deadline on Thursday 23:59. Friday and Saturday are reserved for any matches that require a replay due to a match dispute. We felt comfortable with this as in Season 19 83% of matches were played Sunday-Thursday.

Q: Do I have to choose 3 days when I am submitting my teams availability?

A: No, you may choose to submit either 1, 2 or 3 days. The more days you select the more likely you will get a good default date!

Q: Can I change my teams available days for each Week, or will the days be the same for the whole season?

A: You can change the days you are available as many times as you like throughout the season. Basically the system will read whatever days you have listed when setting the default date on Saturday 23:59.

Q: My team can’t play any days this week, what should I do?

A: That’s very unfortunate, unfortunately there are no Wildcards anymore so you will have to either play with mercs or give a default win to the opposition.

Q: What happens if there is an odd number of teams in my Tier?

A: Currently if there are an odd number of teams, the team in the middle position of the Tier will receive a ‘bye’ which will award them the full 6 points but with no fixture for that week. Teams are only eligible to receive at maximum 1 bye each Season. We are looking at implementing a system which will prioritize teams that received default losses in the previous week to get a bye, but for now it will be the middle team.

Q: My team is tied on points with another team at the end of the Season, how are we separated?

A: First of all, if you are not tied for either a playoff position or a relegation spot you will not be separated. There’s nothing wrong with tying with another team! For other ties, three methods will be used to separate you:

  • Head-to-Head (if applicable)
  • Sonneborn-Berger Score
  • Total Rounds scored

If the first method does not split the teams, the second method will be used. If the second method does not split the teams, the third method will be used.

The Neustadtl Sonneborn-Berger Score is calculated as follows:

  1. For each match, calculate the ratio of points the team earned compared to the maximum, and multiply this by the opponent’s total score in the competition. Use only scores and opponents from “valid” matches  (matches that were not default wins and were not against dropped opponents).
  2. Calculate the sum of all scores calculated via the above method.
  3. Divide the sum by the number of “valid” matches played.