SC2ITL S2 Groups end - a debrief and a look into future seasons.

As basically all games are over here is hopefully something not too long as a bit of a debrief and a look ahead to where the SC2ITL will continue.

The SC2ITL will continue for at least Season 3 and I see nothing stopping a Season 4 or 5. In the feedback most teams responded telling me that you would play whether there was a Product sponsor or not, which means even if ZOWIE drop out the league will continue to run. Every single team apart from one who replied to feedback said they would pay a €10 entry fee for the league. 70% said they would pay even if the Prize Pool remained the same, 25% said they would expected the prize pool to go up to €400 and the remainder said they would expect the prize pool to raise to €500. As a result for Season 3 all First Division teams will have to pay a €10 entry fee to compete and after a lot of thinking it is decided that we will run with a €500 Prize Pool.

A lot of you responded saying you were unaware of the SC2ITL Donation Incentives and Goals. For Season 3 we will be relaunching the initiative - which has seen the American league receive over $500 of support before even beginning - with more realistic targets & more fulfilling goals to the donators, including setting up a prize for third place, raffles & some other cool show-match based stuff. Right from the start of Season 3 this will be integrated as a key feature of the league and with this alongside the increasing ad-revenue from more frequent and better broadcasting I believe the SC2ITL is a fully sustainable team league.

The final major point for the First Division is the length of the league. There is nothing I can do about this for Season 3 - I have already laid out to teams the format for promotion/demotion and it would be unfair to change this at this stage. The majority of teams say the length is fine, three teams said that it was an issue and I spoke with these teams individually. Season 4 of the SC2ITL will see the First Division cut to 20 teams, with a much harsher cut off in Season 3 for teams who automatically qualify. I feel it is most important to do this more than anything to create real competition in the Second Division more than anything - where this season 2-3 teams in each division went 9-0 or 8-1. We will supplement this by adding a third division for teams who really play for the casual aspect. I hope this improves the experience of playing for teams at all levels - it should mean we have a good flow in and out of the divisions, promotion should be hard to earn and will hence reflect in you not getting stomped when you enter First Division. Exact new rules of promotion etc will be defined at a later point.

Most teams actually found the current promotion system fair, which I was amazed at because I actually think it's really harsh. The changing of the divisions should help to solve this. Most teams who played in both S1 and S2 said their was a significant improvement in the league and we hope to continue in that direction. Most teams felt opposing teams were of similar skill levels, most of the 2nd Division teams who replied complained about opponents being too easy as well as some top teams in Division 1. Changes I mentioned above should look to fix this.

Most people found all the information they needed without need of help and felt the admin support was great. Over 80% of teams said they did not see the need for additional admins. The majority of admin issues came about due to issues with team rosters. I am trialing a new approach to this in SC2ITL America and this should solve this ( I hope.) There were a  few issues with scheduling with teams though most teams did not see it as a major problem. 95% of responses stated they appreciate the system of scheduling your own match.

Blabla this is starting to drag, we'll aim to add more Media Coverage for Season 3 including other casters for 2nd Division, most people said they would appreciate more Reddit posts, which is kind of sad because I literally can't make more Reddit posts because of the 9:1 ratio rule and most the posts i make about SC2ITL dont make it past 2-3 upvotes. You guys should try submitting some hype threads yourselves, it is actually so much more effective if community members make them than me. Apparently 1 team wouldn't recommend other teams to play in the league ;( RIP. The satisfaction rating averaged at 8.8. Most of you want two weeks - 1 month between Seasons which should work out fine once I have ran qualifiers.

Amusingly 5 teams stated they did not like the current format and 4 of these teams went on to detail a format which completely mirrors what we currently run. It seems that everybody who wrote a statement about the league enjoyed playing & said they just enjoyed the fun of playing frequent competitive clan wars, which is awesome, because that is exactly what this is all about.

Thanks everyone for the feedback and gl hf in the playoffs or in Season 3 if that is when we will next see you!