So, here are my ideas:
Double elimination system:
Right now, half of the teams only play 3 matches if every opponent shows up. If someone drops out, they might only get to play 2 matches in the whole season. I just checked and the signups opened on January 21st for the current season. That was nearly 3 months ago, and 2 (or 3) official cw in 3 months is not the most motivational thing ever.
A double elimination system would provide the teams with more opportunity for playing matches and even if they get eliminated in the first round of the lower bracket of the playoffs, they still had at least 2 weeks (publishing the playoff tree and first matchweek) to be in an actual tournament and spend their time practicing against their next opponent, instead of getting eliminated early and just playing pcw-s for months. Also, teams would be kept alive longer, since the playoff starts after the group stages.
To write an example:
Current system:
Team plays 3 matches in the first 3 weeks (or only 2 depending on dropouts and points), they don't make it to the playoffs so they are out of the tournament. No hope for playing again for months
Double elimination:
Teams are playing in the group stages for 3 week, wait a week for the playoff tree, than another week for scheduling and playing their first match. This is already 5 weeks at least, before the first teams get eliminated.
tl;dr: double elimination system, first 2 of the group upper bracket, bottom 2, lower bracket. Winner of the upper bracket starts the final with some kind of advantage (maybe finals in a bo5 format and they start with 1 map advantage, or they can choose the maps...)
I would also like to add, that since the 2 brackets would run in parallel, this system would only add 1 extra week to the season compared to the current system.
So it would look like this: 3 matchweek for the group stages, 1 week for publishing the playoff tree and 4 matchweek for the playoffs for a total of 8 weeks, which is just 1 week longer then the season it the lower divisions.
Additional changes:
- Admin presence during the matches (maybe only after the first or second round of the playoff stages) so important matches won't go unnoticed (no gtv / stream).
- Tighter schedule control: if a team can't play their match in time they get replaced by a previously eliminated team. The current situation is ridiculous with matches not played for weeks.
- No player changes after the group stages. No transfers, no players who never played on UZ, nothing. You keep the roster you had at the end of the group stages.
- Maybe a bit better news management. Maybe a pinned post on the front page with the current (updates!!!) standings of the playoffs and schedules for the matches / streams (goes along with the previously mentioned tighter schedule control / admin presence).
Hmm, I guess this is pretty much it, if I have some more ideas, I will update it.
P.s.: double elimination system:
