Starting next season, season 7, we will introduce a new league structure in Footstar. As you know, we have a pyramidal league structure in which there is a top division with only 1 series, and then for each division below it the number of series is multiplied by 4; this means that division B has 4 series, division C has 16 series, and so on. 4 teams drop from each series in a higher division to the division immediately below and only 1 team from the lower division is promoted to the division above.
Starting next season we are going to reduce the "series multiplier" to 2 and introduce promotion/relegation playoffs. This means that division B will only have 2 series, division C only 4, division D 8, E 16, and so on. Only two teams will be relegated directly from the higher division and only one will be promoted directly from the lower division as well. Then we will have playoffs to determine the rest of the promotions/relegations: the second placed team from the lower division will dispute their promotion against 5th and 6th placed teams from the higher division. As playoffs will only be played for the first time at the end of season 7 (almost 8 months away) we will give you more details on playoffs will work at the beginning of the next season.
Now, this may seem quite a simple change at first sight, but, however, it is much more complicated than it seems. Essentially because at the end of this season, we will need to make a full redistribution of teams through the divisions. For example, in countries with 3 divisions we will have to add yet another division (division D) and decide what teams are to be kept on division B and C and what teams are to be put on C and D; and, in countries with 2 divisions it might be necessary to add another division as well. Considering all these migration issues, we have decided to set the following plan:
Countries with 3 divisions
- First division: everything remains the same. The bottom 4 teams will be relegated to division B.
- Division B: The first placed teams will be promoted to the top division. The second and third placed teams will keep their division B place. All the other teams will be relegated to division C.
- Division C: Only the best 4 first placed human-controlled teams will be promoted to division B. The decision will be set by the achieved points first, goal average in case the teams have the same number of points (basically using the same rules we use for standings in FS). Soon we'll release a special page, that can be accessed by the standings page, that will show the promotion status to division B according to standings data. The remaining 12 first-placed teams will be kept in division C. All the other teams will be relegated to division D. In case a bot team is at these first 12 placed teams and there's any human controlled team being relegated to D, their places will be switched.
- Division D: From all the 112 teams that are relegated from division C, the best 64 teams are kept and all the others will be deleted. No human teams will be deleted, obviously, they will have priority over bot teams. We currently don't have any country with more than 120 teams human teams, so this won't be a problem.
Countries with 2 divisions
- First division: everything remains the same. The bottom 4 teams will be relegated to division B.
- Division B: this will have to be decided on a country to country basis. If a country has more than 24 human controlled teams, a new division will be created (C) and the same system used in countries with 3 divisions will be applied (read above). In case there are less than 24 human controlled teams, the worst 16 teams will be deleted (using points, goal average system). Human teams will be prioritized over bot teams, so no human teams will be deleted.
An important note is that we intend to give priority to human over bots in case of forced relegations. For example, a B division team that ended in 4th would never be relegated in case there was a bot in the top 4 promoted teams from C. If the B human team would end in 5th it would be relegated as it ended at a relegation position. Same would happen for C division teams that end in a non-normal-relegation position; if a bot is among those 12 teams kept in C, then the human team, providing it is the best of all other possible humans, takes the place of the bot team.
As said we are going to release some special pages in order to list the current state of promotion / relegation for next season in those divisions in which changes are expected (mainly B & C divisions). These links, when made available, can be accessed through the standings page of such divisions.
Now, we understand this is a big change but we wouldn't go with it if we didn't feel it would be a major step forward for the game. The reasons why we have decided to go with this new system are essentially:
- Less teams are directly relegated from the top division;
- It is easier to be promoted from lower divisions (2nd placed in lower division plays promotion play-offs);
- The system is more competitive (less series by division, more easy to fill them with human controlled teams);
- The introduction of new divisions to the system does not mean such an exponential growth in the number of teams, compared with the current system (for example, with the current system we would go from 40 teams in a B division to 168 with the C division. With the new system we will go from 24 teams in B to 56 to C);
- We will reduce the huge number of bots teams we have in the database at this time.
If you have any doubts about the new system, please post them in the forums. And thanks for all the suggestions and patience. |
