We moved away from the 7 week format because A) the players and team felt it was too long and B) because it was also too long for the admins.
I don't know how adding 1-2 weeks to the tournament would create such an effect where it's too long all of a sudden.
Can't the admin team just expand i'm sure there are many who would be capable of substituting for a week or two.
As for the players.. Show me the person that actually has a problem with an extra week or 2 (Considering a BL update doesn't break the game).
The one thing I personally would never accept is when a team get's demoted for the sake of another new team. It's unfair since after 6 seasons every teams has earned it's spot by now.
And what is with this fairness always. If a team is not strong enough to keep it's div A spot - why insist on it just because they've "earned" it.
Now i know that the current structure is as it is and what i'm proposing would hurt someones feelings.
But the reality of it is that some div A teams are so much weaker than the top div A teams that it's comical.
I suppose what i'd have instead is a forceful demotion in case of a "challenger event" in-between the tournaments.
I know.. so painful right ? You spend 1.5 months grinding at the game in div B and barely manage to get in. And then comes some new team out of nowhere and kicks u back out to your previous division.
But so what? Deserving should depend on skill, not on grind.
Deserving has been done by individual players who have become skilled enough to deserve their spot as a team.
Not by a team of players that haven't put the time or effort the become as skilled - but instead just grinded their way into a division in which they have no chances of getting even 3rd spot. (Making them just some kind of a race for the best players to boost their stats so they can have higher score on aprikosenmanns excel spread sheet..)
So basically: A new team that is strong enough for a certain division challenges the weakest team. Who wins gets the spot. (This is in-between the BEAST seasons)
I know, as i said, that this would hurt someones feelings, and would stir up some possible ( certain) drama.
But it's a choice to be made. And a hard one.
So with option
number 1. (adding a week or 2) You add a 15-30% time extension to the current system.
number 2. (challenger in-between seasons) Kick a low skilled team back where they literally belong.(ouch?)
number 3. (force a newly formed team (even if stronger than 95% of the teams) to grind their way up in the name of grind based fairness)
- This of course would demotivate a lot of potential top teams from forming.
- Because as you say: 1-2 weeks is too much to add for many players and admins. A 6 week (if nothing goes wrong with BL) is too much for many of top teams to grind trough low division teams(which im sure would have fun getting stomped. Might just as well default lose so that the team can just wait 6 weeks and then win default finales?)
My favorite is of course what ikea says he would NEVER consider. It's a nice and simple challenger event where a newly formed team gets a chance to challenge any divisions weakest team and kick them out back to a lower division.
- This would then i suppose mean that if the lower division is full the demoted team would need to challenge the weakest team in this division etc.
We could have a whole mid season "tourney" where the placement of newly formed teams can be done so that the "fairness" a.k.a. the balance of the divisions stays, well, more balanced.
Too much work for the admins? I'm sure there would be a person that is capable and willing to overlook this mid-season madness. It would only be a 1-3 games right ?
Hell, you could even add a rule that for a team to get the spot they would have to win decisively(so 12-8 wouldn't be enough). So that, perhaps, a 12-4 is the required minimum for the challenger to gain it's spot.And make it that a team gets only one chance to do it - so if it fails, they can only accept to enter wherever there is a free spot.
So yeah, 90% of people that read this will just shrug it off and not even consider it.. i know. And i don't care. This would spice things up, give chance for new teams to be in divisions that fit their skill level, and would maintain the 6 week format of the tournament.
If you can't defend your spot against a literal stomp you DON'T deserve it. I don't care if you beat some "weak" div B team to get it. You still don't deserve it in 90% of the time.