Please read the entire post. Don't freak out about certain parts. Everything is up for debate in my opinion. Quite a few things go hand-in-hand in my opinion. So if you only gloss over certain sentences/sections, you won't get the whole picture of what I am suggesting and aiming for.

<b>I. Season Start Date
II. Season Length
III. Maps
IV. Flags
V. Class / Item Changes
VI. Staff
VII. Rule Changes</b>

<b>I. Season Start Date</b>

Hopefully this is an easy decision and everyone agrees with me on starting Season 18 on June 2nd. However, if you have an argument for another start date, please elaborate and explain why. June 2nd is after Easter, GoT, and Memorial Day Weekend - which Easter and Memorial Day are traditionally poor attendance days/nights for leagues. Game of Thrones is obviously expected to occupy a lot of players' attentions as well. Starting much later than June 2nd then runs into the problem of hitting July 4th and what not. Doesn't make much sense to start a season and then have an off week almost immediately.

<b>II. Season Length</b>

Last few seasons have been pretty short in my opinion. I know a handful of players lose interest by Week 3, but do some of you never gain interest because each season is basically a single round robin type of deal? It doesn't last long enough for you to get invested in it?

I'm suggesting a <b><u>double round robin schedule</u></b> for Season 18. This will go hand-in-hand with a couple other suggestions that are about to be mentioned further down the post. I would like to push forward with a double round robin regardless of number of squads. Hopefully we can get an even number of squads. I would love to somehow squeeze out 8 active squads, but that's probably not realistic. Not enough captains/leaders. Plus we have a good bit of casual players who don't show up every week, which is understandable given we're on year 20 of this game.

<b>III. Maps</b>

To go along with the double round robin schedule I'd like to go with for S18, I'd like to use only 1 or 2 maps. If we go with 1 map, we'd play every squad twice, each squad getting a chance at being the home team. If we go with 2 maps, then obviously you'd play every squad once on each map, but only get to be home on one of the maps against that squad. I'm personally leaning towards 2 maps myself, and this will be heavily tied to topic IV. The two maps I have in mind at the moment are a modified KR or possibly another popular USL map and a modified Lava Pit. Lava Pit will make sense after topic IV.

<b>IV. Flags</b>

Don't freak out. I'm not trying to change the league to CTF or even SL. I swear. This will obviously be voted on. But if a clear majority would like to incorporate an extra element into USL besides your standard TDM style game play we have, I say we give it a try. A clear majority being something like 60+%.

My suggestion for introducing Flags is really just to introduce one static Flag at a central location on a map. Lava Pit, if you remember it, has a great spot for such an implementation. HellSpawn has also been working on a map that has an interesting central location we can test out. The one Flag could do one of a few things, reward kills, maybe reward ammo, or maybe even be a victory timer (definitely not 20 seconds though, thinking more like 3+ minutes).

So now if we do a double round robin style schedule with 2 maps, we can have everyone play everyone on a map with TDM being the objective, and also everyone can play everyone with a Flag aspect. That would be my suggestion and introducing a different element into USL to maybe shake things up? I expect a lot of push back on this idea. When I made a thread a couple of months ago asking about Flags or Ammo Drops pretty much no one seemed on board. But we can vote on it, maybe this idea seems good or more interesting now?

<b>V. Class / Item Changes</b>

This is more of an open ended question: are there item or class changes we need? LMG with a quicker reload? 40mm doing more damage? A good number of people have suggested some Cazzo items be introduced since so many players play Cazzo during the week. I'm less in favor of that, but we can vote on some suggestions. I wouldn't be opposed to trying to add something like a Gauss Rifle to Sapper or maybe add the Peacemaker class with the Neutralizer as an alternative to Medic? Once again, if we have a clear cut majority in favor of adding a class change, I wouldn't be opposed to it.

<b>VI. Staff</b>

Would still like to see a Ref from every squad. Hoping you guys can help me out with that come S18.

Going to make some changes to the H. Staff soon to make sure we have an active group to vote on the awards coming up at the end of the season as well as discuss some of these changes discussed in this thread.

<b>VII. Rule Changes</b>

One of the first things I did when becoming Admin was literally make a news post asking for feedback on rules and anything that needs to be addressed. So if you have concerns regarding the rules, please bring them up after this season. I will get with the H. Staff to discuss some of the things already mentioned to myself. Obviously not a fan of changing rules mid season.

I'll put up a poll soon regarding Flags with a simple Yes / No type response. If enough players (once again like 60% plus) want to try it. We'll expand on it and narrow down how to implement it.

the people of usl want laws removed

"I'm suggesting a double round robin schedule for Season 18"
Season activity goes down on double round robin. Only argument for double round robin is to mitigate side advantage.

"I'd like to use only 1 or 2 maps"
This is just really random as hell. We went away from 1 map rotation and do not believe has voiced their support to return back to the old map selection. More people actually want the original pick map or defer to eliminate the RNG I got KR/Apollo on titan RIP. With the changes to the map, maybe we can keep the same system we have currently.

Flags.. lol.
Do you even have a dev to help work out any changes? With oct now fading to geneshift, you're left with hellspawn deciding if he wants to do it or not. Would like to see an argument for certain things before you start polling every single change.

"When I made a thread a couple of months ago asking about Flags or Ammo Drops pretty much no one seemed on board. But we can vote on it, maybe this idea seems good or more interesting now? "
Lol.. oh boy.

search and destroy league or bust.

Edit: Serious note, if we want to spice up the gametype behind USL, why go with something that is already extremely stale and boring?

A few players have repeatedly asked to vote on Flags. Going to give them their opportunity now.

I'm voicing my opinion to move back to fewer maps now. Changing maps every week gives squads little time to prepare and form chemistry and cohesion on maps.

Problem with single round robin is it becomes a single elimination season for a few squads. Plus the season is over before anyone has time to get invested in it in my opinion.

So I'm voicing my opinion toward both of those. If you think they're such bad ideas surely they'll be voted down anyways.

"A few players have repeatedly asked to vote on Flags. Going to give them their opportunity now. "
The argument is always flawed and for some reason the "superior" SL league, which accommodates the proposed new changes never get any interest in this game. Would like to see an argument for flags that addresses something unless we are pulling a SL of SOE where they added CTFPL changes to "change the game up".

"I'm voicing my opinion to move back to fewer maps now. Changing maps every week gives squads little time to prepare and form chemistry and cohesion on maps."
This is fair from your perspective of the game. From my point of view, this only benefits one type of squad; inactive squads. The problem with your argument is that every map have been played a ton, and majority of the USL players have been playing this league for a LONG time. Your arguments holds up for cazzo players on oct squad. You gain more chemistry by having a leader and sbing more. Seems like an easy fix tbh. Most squads are active besides PC/Oct's squad.

"Problem with single round robin is it becomes a single elimination season for a few squads. Plus the season is over before anyone has time to get invested in it in my opinion."
Another point that is true in theory but we have implemented double round robin and only led to one thing: inactivity after losing a few games.

"
So I'm voicing my opinion toward both of those. If you think they're such bad ideas surely they'll be voted down anyways. "
I never had any problem with voicing opinions but I agree with amok in the previous thread; if you're now changing your stance to poll every suggestion, I honestly have no clue what your role is.

Number of maps have been polled since I came back, so I don't see a reason in stopping it.

Double vs. Single season length sounds controversial. As I admitted, I know a lot of players have said the same thing you said above. So I'm not going to force it, but I would like to see where the community stands.

The players asking for the flag polling seemed pretty convinced they could get the votes, so I'm giving them an opportunity. It's really the only thing I'm polling on atm that's different from past seasons.

It would be a travesty if we went back to 1 map, that's when people get really bored.

I like our current setup, you can practice all week on that map.

Champs kr up essentially adds a new map too. Someone change up ec and we're good. Ec is awful.

Well I'm personally in favor of 2 maps like I said. But this is one thing I want to poll.

Humor me please.

As someone coming from non playoff squads, and by no means am I saying this is why, but changing the map every week is definitely jarring imo. It's hard to develop chemistry in just a few days when the squad is only around for a season.

I know who those players are and some are sitting on my discord playing PoE/Destiny 2 than playing this season of infantry. We have the same number of squads with majority of that core sitting out the season, so not sure if their input means much if they play every 3 seasons.

Just saying my vote on the few things mentioned
Current map pool(include bombs/HS new map/Revised map changes) > Pick map/defer > New proposal(2 map pool)
Flag: No. Would love for a different argument to be brought up that isn't misleading.
Single vs Double: Single due to inactivity but will acknowledge it's mitigates side selection.

What would you suggest changing about EC btw, Mecca?

@Emp
The problem with that notion is if every map change is different in nature. The only real difference imo besides map being unfavor is EC and KR. EC has more protection to hide but easier to get hit by law physics. KR is out in the open so you have to rely on mechanics.

Developing chemistry has nothing to do with map. For example, Iceman playing agg and being paired with insert passive rine will not change at all from KR to EC. That's on the leader to get everyone on the same page. If you guys are passive, then everyone from player 1 to 8 needs to be passive and rely on focus firing better as a team. Playing on the same map will not change the outcome considering KR hasn't been changed since SOE.

I disagree though.

Playing for more than 3 days on a map gives players an idea of how they play on the map as a unit. It gives the leader(s) a better understanding of what their strengths and weaknesses on that map are.

Plus even though the maps are more or less the same, you have some players returning from years of being away. Then they come back spend 3-4 days on a map and change the map every week for 5 weeks. Then the season is over.

This would be great except 9 times out of 10 the same core group of people on every squad have been playing together for a long time in FI and some of us even way way way back into SOE days. I do however understand that some people playing for 20 years still need to have their hand held and to be told everything but that is also not map dependent but rather player dependent.

Or you can ask other leaders if they randomly change their core strategies from map to map. The passive squad will remain to setup ambushes or hold certain strong holds. The aggressive squad will look for angles and push the tempo. I don't. I'm not sure if some leader is doing that but I can assure you that it's not effective one bit to pull that off.

Majority of our player base remain the same. Your squad shouldn't be shocked now to figure out the general consensus of a player skill level. Kippa and herc came back. They didn't know the map but still have an understanding of needing angles to win x battle. Smaller map pool does not give weaker squad some magical chemistry fix.

Go ask kevin on how I led with waduhek and sonichu. I played different on waduhek because it was a less talented lineup. The onus is on the leader and whoever is recruiting your roster to make sure they mesh well as a squad. BB squad is doing fine and making sure they are on the same page as a squad. Nothing to do with maps one bit.

Like I said, I won't force us to use fewer maps. But I know I'm not the only one who dislikes playing 5 week 5 map seasons.

BB/Sov are right. Saying that less changing/rotating of maps are going to somehow change leadership/squad tendencies is pretty insane.

People are not only going to play with their pals (which logically will include playstyles), but a somewhat competent leader will recruit players that can adjust to the playstyles that the majority of the lineup uses. There are rare cases (Pistor, no offense :)).

You guys are coming at this from players who have been playing the last 10 years, mostly with the same people.

I'm coming at this from someone who came back 9 months ago and plays with a different group of people each season.

So it's not surprising we see differently.

And I think it's pretty insane to assume letting a squad play more than a week on a map wouldn't give that squad time to improve.