There have been some questions as to when the league will start coming across various mediums, so it's best to centralize that information here.
Once we have four stable squads which can reliably show eight on a Sunday (currently ~four players away at minimum), a start date of two Sundays out will be announced. This allows room for a few things: potential additional squad(s) to join, initiation weekend balance voting, maps selection, schedule format alignment, schedule generation, and more.
Having discussed with my advisors and the captains to reach a consensus, I can now announce that map selection will be different this season. Instead of limiting the pool to maps excluded from the previous season and relying on RNG to determine the pool from that subset, we are empowering captains to select the maps.
Each captain (or their representative) will submit the map their squad wishes to include during initiation weekend. Duplicates will be managed conversationally through that weekend to ensure each squad gets their opportunity to submit a unique map; should any participating squads opt out of this selection, we will fill their submission with a randomly selected map. The only restriction on map selection is that the maps are USL-ready (no brand-new maps to sneak in which players have not had an opportunity to play during the extended offseason). The schedule against the map pool will still be randomly generated. Additionally, playoffs will use random map selection in the same way as last season (random selection from same map pool). Instead of having to wait, however, I intend on releasing the full schedule (including playoffs w/undetermined seeds) of maps to be used for the season prior to the season starting.
Last but not least, I'd like to take a moment to welcome FlyMolo as he has been selected to step in to the vacant advisor role. Molo has been an Infantry superfan for longer than a lot of folks have even played the game. He brings a passion for the game expressed in his desire to play, his willingness to create maps, and his volunteer service hosting events for the community.
I look forward to continue working with him as he officially joins my staff of volunteers in our attempt to revitalize and maintain interest in USL going forward.
Once we have four stable squads which can reliably show eight on a Sunday (currently ~four players away at minimum), a start date of two Sundays out will be announced. This allows room for a few things: potential additional squad(s) to join, initiation weekend balance voting, maps selection, schedule format alignment, schedule generation, and more.
Having discussed with my advisors and the captains to reach a consensus, I can now announce that map selection will be different this season. Instead of limiting the pool to maps excluded from the previous season and relying on RNG to determine the pool from that subset, we are empowering captains to select the maps.
Each captain (or their representative) will submit the map their squad wishes to include during initiation weekend. Duplicates will be managed conversationally through that weekend to ensure each squad gets their opportunity to submit a unique map; should any participating squads opt out of this selection, we will fill their submission with a randomly selected map. The only restriction on map selection is that the maps are USL-ready (no brand-new maps to sneak in which players have not had an opportunity to play during the extended offseason). The schedule against the map pool will still be randomly generated. Additionally, playoffs will use random map selection in the same way as last season (random selection from same map pool). Instead of having to wait, however, I intend on releasing the full schedule (including playoffs w/undetermined seeds) of maps to be used for the season prior to the season starting.
Last but not least, I'd like to take a moment to welcome FlyMolo as he has been selected to step in to the vacant advisor role. Molo has been an Infantry superfan for longer than a lot of folks have even played the game. He brings a passion for the game expressed in his desire to play, his willingness to create maps, and his volunteer service hosting events for the community.
I look forward to continue working with him as he officially joins my staff of volunteers in our attempt to revitalize and maintain interest in USL going forward.
12.7mm