Sixes Autumn '24 (S39) Proposed Changes

As Sixes Spring ‘23 (S38) is quickly coming to a close, I wanted to present several changes intended for Sixes Autumn ‘24 (S39) to address several things I have seen in my first season as Head Sixes Admin. These are proposed changes for Sixes S39, so community feedback is both welcomed and encouraged.

Any and all feedback should be directed towards my Discord DMs (@canyouprovethatimdriving).

Team Captain Discord

All communication between team captains and league admins will occur in a seasonal team captain Discord.

Important conversations often occur across multiple teams, captains, and admins which makes resolving issues an arduous process. Team captains will be required to join this server, and league admins will no longer resolve issues within DMs. Additionally, you can expect announcements for an ongoing league to be posted here rather than the general ozfortress Discord. This change is also coming to Highlander!

Transfers

Transfer windows changed to weekly.
Roster lock remains unchanged (end of round 6).

Weekly transfer windows should allow teams to recruit players to their active roster in a more timely manner.

During the first two rounds of the season, the inbound transfer limit is two players.
For the remaining four rounds, the inbound transfer limit is one player.

Due to transfers occurring twice as often, naturally half as many players can be transferred per window. We do recognise, however, that the beginning of a season is often when teams recruit backup players. As a result, we've allowed teams a greater number of inbound transfers at the start of the season.

Maximum inbound transfers reduced from six to four.

Reducing maximum inbound transfers should promote roster stability and make it difficult for teams to replace their full roster over the course of a season.

Mercenaries

If a team requests a mercenary who is completely unrestricted in the division below, it is considered a reasonable mercenary request and should be approved without any restrictions.

In the vast majority of cases, there is no reason why such a player should be denied. There are exceptions, and team captains can contest such mercenaries with admins if there are concerns.

Teams can choose to ignore class restrictions of a mercenary from within their division with admin approval.

Teams should be able to choose to ignore a mercenary's class restriction, particularly as restrictions can be team-dependent. Team captains will need to seek admin approval for such decisions, however you should not expect denial from league admins unless we feel a team has been misled.

Match Days

Friday and Saturday are now considered secondary match days.

There is no need for over-administration; if two teams choose to play Friday or Saturday then they can do so. However, teams are not obligated to do so and can choose to deny this request. If there are match scheduling conflicts, availability on traditional match days will only be considered (as it is currently).

Extensions will only be granted in the case of an emergency.

Extensions beyond Saturday will no longer be granted except for in an emergency; missing core players is not grounds for extension, use a backup player or mercenary.

Division Groupings

Premier and High are now grouped together as the Upper divisions.
The remaining divisions are Lower divisions.

Each division will continue to exist independently of one another, however this is also consistent with the goal to evolve High into a more effective stepping-stone for low Premier. In the event of there being no High division, Premier will be the only Upper division.

Upper and Lower divisions can have slight rule differences.

This was already true with changes unique to Premier, however we will be expanding what differences may be present.

Division administrators will be divided amongst these two groups, rather than one per each division.

Having several admins allocated to each division group should reduce headaches for team captains and admins alike.

High Changes

High will follow all format changes previously unique to only Premier.
High will feature a best-of-five grand final.

League differences which only existed for Premier will now also apply to High. Currently, this is only a small difference in Playoffs format but this may change in S39. Additionally, this means that High will have a BO5 grand final by default however two teams can agree to play a BO3 instead.

Only established Premier players will be restricted in High.

High will see a far more relaxed approach to restrictions. The large number of players whose sit in an awkward position between High and Premier found themselves restricted this season, and this is something we would not like to repeat next season. As a result, we will only restrict players who are deemed as being established in Premier on a class.

Progressive Ruleset

In Lower divisions, we will poll potential changes to the progressive ruleset.

Many players have suggested changes to the progressive ruleset since its adoption this season. As such, we want to gauge opinions from Lower division players on such changes.

In Upper divisions, the progressive ruleset will remain unchanged.

As there are less teams and subsequently less data available for Upper divisions, we would like to see another season of its usage before making any decisions regarding its future in Upper divisions.

Map Voting

Map voting will be changed to single transferable voting.
Five most popular maps played twice, remaining four maps played once.

Single transferable voting should improve overall community satisfaction with the map pool, particularly in choosing which maps are played twice. CGP Grey has a great video to help understand how this voting system works.

Voting can result in differences in map pool between Upper and Lower divisions.

With the separation of Upper and Lower divisions, these two groups can vote in support of slightly different map pools. This is consistent with the approach of leagues overseas.

Alternative Maps

The tenth most popular map will be playable as an alternative map.

For example: say that Metalworks is the alternative map. If two teams didn’t want to play Sultry, they could choose to play Metalworks instead. You cannot replace a KOTH map with an alternative 5CP map and vice versa.

This is a system seen in leagues overseas, and one that can support the return of maps which exist just outside the most popular nine maps. Some specifics are yet to be decided, such as limits as to how much an alternative map can be player or whether alternative maps will be available during playoffs.

Each season a newer map will also be offered as an additional alternative map.

New maps like Valor often struggle to get playtime as they are not part of league map pools, so this would be an opportunity for teams to play these maps if desired.

Still To Come

There are more changes yet to come, including a new Playoffs format proposal for Upper divisions, a refactor of our rulesets, and an updated approach to restrictions in Lower divisions. We're excited to hear your thoughts on these changes, and are excited for what is shaping up to be a big 2024.