All official decisions and announcements for LCPL will be found here.
The tier lineup this year is as follows:
Tournaments Rules and General Guidelines
The winning team of this tour will win a custom avatar.
The hosts for this tour are Nol and Finchinator.
The tier lineup this year is as follows:
- SS LC
- SS LC
- SS LC
- SS LC
- SM LC
- ORAS LC
- BW LC
- DPP LC
Tournaments Rules and General Guidelines
Total money for teams is 100,000 credits.
Teams must have a minimum of 10 players and a maximum of 16 players by the conclusion of the live auction.
In the weeks preceding the live auction, a time will be chosen by all of the Managers to meet and perform a live auction in order to choose players. Managers will be expected to remain at the auction for the entire duration, which should take approximately 2 hours. If a Manager cannot, for some reason, find any feasible time that he can attend a Live Auction, then their retained player (if any) will be called upon to fill in the spot. If no Manager can fill the spot for the Live Auction… then a new General Manager who can find time to make a live auction will be found to replace the old one.
Once a time is set, all 8 managers + the hosts will enter the place where the auction will be held - likely a private room on the main server. Spectators are allowed to join in to watch the fun unfold, but will not be able to speak. Discussion on the bidding at hand should be relegated to the LC chatroom or any other appropriate chat outlet.
The hosts will first ask a team to nominate a player. The order by which teams will nominate players will go in a randomized snaking pattern from the first chosen team to the last chosen team, then the last chosen team to the first chosen team. Details of said player will be displayed and bidding will commence, starting at 3000 credits, with the nominating team automatically placing the first bid. The auction will then be in real time. Managers will simply put in their bids in the chat, raising a minimum of 500 credits. If after 15 seconds there are no new bids, the player is sold to the highest bid in the channel. Updated credit totals will be displayed and then the next manager in the rotation will be prompted to nominate a player.
Managers are asked to please have a predetermined list of players you intend to nominate as well as potential bid caps, in order to make the process go as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
Managers: it is necessary for you to field a roster of 8 starters and a minimum of 2 substitutes, with a maximum of 8 substitutes allowed, all of which must be paid at least 3000 credits. This creates a soft cap of 73,000 credits on any particular bid - that is, the maximum amount of money you can spend on any one player and still have enough money left over to pay at least 3000 credits a piece on 9 more players.
Remember that there are midseason free agent pick-ups. It may sometimes be beneficial to save some credits in order to pick up players midseason.
Teams must have a minimum of 10 players and a maximum of 16 players by the conclusion of the live auction.
In the weeks preceding the live auction, a time will be chosen by all of the Managers to meet and perform a live auction in order to choose players. Managers will be expected to remain at the auction for the entire duration, which should take approximately 2 hours. If a Manager cannot, for some reason, find any feasible time that he can attend a Live Auction, then their retained player (if any) will be called upon to fill in the spot. If no Manager can fill the spot for the Live Auction… then a new General Manager who can find time to make a live auction will be found to replace the old one.
Once a time is set, all 8 managers + the hosts will enter the place where the auction will be held - likely a private room on the main server. Spectators are allowed to join in to watch the fun unfold, but will not be able to speak. Discussion on the bidding at hand should be relegated to the LC chatroom or any other appropriate chat outlet.
The hosts will first ask a team to nominate a player. The order by which teams will nominate players will go in a randomized snaking pattern from the first chosen team to the last chosen team, then the last chosen team to the first chosen team. Details of said player will be displayed and bidding will commence, starting at 3000 credits, with the nominating team automatically placing the first bid. The auction will then be in real time. Managers will simply put in their bids in the chat, raising a minimum of 500 credits. If after 15 seconds there are no new bids, the player is sold to the highest bid in the channel. Updated credit totals will be displayed and then the next manager in the rotation will be prompted to nominate a player.
Managers are asked to please have a predetermined list of players you intend to nominate as well as potential bid caps, in order to make the process go as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
Managers: it is necessary for you to field a roster of 8 starters and a minimum of 2 substitutes, with a maximum of 8 substitutes allowed, all of which must be paid at least 3000 credits. This creates a soft cap of 73,000 credits on any particular bid - that is, the maximum amount of money you can spend on any one player and still have enough money left over to pay at least 3000 credits a piece on 9 more players.
Remember that there are midseason free agent pick-ups. It may sometimes be beneficial to save some credits in order to pick up players midseason.
During Week 3, sign-ups will open for midseason. Players that signed up for the original auction and weren't drafted will sign up and a new free agent list will be made. Note: Even if you signed up the first time around, you must re-signup in order to get on the midseason free agent list. After sign-ups close, the host will remind each manager how many credits they have left over from the original live auction.
Instead of having another live auction, an auction will take place on the forums. A manager will post their bids, with other managers having up to 12 hours from the time of the post to make a higher bid on the player. After 12 hours, if the manager has not been outbid, his or her team will be awarded the players. The Midseason auction will occur during Week 4. The players purchased here will be allowed to start playing starting on Week 5. There is no use for credits leftover after the midseason free agent pickups, so it is in every manager’s best interest to spend all of their remaining points at this time. No players may enter LCPL after the midseason auction, except in the case of a team falling below the minimum number of starters due to their players being banned, in which case they'll be allowed to pick players from the undrafted pool until they reach the minimum.
Instead of having another live auction, an auction will take place on the forums. A manager will post their bids, with other managers having up to 12 hours from the time of the post to make a higher bid on the player. After 12 hours, if the manager has not been outbid, his or her team will be awarded the players. The Midseason auction will occur during Week 4. The players purchased here will be allowed to start playing starting on Week 5. There is no use for credits leftover after the midseason free agent pickups, so it is in every manager’s best interest to spend all of their remaining points at this time. No players may enter LCPL after the midseason auction, except in the case of a team falling below the minimum number of starters due to their players being banned, in which case they'll be allowed to pick players from the undrafted pool until they reach the minimum.
After the live auction, the tournament will commence. The league stages consist of a Round Robin tournament. Every team will face every other team once through 7 weeks of play. Each manager will submit to the hosts a roster no later than the deadline of the previous week. This roster will list the starting players and what metagames they will play.
When the week starts, teams' players will face off in their respective metagames / tiers. The SS LC 1 from Team A will face the SS LC 1 from team B, SS LC 2 will face SS LC 2, and so on. Whichever team wins the most battles will be declared the victor for the week. Rather than score based on how many individual battles a team wins, the only thing that matters is who beat the most teams. As such, points are awarded based only on wins and losses versus teams as a whole, not individual players. Beating a team in a week’s matchups is worth two points, tying with a team is worth one point, and losing is worth none, simple as that. At the end of the round robin, the top four teams in the points proceed to the playoffs and will be seeded into a knock-out style bracket where they will face off until only one team remains.
There are a few regulatory things during the league stages that need to be outlined.
1. Substitutes – At any point in time during the week, a team may make a substitution for an inactive player. In order to do this a manager must post in the thread, tagging the hosts, the opposing managers and the opposing player stating which player is substituting out, and which player is substituting in. A player that has substituted out for a week cannot be substituted back in. In addition, in order to catch any attempts at garnering favorable matchups in SS LC (where the lineup you choose affects pairings), all substitutions are subject to veto by the hosts if the substitution is suspected to be attempting to “game” the system.
2. Trades – Trades are only possible after the auction and until the beginning of week 1. This means you can trade before week 1 has begun but not once the week has been posted. In order to complete a trade, both involved managers must submit a PM to the hosts detailing which player(s) on their team they are trading away, as well as what they are receiving as compensation. Retained players cannot be traded.
3. There will be no trades allowed during the midseason pickups.
4. Activity decisions – There are inevitably times where two players simply fail to complete a match; however, the nature of the tournament system sometimes makes it advantageous to purposely fail to play (such as when a team is up 6-5 in a week). Because of this, it is necessary to make activity decisions on matches. Hosts are required to make thorough investigations regarding each and every potential failed match during a week. If both parties are deemed to be equally apathetic or enthusiastic about getting the match done, but just have not had the opportunity to make it happen, the match will result in a no contest. However, if it is deemed that one party made significantly more effort than the other in attempting to get the match done, then a win will be awarded to that player. Things that will make it very likely that you will lose via activity include: failing to VM your opponent immediately upon the week’s start, scheduling a match and being documented as missing the match time, failing to provide any concrete times for which you can be reached, failing to respond to an opponent’s message at all. Note that this is a tournament that requires a high level of activity and diligence, if you don’t think you can get your matches done, quite simply don’t sign up. Please also note the explicit guidelines for activity wins in team tournaments in the General Tournament Rules.
5. Rule Breaking – There is no excuse for breaking any of the predetermined rules. If you are caught breaking a rule, you will lose your match. There is no lenience with regards to this. Break a rule, you lose. Period.
6. Reversing Rulings - No ruling will be retroactively overturned once the week following the week that the ruling has been made has ended. This includes: activity rulings / rulings based on rule breaking / anything else under the sun. I'm not going back in time to reevaluate every single decision I've made throughout the tournament on Week 7 because you think you were gypped 1-2 wins along the way and now they're the difference between you and a playoff spot. Any appeals to a ruling must be made during the week that the ruling is made; beyond that, all rulings are final once the week ends.
When the week starts, teams' players will face off in their respective metagames / tiers. The SS LC 1 from Team A will face the SS LC 1 from team B, SS LC 2 will face SS LC 2, and so on. Whichever team wins the most battles will be declared the victor for the week. Rather than score based on how many individual battles a team wins, the only thing that matters is who beat the most teams. As such, points are awarded based only on wins and losses versus teams as a whole, not individual players. Beating a team in a week’s matchups is worth two points, tying with a team is worth one point, and losing is worth none, simple as that. At the end of the round robin, the top four teams in the points proceed to the playoffs and will be seeded into a knock-out style bracket where they will face off until only one team remains.
There are a few regulatory things during the league stages that need to be outlined.
1. Substitutes – At any point in time during the week, a team may make a substitution for an inactive player. In order to do this a manager must post in the thread, tagging the hosts, the opposing managers and the opposing player stating which player is substituting out, and which player is substituting in. A player that has substituted out for a week cannot be substituted back in. In addition, in order to catch any attempts at garnering favorable matchups in SS LC (where the lineup you choose affects pairings), all substitutions are subject to veto by the hosts if the substitution is suspected to be attempting to “game” the system.
2. Trades – Trades are only possible after the auction and until the beginning of week 1. This means you can trade before week 1 has begun but not once the week has been posted. In order to complete a trade, both involved managers must submit a PM to the hosts detailing which player(s) on their team they are trading away, as well as what they are receiving as compensation. Retained players cannot be traded.
3. There will be no trades allowed during the midseason pickups.
4. Activity decisions – There are inevitably times where two players simply fail to complete a match; however, the nature of the tournament system sometimes makes it advantageous to purposely fail to play (such as when a team is up 6-5 in a week). Because of this, it is necessary to make activity decisions on matches. Hosts are required to make thorough investigations regarding each and every potential failed match during a week. If both parties are deemed to be equally apathetic or enthusiastic about getting the match done, but just have not had the opportunity to make it happen, the match will result in a no contest. However, if it is deemed that one party made significantly more effort than the other in attempting to get the match done, then a win will be awarded to that player. Things that will make it very likely that you will lose via activity include: failing to VM your opponent immediately upon the week’s start, scheduling a match and being documented as missing the match time, failing to provide any concrete times for which you can be reached, failing to respond to an opponent’s message at all. Note that this is a tournament that requires a high level of activity and diligence, if you don’t think you can get your matches done, quite simply don’t sign up. Please also note the explicit guidelines for activity wins in team tournaments in the General Tournament Rules.
5. Rule Breaking – There is no excuse for breaking any of the predetermined rules. If you are caught breaking a rule, you will lose your match. There is no lenience with regards to this. Break a rule, you lose. Period.
6. Reversing Rulings - No ruling will be retroactively overturned once the week following the week that the ruling has been made has ended. This includes: activity rulings / rulings based on rule breaking / anything else under the sun. I'm not going back in time to reevaluate every single decision I've made throughout the tournament on Week 7 because you think you were gypped 1-2 wins along the way and now they're the difference between you and a playoff spot. Any appeals to a ruling must be made during the week that the ruling is made; beyond that, all rulings are final once the week ends.
At the end of the normal weeks, there will be a knockout style playoffs involving the top 4 teams in the points. In the event of a tie in overall points standings, the following criteria is used for breaking ties.
• Overall Points >
• Battle Difference (total # battles won - total # battles lost) >
• Best of 3 - each team picks a unique tier with the winner of the Head to Head matchup picking second, then SS LC is the 3rd game. In the event that the two teams tied in the Head to Head matchup, the team with better results against the higher seeds will pick second.
After the top 4 have been determined, each team will be seeded. The #1 seed will play the #4 seed and the #2 seed will play the #3 seed. The victors of these matches will advance to the finals match.
In the case of a tie during playoffs, the advancing team will be decided by a best of three - each team picks a unique tier with the higher seed picking second, then SS LC is the 3rd game.
• Overall Points >
• Battle Difference (total # battles won - total # battles lost) >
• Best of 3 - each team picks a unique tier with the winner of the Head to Head matchup picking second, then SS LC is the 3rd game. In the event that the two teams tied in the Head to Head matchup, the team with better results against the higher seeds will pick second.
After the top 4 have been determined, each team will be seeded. The #1 seed will play the #4 seed and the #2 seed will play the #3 seed. The victors of these matches will advance to the finals match.
In the case of a tie during playoffs, the advancing team will be decided by a best of three - each team picks a unique tier with the higher seed picking second, then SS LC is the 3rd game.
The winning team of this tour will win a custom avatar.
The hosts for this tour are Nol and Finchinator.