This week marks the first-time this season the league will hold inter-divisional matches. The veterans of the league are very familiar with how important this week's matches are. However, for the new members to the SFCCL, it may be confusing at first glance, but I promise that it is very simple to understand what's at stake this week. Inter-divisional matches are one of the 4 ways a fighter can change divisions. Instead of the usual divisional matches with ranked fighter battling it out for a higher rank within a division, inter-divisional matches pit the same ranked fighter in each division against each other. The catch? The winner of the match takes the higher division ranking, and the losing fighter falls to the lower division.
For example, the #1 Contender in the Gold Division will not fight the Gold Champion this week. He/she, Zti890 Cammy, will instead fight the #1 Contender in the Silver Division, Fran_Gil's Guile. The winning fighter becomes the #1 Contender in the Gold Division (and get a shot at the Grand Champion next week), while the losing fighter will be the #1 Contender in the lower Silver Division. Get it? This week presents the opportunity for half the fighters in the league to move up a whole division simply by winning their match. Champions will fight Champions, #1 Contenders will fight over the next title shot in each division, and even the lowest ranked #15 fighters will have a chance to move up a division. Now, on the flip side, the other half of the fighters in the higher division, are forced to defend their spot in the higher division. For them, its time to prove your status in the higher division by defending it against a fighter in the lower division.
These inter-divisional matches take place every 5 weeks this season. The rotation will change every other time as well. This week, the Silver Division fighter has the opportunity to move up into the Gold Division if they win their match. In Week 10, the Silver Division will be defending itself against the Bronze Division. Finally in Week 15, the Silver Division will fight the Gold Division again and so forth. This rotation continues for the rest of the divisions in the league, including the Euro Red and Blue Divisions. As promised at the beginning of the season, the league is still planning for a C Division vs Waiting List matches, but that won't take place until the second rotation in Week 10.
Week 4 is now officially closed. Last week was the worst week in terms of completed matches with only 77% of the matches completed. The previous record low was in Week 1, which only had 78% despite having 24 less matches. As a result, 3 members new to the league last week were dropped due to not playing their matches. This falls under the new rule for new members that require them to play all matches during their first 3 weeks. If not, they are automatically dropped from the league. This rule was put in place in order to maximize the chance to have a full, active league with members playing their matches week in and week out.
Thanx again for everyone's continued excitement and commitment for those that did play your matches. The Gold, Silver, and Red Divisions had all of their matches completed. And for that reason, I am very appreciative.
WEEK 4 RECAP
While Week 4 only had 77% of the scheduled matches completed, it is still much better than our average 60% last season. A total of 15 matches had to be decided in the end. 9 of those 15 matches were forfeits, which occurs when one member does not play their 2 matches for the week. 4 matches ended up in a "Draw" as a result of two members unable to play one of their matches. Finally, 2 matches ended in a Double-Forfeit. Below are the final stats:
Completed matches: 49 out 64 (77%)
Forfeited matches: 9 out of 64 (14%)
Draw matches: 4 out of 64 (6%)
Double Forfeit matches: 2 out of 64 (3%)
OLD, NEW, & CHANGING MEMBERS
A total of 3 members were dropped from the league due to inactivity (Ever_So_Black and Johnjpzx from the US, and Dirdamo from Spain). One member had to unfortunately dropout from the league since they could not connect to his opponents for the 2nd week (DJ__C--4 from Guatemala).
As a result, we have 4 new members (3 in the Americas Region, 1 in the Euro region):
New Members for the Americas Region: FlungDungFar from Nevada, Ryukenishida from Ohio, and former member Kurokiba13 from California.
New Members for the European Region: Joining the Euro Region is StoneHengeMoney from England.
All 4 members were invited to join the active roster from the Waiting List. A PSN message was sent on Sunday, August 22nd, asking all Waiting List members if they were ready to join. The first 4 players (3 for the Americas & 1 for the European Region) to respond were accepted. More on the Waiting List below.
Four members changed one of their fighters: Ccinoone M. BISON, Ciigloman GUILE, Haduken3 ABEL, and Sk8dragon GEN. Reminder, any member can change their fighter, but it will result in a penalty of the new fighter dropping one division and starting at the #15 ranking.
The following 'Auto-Promotions' occurred as a result of openings were as a result of the above activity (note - depending on where the vacant spot is in the division, not all fighters take advantage of the auto-promotions):
GOLD Division: 0 spots
SILVER Division: 2 spots
BRONZE Division: 1 spot
A Division: 0 spots
B Division: 3 spots
C Division: 6 spots
Red Division: 0 spots
Blue Division: 3 spots
Any fighters that did not play their matches do not benefit and could see other fighters jump them in the rankings. It pays to play.
THE WAITING LISTS
The Waiting List will be managed a bit differently going forward. My original thought process was to simply invite the first player on the list as an opening became available. However, it soon became apparent that would not work for the league due to the fact that a response from the first player listed could take weeks to come back. I wanted to be sure that any new member knew in advance that they would be part of the active league. Therefore, I had to come up with a new system to make the Waiting List work for the league.
Going forward, invites will be sent to ALL players on the Waiting List the Saturday night before the end of the scheduled week. By that time, I have a general idea which members will be kicked out due to inactivity or that have dropped out voluntarily. With that information, I can then inform all players on the Waiting List how many spots may come available for the next week. At that point, I will send out a mass message on the PSN letting everyone know about the possible opening. The first players to reply & confirm their interest in joining will be accepted into those openings. Therefore, everyone on the List has a fair chance to join the league, and hopefully, understand they are part of the active league when they see their name in the division rankings and weekly matches. So for all those players on the Waiting List, be sure to check your messages on the Sunday before a week ends. Your invite to join could be waiting for you.
To all active members: be sure to play your matches every week so you don't get dropped from the league. I can attest to the fact that there are plenty of players on the Waiting List dying to get into the league and take your spot if you don't want it.
Again, no plan for another Free-For-All event as the List is very manageable currently.
MATCHES OF THE WEEK:
There are several great matches this week, so I'll highlight some below to watch out for:
Gold vs. Silver Division Champions: ElGeneral GUILE (5-0) vs. Epedemicc GOUKEN (5-0): The only 5-0 fighters in the league and both are coming off title defenses against the War Games Prize matches. Both fighters then went on to defend their respective titles in their regular weekly match. Winner takes the Grand Champion ranking while the loser will be the Silver Champion.
Gold vs. Silver Division #8 ranked fighters: xx_Von_xx KEN (3-1) vs. Zabi- C. VIPER (4-0): Two members fighting with their main characters that each rank as among the best with Ken and Viper, respectively. Von's Ken began the season in the Silver Division, and Zabi's Viper began in the A Division.
Bronze vs. A Division Champions: BPKing ADON (3-1) vs. Cooi_Breeze CHUN LI (3-1): Another Champion vs. Champion matchup involving two up 7 coming fighters this season. BPKing's Adon began in the A Division, while Cooi's Chun Li began in the B Division.
There are other interesting matchups, however, the involved fighters have too few matches.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
Hopefully the blog from last week help clarify some of the details of upcoming events this season. The website has been updated for Week 5, including updating the SFCCL global maps to include the newest members. The Player and Battle Points tables have also been updated as have the Members Database.
DEADLINE FOR WEEK 5
Deadline for all Week 5 matches is Sunday, September 5th.
Good luck to all members in Week 5.