Football Superstars

Yes folks, Season 2 of the Superstar League has now officially started, with the first window opening up last night.

We’e already seen the first results come in, with Synergy and Eurostars Elites breaking the ice with a 2-1 win to Synergy in Division 1 of the Pele 730. Division 2 is showing the most activity so far, with FC Superstars, SG Concordia, Next Generation FC, Wicked Crew and Eurostars Utd all getting started.  Meanwhile, FC No Name took a win against Rebels FC in the first SL matches to be played on Pele.

You can stay up to date on all the tables, fixtures and results via the PMC Tournament homepage, which allows you to view all of the action.  

Keep your eyes peeled for more updates as the season progresses.  For those of you who weren’t able to join the league, fear not!  Season 2 will be following hot on the heels of season 1, and we’ll also be announcing more events in between to keep you going during the short mid season break while teams prep for season 2.

It’s been mentioned elsewhere that the new season of the Superstar League will be kicking off once the upcoming game patch is nicely bedded in.  We are now stupidly close to getting this deployed, and so I wanted to give an update on a few thins Superstar League related.

The Long and the short

I spent some time picking the brains of the players and managers from the last season to get thoughts on how the season can be improved.  One suggestion was to reduce the length of the season from two months to one, by making it a single leg competition. This received hot and cold responses from different parts of the community.  However, in light of the current game changes and the feedback from the majority of the managers who replied to me, these being the ones who will be responsible for keeping the teams organised throughout an event, this will be a single leg season.

This is not to say that all Superstar League seasons will be only one leg. I can totally appreciate the desire for a double legged event but this season will be short and sharp, allowing us to move onto the next in quick time. It also reduces the chances of major deployments occurring mid season, and we cannot be ignorant of the development and deployment schedule.

We’ll play this season out with a single leg and then take it from there.

Well qualified

Qualifying to play in the Superstar League is simple.  All you need is a team of at least six players for seven a side and ten players for eleven a side.  You must also have played at least three matches of at least 7 a side in the two weeks before the season starts as proof that you are able to pull your team together and play.  There will be an Open League event as a warm up and we encourage all teams to use this as an opportunity to check out the opposition and to get the required games played.  If you do not take part in this open league event then you will be required to provide the iSpot details of three matches within the time period.

Note that if a team is entered for the 7 a side league then they do not have to play three 7 a side matches to qualify provided they can show three 11 a side matches.  This qualification is to show that your team is able to organise themselves into playing a game.  We are happy to trust that if you can organise a 11 a side match then you can organise an 7 a side.

Submitting your team

Last season TMB and myself spent way more time than we would have liked adding, removing, swapping and checking players as teams re-organised themselves over the course of the competition.  Now, we don’t want to handicap teams by stopping you from doing what you need to do to keep your team going, but at the same time we want to streamline things.

As such, all team submissions or roster changes will be done via a form that we will provide upon sign up.  If you want to make a change then you must submit this form via email.

Using this form will help you to keep track of who and how many you have on your roster, as well as speeding up the checking and approval turn over.

Communication is key

One of the problems many complained about last time was that certain teams wer very difficult to get hold of.  We understand that not everyone uses IRC or other chat programs, but these should not be needed provided teams can be contacted ahead of time.

As such, this time we will require that every team manager makes a post on the forum, and puts forward at least one other person who can be contacted.  This means that if players cannot be contacted on IRC or in game then they will always be contactable by PM.  Turn on your notification settings to make sure you never miss a PM. 

Making it Newsworthy

Competitions such as this should be front page news, and we intend that to be the case.  As such, I’d like to introduce you to Adfero, as he is on the forum.  You can PM him with anything you feel is newsworthy, and you may well find him approaching you with a few questions of his own.  He is our roving reporter and will be updating the front page news on a regular basis with the happenings within the league.

More to come

That’s enough to be going on with for now.  The official announcement will go up as soon as this patch has been bedded in (we’re sooooo close!), as well as full details on the requirements and rules.  There’ll be enough time in the lead up for players to get used to the changes it brings.  Keep your eyes peeled for more news on this.

In the mean time, feel free to contact community.management@cybersportsworld.com with any questions, and feel free to PM Adfero, our intrepid reporter, with any newsworthy items.

We’ll see you on the pitch.

Running a competitive PMC is no small feat, and keeping them going consistently through an ongoing competition can also be hard work.  While the managers of the teams involved in the Superstar League will tell you it has its own rewards, there are some who need more immediate gratification and can’t commit to an ongoing event.

It is for such people that the Open Leagues were created.  An Open League is a tournament with no set fixture schedule, no winners and no losers.  It is a chance for PMC teams to come together and play a bunch of matches at their own leisure. 

Something different

“So how is this different to a PMC friendly match” I hear you cry.  Well, there are a few differences.  Firstly, there is a list of fixtures drawn up with only those teams who have entered and been accepted taking part.  There are two legs to each fixture, so the same two teams cannot play against each other more than once within the Open League, this encourages teams to play a variety of opponents.

More importantly, as these still class as tournament matches then there are Experience and FSD end of match rewards for all teams who play.

Open now!

Most Open leagues are one night events, condensed like this to mean more teams are online and ready to play.  However, this week we are launching the first week-long Open League events.

Joining these events could not be simpler.  All you need to do is head on over to the Tournament Homepage and sign up to the event of your choice.  Look there now and you’ll see the event for tomorrow night, as well as the 730 and 1130 7-day events.  The real beauty of an Open League is that it requires minimal commitment or obligation.  You can play as much or as little as you like within the event.  The results and tables are purely for your own interest, as there is no winner or loser within such an event.

So, if you are a manager of a PMC then you have nothing to lose.  Sign up and get involved.  It’s a great chance to mingle with some new teams and to get some practice in for the serious competitions.

Visit the Tournament Homepage

Many of you may have experienced problems in over the last week or so in regards to match start errors or game crashes. The good news is that we have a fix for this ready to go. However, we want to give it a road test and put it through its paces. As such, we will be running two Open League events this weekend on the test server, Hurst. These are open for sign up on the tournament home page and we would like as many of you as possible to take part is this test to make sure all is well.

To take part in this, you simply need to sign up as normal. However, as this will be taking place on Hurst then you will need to install the test world client here: http://footballsuperstars.com/test_world/download/

A new account migration has taken place so all your characters and PMCs will be up to date as of Friday 10th September. The purpose of this test is to assess match server stability, in particular the creation and starting of matches and the delivery of rewards. As such, could you please email community.management@cybersportsworld with your feedback. If you notice any problems then please describe them in as much detail as possible and include screenshots.

As match rewards from the test server do not carry over onto Pele or Cruyff, we would like to incentise teams to take part by offering you something for your time. As such, could the managers of the participating teams please email community.management@cybersportsworld with the names of the players who took part in your team, and we will reward each player with 5 FSB.

Many thanks to one and all. If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to ask.