Highlander Season 20 - Get READY!

Wed, Sep 7, 2016 by Kumori

Teams... get your clans ready!!!



UGC is excited to officially announce the 20th season of our Highlander league!



We are starting in just 3 weeks!



If you have a team from a prior season and would like to play make sure to sign-in with your leader account and accept our invite to join the current season!

If you are a new team registering with UGC for the first time, WELCOME!

Important Dates

Monday, September 26th - Week 1 of Highlander Season 20

Tuesday, October 4th - Highlander Sign-ups Close

Tuesday, November 1st - Highlander Fulltime Rosterlock

Monday, November 14th - NA Platinum Playoffs Start

Monday, November 21st - Playoffs Start

Season Format

This seasons format will feature 8 regular weeks with 3 weeks of playoffs (2 playoff weeks and Grand Finals). There will not be a holiday Bye week for Thanksgiving and there will be a fulltime rosterlock after the default match day of Week 6. Participation medals will be awarded to every division this season, and placement medals will be awarded to Platinum, Gold and Silver this season.

Changes to NA Platinum Division

We are changing the structure of the NA Platinum division this season to be limited to 8 teams playing in a 7 week Round Robin scheduling system. The top 4 teams in this division by week 7 will get to play in a double-elimination playoff. Platinum teams interested in playing this season need to let Kumori, Firefly or Fornaught know of their intent to play in this division immediately. Admission to NA Platinum is going to be tightly controlled this season.

Return of NA Gold Division and Silver Placement Guidelines

Season 20 will see the return of the NA Gold division. With that in mind we are returning to Silver divisions former placement guidelines, as outlined below:

Silver - Is the seeding division for Gold. Rosters are expected to be a mix of players with experience on mid to low Gold teams, established Silver teams and high Steel teams. Teams are permitted to have no more than 3 Gold players (or 1 Gold player and 1 Platinum player) from teams with established records (3+ legitimate wins) in the past 3 completed seasons and current season. ESEA-I and ETF2L Premiership players are not permitted to play in Silver.



Map Rotation

In our last Platinum Advisory meeting we have guaranteed the following 7 maps to be put into rotation for Season 20: Upward, Product, Borneo, Swiftwater, Steel, Lakeside and Ashville. At the time of the meeting we have determined Snowycoast was going to be the 8th map, however, due to concerns with the map we may shelve the map in favor of Millstone - pending testing done by the Platinum Advisory.

Once our maplist is available it will be posted here.

Changes to the Whitelist

In our last Platinum Advisory meeting we talked in length on the Sniper class and its impact on the Highlander meta. The Platinum Advisors deemed a Razorback ban was necessary to mitigate the Sniper class' effectiveness in the format. Season 20 will see a ban on the Razorback. We be monitoring this change throughout the course of the season and then later determine if further changes are necessary in the future for the Sniper class.

The new whitelist should be available on our site about 1 week prior to the first match. Look for a news post on that.

Changes to the Rules

In response to the changes from the Meet your Match update, we will be allowing dropped Medic secondaries to be picked up this season.

Team Placements

Team placements are underway. Please be patient, all teams will be placed before the start of the season. Remember that you need 9 people on your roster to be considered for placement! If your team is not yet placed into a skill division please submit a division change request from your leader panel.

Reminder to All New and Returning Teams

After you have been placed into a division and have at least 9 players on your roster, don't forget to set your team to Ready in your leader panel to be scheduled for matches!

Chat Support

Our league's Chat Support is held over the Discord application.

If you are logged in as a player or leader, this support option is on your menu. We've also embedded the Discord widget on this page.

For more details please visit this forum thread.

Support Tickets

If you have an issue that requires admin attention, please use our support ticket system. Players who login via Steam can submit a ticket as well as leaders who login with a special leader username/password. The ticket system can be located in the Support Menu once you login as a player or a leader.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL MERCS AND THEIR TEAMS!

- Kumori

UGC Head Admin