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5/11/2023 12:48 pm  #1


Building the League


 
 

5/15/2023 12:17 pm  #2


Re: Building the League

It is finally the time to take the Alt Sports Universe worldwide! Together we are going to build our sixth official (5th professional) fantasy sports league. For those that are new to this community or if this is your first time participating in a design project with us, welcome! All are welcome and encouraged to contribute to the formation of this league.  

To begin, I want to get through some boring logistics. For some work/life + fantasy sports/life balance, I have personally taken a step away from discord. If you have any questions or want to put something on my virtual desk please email me at althockeyleague2020@gmail.com 

Below is a survey that will gauge interest in ownership as well as a number of other items. I will point out various items of the survey throughout this post.  

Overview

This post has a lot of information so please read through it carefully. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out. I will eventually put a FAQ post together if I find it necessary.

This league has been designed slightly differently, with some twists and turns that are meant to make the experience even more fun and engaging! 
 This post will be organized in two distinct parts: League Format and the Design Process.  

League Format

The AltLiga is going to feature 16 football clubs from around the world. The number 16 is a hard cap, regardless of the amount of interest. This number was determined by a number of logistical considerations (EPL player pool, balanced schedule, etc). However we will be designing 24 unique clubs and their identities. We also have a number of ways to engage everyone who is interested in participating.  

A. Schedule

Every club will play 30 total games. Every club will play a home-away versus the other 15 clubs. 

B. The Geo Cup

We are really excited to announce the formation of the Geo Cup. The Geo Cup will be a mid-season tournament that will begin after week 10 of the regular season. Every team will participate (the current regular season standings will not matter). 

Teams will be organized into four regional groups. They will play a three week round robin. The club with the top record in each group will advance to one of two Geo Cup Finals. 

The records of the tournament games will not count towards the regular season records. 

The clubs who win the Geo Cup Finals will receive an automatic bid to the end of year playoff tournament. 

This is an added element of the league to increase the drama of the regular season. If your team loses every game of the regular season BUT you win 3 games in the Geo Cup tournament you are in the Champions League! 



C. The Champions League

At the end of the regular season we will host an 8-team playoff tournament. For fun, we are going to call it the Champions League.  

2 of the teams in the tournament will be the champions of the Geo Cup. The other six teams will be made up of the 6 top records of the regular season.  

D. AltLiga TWO

Our commitment is to make sure that we find something for everyone who is interested in being a part of the project. Therefore, if interest demands, we will also host AltLiga TWO. A second tier league that will be played in a separate Fantrax league. 

We recognize that some people in our community will want to jump at a chance to begin in AltLiga TWO and work their way up to the premier league. If that sounds like you please select that option in the form below.

 This league will be composed of the number of teams that are owned above 16. So if we have 20 owners, it will be a four team league. If we have 8 we will have an 8 team league.



E. Promotion & Relegation

We are excited to add this dramatic element to our new league.  

At the end of each season, the team with the worst record in AltLiga will be automatically relegated to AltLiga TWO. The teams with the second and third worst record in the league will play in a one game Relegation Game. The winner stays, the loser drops.  

Similarly, the team with the best record in AltLiga TWO will be automatically promoted to the top league. The teams with the second and third best record in the league will play in a Promotion Game. The winner jumps up, the loser stays behind.  

All teams who transfer between the two leagues will lose all of the players on their club. They will begin the next season with a blank roster.

F. Keepers

In an attempt to have parity amongst the league we have been evaluating a keeper program that enables clubs to keep players as faces of their franchise BUT not so many that weaker teams can’t grow towards the future.  

Therefore every club will keep 5 players from season to season.   

Design Process

The design process will begin on Monday, May 15 and run through the start of the regular season on August 12. This process is scheduled to provide as much time as possible to design crests. Therefore some of the other phases such as City Selection & Naming have been truncated a bit.

A. Schedule

Follow the link below for the Official AltLiga Database and Design Schedule

B. City Selection

We will be selecting 24 clubs from cities from around the world. Our goal is to find a balance between geographic diversity AND community preference. 

 Eligible cities have been sorted into one of four regions across the globe. The cities and regions were determined by: 


  • Current FIFA Men’s Rankings
  • Top 12 countries from each region
  • 2 most populous cities from each nation

 The regions are: 

  • Region 1 - The Americas + Oceania
  • Region 2 - Africa + Asia
  • Region 3 - Europe A (basically Western Europe)
  • Region 4 - Europe B (basically Eastern Europe)

Cities will be rated on a scale of 1-5 (best). 

The top four cities from each region will be granted AltLiga clubs. The four remaining cities with the highest ratings will be granted clubs (think NHL Wildcard). This plan will get us to 20 cities.  

Later in the design process, we will open the floor to city nominations from the community. This could be cities that were not originally nominated or that did not make the initial cut. We will host a second vote to arrive at our total of 24 cities. The goal of this element is to make sure that we engage the voice and wishes of the community.  

C. Name Nomination

As the design challenge continues, designers will be able to provide BRIEF explanations to explain the inspiration behind their design submissions. We will provide parameters for those explanations so that every submission is equal.  

People have submitted explanations in the past but they have varied in length and quality rendering it an unfair advantage to the design. These parameters will help make sure that the design speaks for itself.  

For the AltLiga we will be using the English names of cities and characters.  

Owners will be able to (and encouraged to) design with and utilize the club’s local language and culture to further develop their team identity. But for the sake of the design process we will be using English.  

People who submit names will be asked to provide both the club name as well as the nickname.  

Example: 
Club Name - Manchester United Football Club    
Nickname - Red Devils 

Rule Alert! We will not be using the same names as existing clubs. However you are allowed to still use the name of the city in the team name. 

D. Crest Design

Next, we move on to the clubs’ visual identities. This will be the phase of the process that takes up the most time.  

The first round of voting will cut down the designs to two finalists. From there, the crest with the most votes wins.  

NEW Feature! There will be an opportunity later in the process at which the community will be able to revise the color scheme of the winning logo (more information to come).  

Rule Alert! Any logos that feature clipart or pirated logos will not be considered for the voting. 

E. Kit Design

The community will then submit kits for all of the clubs. We will begin by focusing on the home kits.  

The home kits will feature the color scheme determined in the Crest Phase.  

We will be designing CLASH kits but we will wait until after the Owner Draft. This is for two reasons.  

First, we legitimately will not have enough time to design both the Clash and Home before the start of the season. It was suggested that we design them separately. This is a good idea but adds time onto the design experience.  

Second, this will give the owner of the team an opportunity to have a say on the club they selected. Owners will be given a say in the clash kit.  

F. Owner Draft

At the end of the design process we will host the Owner Draft. At this point owners will be able to select the club that they will control.  

The order will be a composite of two rankings. 

  • Random Lottery - this ensures that everyone has a change to have club of their choice
  • Design Participation - points will be given to owners who heavily contributed to the design process. 

 Those two rankings will be added together to determine the overall owner rankings.  

The owner draft will be for all 24 clubs. Meaning, that the AltLiga TWO teams will not be picking last during the owner draft. Instead, people who volunteer to be a part of AltLiga TWO will be given bonus points in the Owner Draft rankings (more information to come). 

If we do not have enough volunteers for AltLiga TWO, the remaining clubs for the second league will be determined by the bottom of the Owner Rankings.  

For example - we have 8 club slots in AltLiga TWO. 6 people have volunteered. That means that those owners ranked #23 and #24 will be in AltLiga TWO for the first season.  

G. Official Supporters

It is not lost on us that this is our sixth league. For some, running that many fantasy sports team is overwhelming. That’s not to mention any teams that you run outside of our community. Therefore if you would like to be a part of the fun BUT do not want to run a team we invite you to become an official supporter of a club.  

This empowers people to team up and share duties. For example, the owner is responsible for setting lineups and making official decisions but the supporter could be tasked with developing graphics or other elements of the club’s culture and identity.  

H. Fantasy Draft

After the Owner Draft we will draft our players via the Fantrax platform.  

The order will be determined by a random lottery. 


All submissions for the design process must be emailed to Gritty at the Alt Sports email address by the established deadline. 


Extra Time: 
This will be a section of regular posts that will have all of the action items needed to move our project forward: 
-
AltLiga Kickoff (Owner Interest Survey)
-Region 1 City Selection Closes May 16
-Region 2 City Selection Closes May 17
-Region 3 City Selection Closes May 18
-Region 4 City Selection Closes May 19
-
Winning Cities Revealed May 20

The Official AltLiga Database 
Also check out the database from time to time to follow along the progress of the project. In this database you'll find: 
-Schedule for the Design Project
-Winning votes and ratings
-Tracker of each club's designs
-Links to resources and surveys

This database will close down during various stages while under contruction

Let's get this show started! Voting starts NOW! 


 

Last edited by Gritty (5/15/2023 12:18 pm)


 
     Thread Starter
 

5/15/2023 12:52 pm  #3


Re: Building the League

Gritty,

On Region 4, both the first two options are Zagreb, Croatia.



2x Alt Champion :: AltLB Champion Oklahoma City Bison - 2022 :: AltFL Champion New York Emperors - 2022

 

5/15/2023 2:13 pm  #4


Re: Building the League

Dan O'Mac wrote:

Gritty,

On Region 4, both the first two options are Zagreb, Croatia.

Fixed 


 
     Thread Starter
 

5/17/2023 8:21 am  #5


Re: Building the League

Day One of voting is in the books. The full slate of cities will be revealed on May 20. But I am excited to provide you with a FIRST LOOK. I will post the city with the top vote in each region (one per day). 

The Region 1 cities are locked in. There are a few in the field that are waiting to see their fate play out after the other regions. But for now here's our first city...start brainstorming the possibilities with...


 
     Thread Starter
 

5/17/2023 9:07 am  #6


Re: Building the League

Nice, I could probably see someone coming up with a colorful identity for the Buenos Aires team, or perhaps something traditional.


Fictional sports league and country fanatic.
If cows were made of grass, would they feed on grass?
 

5/18/2023 8:09 am  #7


Re: Building the League

After the second day of voting 4 more cities have joined the AltLiga Family. Today's First Look takes us all the way to...


 
     Thread Starter
 

5/18/2023 10:33 am  #8


Re: Building the League

Tokyo being added is awesome, as with BA and the two European cities coming, knowing we get one "non-traditional" soccer market for sure. And the designs should be great.



2x Alt Champion :: AltLB Champion Oklahoma City Bison - 2022 :: AltFL Champion New York Emperors - 2022

 

5/18/2023 4:04 pm  #9


Re: Building the League

Really excited for Tokyo. Can't wait to see what other cities join in!

 

5/19/2023 5:52 am  #10


Re: Building the League

We head to Europe as a bunch of soccer powerhouses battle it out... I will say this...someone gets left out! (at least in the first round)


 
     Thread Starter
 

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