TeamWarfare League

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TeamWarfare League (TWL) is a community based gaming website that provides online gamers an opportunity to play in numerous ladders and leagues for PC and console games. With over 850,000 players on over 130,000 teams, on almost 100 ladders and leagues across the 150 games the league has supported, TeamWarfare League is one of the largest online gaming communities.[1]

TeamWarfare League was founded January 18, 2001 by co-founders Will "Polaris" Everett and Myles "Triston" Angell. Originally a competition website for Starsiege: Tribes, it has grown game by game and become a comprehensive online gaming venue. A large number of gaming communities reside at TeamWarfare, and it is not uncommon for a player to belong to several gaming websites simultaneously.

Competition

Ladders

TeamWarfare hosts a variety of "king of the hill" type ladders for a growing range of games. Teams challenge higher ranked opponents in an effort to gain control of the defending team's rung on the ladder.

Leagues

TeamWarfare Leagues work on a point system and are seasonal competitions. Each league is broken down into one or more conferences and each conference is broken down into two or more divisions. Each team competes within their conference to earn as many points possible with the highest scoring teams matched into brackets for an end-of-season tournament style playoff.

There are two styles of scoring that can be used in TWL Leagues.

  1. Match based points: Each win, loss and tie recorded for the League generates points toward a team's overall position in the league, in a similar fashion as many sporting leagues. (e.g. Baseball, Basketball, etc.)
  2. Round based points: The results of each round of a match will generate points for teams in the league. The potential exists for a team to lose a match overall, but win based on rounds, depending on individual round scores. This format is similar to that used by auto racing leagues, where the race result position determines the points scored for the round.

Recently, TWL has introduced tiered leagues. Teams move between tiers based on their position within the tier at the end of each week. Each Tier represents a potential playoff spot with Tier 1 the top teams in that particular game. Tier 2, the emerging teams, and Tier 3, the Recreational teams. Typically, you see the Tier 1 teams at various LAN events competing in cash competitions; essentially, professional teams.

Tournaments

TeamWarfare tournaments work on a bracket system. For prize tournaments, the top four teams winning prizes ranging from gaming server subscriptions[2] to high end video cards. Tournaments hosted at TWL may be single-elimination or double-elimination tournaments. Single-elimination tournaments drop teams from the competition after they lose a match. Double-elimination requires two losses, one in the primary bracket (winner's bracket) and once in the secondary bracket (consolations).

Community

Forums

TeamWarfare features numerous forums, allowing users to ask questions and discuss topics pertaining to specific games. There are also site support, recruiting, news, and general forums.

TWL's game-specific forums are often used to discuss potential rule and map list changes to ladders, propose new ladders, and discuss miscellany related to the game. Proposed changes can, depending on subject matter, lead to a voting ballot.

Voting System

Official votes for proposals are divided into two categories, Global and Founder votes, although informal votes may be held at any time in a game specific forum. Ballots of official votes are created and maintained by a Competition Manager or higher level staff member.

  • Global votes allow any registered user at TWL to vote on the topics listed in the ballot. Each account is allowed a single vote, which has raised concerns of sockpuppetry and meatpuppetry in voting, by stacking votes for or against a proposal.
  • Founder votes are restricted to team founders only. To be eligible to vote, a member must create a team at TWL, and join the ladder or league associated with the vote. Concerns have been raised about problems with inactive founders, but the staff handles inactive founder issues on a case-by-case basis.
  • Informal votes may also be raised in the various game specific forums. Informal votes are often used for map list changes, but can be used for changes where a large number of modifications are being proposed, as the site limits the number of options on an official ballot.

IRC

TeamWarfare manages numerous IRC channels, from the primary #teamwarfare channel, to channels dedicated to individual games. Players can be directed to a proper game channel by visiting #teamwarfare on gamesurge.net and asking an admin. IRC is one of the main lines of support to gamers needing to communicate with both admins and other players.

Staff

TeamWarfare League staff are volunteers from the gaming communities served by TWL, who have offered to provide their time to administer competition at the site. Staff members are bound by a code of conduct and violations of that code by staff members are subject to termination. In exchange for their increased responsibility and the voluntary nature of staffing, special protections are given to the staff.

Games Supported

The following ladders and leagues are available on TWL[3]

UPDATED MAY 14th, 2012 from the TWL website:

PC Games

Console Games

References

  1. ↑ TeamWarfare Hits 500k Members!
  2. ↑ AoWC: AoWC server sponsorship of a TWL tournament
  3. ↑ Competition List

External links

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