12.09.2023 // By:
College CoD
Intro
College CoD has been very quiet since September. A lot has happened, and there has been a lot of changes. Despite this tumultuous time, College CoD is back! We're excited to bring Spring 2024 Season information to the CCL community thanks to the NECC. College CoD is joining the NECC under the leadership of Jacen 'sonofpaint' Garriss, and we've got a massive amount of information to unload below. We're incredibly grateful to continue operating events and competition with the support of the NECC. Understandably, we're operating on a tighter timeline this year than we usually do, so please bear with us as we work through the 2024 year with new staff and a shortened schedule.
But first, College CoD owes a massive thank you to the entire community that has supported us since day 1. Players, schools, coaches, staff, and so many more people have contributed countless hours (paid and unpaid) to make this league a success. Without that support, it would not be where it is today. People like Jbyrd, Heat, Marco, Sportctc, Swittchy, IHOLDSHIFT, Proper, and countless more names built the foundation, and College CoD owes a immense debt of gratitude to them all. As we continue to look towards to the future and plan what's next, none of this would be possible without them.
Since it's inception, College CoD has operated on three major principles behind the scenes. Today, we want to bring those principles to the spotlight and add a fourth one to the list.
- Rome wasn't built in a day - Building something like College CoD into the ideal league has already taken years and it's just getting started. It will be decades before collegiate esports settles into a strong foundation, and it will take decades to build it.
- Trust the Process - College CoD has gotten off to a fantastic start, and we're excited to continue to bring the expertise of countless contributors to build the best damn league and broadcast that we can. We'll do everything in our power to do it right.
- Beware the Tyranny of the Urgent - collegiate esports is constantly onset by new issues, concerns, scenarios, and complaints. Though the issues immediately in front of us may seem insurmountable, don't worry, urgent issues will be solved and long-term solutions will be established.
- Radical Transparency - transparency is an issue across all of esports and collegiate is no exception. Not every concern can be addressed publicly, but for those that can, College CoD will continue to talk with the community and work through them together.
With that in mind, take a look at the important details below:
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Premier League Regional Playoffs - Brackets & Schedule
- Midwest Regional Playoffs
- West Regional Playoffs
- Northeast Regional Playoffs
- Southeast Regional Playoffs
Regional Playoffs takes place on April 6th & 7th. All of the Upper bracket and most of the Lower bracket will be played on Saturday, and the remaining Lower bracket matches and Grand Finals will be played on Sunday. Matches should be played when the prior match is completed. Our goal is to get all of the Grand Final matches on broadcast on Sunday, showing them one at a time starting with whichever is ready to play first, but if any Grand Final match has a Bracket Reset, we will stay with that match, and have the other waiting Grand Final games play off-stream.
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Premier League Championship Playoffs - Brackets & Schedule
- Bracket - To Be Released as soon as Regional Playoffs is done.
Regional Playoffs starts on April 8th & 9th, and continues on Monday and Tuesdays until Aprill 22nd & 23rd due to all weekends being occupied by the CDL schedule. Groups will be drafted on April 7th after all Grand Finals are finished. 18/30 matches in the Championship Playoffs will be on broadcast.
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Premier League Format
The Spring 2024 format will be very similar to the 2023 season with a couple of key differences:
- As of this moment, there will be no LAN or LAN Qualifier for two reasons. Due to the CDL 2024 schedule, there are no available weekends from April-June to schedule a LAN. We're required to not broadcast during CDL, so this makes a LAN incredibly difficult. Second, An end of season LAN is incredibly expensive to operate and it was already questionable if we would be able to operate the LAN this year. Without a broadcast, it's not feasible. LAN and LAN Qualifier will be replaced with an online Championship Playoffs.
- The Championship Playoffs will be made up of two stages. In the Championship Groups, the top 4 teams from each Regional Playoffs bracket will be split into 4 groups. The #1 seed from each bracket will be the #1 seed in their own group, and then they will take turns drafting teams into their group from the #2-#4 seeds in a snake draft. The top two teams from each group will move on to the Championship Finals upper bracket, the third teams will move on to the Championship Finals lower bracket, and the fourth place teams will be eliminated.
- Read a full explanation of the format below.
Regional Qualifiers
- All teams will start the season with a singleRegional Qualifier made up of double-elimination brackets taking place on Saturday and Sunday with a 1pm EST start time. The qualifer will be split into 4 regions, West, Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast.
- The top 16 teams in each region in Qualifier #1 will qualify to Division #1 for a total of 64 teams in D1.
- The remaining 16 teams in each region in Qualifier #2 will qualify to Division #2 for a total of 64 teams in D2.
Regular Season
- The Regular Season will be made up of 8 weeks of Round-Robin with 2 matches per week on Monday or Tuesday evening starting at 7:30pm or 9:00pm EST depending on region.
- The top 8 teams in each region of Division 1 auto-qualify to Regional Playoffs and receive a first round bye.
- The bottom 8 teams of Division 1 and the top 8 teams of Division 2 auto-qualify to Regional Playoffs and will go head to head against each other in Winner Round 1.
- The bottom 8 teams of Division 2 will be eliminated.
Regional Playoffs
- Regional Playoffs will continue with 4 regions. Each regional Playoff will be made up of 24 teams, 16 from Division 1 and 8 from Division 2.
- Regional Playoffs will be a double-elimination bracket with the top 4 teams from each region qualifying to the Championship Playoffs.
Championship Playoffs - Groups
- The first stage of Championship Playoffs will be round-Robin groups.
- The #1 team from each Regional Playoffs will put in their own group (4 groups). Those 4 teams will take turns in a snake draft selecting the teams they want to face in their group.
- The top 2 teams from each group will qualify to the Championship Playoffs upper bracket, and the third team will qualify to the Championship Playoffs lower bracket.
Championship Playoffs - Bracket
- The Championship Playoffs bracket will be a double-elimination bracket to crown the Spring 2024 College CoD Champions!
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Premier League Schedule
Due to a packed CDL schedule this year, most competition will take place on Mon/Tue evenings with the exception of the Regional Qualifier and Regional Playoffs. Championship Playoffs will return to a Mon/Tue.
Match times and start times will vary based on region to account for timezone differences. Stages on the weekend will start at 1pm EST.
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Open League Format & Schedule
The Spring 2024 format will be very similar to the 2023 season with a few differences./p>
Regular Season
- The Regular Season will be made up of 5 weeks of Round-Robin with 2 matches per week on Monday or Tuesday evening starting at 7:30pm or 9:00pm EST depending on region.
- The top 2 teams in each region auto-qualify to Regional Playoffs and receive a first round bye.
- The top 3-6 teams auto-qualify to Regional Playoffs and will go head to head against the other region in their Regional Playoffs.
- Northeast A and Northeast B will face each other in the North Regional Playoffs. Southeast and West will face each other in the South Regional Playoffs.
Regional Playoffs
- Regional Playoffs will continue with 2 regions. Each regional Playoff will be made up of 12 teams. 6 from each region.
- Regional Playoffs will be a double-elimination bracket with the top 4 teams from each region qualifying to the Championship Playoffs.
Championship Playoffs - Groups
- The first stage of Championship Playoffs will be round-Robin groups.
- The #1 team from each Regional Playoffs will put in their own group (2 groups). Those 2 teams will take turns in a snake draft selecting the teams they want to face in their group.
- The top 2 teams from each group will qualify to the Championship Playoffs upper bracket, and the third team will qualify to the Championship Playoffs lower bracket.
Championship Playoffs - Bracket
- The Championship Playoffs bracket will be a double-elimination bracket to crown the Spring 2024 College CoD Open Champions!
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Open League Regional - Playoffs Brackets
North Regional PlayoffsSouth Regional Playoffs
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Player Handbook and Spring 2024 Season Rulebook
2024 Player HandbookSpring 2024 Season Rulebook
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Prizing
- Prize Pool: $15,000
- 1st Place: $7,000
- 2nd Place: $4,000
- 3rd Place: $2,500
- 4th Place: $1,500
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Archived - Spring 2024 Registration & Entry Fees
Team Registration is now closed. Premier teams will have a $300 entry fee and Open teams will have a $200 entry fee. (more info on format below)
In the 2022 season, we removed entry fees. Our goal was to allow as many schools as possible to compete in College CoD without that barrier to entry while we sourced revenue to cover costs via other means. Since that season, we've realized that operating a league of this scale solely on revenue from sources like sponsors is not feasible. As a result, entry fees have become necessary to continue operations.
Additionally, we are removing the one team limit from the Open League (formerly Academy). The Premier League will still only be one team per school, and every school must field one roster in Premier, but Open will have no limit on the number of teams per school.