EQC26 D1 Gameplay

Table of Contents

Teams & Seeds

Group Draw

There will be 6 groups. Each group will have 4 teams.

Group 1

Malaka Vikings
Paris Frog
BEL Flamingos
Heidelberger HellHounds

Group 3

Titans Paris
Sagene IF 1
Werewolves of London Seconds
SCC Berlin Bluecaps Sky

Group 5

Ghent Gargoyles
Toulouse Minotaures
Kraków Dragons
Darmstadt Athenas

Group 2

Braunschweiger Broomicorns
London QC
Smoking Thestrals Stuttgart-Tübingen
Viena Vanguards

Group 4

Ruhr Phoenix
Siena Ghibellines
Velociraptors QC
Buckbeak Riders

Group 6

Werewolves of London Firsts
Rheinos Bonn
Münster Marauders
Hacettepe Pegasus

Tournament Format

Group Stage

The first phase is a regular group round-robin, in which teams play against the other teams in their group. There will be a total of 6 groups/pools with 4 teams each, meaning every team plays a total of 3 games in this phase.

Rankings

Teams will be ranked within their own groups based on the following tiebreakers:

  1. Number of the matches won
  2. Head-to-Head
  3. Number of matches won without going to overtime
  4. Number of matches lost in overtime
  5. Point difference capped at 30
  6. Seeker floor point difference capped at 30
  7. Least amount of Total Game Time
  8. Coin Toss

Each team is going into flights based on their ranking within their group.

Rank 1 goes to Top Flight
Rank 2 goes to Upper Middle Flight
Rank 3 goes to Lower Middle Flight
Rank 4 goes to Bottom Flight

After being ranked into flights, the same tiebreakers are used to rank teams within their flight. (With the exception of Head-to-Head, which doesn’t apply as these teams did not meet yet.)

Flight Stage

Flight stage determines the placement of the teams in the bracket.

Each team plays 2 rounds, based on ranking within their flight. The games play out as follows:

Games Round 1

Game 1: #1 vs #2
Game 2: #3 vs #4
Game 3: #5 vs #6

Ranking after Round 1

#1 Winner Game 1
#2 Winner Game 2
#3 Winner Game 3
#4 Loser Game 1
#5 Loser Game 2
#6 Loser Game 3

Games Round 2

Game 4: W1 vs W2
Game 5: W3 vs L1
Game 6: L2 vs L3

Ranking after Round 2

#1 Winner Game 4
#2 Loser Game 4 or Winner Game 5*
#3 Loser Game 4 or Winner Game 5*
#4 Loser Game 5 or Winner Game 6*
#5 Loser Game 5 or Winner Game 6*
#6 Loser Game 6

Rankings After Flight Phase

The following criteria will be used to determine a team’s ranking in the flight phase:

  1. Number of matches won
  2. Strength of schedule for second flight game
    • Defined as: played Game 4 = 3 points, Game 5 = 2 points, Game 6 = 1 point
  3. Strength of schedule for first flight game
    • Defined as: played Game 1 = 3 points, Game 2 = 2 points, Game 3 = 1 point

Brackets

There will be 3 separate brackets of 8 teams each:

  • Upper Bracket
    • All 6 teams of the Top Flight will automatically proceed into the Upper Bracket
    • The top 2 teams of the Upper Middle Flight will proceed into the Upper Bracket
  • Middle Bracket
    • The bottom 4 teams of Upper Middle Flight will proceed into the Middle Bracket
    • The top 4 teams of the Lower Middle Flight will proceed into the Middle Bracket
  • Lower Bracket
    • The bottom 2 teams of the Lower Middle Flight will proceed into the Lower Bracket
    • All 6 teams from the Bottom Flight will proceed into the Lower Bracket

The seeding into the brackets is determined by the relative ranking of teams in the post-flight ranking (e.g. the third placed team of the upper middle flight is the first seed in the middle bracket, the fourth placed team of the lower middle flight is the eight seed in the middle bracket). Each bracket (Upper, Middle, Lower) will play a classic compass draw format. All teams will play three games (e.g. quarter final, semi final, final).