North American Master League (X-Post from /r/leagueoflegends)
Please visit the Reddit post for links!
Hello there! I am Niko "Novem" DelValle, amateur shoutcaster. I am organizing a tournament (The North American Master League or NML for short) that is designed to replicate the experience of being in the LCS/Challenger Series (though I suppose the format is more LPL) for Ranked 5s teams that can't quite get into the Challenger Series. For this first split, there are no cash rewards and it is only meant to be a place for teams to practice against the same opponents/scrim/experience the pressure of being on a broadcast/etc. I may add cash rewards in the future but this is how it's going to be for the opening Winter split, which will run from September to December. I may also expand this to other regions, but we'll see!
I've closed applications for color casters as I don't want to spend the rest of my life giving everyone a chance.
You may consult the Google Document for further information, this is the official ruleset (for now) and will help you understand the format. A basic explanation is that it is a twelve week tournament with a ten week regular season, a single "break" week, and playoffs. There are eight teams, and each will play each other team in two Best of 2's to compete for Circuit Points and tournament seeding.
SOME INFORMATION
Your Ranked 5's team must be Ranked between Platinum and Challenger Rank 20 to participate. You need at least one substitute player. All matches will be broadcasted (most qualifying matches won't be). No Solo Queue Ranked restrictions. Teams can leave at any time. Teams will need to provide their own voice communication. Qualifiers will be round-robin groups leading into single-elimination, depending on the number of registered teams. I plan to start on September 4th and continue to run qualifiers for as long as necessary. I plan to start the actual tournament on September 18th.
SIGNUPS You may use the link to fill out the form to register your team for this tournament.
QUESTIONS OR ADVICE? I'm organizing this tournament myself and while I've seen the inner workings of tournament organization, I'm not super experienced with the gig. If you have advice (like what types of staff I should look for in order to help as volunteers), go ahead and email me at [email protected] or comment below.
MY GUARANTEE While I know this may not count for much, I'm not going to disappear like a lot of other tournament organizers do. I'm very committed to the idea of a place where teams below challenger can practice against the same teams every week in a serious environment for improvement. I also benefit of course, as I love shoutcasting and this gives me a place to do it every week (no I'm not doing this for money).