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Season overview

Before Preseason

7.1 The Draft

  • 7.1.1 The draft is the first official event of each CSC season, assigning new players to franchises in a manner similar to professional sports entry drafts.

  • 7.1.2 The draft is divided into separate sections for each tier, with players assigned to a tier based on their MMR.

  • 7.1.2.1 General Managers (GMs) will draft players only in the tiers where their franchise has teams.

  • 7.1.2.2 MMR ranges for each tier and their corresponding keeper rounds will be determined and communicated by league staff and are finalized at numbers lock.

  • 7.1.3 The draft includes all players other than PFAs registered for the season who meet the eligibility requirement.

  • 7.1.3.1 Former players returning after one season of inactivity will receive FA status (instead of DE) if they either completed their most recent contract in good standing or ended their last season as a regular FA. Inactivity is defined as not signing up or signing up as a PFA.

  • 7.1.4 League staff will assign an MMR to all players. Initially, access to this data may be restricted to GMs and applicable league staff.

  • 7.1.5 Free Agents who are unsigned by the draft deadline will become Draft Eligible (DE).

  • 7.1.6 Players signed to a team at the transaction deadline are referred to as keepers and will be assigned a round in the draft based on their MMR.

  • 7.1.6.1 Each team is limited to a maximum of 3 keeper picks in the draft. For these purposes, a keeper pick is any player that occupies a keeper slot in the draft board; players retained from the previous season as well as those promoted, demoted, or picked up as Free Agents during the offseason transaction period are included. Teams must be in compliance with this limit by no later than 48 hours before the end of offseason transactions.

  • 7.1.6.2 Keeper picks can only be in the first five rounds of the draft.

  • 7.1.6.3 If a GM has more keepers in a designated round than available picks, they must select those players in earlier rounds. If this process exhausts the GM's picks and they cannot retain all their keepers, they must release players until they have sufficient picks. A lower pick cannot be used to retain a keeper assigned to a higher round.

  • 7.1.6.4 GMs who also wish to play on their team will be drafted as any other keeper, based on their MMR.

  • 7.1.7 If a GM cannot be present for any portion of the draft they may designate another member of their franchise to pick on their behalf. These picks are treated the same as a GM pick. All existing rules regarding draft picks and private information still apply.

  • 7.1.8 If a franchise does not make a valid pick in a reasonable timeframe as determined by league staff or is unable to continue the draft, their pick will be moved to the end of the round. If, at the end of the round, they are again unable to make a valid pick in a reasonable timeframe, they will automatically pick the highest MMR available player.

  • 7.1.9 If a franchise picks a player who is not listed as available on the official draft board, the draft will be paused upon discovery of the error, and the violating franchise must redraft their invalid pick from the remaining pool of DEs. This will not invalidate any picks made after the mistake and prior to discovery of the invalid draft choice.

  • 7.1.10 GMs will draft more than five players to ensure all draft eligible players are selected. GMs must reduce their roster to the legal size as per 8.1.1. Players who are released will enter Free Agency as per 5.5.2

 

7.2 Draft Lottery

  • 7.2.1 The draft order is decided by a lottery before offseason transactions open.

  • 7.2.2 Each tier has its own draft order.

  • 7.2.3 The draft is a snake order draft, so the GM with the first pick in Round 1 will have the last pick in Round 2, before any trades occur.

7.3 Draft Lottery Odds

  • 7.3.1 The regular season win-rate will be calculated from 0 to 1 and will be multiplied by .75 (this term is called wr). Each team will get a point for each stage of playoffs reached (0 for not reaching playoffs, 1 for losing in first stage of playoffs, 2 for losing in the second stage, etc. n-1 for losing in the finals, n for winning the finals). If all teams in a tier reach playoffs then each of the previous values will be decreased by one as to not penalize tiers where all teams reach playoffs. This value will be divided by n and multiplied by .25 (this term is called pp). Each team’s draft odds will then be [2 - wr - pp]. n is the number of rounds in the playoffs.

  • 7.3.2 In special cases, such as a lot of teams being added or very few players returning, draft odds can be set to equal for all teams, at the discretion of Admins.

  • 7.3.3 In the case of a new team being added to a tier where they do not have a previous season record to apply the 7.3.1 formula, their odds will automatically become the max odds value (2).

 

Preseason

  • 8.1.1 Preseason lasts from the season’s draft until the official Roster Lock date. In this time, there will be 2 cut days.

    • 8.1.1.1 The first cut time is the day after the second-to-last preseason match day at 11:59am ET. Teams must be at a maximum of 6 rostered players.

    • 8.1.1.2 The second cut time is the day after the last preseason match day at 11:59am ET. Teams must be at a maximum of 5 rostered players.

  • 8.1.2 A player who was drafted must play in a preseason match (a scrim doesn't count) before being cut in the preseason. A player who is unresponsive, unwilling, or unavailable at game time is excluded from this requirement. Evidence of this should be shown in a GM’s transaction channel.

 

Regular Season

  • 9.1.1 During the season, franchises are sorted into conferences randomly to determine who they play, when they play them, and where they will be placed in the playoffs bracket upon qualification.

    • 9.1.1.1 If a franchise only has teams in, for example, one tier, they will be separated before the others are randomized to ensure one conference will not have more teams in a different tier.

  • 9.1.2 Regular season matches can be rescheduled to be played before the scheduled date and time, or up to 11:59pm ET one week from the originally scheduled date. No match may be rescheduled to within 75 minutes of another match's start time per possible map of the earlier match. However no regular season match may be rescheduled past 11:59 ET the day after the final match of regular season in that tier unless authorized by admins. If a match is rescheduled both GMs must post the change in their respective transaction channels prior to the scheduled start date and time, exceptions to this can be made under admin discretion. Reschedules must be clearly communicated to admins, the heads of tech committee, and transactions.

    • 9.1.2.1 Both GMs or their representatives must agree to any rescheduled matches, and they must both notify League Staff of the new match time by posting in their respective transaction channels.

    • 9.1.2.2 If, after both teams have agreed to a match time, one team needs to reschedule, both parties must agree to reschedule. Otherwise, the match time will not be moved. If the team cannot play after scheduling a time, they must forfeit the match for that day.

    • 9.1.2.3 A match must be rescheduled and announced by GMs in their respective transaction channels at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the currently scheduled match time. There is no limit to the number of times a match can be rescheduled.

    • 9.1.2.4 If the match is rescheduled, the new match time will be treated as equivalent to the original match time for all purposes except additional rescheduling.

    • 9.1.2.5 Should special circumstances occur, a contingency day can be used to reschedule matches if sanctioned by League Staff.

  • 9.1.3 CSC will attempt to stream showcase matches every match day. These are not mandatory, but are recommended!

  • 9.1.4 Playoff seeding is determined using the following criteria in order. In the event that 3 or more teams are tied and a tiebreaker results in only a partial break of the tie, tiebreaking for the remaining tied teams will be restarted from the first criterion.

    • Regular Season Match Win Percentage
    • Head to Head Match Win Percentage; used if:
      • every tied team has played every other tied team the same number of times; or
      • the group of tied teams can all be split into two subgroups such that every team in the first subgroup has beaten all teams in the second subgroup.
    • In-Conference Match Win Percentage (used only if all tied teams are from the same conference)
    • Overall Round Win Percentage (rounded to the nearest percent)
    • Strength of Schedule (average of opponents' match win percentage, weighted by the number of times the team faced each opponent, rounded to the nearest percent)
    • (A)GM 1v1 (optional)
    • Coin flip

  • 9.1.5 In the event of a tie between 3 or more teams, if any team(s) are able to be separated, each group of remaining tied teams will independently restart the tiebreaking process at 9.1.4.1.

    • 9.1.5.1 For example Teams A, B, C, and D are tied and are not in conferences. If Team A and Team B are 2-1 against these teams (H2H), and Teams C and D are 1-2 against these teams. Then A and B will be isolated from C and D and will be placed above them. A and B then will go back to conference (in this case H2H record) and tiebreak again. C and D will do the same. If A beat B and C beat D then the final order will be A, B, C, D.

 

Playoffs and Beyond

10.1 General Playoff Info

  • 10.1.1 Playoffs will generally begin on the first match day at the conclusion of the regular season in a tier.

  • 10.1.2 Each tier will play in their own separate playoffs.

  • 10.1.3 During the postseason, the higher seed is the home team, and will decide whether they want to veto first or second. If there is no higher seed, then the teams will be tiebroken according to tiebreaker rules 9.1.4 but ignoring conference record.

    • 10.1.3.1 Veto rules are outlined above in Rule 6.2.3.

  • 10.1.4 Admins will determine the specific playoff format for each tier at the beginning of each season. Different formats may be used, but the following structure should always be followed:

    • 10.1.4.1 At least 50% of the teams in each tier participate in the post-season

    • 10.1.4.2 The finals are Bo3

    • 10.1.4.3 All games follow normal gameplay and transaction rules for playoffs.

  • 10.1.5 During playoffs a team may have up to two combined temp signs and/or subs at a time. Only one of which can be a PFA.

  • 10.1.6 Playoff matches can be rescheduled up to 11:59pm ET one day before the default date for the next round of playoffs.

 

10.2 Other Playoff Rules

  • 10.2.1 Playoff substitutions may happen before or between games. A request for a sub must be completed prior to the pistol round. If damage in the knife round was dealt before the request was made, then the result of the knife round must be replicated. If a Transaction Manager is not available, the sub may be used on an honor system. If the sub was invalid, then that match is forfeited.

  • 10.2.2 During a match, a round can be restarted if a technical issue occurs, if no damage has been dealt. A player must put "not live" in chat so the other team knows not to continue playing. The reason for a round restart must be strictly lag or server disconnect related.

 

10.3 Offseason

  • 10.3.1 After the playoffs, there will be an offseason.

    • 10.3.1.1 During this offseason, any new players which have signed up for the league will be evaluated by League Staff and entered into the draft for the next season. See the draft rules in Section 1.1.

    • 10.3.1.2 Transactions are closed until a future date, decided by the admins, between the start of combines and the next preseason. However for the duration of combines there will be an "Early" Transaction Window, GMs may cut and re-sign their players from the previous season outside of the normal transactions window.