General Information Welcome to Season 8 of Blue Otter League. If you are reading this, it means you are considering applying to one of our offered leagues for this season. As some of you may noticed, we have introduced an Iron/Bronze/Silver League for BOL this season. For this season, we will offer 4 different leagues which play on 4 different days. Below, you can find a table which includes basic information of the leagues we offer.
Our leagues generally take 3 months to complete, which includes playoffs and any mid season events we may include. If you are still interested in playing in Blue Otter League this season then please review our league rules which can be found below. IBS Rules Gold Rules Platinum Rules Diamond Rules Specifically, we would like you to review the player eligibility rules before you apply. If you don't know if a player is eligible after reading the rules, feel free to open a ticket in the Blue Otter League discord and we will happily assist you. One of the biggest seasonal changes we have is our minimum ranked solo/duo game requirement. For this split, we require all players to have 100 ranked solo/duo games in Season 12 if they had 100 ranked solo/duo games in Season 11 as well. If a player does not meet one of these requirements, they can refer to the rule book which has clauses in place for players to make up games. For all other major rule changes, you can refer to the "Rule Changes" section in this article.
Application Process
The Blue Otter season will begin in about 1 month and during that month, we will be accepting applications in 3 waves with the final wave acting as the final deadline. The dates for all 3 deadlines can be found below. 1st Wave Deadline - July 11th @ 11:59 PM ET 2nd Wave Deadline - July 18th @ 11:59 PM ET 3rd (Finals) Wave Deadline - July 25th @ 11:59 PM ET Final Acceptances - July 27th (Hopefully) Draw Show - July 30th @ ~8:00 PM EST After each deadline, teams will receive feedback on their application and potentially given an early acceptance into the league. This can include feedback on potential eligibility, rank issues, general player issues, or even outright denial of an application. BOL staff will only deny a team before the final deadline if the team was caught trying to cheat in some form. For a team to be potentially eligible for an early acceptance, all players must have submitted their player registration form and have completed at least 85% of their minimum game requirement. This number would be 85 ranked solo/duo games for most players. Even if a team meets these requirements, other factors can come into play when deciding if the team is ultimately granted an early acceptance. If a team if given an early acceptance to the league, we expect at least the majority of the starters to be on the team when the season begins. We don't want teams/orgs to submit a random starting 5 to try to secure a spot and then change their whole roster later on. A few roster changes before the season is completely fine, but if the staff team has to re-vet a whole new team, then the team BOL accepted isn't even a thing anymore. Therefore, Blue Otter League has the right to revoke any acceptance when deemed necessary. If BOL revokes an acceptance, we will refund the full entry fee and deposit amount. BOL League Applications Iron/Bronze/Silver Gold Platinum Diamond
Rule Changes Eligibility NEW 2.a.1 If a player peaked, at max, Gold/Platinum/Diamond 3 (For BOL IBS, BOL Gold, and BOL Platinum respectively) in season 11 for 7 days or less, they may request an exemption if they played at least 400 ranked games in Season 11 and 200 ranked games in Season 12. If approved, the player will count as a cap exception player. Any player that peaked Gold/Platinum/Diamond 3 (For BOL IBS, BOL Gold, and BOL Platinum respectively) this season is ineligible for IBS/Gold/Platinum. 6.b All rostered players must have at least 10 ranked solo/duo games within the last 21 days to be eligible for any regular season match. (Not enforced for Week 1) 6.b.1 Failure to fulfill this rule requirement for any given week will result in 2 first round ban losses for each game the player plays.
6.b.2 The opposing team may waive any ban losses resulting from this rule if they choose to.
MOVED & UPDATED 3. Players that have previously ended Gold/Platinum/Diamond 2 (For BOL IBS, BOL Gold, and BOL Platinum respectively) or above Season 9 or later will be ineligible to play. -> moved to rule 3
6.c. Players who have an excessive win rate during the season (55%+) will be put on a win rate contract until their win rate falls below 55%. This contract will require that the player plays 5 ranked solo/duo games every week. REMOVED 4.a Any player that reaches X 4 with a win rate of 55% or above will be required to play 5 ranked solo/duo games a week. UPDATED 6. All players must have 100 Solo/Duo Queue ranked games on their main account in order to be eligible to play in Blue Otter League at the start of the season. This includes starters, subs, AND e-subs. 6.a Players must have 140 ranked solo/duo games to be eligible for playoffs this season. 6.e Players are not eligible unless they have played 100+ solo/duo ranked games in the previous season. If a player did not have 100 ranked games in Season 11, they can make up the difference in Season 12 if they had at least 70 games in Season 11. The formula for calculating a certain player’s minimum game requirement is below.
S12 Game Requirements = 100 - (Number of ranked solo / duo games in season 11 up to 100) + 100 (140 for playoffs) 6.f If a player had less than 70 ranked solo/duo games in Season 11, they must play 200 ranked solo/duo games to be eligible this season.
Rosters League Rosters NEW 1.b BOL staff will either approve, deny, or ask for more information about a player within 48 hours after submitting a roster change. UPDATED 2.b Players are required to complete their player registration form within 24 hours of the weekly roster lock. Any player that fills out their form late will receive a penalty of 1 ban loss per game in the first round of bans. If the player does not play, no ban loss will occur. MOVED 4. Players must complete a player registration form to be eligible for the league. -> moved to eligibility Captains (NEW SECTION)
1. Each team is allowed two captains on their roster at a time. One captain needs to be a starting player. The other captain can be a coach or another player.
2. Captains are responsible for team management, roster changes as well as communication with other team captains and tournament organizers.
3. Captains are required to uphold tournament rules to the best of their ability.
Lobby & In Game Pauses (UPDATED)
1. Pauses are limited to 10 minutes per game and can only pause up to 3 times per game. After that teams must play out the game regardless of issues.` Post Game (NEW SECTION)
1. After each game is completed teams are allowed a maximum break time of 10 minutes.
2. After the break has completed teams should be in the next game lobby preparing for pick and ban.
3. If an opposing team takes longer than 10 minutes open a ticket. If this happens multiple times in a season, the team will be penalized depending on how late they are.
League Information 1. Upon the release of a new champion, that champion will be banned from BOL matches for two weeks. If the ban rolls into playoffs the champion in question will be banned for the entirety of playoffs League Information (DIAMOND ONLY) Standings UPDATED (to match IBS, Gold, and Platinum) 2. Standings will be decided by Series Score > Points > Head-to-head > Tied teams head-to-head score.
Closing Notes As always, if you have any questions about the league, please do not hesitate to ask a Blue Otter staff member or in the Blue Otter discord. Any additional rule changes will be added to the change log in the BOL discord and we will refrain from adding any major rule changes in the middle of the season unless it is deemed absolutely necessary. BOL staff will strive to make this a fantastic season and hopefully it will be a memorable season for all of the participating players. We look forward to seeing your application for BOL Season 8!
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