Countires - Webchester - eSports

Webchester eSports League is a professional esports league in Webchester. It follows the model of other traditional Elitopian professional sporting leagues by using a set of permanent, city-based teams backed by separate ownership groups. In addition, the league plays in the regular season and playoffs format rather than the use of promotion and relegation used commonly in other esports and non-North American leagues, with players on the roster being assured a minimum annual salary, benefits, and a portion of winnings and revenue-sharing based on team performance. The inaugural season started on May 4, 2015.

The Webchester eSports League plays out similar to most professional sports leagues in Elitopia, in which all teams play scheduled games against other teams to vie for position in the season's playoffs, rather than the approach of team promotion and relegation more commonly used in other esports leagues. The league currently features twenty-four teams, which are subdivided into two divisions each.

Each season consists of non-regulation pre-season play, a regular season divided into four stages, and a post-season playoffs tournament to determine the championship team for the season. Each regular season stage lasts three weeks, with each stage ending with a short playoff of the top teams based on that stage's records to determine stage champions. Teams play 28 matches across the regular season, playing teams both within and outside their division. The post-season playoffs use teams' overall standings across all stages. The top standing team in both divisions receives the top two seed in the playoffs, followed by a fixed number of teams determined from across both divisions. An All-Star weekend is also held, featuring two division-based teams selected by league representatives and voted on by fans.

The playoff format is a double-elimination tournament. Twelve total teams qualified for the season playoffs split into two brackets. In Division One, eight teams are qualified for the Division One Bracket. The top five teams from the regular season are awarded the top five seeds and the top three teams from the play-in tournament are awarded seeds six through eight. In the Division Two, four teams are qualified for the Division Two Bracket. The top two teams from the regular season are awarded the top two seeds and the top two teams from the play-in tournament are awarded three and four.

Each playoff bracket is a double-elimination tournament. However, the winners of the upper and lower finals in each respective bracket will not face each other. Instead, they both will qualify for the Grand Finals bracket – another double-elimination tournament. The winners of the upper and lower bracket in the Grand Finals bracket will play in the Grand Finals match. All match winners are determined by which team wins three maps, except for the Grand Finals match, where the winner is determined by which team wins four maps.

Teams are awarded with monetary prizes for how they place at the end of the regular season, as well as for participating and placing high in the stage playoffs and post-season tournament. For example, the first season had a total prize pool of ₱3.5 million available, with the top prize of ₱1 million awarded to the post-season championship team.

Starting with the 2017 season, the league adopted a "homestand" model. Every team hosts two to five homestands throughout the season. Each team would still play 28 matches and would be responsible for the selection and operation of their respective home venues. In addition to homestands, every team would have been required to host at least three team events for the community in their respective home cities. The season marked the first time that a major esports league in Webchester featured a city-based, home-and-away format.

Within league play, a regular season match features two teams (one selected as the home team, the other as the visiting team) playing a best-of-five format, with each map featuring a predetermined map type, following the same gameplay format as with normal competitive mode, with each team having at least one chance as the attacking team. A team may call in substitutes for players only between maps. The team that wins three maps first wins the match. If teams are tied after four games, a tiebreaker game played (which cannot end in a tie) is used to break the tie and determine the match winner. Standings are based primarily on the overall match win/loss record, but ties are broken based on the total map win/loss record. Any further ties for tournament placement are broken based first on the head-to-head game win/loss record, then head-to-head match count.

The Webchester eSports League teams can have up to four additional players that can be swapped between maps. A team's membership is locked at the start of the season, but a mid-season signing period allows teams to bring in new players or trade players between teams. Following the end of the season, teams have about one month to extend current player contracts, bring on players from affiliated Overwatch Contenders teams, or hold private tryout sessions. Subsequently, all unsigned players by the end of this period enter free agency during which players can negotiate with teams to become part of the roster; in the case of when expansion teams are added, there is a month-long period where expansion teams have exclusive negotiating rights before other teams can engage. A team's minimum roster is to be set prior to the season's pre-season matches, about two months prior to season play, but they can expand and change this roster up until a specified date. The league is not region-locked, so teams can use players of any nationality to fill their ranks, as long as the team ownership is based in that city or region.

The league launched in 2015 with sixteen teams, each based in a Webchesterian city. Eight additional teams were added in the league's 2016 season. With the 2017 season, teams began playing in home/away games, with each team having one or more venues to host homestand weekends.

Teams:
Webchesterfield eSports Club
Webchesterfield Gladiators
OpTic Webchesterfield
Lasertown Outlaws
Lasertown Renegades
Lasertown Fusion
Hoovysellers Vitality
Hoovysellers Heroic Gaming
Oldchester Ghost Gaming
Tofallo Dynasty
Oxbridge Uprising
Innerspace Justice
Riverdance Liquid
Smithchester Geniuses
Winkleton Quantum
New Pablo Alpha
Fortland Justice
Viencher Devils
Fort Peacock ESG
Smithchester e-Ninjas
Sully Fire
Greenver Complexity
St. Francisco Bridgemakers
Dermottshire Gaming Club