Over the past weekend, Ubisoft had an esports panel during the Season 7 LAN Finals, that included Justin Kruger - Community Developer for the game, Cary Lambert - Esports Manager and Parker “Interrobang” Mackay - Pro League Caster, to present the newest changes being added to Pro League for this next season. The format is getting a full revamp in a more competitive and fair way.
These changes are as follows:
- The format will now be a double round robin in which you play each other team twice a season (Once before, and once after the midseason Major as there is a DLC dropping in the middle of the season).
- Each team will play once a week.
- Matches are now a Best-of-One, in which the first team to win 6 rounds takes the map. Furthermore, there is no overtime in a maximum of 10 rounds.
- The Paris Major will be in the middle of season 8.
- The top 2 teams in each region will still attend the Pro League Finals.
- Pro League Finals will remain as Best-of-Three.
- Season 8 will begin in June and end in November.
- Season 9 will last from December until May.
- In the event of a tie during the Pro League Finals, there will be tiebreaker in which there will be 5 rounds and a role swap every round. The first team to win 3 rounds in overtime wins the map.
- The 8th placed team in Pro League will be automatically relegated to the Challenger League, and the Challenger League champion will get automatically promoted to the Pro League.
- The 7th placed team in the Pro League will face the 2nd placed team from the Challenger League for the last Pro League spot in a Best-of-Three.
- The Pick and Ban system remains the same as announced before (each team bans 1 Defender and 1 Attacker).
- The role change remains the same as announced before (5 rounds on DEF/ATK and 5 rounds on ATK/DEF).
- The Challenger League will keep its 3 month seasons. Its Season 8’s qualifiers will last from June to August, and the actual Season 8 for the Challenger League will last from September to November.
Season 9’s qualifiers will last from December to February and the Season 9 season will last from March to May.
We are sure that these changes will help the growth of the game, and will make it a more spectator and player friendly experience.
Season 8 will be starting sometime in June, so get ready to see this new format in action very soon!