Why not 11 games per stage?

Why does every team only play 10 and not all 11 enemy teams during one stage. This seems quite unfair, eg. Boston did not play against Shanghai, and Houston did not play against the Valiant, these two matches alone could have completely changed the outcome of stage 1, with Boston potentially beating Shanghai 4-0, and Houston and Valiant getting an actual fight to determine which of them is better.

Edit: It’s really just 6 games more, 6 games more in 5 weeks should not be hard to implement, they didn’t choose a seperate day for the stage finals either. Or they could do it like CommanderX said (#6).

every team playing every other team seems like a no brainer to me for a league type system. i really hope it changes in stage 2 and onward or this is gonna be a real undermining problem

Makes the schedule less difficult to organize. The only way I'd see them playing every single team every single stage is if they play twice against each team in their own division and once against the other division.

Divisions matches only matter for the end of year playoff where the first of each division gets a spot but not playing against one team of the opposing division per stage doesn't really matter.

They' ll play them all eventually, this isn't a short form tournament.

petra [#2]

every team playing every other team seems like a no brainer to me for a league type system. i really hope it changes in stage 2 and onward or this is gonna be a real undermining problem

I don' t think it will be.

KuroiRyuu9625 [#3]

Makes the schedule less difficult to organize. The only way I'd see them playing every single team every single stage is if they play twice against each team in their own division and once against the other division.

Divisions matches only matter for the end of year playoff where the first of each division gets a spot but not playing against one team of the opposing division per stage doesn't really matter.

They' ll play them all eventually, this isn't a short form tournament.

they had plenty of time to figure out a schedule that works out and allows for a full round robin though. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

What like a three day Week 6 with two days of the games that never happened then a separate day for playoffs that allow teams to better prepared and rested???

Who do you think you are coming in here with your logic and reason, get out and take your bright ideas with you!

KuroiRyuu9625 [#3]

Makes the schedule less difficult to organize. The only way I'd see them playing every single team every single stage is if they play twice against each team in their own division and once against the other division.

Divisions matches only matter for the end of year playoff where the first of each division gets a spot but not playing against one team of the opposing division per stage doesn't really matter.

They' ll play them all eventually, this isn't a short form tournament.

The divison system is so retarded. If the two best teams are in the same division, one of them doesn’t get the price money it should get. Just letting them play 1 round robin every stage seems way fairer.

From what I heard it's supposed to be like the NFL where not all matches are played. It'll be more obvious when more teams join

petra [#5]

they had plenty of time to figure out a schedule that works out and allows for a full round robin though. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I'm assuming a full round robin wasn't their priority considering how long the actual season is and that stages only mean something when you look at the extra title matches they hold.

I just want to re-iterate that to keep their current format of:

1. 60 total matches per stage
2. 12 matches per week
3. 4 matches days per week
4. 3 matches per day
5. 2 matches per week for each team

To add that 11th match for each team you need to spread an extra 6 matches over 5 weeks. Their current format doesn't allow for this unless they add a 6th week with 4 matches days, with 2 matches each. Each team would play once and the last day could be reserved for title matches. This only works if they're willing to have a lighter 6th week and what ever implications that would entail.

Other alternatives would see you break the current consistency of the schedule by adding an extra match to a team's day somewhere in the stage which would make for an uneven spread an an extra long day that wouldn't even be equally spread over the 5 weeks. IMO this is just as unfair as some teams not getting to play other teams during a stage.

Also keep in mind that this season is long. Each team plays 40 matches and with a total of 240 matches, not including playoffs, there should realistically be a large enough number of encounters for each team's theoretical ranking to match their actual one even if they didn't play those 4 extra games.

This is the first Season so iterations are possible, I'd even say probable.

CommanderX [#6]

What like a three day Week 6 with two days of the games that never happened then a separate day for playoffs that allow teams to better prepared and rested???

Who do you think you are coming in here with your logic and reason, get out and take your bright ideas with you!

I'm assuming that probably crossed their minds but wasn't implemented for what ever reason. Not to give them a pass here but with the amount of money going into this I have to assume they've put in more research than we have even though some people think they know more.

I could be wrong, but this isn't some crazy out of left field idea.

12 teams and Blizzard couldn't find a way to have them play each other once? they don't seem to want to do anything the traditional way that makes sense but just make up stupid shit as they go along, wouldn't surprise me if the grand finals had some absolute whack job rules/schedule that nobody understands but Blizzards desire to be different is that strong so who knows.

It looks like they at least plan on separating the stage playoffs and giving them their own Sunday.

I think them only having 2 matches on that day also opens up the possibility of adding the extra 6 matches (11th match for each team) to the schedule. To keep in line with the current format I think there are two probable ways to make this happen.

1. A 3 day week where the first two days have 3 matches each and the 3rd day is reserved for the playoffs.
2. A 4 days week, all with 2 matches per day and where the 4th day is reserved for the playoffs.

In either case this increases the length of each stage to 6 weeks, has each team play 11 games per stage, 44 per season and brings the total number of games per stage and per season to 66 and 264 respectively.

Whether they chose to lengthen the Season starting with the next one, because I don't think they'd implement this type of change for Season 1, remains to be seen.

Personally, I'm not convinced that 4 extra games per Season would make as big of a difference as some say but I also don't know what additional requirements would need to be met to make it happen if any.

As I mentioned previously this is just the first season so improvements are to be expected in both the short and long term future.

I believe they're only playing 10 as opposed to 11 matches per stage for the same reason divisions already exist: they're preparing for the future. I think they want to set a standard that each team will play 40 matches in the Overwatch League regular season every season, regardless of the number of teams. Is it worth sacrificing the potential perfect round robin system they could have had in the first season? Debatable, but regardless I think we will likely see teams continue to play 40 matches in future seasons despite the addition of more teams.