The Chaaaaaaaaaampioooooooooooooooooooonsssssssssss! Ready to hear that on youtube, with everyone competing against eachother in a big Punaball tournament with every game at least highlights shown?
Sign ups will begin in the next few days! Once I've finished making screenshots of the liveries, and finished the macros, then we can begin. Please though, feel free to register your interest here! I plan to hold a test cup over one evening in about 2-3 weeks time, whenever we have 8 or so people signed up. This will be to do three things 1) Test how easy it is to make a video (I suspect very easy, most of the work of making a turbosliders video is in following the action. With puna, this is not a problem). 2) Seeding for the group stages of the actual cup 3) Footage for the intro video of the videos - score some great goals and you could get in it!
We'll start small with this cup, the main aim is to reinvigorate the community, get everyone talking again, watching the videos on youtube, discussing with eachother etc. However the great thing is theres almost limitless space to expand, I have plenty of ideas if this takes off! Here will be the basic rules:
5 minute halves, swap ends. No goal limit. During knockout stages we will play two "legs", although in test cup we will play just single matches. If extra time is needed, there will be two 2 minute halves, and if the game is still tied, a limitless sudden death period (next goal wins)
2v2 teams. 3v3 is possible in future editions if it grows to 30+ people and people want it. This would allow cool transfer possibilities too, but for now, 2v2 is what we will go with.
Basic puna rules apply, so the middle line rule, but we will put certain limits to make sure no time wasting takes place (say, within 10 seconds you must play the ball). Also, at the end of halves, the last touch AFTER the game ends will end the half. This is to avoid a goal being called off because the game ended between the ball being hit and it going in the goal. Its a very unlikely situation but we don't want any controversy
Kits used must be the official kits for the teams (which will be revealed in the sign up topic), dont worry, I've provided Home/Away kits and in some cases 3rd kits so no clashes can happen. I've made macros so nobody will get this wrong.
The stadium will be LVP-Arena I guess, but if we have a skilled puna track maker who wants to create a home stadium for his team, as long as it has normal puna pitch shape, I can't see why that would be a problem. Perhaps one day we can get every team playing at their own stadium. If its as complicated as having a crowd and team logos, thats fine, and if its as simple as having it in your team colours, that would also be fine. Its up to you.
We will probably use something like doodle to schedule the games, however I would like to rule that there must be a PCL referee spectating every game, this is simply so I know everything went smoothly, so I can always get a replay for video, and so that they can enforce the rules.
So anyway, here will be the cup format:
Group Stages - Groups of 3 or 4 depending on amount of signups, everyone plays eachother twice, top 2 advance from a group of 4, top team advances from a group of 3 (possibly there could be room for the best losers to advance in some cases).
Knockout Stages - Maybe we can talk about having some kinda PEL (Puna Europa League) for those teams that do not advance, just for fun. I wouldnt show it on SlidersTV though, it would be literally just so those teams dont feel too left out. But knockout stages would follow the format of 2 legged ties, with the 1st from one group playing 2nd from another in first round, team that was 1st plays "home" 2nd. In the event of a tie Away goals rule would be used (unless you guys really wouldn't prefer that). If its still a tie, Extra Time then sudden death.
The Final - This would be a standalone game (no 2 legs), and I would probably stream it LIVE on youtube! If we could get plenty of people watching that would be quite a unique event in turbosliders.
P.S Small note about the teams - All teams that have played in the last few years in the Champions League will be accepted, and we will make special exceptions for certain teams if people are really keen to play for them (e.g I'm sure Dede will want Sampdoria). However, no fake teams or local teams that have no hope of playing CL football in real life - I want to make this attractive to new players, so we need to keep a theme of the real Champions League about it. Each team will have a captain who can then choose his no.2, if anyone doesn't know what team they want but wants to play, they can still sign up and we will hold a draft. Who knows, in a few editions time we could have a real transfer market! 3v3, live knockout stages, everyone having their own stadium, there is no limit on expansion to this. Lets make it big!
Who's excited for the first edition of the Puna Champions League? Test cup will be in the next few weeks and sign ups in the coming days, so register your interest here and lets get the ball rolling!
Me and Shaytun will be a team. Sign us up.