This September marks the beginning of VF Circuit - Season 2! Several important additions and changes are made for Season 2 including the option for online team-based events with flexible scheduling and the use of the replay upload game feature. The season will also see a change to the individual events format such that online matches will be played outside of room mode.

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Before going into details of the new season, I want to say thanks to all the VF Circuit Season 1 participants (185 people played in Season 1!), streamers, the sponsors Sega and Mad Catz, and VFDC for making the first season a reality. For those not familiar with the Circuit, the free online league was organized for both VF enthusiasts without active local scenes and for people new to the community. The Circuit was intended to keep the community involved and to encourage people to meet-up and participate in offline gatherings. Please look in the VF Circuit Forum section for more details.

Some aspects of the online league worked out great such as gaining new members to VFDC and regular gaming nights. Some things, though, need to be improved on such as retention of players and dealing with PSN and XBL issues. That leads to some of the changes made for Season 2. For those new to the VF Circuit, please check the VF Circuit Directory.

Individual Events Information
For the individual events in Season 2 there will be 3 Monthly Qualifiers and the Championship Playoffs for each region. Sign up thread for the September Qualifier will be posted in the upcoming days. Last season round robin game nights are basically being replaced with the Team Matches.

The Dates for the Monthly Qualifiers:

• 2-1. September Qualifier (September 29, 2013) - Round Robin (2 matches against each person) to a Single Elimination Tournament (2 out of 3)
• 2-2. October Qualifier (October 27, 2013) – Double Elimination Tournament (2 out of 3)
• 2-3. November Qualifier (November 24, 2013) – poll to determine tournament format (2 out of 3)

Depending on the number of participants overall, the winner or the top 2 from each Qualifier will advance to either a 4-person or 8-person Championship Playoffs (TBD in December). The elimination portion will be 3 out of 5. One spot in the playoffs will be given to last season’s champion. Any remaining spots left will be given to players with the highest points for the season.

Team Matches Information
Update: October 26th, 2013. Due to various reasons, the format of the Team events have been changed. There will be one event this season and it will be on December 15th, 2013.

Spoiler: Obsolete Information

While the individual events have set dates for participation, the team matches for Season 2 have flexible scheduling that is dependent on your team’s own schedule! This is new to VF Circuit and the goal is to get as many people involved as possible. Composition of a team (which consists of 3 to 6 players) is based on how VFR's Bay Area Cup teams are organized. However, the format for the actual team matches will be unique for the online experience.

At the beginning of each month, the season teams will determine how many team members will be participating for that month. For example, a 6-player season team can either make two 3-person teams or play as one single team with three bench players for that month. Teams with less than 6 players will play that month either as a single team with bench players or two teams with the use of rental player(s). Once that is decided, teams will be paired off and the two teams must come to an agreed date and time to have their team match. A minimum of 2 team matches will be played per month.

Still confused? Don’t worry! Each team participating in the season will be guided through the process through VFDC’s Group Conversations. Check out the list of teams that have already signed up!

Removal of Room Mode and using the "Replay Upload" Feature
Two changes on running these events are the removal of room mode for matches and also the use of the "Replay Upload" feature. Most of the instability with the online networks, especially PSN, is related to the Room Mode. While the idea of the room mode was great, the instability caused a lot of issues during the first season. For season 2, the room mode will not be used for the event matches. Since everyone that participates in the Circuit needs to have a VFDC account, I see no major problem in running the events.

To alleviate one of the advantages of using room mode--watching other people play--is to use the Upload Replay feature from the game. From a small sample of uploads, it takes approximately 10-15 minutes for an uploaded replay to appear on the server. The format for individual events and team matches is designed with the Replay mode feature in mind. While it still depends on the number of participants, I hope to have each event to not take more than 2 hours to complete.

I will post more specific details in the VF Circuit Forum section. Looking forward to hopefully an improved season!