Season 26 Dates:

Qualifying and seeding into playoffs

If teams are tied for the qualifying spots during the regular season the following criteria will be matched in order, for every contested position to determine the qualifying team(s):

1. Match wins

2. Map wins 

3. Head-to-Head

4. Map score(total map wins - total map losses)

5. Head-to-Head

6. Coin flip

Should teams be tied on the first three criteria, and Head-to-Head not be applicable, all tied teams are free to organise tiebreaker matches and report the result to the moderator team before the end of Round 10. 

Seeding into the Playoffs

Seeding will be done as follows:

(Quarter Final) Match 1: 1st seed vs Chosen opponent.

(Quarter Final) Match 2: 4th seed vs Chosen opponent.

(Quarter Final) Match 3: 3rd seed vs Chosen opponent.

(Quarter Final) Match 4: 2nd seed vs Chosen opponent.

(Semi Final) Match 5: Winner of Match 1 & 2

(Semi Final) Match 6: Winner of Match 3 & 4

(Grand Final) Match 7: Winner of Match 5 & 6

The Bracket is as follows: 

All Divisions will use the same format, but with slightly different timings.

All Quarter Finals games will be Best of 5.

All Semi Finals games will be Best of 5.

All Grand Finals games will be Best of 5. Grand Finalists are required to use Heroes Lounge Discord voice chat channels for communication.

As in the regular season, all playoff matches will be conducted with two map bans from each team.

There is time allocated for Quarter Finals and Semi finals, however, if the two Quarter Finals that meet in the Semi-Finals are finished early, then Semi Finals can be played.

The Sub Rules are the same as the normal season where sub players must be below the Upper MMR threshold of the Division above them.

Additional substitute player and roster rules

After Round 10, the participating playoff teams' rosters will be locked, meaning no more roster changes can be made. 

If you want to, or may need to, use substitute players during the playoffs, you will need to register these substitute players beforehand with a moderator. Opposing captains have to be informed of the use of substitute players before the match, even if the player has been registered and approved by a mod beforehand. 

The usual substitute rules apply, with a few additions:

• A team can register up to 5 substitute players for the playoffs, with those registrations being valid for the entire playoff duration.

• Each player can only play for one team in each Division throughout the playoffs, even after that team has been eliminated.

Substitute players can be registered until 12:00 (noon) CET / PST of the grand final day (the final day of the playoffs). Substitute players registered later can be used in compliance with all normal substitute player rules, however these are now limited to players of the same division or below. For example - In the Division 6 grand final past 12:00 CET, Division 5 players can no longer be registered without approval from the opposing captain(s).

If a substitute player’s MMR raises above the given division’s MMR threshold after registration, the opposing team’s captain can deny this substitute player at the time of playing.