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2022-23 USQ Gameplay Update: USQ Event Gameplay Formats and At Large Bid Allocation

By USQ Gameplay Team, 02/06/23, 12:00PM PST

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Updates on regional formats and an update on at large bid requirements.

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UPDATE- West Regionals - 2/15/2023: 

Collegiate Division- University of Northern Colorado has dropped from West Regionals, causing the collegiate division to fall to 4 teams. To adjust for this, the West Regional Championship will now have 1 D1 bid available and 2 D2 bids available for bid allocation. The format will remain a round robin with the remaining 4 teams, and final games to decide the regional champion, runner up, D1 bid, and final D2 bid.


Club Division- The gameplay format for the club division will be a cross-pool format. Teams have been assigned to pools of 3 and will play all teams outside their pool. This gameplay format will afford 6 games on the weekend, prioritizing as few back to backs as possible. With a rising level of injuries across club play, we believe holding 6 games across the weekend for bid allocation will be safer than 8 games. Consolation games may be scheduled on Sunday based on logistic availability, including officials and equipment.

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Event Updates-Spring Regionals

USQ-hosted spring regionals will take place over February to provide national D1 and D2 collegiate bids, in addition to club championship bids for USQ Cup 2023. Below you will find information about the different divisions (gameplay and teams attending) for the event, in addition to bid allocation reminders/updates.

PHOTO BY: TCP Photography

South Regionals

Will take place at Saluda Shoals Park in Columbia, SC on February 11-12, in partnership with Columbia SC Sports.

Collegiate Division 

  1. The collegiate division will be a one day 5 team round robin with no bracket on Saturday. Bids will be awarded based on rankings upon the conclusion of all round robin games. 2 collegiate D1 bids and 1 collegiate D2 bid will be available*.

*If a team previously held a D2 bid, they may compete to earn a D1 bid. In the case they earn a D1 bid, their previous D2 bid will become at large. 

Club Division

  1. The club division will be a two day, 11 team event, beginning on Saturday. The format will consist of pool play day 1 and bracket play day 2. The final game will be scheduled to start by 3:15pm on Sunday*. 2 club championship bids will be available.
  • *Depending on the success of teams with already established bids, Day 2 may be shortened.

  1. A pool of 5 and a pool of 6 will be created by ranking teams into 6 pots.

  2. On day 1, teams will engage in pool play. On day 2, the top 4 teams of both pools will compete in a bracket to award nationals bids.The teams who do not move onto bracket may be allowed to play 1-2 games depending on interest after pool play, and equipment availability.

Teams Attending

Collegiate

Club

Florida Gulf Coast Quadball

Atlantic Dragons

Florida State University

Boom Train

University of Florida

Bosnyan Bearsharks

University of North Carolina-

Chapel Hill

Boston Black Pandas

Virginia Reunited

Boston Red Pandas

 

District of Columbia Quadball Club

 

Earth Wake 

 

Philadelphia Freedom

 

Terminus Atlanta

 

The Warriors 

 

Orlando Spiderknights

 

PHOTO BY: TCP Photography

West Regionals

Will take place at Robertson Park in Livermore, CA on February 18-19, in partnership with Visit Tri-Valley. **Updates regarding format due to event changes at top of article**

Collegiate Division

  1. The collegiate division will be a 1 day event on Saturday. Teams will take part in a round robin, and a final game will take place to determine the regional champion and final D2 bid. 2 D1 bids and 1 D2 bid will be available.
  2. In the event the collegiate division falls below 5 teams, USQ Gameplay will work to update the bid allocation for the remaining competing teams.

Club Division

  1. The club division will be a 2 day event beginning on Saturday. Teams will compete in a Round Robin over two days and rankings at the end of the round robin will decide the regional champion and bid winners of the event. The final game should begin by 5pm on the second day. 2 club championship bids will be available for the event.

Teams Attending

Collegiate

Club

Arizona State University  

Anteaters Forever

Cal Quadball

Bay Area Breakers

NAU Narwhals

Lost Boys Quadball Club

UCLA

Mile High 

University of Northern

Colorado

Salt Lake City Hive

 

Seattle Quadball Club

 

Silicon Valley Venom

 

Silicon Valley Vipers

 

Twin Cities Quadball Club

 

PHOTO BY: TCP Photography

Southwest Regional Championship

Will take place at Round Rock Multipurpose Complex in Round Rock, TX on February 25-26, in partnership with Visit Round Rock.

Collegiate Division

  1. The collegiate division will be a 2 day round robin event beginning on Saturday. Pool play will take place on Saturday and early Sunday, and then bracket will take place to determine the regional champion and bids. 2 D1 bids and 2 D2 bids will be available. The final game should begin at 4pm on Sunday.

Club Division

  1. With 5 teams attending, the club division will take part in a one day round robin on Saturday. Rankings will determine the sole club championship bid. 1 club championship bid will be available for the event.

Teams Attending

Collegiate

Club

Baylor Quadball

Gulf Coast Gumbeaux

Oklahoma State/Texas A&M

Pegasus

Quadball Club at LSU

Southwest Alliance

Sam Houston State University    

Texas Cavalry

Texas Quadball

Texas Hill Country Heat

Texas State

 

UTSA

 

 

Bid Allocation

As outlined in September’s gameplay update, USQ Gameplay has updated the attending teams of regional championship tournaments, as well as allocated nationals bids to each tournament based on the number of teams attending. A list of teams assigned to each spring regional can be found further up in this article.

Similar to previous seasons, collegiate qualification for the competitive divisions at nationals relies more on bids earned at regional championships, with a smaller number of at-large bids available later in the season. Club competitive qualification relies more heavily on at-large bids, while a smaller number of bids are still available to be earned at regional championships.

Collegiate Division

Based on the number of teams attending each collegiate regional and using the allocation method described on the 2022-23 season gameplay requirements tab here, nationals bids have been distributed as follows:

Regional Championship    

D1 Bids

  D2 Bids

South - 5 teams

2

  1

Southwest - 7 teams

2

  2

West - 5 teams

2

  1

In total, the spring season will offer 6 D1 bids and 4 D2 bids. Any team with a D2 bid that earns a D1 bid at an event will have their D2 bid released to the pool of at large bids. As a reminder, collegiate nationals will comprise three divisions: Division 1 (24 teams), Division 2 (16 teams), and Open (currently uncapped). Read more about this here, and more information about registration for USQ Cup 2023 here.

Club Division

Nationals bids will be allocated to club regional championships on a rolling schedule, based on the number of club teams registered for the regional 1 week ahead of the event. Regionals with fewer than 8 teams will award one nationals bid, and those with eight or more will award two.

Based on the number of teams currently assigned to each regional, five spring regional bids will be distributed as follows:

Regional Championship    

Competitive Bids

South - 11 teams

2

Southwest - 5 teams

1

West - 9 teams

2

Club teams can continue to sign up to attend additional regional tournaments, and the above numbers may change accordingly throughout the season. The actual number of bids available at each regional will update based on registration until the 1 week ahead allocation cutoff for each event. Any remaining bids will be distributed through the at-large system after March 12, 2023, for a total of 20 teams. Club nationals will comprise two divisions: Club competitive (20 teams) and Club lower (currently uncapped).

At Large Bid Update

Based on season review, the USQ Gameplay team will be lowering the gameplay requirements for collegiate at large bids by two games. The updated requirements will be as follows

  • Teams wishing to earn at large bids must:

    • Compete in 10 games, against 8 different opponents, at 4 events (one of which must be a regional championship)

OR

  • Compete in 8 games, against 7 different opponents (one of which must be from out of region), at 3 events (one of which must be a regional championship)

At large bid allocation will be based on standings when they lock after all games played during the March 12th weekend are entered. At that time, teams who have completed one of the at large bid requirements will receive at large bids in standings order. If a team has a D2 bid, they may still be offered a D1 at large bid. If they accept, their D2 bid will move down to the D2 at large pool. Teams will continue to receive bids and have one week to accept. Standings are available for the current season here

March 12, 2023, at 11:59 pm ET: at-large gameplay requirements deadline*

March 26, 2023, at 11:59 pm ET: season play requirements deadline*

*If a team believes they will have issues meeting season play or gameplay requirements, they can fill out a waiver here, through the gameplay deadline (March 12 for at-large requirements, or March 26 for D1, D2, or Club Championship bid requirements) to have the gameplay team review their season record, expected tournament attendance for the rest of the season, and if approved, will waive requirements based on team need.

A full explanation of the USQ Standings Algorithm is available here.

Open Division

Teams that do not earn a USQ Cup bid at a regional championship or an at-large bid will be able to compete in the open division. If your team is interested in participating in the open division, but does not want to be considered for an at-large bid, you must fill out the registration form

Open division play will take place throughout the event and more information will be provided in the spring. Teams can expect to play throughout the day Saturday and early Sunday. Official USQ teams must attend one event by March 12, 2023, which teams are permitted to use regionals for this requirement.

New this season, unofficial teams can compete at nationals in the collegiate open and club open division. The goal of this is to provide an opportunity for unofficial teams to experience US Quadball Cup to help with team recruitment and growth. To begin the process, teams can email membership@usquadball.org. There are no season play requirements to compete in this division for an unofficial team. 

Team Gameplay Requirement Tracker

The USQ Gameplay Team has worked to create a spreadsheet so all teams can track how close they are to completing their gameplay requirements for the season, whether season play requirements or at large requirements. The sheet is available here, and has also been added to the requirements check menu on the member website. The spreadsheet will be updated periodically as games are entered into standings.

For questions about bid allocation, regional assignments and/or standings, please contact gameplay@usquadball.org

Photo Credit: Tori Nutt