Implemented Adjusting OLT Deadlines

[TPP]

OLT historically has had 8 day cycles for its ladder portion, resulting in deadlines occurring on weekdays at various times. The deadlines for the last few years have been:

2022 + 2023:

Thursday, August 3rd at 6:00 am EDT (GMT-4)
Friday, August 11th at 12:00 pm EDT (GMT-4)
Saturday, August 19th at 6:00 pm EDT (GMT-4)
Monday, August 28th at 12:00 am EDT (GMT-4)

2021:

Thursday, July 8th at 9:00 pm EDT (GMT-4)
Friday, July 16th at 3:00 am EDT (GMT-4)
Saturday, July 24th at 9:00 am EDT (GMT-4)
Sunday, August 1st at 3:00 pm EDT (GMT-4)

I want to propose what Chaitanya suggested last year, with the new deadlines always being on Sunday:

Sunday, July 28th at 12:00 am EDT (GMT-4)
Sunday, August 4th at 6:00 am EDT (GMT-4)
Sunday, August 11th at 12:00 pm EDT (GMT-4)
Sunday, August 18th at 6:00 pm EDT (GMT-4)

I think Sunday deadlines, or deadlines that are always on the weekend is much more convenient than early Thursday/Friday ones. OLT starts in 1 week (July 22nd), so the TD's will try to finalize a decision by then if there is enough support towards changing the deadline format or not.

 

[FFK]

This is such a great idea, Deadlines being on weekends (everytime) will definitely bring more hype and more people will tryhard last hours, maybe the hours need to be changed more often so you don't get 3 am -4 nor 12 am +2 or stuffs like this every cycles (just an idea personally I think the hours are fine as of now)

 

[Finchinator]

I am not going to comment on the specific hours, but I strongly believe weekend deadlines are ideal. I implore people who have struggled with deadlines on weekdays in prior years to speak up here, too.

 

[clean]

Weekday deadlines, especially those during normal working hours, are very unviable. They lock you out of playing entire cycles if you can't reliably be online during the deadline. I would prefer something like 3 am -4 on Sunday morning as opposed to the status quo, which has two cycles ending on weekdays that are impossible for the average person with a job to participate in.

 

[a fairy]

As myself, etc

I think that locking deadlines to weekends as proposed is a good idea that should happen. I'd encourage against shifting deadlines for more NA/Euro-centric times, the range currently put forward in the OP (where there are deadlines evenly spread out across a 24h period) allows weeks where I have to assume there are at least one or two decent time-of-day deadlines for all regions of the globe. I'd not want to see the times of day change, but would like to change which day(s) themselves are used for the deadlines. I recognize that there will be a percentage of our community who due to work or lifestyle differences cannot make a more consistent end-of-round due to the lack of variety in days, but I think that is always going to be a drawback of having a tournament so reliant on a specific moment in time - a problem STour deals with all the time.

 

[Dorron]

Without having played OLT and just following common sense, I'd say Saturday would be the best for deadlines since more people will be able to pull an all-nighter given the following day is Sunday and not Monday.

 

[ABR]

the deadlines can probably just be (in gmt-4)

6pm sat
midnight sat (11:59 pm)
6am sun
noon sun

this should simultaneously cover all timezones and also let most people screw over their sleep schedules freely without being too close to a weekday

 

[Welli0u]

I strongly agree with this, but a little preference for the times from ABR posts, but i think the times from the OP are viable too

I don't think reducing a cycle to 7 days is a bad thing, and that one less day will make things more interesting

 

[Finchinator]

the deadlines can probably just be (in gmt-4)

6pm sat
midnight sat (11:59 pm)
6am sun
noon sun

this should simultaneously cover all timezones and also let most people screw over their sleep schedules freely without being too close to a weekday

I like these times a lot. I think it would be the best for accessibility to do something like this — the 6h rotation has always been good, just the weekday part that was lame.

I also think OLT deadline is a spectator event and this would make it far more hype than 6am on a Monday or noon on a Tuesday could ever.

I will be sure to advocate accordingly in TD discussions (which are ongoing).

 

[Drifting]

I mentioned this earlier in discord but I think the times suggested in the OP (2pm Sunday, 8pm Sunday, 2am Monday, 8am Monday) are basically unviable for anyone who can't play on Sundays because of work for example. Having a spread of different days is important to avoid this problem and is the reason why the current times are the way they are.

Having a spread of Fri-Sat-Sun deadlines as suggested by others in this thread seems much more appropriate.

 

[TPP]

the deadlines can probably just be (in gmt-4)

6pm sat
midnight sat (11:59 pm)
6am sun
noon sun

this should simultaneously cover all timezones and also let most people screw over their sleep schedules freely without being too close to a weekday

The TD team is currently leaning towards these times as the new deadlines for OLT. If there are no objections nor any alternative proposals in the next ~48 hours, then we will implement these deadlines for this year's OLT.

 

[Tio Chico]

As a spectator, I strongly support this (ABR) proposal.
The main, if not all tournaments have their deadline on the weekend, OLT should not be an exception.
The loss of a few hours between time zones in each cycle is a minimal side effect compared to the benefits of aligning on the weekend.

 

[emma]

the deadlines can probably just be (in gmt-4)

6pm sat
midnight sat (11:59 pm)
6am sun
noon sun

this should simultaneously cover all timezones and also let most people screw over their sleep schedules freely without being too close to a weekday

RBY used very similar deadlines for RBY Ladder Tournament I this year to success, see no reason not for OLT to adopt the same times.

 

[FFK]

Just suggesting, Sunday 12 am -4 for last cycle maybe ? 6 hours difference with last cycle as well. Else I'm totally fine with ABR proposal

 

[TPP]

The new deadlines have been approved and will be implemented starting from this year's OLT.

This year's OLT cycles and deadlines will be as follows:

Cycle 1: Saturday, July 27th at 12:00 PM GMT-4 (noon) - Saturday, August 3rd at 6:00 PM GMT-4
Cycle 2: Saturday, August 3rd at 6:01 PM GMT-4 - Sunday, August 11th at 12:00 AM GMT-4 (Saturday night)
Cycle 3: Sunday, August 11th at 12:01 AM - Sunday, August 18th at 6:00 AM GMT-4
Cycle 4: Sunday, August 18th at 6:01 AM GMT-4 - Sunday, August 25th at 12:00 PM GMT-4 (noon)