We are planning to start a league in our club. At the moment around 15-16 players are interested. We have been discussing several possibilities and have an idea about what to do.

Some of us think that 15 ppl free for all is not a good idea, it just takes too long. So we decided to split into three or four groups, depending on the actual amount of players, and do playoffs with the best four.

But a league system thrives with multiple leagues and changes in between, depending on your final position at the end of the season. So we wanted to use the initial run to seed maybe two or three tiers and get the seasons coming.

I would like to hear your experience with any league system you encountered in your X-Wing life (or any other game), be it on tier size, change in between tiers, or whatever you encountered

Thanks!

2 person teams with 100pts each could be pretty cool. Max 200pt lists but flown by 2 ppl.

ladder system could work with players ranked 1-15. You can challenge anyone ranked up to two spots above you. If you beat a higher ranked player you move up one spot on the ladder. Works best with name labels posted on a board (could use a few card binder inserts)

Rotating factions, you use a squad from a different faction each week. Rebels, Scum, Empire (1st Order/Resistance)

Our local league just has players record the results of whoever they end up playing with in the store either on a clipboard or in a google doc, with 4 points awarded for a win and 2 points for a loss, even if you played someone who's not in the league, and an extra point if you play with whatever weird list restriction or custom format the organizer has come up with for that month, and then prizes are awarded at the end of each month, with an entry fee of either $10 or I believe $40 in store purchases during that month.

It's a system that rewards people for showing up and jamming as many games as possible more than winning, which I think is a really great way to keep the community active and welcoming to people that are more casual or visiting or new to the scene.

The problem with a ladder system is there's no incentive for the higher ranked players to play against the lower ranked ones, and in fact are incentivized not to play at all once they reach a rank they are happy with. And the problem with running a league as a sort of long-form tournament the way that sports leagues do is that it turns into a sort of exclusive clique within the community where league players only want to play league games against other league players and people who aren't in the league or came in after the league started kind of get left out. IMO, any long-term system that discourages people from playing for any reason is a suboptimal one. If you have competitive players that want to establish their skill amongst their peers, I'd recommend you supplement weekly league play with the occasional weekend tournament.