Big Changes coming to 2018 FFWCT Battle Circuit
Now that the Flag Football World Championship Tour’s Battle Vegas and Battle Orlando National Championships are behind us, it’s time to announce to major changes coming to our 2018 Battle Circuit that all teams need to be aware of! We are constantly getting feedback from our players and fans in order to put a continually improving product on the field, and below are just some of the changes you can expect moving into 2018!
Battle Points now used for Pool Play Seeding
Going into 2018, we’ve completely revised our Battle Points system to be more familiar with what teams are used to and perfected how they’re implemented. Now points will be earned based on participating, how you finish in the standings, and directly tied to your rankings. Battle Points will also be the deciding factor on draft order at National and World Championships events, going away from the registration date model we used previously, and seeding into playoffs will go back to a traditional point differential model. 2018 points have been reset as of January 1st, so Battle Vegas and Orlando tournaments will be included in this years points feeding into Indianapolis and end with Nationals next January 17-20, 2019 in Orlando. You can earn points for participating in affiliated leagues, tournaments, along with official Battle events, so talk to your local league or tournament organizer to get them on board for points and paid bids to Orlando! Full details here!
Affiliate Leagues & Tournaments
Going into 2018 we are now partnering with leagues and tournaments all over the country to allow your organization to provide teams with Battle Points, Rankings, and bids to our Battle Orlando National Championships next January 17-20, 2018. Click here to learn more about how to become an affiliate and the many benefits it has for your organization!
National Flag Football becomes official Youth Partner
While the Flag Football World Championship Tour has included youth divisions at many of our tournaments in the past, our core strength was always in our adult markets and we realized the need to bring in a group to help us strengthen our offerings for kids and high schoolers. National Flag Football is the largest youth flag football program in the country, featuring over 50,000 youth in their leagues and tournaments across 10 states, and will be taking over managing the youth side of our tournaments starting immediately. This will be a huge boost to the number of teams we can have participating in each event which will benefit everyone involved to create bigger events with more competition and opportunities for us all!
Contact Formats added to 2019 Battle Orlando
Heading into next year’s Battle Orlando National Championships, we will be bringing back 8v8 and 5v5 Contact formats now that we are able to expand from the 6 fields available this year to 11 that Austin Tindall will offer in 2019. We may have other formats added as well but this is all we can officially announce for the moment so stay tuned!
Field Goal Kicking coming back to 8v8 Contact for 2019 Battle Orlando
One of our most asked questions and requests since we eliminated the kicking game from our 8v8 Contact format last year, we have decided to bring it back due to popular request starting with Battle Orlando in 2019. The Indianapolis World Championships will still be using our current set of rules, but plan on bringing your kickers out starting next January!
Players may now only play in one of PRO, Comp or Rec divisions per format
For all official Battle events, players may now only play in one division per format, and can only be on one roster. For instance, if you’re on a 4v4 PRO division roster, you will not be allowed to play in 4v4 Competitive or Recreational divisions. You CAN however play in 5v5 Competitive, along with 4v4 PRO, just not on multiple teams across different divisions of the same format.
7v7 Rules to see major overhaul
Think NIRSA rules, with a few minor tweaks, still no kicking game. We were working towards trying to synergize the 8v8 Screen and 7v7 Screen formats under a more similar set of rules but realize there are too many differences that players are not accustomed to, including field width and other game changing elements that we will be reverting to something more familiar before Indianapolis. Look for official rules to be released here in the next month or so.
4v4 & 5v5 Pool Play Games
Traditionally we have been running with 2 pool play games plus single elimination playoffs for all formats, but we feel like 2 games is just not enough for a format like 4v4/5v5 where games are only 30 minutes and not much time to get on the same page, especially with blowouts and forfeits being in the mix. Starting with Indianapolis World Championships, all 4v4 and 5v5 formats will move to a 3 pool play plus single elimination format, so 4 game guarantee.
5v5 Screen format for adults being replaced with Non-Contact
A minor but needed change and highly requested, we will be removing screen blocking and moving towards strict non-contact for our 5v5 format. We will still have 5v5 Contact as well, but the screen format caused too much confusion on how to enforce and wasn’t used widely enough for it to be a factor in our opinion, so our offerings will now be 5v5 Contact and 5v5 Non-Contact, men’s, women’s and coed.
Have other changes you’d like to see implemented? Feel free to comment below or fill out our contact form to make your suggestions so we can review!
