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TLDR for the Zoomers

If you have tried to, or believe you have signed up your roster/s for the Winter '24 seasons, please ensure your roster is signed up to the season. we had incorrectly set the maximum roster size value for Sixes at 8 players for the majority of the signups period. Compounding this mistake further, our website does not properly make users aware that their signup application was invalid (for example, exceeding the maximum roster size), meaning many may not even be aware that their roster was not signed up.

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Hang on, what?

In the post-season meetings for the Autumn '24 seasons (initially in the Highlander meeting) a proposed roster size change was suggested, where the maximum roster size would be lowered during the signups period, and would then return to the traditional maximum roster size once the season had commenced. The primary intention of this change was to see if it could have an impact on substitute player choice, in the hopes of encouraging the rostering of only reliable substitute players, emphasising a focus on roster health first before rostering potential roster riders. Whilst there were other reasons, this was the primary reason for exploring this change. This proposal was also raised at the Sixes post-season meeting, but it was decided that Sixes would not experiment or test this change, thus leaving Highlander to test it alone.

So why is this an issue?

Initially, the suggestion was to test having the maximum roster size for Sixes set to 8 during the signups period, with it returning to the traditional maximum roster size of 10 once the season started, similar to Highlander and allowing the change to be tested "globally". However, as Sixes would not be following through on this proposed change, the settings for the Sixes Winter '24 season page should have been set back to the traditional maximum roster size setting, but at our fault we failed to do so.

Compounding the issue further, our website doesn't make users aware that their signup application failed to go through due to their roster exceeding the maximum roster size, meaning many Sixes and Highlander captains may not even be aware that their roster was not signed up to the season.

What are we doing to remedy this?

• Sixes

  • We will not be making any changes to the maximum roster size for Sixes Winter '24.
  • The maximum roster size setting for this season has been set back to 10 on the Sixes Winter '24 season page. If you had previously thought that you had signed up for this season, please double-check that your roster is listed as signed up.
  • We will be monitoring signups closely, and we are ready to extend the signups period to June 26th if necessary. Please note that the signups period is still set to close 11:59PM June 19th as originally planned, but we will let everyone know if we extend the signups period.

• Highlander

  • As the roster size changes for Highlander were properly documented with the launch of the season's signup period, we will be staying the course and capping the maximum roster size for Highlander at 12 until the season starts, then raising the maximum back to the traditional 15 during the first transfer window.
  • During the first transfer window, you will be able to request enough transfers to fill your roster.
  • If you were not aware of this change, please double-check that your roster is listed as signed up.
  • If deemed necessary, we will extend the signups period by a week, but please note we are less likely to extend the Highlander signups period due to the changes being announced with the launch of the season.

An Apology

Whilst for Highlander everything is as intended, for Sixes we failed to set the season page settings correctly, and for that we are sorry. After what was for some a rough season (particularly for those in High or Intermediate last season), we understand this is not a good start to a fresh season. We are to improve the signup application handling, adding success or error notices so users know if their signup application was accepted by the system, or if not why it failed.

More Rule Changes Coming

We haven't forgotten about the issues raised by you all in the previous Sixes season regarding late team signups and roster disbanding/undisbanding, and will be releasing a docs update post before the start of the Sixes and Highlander seasons documenting all of the rule changes and where to find them, including more reasoning as to why some changes were made. In general, we need to get better at providing our reasoning as to why we are making changes, and that will be a particular focus of this upcoming post. The current public version of our docs does not accurately or correctly reflect the changes for this season, and will be updated alongside the release of our docs update post shortly.