We’re now 2 weeks deep into the new and improved AEL High School Ecosystem. The May-Hem tournament has come and gone, teams have been split into their divisions and we’ve seen our first week of League Play take place.
Let’s take a look at what’s happened so far, and what we have to look forward to in this season of High School action. Read more for in-depth details on how each team progresses, but for a recap on the basic tournament structure, watch this below video.
MAY-HEM TOURNAMENT
The inaugural May-Hem tournament is now in the history books, with Mentone Grammer’s Toners taking the title! 15 teams competed in a Swiss bracket, fighting for their place in Divisional League Play.
DIVISIONAL LEAGUE PLAY
From the results of the May-Hem Tournament and other factors such as previous results and in-game ranks, every team was placed in one of three skill divisions.
The divisions are as follows.
These teams will now be competing in a double round-robin over 5 weeks to decide who advances to the Divisional, State, and National Finals.
DIVISIONAL FINALS
To kick off the action in Term 3, each Division will host knockout finals featuring the top 4 teams to determine their respective Division Champions. The format of the Divisional finals is as follows.
STATE FINALS
The mid-part of term 3 will see our State Finals take place. With each state hosting a different amount of teams, the format for each State Final is a little different.
- States must host 2 or more teams to be eligible to host a State Finals.
- Each State Final will follow a Gauntlet Bracket, to determine their State Champion.
How teams qualify into the Gauntlet bracket in each state is a little different, so let’s break that down.
QLD State Finals and State Play-ins
The High School Cup hosts 9 Queensland teams, thus, the Queensland State Finals will feature a State Play-In Followed by a Gauntlet bracket.
The Queensland State Play-In will see the top 2 Queensland teams from Division 3, face off against the 2 Queensland teams from Division 2. They will compete in a knockout bracket to decide the last qualified team for the Queensland State Final.
The Queensland State Final will consist of the 3 Queensland-based teams from Division 1 and the winner of the Queensland State Play-In.
NSW State Finals
The High School Cup hosts 5 New South Wales teams, thus they will host a full State Finals bracket. The bracket will consist of all 3 New South Wales teams from Division 2 and the top New South Wales team from Division 3.
Victoria State Finals
The High School Cup only hosts 2 Victorian teams. Mentone Grammar's Toners and Yarra Valley Grammar's Watermelons. These two teams will face each other in term 3 to decide the Victorian State Champion.
NATIONAL FINALS AND NATIONAL PLAY-INS
To cap off the season, the High School Cup will host a National Finals. Our 3 State Champions will be joined by a team from the National Play-In, to battle it out for all-out glory.
National Play-In
The National Play-In serves as a path to the National Finals for teams that are from states that don't have enough teams to host a State Finals (only 1 team). Murray Bridge High School is the only team from Division 3 that meets this criteria, thus they automatically qualify for the first round.
Lynwood SHS and Marist Regional College are the other 2 teams that will contest over the upper seeds in Division 1.
National Finals
Once all the State Finals and National Play-Ins are over, we only have the National Finals left!
We look forward to seeing who comes out on top in this year's High School Cup!