PBL Season 8 has been released, with updates to the format of Division 2, team disbands and various debutants into the league.

PBL Season 8 has been released today, with the format for Division 1 maintaining the same league format as prior seasons. Due to the disbanding of C-Gulls, the twelfth place team from last season, after cheating allegations against them were confirmed, alongside the disbanding of both automatic promotion placers Venomous Vipers and Solar Sharks from Division Two,  Division One has began with only thirteen teams instead of the usual sixteen.

As a result of these disbands, current Division Two teams have been allocated into a week-long mini single elimination bracket against four other teams, with the winning team being automatically promoted into Division One. The following rules for this tournament are listed below:

• 1 Championship Game

• Box-Flip to determine side selection for all games

• Winner progresses, loser stays in Division Two.

A link to this play-in bracket can be found here.

Whilst this may impact upon the overall quality of teams towards the bottom end of Division One's final standings should the three promoted teams place towards the lower ends of the table, this makes for a great experience for the new upcoming prospects to get a chance to experience the highest division of play without having to transfer to a new team and adjust to new playstyles.

After much trial-and-error with Division Two's format for the entire season throughout past seasons, PBL has determined that the league-phase format is the best option for the future of Division Two, which will now adopt the current format and rulesets of Division One, with the exclusion of an end-of-season playoff to determine the league winner. 

Upon the conclusion of the season, the top six teams from Division One will enter into the usual Championship playoff bracket, with the top two teams getting a bye in the first round. The losers of the opening playoff matches will fall into the Royal Bowl, which has reinstated for another season, which is a four team playoff between the two playoff-losing teams and the teams placing 7th and 8th in Division One. Teams 9-13th will play in the Meteoroid Bowl in the same single-elimination format.

The relegation and promotion between Division One and Division Two has been adjusted slightly, with the new promotion and relegation system being as follows in Division One:

• 14th plays against 3rd place in Division Two, winner plays in Division One in S9.

• 15th plays against 2nd place in Division Two, winner plays in Division One in S9.

• 16th is automatically relegated. 1st place in Division Two is automatically promoted.

This concludes this article on PBL S8. Any further enquiries, feel free to ask away in our Discord Server by clicking the button below.