Exy Season

Exy Season information considering Neil's freshman year (2006-07 season)

## Class I Format

The NCAA Exy season begins in August and ends in April, with a winter break separating it's two phases: fall season and spring championships.

### Fall Season

Fall Season works as a qualifier for Spring Championships and is played between teams in the same regional district. In Neil's first year, it's stated that the Southeastern District's teams played 14 games (there are 14 teams in the District, since no rematches are mentioned the total amount could be 13 and it was an oversight by the author). It is not known if that number is fixed or if simply all teams must play each other once.

Which teams in a district qualify for spring championships is decided by the amount of games won. If two or more teams have the same number of victories their goal-ratio is used as a tie-breaker. Both the Southeastern and Southwestern districts select their four best ranked teams, it is not known if other districts select more.

In Neil's first year, the Foxes qualify for Spring Championship in second place, with a 12-2 game record. The other southeastern qualifying teams that year are the Edgar Allan Ravens (first place), Breckenridge Jackals (third) and Belmonte Terrapins (fourth).

### Spring Championships

In the Spring Championships, the qualified teams are divided according to their fall ranks in odds and evens brackets that converge at semifinals. While in brackets, the season has four different rounds. Championships don't allow ties or overtime, and if the game comes to a draw it must be decided by penalty shots.

**First round** is composed by teams in the same bracket from two districts. The ones that win more games within that group advance. In Neil's year, this means the Foxes are in the evens bracket, and the southeast's second and fourth ranked (PSU and Belmonte) play against southwest's ones (UT and SUA). These four teams play each other once and *have to win two out of the three games* to go to the second round. Two teams from that group qualified (PSU and UT), in addition to other four nationally (UV, Nevada, Washington State and Binghamton), with a total of six teams on the evens bracket. In the odds one, eight teams were proceeding to the next round (The Ravens, US Trojans, Penn State, Oregon, Maryland and three unnamed ones). It is not known why the odds bracket classifies more teams, or if it is something that changes according to the season.

**Second round** happens after a week break and is composed of one *death match* between two teams draw from the same bracket, but not the same group. This cuts the amount of remaining teams in the championships by half. In Neil's freshman year, the Foxes win against UV (UT plays Nevada, Washington State plays Binghamton; in the odds Oregon plays Maryland and The Ravens, Trojans and Penn State each play an unnamed team).

**Third Round** is a set of games with the remaining teams on the bracket. The teams play each other and the *two with most points* proceed to the next round, regardless of game results. (The Foxes play Nevada and Binghamton; while The Ravens, Trojans, Penn State and Maryland play each other. It's the first time in six years one of the Big Three is eliminated before semifinals).

**Fourth Round** is a *death match*. In the evens bracket, the Foxes play a rematch against Binghamton. Since it is stated that both The Ravens and The Trojans (the two teams left in the odds bracket) proceed to semifinals, and considering that semifinals are played between three teams, there are a few possibilities of how this round is played:

1. It's a hybrid death match. There's one game for each bracket and only one team is eliminated out of the four: the least-scoring one within that round
2. Out of the four qualified from round three, the two with least points play a death match decide which qualifies for semifinals
3. The two qualified from the odds bracket automatically are in the semifinals and the ones from the evens have to play the death match (this could be supported by the fact that the evens bracket qualifies less teams to round two)

**Semifinals** happen after a week break and are played by the three remaining teams. The team that loses both games doesn't continue to finals; and in the case these games are back-to-back the last one is cancelled to avoid the final being an immediate rematch. It is not stated what would happen if each team won one game, but taking fall's ranking procedure into consideration it is likely that it would be used goal-ratio as tie-breaker. (The Trojans lose against the Foxes and later against the Ravens, causing the FoxesxRavens game to be cancelled)

**Finals** happen usually after a week break (two if the last semifinal is cancelled) between the two remaining teams.

## Team Events

The Exy Fall banquet is a mandatory event for all schools in the southeastern district. Although being a two-day event, the Foxes frequently vote whether leave on the first night. The host school changes every year, by a lottery held in July, and players are allowed to bring a date with them. In Neil's year, the banquet happened in Blackwell University; on Saturday, September 9th.

Likewise, each District holds it's own Christmas Banquet by the end of the Fall Season, with the same dynamics as the first one. During the banquet it's announced which teams from the District will be proceeding for Spring Championships. During the event's of the series, it is held by Breckenridge on December 16th.