If your question isn't covered here, please post it in the forums, and someone will answer you there and/or add it to these FAQs
A: The DPL is the DPChallenge Photography League. For more information, see the about page
A: DPL teams, consisting of DPChallenge users and members, compete in matches against other teams. The match results are determined by team member entries into the Open and Member challenges that week. The season has multiple phases:
All the scores are automatically tracked and stats updated at the end of each week of the season. The 4 teams qualified for the last playoff round compete for Gold / Silver / Bronze medals.
A: There are two parts to this:
A: The top 8 teams from all divisions advance to the playoffs. The playoff is divided into 3 rounds.
The DPL is broken up into seasons. A single season's schedule is as follows:
- Week 1, 2, 3: Players registration starts.
- Week 4: The teams are created and the team threads become active.
- Week 5: The regular season season begins with the first challenge announced.
- Week 6, 7, 8, 9: The first three rounds are completed.
- Week 10: Mid-season break
- Week 11, 12, 13, 14, 15: The next rounds are complete. Top teams announced.
- Week 16, 17, 18: Playoffs round 1
- Week 19, 20, 21: Playoffs round 2
- Week 22, 23, 24: Playoffs round 3
A: No, only the first two normally scheduled Members and Open challenges (Sunday/Monday and Tuesday/Wednesday) will be counted towards the team scores each week.
A: You should sign up in the Registration page. While registering, you can request up to two people you would like to be on your team. You must rank them as your 1st Choice and 2nd Choice. The system will try to fulfill as many requests as possible when forming the teams. You can also indicate if you are willing to be a team captain (note that team assignment is not impacted by this, but it can be used to assign the initial captain role).
A: Yes! There is exactly one scenario that is 100% guaranteed: The Mutual #1. If you rank a player as your #1 choice, and they rank you as their #1 choice, you will be placed together.
A: The Skill Cap is a maximum performance rating allowed for a team, calculated based on the past performance history of its members. We use this to prevent stacking too many high-performing veterans on a single squad.
A: We calculate it in two steps:
A: Yes. Mutual #1s are part of the Skill Cap calculation, and may be balanced by other team members to stay below the cap.
A: If you weren't a Mutual #1 pair, your request was subject to the Skill Cap. We process requests in this order:
If adding your requested partner would push the team over the allowed Skill Cap, the system skips that request to maintain fairness.
A: If your preferences cannot be met due to the Skill Cap (or if the people you chose were paired with their own Mutual #1s), you will be assigned to a team via Random Fill.
A: It isn't purely random chaos. The system assigns remaining members to teams specifically to keep the team under the Skill Cap. It tries to balance the league so every team has a fighting chance.
A: Absolutely. You can leave your preferences blank, and the system will place you on a team where your skill level fits best to balance the scales.
A: We do our best to make the math work for everyone, but remember: It is a game. The Random Fill might introduce you to new photographers you haven't interacted with before. We encourage you to embrace the new squad and do your best!
A: While we strictly guarantee only pairs, you can coordinate your requests to maximize the probability of being placed together. To do this, you should form a “guaranteed core” and attach the third player to it.
The Scenario:
The Outcome: Players A and B are locked together immediately. The system will examine the other requests, and will note that adding C to the team satisfies multiple requests at once. The system will most likely add Player C to the team, unless doing so pushes the total team performance above the Skill Cap.
A: Yes (details are left as an exercise to the reader). However note that as more and more high performing players are added to the scenario, it may become harder to satisfy all the requests while keeping the team below the Skill Cap.
A: The team captain duties include:
A: One of the members who indicated a willingness to be a captain will be assigned the role. The elected captain can pass the role to a different member. If no one on the team signed up for captainship, then one of the members will be assigned, since a team must have a captain to play. The team can reassign the role to a different member at any time.
A: The number of teams and the teams size will depend on the number of players registered. We are aiming at 5-7 players per team, and an even number of teams. In order to avoid leaving registered players out, the number of players per team may vary slightly (+-1).
A: Direct transfers between teams are complicated, so we won’t be moving members from one team to another. However, during the mid-season break, teams may add one additional member to compensate for a non-contributing member.
A: For a DQ, your score for that entry will obviously not be counted towards your team's average. For a suspension, you will not be able to compete until the suspension is lifted.
You can find the team standings here, and the current entries at the end of the last thumbnails page for each challenge still in voting. In addition, all of this information will be kept in your team's profile page, which can be found under 'My Home' → 'My Team' on the top menubar.
No, they are treated like your own, ie displayed at the end of the last thumbnails page for each challenge.
Your team will automatically get a forum thread created once the teams are finalized. We have made posting images much easier to encourage its use. Team threads are hidden from all other DPC users. Site Admins may review it upon request for moderation purposes.
If the season hasn't yet started, the captain can change the team's name via the team admin page. However, once the season has started, the name is fixed, unless you have a typo or an exceptional circumstance - contact the SC for either situation, and they will decide whether to make the change.
Teams are allocated a division based on the team pre-season performance. Teams are allocated evenly between the divisions.
If your question isn't covered here, please post it in the forums, and someone will answer you there and/or add it to these FAQs