(Thus G would be last place G, three last H and first two newcomers, with additional newcomers forming H.)

Chokecherry I think your movement plan is better as I feel it is more fair to the players who spent time climbing up the ranks and gives promotion to those who deserve it

I think you made yours with super promotions as a way to fill spaces while enforcing the minimum of at least 1 relegation
while kerosea made his as if super promotions are the norm which in my opinion takes this tournament out of it's original plan that was in your own words

"The league is meant to appeal to players who want to see, over the course of several seasons, where their natural level of competition might take them. For new, skilled participants, this means patience in getting to the levels where they will be challenged. Hopefully, that is part of the fun. The idea is to see how quickly you can progress, how long you can stay high, or how long it takes to stop a skid."

so please stay on course and only use super promotions as last resort

Chokecherry doesn't relegate anyone from Groups A or B, actually, but I think you make some good points.

~~~~~

My proposal followed two rules...

1) Every group should have at least one relegation. In the case of 6 or more retirements at or above their level, the group should have one person stay at their group. In this case, it's like a whole group above them all quit, so they would all naturally receive a promotion.

2) Except for the top and the bottom groups, every group should have only two people from the same group last season.

~~~~~

Three people in the same group as last Season wouldn't be too bad. I think only Group A should have 4 or more people in the same group as last season, though.

(From here, I'll use lowercase letters to indicate next season, with uppercase for this season)

If you want to prevent anyone from Group C from superpromoting to Group a, while keeping one relegation in each group...

a - AAABBB
b - ACCCDD
c - BCCDDE

Group B is awkward because it's forced to relegate someone while promoting the others to prevent anyone from superpromoting to Group a. Group b has to take the two superpromotions from Group D, because we don't want 4 people from Group C and we need to relegate someone from Group B. As for the superpromotion from Group E, see point #1 above; it's not really a superpromotion.

if you look at group A you can see the players that finished #5 and #6 retired so we shouldn't punish #4 that is not fair
if only 4 had started than i would agree that last place should be relegated but this is not the case
in our group B we had 5 players and one should get relegated but someone retired so he is "relegated"
as I see it you should look at the number of players that joined each group and according to that make a rule
relegate bottom 2 if 6 joined 1 if 5 or 4 joined but when last place or 2 last places are retiring no relegation should be made.

Relegation shouldn't be a must. If somebody from a group retires, that is a natural equivalent of relegation.. and THIS allows superpromotions to happen. I agree with ineffable - the idea of "you just have to relegate somebody" is simply not fair. And this season's group A is a perfect example.

Good points being made here. I'm going to try my best to respect the views of the majority on this and of the spirit of the expressed ideas of the league.

OK, all things considered, I'm going to revert to the pattern I had originally announced for Season 6. All but 1 game of season 5 is now complete and that game will not affect placements for the new season. Here are Season 6 placements with season 5 results! I expect to get the new season started very soon.

GROUP A
Heyheuhei (5-0)
Dunga (4-1)
Frankdeslimste (3-2)
Aper (2-3)
Niko (promoted from B, 4-0)
Ineffable (promoted from B, 3-1)

GROUP B
Luxis (1-3, won tie-breaker)
Kero*Sea (1-3)
Ruthless Bastard (promoted from C, 5-0)
NoobSchool (promoted from C, 4-1)
TexasJohn (promoted from C, 2-3)
Hangblague (super-promoted from D, 4-1)

GROUP C
Grinche (2-3)
CEBearsfan (1-4)
Dreuj (promoted from D, 4-1)
Elledee33 (promoted from D, 3-2)
x (promoted from D, 2-3)
J Russell Mikkelsesn (super-promoted from E, 4-0)

GROUP D
Ironheart (relegated from C, 1-4)
Grzechoo (2-3)
Old Surehand (promoted from E, 3-1)
Chewie (promoted from E, 2-2)
dodo commander (super-promoted from F, 4-0)
Ryan (super-promoted from F, 3-1)

GROUP E
Nighthawk (relegated from D, 0-5)
Min34 (1-3)
AwsomeGuy (promoted from F)
Zakyman (promoted from F, 1-3)
Z-Dog (super-promoted from G, 4-0)
Ze (super-promoted from G, 3-1)

GROUP F
Justin Gawner (1-3 or 0-4)
Arc-77 (promoted from G, 2-2)
Iblocka09 (promoted from G, 1-3)
Tenshi (super-promoted from H, 5-0)
Gnuffone (super-promoted from H, 4-1)
Warflowvet (super-promoted from H, 2-3)

GROUP G
Nayrb11 (0-4)
Fridge (promoted from H, 2-3)
HMS Dragon (promoted from H, 1-4)
AlexVGreat (promoted from H, 0-5)
Reza (new)
Hell bender (new)

GROUP H
Chris CMU (new)
Lolowut (new)
General Arun (new)
Mirror (new)
Grona (new)
The X Juggernaut (new)
Marc2013 (new)

I'd suggest putting Grona and Lolowut up a division and move Hell Bender down (I know you put new people in bottom but you should also try to put best new players as high in new divisions as possible).

I get the rationale, but I've been doing this in a blind first-come, first-served basis and prefer to avoid controversy and judgment calls as much as I can.

If it's still not too late I'd love to join this league too :)

OK, you're in too and consequently we'll bump Chris up to Group G and have 7 in each of G and H. I expect the groups will be set up today.

That makes sense too (not to do any qualitative analysis at all).