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I wanted to start a Escalation League at my FLGS so I wrote the rules down and had a few people at the store including the guy who runs events there review them and make suggestions. Here is what we came up with. Any suggestions?

Synopsis:
The <redacted> Escalation League is a ten week league in-which players will compete against other players in the league. The league will start with 500 point armies and every two weeks the size of the armies used will grow by 250 points until 1500 points is reached. Every model used must be fully painted with at least three colors and based. There can be no un-painted parts of the model (except for the Necron’s green rods).

Cost:
The cost to enter for each player is $10. All of that money will go towards prizes for the winners in the form of store credit.

Date:
The league will start on <undetermined> and players may begin painting their models at this time. The first games that will count towards the league will start on <undetermined>.

Armies:
Each player must select one army to be their primary army, this can not change. Armies must be unpainted at the start of the league (<undetermined&gt, though they may be assembled and primed beforehand. All armies must be battleforged and may only contain one detachment for every 500 points of the army. Their primary army must make up at least 50% of the detachments and more than 50% of the point value of the army. Lord of War units may not be used, but Forge World units are allowed. The latest rules and FAQs must be used (including Chapter Approved).

Games:
Escalation League games must be between two participants of the league. Games against others not participating do not count. Each game must follow the Matched Play section of the Rulebook (page 212) and unscheduled games must randomly determine the mission from the Eternal War table or the Maelstrom of War table (page 215). The New Battlefronts missions from Chapter Approved (page 67) may be used instead. Scheduled games will have a mission selected for each week. Use the rules for each mission provided to set up the battlefield, determine deployment, and decide the victor.

Scheduled: Every two weeks each player will be assigned an opponent and a mission. The schedule will be finalized for the whole ten weeks before the league starts. Players will be responsible for contacting their opponents and scheduling their games. If an agreement can’t be made during the two week period then the game can be made up in advance or after the scheduled time period.

Unscheduled: Each player must participate in an unscheduled league games each week for weeks one through six. They can be against any other player in the league, but you may not play the same person twice in the same week (scheduled or unscheduled games).

Winning the League:
There will be two winners to the league. The player with the best win percentage will be declared the League Champion and awarded half of the pot in store credit. Each player in the league will also vote on the best painted army in the league to establish the Painting Champion. That player will get the other half of the pot in store credit. Bob will be the official in charge of the league and all of his decisions and judgments will be final.

No already-painted models? No. Painting 125 points of models a week at a decent level is nearly impossible for most people. What you're expecting people to do is buy a whole new army, ruin it with terrible paint just to be allowed to play, and probably have to try to salvage some money out of the debacle on ebay. An escalation league is a great opportunity for people to add new models to their collections if they want, but making it mandatory is a really bad idea.

Agreed. Forcing someone into essentially buying and painting a full army in 10 weeks isn't going to be feasible for most people.

No LOW? Why? Why can't I take a Hellhammer? Or a Knight Gallant? They're hardly OP.

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:
Agreed. Forcing someone into essentially buying and painting a full army in 10 weeks isn't going to be feasible for most people.

No LOW? Why? Why can't I take a Hellhammer? Or a Knight Gallant? They're hardly OP.

No one has to buy any new models, they can just use their unpainted models. No LoW because we are only playing to 1500 points and everyone would run mortarian.

So... Why not ban Mortarion, if you think he's OP, but not ban other, non-problematic LoWs?

 Davespil wrote:
No one has to buy any new models, they can just use their unpainted models.

Assuming they have unpainted models. Many people don't.

And even if you're not required to buy the whole army you're still required to paint it, trashing the models in the process. You're still paying a ton of money just to play in the event, because those models that you bought previously are now headed to ebay at 10% of MSRP in a desperate attempt to salvage something from the event.

Given that you're using matched play rules, maybe the section on sticking with one army should use the same language about faction keywords as the main rulebook?

Davespil wrote:

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:
Agreed. Forcing someone into essentially buying and painting a full army in 10 weeks isn't going to be feasible for most people.

No LOW? Why? Why can't I take a Hellhammer? Or a Knight Gallant? They're hardly OP.

No one has to buy any new models, they can just use their unpainted models.

If they have any. What if someone doesn't have unpainted models? They have to strip them down and paint them all over again? Buy new models? New paints?

No LoW because we are only playing to 1500 points and everyone would run mortarian.

So ban Mortarion then?

 Davespil wrote:

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:
Agreed. Forcing someone into essentially buying and painting a full army in 10 weeks isn't going to be feasible for most people.

No LOW? Why? Why can't I take a Hellhammer? Or a Knight Gallant? They're hardly OP.

No one has to buy any new models, they can just use their unpainted models. No LoW because we are only playing to 1500 points and everyone would run mortarian.

So everyone is playing Death Guard?

The "no painted models" rule is terrible. Fine for people who are lazy and just play with grey armies, but some people buy 1 box a month or so and paint them before buying another.

For me, that would be a 200-300 dollar entry fee. I wouldn't join your League.

OK, I get it. You guys need your LoW and painted all of your models. Cool. But, other than that do you see anything wrong with the league? It's something that a bunch of us want to do. I just want to see if there are any problems with it other than the aforementioned "faults' you guys found. Chamberlain had a great comment:

 Chamberlain wrote:
Given that you're using matched play rules, maybe the section on sticking with one army should use the same language about faction keywords as the main rulebook?

We don't want LoWs in the league and we all have an army or two sitting there unpainted and want a reason to paint it. Out of the 6 armies I haven't sold off yet I have maybe 5 painted models. I hate painting but it will at least give me a reason to try painting again. The same for many of the people in the league. Some are stripping older armies and repainting them, some are starting a new army that they've always wanted to play, and some are finally getting around to painting armies they've had for years. So, other than that, any holes in the rules or things we should consider for setting up the league?