As the competitive scene grows, it is important that we try and keep things as clean and efficient as possible. Certain changes need to be made to secure the integrity and popularity of online tournaments.
What I would like to propose, is the following:
A CA Owner or Admin can toggle his arena to make it a Tournament Arena.
TAs will have an out-of-game Lobby for the participants and spectators/shoutcasters to join the game and lock in those specific ACCOUNTS to that game. (http://imgur.com/06SdNQH)
Once everyone is locked in and good to go, the Admin can “Start!” the game.
Spectators will be given a 3 minute timer before they are allowed into the game.
During those 3 minutes, each player can swap classes, builds (hopefully by making use of the soon-to-come Template option!), or anything else, so long as they remain logged into that same account that was locked into that Arena.
After the 3 minute “Pick Phase” is over, a couple of things happen:
Players for each team are LOCKED into whichever character they are on when the 3 minute timer runs out.
Skillbars & traits, (but NOT weapons) are locked.
Spectators are ported into the game.
After that has happened, there is a 2-3 minute grace period during which teams can have some last moments to talk about strat, opener, and whatever else they want. This is also a good time for casters to get some color casting done, etc…
And finally, the games begin! (Weapons are now locked).
After the game is over, and everyone is ported to the next map, there pre-game process repeats; 3 minutes Pick Phase & 2-3 minutes of strat time.
Hope this was comprehensible and something like this can be implemented in the future!