compete at the top level of German rugby. DSV 78 protested the decision to reduce the league to eight teams again and thereby relegating the club. For the 2nd Bundesliga, this also meant, only one team each would be promoted to the two regional divisions to keep the strength at ten teams per league. In the North/East, this was SC Siemensstadt, the club being directly promoted, while, in the South/West, TV Pforzheim won the promotion tournament of the five southern Regionalliga champions in Nuremberg on 12 June 2010. On 22 August 2011, five days before the 2011-12 season start, the RG Heidelberg withdrew its reserve team from the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga South/West, citing inability to guarantee a full player squad for the whole season and thereby forcing the South/West division to compete with nine clubs only. The Berliner RC II withdrew during the season, also citing a lack of players as the reason while the RU Hohen Neuendorf was disqualified after not fielding a team in two league games. In mid-July 2012 the Deutsche Rugby Tag, the annual general meeting of the DRV decided to approve a league reform proposed by German international Manuel Wilhelm. The new system saw the number of clubs in the 2nd Bundesliga increased from 20 to 24 and the league divided into four regional divisions of six clubs each. One of the main aims of the reform was to reduce the number of kilometres travelled by individual teams and therefore reduce the travel expenses. The system will remain mostly unchanged for the 2013-14 season. The only changes will be a play-off between the fourth and fifth placed teams in each group after the first stage to determine the clubs advancing to the second stage. The championship play-offs after the second stage will be reduced from sixteen to twelve clubs with the top two teams in each group advancing directly to the quarter finals while the remaining eight will play a wild card round to determine the other four quarter finalists. From 2015 onwards the Bundesliga was reduced to sixteen clubs while the 2. Bundesliga remains at twenty four, divided into four regional groups. The winners of these four divisions would play each other for two direct promotion spots to the Bundesliga while the two losers of these games would face the seventh placed clubs from the Bundesliga. Clubs Participating in 2018 2nd Bundesliga championship finals Winner