Melmond Murder Mystery
Fall League 2022
Rules and Guidance
Welcome to the 2022 FFR Fall League. This is our yearly event that pits teams of racers against each other for a chance at glory. The Fall League is a six-week event, the first four of which are open to all teams, with semi-finals and finals taking place in weeks five and six respectively. We invite all interested players to come and join the league, form a team, and get ready for the delightful chaos of this year’s event.
About the League
Players will group up in teams of four (4), no more or less. Each week of the league will feature different flags (listed below in the “League Flags” section) and four races of that flagset (with different seeds) each week. Each player on the team must race once each week (and only once unless prior approval is given that week by the Fall League Staff).
Tournament Structure:
During the first four weeks, the League will be open to all teams. Once the first four weeks are over, points will be totaled and the top four teams will then compete in Week 5 for semi-finals (all other teams are, at this point, out of the League). At the end of Week 5, scores are totaled again and the top two teams will complete in the “Gold Medal” match, while the other two teams of week five can complete, if they so choose, in a “Bronze Medal” match. There is no plan, at this juncture, for a “victory lap” bonus race after the League is over.
Important Dates:
- October 3 - 9, 2022: Week 1
- October 10 - 16, 2022: Week 2
- October 17 - 23, 2022: Week 3
- October 24 - 30, 2022: Week 4
- October 31 - November 6, 2022: Semi-finals Week
- Week of November 7, 2022: Finals Week
League Schedule:
Dates and times for the specific games will be settled closer to League start. A survey will be posted closer to the start of the league to poll players for dates and times that work for them, and then a schedule that best fits all teams will be put together.
League Points:
Scoring for the races will be handled via “bins” (meaning that players that come within a certain amount of time from each other will score the same amount of points). This helps to “flatten” the scoring curve and keep competitive teams within closer distance of each other.
How the Scoring Works: League Weeks
With many simultaneous racers going each race, each week, we wanted a system that would allow the top spots to earn a meaningful amount of points while keeping the middle of the field very competitive.
- The first player to finish the race will automatically be placed into Bin 1. All other players have a certain time limit (for most races 1 minute -- 0:01:00 – but shorter flagsets will have a shorter bin time) to finish in order to be placed into bin 1 as well.
- Once that threshold has passed, the next player to finish will automatically be put into Bin 2. All subsequent players will now have double the first bin's time (e.g., if Bin 1 is 1 minute, Bin 2 is 2 minutes) to be placed into bin 2.
- Once that threshold has passed, the next player to finish will automatically be put into Bin 3, with a time threshold of 4x the first bin (e.g. if Bin 1 is 1 minute, Bin 3 is 4 minutes).
- Once that threshold has passed, the next player to finish will automatically be put into Bin 4, with a time threshold of 8x the first bin (e.g. if Bin 1 is 1 minute, Bin 4 is 8 minutes).
- Once that threshold has passed, the next player to finish will automatically be put into Bin 5, with a time threshold of 16x the first bin (e.g. if Bin 1 is 1 minute, Bin 5 is 16 minutes).
- Once that threshold has passed, all other players that complete the race will be placed into Bin 6.
- A result of DQ, DNF, or DNR will result in 0 points for that race. (Note: This will likely change in future versions of the league.)
Note that additional points will be awarded for assisting with race crew during the week (1 point per slot filled, with a maximum number points per team determined by how many teams we have in the league).
How the Scoring Works: Semi-Finals
Instead of doing buckets for Semi-Finals, we'll instead be doing straight hard scores for 1st (10 points), 2nd (7 points), 3rd (5 points), and 4th (3 points). We tried buckets last year for semis and it caused issued. Straight points are the agreed-upon solution. Points will be awarded each race, and then tabulated a the end to determine who moves on to Finals.
How the Scoring Works: Finals
Teams of four race, co-op style, and the last member of the team across the finish line determines the team's time. Fastest time wins all the marbles. No points, just race as fast as you can.
League Flags can be found under presets on the website. (Week 2 can be found in the pinned messages on Discord.)
For the “Relay” week, the seed (which will be rolled the night of right before the race) will be run “co-op style”, 4v4 on a single night. All players from both teams will run the same seed and all will need to be in the race room, online, and ready to run for race start. They’ll get the seed, set up their party, go to the overworld, and “ready up”. The trick here is that only one person from the team will start playing at race start (with player order chosen by the team); the other three will be “waiting their turn”, sitting on the sidelines, watching (via discord) and taking (shared) notes. When the first player (call them Player A for the sake of this discussion) kills their first fiend (any fiend), Player B on their team gets to go. Player A and B continue playing and and when Player B kills the second fiend (they need to light a second orb, any orb, and while they can also kill the first fiend as well, that doesn’t count), Player C gets to start (Player A killing a second fiend also does not count). All three players continue to play, and when Player C kills the third fiend (lighting a third orb, and not killed by Player A or Player B), Player D gets to start. All four then continue playing, and once Player D kills the last fiend (lighting the last orb, and not killed by Player A, B, or C), the players are all then allowed to light the Black Orb, enter the final dungeon, and hunt down the final boss. The team is finished when all four players kill the final boss.
Please note that during the “Relay” week, players are allowed to sit in discord and not only chat with each other in a voice room but also share their screens (to assist with taking notes and planning out routing) and your notes. They are not allowed to watch other teams, nor may they take their rom into Hackster and check it over for spoilers. This flagset is intended for Co-Op and, as such, will require the use of the co-op script and the emulator that can use that script, Bizhawk.
In the Event of Ties
If a tie occurs leading into semi-finals, resulting in five (or more) qualifying teams, a "0 Bucket" will be added to the semi-finals score system: 1st (10 points), 2nd (7 points), 3rd (5 points), 4th (2 points), and 5th and beyond (0 points).
In the event of a tie score during a race (in this case a tie is defined by "3 seconds or less between players"), a manual retime from Twitch will be conducted by a race monitor. If a retime then determines a final race time of 1 second or less, the scores will be considered an actual tie (even in semi-finals), resulting in both players getting the same point score (and in the case of semis, the next placment in order being skipped). Anything more than a manual retime of 1 second will not be considered a tie.
If, during finals, an actual (1 second or less) tie occurs, then hop on, chums, because we'll be doing that race again.
Special Rules and Allowances:
We understand that sometimes players' schedules don't always align perfectly with the league dates. Sometimes life has its little emergencies, and we all have long term plans that can get in the way of scheduling. If, for some reason, you have a week where you simply cannot play you need to (1) let the League Staff know what is going on and (2) arrange a sub-in from one of the other players on your team to fill in for your shift. A team can sub-in one player for another on their team twice (in total) across all their shifts.
Also note that if, for some reason, a player has to drop from the league, the team can find a replacement to fill in. That replacement must finish out the league (so a player can't drop and then the next week miraculously come back). Also, if more than one player on a team drops from the league, that team has to forfeit out the rest of their matches.
Prizes:
All four players on the winning team will get one (1) ART from Darkmoon. This can be an avatar, stream layout, (small) set of stream icons, or radio-style logo. If there's something you want that's not on that list, talk to Darkmoon (if you win) and it can be discsussed.
Requirements for Participants:
- All races must be streamed with a vod of the race required after race end. On Twitch (and on YouTube), your vod should automatically record into the system as you're racing. If your channel doesn't save vods of all streams make sure your settings are adjusted. A vod will be required for verification purposes. We also strongly recommend you make a backup recording of your stream that way, if your stream goes down or your vod doesn't auto-save into the system, you have a backup for verification purposes.
- A stream delay of 10 minutes (600 seconds) will be required for all racers participating in this event. If you need assistance setting this up, please contact the League Staff via Discord PM.
- Auto-tracking for both key items and the map may be used.
Note: you cannot use the turbo button or bind it to any buttons on a controller.