It Leagued from Outer Space
Fall League 2023
Rules and Guidance
Welcome to the 2023 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:
- September 24 - September 30, 2023: Week 1
- October 1 - October 7, 2023: Week 2
- October 8 - October 14, 2023: Week 3
- October 15 - October 21, 2023: Week 4
- October 22 - October 28, 2023: Semi-finals Week
- Week of October 29, 2023: Finals Week
League Schedule:
Dates and times for the specific games will be settled closer to League start. A survey will be posted before 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. Please be advised that is is best to have at least one person on your team that can so weekend races. The wider the available schedule of all teams, the more likely it is that everyone will be able to participate.
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 (1 minute -- 0:01:00 ) to finish in order to be placed into bin 1 as well.
- Bin 1 gets 10 points.
- 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.
- Bin 2 gets 8 points.
- 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).
- Bin 3 gets 7 points.
- 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).
- Bin 4 gets 6 points.
- 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).
- Bin 5 gets 5 points.
- Once that threshold has passed, all other players that complete the race will be placed into Bin 6.
- Bin 6 gets 4 points.
- A result of DNF will resort in 2 points for that race.
- A DQ or DNR will result in 0 points for that race.
This League will also feature bonus point objectives. A die will be rolled (in the Bot Casino) before each race and that will determine which bonus goal will be selected. Doing the bonus goal will award your run an extra one (1) point. The objectives are:
- Wood Adept: Collect and keep a full set of Wooden Armor (wood chest plate, wood helmet, wood shield). Equipping not required, just keep them in inventory through end-game.
- Silver Adapt: Collect and keep a full set of Silver Armor (silver chest plate, silver helmet, silver shield). Equipping not required, just keep them in inventory through end-game.
- Bling Hunter: Collect and keep the Copper, Silver, and Gold Bracelets. Equipping not required, just keep them in inventory through end-game.
- Light in the Darkness: Buy LAMP and use it in battle (but it doesn't need to cure anything).
- Spicy Ice: Step on (but you don't necessarily need to defeat) all trap tiles in Ice Cave.
- Totally Worth It: Buy DARK, SLOW and SLO2
- Hot Foot: Lava Walk at Kary Floor (one full loop around the outside)
- Fizzy Drink: Visit Bubbles the mermaid in Sea Shrine and (Carbonate) talk to her.
- Squeak Squeak-en: Talk to 10 bats in Earth Cave
- Lizard People: Talk to 5 Dragons at Cardia
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
Once all the semi-final teams are determined, all scores are zeroed out and the remaining teams start fresh. This levels the playing field and eliminates a chance that a team comes into semis already statistically out of the running.
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). If, somehow, more than four teams make it into semi-finals (due to ties at the end of Week 4), 5th Place and below will get 0 points.
And to be clear: forfeits get zero (0) points, not two (2) points, during Semi-Finals. You must finish your race to score points.
Points will be awarded each race, and then tabulated at 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
- Week 1: Caster's Delight
- Week 2: Of Warriors and Dragons
- Week 3: Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Week 4: A New You
- Semi-Finals Week: A Mixed Up World
- Finals Relay: 4 v 4 Controlled Chaos
* Note: Flagsets may be subject to change before launch of league as some tweaks are made.
As a note for Week 2 races, given that the flags include Procedurally Generated (ProcGen) world maps, runners will be given the opportunity to begin the game and look at the map prior to the start of the race. Once the seed is rolled by the race monitor, runners will be able to begin the game prior to the gate being dropped. Runners will be allowed to look at the map and make a screen copy or drawing as they see fit. Players will NOT be allowed to perform any other in-game action prior to the race beginning. If a racer inadvertently moves their character from the starting sport, they will be able to reset the seed with no penalty (however the gate may be dropped while this is happening, and there may be no allowance for that).
Once you are in the ROM and the minimap is up:
- Click on "File" at the top left
- Navigate to AVI/WAV
- Navigate to "Config and record AVI/WAV"
- Select "GIF writer"
- Check "resize video" and put in whatever resolution you want.
- On the next window select "0" for number of frames to be skipped and "-1" (Auto) for frame delay.
- Select the location you would like the gif to be saved
- The game may lag a bit, but let it run for a few flickers
- Navigate back to File > AVI/WAV and select "Stop AVI/WAV"
- The gif should now be in the location you specified earlier
For the Finals “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 placement 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. For the tie-breaker match, each team will propose the player that will run the race. Then a wheel will be spun with all available Fall League flagsets. That wheel spin will determine which flags will be run for the tie-breaker match. Runners will then get the seed and the race will be off.
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 during the main part of the League.
During semi-finals, if a player on a team cannot participate, another player from their team may sub in. A team can only do this once across the week.
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) and they must not already be an active participant in the league. 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 discussed.
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.
- However, as always, cheating is not tolerated. As such:
- Players may not hang out in any chat other than their own. Do not be in the broadcaster network’s chats/streams at the time of your race.
- Players may not hang out in the opponent’s stream or chat during the race.
- Players’ own chats must be set to “emote only”.
- If any player in a race somehow gains outside assistance during a race (barring the team finals, during which the only assistance may come from their own team), they will be disqualified from the race.
- Do not post spoilers in racetime.gg chat during or after the race - please use the #post-race-spoiler-discussion in the public Discord. Please limit any post in the chat to ggs and serious questions/reports of technical difficulty.
- If you experience technical difficulty during the race, message the racetime.gg chat and a League Staffer will communicate with you via Discord PMs.
- Matches will be conducted on racetime.gg. Players will be required to have a racetime.gg account and be in the racetime.gg rooms 30 minutes before their race to allow for setup time of the stream.
- Players must have a timer on screen for synching and timing of the races.
- The “Tournament Safe ROM” flag will be on for this League, so all players must use a ROM that will pass the verification of this flag.
- While on stream, and in interviews afterwards, players must comport themselves and act to the expected standards for on-air behavior. This includes, but is not limited to: no cussing, no rants about the other players, no rants about the tournament, no rants about the format, no rants about the streaming service. This extends not only to the on-air portion of the event but to Twitch chat and public-facing Discords as well. Anyone that acts in a manner counter to the professional attitude and bearing we expect from our players at this event will be disqualified from the League.
- Finally, following the completion of your race, you may be asked to join the broadcast for an interview. Despite the outcome of the race, please comport yourself in a professional manner. There are no hard feelings - we are all here to have fun. If you find yourself unable to behave with good sportsmanship during the post-race interview, you will be removed from the broadcast booth. Also, bear in mind, our broadcast partners have policies against swearing or use profane language on their stream.
- All participants must be on the FFR discord for the duration of the League.
If you are selected for the restream the following additional conditions apply:
- If the sprites are not recognizable as the traditional heroes of the game, the players must name their characters after the classes being used (i.e., FI, TH, BB, RM, BM, WM).
- Spell damage and tile flickers must be turned off
If you do not want to follow these rules do not volunteer for a restream. You can participate in the tournament without taking part in the restreams.
Some players have asked what they will be allowed to use in the tournament. Of the concerns raised so far, the tournament will allow:
- Reset buttons (hard and soft reset) may be mapped to controllers.
- Players may use their fun graphical hacks for their game. That is, of course, with the caveat that the ROM must pass the “Tournament Safe” flag, so players will really only be able to edit their light warrior sprites. And, of course, character names, and hero sprites, must conform to the above standards listed (so no swear words for character names, and no offensive sprites of any kind, etc.).
- 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.