The FFR community runs a great many events during the year. Winter Tournament, Summer Co-Op, Fall League, Bingo, Marathons… it's a lot. To keep things consistent, both for the expectations of players and to ease the burden of our event committees, the leadership team has compiled this set of rules and guidance that (unless certain clauses are otherwise modified by the oversight team for a specific event) will apply to FFR events.
Note that this guidance will change and evolve over time as new situations arise, new events are added to the schedule, new ideas are pointed out, etc. We recommend that before joining an event read (or re-read) these rules and guidelines even if you've read them before.
¶ General Rules:
To participate in an FFR event you must be a member of the FFR Discord.
All single-player competitive matches will be run using Racetime.gg. You will be asked if you have an account when entering into the tournament; please make sure you do so. You may use a console or approved emulator to play. All races are blind.
- FFR Discord Racebot will be used, as a backup, in the event Racetime.gg is down during a scheduled match.
- Unless otherwise noted, Co-Op matches are run via the FFR Discord Racebot.
The winner will be determined by the Racetime's timer, unless external technical difficulties are in place.
- If the race is finished within three (3) seconds or less, a manual retime of the race, conducted by event staff, will be required.
- Players may also request a retime of the race if, for some justifiable reason, they feel the actual time is closer than the Racetime timer otherwise says.
Gentlerunner's Agreements:
Gentlerunner's agreements are allowed (such as both runners must accomplish a random task), but if you make an agreement you must confirm it with the staffer in the race room, and you must honor that agreement. Failure to do so could result in vacating results of the race.
Note: Failure to inform the staffer in the race room of an agreement will render that agreement unenforceable.
Accidental Forfeits:
If you accidentally forfeit, please re-enter within 60 seconds of the forfeit. If the 60 seconds elapse, or you forfeit three (3) times in a race, the forfeit will be official. If you accidentally “.done” during the race before completing the race, let the tournament staff in the race know that it was an accident and re-enter the race as soon as possible.
Forfeits Due to Technical Issues:
If somebody has a technical issue that results in a forfeit (e.g. power loss, internet outage, hardware malfunction, software issues, etc.), please notify event staff as soon as possible! If you are unaware of the issue that caused the forfeit (e.g. LiveSplit integration betrayed you), staff will contact you as soon as possible via Discord and tell you of the issue.
- If a technical issue occurs within the first ten (10) minutes of a race, the race can be stopped, a new seed can be quickly rolled, and a new race can be spun up for that same scheduled time slot. It is not technically a true forfeit unless the player with technical issues decides they don't want to try again.
- If a technical issue occurs after the first ten (10) minutes of a race, it is technically a forfeit. It's up to the other player to decide if they want to try and reschedule or accept the win at that point.
Chatting During Races:
Any spoilers in race room chat (RTGG, FFR racebot, or otherwise) between the start and end of the race may result in penalties at the tournament organizers’ discretion. These penalties may range from a warning to disqualification from this and future tournaments. Please redirect all commentary about a seed, while the race is still in progress, to the appropriate discord channel, and please save all comment commands for after the race is done.
If you are not directly involved in the race, do not type anything in the RTGG room until the race is finished, and non-runners (broadcast crew) should only use the channel for required business (such as adjusting on-stream timers or declaring a reseed).
Anti-Cheating Policy:
Cheating is not tolerated in community races. This includes, but is not limited to: using any external programs to analyze a ROM, looking at your competitor’s stream or chat, looking at the restream or the restream chat, or hacking the ROM to give yourself any sort of advantage. Any cheating discovered will result in penalties ranging from a forfeit of the race or instant disqualification from the tournament. Additionally, bans on participation in future FFR events or events organized by other communities may be sanctioned depending on the nature of the offense.
We require that all entrants keep their stream on emote only mode during official races.
Leadership Participants:
If you are in a leadership position (admin, arbiter, committee lead, team lead, etc.) and you are playing in an event, you are not allowed to be involved in decisions that would affect your participation (race qualifications, placement, scheduling, etc.). This is a long standing FFR rule (since the very first tournament we ever held) and it ensures that all decisions made during a tournament are fairly and impartially handled. If you are leadership and a conflict with a race, series, event, et al arises, you are automatically recused from decisions involving your participation.
¶ Procedurally Generated Overworld:
When event 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 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 players have looked at the overworld and take whatever screenshots, notes, etc. they need, they should go back to the character select screen and make their party. Do not remain on the overworld until the start of the match.
- If any player gains any other advantage prior to the race beginning, that player shall forfeit the race.
How to Access an Animated GIF of the Mini-Map in BizHawk:
- Open the Rom.
- Pull up the Mini-Map (via B+Select)
- 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
¶ Async Races
FFR has events that allow for some races to be run asynchronously (async). These races will be run on the FFR Discord and the exact specifications for how those races will be run will be noted in the specific events' rule sheets. However, these general guidelines will always apply:
- Races are run using the honor system. Running the flagset with a different seed is acceptable; running the actual async seed should be done one time only. Everyone must go into their races fresh without foreknowledge of a specific seed. Any time proven to have come from a practiced seed (or other given foreknowledge) will be voided. Repeat violations from a player will require the removal of that player from the event.
- Async races must be done in one attempt, with timer visible the entire run. Once a seed begins, you are not allowed to pause/stop the timer until Chaos is defeated. You are allowed to take breaks if needed but your timer must stay running the entire time even during those breaks.
- Racers must stream their races. Although async races are not broadcast on a major broadcast channel (such as RPGLB or SG) there must be video proof of your race to verify your run. Make sure your vods are saved on Twitch, YouTube, or your streaming service of choice. Any run completed without a vod to verify it will be voided.
- Unless otherwise noted by an event, async races do not require any kind of stream delay. However, we do encourage runners to keep their delay on during async races simply to prevent the runner from forgetting to turn it back on for an official, live race.
- We require that all entrants keep their stream on emote only mode event during official async races.
¶ Co-Op Races:
Co-op Technical Requirements:
- BizHawk: This emulator is needed to run the lua script that makes co-op possible
- Co-op lua script: Co-op Script [ZIP], Setup Video
- Primary Co-Op Server: co-op.finalfantasyrandomizer.com
- Backup Server: ffr.dpldocs.info:5555
- Secondary Backup Server: ffr.pointofoblivion.ca
- Archipelago (AP) Setup via the AP Site
Co-Op Race Rules:
- Co-Op is a team event. If one member must exit the tournament their teammate(s) can find a replacement for the duration of the tournament but it can not be someone who is part of another active team, nor can it be someone from a team that's already been eliminated.
- If you are in need of a team, there is a “Looking for Partner" channel on the FFR Discord for the event.
- Races will be handled on the Discord, via the FFR Race Bot. A tournament lead or race admin will open the race room and ping the teams in #race-announcements to let them know where to go. Teams must join the race room as a team (using a single race bot join command for the team) and whichever team member enters that command will be considered the “team captain” by the race bot for that race.
- The join command is: ?join XXXXXXXXXXX “Team Name” @partner where XXXXXXXXXXX is the room number the bot will provide, @partner is your partner's discord handle, and “Team Name” is whatever team name you've chosen, but it must be in quotes for the bot to recognize it properly.
- Once a seed is rolled and hash is confirmed teams can make party and then proceed to the overworld. Once there, you and your teammate need to confirm the lua icon (green dot in right corner), which indicates a successful connection to the co-op server or AP setup, before you ready up.
- After confirmation of lua connection, team captain enters "?ready" in the race room on the Discord, no movement or menuing allowed on the overworld until after race countdown.
- Sharing information verbally and in written text with your partner is allowed. Screen sharing and stream watching is not allowed.
- Teams will be placed in individual co-op voice chats during races so they can chat and discuss as they like.
- There are co-op practice voice chats teams are welcome to use for practices. Please don't interrupt another team that's practicing without permission)
- Both team members must defeat "Chaos" in order for the team captain to submit their "?done" in the race room.
¶ Leagues:
League Scoring:
Bin scoring works as a way to flatten scores and keep points competitive. Players will get sorted into bins, which will in turn assign points, based on their (and others') placement within a race:
- 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.
Semi-Finals Scoring:
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 scoring bins 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.
Finals Scoring:
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.
How the Finals “Relay” Race Works:
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.
Player Drops and Replacements:
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.
¶ In the Event of Ties
While unlikely, ties are possible. In the Final Fantasy Randomizer community, a race will be retimed if both players finish within three (3) seconds or less of each other. If this occurs, a tournament staffer will retime the race off the Twitch streams from both players. If the final time is within 1 second between the players, the race will be considered a tie. If this occurs during group races, the tie will stand. If it occurs during one-on-one (or two-on-two, team-on-team, etc.) matches, the match will need to be re-run. If it occurs during a series of matches (such as best-of-3, best-of-5, etc.) an extra game will be added to the series.
¶ Dropping / No Show Rules:
- If you wish to drop from and event, you are free to do so. Please inform an event staff person as soon as you are able.
- If a player drops during a bracket round, this will be treated as if the runner forfeit the match and their opponent will move on to the next stage of play.
- If a runner does not respond to their paired opponent for the purposes of scheduling their required races, tournament staff should be notified after 24 hours, so that staff can assist in the situation.
- Please make every reasonable effort to complete your match(es) with your opponent(s). Should there be any reason why you are not able to complete your race in a given week, please contact the tevent staff as soon as possible.
- If it is 10 minutes until the race start and a player has not shown up for their race or, at the very least, contacted their opponent and tournament staff, they are considered a no-show for that match. This will be considered a forfeit for the no-show runner and a win will be awarded to the person who showed up for the race.
- The person who showed up for the race can request a rematch with their opponent; the person who was a no-show cannot request a rematch.
- If the person who showed up for the race desires it, and a broadcast was scheduled, they may do an exhibition run of the seed. They are under no obligation to do so once the win is awarded. It's just for fun. If an exhibition is run, depending on the original channel scheduled, do note that the broadcast channel may change.
- If neither runner shows up for the scheduled race, the runners will have the opportunity to reschedule their race within the current deadline of the tournament stage in which the race is supposed to happen. If both players fail to reschedule, it will be considered a loss for both.
- A forced double-loss in a double-elimination Upper Bracket, it will result in a coin flip to determine who will move on to the next Winner's round and who will drop to the Lower Bracket.
- A forced double-loss in a single-elimination bracket, or a double-elimination Lower Bracket will results in the player eliminated in the previous round moving on to the next stage of play.
¶ Trackers:
Throughout competitive events runners will be able to use trackers to help track key items and locations checked. Unless otherwise allowed by an event planning committee and the rules document they put forth:
- Auto-tracking of any kind (items, locations, or maps) is not allowed in FFR competitive events.
- Manual tracking of items and locations is allowed, but it must be completely manual.
¶ Controller Settings
- The use of turbo controls are not allowed in FFR competitive events.
- Reset buttons (hard and soft reset) may be mapped to controllers.
¶ Broadcasting and Restreaming:
Quality of Life Flags:
If you are being restreamed, the following Quality of Life flags will be required:
This request is to accommodate spectators who may be photosensitive. If you fail to make this accommodation, you will not be featured on future restreams unless you enable these features in your next race.
Stream Requirements:
- Runners need to be in their race room with their streams up and on the FF "blue screen" 20 minutes before the race starts. If you aren't up and ready to be streamed at that point you won't be on a restream. Game needs to be up, clearly visible, and not covered by other windows (including an emulator with another game or the FFR website with flags showing) or any other obstruction for the duration of the stream. Please do not play another game on stream while you wait for the race to start.
- During group races the players featured during broadcast will be determined in the race room. Please do not make prior agreements in Discord or via direct messages.
- Unless otherwise noted in an events rules, FFR competitive events will require a 10 minute (600 second) stream delay. If you need help setting this up in your broadcast software, please notify a staff member.
- Your stream output is required to be no larger than 720p (1280 x 720) and no higher than 3000 video bitrate.
- Players must have online archives of their races vods for the duration of the event in case of need for review later.
- A timer must be visible on your stream. This is necessary for broadcasted races and non-broadcasted races. Stream timers will be used to sync broadcast races as well as determine outcomes in case of a draw.
- The Tournament Safe ROM feature will be on for the entirety of competitive events. If you have questions or concerns, please contact a staff member.
Custom Sprites:
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 hero sprites. Players may use their fun graphical hacks for their game and maybe make other minor adjustments.
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). As an example, using FF3 versions of the sprites is fine and does not require players to adjust the character names, but using Ranma 1/2 sprites, or Breath of Fire sprites, or Castlevania sprites, etc.. isn’t as easy to understand and would require conformed, basic names for the characters. 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 or NSFW sprites of any kind, etc.). Questionable sprites should be sent to a Tournament Organizer for review/approval.
Conduct:
While on stream, and in interviews afterwards, players are expected to behave professionally and act to the expected standards for on-air behavior. This includes, but is not limited to: no inappropriate language, no rants about the other player, no rants about the tournament, no rants about the format, no rants about the streaming service, etc. 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 tournament.