DAB DAB Revolution
Winter DAB 2022
Rules & Guidance
The format is Double-Anti Bingo (DAB). For those unfamiliar, DAB features not only both players running an FFR seed, but a Bingo board on the side. A few minutes ahead of the match, each player will look at the board and select a line for the other player to complete. This will give each opponent a chance to “spike” the other player and strategize how best to get a leg up on their opposition. Players will then be tasked with (a) completing the line selected by their opponent, (b) completing (at least) one additional line, and (c) killing Chaos only after both lines have been completed. Players can venture anywhere in the world of the seed, including into the Temple of Fiends Revisited, but they are not allowed to kill Chaos until their Bingo lines are complete.
The Winter DAB tournament will be a two-week event spread across February 18th through the 27th. The first week (Friday the 18th through Wednesday the 23rd) will see players randomly paired up to run one-on-one matches of DAB. Players will play three matches against other randomly selected players. The top 8 will then move on to the final weekend where they will play in an 8-person, Best-of-1 bracket (with slots in the bracket randomly seeded). Winner takes the title of DAB Champ.
Pods and pairings for the tournament will be announced on the evening of Thursday the 17th (and yes, if you immediately want to start playing that night, you may).
Note: If a tie-breaker of some kind is needed, it will be run on Thursday the 24th.
Requirements for Participants
- All players must have flexible schedule availability on the two designated weekends so matches can be scheduled and played.
- All races must be streamed. Your race cannot be recorded ahead of time but must be raced live, on stream, at whatever designated time your race is scheduled.
- Due to the Bingo board (and meta game this entails), stream delay is not required. 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 broadcast 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 players, somehow, get outside advice or assistance -- such as from a chat window not set to emote only, and even if they did not ask for the advice and did not use the advice given -- they will be disqualified with the win given to their opponent. If both players in a race somehow gain outside assistance during their race, both will be disqualified and the race will be scrubbed, with a loss given to both players. If this happens the tournament will be adjusted to exclude both players (such as having a run-off between the two players previously defeated in this branch of the bracket, and letting the winner of that race move up in the bracket).
- Matches will be conducted on racetime.gg (as opposed to the FFR Discord bot or SRL IRC). 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 (in case of a “photo finish”).
- The “Tournament Safe ROM” flag will be on for this tournament, so all players must use a ROM that will pass the verification of this flag.
- Players will need to keep an eye on the chat in the race room in case a race monitor has to let them know of an issue with a run. This could include informing them on a Bingo square issue.
- As is standard FFR policy, if a race ends within three seconds or less between players, the tournament admins will perform a manual retime of the race. If, after the retime, the race is still within one second, a re-race will be required and participants must make themselves available to run that race.
- 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 player, 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 tournament.
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. The old standard, where these buttons could not be mapped to a controller, was an SRL standard and is no longer in use in FFR races, and it will not be enforced at SGLive.
- Auto-trackers are allowed.
- 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. 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 sprites of any kind, etc.).
Bingo and Flags:
FAQs:
Q: Who generates the Bingo board for the players?
A: Whoever is acting as the active gatekeeper for the race will roll the seed and they’ll generate the Bingo room and board. They will do this 30 minutes before the start of the race, so the board can be properly cropped, but the room will only be passed to the players ten minutes before the race start -- the same lead time as is normally given for the race seed.
-----
Q: When the players are getting ready for their match and selecting the row/column/diagonal for their opponent, in what order are selected rows called?
A: At the same time. In fairness to both players, each player will select the row/column/diagonal for their foe in private and then send that selection to the gatekeeper. Once both players have made their selection, the gatekeeper will then reveal both at once in the race room.
Remember, you only have to pick your opponent’s forced line ahead of time. The other row you’ll complete for yourself can be done at any time while you run the seed. You have to finish your forced row and any other (or multiple) as you see fit, so long as you fill in two (the one forced plus additional free selection).
—--
Q: Do players need to light squares as they happen? Can they light squares to mess with the opponent?
A: Since the real-time knowledge delivered through the bingo board is part of the meta game, players should keep their bingo boards accurate in real time. They should light squares as soon as they realize they’ve completed the requirement, and unlight it if that changes (for example, if it was lit in error or they had a wipe before saving ones that require saving). They should not light one that they have not fulfilled. If a player forgets or makes an error, it may be pointed out in the race chat by a tournament observer.