Dirt Track Waddle GP
Fall Duckling Rally 2024
Rules and Guidance
Welcome to the Duckling Rally, Final Fantasy Randomizer's newest beginner-friendly tournament. This will be a five week, async rally race designed to let our new players, the “Ducklings”, learn new flagsets and practice their skills against other beginning players. In the end, one player will be crowned the new Duckling Rally Champ. So get your flippers out on the dirt and get ready to waddle your way through the Duckling Rally.
Please make sure to read the General Rules and Guidance for Tournaments and Leagues before racing in the Rally.
About the Rally
The Duckling Rally will be a five week event open to all Ducklings (so make sure to grab the Duckling role on the Discord). Anyone can come and run the async races, but only the Duckling scores will be tracked as part of the event (all other scores from non-duckling players will be tracked, just for fun, on a separate “Veterans” leaderboard). There will be one race per week, with plenty of time beforehand for the ducklings to practice and get ready to run.
Anyone that has the Duckling role can participate and no registration is required. Just show up and race and, of course, have fun.
What is an Async Race?
Async, or “asynchronous”, races are ones that are run on the players on time and not organized for all players to start at the same time. When the seed is released for the race, players can download it and start their race at any time. The only requirements are that they record their run (either via a straight recording in OBS or the recording software of a player's choice, or via streaming to a broadcast network of their choice), with a timer visible on stream, and that they have to get their race run by the deadline (Saturday, 10:00 PM that week). If players do that, their run counts and they've officially completed an async race. All they have to do, then, is submit their score for it to be counted.
Tournament Structure
Each week of the event will follow a set schedule:
- Sunday, 9:00 PM EDT: Flag Reveal Stream
- Monday, 10:00 AM EDT: Practice Seed Released
- Wednesday, 10:00 PM EDT: Practice Seed Closes
- Thursday, 10:00 AM EDT: Race Seed Released
- Saturday, 10:00 PM EDT: Race Seed Closes, Scores are Tallied
- Sunday, 7:00 PM EDT: Vodcast of the Async Top 4
The reveal stream will feature our duckling training coaches, the Duck Dons, discussing the flags while a veteran runner goes through a seed. This will show off the nuances of the flags and give all the ducklings a chance to see it in action. Following this, in the morning, a practice seed will be released in the #duckling-weekly channel. Runners can race and see how they feel in the flags, while also seeing how their scores compare to everyone else. Finally, the official race seed will be released on Thursday and will remain open until Saturday evening. Scores will be tallied from there, and then the process begins again until all five weeks have been played.
A vodcast of the race featuring the Top 4 runners will be held the following Sunday to showcase the racers that competed in the event.
Note: there will be no finals match for the Rally. Your cumulative points across the five races will determine your overall place, and whoever has the best score wins the Rally.
Important Dates:
- November 10, 2024: Week 1 Begins
- November 17, 2024: Week 2 Begins
- November 24, 2024: Week 3 Begins
- December 1, 2024: Week 4 Begins
- December 8, 2024: Week 5 Begins
We recognize this event overlaps with Thanksgiving in the U.S. This is part of the reason why the event is being held “async” as it gives players more time to get their race in and around family events.
Submitting Runs:
For the practice seed, players will only need to submit their times in the #ducking-weekly race room on the discord. The bot will automatically track submitted runs and populate the leaderboard.
For tournament races, players will need to submit their runs via the Duckling Rally Async Submission Form. Submitted runs must include a link to your run for them to qualify.
Tournament Scoring:
Scoring for the Rally will be done via a capped, “golf” score. The 1st place runner will get a 0 score and then every runner that finishes higher will get a set of points based in comparison to that 1st place score. Minutes over will be 1 point per, and seconds over will be fractionally scored (seconds / 60 * 100). Scores are capped at 15 points, so no one can score worse than that in comparison to the 1st place finisher. Also, DNFs and DQs in a race will get the 15 point cap to help keep everyone in the race and keep things fair.
Tournament Flags:
Flags for the Duckling Rally will be revealed each Sunday. Participating players will not know the flags ahead of the reveal stream, but those flags will be posted here once they are revealed.
Prizes:
The top 3 finishers in the Rally will receive a themed profile picture. The winner of the event will also receive a twitch layout, as well as the title of Duckling Rally Champ. All art prizes are courtesy of DarkmoonEX.
Broadcast Requirements:
Each week, on the Sunday before the reveal stream, the Top 4 racers from the previous race will be showcased on stream in a vodcast. If you participate in the rally, and you make it into the Top 4 that week, your run will be featured unless you explicitly tell us not to use your vod.
Since any runner could be featured on stream, please make sure to have your timer visible and that you have safe audio as well on your vod. Thanks.
Special Guidelines:
Some players have asked what they will and will not be allowed to use in the tournament. Of the concerns raised so far:
- 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.).
- Autotracking for both key items and the map is allowed.
- You cannot use the turbo button or bind it to any buttons on a controller.
¶ Fall Rally 2024:
The Fall Rally begins in mid-November, 2024, and runs for fivs weeks. It will be hosted by Luffy and Serisan, with additional assistance from the community. Flags are archived here as they debut in the Rally.
| Flagets and Seeds | VODs |
|---|---|
|
Week 1: Vanilla-ish-ish Take a stroll through the vanilla game... with a twist. Characters will start with key items, so you'll have a leg up on your adventure. Choose wisely and take the items, and the party members, you need to get through the game.
Seeds:
|
Showcase Run (YouTube), hosted by Serisan and Luffy, featuring Windfox, played on the original flags. Race Vodcast (YouTube), hosted by Matty and Oslodo, featuring raxraxraxrax, Skar, meklin89, and ThavionHawk, run on the updated flags. |
|
Week 2: Oops, All Loose! Seeds:
|
Showcase Run (YouTube), hosted by Serisan, featuring DMStewart Race Vodcast (YouTube), TBD |
|
Week 3: TBD Seeds:
|
Showcase Run (YouTube), hosted by Serisan and Luffy, featuring TBD Race Vodcast (YouTube), TBD |
|
Week 4: TBD Seeds:
|
Showcase Run (YouTube), hosted by Serisan and Luffy, featuring TBD Race Vodcast (YouTube), TBD |
|
Week 5: TBD Seeds:
|
Showcase Run (YouTube), hosted by Serisan and Luffy, featuring TBD Race Vodcast (YouTube), TBD |
Rally Staff:
If you have any questions, feel free to shoot them at the DarkmoonEX, Luffy, and/or Serisan.