Lefeinian Ladder
2024 Ladder League: Season 4
Rules & Guidance
The Lefeinian Ladder (LL) League is our recurring async event. It gives players a chance to compete among themselves in a low stakes competition. Players can partake in as many, or as few races as they like, playing only a few races as needed to qualify for placement and to move into championships.
Format
The season will consist of a 6 week ladder series. Races will consist of:
- Schedule async races, two per week
- Optional challenger races, available to players to gamble points, and position, against competitors
- A Mid-Season Title Match
- Grand Finals for each of the ladder rungs
These will all feed into the ladder format wherein challengers jockey for positions, all to grab a chance at battling the reigning champ of the ladder.
Ladder Format
Players are broken up into five rungs: Opal, Gold, Silver, Copper, and cloth, with four players in each of the three higher rungs (and all the rest filling out Copper and Cloth). Opal is the top rung and these four (whoever they end up being at the time of the championship) will compete for the title of Lefeinian Ladder Leader. Placement in rungs carries over from the end of last season, with anyone new going into the bottom group, Cloth.
- See the Lefeinian Ladder Score Sheet for current player positions
Async Races
The main set of races are scheduled two to a week for six weeks. There will be six available flagsets, provided by the planning committee, and these will be run one per day, with the six cycling the first half of the season, and then again the second half. These will be scored based on time, with the 1st place finisher getting 30 points, and everyone else after them getting a fraction of that score (whole number) based on how far they were from first, to a minimum of 5 points. DNFs, however, are worth 0 points.
Async races will be open for two (2) days (48 hours), with a one to two day break in between races.
Players may play in any async race they choose. They do not need to be registered to play in an LL race. However, only the scores for registered players will be counted. To register you must sign yourself up for the league before the race begins. Any race run before a player registers in the league will not be counted.
- Note: to maintain your position in the season, you need to race. Ladder positions are rearranged mid-season, and at the end of the season, and anyone with 0 points will move down one rung.
Wagers Within Rungs
Any player may have a friendly, wagered raced with another player on the same rung. Any amount of points, as agreed upon by the players, can be staked (equally from the players). Whoever wins gets the pot. No changes in position within the ladder are recorded as both players were on the same rung.
Challenges
During the competition players challenge each other. Challenges are based on points, with each rung having an associated point value tied to them:
- Copper: 5 points
- Silver: 10 points
- Gold: 20 points
- Opal: 30 points
- Champ Challenge: 10 Points
To challenge someone, you must stake points (which you earned running the async races). The higher the rung you want to challenge, the more points you have to stake, and they are cumulative. As an example, if you were a Cloth runner (the lowest rung) and you wanted to challenge the Champ, you would need to stake 75 points (Copper 5 + Silver 10 + Gold 20 + Opal 30 + 10 for the Champ). You can challenge a player at any level, and as long as you have the points the challenge is valid.
Note that the player you are challenging doesn't have to stake points. If you win, you keep your points and take their position in the ladder (so if a Cloth player challenged the Champ, and won, they'd become the Champ and the previous Champ would move down to Cloth). If you lose, they keep your points and positions do not change.
The player making the challenge gets to choose the flags. However, they must be flags that their opponent agrees to. Negotiation on flags is allowed, and encouraged. The flags played in a challenge don't even need to be the main LL flags. Just so long as both players agree to them, that's all that matters.
Challenged players must accept challenges each week, but they are required to only race one challenge race a week. If they are challenged by multiple people, they can choose who they race that week and they don't have to accept all of them. Points wagered, flags on offer, and other factor may influence who the player is willing to fight. It is in your best interest to sweeten the pot to get the battle, if you so choose. Extra points may be wagered over the required base “fee”, and flags can be as spicy as you desire (so long as your challenger agrees to them).
- Note: Unlike last season, zero point wagers are no longer allowed. The challenger now must stake points to take on a higher rung.
Challenges may be held at any time. They can either be run async (with players completing their races within a four-hour window), as a Racetime pickup race, or as a live broadcast.
Once a challenge has been issued, the player being challenged has 48 hours to respond. Other challenges that come during that time can be considered, but a challenge race has to be scheduled by the time the deadline ends (it doesn't need to be scheduled within that time, just that it has to be accepted by the end of the 48 hours period). Someone that gets multiple challenges has to accept one, but they can then race another challenge that same week if they so choose (and can arrange a time to run it). Only one accepted and run challenge is required per week.
- Note: To avoid challenge spam, once a player has been challenged once in a week, other challenges they issue that week don't have to be accepted. They can be, but it is not required.
Mid-Season Title Match, and Position Reset
At the end of three weeks, anyone with a zero (or negative) point total will move down a rung. If this leaves a spot open in a higher rung, after all players have moved around, the player with the highest point total in each rung will move up to fill gaps in the rung above, with as many players moving around as need be to set the rungs back to their standard, filled amount.
Additionally, the champion must face off against the highest point player (whoever they may be, even if its from a different, much lower rung) for a Lefeinian Mid-Season Title Match. Points may be wagered, and positions in the ladder are on the line during this race.
If the Midway Championship leads to a new leader, they may tweak each flagset before they are run again for the back half of the season.
Finals
At the end of the season, player position is once again rearranged, with anyone at zero (or negative) points moving down a rung. At this point, the ladder rungs are final and championships can be held.
Each rung up the ladder may hold their own championship to determine Copper, Silver, and Gold leaders. This is for bragging rights only, and the leader will get a fancy title.
The Opal tier must have a championship, with all four players in the rung playing (plus the overall points leader, if they aren't in Opal, for up to five total players), and the first across the finish line becomes the new Lefeinian Ladder Leader.
Schedule
The LL will take place over six weeks:
- Async Race #1: Monday, November 11, 2024
- Async Race #2: Thursday, November 14, 2024
- Async Race #3: Monday, November 18, 2024
- Async Race #4: Thursday, November 21, 2024
- Async Race #5: Monday, November 25, 2024
- Async Race #6: Thursday, November 28, 2024
- Top Score Mid-Term Challenge: December 1-4, 2024
- Async Race #7: Thursday, December 5, 2024
- Async Race #8: Monday, December 9, 2024
- Async Race #9: Thursday, December 12, 2024
- Async Race #10: Monday, December 16, 2024
- Async Race #11: Thursday, December 19, 2024
- Async Race #12: Monday, December 23, 2024
- Championships: December, 26, 2024 - January 4, 2025
These dates may overlap with holidays and other events. Races are async and are not planned to be broadcast. The races will be started at 10:00 AM each day and players will have two days (48 hours) to complete the race (i.e., a races started Monday at 10:00 AM will close Wednesday 10:00 AM, with a one-day break before the Thursday race to begin). This allows players plenty of time to run their races, even with other events (and holidays) occurring. Everyone participating should be able to find races they can play in without scheduling conflicts.
Exact dates and times for the Midway Championship and the Grand Finals will be determined once the participating players are known.
Scoring
Scoring will be based around the top player's run time, with lower scores being better. The top time of the race will get 30 points. All other players after them will receive a fraction (whole number) of that score based on how far they were from first, to a minimum of 5 points. DNFs, however, are worth 0 points.
Flagsets
Flag will be randomly chosen before each game, with all six flagsets being run twice during the league. Season 4's flagsets, as designed by Season 3 Champion, Wewbear, are:
- Deep Draft
- Oops, All Mages!
- Mage-on-a-Stick
- Winter Tournament Never Dies!
- A Solo Endeavor in Co-Op
- The Lost in the Woods is Not a Flyover State
Game Rules
- Please make sure you have read the General Rules and Guidance for Tournaments and Leagues before participating in these races.
All main ladder games will be run async. When a race begins, a post will be made in the #ll-chat channel. Players will find the seed link in the post. As scores are submitted a leaderboard will be populated in that post. Two days (48 hours) will be allotted from the time of posting, and players may complete the seed at any point during that time period. Once the two days (48 hours) are up, the race is closed and any scores submitted after that point will not count (they will be DNF, scoring 0).
Players should submit scores via the Lefeinian League Async Score Submission Form.
Runner Allowances:
You may use a console or approved emulator to play your seeds. Timers, trackers, and map trackers are allowed. Auto-fire on controllers is not allowed. Auto-tracking is not allowed.
Challenge matches, the midway match, and all finals will be run using Racetime.gg. You will need a RT.gg account to participate in finals. The winner of finals will be determined from the RT.gg timer. In the case of a tie for 1st (two players coming within three seconds of each other) a retime will be done based on the runners race vods. If the race is still within 1 second after that, the race is considered a tie and the top two will run again at a time of their choosing.
League Staff
Darkmoon, Ael, Chanigan, and Wewbear are the league staff. Any questions and comments can be sent to them.
¶ Previous Events
- Lefeinian Ladder League: Season 3
- Lefeinian Ladder League: Season 2
- Lefeinian Ladder League: Season 1