Lefeinian Ladder
2023 Ladder League: Season 2
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, free-for-all style competition. Players can partake in as many, or as few races as they like, playing only what they want or need to qualify and move into the championship.
Format
The season will consist of a 6 week ladder series. Two races a week will be scheduled to be run async. Races will consist of:
- 12 schedule races, 2 per week. These races will be based a premade assortment of flagsets. They will be run async, with three days per race available for players to submit their scores (and one day off each week).
- Additional races that can be organized and run by the racers. These can have any flag set that someone wants to submit. These will be run as pick-up races.
The main races, by dint of being async, will not be broadcast. Any pickup race can be broadcast with the caveats that (a) sanctioned events (such as the 2023 Winter Marathon or 2024 Winter Tournament) will take broadcast priority over LL races and (b) players must arrange their own broadcast teams.
Players may play in any 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.
Semi-Finals:
At the end of the six week period, any player that has played in at least four registered races will be selected for the semi-finals groups. These, like the main weeks, will be run async. Players will select a time they wish to run their groups and that will initiate a four hour window for them to play their game. Note, these can also be broadcast, with the same caveats of the six week main league races.
Group size, and number of groups, will be determined based on how many qualified players make it into semi-finals.
Finals:
The top four players will move on to the finals. This finals match will be broadcast, and players will need to be able to agree on a time where all four of them can arrive and play.
Schedule
The LL will take place over six weeks, starting November 20th. The async races will start:
- Monday, November 20
- Thursday, November 23
- Monday, November 27
- Thursday, November 30
- Monday, December 4
- Thursday, December 7
- Monday, December 11
- Thursday, December 14
- Monday, December 18
- Thursday, December 21
- Monday, December 25
- Thursday, December 28
Yes, these dates 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 three days to complete the race (i.e., a races started Monday at 10:00 AM will close Thursday 10:00 AM, just in time for the Thursday race to begin). This allows players plenty of time to run their races, even with other events (and holidays) occurring. And since players only need to complete 4 races (out of a total of 12 scheduled races, plus potential pick-up races) everyone participating should be able to find races they can play in without scheduling conflicts.
Dates from Semi-Finals and Finals will be determined once the full roster of players for each section of the ladder is known.
Pick-Up Races:
Along with the scheduled races, players are allowed to run pick-up races any time they want. These can qualify for the LL if they so choose. All they need to do to have a pick-up race qualify is (a) have at least four registered participants in the LL in the race before the race begins and (b) submit those scores to the LL staff after the race is complete. Any flags may be run, either from the premade pool of flagsets or from flags the players come up with on their own. It's free-for-all to give players as much freedom as they'd like.
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 a 0. All other runs will get 1 point for each minute (and fractional points for each second) players score above that time, capped at 15 points max. The four best times for players across the league (both scheduled races and pick-up runs) will be used to determine each player's overall average.
One all races are run and the main weeks of the league is over, groups will be determined based on number of participants and overall potential group size. Groups will then be snake seeded based on qualifying scores from the main weeks of the event, and semi-finals will be scheduled.
Flagsets
Flag will be randomly chosen before each game. With twelve formal, scheduled games, and six flagsets, each flagset will be used twice.
- Standard No Loose
- Oops All Loose, Oops All Entrances
- Its Shard Hunt, Baby!
- Explorers of NOverworld
- 2 Orbs Specific
- Journey to a New (Procgen) World
Procgen Map Notes:
Runners should take the opportunity to begin the game and look at the map prior to the start of their run. You may look at the map and make a screen copy or drawing as befits your play styule. You will NOT be allowed to perform any other in-game action prior to the race beginning and should reset after you've gotten your map setup, going back to character select to ready your run.
Game Rules
All main ladder games will be run async. When a race begins, a post will be made in the #ll-s2-async channel. Players will find the seed link in the post. As scores are submitted a leaderboard will be populated in that post. Three days (72 hours) will be allotted from the time of posting, and players may complete the seed at any point during that time period. Once the three days (72 hours) are up, the race is closed and any scores submitted after that point will not count.
Players should submit scores to Darkmoon.
Races are run using the honor system. While you are allowed to practice flags before playing a seed, do not practice a seed before playing it. 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 league.
Racers must stream their races. Although LL races are not (generally) broadcast, 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.
We require that all entrants keep their stream on emote only mode during official races.
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.
The 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.
Custom Sprites:
For any restreamed race (such as finals, or any race where the players arrange their own race crew), 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 or NSFW sprites of any kind, etc.). Questionable sprites should be sent to a League Staff for review/approval.
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 league. Additionally, bans on participation in future FFR events or events organized by other communities may be sanctioned depending on the nature of the offense.
League Staff
Darkmoon and Chanigan are the league staff. Any questions and comments can be sent to them.