FFR SG Live 2020 Tournament
Rules & Guidelines
As a top-level featured tournament, FFR will be in a unique position this year going into SpeedGaming Live. We’ll have a place of prominence, garnering a large audience as our members battle it out for a chance at the $3,000+ prize pool. That kind of exposure is worth more to the community than the cash pot, so we as a community need to ensure that we handle all aspects of the tournament with professionalism and good sports-person-like conduct. SGLive has a number of requirements for their tournament, and we need to abide by their policies, and FFR’s own internal policies, as we participate in this event.
If you are interested in the tournament, make sure to thoroughly read these guidelines, then proceed to the SGLive site to register for the FFR tournament.
The Basics of the Tournament
The tournament will be handled in three phases: the opening qualifiers, which will determine the seeding for the tournament proper, a “pods” round for the week leading up to the Tournament (October 27th-November 3rd), followed by a “Sweet Sixteen” final brackets stage consisting of a Best of Three Format. The first phase will be handled in the run up to the actual live event. This will be seven weeks of racing, (on various days and times to accommodate our diverse runners and their schedules). There will be nine chances to race with each race being scored on a version of “z-score” wherein the top three times for the race will be averaged together to create a “par time” for that race. The top racer scores 100 points, and everyone after will score based on their time against the par. The math for this is:
( 2 - (race time/par time) ) * 100
This will give you your final score in that race. Players must race a minimum of three times, up to a maximum of five. If they race three times, their total score will be averaged. Race four times and their highest score will be dropped, and their scores then averaged. Race five times and their highest and lowest scores will be dropped, and the remaining scores will be averaged.
The same flagset will be used for all these races, to reduce variance, and only those who race in the qualifiers will have a seeded berth in the tournament -- if you don’t get seeded you’ll be entered last in the pods. There are 80 total slots available in the tournament, though, so the process of selecting entrants in the tournament is:
- All participating racers that raced in the qualifiers
- All remaining slots are filled by racers who did not race in any qualifier.
For the week leading into the tournament proper (October 27th through November 3rd), players will be broken out into pods. The pods will be populated by the seeded placements we just setup, with a set number of pods -- 16, if we have a full 80 players, with less depending on the turnout. As an example, in this scenario the top 16 seeded runners will be spread across the pods, then the next 16 in reverse order(like a snake), then the next 16, until each pod is comprised of a fixed number of players -- four, if total number of players is 32 or under; 5 players per pod if we’re over 32 players total. Players will run races in their pods against their three (or four) competitors, with everyone having a chance to race the others in their pods. These races must take place in the week allotted before the Main Tournament starts on November 5th 2021. Then we’ll take their win-loss scores from there and populate the brackets, with undefeateds populating in first. If there are not enough undefeated players to populate a 16-player bracket, we will then run a play-in race to populate the last (however many) slots..
From this point forward the tournament shifts to a BEST of Three Format. Players will face off in the bracket, winner moves on, losers goes home.
Participants in the tournament must be available to play in both the qualifiers and the live brackets during the tournament. If you will be unable to participate in any part of this, your slot in the tournament will be given to another player.
Note, this tournament is for a cash prize. This prize pool is based on donations from interested community members (who donated out of the goodness of their own hearts) as well as SG Live graciously adding to the pool. If, for some reason, you do not like the idea of FFR having a cash pool for a tournament, even one being run by another organization (i.e., SpeedGaming), do not participate in the tournament. We have been invited to participate, but we only want those actually interested in being in the tournament to apply.
The exact nature of the payout to the participants is being discussed. Currently, the top 16 players will gain at least a small part of the prize pool. Payouts for top 16 would be 30%, 15%, 7.5% x2, 5% x4, 2.5% x 8. With first place garnering the largest piece of the pie and so forth do
Requirements for Participants
SG Live has their own list of requirements for players, and the FFR organizers have added our own additional requirements to this list. These are the requirements for participants in the tournament:
- 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.
- Players must stream their races with a 10 minute (600 seconds) delay for qualifiers, 15 minute (900 seconds) delay during the tournament proper. No exceptions. Note: local recording of your race as well is encouraged during qualifiers (in case your stream dies during broadcast). For the tournament, if your stream dies during a race the race will need to be rerun. If it dies during the next race, your opponent will be awarded the win (to avoid players purposefully killing their stream to “reset” a bad run on their part).
- Players are expected to use the approved FFR SGLive layout for their streams during qualifiers (when they’re in a qualifiers race). The layout is pinned in the FFR Discord and SGLive discord for all to access. A second layout will be provided for the tournament proper.
- 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 webcam up at all times showing their face. If possible, it should be angled to give a clear view of their hands as well. Two webcams aren’t required, but it is appreciated.
- Players must have a timer on screen as well, for synching of races 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 in the FFR SGLive 2020 Tournament must be members of the SGLive 2020 Discord (https://discord.gg/RczWqe9).
- 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 run-off will be required and participants must make themselves available to run that race.
- Players may not hang out in any chat other than their own. Do not be in the SpeedGaming network 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 in the brackets stage, the tournament will be adjusted to exclude both players (such as having a run-off between the two players previous defeated in this branch of the bracket, and letting the winner of that race move up in the bracket).
- 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, no rants about the fact that SGLIve is a tournament with a cash prize. 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.
- 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.).
Qualifiers
Qualifier races will be held once a week on a rotating schedule. The days/times will be:
- Week 1 - Friday, 9/4 @ 10 PM EDT
- Week 2 - Tuesday, 9/8 @ 9 PM EDT
- Week 3 - Saturday, 9/19 @ 3 PM EDT
- Week 4 - Wednesday, 9/23 @ 8 PM EDT
- Week 5 - Monday, 9/28 @ 9 PM
- Week 6 - Friday, 10/9 @ 10 PM EDT
- Week 7 - Wednesday, 10/14 @ 8 PM EDT
- Week 8 - Sunday, 10/18 @ 3 PM EDT
- Week 9 - Wednesday, 10/28 @ 9 PM EDT
- Week 10 - Monday, 11/2 @ 10 PM EDT
Flags
Recreated flags built in 3.3.0:
- Qualifiers
- Pods Stage
- Brackets
- Brackets stage will include a mandatory 1-2-2-1 Draft for classes, Highest seed will choose whether to pick first or second. “Nones” are not allowed for drafts.
Original flags were built on 3.2.0, which is a version unavailable on the FFR Git. Flagstrings are preserved for posterity
- Qualifiers: yG2bICz1By-kYaTCOVXCVdw0O3Leg7hKNgd!ON5SJ1zhfN-LWNtJLjob2kzvaYrfkZLtbFfbx34v6kArfu8o7vyXSpZD
- Pods Stage: yGcifaseK8fJxIkkAzUzYAzx32UoP5toiyJrTE864J9FEyMsXe5XhM5T94nANOh1T6wJN7BZU4p3r3WORe9o7vyXSpZD
- Brackets: yGq4dTUZierDQgQt0W-opZBxIHu3Djls2qM3uv02Y6KFCBgdRRG1fVdgyOD!kw3MO9U-Ez9vU4p3r3WORe9o7vyXSpZD
Rules for Pods
For each pod:
- 1st place in every pod will automatically move on. If two players are somehow tied for 1st, they will both move on and that will be that. If, somehow (and the math really doesn’t even support this, but if) there are three people tied for first, we will do a run-off of all three players and the top two will move on.
- 2nd place from each pod will automatically move on, unless they are tied with other players. In the case 1st and 2nd are “tied”, both will move on (see above). If two players are tied for 2nd (and both have losses), we will look at their performance in the pod and if one of those players beat the other in the pods, the winner of that race will earn “2nd” and move on. If, somehow, three people are tied for 2nd (ie, 1st place player and three 2nd place runners), we’ll have a run-off and only the top player of that race will move on (along with the automatically seeded 1st place player from pods).
- We will still have two slots open in the brackets after that (seven pods with two players moving on only accounts for 14 slots). We will then have a big play in race with all the 3rd place finishers in pods. If, somehow, there are two people tied for 3rd in a pod, both can participate.
Due to time constraints of the tournament itself, and trying to fit all our races (along with all other races) into the week-long time span, we will be very strict about ties during a race. A race will only be considered a tie if it is less than a single second (1 second) difference between the runners, as per when they finish in the Racetime.gg room. Anything more than that will not be retimed. Anything less than that will be manually retimed off their streams. A true tie after that will require a run-off.
Note: All pod run-off races will be done at the same time as the play-in race for the last two slots of the brackets. Everyone -- run-offs and play-in players -- will get the same seed and will run at the same time. The winners of the run-offs will move into brackets, while the losers of the run-offs will then have their race time put in among all the play-in scores and will be evaluated along with. This saves time from having to run multiple run-off races while, at the same time, ensuring that someone can do a run-off and then know if they qualified through the play-in without having to do two races separately.
The FFR SGL admins reserve the right to hold some of the run-offs separate from the play-in race, depending on the needs of the players and their schedules.
Finally: The Play-In Race to make the FFR brackets is scheduled for Thursday, November 12th, at 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST).
Questions?
Any questions can be directed to DarkmoonEX, Dani3883, and/or Gregglypuff on the FFR or SGLive discords.