SpeedGaming Live 2021
Rules & Guidance
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. This will take place on smash.gg this year, so please remember to make an account on this platform before you begin racing in any of the Qualifiers. (https://smash.gg/tournament/speedgaming-live-2021/events).
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 runners encouraged to race three times to give themselves the best average for seeding; there is no maximum that a runner can race, they just need to race at least three times and you race as many as you like (even all nine if you wish). To keep things simple, all racers will get a score attained by averaging their three fastest races over this period. This stands in contrast to how things were done last year.
In the past any additional race a runner raced would have resulted in their top score being dropped, and then an average top three would have been created. This had the effect of discouraging runners from doing more than three races, even if one of their scores was bad. That is why this year we are taking an average of the top three scores, whatever they may be. This will let runners race as many times as they like without worrying about how it will negatively affect their score (it won't).
Additionally, and to stay consistent and fair, if a runner is only able to race once or twice during qualifiers they will still have their "total" time divided by three (which may be one race with two zeroes or two races with a single zero added together). If a runner attends fewer than three races their times will be totaled and divided by 3. These additional times will be filled by the slowest, and second slowest times across the entire Qualifier timeframe
Seeding for this tournament will be an average of all of the races. If you want to race in all nine to try to improve your time and seeding position, you can as there is nothing stopping you. There is no limitation or penalty for racing more than three qualifiers. We only ask that to give yourself the best average of time that you attempt to race at least three. Runners who have raced a minimum of three qualifiers will be seeded before someone who has raced only once or twice. This will be done to reward those who have made the effort to reach the asked number of qualifiers. Runners who have raced two or fewer qualifiers will be seeded second and so forth to the runners who have met the three race minimum. As far as a DNF or a .ff in a race, you will receive the last place time +15 minutes. This is the same as last year. Scoring for seeding will be as follows as well: Top three times of a runner/3. Thats it, nothing fancy, no tricks, just your three best times divided by three. This should encourage more racing and opportunity for runners to improve their positioning.
Scores are created by: (1) taking the minutes and converting them straight to points (1 minute, 1 point), and then (2) converting seconds to partial points via seconds / 60 * 100. Quit races will get a score based on the highest race score (last place) + 15 points. Anyone that doesn't do 3 races will get the highest possible score in the 9 races as their "filler" scores
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.
We would like to see entrants try to race at least three of the qualifiers over the seven week period to garner proper seeding and remove any variance. Dates and times listed are for the qualifiers and they are scheduled to avoid conflict with Fall League game days. Please, if you are interested in playing in this tournament, attempt to make the effort to do three qualifiers. We would like serious players who have the time to commit to this but also understand this is a game and life can get in the way.
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, 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. This is a game that we play to have fun, so remember that please… even though money is involved this time.
The Committee has decided that the top 16 players will gain at least a portion of the prize pool. Payouts are as follows:
- 30% (1st place)
- 15% (2nd)
- 7.5% x 2 (3-4)
- 5% x 4 (5-8)
- 2.5% x 8 (9-16)
This will give all entrants to brackets some payback for the great job they have done making it that far. Please understand that some thought was put into how to make this fair for everyone and this was the consensus that makes the most sense.
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).
- 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. For the Tournament proper, you must have an account on Smash.gg as well to participate.
- NEW EDIT: With invites going out from SG at approximately 30-25 minutes before the race is scheduled to start, runners cannot be expected to be in the room and ready to start their delay at the 30 minutes asked of them prior. Moving forward in the Brackets stage; Runners will be asked to be ready 20 minutes ahead of time instead of the previous 30. This should help with any communication issues or hiccups from the invite system.
- 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.
- There has been some concern about having access to or even needing a webcam for the Tournament as a whole. Committee has decided that while webcams are not going to be mandatory for the Qs and Pods, they will be required for the Tournament Proper. Anyone who does not have access to a webcam can use any of the following links to get one easily on their phones (Iphone and Android alike). Thanks to Dani for setting this up last year.
- Apps for iPhones
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/droidcam-wireless-webcam/id1510258102 - windows and *nix not iOS
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/epoccam-webcam-for-mac-and-pc/id449133483 - windows, *nix and iOS (there is a paid version, but free version is usable)
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/obs-studio-iphone-video-source/id1352834008?ct=Landing%20Page&ls=1 - iOS - direct integration with OBS
- Apps for Android Phones
- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dev47apps.droidcam&hl=en_US windows, *nix
- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dreamdroid.livedroid windows only
- 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 2021 Tournament must be members of the SGLive 2021 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 over a Seven Week Timeframe. The days/times will be:
- Wednesday 9/15 @8pm EST
- Sunday 9/19 @1pm EST
- Wednesday 9/29 @10pm EST
- Sunday 10/3 @3pm EST
- Wednesday 10/13 @8pm EST
- Sunday 10/17 @6pm EST
- Monday 10/18 @9pm EST
- Thursday 10/23 10pm EST
- Monday 10/25 9pm EST
These times were made in an attempt to not conflict with ongoing Fall League, and also give a variance of times to help accommodate all timezones as best as possible.
Questions?
Any questions can be directed to LuffyDV, BurtReynolds, and/or the FFR or SGLive discords.