Explorers of Yahnikurm Desert
Summer Co-Op Tournament 2022
Rules & Guidance
The time has come this year, time to grab a partner and join together for an adventure into the great unknown! It's time for Summer Co-Op, our annual 2-player team tournament for the winner-takes-all title of Summer Co-Op Champion!
About the Tournament
Co-Op is a team event. Players will join up in teams of two, connected via lua script in Bishawk, playing the same seed. The goal will be shard hunt, with each player forced to grab 32 shards so they can gain access into the Temple of Fiends Revisited. The team is done when both players have crossed the finish line (and only the time of the second finish counts for the “team time”).
Key items will be shared by the lua script (stored “in the cloud”, which we like to call the team's “bag of holding”) but shards are not. If a player dies (or resets) after a key item is in the bag of holding, that key item is saved and does not have to be retrieved again. Shards, though, must be collected and saved by the player; a reset will lose any shards gained since the last save, but note that “save on game over” is enabled in the flagset so deaths will not. This means that players have to balance resource management with trying to collect their win conditions.
You're out to collect treasures with your teammate and get to the end of the game first. Dig out the good and be the big winners!
Tournament Details:
The Co-Op tournament is a short, streamlined event. 16 teams will face of in single-elimination bracket, playing best of three (Bo3) matches to determine who will move on. As it's single-elimination, once a team is done, they're done.
Should more than 16 teams sign up there will be one (if 17 to 25 teams sign up) or two (if more than 25 teams sign up) play-off races the week before the start of the main event. In the case of one only race, the top 16 teams will get into the tournament. In the case of two play-in races, the top 8 teams from each race will make it in (and once a team has made it in on the first race they are barred from racing in the second run). Once the top 16 teams are determined, the bracket will be locked in.
The bracket (and other score keeping, as needed) is available in the Summer Co-Op 2022 spreadsheet.
Co-op Requirements
- BizHawk: This emulator is needed to run the lua script that makes co-op possible.
- Co-op lua script: Script on Discord, Setup Video
- A partner: If you're in need of a partner you can be added to and/or find one in the #co-op-tournament-discussion channel on discord.
Important Dates:
- August 5, 2022: Sign-up Deadline 11:59PM Eastern
- August 6, 2022: Qualifier #1, if Needed at 9pm Eastern
- August 7, 2022: Qualifier #2, if Needed at 5pm Eastern
- August 7, 2022: Reveal Stream, 9pm Eastern
- August 15-21, 2022: Bracket Elite 8
- August 22-28, 2022: Bracket Semi-Finals
- August 29 - September 4, 2022: Bracket Finals
Tournament Schedule:
Teams will face off against one opponent team per week, fitting in their three games (assuming all three are needed) during that week span. Once they have finished their races they are welcome to schedule their next matches (as soon as their opponent is determined), but they cannot take longer than the week scheduled for each best of three (Bo3) match-up.
Please note that, especially during the first couple of weeks of the tournament, not all matches will be restreamed. The first game in the Bo3 match-ups will likely be held off-air (with players just streaming to their own twitch channels for record keeping), although we will try to get all of the second (and third) games on air as we can.
Tournament Seeding:
The tournament will be seeded randomly, whether qualifiers are needed or not. Lord Fizzlebeef will get out his big spinning wheel and, on the Sunday before the official start of Brackets (August 7, 2022) team pairings will start. Teams may then get their match-ups organized and schedules set. Once the wheel is done spinning, teams can start playing their games at any time (although they should not have an expectations that these Sunday late night races will be broadcast).
Tournament Rules:
- Teams will consist of two members. If one member must exit the tournament their teammate can find a replacement for the duration of the tournament but it can not be someone who is part of another active team, nor can it be someone from a team that's already been eliminated.
- Tournament looking for group document is live here.
- Once a seed is rolled and hash is confirmed teams can make party and then proceed to the overworld. Once there, you and your teammate need to confirm the lua icon (green dot in right corner), which indicates a successful connection to the co-op server, before you ready up. After confirmation of lua connection, team captain enters "?ready", no movement or menuing allowed on the overworld until after race countdown.
- Sharing information verbally (teams will be placed in individual co-op voice chats during races. There is also co-op practice voice chats teams are welcome to use for practices. Please don't interrupt another team that's practicing without permission) and in written text with your partner is allowed. Screen sharing and stream watching is not allowed.
- Both team members must defeat "Chaos" in order for the team captain to submit their "?done" in the race room.
- If somebody has a technical issue that results in a forfeit (e.g. power loss, internet outage, hardware malfunction, software issues, etc.), please notify Tournament Staff as soon as possible!
- Any races finished within 3 seconds or less will be automatically retimed. Retimed results of 1 second or less will be ruled as a tie and another race will be required to determine a winner. If retimed results are 1 second or more the retime results will stand.
Tournament Flags:
Tournament flagset can be found here.
Special Rules and Allowances:
There will not be any flag options for this tournament. Both team members need to defeat chaos, the team will ?done after the second team member has defeated chaos.
Requirements for Participants:
- 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.
- Runners need to be in their race room with their streams up and on the FF "blue screen" 20 minutes before the race starts. If you aren't up and ready to be streamed at that point you won't be on a restream. Game needs to be up, clearly visible, and not covered by other windows (including an emulator with another game or the FFR website with flags showing) for the duration of the stream. Please do not play another game on stream while you wait for the race to start.
- A stream delay of 10 minutes (600 secconds) will be required for races in the tournament.
- However, as always, cheating is not tolerated. As such:
- Players may not hang out in any chat other than their own. Do not be in the broadcaster network’s chats/streams at the time of your race.
- Players may not hang out in the opponent’s streams or chat during the race.
- Players’ own chats must be set to “emote only”.
- If any player in a race somehow gains outside assistance during a race, they, and their team, will be disqualified from the event.
- Do not post spoilers in race chat during or after the race - please use the #post-race-spoiler-discussion in the public Discord. Please limit any post in the chat to ggs and serious questions/reports of technical difficulty.
- If you experience technical difficulty during the race, message the race chat and a @Co-Op Tournament Staff will communicate with you via Discord PMs.
- Matches will be conducted on the FFR Discord Server via the race bot. Players will be required to be on the FFR Discord server for the length of their time in the co-op event.
- To join an FFR Bot race room as a team: - type ?join #numberstring# "TEAM NAME" @yourteammate
- You do not need to @yourself
- Only one teammate should do this, it will automatically put you both in the room. Your team name must be entered in quotes otherwise it will only capture the first word.
- Example: Spellzapp types: ?join 1234567890123456789 "Crescent Lake Party Planners" @Dani That enters both runners in the room under the team name.
- When in the race room, only one teammate needs to ?ready and ?done.
- Players must have a timer on screen for synching 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.
- 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 players, no rants about the tournament, no rants about the format, no rants about the streaming service. 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.
- Finally, following the completion of your race, you may be asked to join the broadcast for an interview. Despite the outcome of the race, please comport yourself in a professional manner. There are no hard feelings - we are all here to have fun. If you find yourself unable to behave with good sportsmanship during the post-race interview, you will be removed from the broadcast booth. Also, bear in mind, our broadcast partners have policies against swearing or use profane language on their stream.
- 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 not allowed.
- You cannot use the turbo button or bind it to any buttons on a controller.