Sail the High Seas!
Spring Tournament 2019
Rules & Guidance
The FFR community welcomes you to the Spring 2019 Tournament!
- The Round 3 Flagset. This does include class choices; see below.
Tournament Format
Swiss Portion
The first phase of the tournament will consist of 5 Swiss rounds of 1v1 play, one round per week. Participants will be paired according to record, and will not play the same person twice in the Swiss portion. If there is an odd number of participants in a round, one person with the worst record will be randomly granted a free win.
Participants must work out a time to play their match during the week. If a participant is unable or unwilling to play their match, it will be recorded as a loss for them and they will be dropped from the tournament. If players are unable to agree on a time to play, please contact a tournament admin ASAP so we can work something out.
At the conclusion of the Swiss rounds, entry into the playoffs will be given as follows, by record:
- 5-0: Automatic first-round bye into the top 8 of the playoffs
- 4-1: Automatic entry into the wild card round of the playoffs
- 3-2: Must play the Play-In race in order to qualify for the playoffs as a wild card
- 2-3: Chance to play in Last Chance Qualifier for Play-In race
- 1-4, 0-5: Eliminated
DISCLAIMER: This is assuming 25-64 participants; if the actual number is outside this range, the number of Swiss rounds and/or the number of playoff slots will change.
Pairings for each round of the Swiss will be streamed live on Twitch and generated via random.org, based on record. In the event of a “pair-up” (for example, someone with a 1-2 record playing against someone with a 2-1 record) this will be noted and prevented from happening again in the Swiss portion, if possible. (It’s plausible that this might be impossible for someone that is 0-4, but extremely unlikely.)
This season’s theme is Sail The High Seas. During the pairings stream, one class will be designated as the Captain. That will be a forced class for everyone’s races that week. A different class will be told to Walk the Plank. That class is banned for everyone’s races that week. These classes will be chosen via random.org during the pairings stream. Classes may not be Captain two weeks in a row, nor may they Walk the Plank two weeks in a row. These party restrictions will be the only flagset changes week-to-week in the Swiss.
Last Chance Qualifier
All participants with a 2-3 record at the end of the Swiss will play one final race to qualify for the Play-In race. The LCQ will take place on the Saturday of the week after Round 5, and will be one big race with all 2-3 participants. The winner will qualify to play the Play-In race, all others will be eliminated from the tournament.
Play-In Race
The LCQ winner and all participants with a 3-2 record in the Swiss will play one final race to qualify for the playoffs. The Play-In race will take place on the Sunday following the LCQ, and will be one big race. The top finishers in this race will fill the playoff bracket until the slots run out; all others are eliminated from the tournament.
Playoff Portion
The playoffs will be a single elimination bracket, best of 3. Seeding for the bracket will be determined first by record, and then randomly within that record for 5-0s, and then for 4-1s. This will be streamed live via Twitch. Players who qualify via the Play-In Race will be seeded according to finish. Players who qualify by 5-0 record will be granted a first-round bye. All playoff races will be 1v1; the losers each round are eliminated from the tournament.
Playoff Bracket Example
Let’s say we have 48 participants, and the Swiss record breakdown is as follows:
- 2 5-0
- 7 4-1
- 15 3-2
- 15 2-3
- 7 1-4
- 2 0-5
Then:
- The 1-4s and 0-5s are eliminated.
- The 5-0s get a bye into the Top 8 of the playoffs.
- The 4-1s automatically qualify for the playoffs.
- The 15 2-3s play the LCQ race, the winner qualifies for the Play-In Race.
- The 15 3-2s and the LCQ winner play the Play-In Race.
To determine how many slots are at large for the Play-In Race, subtract the number of 5-0s and 4-1s from 16, and also subtract again for the 5-0s to compensate for byes. In this example, we have two 5-0s, so they take up 4 slots (Two players, plus two byes). The 4-1s take up 7 slots. That’s 11 total, so we have room for 5 more, taken as the top 5 finishers in the Play-In race.
DISCLAIMER: If there is a “clean cut”, IE all Play-In race participants would automatically make the playoff cut, we will skip the Play-In race entirely, seed the participants randomly, and immediately proceed with the first round of the playoffs following the LCQ. (I’m not actually sure this is possible with the addition of an LCQ, but I’m covering our bases.)
If either the LCQ race or Play-In race have meaningful ties, this will be settled via random.org coinflip, and not by replaying the entire race.
Game Rules
All races must use SpeedRunsLive and be streamed on Twitch. RaceBot will determine the winner of each match. We recommend saving a local copy of your stream in case of technical difficulties; if case of a dispute, we will use this to determine a winner. In case of an exact tie, runners will need to race again with a different seed at a time of their choosing. If this is not feasible/convenient, both players may elect to have the tournament admin determine the winner via random.org.
No cheating allowed! Cheating includes but is not limited to: watching your competitor’s stream, watching the restream, getting any spoilers or help from any outside sources (including your own chat or Discord), using programs to analyze the ROM or RAM, etc. If you believe your chat cannot be trusted not to spoil or backseat, don’t watch your chat!
On the subject of sprite hacks: We ask that you not use these if you are being restreamed. This is to make life easier on commentary and viewers. If you insist on using one, you MUST make the patch public, and if the patch is found to interfere with RNG or normal play, there will be consequences. You can test this yourself; record an input movie of you playing an entire race, and play it back without using your sprite hack. If it doesn’t sync up, you did something wrong.
Don’t spoil anything yourself! Posting anything related to the seed in IRC chat before the race is done ruins the experience for the other racer, even if you have already finished. This is a DQ-able offense. We treat this seriously, tournament integrity is a Good Thing.
In case of accidents or emergencies (LiveSplit unintentionally making you forfeit, a meteor falling on your house, etc) tournament staff have the authority to issue fixes at their own discretion.
In case of unsporting conduct, you will be strung up by your toenails and IRONGOLs will use you as target practice. Don’t be a jerk to anyone, don’t ruin anybody else’s fun, don’t start the Cardian Missile Crisis.
In case one of the tournament staff is in violation of these rules, they may not rule on their own behalf.
Race Commands
.startrace ffhacks - Starts a race from the SRL channel.
/join <#channelname> - Joins the race channel.
.enter - Joins the race.
.ready - Ready to begin the race (Streaming on, ROM loaded, party named)
.done - Use this command when Chaos is terminated.
.quit/.forfeit - In case something arises and you have to forfeit the race.
.undone - In case you accidentally typed .done or .quit.
.comment <comment>
- Type a fun or witty comment once you’re done. It’s polite to wait to do this until both players are finished. Don’t give information or spoilers in comments before all racers have finished, lest you incur cheating penalties.