Chaos Comedy Tour
2021 Spring Tournament
Rules & Format
Important Dates
- Sign-Ups: March 8th - April 2nd
- Pod Reveal: April 3rd (9pm EDT on RPG Limit Break)
- Tournament Schedule: April 5th - June 13th
- Pod Stage (~4 weeks): April 5th - April 29th
- Play-In Race Qualifier(s):
- Play-In Race: April 30th (10PM EDT)
- Last Chance Qualifier: May 1st (7PM EDT)
- Bracket Reveal: May 2nd (9pm EDT on RPG Limit Break or Randomania)
- Bracket Stages (6 weeks):
- Round of 64: May 3rd - May 9th
- Round of 32: May 10th - May 16th
- Round of 16: May 17th - May 23rd
- Round of 8: May 24th - May 30th (Quarterfinals)
- Round of 4: May 31st - June 6th (Semifinals)
- Finals: June 7th - June 13th
The Tournament!
Welcome to the 2021 Spring Tournament! This year marks the 5th anniversary of the Final Fantasy Randomizer. The Spring Tournament Planning Committee wants to highlight all of the hard work and effort that the randomizer development team has put into this game over that time.
The theme for this year’s tournament is a Chaos Comedy Tour! You start out as a rough-and-tumble improv team, The Light Warriors. Your first audition with Garland didn’t go too well and he kidnapped the princess! As you race your way through the world, you’ll encounter different management and agents who will help you along the way. There’s even a retirement community of comics in Crescent Lake ready to offer their sage advice! The ultimate kindness dealt to you by your former manager is a free canoe! So, at least you can start working the road right away.
Your comedy tour may find you canoeing upstream without a paddle, so to speak. So you could tour the southlands of the country and explore the Marsh Cave Comedy Club or you could climb to the great heights of the Icy Improv Cave. You may even find yourself taking to the high seas and visiting the Laugh Factory of Ordeals. Once you’ve found the key to your success, you can come home and reap the rewards of the King’s Armory in Coneria. You’ll even find yourself honing new skills as you develop your comedic prowess. Those skills will be put to the ultimate test as you plan your route: try not to choke in the Sky Palace Resort or stay afloat and do not drown on stage surrounded in Kraken’s Sea Shrine Hotel?
Don’t forget to look for the famed Power Gauntlet to help you rock the mic! Rumor has it there is even a White Shirt available. What better way to get your comedy career off the ground than with some sweet merch like that!
Flags
Pod Flags
Before the tournament begins, all participants will be assigned randomly to pods during the Pod Reveal on April 3rd. These pods will be named after popular enemies in the world, popular allies, and other popular features of FF1 (some may be new to folks)! Will you find yourself in the AGAMA Pod or the Vorpal Pod, or maybe something else entirely? These pods will be round robin and not all races should expect a broadcast.
Bracket Flags
Following the pod stage, advancing participants will be seeded into one of four regional brackets. Seeding will be random within groups. Groups will be based on records from pods. Participants finishing without a loss will be seeded first, then participants with one loss seeded, then the finishers from the first play-in race qualifier, and finally the finishers from the second play-in race qualifier.
As the intensity of the competitive comedy tour continues, hecklers will be found in the crowd! Random Chests will now contain a monster-in-a-box! Class blessings will now be balanced with a round-by-round increase to Maluses onto your Light Warriors! The gear blursings become less favorable as we move through the rounds as well.
- Round of 64 & 32
- Key Changes:
- Free Bridge: OFF
- Starting Inventory: On - Random Beggar’s Choice
- Trapped Chests: Random Chests On
- Encounter Rate Increase: up to 0.7 Overworld & 0.8 Dungeon
- Blursed Weapons: -4 to +4
- Blursed Armor: -3 to +3
- Blursed Classes: 1 bonus + 1 malus
- Key Changes:
- Round of 16 & 8
- Key Changes
- Free Bridge: ON
- Town Shuffle
- Boss Stats: 70% - 200%
- Boss HP: 100% - 170%
- Blursed Weapons: -3 to +3
- Blursed Armor: -3 to +2
- Blursed Classes: 2 bonus + 2 malus
- Key Changes
- Semifinals & Finals
- Key Changes
- Free Bridge: OFF
- Town Shuffle
- Boss Stats & HP: 100% - 200%
- Encounter Rate Increase: up to 0.8 Overworld & 0.9 Dungeon
- Blursed Armor & Weapons: -3 to +1
- Blursed Classes: 2 bonus + 3 malus
- Key Changes
Drafting and Other Allowances:
For the duration of the pod round, opponents may elect to draft parties before the race. Both parties must agree to draft, do not pressure or guilt your opponent into drafting. You are not required to draft in pods.
For the bracket stage, all races will feature a player draft. The higher seeded player may elect to draft first or defer to their opponent; if the runners have the same pod record, draft order will be determined randomly in the FFR Discord using the FFR Bot (in #ffr-bots-casino, both runners will enter the command: ?roll d20, the higher number wins draft preference to draft first or defer, in case of a tie, both runners will reroll).
Drafting will be standard FFR drafting (Player A chooses 1st Light Warrior, Player B chooses 2nd and 3rd Light Warrior, Player A chooses 4th Light Warrior). Other drafting formats are possible (e.g. dodgeball drafts) if both players agree to the terms of the draft.
Drafting will occur AFTER the seed is rolled, this allows runners to view Class Bonuses & Maluses prior to the draft. If both players agree, the draft can be conducted blind, before the seed is rolled.
During the tournament, opponents may wish to modify flags for their race. This is allowed but limited to the following choices:
- Requiring WarMech
- Four Forced Party Members (replaces the draft requirement - NONEs defaulted off)
- Allowing Nones Into Drafts or Four Forced
- Removing Masamune
The Spring Tournament Staff Person gatekeeping the race room will confirm all changes agreed upon before they roll the seed.
Format
Pods:
Players will be randomly placed into pods of 4 or 5, the exact number will be determined when sign-ups close. The pods will be round robin, meaning a player will be required to race each opponent within the pod once. It is expected that there will be approximately 20-25 pods.
Players will have a little over 3 weeks to complete their 3 or 4 (depending on pod size) round robin races. If a player finishes undefeated or only takes 1 loss in their pod, they will move onto the bracket stage and be seeded accordingly. If there are remaining bracket positions after seeding 3-0 racers and 2-1 racers, there will be at least 1 play-in qualifier race.
Play-In Race Qualifier(s):
During this week, all racers who have finished the pod round with only 1 win will be invited to compete in a Play-In Race Qualifier to fill the remaining seeds of the bracket. The exact number of available spots is TBD and finish-order will determine seeding into the remaining spots of the bracket. Half of the available bracket positions will be available in the Play-In Race. The other half will be available in the Last Chance Qualifier. During the Last Chance Qualifier, the 1-2 racers who failed to qualify in the Play-In Race will race against the 0-3 pod participants.
Meaning, if there are 12 open bracket positions, the first 6 runners in each Play-In Race will seeded into the bracket in finish order. Play-In Race 1 finishers will be seeded ahead of Last Chance Qualifier finishers. If you qualify during first Play-In Race you are no longer eligible to race in the Last Chance Qualifier
Brackets:
The round of 64 and 32 will consist of best-of-1 races with the winner moving on to the round of 32. The round of 16, Quarterfinals, and Semifinals will consist of best-of-3 races with the participant winning 2 matches moving forward. The Finals will consist of best-of-5 races. The first participant who wins 3 matches will be crowned the Champion of the Spring Tournament.
The Tournament Organizers will do our best to ensure that participants from the same pod will not face each other again in the opening bracket round of 64.
Challonge:
The entire tournament (pods and brackets) will be organized and hosted via Challonge. An account with Challonge will be required for this event.
Bracket Seeding:
The initial seeding will be based on the outcome of the pod stage. All entrants who finish undefeated through pods will be randomly inserted into the top slots for the 4 quadrants in the tournament. Following the undefeated placements, the entrants with 1 loss will be randomly inserted into the remaining brackets positions. Finally, the Play-In Qualifier Races will fill in the remaining positions of the bracket based on finish-order from the group race.
PRIZES!!
This year’s Spring Tournament Champion will win the following prizes, all donated by our generous community members:
- Custom Stream Layout designed by DarkmoonEX with input from you to make your stream look as sleek and professional as our official FFR layouts!
- FFR Music donated by GregglyPuff and Twinstrumental - that awesome intro music you hear on Randomania and RPG-Limit Break available to you in mp3 format!
- Custom FFR Sprites designed by DrFunkin with feedback from you, DrFunkin will create unique custom sprites for your FFR experience!
Rules
Sign-Ups:
Please sign up no later than 11:59pm EST, on April 2nd, 2021. No late sign-ups will be allowed. ALL ENTRANTS MUST BE A MEMBER OF THE FFR DISCORD SERVER. By signing up, you agree to be held to the Final Fantasy Randomizer Discord’s Code of Conduct while engaged as a participant of this event. Violations of the Code of Conduct may result in consequences ranging from a warning to bans from the discord, the tournament, all further events; these consequences may extend to other communities as well.
Broadcasting Races:
We will try to find broadcast crews for all races; however, we do not anticipate being able to broadcast every race due to the high volume of races. Please schedule your races for the best possible time between you and your opponent without regard to broadcast viability. If you do not wish to be restreamed on a broadcast, this preference will take priority over someone who does wish to be restreamed.
We do anticipate being able to stream at least 1 match featuring each runner during the pod stage and throughout brackets. It is a goal to have races restreamed but not an expectation.
If you are being restreamed, you will be required to enable the following Fun% Options:
This request is to accommodate spectators who may be photosensitive. If you fail to make this accommodation, you will not be featured on future restreams unless you enable these features in your next race.
Stream Requirements:
- 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.
- All races during the FFR 2021 Spring Tournament will require a 10 minute (600 second) stream delay. If you need help setting this up in your broadcast software, please notify a Tournament Staff member.
- Certain broadcast partners may request that your stream outputs be resized to be less taxing on the restreamer’s resources.
- A timer must be visible on your stream. This is necessary for broadcasted races and non-broadcasted races. Stream timers will be used to sync broadcast races as well as determine outcomes in case of a draw.
- The Tournament Safe ROM feature will be on for the entirety of the tournament. If you have questions or concerns, please contact a Tournament Staff member.
Custom Sprites:
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 Tournament Organizer for review/approval.
The Use of Trackers:
Throughout the FFR 2021 Spring Tournament, runners will be able to use trackers to help track key items and locations checked. However, the tracker must not be automated. Trackers which update entrances based on user input are allowed.
Conduct:
While on stream, and in interviews afterwards, players are expected to behave professionally and act to the expected standards for on-air behavior. This includes, but is not limited to: no inappropriate language, no rants about the other player, no rants about the tournament, no rants about the format, no rants about the streaming service, etc. 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.
Dropping/No Show Rules:
- If you wish to drop from the tournament, you are free to do so. Please inform a Tournament Staff Person by pinging @Spring Tournament Staff as soon as possible.
- If more than 5 minutes has passed since the scheduled start time for your race and your opponent has neither contacted you, ST staff, or has arrived into the race room, they are considered a no-show for that match. This will be considered a forfeit for the no-show runner and a win will be awarded to the person who showed up for the race.
- If neither runner shows up for the scheduled race, the runners will have the opportunity to reschedule their race within the current deadline of the tournament stage in which the race is supposed to happen.
- If a runner does not respond to their paired opponent, a Tournament Organizer (TO) should be notified after 24 hours, so that the TO can assist in the situation.
Player Drops:
- If a player in your pod drops from the tournament for any reason, all matches within the pod against that will be considered a forfeit for the dropped player. This includes completed matches.
- If a player drops during the bracket round, this will be treated as if the runner forfeit the match.
- If you are in a pod with another racer or in the bracket stage, please make every reasonable effort to complete your match(es) with your opponent(s). Should there be any reason why you are not able to complete your race in a given week, please contact Spring Tournament Staff as soon as possible.
- The person who showed up for the race can request a rematch with their opponent; the person who was a no-show cannot request a rematch.
Game Rules:
All games will be run using RaceTime.gg (RTGG). You will be asked if you have an account when entering into the tournament; please make sure you do so. You may use a console or approved emulator to play. All races are blind.
The winner will be determined by the RTGG’s SahasrahBot’s timer, unless external technical difficulties are in place, or if the race is decided by 3 seconds or less. In either case, the runners may agree upon a race result. If they do not, a Tournament Organizer will re-time the runs by hand and determine the winner.
In the event in which the margin of victory is less than one second, the race will be determined to be a draw and tiebreaker match will be scheduled. The flags of the tiebreaker will be the same as the round of the draw. In the event of a tiebreaker match, this will need to be streamed as all races are but a broadcast on one of our streaming partner’s will not be required.
Accidental Forfeits:
If you accidentally forfeit, please re-enter within 60 seconds of the forfeit. If the 60 seconds elapse, or you forfeit three times in a race, the forfeit will be official. If you accidentally “.done” during the race before completing the race, let the Tournament Staff in the race know that it was an accident and re-enter the race as soon as possible.
Forfeits Due to Technical Issues:
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! If you are unaware of the issue that caused the forfeit (e.g. LiveSplit integration betrayed you), a Tournament Staff will contact you as soon as possible via Discord and tell you of the issue.
Anti-Cheating Policy:
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 tournament. Additionally, bans on participation in future FFR events or events organized by other communities may be sanctioned depending on the nature of the offense.
We require that all entrants keep their stream on emote only mode during official races.
Any spoilers in RTGG chat between the start and end of the race may result in penalties at the tournament organizers’ discretion. These penalties may range from a warning to disqualification from this and future tournaments. Please redirect all commentary about a seed, while the race is still in progress, to the appropriate discord channel, and please save all comment commands for after the race is done.
If you are not directly involved in the race, do not type anything in the RTGG room until the race is finished, and non-runners (broadcast crew) should only use the channel for required business (such as adjusting on-stream timers or declaring a reseed).
Any situation not explicitly handled by the rules will be dealt with on a case by case basis by the Tournament Staff.