MrWillof469
Smash Cadet
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Level One Gaming
Clovis, CA
Start time: 1:00pm (doubles at 1, singles follows)
From the ashes of a failed experimental format comes a new twist on Swiss. This next singles tournament will be built on the solid foundation of the traditional Swiss tournament system, with a twist thrown in at the end. Unlike the heavily flawed staggered system from Just Smash II, this twist does NOT alter the traditional Swiss section in any way. Rather than create the environment for what amounts to an inherent, rule-forced screwjob, the twist increases the opportunity for all entrants to emerge the winner (while making sure 2nd place on down are properly determined as well).
This time around we're moving to Level One Gaming, which means on-site food for purchase, plenty of TV's already there (welcome to bring more of course), and an overall improved gaming environment over Nickel Arcade. Bring those Cubes, the more the better.
Level One membership is NOT required.
Venue entry fee is $2.00. Spectators must pay the entry fee as well.
Global rules
MLG rules apply throughout this tournament, except when a rule defined in this thread conflicts with MLG (in which case our rule prevails
).The main ones to keep in mind:
Bring YOUR OWN controller, no turbo/modified
All games are 4 stock/8 mins in all tournament sections
No items
Random/banned stage lists as defined in the most current MLG rules (team stages are in effect for doubles and Wild Card Rumble matches with more than 2 players) (printed stage lists will be available for reference)
STAGE SELECTION: No stage may be used more than once in any match, INCLUDING by random selection (does not apply to Wild Card Rumble)
Payout: 100% of entry fees returned in 60/30/10 distribution. (1st/2nd/3rd)
Doubles
Entry: $20 per team
Doubles will NOT use Swiss this time. It will use a randomly-seeded, double-elimination bracket. All matches are best of 3 games until 4 teams remain, when they increase to best of 5.
Singles
Entry: $15
Swiss rounds
Players are pitted against each other randomly in the first round and then against opponents with the same or nearly the same record in each successive round. No two players will face each other in more than one round. Each round is best of 3 games. Reminder: No elimination in a Swiss tournament!
The number of rounds played is based on the number of entrants:
17-32: 5 rounds
33-64: 6 rounds
This uses the standard Swiss round formula 2^x, with x being the number of rounds necessary to make the formula result greater than or equal to the number of entrants. Unlike at Just Smash II, rounds will NOT be cut out. The necessary number WILL be played.
Swiss tie-breaker points are also used in determining ranking, based on the Difficulty of the Opposition principle.
Wild Card Rumble (The Twist)
A number of players will advance to the finals based on the number of Swiss rounds played:
5 rounds = top 4 finalists + 1 wild card
6 rounds = top 4 finalists + 2 wild cards
Every player not advancing as a top 4 finalist may compete in the Wild Card Rumble.
For the purpose of explaining the format, I'll use an example field of 24 players, which would have played 5 rounds and had 4 players move to the finals. This means all players ranked 5-24 will compete for the wild card slot.
The Wild Card Rumble is a series of 1-game, 4-player survival matches, loosely based on the stepladder format. The 4 bottom ranked players (21-24 in our example) play in the first match. After each Rumble match, players are docked penalty points as follows:
1st place: no points
2nd place: 1 point
3rd place: 2 points
4th place: 4 points
When a player reaches or exceeds 4 points, he/she is eliminated from the Rumble, and the next lowest ranked player enters the next match. If multiple players are eliminated in the same match, additional players enter the next match to make 4 players. This format continues up the ranking list until all non-finalists have entered. When the field dwindles to 3 players, the 4th place penalty is discarded, as is the 3rd penalty when down to 2. The last player standing moves into the finals as a wild card entry.
In the event we have more than 32 players and thus 2 wild card slots, players will be broken into odd and even rank divisions (ranks 5, 7, 9... in one, 6, 8, 10... in the other). The winner of each division will get a wild card slot.
Character/Stage selection rules for the Rumble
In each match, the player with the most penalty points picks his/her character first, and then the player with the next most penalty points, and so on.
The player with the most penalty points selects the stage to be used. Team stages are in use for matches involving more than 2 players. There are no restrictions on the number of times stages may be used in the Rumble. Players may not call for any resets of random stages, and players may not defer character selection per random stage selection (advanced slob picks).
When penalty points are tied, Swiss rank is used, with the lowest ranked player going first.
The outcome of the Rumble has no effect on the final tournament ranking of those players who do not advance in the finals, as 4-player melee matches are not taken into consideration in most regional rankings.
Stepladder Finals
The finalists compete in a standard stepladder format. This is similar to the Wild Card Rumble, except it involves only 2 players at a time in 1-on-1 matches, and there are no penalty points. The bottom two ranked players compete in the first match. The winner of that match moves on to play the next lowest ranked player, and so on, up to 1st place. Each match is best of 5 games, except the 1st place match, which is best of 7.
