EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Dxe2gve.png)
(made by yours truly, think you can do better? Please do)
Starts in:
Liquipedia: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/User:FiWiFaKi/ShieldBattery_Showdown_1 (sign-up here, Stargate Cup registrations now closed, please sign up for Robotics Cup!)
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/fiwifaki
Intro
Welcome to the new tournament series, hosted on ShieldBattery – ShieldBattery Showdown. The intent here is to bring some more competitive spirit (as well as create an internal ranking) to the server, and generate some exposure to the lovely work that the ShieldBattery team is doing. This will be a nice opportunity to meet some new people, learn some BW, and have a fun time. That said, you require a ShieldBattery account to play, so if you don’t, follow the instructions in the opening post here:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/brood-war/508993-shieldbattery-bw-revitalized-for-modern-mortals
Sign up for the beta, and hope for the RNG gods to be on your side.
Schedule
The ShieldBattery Showdown will be a one-day reoccurring event taking place every 2nd Sunday, starting at 12PM Eastern/9AM Pacific/6PM CET… Which should make it possible for everyone minus East Asia and Australia, etc. to play (sorry Scaramanga). The first event will fittingly commence January 1st, 2017. With the current format, the event is expected to take 5-6 hours (winner will play 5 round robin games, 1 best-of-1, 2 best-of-3), therefore if you’re going to be playing, please ensure you have enough time to complete the tournament.
Format
The ultimate aim is to run 3 concurrent events, which will attempt to cater to the entire 1v1 playing ShieldBattery populace. The three cups being played are the Stargate, Robotics, and Gateway Cup, they’re discussed individually below:
Stargate Cup
The most prestigious cup. It will consist of 12 to 16 players competing in two round robin groups (random draw) of 6-8 players. A best-of-1 will be played with all other players. The top 4 players in each group move on to a 8 man single elimination bracket. Best-of-1 quarterfinals, best-of-3 onwards.
1A vs 4B, 3A vs 2B, 2A vs 3B, 4A vs 1B will be the seeding structure for the single elimination. Tiebreaks in the group stage will be handled by looking at the head-to-head record, and if that can’t solve the conflict, an Armageddon FFA will decide the outcome.
Placing in the last two spots in either group will demote you to playing in the Robotics cup for the following event, and likewise, the top 4 placings of Robotics cup will be eligible for promotion to the Stargate cup. If you’re battling in the Stargate Cup, you’re allowed to miss one consecutive event without penalty while keeping a spot when you return. An absence of 2 events will result in a dropdown to Robotics Cup when you return. If you no-show to the event, the first offense will be punished by a dropdown to the Robotics cup. The second and following offenses will be punished by a dropdown to the Gateway cup, and if it becomes a habit, potentially long periods before promotion to above Gateway cup can be had… Please show up if you sign up!
If enough people in the Stargate Cup don’t show up, some players in the Robotics Cup based on their ranking will be promoted upwards to reach the minimum of 12 in the Stargate cup.
Robotics Cup
The format here will be a standard GSL or MSL group stage. A vs B and C vs D, winners of those games play each other, and losers play each other. The winner of the winner game moves on, and the loser of the loser game is eliminated. Remaining two players play a game to decide the last spot. In the interest of time the group stage will be all Bo1 (as was in the MSL).
Depends on the interest and popularity, the tournament could range anywhere from 8 to 32 players max. Round-of-32 and Round-of-16 will always be the aforementioned group stage, and quarterfinals onwards will be single elimination in the format of:
1A vs 2D, 2B vs 1C, 1B vs 2C. 2A vs 1D
Group draws will be random for both round-of-32 and round-of-16.
Group stages are a maximum 3 games each, so at full capacity, 6 group stage games (for two rounds), and then a best-of-1 quarterfinals, followed by two best-of-3’s for the semis and finals, again the length is expected to be 5-6 hours, or 4-5 hours with 16 players.
The top 4 finishers in the Robotics Cup will be eligible to compete in the Stargate Cup for the following event. If the Robotics cup does not exceed 32 people, and you finish last in the first group stage, you’ll be eligible to compete in the Robotics cup again. If the popularity over times becomes very high and we have 32 players, the bottom person in each of the 8 groups will need be relegated to the Gateway Cup.
As in the Stargate cup, you’re allowed to miss one event without losing your spot in the Robotics Cup. If you miss two concurrent events, and then you choose to compete again, you’ll need to work up from the Gateway Cup. A no-show is punished by a demotion to the Gateway cup for the first two offenses, following that, longer periods of time without eligibility to promote from Gateway Cup.
Gateway Cup
As a preface, the main purpose of the Gateway cup is to weed out as many no-shows as we can, and give people some experience before they start to play in the Stargate or Robotics Cup. The idea is that later down the road, the tournament will run more seamlessly. It can also be used as a punishment much like low priority. Maybe one day when when we’re getting 100 sign-ups per tournament, it will be treated like a qualifier.
Gateway Cup is a single elimination tournament, best-of-3 from quarterfinals onwards, best-of-1. The tournament’s max effective size will be limitless, but technically limited to around 256 players.
Top 8 will gain eligibility to compete in the Robotics cup for the next event, however if there’s enough space in the Robotics Cup, other competitors will be eligible to move up as well.
Maps
All versions of maps will be the default ShieldBattery version (I believe they are all the most current and updated version).
Stargate Cup:
Group stage – Fighting Spirit, Circuit Breaker, Tau Cross
Single elimination bracket – Fighting Spirit, Circuit Breaker, Tau Cross, *Blue Storm, *Match Point
Robotics Cup:
Group stages - Fighting Spirit, Circuit Breaker, Python
Single elimination bracket – Fighting Spirit, Circuit Breaker, *Blue Storm
Gateway Cup:
Fighting Spirit, Circuit Breaker, Python
*Subject to change as obs mode is not yet implemented yet, and hence 2p maps can't be obs real time at the moment.
For best-of-1, both players will alternate vetoing until only one map remains. A coin toss will decide who vetoes first if players cannot mutually agree.
For best-of-3, maps are vetoed until only 3 remain. A coin toss determines which player chooses one of the three maps. Loser picks the map afterwards, and each map can only be played once per series.
I would not like too frequent a change in maps, as I know map maps you ShieldBattery people play
. But of course, here and there, the map pool will be rotated a bit, with the help of my map ranking created here:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/brood-war/514719-all-time-broodwar-most-balanced-maps-ranked
Rules
Basic stuff:
- A pause of more than 15 minutes results in a walkover. That includes in game, or time between finishing last game, and being ready for the next one.
- Any bugs or exploits not allowed on iccup are not allowed here either. http://iccup.com/en/starcraft/sc_ladder_rules.html... Section 2 to Section 4.
- Spamming, hate speech, and general assholery will receive a warning or a DQ. Be courteous to your fellow peers.
- Observers allowed if both players agree, observers must leave at the request of either player. First observing spot will go to the broadcaster.
- Tournament organizer and supporting staff have final say on any disputes.
- ShieldBattery autosaves replays, if they are requested by the staff, they need to be provided.
- Provide vision to broadcaster as swiftly as you can. If the broadcaster requested vision, and more than one minute passes, it will be subject to penalty.
- Enjoy your time playing Broodwar!
Rankings
To encourage continued participation, every biweekly event will hand out a certain amount of points, the more points you have, the more likely that uncertain events will go in your favor. You will be eligible for other things, like all-star tournaments or whatever we choose to do with them. I’m hoping to talk to tec27 to get something like the top 3 players in the rankings get a different color name in the chat channel (gold for 1st, silver for 2nd, bronze for 3rd for example).
The points awarded are as follows:
Stargate Cup:
1st: 100
2nd: 80
Semis: 60
Quarters: 50
9-10: 40
11-12: 35
13-16: 25
Robotics Cup:
1st: 40
2nd: 30
Semis: 20
Quarters: 15
9-12: 10
13-16: 8
17-24: 5
25-32: 3
Gateway Cup:
1st: 10
2nd: 8
Semis: 5
Quarters: 3
Ro16: 1
Ro32+: 0
Points will carry over for 12 events (24 weeks), until they expire, i.e if you won the 1st event, and now you’re playing in the 13th event and you obtain 2nd place, you’re actually going to be losing 20 points.
Sign-up
There are three ways to sign up:
1) The preferred way is to login to Liquipedia with your Teamliquid account, and on the top right of the page, go the the "Sign Up" tab. Understand which of the 3 tournament you're eligible to sign up for, and add your ShieldBattery Username, as well as race (if you're a race picker, pick the one you play two match-ups with) under the tournament you'll be competing under. Sign-ups are open exactly 1 week before the tournament begins, up to one hour before the tournament starts.
2) Another option is to post your ShieldBattery username as well as race in the Teamliquid thread, as well as which of the 3 tournaments you'd like to compete in. Ensure you've read the format of the three tournaments so you're not signing up for the wrong one. Then, one of the tournament organizers will fill out your information on the sign-up page. This option is less preferable, as spots will fill up first come first serve, and if the tournament fills up before we get to your name, you're out of luck.
3) Catch me online on ShieldBattery or Discord, and let me know.
Communication during the tournament will occur in the ShieldBattery Client, as well as the unofficial ShieldBattery discord: https://discord.gg/8cDxzfr (please ensure you're using same Discord ID as ShieldBattery ID).
Note: As this is the first event, anyone is allowed to sign up for any of the tournaments.
Broadcasting
The plan at the moment is to cast live, casting both semifinals and finals of the Stargate cup, as well as the finals of the Robotics cup. Other games throughout the tournament will be chosen at somewhat random, to give others exposure, to see some fun strategies, etc.
The stream for now will be at: https://www.twitch.tv/fiwifaki
Depending on how the workload gets distributed during the event, we may have other people casting, and it’ll be easy to co-cast with some fresh faces, since many of us would be on discord anyway. If that’s something you’d enjoy doing, let me know, since that kind of help would be very appreciated.
Volunteer
It should be no surprise that this is quite a massive undertaking for one person. Tournaments of this size usually take place over several weeks, however the goal is to make it as easy as possible for the players involved, making it a much smaller commitment, only having to clear one part of their day.
There’s so many ways you can get involved to make the community a better place, just contact me about what you could contribute, and we will talk. You don’t need to be skilled, the most important thing is being consistent and eager to contribute, just to list a few things that one could do:
- Help create a website
- Graphics for the event
- Update Liquipedia
- Report results and handle any disputes during the tournament
- Stream your games
- Cast the event, or co-cast with me
- Tell your friends to come play
- Sign up for the event
Prizes
We’re doing this because we love the game. No prizes as of yet, but if you’d like to donate or sponsor the event, please get in touch with me. You can either send a donation here: paypal.me/SamuelAmbrus … And it will all (well minus around 3-5% for transaction costs) go towards the prize pools, spread over a few events. If you have a more specific item you’d like to donate, or have a specific way you’d like your donation spent, just contact me.
Same goes for any sponsorship you’d like to do, let me know what you’d expect from us, and what you can offer, and we can work something out.
Contact
- Teamliquid PM: FiWiFaKi
- ShieldBattery: FiWiFaKi
- Discord for ShieldBattery: FiWiFaKi (channel code: 8cDxzfr)
If you have a matter that is not suitable for these modes of communication, get in touch with me with one of these first, and we will move our conversation elsewhere, thanks.
Closing remarks
Thanks for checking this tournament out, and please, leave any feedback, questions, and any other inquiries in order to make this a better experience for everyone. This is my first time attempting to organize something of this magnitude, so bear with me, doin’ my best. =)... Oh, and shoutout especially to tec27, and some of the other guys at making ShieldBattery a reality!
Broodwar Hwaiting!
+ Show Spoiler [FAQ] +
Q: Can I get a SB invite to enter this tournament?
A: No sorry, I don't run the server, and currently it's still in closed beta. From what I've heard, it wont be too long until it's in open beta though.
Q: Can you change the time of the tournament?
A: This tournament allows both NA and EU people to play, and also importantly, fits into my schedule. I recognize it is an unfortunate time if you live in Australia or Asia, sorry
.
please add me
) - but not on Jan 1. - I'll be happy if I'm able to speak my native language again at that time of the day 
