MAME Knockout Championships 5
Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:36 am
It's with great pleasure that we officially announce the 5th edition of the MAME Knockout Championships. We've made some changes in the format and hope everyone enjoys it! Please read the rules below to find out about the changes.
All rules and information will be mirrored on the webpage here:
http://bbh.marpirc.net/k5/
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General guidelines for submission:
-For this tournament two versions of WolfMAME Plus will be accepted: 0.106 and 0.101. No other versions of WolfMAME will be accepted. However, in the event that a game is discovered to have severe emulation/playback problems, an earlier version of WolfMAME may be allowed. However, the tournament games have been tested to make sure there are no problems and no substitutions should be necessary.
-When submitting, please be sure to include the .wlf file along with the .inp.
-It is strongly encouraged to use the game's shortname as the filename when you submit your .inp/.wlf file. Long filenames can be a hassle for confirmers.
-As is the case with regular MARP rules, only one credit is allowed. No continuing, and no starting a 2nd game after your 1st credit.
-Recordings must be submitted within 48 hours of creation, except for the last day of competition on a round, anything submitted on the last day must be uploaded within 24 hours of playing.
-Unless otherwise noted, all games are to be played on the default settings. If you're not sure your settings are default, delete the game's corresponding .cfg file from the cfg directory. Although they are usually accepted at MARP, recordings on "harder" settings will not be permitted for this tournament. If the game uses a bios file, please make sure that it too is set to "default", playing on a different bios can lead to playback problems and sometimes results in changes to gameplay as well.
-Final time before which a recording must be submitted to MARP is 23:59 GMT on the corresponding day. If MARP is down for an extended period of time, we will accept submissions via forum attachments on the thread for that week's game. Please do not submit recordings to the forum if MARP is not down.
-There is no limit to the number of times you may submit on a game, as long as your new recording is a higher score than the previous recording. Regular uploading of scores is strongly encouraged since it makes for more interesting competition.
-Average recorded speed must be 95% or higher. Use frameskip if you must.
-If none of the three tournament coordinators can play back your recording, then your score will not be accepted. To help ensure that your recordings will work, please make sure that you delete/disable your nvram directory, and in the case of Neo-Geo games, delete/disable your memcard directory as well.
-HAVE FUN! That's what we play games for, to have fun, right? Don't get TOO caught up in the competition and start verbally abusing other players, either in your score comments or on the forums. Nobody likes a bad sport.
QUALIFYING ROUND
The qualifying period for the tournament will take place from August 20th at 00:00 GMT to August 29th at 23:59 GMT (10 days). Qualifying for the tournament will consist of passing a very low target score on the game selected as the qualifier. Players shouldn't have much difficulty at all to qualify. All players who beat the target score will "officially" be in the tournament, but players are still encouraged to go for as high a score as possible since the qualifying round will factor into seeding. (more on that below)
ELIMINATION ROUNDS
From here on all rounds will be a duration of one week (7 days), with a 24-hour period separating each round.
After the qualifying round is over, the tournament coordinators will take two days to decide how many elimination rounds will be used. Expect to see anywhere from 1 to 3 elimination rounds, depending on how many players qualify. The first elimination round will begin on September 1st.
Elimination rounds will consist of the rules regularly in place for knockout tournaments - be one of the top players on that round and you will go on to the next round. Lowest ranking players will be eliminated.
Performance in the elimination rounds will factor into seeding too, so don't hold anything back.
If 16 or less players qualify for the tournament, the elimination rounds will not be used at all and play will start immediately with the 16-player bracket. High seeds will be given a "bye" and get a free ride into the second round. (hopefully this scenario will not occur!)
THE 16-PLAYER BRACKET
Here is where things get interesting. Although absent in the last knockout tournament, we will be bringing back the head-to-head format when the field has been narrowed down to 16 players (in past tournaments the head-to-head matches started when there were 8). But this time there is another slight change - the bracket will be DOUBLE ELIMINATION. This means that from this point on, no player is eliminated until they lose a total of two head-to-head matches.
Here is a sample representation of what a 16-player double elimination bracket looks like.
As with any double-elimination bracket, all players start in the Winner's Bracket in the first round. Each round will be head-to-head against another player, and it's here that beating the other player's score is all that matters. The winner moves on, the loser goes to the Loser's Bracket. In each round after that, there will be matches taking place in both the Winner's and Loser's brackets at once. If a player loses a match when they're in the Loser's Bracket, they are eliminated from the tournament.
After 5 rounds of play, all but three players will be eliminated - one in the Winner's Bracket, two in the Loser's Bracket. So for the 6th round, the game for that week will be used ONLY for the Loser's Bracket final, the Winner's Bracket champion gets a week off. The match between the last two remaining players in the Loser's Bracket will determine who goes to the grand finals against the Winner's Bracket champion.
THE FINALS
Another twist! Instead of the usual one game/one week approach, the finals will consist of TWO games at once for a 10-day duration. If the two players split and they each win one game, or the Winner's Bracket champion wins both games, then the player in the Winner's Bracket will be crowned the champion of the tournament. The player in the Loser's Bracket must win BOTH games in the final round if he wants to pull off an upset and become the champion.
(Why the two game approach for the finals? It's an attempt to make the finals more exciting, and it's the fastest and fairest solution. Remember, the player in the Winner's Bracket will not have lost a game leading up to the finals... wouldn't be very fair if he lost the tournament after losing one game, right?)
SEEDING
As mentioned before, the seeds for the 16-player bracket will be determined by where the players rank in the qualifying and elimination rounds. It's in the player's interest to try for as low a seed as possible, since that will theoretically give you a better draw in the brackets and match you up against "weaker" players. Upsets can (and probably will) happen though, anything's possible!
To determine seeding, points will be given to each player based on their placement in each round:
1st Place - 0 points
2nd Place - 1 point
3rd Place - 2 points
4th Place - 3 points
...etc. The player with the lowest amount of points will be given the #1 seed, then the next-lowest will be #2, etc. If any ties exist, then the player with the higher score on the qualifying round will be given the lower seed.
If you have any questions or concerns about the tournament, feel free to post them.
Brought to you by BBH, MJSTY, and NotMan
All rules and information will be mirrored on the webpage here:
http://bbh.marpirc.net/k5/
------
General guidelines for submission:
-For this tournament two versions of WolfMAME Plus will be accepted: 0.106 and 0.101. No other versions of WolfMAME will be accepted. However, in the event that a game is discovered to have severe emulation/playback problems, an earlier version of WolfMAME may be allowed. However, the tournament games have been tested to make sure there are no problems and no substitutions should be necessary.
-When submitting, please be sure to include the .wlf file along with the .inp.
-It is strongly encouraged to use the game's shortname as the filename when you submit your .inp/.wlf file. Long filenames can be a hassle for confirmers.
-As is the case with regular MARP rules, only one credit is allowed. No continuing, and no starting a 2nd game after your 1st credit.
-Recordings must be submitted within 48 hours of creation, except for the last day of competition on a round, anything submitted on the last day must be uploaded within 24 hours of playing.
-Unless otherwise noted, all games are to be played on the default settings. If you're not sure your settings are default, delete the game's corresponding .cfg file from the cfg directory. Although they are usually accepted at MARP, recordings on "harder" settings will not be permitted for this tournament. If the game uses a bios file, please make sure that it too is set to "default", playing on a different bios can lead to playback problems and sometimes results in changes to gameplay as well.
-Final time before which a recording must be submitted to MARP is 23:59 GMT on the corresponding day. If MARP is down for an extended period of time, we will accept submissions via forum attachments on the thread for that week's game. Please do not submit recordings to the forum if MARP is not down.
-There is no limit to the number of times you may submit on a game, as long as your new recording is a higher score than the previous recording. Regular uploading of scores is strongly encouraged since it makes for more interesting competition.
-Average recorded speed must be 95% or higher. Use frameskip if you must.
-If none of the three tournament coordinators can play back your recording, then your score will not be accepted. To help ensure that your recordings will work, please make sure that you delete/disable your nvram directory, and in the case of Neo-Geo games, delete/disable your memcard directory as well.
-HAVE FUN! That's what we play games for, to have fun, right? Don't get TOO caught up in the competition and start verbally abusing other players, either in your score comments or on the forums. Nobody likes a bad sport.
QUALIFYING ROUND
The qualifying period for the tournament will take place from August 20th at 00:00 GMT to August 29th at 23:59 GMT (10 days). Qualifying for the tournament will consist of passing a very low target score on the game selected as the qualifier. Players shouldn't have much difficulty at all to qualify. All players who beat the target score will "officially" be in the tournament, but players are still encouraged to go for as high a score as possible since the qualifying round will factor into seeding. (more on that below)
ELIMINATION ROUNDS
From here on all rounds will be a duration of one week (7 days), with a 24-hour period separating each round.
After the qualifying round is over, the tournament coordinators will take two days to decide how many elimination rounds will be used. Expect to see anywhere from 1 to 3 elimination rounds, depending on how many players qualify. The first elimination round will begin on September 1st.
Elimination rounds will consist of the rules regularly in place for knockout tournaments - be one of the top players on that round and you will go on to the next round. Lowest ranking players will be eliminated.
Performance in the elimination rounds will factor into seeding too, so don't hold anything back.
If 16 or less players qualify for the tournament, the elimination rounds will not be used at all and play will start immediately with the 16-player bracket. High seeds will be given a "bye" and get a free ride into the second round. (hopefully this scenario will not occur!)
THE 16-PLAYER BRACKET
Here is where things get interesting. Although absent in the last knockout tournament, we will be bringing back the head-to-head format when the field has been narrowed down to 16 players (in past tournaments the head-to-head matches started when there were 8). But this time there is another slight change - the bracket will be DOUBLE ELIMINATION. This means that from this point on, no player is eliminated until they lose a total of two head-to-head matches.
Here is a sample representation of what a 16-player double elimination bracket looks like.
As with any double-elimination bracket, all players start in the Winner's Bracket in the first round. Each round will be head-to-head against another player, and it's here that beating the other player's score is all that matters. The winner moves on, the loser goes to the Loser's Bracket. In each round after that, there will be matches taking place in both the Winner's and Loser's brackets at once. If a player loses a match when they're in the Loser's Bracket, they are eliminated from the tournament.
After 5 rounds of play, all but three players will be eliminated - one in the Winner's Bracket, two in the Loser's Bracket. So for the 6th round, the game for that week will be used ONLY for the Loser's Bracket final, the Winner's Bracket champion gets a week off. The match between the last two remaining players in the Loser's Bracket will determine who goes to the grand finals against the Winner's Bracket champion.
THE FINALS
Another twist! Instead of the usual one game/one week approach, the finals will consist of TWO games at once for a 10-day duration. If the two players split and they each win one game, or the Winner's Bracket champion wins both games, then the player in the Winner's Bracket will be crowned the champion of the tournament. The player in the Loser's Bracket must win BOTH games in the final round if he wants to pull off an upset and become the champion.
(Why the two game approach for the finals? It's an attempt to make the finals more exciting, and it's the fastest and fairest solution. Remember, the player in the Winner's Bracket will not have lost a game leading up to the finals... wouldn't be very fair if he lost the tournament after losing one game, right?)
SEEDING
As mentioned before, the seeds for the 16-player bracket will be determined by where the players rank in the qualifying and elimination rounds. It's in the player's interest to try for as low a seed as possible, since that will theoretically give you a better draw in the brackets and match you up against "weaker" players. Upsets can (and probably will) happen though, anything's possible!
To determine seeding, points will be given to each player based on their placement in each round:
1st Place - 0 points
2nd Place - 1 point
3rd Place - 2 points
4th Place - 3 points
...etc. The player with the lowest amount of points will be given the #1 seed, then the next-lowest will be #2, etc. If any ties exist, then the player with the higher score on the qualifying round will be given the lower seed.
If you have any questions or concerns about the tournament, feel free to post them.
Brought to you by BBH, MJSTY, and NotMan