2010 AoW1 Wizard Ladder Competition

This will be an ongoing 1v1 (and sometimes FFA or SP) competition that will start now and a champion will be announced at the end of the year. I'd like to try this since we've struggled with players leaving in the other tourneys (1v1 stalled in the semi's and the 2v2 stalled in round 2).

There will be an estimated 6 stages to the competition with a new map being used approx every 6-8 weeks. So think of it as a 6 round tourney.

Obviously, players who participate in every stage have greater chances of being the champion but players can always bow out and miss a stage and then come back. Participation in each stage is up to you. New players can also join during the year. In order to be eligible to be champion you must have played in at least one game from stages 1-5, and then play and win your stage 6 match. This final stage will put the #1 and #2 ranked players against each other (even if they’ve already faced off during the year). The winner gets crowned 2010 AoW1 Champion. Several consolation games will be played during stage 6 too.

Scoring – an extremely convoluted scoring system will be used (similar to what was done for the AoWSM 1v1 tourney and AoW1 2v2 tourney). You will get points for winning, you get points for playing stronger players (who have also won games). I’ll give you breakdown of the scoring once I figure out the nuances. I’m creating mock games and scores for 20 players right now to see how it looks in the end (it's tricky especially with a plan for FFA and SP games sometime during the year). Base it off the 2v2 tourney scoring as a good place to start.

Bonus Games – each stage (except maybe stage 6) you might be given the chance to play in multiple games, right now I’m thinking 2 games/stage max. So yes, the more games you play the more opportunities you have to gain points (remember, losing games doesn't help you much in the standings.

Extra competitions – I envision having a mapmaking comp to have winning maps used in the stage 5 and/or stage 6 games.

Opponent – each stage there will be an updated ranking based on the games that have been finished (assuming the previous stage has ended and if it hasn’t, well, I’ll rank you the best I can). Where possible, I will try and have you play against someone different each stage. Stronger players will play against stronger players and weaker players against weaker players.

SignUp – these will be considered Wizard Ladder type games so you must register. You will have to sign up or register for each stage telling me you want to play and how many games you want to play (1 or 2), and give me your email address. I will organize the rest. (note: don’t sign up on this thread, a separate thread will be created for sign-ups which will start approx 2 weeks before we anticipate starting the round

Maps – I will check the maps for balance and playability. The first map we will use is a classic, Riverland Wars (races tbd) and for the second stage we will play a 4 person FFA (allied victory ON) using the Draco/Enginerd modified Toadstool Vale map (the one we wanted to use for the 2v2 tourney). Maps for other stages will be determined later (and I’ll probably solicit help from the community for maps and helpers to test out the balance).

Rules These games will be considered Wizard Ladder games. All rules from the Wizard Ladder apply (all house rules etc). Any additional rules will be spelled out in the stage signups. You are required and assumed to have read and understand them. Breaking of the rules and cheating may result in consequences ranging from your removal from the tournament to an immediate ban from the forums, depending on the severity rule-breaking. PBEM Etiquette and House Rules

Fast Play – you will be required to play quickly. For the AoWSM tourney we gave a time limit of 48 hours for your turn unless you posted in the absentee logs. There were several disqualifications. We’ll use the same rules as the SM tourney for timing

Rule 3 - Availability and reliability
You are required, and a have a responsibility, to keep your tournament games at a good pace. You HAVE TO log each turn (posting only 'ts' will do*). By not logging, you are subjecting yourself to tournament warnings, which may disqualify you.

Unless notified in thread, turns should be sent out once every 48 hours (at minimum!) from the last time your opponent logged. Please be reminded that its your own responsibility to keep track of the turns.

If player does not comply: For the first time, the player may receive a tournament reminder if he/she is late and hasn't given notice. This reminder will be accompanied by an email. If player does not respond within 24 hours to this email, he/she will receive a tournament warning.
Reminders will only be sent out once in a tournament round. After this, subsequent lateness will result in a tournament warning.
Not responding (in thread or by email) after a tournament warning within 48 hours may result in this player being forced to forfeit the game. Three warnings will automatically mean a disqualification.

With notice, a 7 day period of absence is allowed. However, without notice, your game will be forfeit through the above-mentioned cycle of reminders and warnings.

If a game holds up the tournament for too long (as decided by the judges), a game may be decided by studying the latest save-game and declaring a winner. This may be the case if 80% of the other tournament games are finished.

APPEAL: The communication rules are applied automatically. If you believe you had valid enough personal circumstances which did not allow you to communicate (e.g., post one message saying you will be late), you can appeal. The judges will take your reasons into account and see if the decision can be reversed.

Remember to post and communicate and there won't be a problem. Some games may be sent to a panel of judges to determine a winner if they are taking too long. We may only have to do this on the stage 5 games so we’ve got all the scores tallied going into the final stage.

Tentative Schedule:
Jan tbd – Stage 1 starts (1v1 game)
Mar 5 – Stage 2 starts (FFA game)
Apr 30 – Stage 3 starts (tbd)
June ?? – Stage 4 (single player summer sizzler???)
Aug ?? – Stage 5
Oct 29 – Stage 6 starts, ends by Dec 31, 2010.

Player Poll – The official rankings will be updated after each round of play, occasionally we may have a player poll where you, the players, get to rank the players. We’ll do this at least once early on in the year.

TNS – the Tournament News Station was a big hit with the SM forums here. We will try and do something like this as well, with guest interviews, updates, fun and commentary. Players will be asked to help provide material for the TNS. Also, as a result of the tourney a few videos reproductions were made (and are available on youtube, including my crushing defeat) highlighting some of the games. With interest I'd like to do that here as well.

FAQ – ask your questions in this thread and I’ll answer them the best I can and add them to this header. I'm sure there will be lots of questions.