Dear all,
A new edition of CyberVASL is now open for sign-up. If you are interested in joining this tournament, please send an email to CyberVASL {at} outlook {dot} com (please be sure that you include exactly "CyberVASL XVI" in the subject of the email), indicating your real name, and email. By doing so, you accept that I will use this information and pass it to others for the exclusive purposes of running the tournament.
All rules are below, but here is a summary:
COMPLETE RULES:
Sergio
PD: List of current participants (up to 15th September):
Marc Hanna
Tuomo Lukkari
John Garlic
Vic Rosso
Pablo Garcia
Tom Arnold
Blake Ball
Alex Koestler
Sergio Puente
Bruno Javanabal
Maurizio Grassi
Jason Wert
Mike Johnston
Martin Kristensen
John Lehman
Jeremy Busby
Robert Mac Ginley
Jon Halfin
A new edition of CyberVASL is now open for sign-up. If you are interested in joining this tournament, please send an email to CyberVASL {at} outlook {dot} com (please be sure that you include exactly "CyberVASL XVI" in the subject of the email), indicating your real name, and email. By doing so, you accept that I will use this information and pass it to others for the exclusive purposes of running the tournament.
All rules are below, but here is a summary:
- This time, there will be previous league round before single elimination matches (my intention is to keep this league format in Autumn tournaments, and the single elimination format in Spring ones). Groups of 2-4 people, playing one game against each other player in the group. Best of each group will advance into the playoffs, which will be single-elimination as usual. The player limit will be 32.
- The old AREA ratings are again active in the new project ASL Player Ratings (http://asl-ratings.org). I will use a combination of these ratings and our ELO rating computed inside our tournament to make the pairings.
- I will take sign-ups until 1st October. The tournament will start around 4th October with all players who signed up until 1st October.
- All sign-ups must be done by email. No late sign-ups will be admitted.
- I will give some "badges" to participating players, for achieving some targets. The purpose is only to add some spice to the tournament, with no other intention or implication.
- After some complaints about the "good luck" of particular players, I decided to develop a tool capable of detecting cheating behavior, based on the logs of the game. Since it is not fully automated, each player will have some limited access to it, to ensure it is used with moderation. In particular, you can ask for an analysis of your current game, but if the tool fails in detecting cheats, then you will not be able to request it neither in this tournament nor the next one you are participating. Of course, if a player is detected cheating, he will be immediately expulsed from current and future tournaments. I hope this threat is enough to discourage all cheaters from participation, so hopefully I will not need to run the tool ever!
COMPLETE RULES:
- The tournament starts with a league phase: Players are grouped into small groups of 2-4 people (depending on total number of players). Groups will contain a maximum mix of skills.
- In each group, each player should play a game against each other in the group. This means 1-3 games per player.
- In order to give players time to complete this extra load of games, this league phase will last for 6 months.
- Only first player in each group will advance into the playoffs. Only the number of wins count. Ties in the number of wins can ocurr; in that case, I will simply randomize among co-winners (I thought about other possibilities, but decided to keep it simple).
- After that, in each playoff round, people will be paired, and only the winner of each game will continue in the tournament.
- Default method of play is VASL PBEM, no optional rules and VASL dicebot. Other methods, rules or dice are allowed upon agreement of both players.
- All games of a round must be completed no later than three months (six months in the league phase) after the previous round finished. All games have to be running (i.e., both setups done, and turn 1 started) after one month from the start of the round (in the league phase, at least one game running in the first month, and either one finished or all running by the second month).
- Deadlines are NOT flexible. At the end of a round a winner must be declared. Failure to this will imply a double loss to both players. Please only sign up if you can send at least one log per day most of the time, as speed is very important when playing PBEM.
- All pairings will be predetermined at the start of the tournament, and you will be allowed (and encouraged) to start your next round game as soon as you know who is your opponent. This will give you more time to complete the new game, as the three months period only starts once all games for the previous round are finished. I will try to regularly remind people about new games that can be started.
- Depending on previous forfeits, it is possible that some players are not paired in a given round. In that case, those players will automatically advance to the next round.
- Pairings will be based on a combination of ELO ratings computed at the start of the tournament, based on previous CyberVASL games played, and the ASL Player Ratings (http://asl-ratings.org). League groups will be designed in a way that best players will tend to play between them only in latest rounds, i.e. groups will contain the maximum mix of skills.
- If you feel that you are not going to have time to complete your game in time, please resign as soon as possible, to allow your opponent to start his new round game ASAP.
- If your game is not finished, (or the game has not started after the first month) then the player more responsible of the delay should politely declare his opponent as the winner, no matter how the game was going.
- All results (win/lose/forfeit) can be notified by either player, either by posting here or sending an email to CyberVASL {at} outlook {dot} com. In the latter case, please be sure that you include exactly "CyberVASL XVI" in the subject of the email. Please communicate in a similar way scenario and sides chosen, as well as the moment when you effectively started to play turn 1.
- All games (except those not started after the first month) will be reported to ASL Player Ratings (http://asl-ratings.org).
- In case a rules dispute appears, please consult the rulebook and the rules forum in GameSquad. Only when this doesn't clarify the answer, you can ask me for a decision. Both players should explain their point of view, with specific references to rules. In this respect, I maybe request advice from experienced players, who will also be responsible of deciding when the dispute affects one game in which I am playing.
- Cheats: There is a tool capable of detecting several types of cheats in a given game, based on VASL logs. Any player can request its use for his current game, but if the tool fails to find cheating behavior, then the requesting player cannot use it neither for the rest of the tournament nor for the next one in which he participates. Detected cheating players will be immediately expulsed from all current and future CyberVASL tournaments.
- The sign-up period will last until 1st October at most.
- Tournament will start around 4th October (earlier if the 32 seats are filled fast).
- All sign ups must be done by email.
- ANY scenario can be chosen. Please take into account time availability of you and your opponent, to ensure that the scenario is small enough to be played by the deadline.
- One of the purposes of the tournament is to encourage people to play against new opponents, in order to learn from them both in terms of rules and strategy.
- Therefore, to encourage less experienced people to join, it is suggested that (when the players have different experience levels) the less experienced player selects 3-4 scenarios, and pass them to his opponent, who in turn selects one of them and randomize sides. In this way, less experienced players can adjust the scenario selection to their rules knowledge.
- If both players have a similar experience level, then they can agree on any way they want.
- To facilitate this procedure, all players will have an associated experience level (based on CyberVASL ELO and ASL Player Rankings), that will be communicated when the pairings are done.
- Please have a list of your 3-4 preferred scenarios prepared in advance, to avoid unnecessary delays.
Sergio
PD: List of current participants (up to 15th September):
Marc Hanna
Tuomo Lukkari
John Garlic
Vic Rosso
Pablo Garcia
Tom Arnold
Blake Ball
Alex Koestler
Sergio Puente
Bruno Javanabal
Maurizio Grassi
Jason Wert
Mike Johnston
Martin Kristensen
John Lehman
Jeremy Busby
Robert Mac Ginley
Jon Halfin
