2026 Spring Invitational (1v1) ($800)

hybrid_

General Information

Dates:
Open Qualifier: 4th of April, 14UTC
Swiss Stage: 11th of April, 14UTC
Finals: 18th/19th of April, 14UTC (3rd place decider to be played first followed by GF)

Bracket: https://challonge.com/ma45qxpm
Chat: #SI26
Live coverage:
Official: https://www.twitch.tv/faflive
Tournament Organiser: hybrid
Tournament Director: hybrid
Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XxgiDy4G9cnYpxFJkamWJ4bPhkVBfHMben0ICPIBYlw/edit?usp=sharing

Due to chat bugs and network issues, all official communication on the days of the tournament will be via discord in the appropriate text channel in the #tournaments section. If you cannot communicate through discord then the FAF Client will be used as next best option.

Invites

The invites will be based on the players with the highest amount of LotS points. If a player declines, an invite will be sent to a player next in line. There are 12 total invites. To find out how the LotS points work, you can find the information here: https://forum.faforever.com/topic/9339/lots-points-2025-onwards

Format

Open Qualifier

The open qualifier will be a double elimination bracket. The upper bracket will be BO3. However, depending on the amount of signups, the number of BO1s vs BO3s in the upper bracket may be adjusted to ensure a timely tournament. The losers bracket will be BO1.
The seeding will be based on your ladder rating. So for example, the highest rated player will play the lowest rated player in the first round.

Once the top 4 is decided in the bracket, the qualifier tournament will not continue. The top 4 will qualify to the Swiss Stage of the Spring Invitational.

The players that are closest to qualifying (5th+) will be substitutes for the Spring Invitational Swiss Stage.

You can find the forum post here: https://forum.faforever.com/topic/9940/2026-spring-invitational-open-qualifier-1v1

Swiss Stage

The Swiss stage will have 16 players.
Players that reach 3 wins advance to Finals.
Players that reach 3 losses are eliminated.
All matches are BO1 in this stage
Rematches are not permitted
Players will be matched with equal score opponents.
2-1 will face 1-2 in the final matches.

The swiss bracket will be viewable on the spreadsheet. We will also add a score tally this time to make it easier to understand.

Finals

The finals stage will be a classic single elimination bracket with all matches being BO5 apart from the Grand Finals which will be BO7.

Mappool

Will be on the google spreadsheet.

Veto System

Will be on the google spreadsheet.

Rules

The official FAF Tournament Rules apply.
Some of the most important of these rules are:

Disconnects within 5 minutes may result in a rehost. The Tournament Director has the last say afterwards.
Players will replay the same map if they draw.
If the incorrect map is hosted, the correct map will be hosted and the incorrect map will not count towards the score
Players who do not appear without valid reasoning will be given a warning that may result in being temporarily suspended from tournaments.
If a player does not show up in Round 1, they may be replaced. For all subsequent rounds, it will be treated as a forfeit and they will be eliminated and not replaced.
All participants will be allowed a 15-minute wait at the start of a tournament to show up however after this 15 minute wait the Tournament Director has the right to disqualify you from the tournament. In the case where you will be late but do intend to arrive you need to message the Tournament Director preferably via Discord to inform them you will be late but will show up. When doing this please provide an approximate time delay until you arrive, it will then be the Tournament Directors decision whether than delay is too long or acceptable.
The Tournament Director's decision is final.
You can read the rest here: https://forum.faforever.com/assets/uploads/files/1685891393985-official-faf-tournament-rules.pdf
Please make sure all lobbies are passworded and inform your opponents the password and casters if applicable.

Prizes

1st: $450, Spring Invitational Champion avatar
2nd: $210, Faction Face avatar
3rd: $100, Faction Logo avatar
4th: $40

Prizes are funded from the FAF Tournament fund, as well as direct donations.
Donators:

The Working Man: $500 - community of adult gamers that make up tight schedules with great spirit.

If you would like to donate towards the tournament and receive a cool avatar, please contact me on discord (hyb/tbounce).

Reminder that all payments of official FAF fund prizes are subject to the official FAF tournament payout guidelines.
https://forum.faforever.com/topic/7161/faf-official-tournament-payout-guidelines

Invitees

waffelznoob
Lunyshko
Tagada
Blast_Chilled
BlinChik
Grimplex
ZLO
Unknow
Vindex
Neytron

Qualified Players

Swatoslav
Skrat
Turinturambar
Whiteheart
LilyAly
Mimikz

Nuggets

Where is the promised 2v2?!

hybrid_

@Nuggets We have an upcoming 2v2 being posted this week. The "big" 2v2 tournament I mentioned last year is not 100% yet but I'd like to have it happen around June/July!

hybrid_

I am happy to announce that we have received a $500 donation for this tournaments prize pool! The Tournament Team is currently working on the best way to split it, so stay tuned for the updated prize pool and an announcement shouting out the donator!

hybrid_

The prize pool has been increased to $800

Once again big thanks to The Working Man community for donating $500. Here's how we distributed the prize money, honouring the donator's request of putting a large chunk of it into first place:

1st Place: + $325
2nd Place: + $135
3rd Place: + $40

Here is the updated prize pool:

1st: $450, Spring Invitational Champion avatar
2nd: $210, Faction Face avatar
3rd: $100, Faction Logo avatar
4th: $40

QuantumTyphoon

This post is deleted!

hybrid_

Announcement regarding small changes to the format and dates.

We've had a lot of feedback regarding the intense date structure, which has also had an impact on signups. So to combat this, I've discussed it with the team and we now plan to make the Swiss Stage only BO1. This means the Swiss Stage will only take 1 day. So there will be a minimum of 3 BO1's and a maximum of 5 BO1's to be played, depending on how well you play.

The updated swiss rules look like this:

The Prelim Stage will be a 16 player Swiss format.
Players that reach 3 wins advance to Finals.
Players that reach 3 losses are eliminated.
All matches are BO1 in this stage
Rematches are not permitted
Players will be matched with equal score opponents.

The new dates look like this:

Open Qualifier: 4th of April, 14UTC
Swiss Stage: 11th of April, 14UTC
Finals: 18th/19th of April, 14UTC (3rd place decider to be played first followed by GF)

Skrat

When will mappool be published?

hybrid_

@Skrat In a couple of hours

hybrid_

Seeds, Mappool, Veto and the Swiss Stage

Seeding

Greetings Commanders!

After discussing with the Tournament Team, we have decided to let the top 8 players in the LotS points system pick their first opponent of the Swiss Stage. I will update the list below as I receive replies from the players.

Pickable opponents:

Vindex
Neytron
Swatoslav
Skrat
Turinturambar
Whiteheart
LilyAly (Picked by waffelznoob)
Mimikz

You can find the bracket and mappool on the google sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XxgiDy4G9cnYpxFJkamWJ4bPhkVBfHMben0ICPIBYlw/edit?usp=sharing

Mappool and Veto

The veto system for the Swiss Stage will be a lot more simple as it is only BO1 throughout the entire stage. The veto rules are as follows:

!roll in the 2026 Spring Invitational discord channel
Loser of the roll will ban first
Ban maps rotating between each player at a time until there is only 1 map left
The last map left will be the one that is played

Faction Veto

Once the map has been decided, both players will DM the TD with 2 factions they would like to pick, and the faction they would like to ban for their opponent (You can pick the faction that you ban).

Example message for faction veto:

Hybrid_:
Aeon 1st pick
UEF 2nd pick
Ban Aeon

Once both players have informed the TD, the TD will ping them in discord channel of which faction they will be playing.

Mappool:

Swiss Stage

This stage is almost identical to LotS, the main changes are that the first round is seeded, and that the 2-2 bracket the matchups will be versus the players coming from the opposite scoreline.

The updated rules are:

The Swiss stage will have 16 players.
Players that reach 3 wins advance to Finals.
Players that reach 3 losses are eliminated.
All matches are BO1 in this stage.
Rematches are not permitted.
Players will be matched with equal score opponents.
2-1 will face 1-2 in the final matches.

That is all, goodluck commanders!

hybrid_

I am happy to announce that all of the first round matchups have now been decided!

The matchups are as follows:

Just a reminder as well that if you are going to play Point of Reach, the slots are 3 and 4.

See you all Saturday!

hybrid_

Finals draw, mappool and other information

Matchups

The finals draw has been concluded and we have some great matchups to be seen this weekend!

You can find the bracket here: https://challonge.com/ma45qxpm

Draw stream: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2747306349

Mappool

X1mp 001 = Crag Dunes
The dark heart doesn't display properly but the full map name is: The Dark Heart, FAF Version

Other important notices

We are having issues with the google spreadsheet at the moment, so everything(mappool and finals bracket) probably won't be uploaded until tomorrow, so please bear with us. As for the map veto rules, this will also be uploaded alongside everything else.

If you guys need anything or have any questions, as always just @ me in discord

GLHF

hybrid_

Spreadsheet has been fixed and updated

2026 Spring Invitational Spreadsheet

hybrid_

The tournament has concluded.

Congratulations to @waffelznoob for retaining the title of the Spring Invitational Champion

Commiserations to those who ended up losing, I hope you all had a good experience regardless!

I would like to personally thank @staledevil and @knownsniper for covering the entirety of the tournament, you guys did an amazing job, and made the cast very entertaining and insightful. And as usual a shoutout to the Tournament Team for giving feedback, helping out with organising, and also @rhaelya and @grimplex for TD'ing. Aaaaand another shoutout to @fichom who has been singlehandedly creating graphics and charging the newsposts. Thank you all!

The top 8 are as follows:
1st Place: waffelznoob
2nd Place: Grimplex
3rd Place: Blast_Chilled
4th Place: Turinturambar
5th-8th Place: Jhukzoo, Vindex, BlinChIk and Tagada

I will post the replay ID's this week, and hopefully the casts will be uploaded shortly after.