LotS 2020
Challonge: https://challonge.com/kxba6dnz
Welcome to perhaps the most anticipated FAF event of the year! This year's LotS will mostly work similar to the way last year's operated. However, there will be a few minor changes to the way that map selection/faction selection operate and there will also be more of a coordinated media coverage attempt of the event both in streams as well as in casts.
Event LiveCasting:
The Event will be getting covered through a new FAF streaming channel called FAFLive.
Link: https://www.twitch.tv/faflive
One of the biggest problems we've had for LotS is that everyone that could cast the event is, well, a participant in the event. On the otherhand, those that aren't playing such as Gyle often do not have the ability to actually stream any of the games due to real life concerns. Therefore, me and Morax will be working together in order to cover the events. We wanted to create a channel that can cover the event and hopefully include things like player interviews to give the event more color than it has in the past. We want to move beyond simply identifying players in the game as "red vs blue" or "cybran 1 vs cybran 2."
Casts:
I'm going to be working with both English and Russian casters in order to ideally give more interconnection between the variety of channels covering FAF. I got this idea after looking at the Russian side of FAF and seeing how they'd often shout out one another and quickly build up interest across casters, creating a more active casting community in general. The caster gets more views and incentive, and the audience gets more games to watch.
So essentially I'm collecting a list of people interested in covering the event and I'll be curating lists of games for them to cover. I hope to give everyone a unique, good game so that people have an incentive to watch some of the smaller casting channels.
Currently we have:
- Gyle
- JaggedAppliance
- Willows Duality
- Endranii
- Kenosis
If you're interested in covering the event, PM me about your channel and I'll add you to the list.
Current Prize Pool:
$2200
Interested in Donating?
Contact me on the Forums/Discord/FAF Client.
Tournament Structure:
Basically, the basis of the tournament structure hasn’t changed. It will, as always, feature the best 16 FAF players with those 16 players being decided through various qualifiers. There will be 4 qualifiers to decide the players and the winners of each qualifier will get the LotS Champion avatar for the coming year as well as a potential cash prize (currently in discussion).
The person responsible for directing this tournament will be me. I will be hosting and dealing with issues that pop up during the tournaments and handle the transaction issues and more meta concerns about the tournament. Please do not use this thread to sign up for the various segments of the tournament, those segments will have their own threads for that. This thread will be for pointing out specific concerns as well as for information related to the Official Tournament.
Qualifiers:
Each qualifier will have a signup system based on their ladder rating in which a maximum of 16 players can play per qualifier. If more people sign up, they can act as a substitute for players that failed to show up on time but they will not be guaranteed a slot in the bracket itself. The players will be seeded by their ladder rating within the bracket itself. The bracket will also be a Single Elimination Bracket in which every matchup plays a BO3 to determine who will be knocked out and who will progress to the next stage.
Each qualifier will also consist of a map pool of 15 maps. It will be 4 5x5 km maps, 6 10x10 km maps, and 5 20x20 km maps. In order to select the maps played for each BO3, the two participants in each bracket stage will discuss amongst themselves which maps they would like to veto. Each player will be given the right to 3 vetoes and the bottom player in the bracket will be given the first veto. Each player will also submit vetoes sequentially. Once the list is down to 9 maps, the players will be given the right to pick which of the nine they wish to play. The bottom seed will be given the right to pick the first map and the top seed will pick the second. The players will then report the list of maps alongside the two they pick to the Tournament Director. The Tournament Director will pick the third map from the list of potential maps in the case of a tie. Do note if a segment of the tournament is lagging behind the rest of the tournament, the Tournament Director reserves the right to require the players to play different maps from their chosen maps in order to speed their section up.
Both players will also message the Tournament Director the 2 factions they pick to potentially play in their first game alongside the faction they wish to veto in that first game once they have decided on the first map. They will repeat this as their games go on in their BO3. A veto only applies to their opponent, so it is perfectly viable to pick a faction and veto it. If players deviate from their given factions, then they will forfeit the round on that map. A faction selection is final once given to the Tournament Director and cannot be edited later on. If a map was picked by a player in a preceding round and then picked again in another round, they are able to pick a different faction if they so wish.
So for instance, player A and player B went through their vetos and picks. They report the 9 maps available as well as the two they pick to play. Then player A reports that he will be banning aeon on the first map while picking to play 1. aeon 2. cybran. Player B bans aeon and picks 1. cybran 2. uef. The match is then cybran v cybran on the first map.
The qualifier threads and their map pools will be disclosed two weeks before the intended date of play in order to give proper planning time as well as to encourage prep between players.The actual announcement for the tournament that discloses the dates of the tournament and how it will operate will be released in late September.
Each qualifier will end with the players first to fourth qualifying for the official tournament. The position in the qualifier and the qualifier that a person qualified in will be utilized to seed players in the group stage of the official tournament. There will also be a substitute tournament in the case of absences.
December 12th (Part 1) of the Official Tournament:
Similar to the qualifiers, Part I of the Tournament will have the rounds done in a BO3 format. It will follow the same rules of the qualifiers specified above. However, each group stage will be done through Round Robin format. Only the top 2 in each group will move on to the next day of the tournament. The map pools for each group will be announced at the conclusion of the fourth qualifier. They will still consist of 15 maps, but the maps themselves may differ between each group. The games in the group stage will also be seeded by placement as shown in the chart above. Once the group stage begins, the veto and pick process will work as it did in the qualifiers.
December 19th (Part 2) of the Official Tournament:
With the group stage completed, the tournament will now be down to 8 players that will progress into the final bracket of the tournament. These players will be playing a Single Elimination Bracket with some minor changes to the way the qualifiers operated. The map pool will once again consist of 15 maps given out at the end of the group stage section. This day of the tournament will have 2 BO5s in which once again players will have 3 vetoes bringing them down to 9 maps to pick from for the BO5. They will follow the faction submission rule of Part I of the Official Tournament and then proceed to pick two maps each. They will pick in the order of Bottom Seed -> Top Seed -> Bottom Seed -> Top Seed and play in that order. If a tie happens, the players will veto down to the last map and play that map.
December 20th (Part 3) of the Official Tournament:
The final day of the Official Tournament will have 4 players left. These 4 players will be playing a single BO7 each to decide placements. The two competing for first will be the victors of Part II. Both of these rounds will consist of the same 15 map pool and each player will be given 3 vetoes at the start. Each player will pick a map from the 9 maps left with the Bottom Seed picking first and also vetoing first. If the games come down to a 3-3, then the players will use a final veto with the Bottom Seed veto'ing first to bring the 3 maps left down to 1. They will then play that last map.
Map Selection:
Will try to consist of a fusion of both good, classic maps as well as more experimental maps that are not commonly played. Each pool should have a combination of gameplay while also consisting of maps both well known as well as unknown. It is up to the players to decide which maps they hate and which maps they want to play through the veto/pick system. The map pool selection is merely there to provide the optimal variety.
Tournament Dates and Times:
LegendOfTheStars Qualifier Tournament #1 - 10.10.2020 at 14:00 GMT
Thread: https://forum.faforever.com/topic/310/legendofthestars-2020-qualifier-tournament-1
LegendOfTheStars Qualifier Tournament #2 - 24.10.2020 at 14:00 GMT
Thread: https://forum.faforever.com/topic/376/legendofthestars-2020-qualifier-tournament-2
LegendOfTheStars Qualifier Tournament #3 - 7.11.2020 at 14:00 UTC
Thread: https://forum.faforever.com/topic/460/legendofthestars-2020-qualifier-tournament-3
LegendOfTheStars Qualifier Tournament #4 - 21.11.2020 at 15:00 UTC
Thread: https://forum.faforever.com/topic/549/legendofthestars-2020-qualifier-tournament-4
Substitution Qualifiers - 28.11.2020 at 15:00 UTC
Thread: https://forum.faforever.com/topic/610/legendofthestars-2020-substitution-qualifier
Official Tournament: 12.12.2020 & 19-20.12.2020 at 15:00 UTC
Qualifier Tournament Prizes:
- 1st place: Winner of LotS Qualifier Champion Avatar
- 2nd place: Faction Face Avatar
- 3rd place: Faction Face Avatar
- 4th place: Faction Logo Avatar
Official Tournament Prizes:
- First Prize: $700 + A unique avatar (coming soon)
- Second Prize: $450
- Third Prize: $300
- Fourth Prize: $150
- Fifth-Eighth Prize: $75
- Ninth-Sixteenth Prize: $35
The Players:
- Tagada
- Turinturambar
- Espeperant
- Swkoll
- Nexus
- JaggedAppliance
- Bullydozer
- Petricpwnz
- ZLO
- Blackheart
- Blin
- archsimkat
- TURBO2
- Paralon
- Blast_Chilled
- Blodir
Sub-list:
- keyser
- Yudi
- Seven
- Morax
This tournament will also follow standard FAF tournament rules. Any comments or concerns about the procedures or structure of the tournament? Please post them here.