2025 Spring Invitational Group Stage

hybrid_

Spring Invitational Group Stage

Congratulations on qualifying or being invited to the preliminary stage of the Spring Invitational. So far has been exciting! This will be the beginning of the official 2025 Spring Invitational.

Tournament Information

Date: 31st of May 13UTC
Tournament Directors: hybrid, Strydxr
Challonge: https://challonge.com/4vckcfra
Chat: #SpringGS
Live coverage:
Official: https://www.twitch.tv/faflive
Community:

Format

There will be 2 groups consisting of 6 players, each made up of 3 players from the open qualifier and 3 invited players. The groups will be seeded based on placement in the open qualifier and number of the invitation. Every player will play five BO3’s. The top 4 players of each group will qualify, meaning that bottom 2 will be eliminated. In case of a tie we will be using the Median-Buchholz system to determine placement.

Veto

There will be a pool of 11 maps. The maps will be selected using a pick and ban(veto) system. Each player will have 4 bans and 1 map pick, with the final map being decided by being the last map left. The lower seed will begin by banning 2 maps, followed by the higher seed banning 2 more maps. The lower seed will then pick first and the higher seed will pick second. After the map picks, to finish off the veto, it will be alternating bans, beginning with the lower seed until 1 map is left.

The veto will look like this:

ALL players must report their veto’s to the Tournament Director. You must not start the game until you have confirmation from the Tournament Director that the veto is valid.

Mappool:

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.
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

The groups:

I would like to emphasize that all players must report their veto’s to the Tournament Director. You must not start the game until you have confirmation from the Tournament Director that the veto is valid. I also like to mention that all players must report their game scores to the Tournament Director as there was a lack of doing so in the qualifier.

Skrat

I think it's better to capture in a screenshot the seeding order that is now on Challonge. After the first games, everything will be mixed up

hybrid_

The mappool is as follows:

hybrid_

And finally, the groups! (The challonge version for those of you who wanted it)

hybrid_

Just a heads up to all the players, I will not be there for the first hour of the tournament, so Strydxr will be TD'ing the initial hour of the tournament. After 14UTC I will be there to TD the rest of the tournament. Thank you all for your patience.

hybrid_

And finally, the final stage will be held on 7th of June, 13:00 UTC

Lunyshko

Can we hold finals at Sunday? I cannot do it this Saturday

hybrid_

I will ask the players whether saturday or sunday is best

Lunyshko

Thanks

hybrid_

And so the group stage concludes, here's what the final standings looked like:

Commiserations to those who couldn't make it to the end, and congratulations to those who made it to the final. The final 8 are:

waffelznoob
Neytron
ZLO
Lunyshko
Shen
Blinchik (Who replaces Vena due to being forced to drop out)
Rhaelya
Blast_Chilled

The mappool will be released on Friday, with the finals forum post being uploaded tomorrow. You can find the bracket here.

Some exciting matches are set to be played this weekend, where you can watch live on the 7th of June 13UTC at https://www.twitch.tv/faflive