Online World Championships 2014

[Gondorian]

UPDATE: It's all over now and a champion has been crowned.
CLICK HERE FOR FINAL RESULTS AND DECKS.



Hi there!

If you are interested at all in Shadow Era World Championships 2014, then please subscribe to this thread. It will be locked to enable all pertinent info to always appear at the top. If you have any questions, please send them to me (Gondorian), so we can answer by way of an FAQ that we will put in a separate post in this thread.

Thanks!


OVERVIEW OF HOW YOU CAN BECOME ONLINE WORLD CHAMPION

Let's get started with an overview of how the Online World Champions will work this year.


THREE REGIONAL QUALIFIERS
- "DAY ONE": decklock best-of-three swiss format with cut to top 8 (max 128 players)
- "DAY TWO": 8-player decklock best-of-five single-elimination to determine regional champion (deck can be different to swiss stage)
- top 4 from each "DAY TWO" win an invite to Grand Finals
- each person can only be in ONE regional

ONE WILDCARD QUALIFIER
- "DAY ONE": decklock best-of-three swiss format with cut to top 8 (max 128 players)
- "DAY TWO": 8-player decklock best-of-five single-elimination to determine regional champion (deck can be different to swiss stage)
- top 4 from each "DAY TWO" win an invite to Grand Finals
- this is open to everyone, whether they competed in a regional or not, providing they have not already qualified.

GRAND FINALS
- 16-player single-elimination, with qualifiers from preceding events
- in case of no-show, reserves will be taken from top 8 from relevant swiss events based on final position (highest rank that did not make it to Round 2 in Day 2).
- decklock throughout
- all rounds are best-of-five


We picked this format based on feedback from previous years and from how other games run their World Championships. Swiss on Day One with cut to top 8 on Day Two is very standard, as is being able to change your deck between the swiss and the single-elimination part. (We split the days across weekends because we are having to gear each towards different timezones and there would otherwise be some logistical nightmares with overlaps.)

We have chosen not to use sideboards at all this year because the formats chosen give everyone a number of opportunities to qualify despite some losses on their road to the Grand Finals. We feel this gives the appropriate emphasis on careful deck-building and making the right meta calls, which is something a World Champion should be good at, aside from being an excellent player!



KEY DATES

15th/16th November
- "DAY ONE" of Three Regionals - Swiss to determine Top 8.
- Event times will be geared towards players of that region as best as possible:

Asia/Australasia: Saturday 15th November 5am GMT - 1pm GMT
Americas: Saturday 15th November 6pm GMT - 2am GMT (Sunday)
Europe/Africa: Sunday 16th November 12pm (noon/midday) GMT - 8pm GMT

22nd/23rd November
- "DAY TWO" of Three Regionals - Single-Elimination Events for Top 8 from "DAY ONE" to determine regional champion and 4 invites to Grand Finals
- Event times will be geared towards players of that region as best as possible.

Asia/Australasia: Saturday 22nd November 5am GMT - 10am GMT
Americas: Saturday 22nd November 6pm GMT - 11pm GMT (Sunday)
Europe/Africa: Sunday 23rd November 12pm (noon/midday) GMT - 5pm GMT

29th/30th November
- Wildcard "Regional", working the same as the others but on a single weekend
- DAY ONE: Saturday GMT will be the Swiss Event, starting at 4pm GMT
- DAY TWO: Sunday GMT will be the top 8, starting at 4pm GMT
These times were chosen as a compromise between all timezones that will be represented.

6th/7th December
- Grand Finals, starting at 8pm GMT on Saturday 6th December.
This time was chosen as a compromise between all timezones that will be represented.


Prize Structure

Below are the confirmed prizes so far. More may be added at any level.

Grand Finals Prizes:

Winner: Crowned World Champion and receives new iPad Air 2 engraved with "Shadow Era World Champion 2014" direct from Apple store in their country, paid for by Wulven Game Studios.
Runner-up: $300, paid via PayPal
3rd Place: $200, paid via PayPal
4th Place: $100, paid via PayPal
All Grand Finalists: 20 digital cards of their choice (including Exclusives, since these are tournament prizes)

Qualifier Prizes:

Winner of each Regional: Crowned Champion of their Region and awarded 100 digital cards of their choice (including Exclusives, since these are tournament prizes).

Winner of the Wildcard: Crowned Wildcard Champion and awarded 150 digital cards of their choice (including Exclusives, since these are tournament prizes).

[Gondorian]

FAQ

Q: What is "decklock"
A: It means you cannot make ANY changes to your deck throughout the event.

Q: Will I need to submit my deck for each event?
A: Yes.

Q: How do I sign up for an event?
A: Each event will has its own sign-up thread:

- Asia/Australasia.
- Americas.
- Europe/Africa.

Q: What is "swiss"?
A: Please see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss-system_tournament

Q: What is each round worth in swiss?
A: The games comprising a round are called a match. A match win is worth 3 match points, a match loss is worth 0 match points and a match draw is worth 1 match points. If one player wins two games then the match ends there -otherwise there will be a third game if time permits.

Q: How much is a single game worth in each swiss round?
A: Players receive a score for each round in the following way: Each Win is worth 3 game points, each Loss is worth 0 game points, each Draw is worth 1 point. These are reported as W-L-D (e.g. 2-0-0). The winner of the match is the one with the most game points for that match.

Q: Are intentional draws allowed in swiss events?
A: Yes, so long as neither player has bribed (or otherwise provided an incentive to) the other player. It is perfectly OK for both players to choose to take a match draw if they have achieved a position whereby doing that is advantageous to them. Those are reported as 0-0-3 for both players. It is also OK to choose to take a game draw, if both players wish.

Q: What happens if someone drops from the event?
A: They are no longer involved in pairings for future rounds. If there is an odd number of players in any round then a player on the least match points will be awarded a Bye worth a 2-0 win (6 game points and 3 match points).

Q: Is there a time limit for each round of swiss?
A: Yes. It's 45 mins. Once we hit that time for the round, no new game can start, but any games in progress have 10 additional minutes to finish.

Q: What happens if you don't finish a game that's in progress?
A: That counts as a draw for that game.

Q: At what point can you choose to take a match draw?
A: Before the start of the round. You may also choose to draw individual games, once the round has begun.

Q: What if you run out of time in a round without playing three games?
A: The winner of the match is determined by game points. An incomplete game is counted as a draw, worth 1 game point for each player.

[Gondorian]

REGIONALS INFO

Please be sure to read the whole of the Regionals Info Thread if you are planning to compete this weekend.

Running these three events in one weekend is going to be a huge challenge for me. Please don't make it any harder for me (or yourself) by not knowing the rules. Thanks!

[Gondorian]

Prizes have been updated and FAQ updated, including details of time limits and how intentional draws are handled.

[Gondorian]

Confirmation of times for the Swiss Regionals:

Asia/Australasia: Saturday 15th November 5am GMT - 1pm GMT

Americas: Saturday 15th November 6pm GMT - 2am GMT (Sunday)

Europe/Africa: Sunday 16th November 12pm (noon/midday) GMT - 8pm GMT

We've done our very best to have suitable start times for people in those regions. That said, while you can only play in one regional, you can choose whichever one you want to compete in, regardless of your geographic location. (The spread of the events is designed to offer as much opportunity as possible for people to compete, despite prior engagements.)

The end times are not strict (i.e. they might overrun), but the start times can be considered confirmed.

[Gondorian]

FYI: Sign-ups for the regionals will go up on Monday 10th November. If we reach 128 for any of them, then there will be a reserve list. Deck lists must be submitted prior to round 1 of the first regional (precise time and method of submission to be announced in due course).

[Gondorian]

Reminder that sign-up threads will open tomorrow. If we get more than 128 people interested in any then priority will be given to order of sign-up.

Asia/Australasia: 5am GMT
Europe/Africa: 6pm GMT
Americas: 6pm GMT

I've tried to make these as fair as possible for people in those timezones at the expense of my own sleep pattern.

[Gondorian]

UPDATE: Sign-ups are now open for all regionals:

- Asia/Australasia.
- Americas.
- Europe/Africa.

[Gondorian]

Please be sure to read the whole of the Regionals Info Thread if you are planning to compete this weekend.

Running these three events in one weekend is going to be a huge challenge for me. Please don't make it any harder for me (or yourself) by not knowing the rules. Thanks!

[Gondorian]

An IRC tip for people:

Your connection will time out if you don't type anything for a while (e.g. more than 10 mins). So type something somewhere to someone now and again. e.g. in the shadowera channel.

A dot will do.

We have had people dropping IRC connection in Asia regional and not realising.

Thanks!