This coming weekend, we will have three regional qualifiers for WC2016 Grand Finals, where players can earn invites to join 17 others who have qualified in previous events throughout the year. Unlike those other events, these provide a unique opportunity to qualify in a single day.
Asia/Oceania Regional Qualifier
Saturday 26th November
Starts 5am GMT+0
Americas Regional Qualifier
Saturday 26th November
Starts 6pm GMT+0
Europe/Africa Regional Qualifier
Sunday 27th November
Starts 12pm GMT+0 (midday UK time)
REGIONALS FORMAT
- Each will take place as a Swiss-style tournament, where each players plays in all rounds and the final placings are determined by points scored (3 points for a match win, 1 point for match tie).
- The top ranking players at the end of each regional will earn a spot in the WC2016 Grand Finals.
- The specific number of players that can qualify from each regional will be proportional to number of entrants and will be announced at the start of round 1 based on sign-ups across all three regionals. (This will either be 3, 4 or 5 players.)
- If there are players tied on points for a spot and not enough WC invites available for them, there will be a play-off between the tied players to take place before the following weekend unless those players already met in the Swiss (in which case, their result will be used).
- For the avoidance of any doubt, there will be no "Cut to Top 8" for single-elimination.
- All rounds will be played using a best-of-three format.
- There will be no time limit in round 1. If any matches are determined to go "too long" (in the opinion of the Tournament Organiser), we will use a time limit in future rounds to keep things practical.
- You must use one unchanged deck throughout the whole regional ("Decklock"). Deck checks will be done based on server logs to ensure this has been adhered to.
TAKING PART
- You can only take part in ONE regional qualifier. (People already qualified for WC2016 may not take part.)
- Maximum of 128 players per regional. Sign up ahead of time to avoid disappointment!
- You can sign-up here: http://www.shadowera.com/wc2016.php
- Sign-ups close Friday 25th November at 10pm GMT+0.
- It costs 500 Shadow Crystals to take part in one of these Swiss-style regional qualifiers. The 500SC will be taken from your account automatically when you sign-up and no more will be taken after that.
- Each participant will win at least one Foil Prize Pack (these packs contain foils not available anywhere else).
- Ideally, players will assemble in Telegram to help organise their games. Anyone who can't access that can use the in-game Global Chat.
HOW A REGIONAL SWISS-STYLE TOURNAMENT WORKS:
- Tournament progress will be tracked on Challonge.com.
- Each round, players are paired based on points earned so far (Round 1 will be entirely random)
- Each round involves a best-of-three-games match between two players.
- The player listed first in the pairing creates game 1 in the Unrated section of the Challenge screen with password=123 and no other options ticked.
- Whoever went second in game 1 creates game 2 in the Unrated section of the Challenge screen with password=123 and the Creator Goes First option ticked.
- Game 3 is created in the same way as game 1 by the same person as game 1.
- After a match, please report scores in the appropriate regional Telegram room and I will update the Challonge.com bracket. (e.g. Frodo 1-2 Pippin)
- Winning the match earns you 3 points. If the match is a tie for some reason, both players get 1 point. You get no points for a match loss.
- At the end of all rounds, players are ranked by points and then by the performance of their opponents (shown as the Median-Buchholz value on Challonge). Depending on the number of players tied on points at the top and the number of WC invites available, there may be play-off matches required between some tied players. (Precisely how this works will be entirely at the Tournament Organiser's discretion.)
OTHER INFORMATION:
- All games to be played on latest version (3.16).
- The World Championship Grand Finals are on the weekend of 10th/11th December, so don't compete unless you are available for that weekend.
- There will be two other Wildcard events that will be the same format as the regionals, but they will both be open to anyone who has not yet qualified and the prizes will be very limited aside from winning WC2016 invite.
GRAND FINALS FORMAT:
- Round one for Day 1 starts Saturday 10th December 6pm GMT+0.
- Day 1 will be 32-player swiss decklock, over 5 rounds of best-of-three, to find Top 8 players.
- Round 1 for Day 2 starts Sunday 11th December 6pm GMT+0.
- Day 2 will be 8-player single-elimination decklock with best-of-five per round.
GRAND FINALS PRIZES:
- Winner: iPad Air 2 (16Gb wi-fi) + $500 via PayPal
- Runner-up: $500 via PayPal
- 3rd place: $300 via PayPal
- 4th place: $150 via PayPal
- All Top 8: complete digital foil playset (4 of each CotC, DP, SF, LL Part 1 card in foil) + WC2016 Grand Finalist sleeves
- All other Grand Finalists: 50 digital cards of their choice + WC2016 Grand Finalist sleeves
Good luck to all participants!
If you have any questions, please post them below, and I'll get you an answer as soon as possible.
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