Essay:Guidelines for the Ancient Bear Republic online tournaments

These are the guidelines we use for ABR's weekly tournaments:

Tourney Guidelines

1. This is all about fun.
2. You wanna play, you gotta pay. If money is required, it is due before the tournament starts. If the TO doesn't have your money, you won't go on the bracket. The preferred method is to pay and register through Challonge, but you can also use Venmo or PayPal using Friends and Family. Make sure the TO has your money and adds you to the participant list. Don't stick the TO with credit card charges, or you risk getting the boot. More details about for payments are in the channels pins.
3. All tournaments are hosted from the ABR community page on Challonge.
4. Start time is announced in the channel. It's not a bad idea to get into the chat about 30 mins before hand to make sure you're registered and all that. There's also witty banter.
5. Joining the voice chat is not mandatory, but since we're doing this for fun, it is highly encouraged. See Guideline 1.
6. The format of the event is chosen by the winner of the previous event. Check in with the TO if there are any other requirements for this week's format. (Remember the bit where I said it was good to get into the chat early?)
   1. For Archon, this is more about fun (See Guideline 1) than administering beatdowns. Don't use a deck you don't own. Practice with your VT contenders somewhere else. If you mop the floor with a deck, do us all a favor and put that deck away for a while and let's see what else you have. We're friends here, not a bank. :)
   2. If we do sealed, we'll use a Discord bot to generate and assign sealed decks. You'll add the deck to your decks for the night. When we're done, do the right thing and drop that deck from your lists.
7. If TCO does something that you don't understand, give a shout and ask the TO or the appointed judge in the chat room. Whatever the judge says is final. You must allow manual mode if needed to correct it. If you refuse to allow manual to apply the judges ruling, you forfeit the match. But don't let this happen. See Guideline 1.
8. If you are put into the bracket, you're expected to play in the tournament. If you need to deal with something at your house, you can ask for time to deal with those things between rounds. Once the round starts, if you need to get called away for something personal for more than 5 minutes, concede your match. Likewise, if you are having issues connecting to the server, or can't figure out what is going on with your connection, you must concede the match. Holding up matches for personal issues is being rude, and being rude isn't fun. See Guideline #1.
9. We all make mistakes. If it's simple and correctable with a few clicks in manual mode and your opponent allows it, go for it. Don't abuse the good will of your opponent by taking 5 minutes to undo an entire turn, just concede and move on.
10. At the end of the night, 100% of the pot will go back to players, working the split down to give prizes to half the field. Ties will be broken in the following order:
    1. Wins vs. Tied Opponents
    2. Median-Buckholz
    3. Points Difference

Creating the games

When the tournament round is announced, check Challonge and find your matchup. The player on the top of the pairing will create the game on TCO, Player 2 will join the game. If you are connected via voice chat, go to the game room that matches your table number and your opponent will meet you there.

When Player 1 creates the game on TCO, they should select the following options:

• Allow Spectators
• Show hands to spectators
• Use a time limit
  • Set the time limit to 40 minutes
• Game format should be normal
• Game type should be casual
• Set the password based on what the TO says in the chat.

Tiebreakers

If the timer in your game runs out, we use the official rules for going to time:

When time is called for the round, the player who is currently taking their turn finishes their turn. If that player does not achieve victory by the end of their turn, then their opponent may take one last turn. If neither player has achieved victory (forged three Keys) at the end of the opponent’s last turn, they must follow the steps below, in order, to determine who receives a win for the current game. That player’s opponent receives a loss for the game.

Note: These steps take place in a post-game tiebreaker phase. While following these steps, neither player is considered to be currently taking their turn.

1. Each player who has 6 or more Æmber forges 1 Key (removing the 6 Æmber from their pool as usual). Cards that affect Æmber costs have no effect during this step. Each player can only forge 1 key from this step.
2. The player with the most Keys forged is the winner. If there is a tie, proceed to step 3.
3. The player with the most remaining Æmber in their pool is the winner. If there is still a tie, proceed to step 4.
4. Each player selects one of their houses. Then, each player totals the number of friendly creatures in play of that house and adds the amount of bonus Æmber from that house’s cards still in their hand. This is that player’s “potential Æmber.” The player with the most potential Æmber is the winner. If there is still a tie, proceed to step 5.
5. The first player is the winner.