[/align][align=center]Announcement, Information, Seeding[/align]
[align=center]Also see: Public Registration and League Tables[/align]
Content
- Introduction
- Masters' and Minions' Division
- Registrations
- Players' participation: Emails!
- Players' absence: the Delay Notice and Failed Contact by email
- Disconnects during a match
- Season and League Forfeit
- Scheduling matches for Season 1, 2016
- Map pool *Update
- Game settings
- Replay files: Renaming, Uploading and Reporting Results
- Streaming and casting
- Future Development *Update
- Prize Pool
- Current prize pool
- Seeded players from RA:EL Season Alpha
- Additional community seeds
[align=center]Introduction[/align]
Monday, April 4th 2016 will be the launch date of the new Red Alert Global League. RA:GL is the offspring of the RA:EL Season Alpha in November 2015 and the experience of all previous tournaments for OpenRA, including the latest TD league. It will attempt to combine the best elements of a tough scheduled format and a flexible meet-up to circumvent most, if not all, time-zone related issues. RA:GL aims to become a long-term, easy and reliable format for anyone that wishes to participate.
The core of RA:GL are the league tables. There will be a top division called Masters' Division with 12 players that over the course of time will play host and guest matches against each other. A player within a division will have 11 opponents to play with in a total of 22 matches for the season. A player would have to participate in 1 match-up every week, playing 2 games, host and guest, with an opponent in order to gather points for the division table. Match-ups are scheduled on a weekly basis (11 weeks total) but it's the players themselves that are responsible for scheduling their match-ups with their opponents for that week. More on that later.
The Masters' Division is subsided by a 12-player Minions' Division and a Recruit Division with roughly the same rules of engagement. The divisions are interactive in-between seasons when relegations, promotions and qualifying matches are being played out. Here's an estimate as to how these 3 divisions would work together after the first season:
Master's Division
- '65% paid, main prize pool
- '25% paid, main prize pool
- '10% paid, main prize pool
- 'Q1
- 'Q2
- 'Q3
- 'R
- 'R
Minion's Division
- 'P
- 'P
- 'Q3
- 'Q2
- 'Q1
- 'Q4
- 'Q5
- 'R
- 'R
Recruit Division
- 'P
- 'P
- 'Q5
- 'Q4
Q=qualifier
R=relegation
Notice how the qualifiers are numbered and placed in such a way that the better placed Master player will have to play qualifiers against the lesser placed Minion player. Every qualifier consists of a best-of-5.
Eventually the structure for, say, the Recruit Division may get altered depending on the registration and interest for the Global League. E.g. the Recruit Division could be extended to up to 4 divisions, get additional subsided divisions or any other alterations that would best fit the league and players for the season.
The aim is to run the League two times a year, roughly March-May and Sept-Nov period.
[align=center]Registrations[/align]
The registered players from the 2015 RA:EL will be offered the 12 spots in the Masters' Division for the first season of RA:GL. They will have until the 20th of March to confirm their spots with an email sent to: SoScared123@Gmail.com (use an active email account!).
RA:EL Season Alpha, November 2015 registrations: http://www.sleipnirstuff.com/forum/view ... 82&t=19061
There will also be additional community seeding up until 21th of March 00:00 UTC for some extra players with the health of the league in mind. Confirmed players from the RA:EL and additional seeding will be announced as soon as it's known to the league organizer.
Public registration will start 21th of Match 00:00 UTC and the spots will be up for grabs by the first come, first served principle. The public registration is virtually unlimited. If the interest exceeds expectations, additional divisions will be added.
Public registration will end 30th of March 00:00 UTC, Divisions and Schedules will be presented 31th of March.
Masters' Division players (announced after seeding) will also be asked to register their faction pick (including randoms) before the 30th of March. When registered, the players can change their faction pick up until this date. Faction pick is set to 'Any' by default.
[align=center]Scheduling matches for Season 1, 2016[/align]
Monday 4th of April signals the start of the first Round and week of the league. Players will have to contact their opponent and play their match-up no later than Sunday that week. There will in total be 11 rounds over the course of 11 weeks. Each week will have a preset match-up with a host and a guest match against an opponent. The complete players' schedule will be made public no later than 31th of March.
- Round 1 Week 14 4th April - 10th April
- Round 2 Week 15 11th April - 17th April
- Round 3 Week 16 18th April - 24th April
For some literally godawful reason, some international calendars start their week with Sunday. This will obviously not be the case here.
[align=center]Players' participation: Emails![/align]
As mentioned above all participating players are themselves responsible for their weekly matches. However as the leagues main organizer I'll be providing a few guidelines and requirements to ensure match-ups are easily scheduled and unforeseen events accounted for. For starters, player registrations are done through email and players will have to provide an email as a means of contact and availability towards the other players. This doesn't mean that venues such as this forum or IRC can't be used as a means of contact, only that email will be recognized as the official means in which players attempt to make contact before a week's match-up is considered to be a delay or forfeit, which brings me to the next main point.
[align=center]Players' absence: the Delay Notice and Failed Contact by email[/align]
Obviously the greatest obstacle to any online event is the no-shows and the great unforeseen. In this regard it would be outright stupid not to include an efficient counter dynamic that takes this into account, and I believe I've come up with something that will work nicely. In the 11 weeks in which the Global League will run it's a guarantee that some of you will run into something unforeseen that will suddenly make you unavailable for match ups. Also you might have planned trips, you might want a break, etc. What I will do is to add a dynamic called simply a Delay Notice which means that any player, for whatever reason, can push one or multiple match-ups over to another week. This is simply done by notifying the opponent first and then me as a league organizer through my email (titled 'Delay Notice'). The notice towards me must include the match-up(s) that are to be moved and at which week the player intends to catch up with their match-ups. You don't need to give up a reason for the delay. The notice will then be available on the forum's RA:GL Scoreboard thread until the delayed match-ups has been played.
An email list will be sent out to all participating players in their respective divisions after registration closes.
If a player fails to make contact with his/her opponent during a match-up's dedicated week (email is used as a last resort) he or she needs to send me an email with a Failed Contact notice. The player that then has sent the Failed Contact notice will then be granted the match-up points should the absent player not respond within that week. If, for some hilarious reason, a 'Failed Contact' email is sent to me by both players before the end of the week, the instance will be converted into a Delay Notice and the match-up is transferred over to the next week.
Both the Delay Notice and Failed Contact emails has to be sent to me no later than 13:00 UTC on Mondays for the previous weeks' matches.
Failure to report a delay or failed contact for matches not being played at any given week results in a strike. 3 strikes earns a player a boot out of the season and will have the player register anew back in line should the player wish to participate in future seasons.
Don't worry about memorizing this entire post, it will be condensed into a later list of rules for the participants.
Disconnects during a match
Players decide between themselves the outcome with a disconnected game. If the players cannot come to an agreement, they will have to submit the replay for an evaluation. The evaluation will likely demand a rematch unless the match is undoubtedly decided towards one player. The final word will be up the the person evaluating, regardless. Players who disconnects more than 2 times during a season will forfeit the match point of their remaining disconnected matches, resulting in that no player can disconnect and file a dispute more than 2 times during the season.
All disconnected matches, including those in which players agree upon an outcome, are reported to SoScared123@Gmail.com, titled 'disconnect', including a link to the uploaded replay. Disputes are simply titled 'disputes' and sent to the same email address.
[align=center]Season and League Forfeit[/align]
There's no reason having to disgracefully be booted out of the league just because you found out you're unable to participate. There's two ways to do this.
Send me an email titled Season Forfeit in order to forfeit the current season and thus place you last in your division. Once the season is completed you'll be relegated down one division and will be able to participate next season from that particular division.
Send me an email titled League Forfeit in order to quit the league. You'll be placed last in your division and relegated throughout all active divisions (bottom out) once the current season is completed. If you'd want to register anew to the league at a later time you'd have to start at the lowest league available.
Giving up a reason for season and league forfeits is not required.
[align=center]Map pool[/align]
There will be a preset map pool for the league. Custom maps must be downloaded:
- Behind The Veil (official map)
- Dual Cold Front (custom map) download see: https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/pull/11272
- Dual Vegetation (custom map) download
- Forest Path (official map)
- Keep Off The Grass 2 (official map)
- Northwest Passage (official map)
- Ore Lord (official map)
- Sidestep (official map)
- Singles (official map)
- Tournament Island (official map)
- Warwind (official map)
- Winter Storm (official map)d
Reminder: Players spots must be random. Including on map Tournament Island.
The map pool is up for changes until 28th of March (1 week before League start). I've more than likely forgotten to add other viable maps. Please make your requests, comments and suggestions in this very thread if you like to see it changed in whatever fashion. For additional maps, remember that maps not only need to visually appear to be balanced, but also proven play-tested (e.g. uploaded replays).
[align=center]Game settings[/align]
As mentioned, all players will play a 'host' and a 'guest' match against their opponents. The host player simply picks the map. Both host and guest matches counts towards 1 point.
The standard game settings in the game lobby should be familiar to all players. These will be used consistently across all divisions with a few exceptions:
- Masters' League participants are required to pick 1 faction for the duration of the tournament. This however also includes random Allies/Soviet or 'Any' for those that desires it. Factions are registered no later than 30th of March.
- Master's Division, Explored Map: Off
- Minion's Division and divisions below, Explored Map: On
- Short Game : On
- Fog of War : On
- Crates : Off
- Debug Menu : Off
- Starting Cash : $5000
- Tech Level : Unrestricted
- Starting Units : MCV Only
- Game Speed : Normal/Faster
There are no specifications regarding spectators.
[align=center]Replay files: Renaming, Uploading and Reporting Results[/align]
Replay files are the sole documentation of the matches played and thus should be treated with great care. I'll be looking to find a suitable upload spot (Will be updated here!) for the players to use for uploading their replay files. We don't want to spam the public upload forums (e.g. gamereplays.org) or have the replays scattered throughout different upload sites on the web. The host player bears the responsibility to have the file uploaded. Upon agreement the guest player or spectator can upload the replay file.
The replay files will have to be renamed specifically before uploading. In your folder or your replay viewer, delete the ENTIRE filename and replace it with:
RAGL-S01-[MASTER/MINION]-RXX-[host initials]-[guest initials], all letters in CAPS.
S01 stands for Season 1, RXX stands for Round and then XX a round number (01, 02, 03 etc.).
Example: SoScared played a host and guest match against PersianImmortal, and the players agreed for SoScared to upload them both. They both play in the Minions' league. The matches was played on 25th of April 2016 which, according to the schedule table, coincides with 'Round 04'. The players' given initials are SOS for SoScared and PSI for PersianImmortal. The replay files for these matches would be:
SoScared's host match: RAGL-S01-MINION-R04-SOS-PSI
PersianImmortal's host match: RAGL-S01-MINION-R04-PSI-SOS
All players will be given specific initials that will be shared in the schedule post as well in a internal email list between the participants. Replay files not properly named will not be accepted.
All replays are uploaded to Jazz_KCS's file server: http://64h.mine.nu:5534/mIRROR/ora_repl ... eason_One/
Just click the 'Upload files' link on the right side of the page. You'll have to rename the replay file *beforehand* when uploading.
The results are reported directly to SoScared123@gmail.com. This is to avoid spoilers for anyone wanting to check out the replays. As with uploading replay files, the host player is responsible for reporting the result of his/her match. Players can agree upon one player reporting the results for both matches in their week's match-up.
[align=center]Streaming and casting[/align]
The Red Alert Global League will not be affiliated with any streams or vod channels. This means that anyone that wishes it should feel free to stream and cast players' matches as they see fit. As long as the matches are played within their dedicated week they can be organized into any event format that the players and streamers/casters wants.
Here's a RAGL intro video sequence I made for any future vods: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hqb93oyozmyyj ... e.mp4?dl=0
Feel free to use it, justremember to credit Aro from moddb for the Soviet Star Logo: http://www.moddb.com/members/aro
My Monday streams on twitch can easily scoop up some of the weekly league matches but don't hesitate to ask players to play in your streams or scheduled casts that you e.g. want to share on YouTube.
[align=center]Future Development[/align]
The main drive behind the Red Alert Global league is two-fold: First it's to provide a venue in which experienced players can match themselves against the player base. Never before has there been a way for players to reliably track their record over time and assess their own skill and play style with an established opposition. Second it's to give new players a reliable format where they can play with others of similar skill, have fun and learn more about what it takes to make it to the next level. Also, new players that aspire to learn faster or that perhaps already inhibit the necessary skills will have the opportunity to fight their way up and eventually find stronger opposition.
In the first season, a lot of players are seeded in an attempt to establish the divisions in the most reliably way as possible. This season will be the only season in which players are seeded, meaning any future entries, no matter what level of skills will have to start at the lowest division available. Initially, many experienced players will be outside the league, possibly entering the league at a later date. Unfortunately I can't reach everyone in the seeding period (seed invites has been sent to certain players) and it's more than likely that I've forgotten some but overall, seeded players from the community are players that are frequently available in the community and that are interested in participating.
As for the structure of the divisions, there are plans to expand the announced divisions further depending on the numbers of registered players. Below the Minion's Division (2nd division) there will possibly be one or two 3rd divisions, both with promotion and qualifier spots towards the 2nd division. There are no limits as to how many players that can register for the league.
The public registration period for this first season will be relatively short, from 21st of March up until 30th. Also, the advertisement for public registration will be limited to the forum, reddit and other known OpenRA ports. This is to limit the field in which players will register from so that the league at first won't be overly populated by players with little intention to complete the season. Once completed, the RA:GL Spring Season of 2016 will be followed by subsequent seasons with extended registration time.
As mentioned initially in the announcement post the aim is to run the league twice a year with season 2 kicking off September 5th. The hope is to provide a lasting format that will grow and establish itself as a place where all players of every kind, experts as well as newbies, can find a common ground in witch to play, learn, have fun as well as compete for some prize money. The only thing you'll ever need to participate is some dedication and willingness to make contact with your opponents at the beginning of each week of the season. If you can do that, you should definitely go ahead and register regardless of your level of skill!
[align=center]Prize Pool[/align]
It looks like the prize pools has come to stay with OpenRA. Prize pools add more tension to the competitions, both for the players and spectators. For that reason, the prize pool for the Red Alert Global League will be an open pool in which anyone can contribute to!
For those interested I'll be using my personal email account SoScared123@Gmail.com connected via PayPal to host the prize pool. You could do this publicly or anonymously. If this is something you'd want to do just send me a payment to that email address via PayPal and in the 'Write a note' section either write your playername/name or if you'd like to be anonymous, as I'd want to list all individual contributions to the prize pool info in the various threads including in the prize pool info on the coming scoreboard thread. Further you can add a request as to how you would want your contribution to be paid to the league positions specifically (includes all divisions). By default the payout is split between 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the Masters' League at respectively 65%, 25% and 10%.
[align=center]Current prize pool[/align]
$225 Masters' Division Prize Pool- $145
- $55
- $25
- $30
- $10
Contributions: SoScared - $100, NoobMapMaker - $50, Anonymous - $100, Jamesasthenia - $25
Timetable for Season 1
March 9th - Announcement & Information, Players' seeding.
March 20th - RA:EL Season Alpha Players' seeding ends.
March 21th - Public registration opens at 00:00 UTC.
March 28th - Map pool is locked
March 30th - Public registration closes at 00:00 UTC
March 31th - Divisions' setup, schedules and scoreboard posted
Seeded players from RA:EL, Season Alpha
Confirmed seeds for the Masters' Division:
- American Blunt [Russia]
- Anjew [Any]
- FiveAces [Any]
- Gatekeeper [England]
- Kyrylo [Any]
- Murto The Ray [Russia]
- Spy [Ukraine]
- Zoidberg [England]
Additional community seeds
- Abcdefg30 *requesting lower division placement
- Antares *requesting lower division placement
- Barf
- Hamb *requesting lower division placement
- Klaas
- NoobMapMaker
- MicroBit *requesting lower division placement
Reminder: Confirmation done by email to: SoScared123@Gmail.com
Use an active email account!
I'm hoping this format can prove reliable enough to provide a long term competitions venue for the community. I've been dreaming about this sort of stuff for OpenRA for years and I think this event is a step in the right direction!
