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Red Alert Global League - The Rulebook

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 8:52 pm
by Blackened
[align=center]Image[/align]

[align=center]The Rulebook[/align]






[align=center]Prize Pool!

Current total: $253.00[/align]




[align=center]Kel Pool!

Current total: 400 Kel[/align]



[align=center]For details on prize pool and Kel contributions, check out the Prize Pool section at the end of this post. Thanks![/align]





The Rulebook - Content
  • Introduction
  • Registrations
  • Emails: Contact & Match Scheduling
  • Emails: Delay Notices
  • Emails: Failed Contacts
  • Promotions/demotions
  • Season and League Forfeits
  • Waiting List
  • Disconnects during a match
  • Disputes
  • Game settings
  • Playoff Format
  • Map pool for Season 4
  • League tables: Placements and tie-breakers
  • Replay files: Renaming and Uploading
  • Email: Reporting Results
  • Streaming and casting
  • [Prize Pool contributions[
  • Current Prize Pool, Kel Pool



Introduction

RAGL, Season 4 is played out over 14 weeks, including one break week, from September 11th through December 11th of 2017. During this time the players within each division will have 2 matches vs 11 opponents, playing for match-points to be added to a score table. At the end of the season the top 4 players in Masters and Minions will face off in a best of 5 playoffs. There will be a maximum of 12 players for every division. The results of the playoff series and final standings for those outside the playoffs decides who wins prizes and titles as well as promotions, qualifiers and relegation towards other divisions.

Match-ups are tacked on to weeks/rounds, in which players have to play their match-ups against a specific opponent. Official communications between the players and with league officials are primarily done through email, involving reporting results and various league business. However, a Discord is being implemented as an alternative means.





Registrations (also see: Season 4 Registrations thread)

For Season 4, all players have until August 31st (23:59 UTC) to register/confirm their participation. It is strongly recommended that players prioritize an active email account in order to reduce response time with messages from players or league officials.

Registration emails from new players are titled REGISTRATION and must include the following:
  • Nick that will be used throughout the season.
  • 3-lettered initials for tagging replays (e.g. SoScared = SOS).
  • Country and timezone expressed in UTC (see http://www.timeanddate.com)
Players transferring over from a previous season don't have to provide any other information than the expressed confirmation. Recurring players simply register with an email titled CONFIRMATION.


Recurring players are seeded per guidelines provided by the previous season results. Players who feel like they've found themselves in a division above their skill level may request to be dropped a division lower to better accommodate them. If the league officials can find another player who's ability more closely matches that division in skill, that player will be granted a promotion into that league. New players will be evaluated by league officials and placed in a division that best matches their skill, based of availability of the divisions.




Emails: Contact & Match Scheduling


All participating players are themselves responsible for their weekly matches. Players have provided active email addresses as a means of guaranteed contact availability and email correspondence is the official recognized means of which players schedule their match-ups, report delays, disputes and failed contact. However, at the discretion of the players, any venue of contact can be used as long as you recognize that league officials will be of limited help should things go awry. League officials cannot guarantee or take responsibility for information processed outside email correspondences. Email lists are provided to all players within their respective divisions by Monday, September 4th. Email lists are not publicized beyond the division.

As a general tip, be first out early on with a simple 'Hello' and provide information to when it suits you best to play. Initiate contact at the start of the week/round (Monday), or perhaps even the day before.





Emails: Delay Notices

The unforeseen will happen and so you might as well learn this procedure well (as with 'Emails: Failed Contact' below). In the event you need to delay a match-up for any reason you will have to send a delay notice per email (titled DELAY) to both your opponent and the league officials. The player don't need to give up a reason for the delay. The reasons for the delay are not publicized should the player wish to give one. The delay notice will be available on the forum's RA:GL Scoreboard thread until the delayed match-ups has been played.
The delay notice must include at minimum:
  • The week/round and match-up that is delayed.
  • To which week/round you need to delay it to
Further:
  • Delay notices must be sent no later than the next week's Monday at 14:00/2:00PM UTC.
  • Players can have up to 3 delay notices running simultaneously.
  • Matches can be delayed up until 1 week past the final round of the season.
Worth noting, the league has no rules regarding matches being played before their designated rounds. If you foresee some scheduled conflict there's nothing to stop you from attempting getting some match-ups done earlier.





Emails: Failed Contact

An opponent may fail to respond or properly during a week/round. The moment you suspect your match-up may be in jeopardy you should send a 'Failed Contact' notice per email (titled FAILED CONTACT) as soon as possible. This notice is overridden immediately if you follow up later that same week with a Result Report or a Delay Notice. The 'Failed Contact' notice also protects you from unfair penalties granted by league officials due to unreported matches. If, for whatever reason, a failed contact notice is sent by both players before the end of the week/round, the event is converted into a delay notice, delaying their match-up by +1 week/round.

An unreported matches without a Delay or Failed Contact notice are rewarded with a strike. 3 strikes results in a Season Forfeit.

For further information of strikes please see: League tables: Placements and tie-breakers



Promotions/demotions:
Due to the nature of the league, promotions often can't be defined until the exact set up is figured out. However, the general idea is something like this:
The top players in Minions, Recruits, and (Cadets) will be promoted to the next division. The bottom players in each division will be regulated to one below. Additionally, There will once again be a path to the hidden masters, allowing a player who's skill that far surpasses other to challenge their way up the division into the very top
The exact path of the hidden master will also depend on how many sign ups and the exact structure of the divisions.

Now that divisions have been finalized the workings of each division can be explained.

The top 4 in masters will compete in a best of 5 playoff. Winners play winners, losers play losers and the final results will determine the final positions. The bottom two masters will be relegated to minions. The 9th place master will face off against the path of the hidden master contestant in the hopes of retaining their spot.

The top 4 in minions will also compete in a playoff series using the same guidelines as above. The difference being whoever ends up fourth will have to deal with the winner of the path of the hidden master from the recruit leg of the run. Additionally, the bottom 3 players in minions will be relegated to recruits.

As for recruits there are a number of changes from previous seasons. Firstly there is a total of 4 divisions! Because of the leap forward in players it became clear a second minions division would be needed. With 2-3 Masters being relegated and 3-4 Minions being promoted while 3 minions relegated, it leaves only 5 slots for new recruits to enter. 5 of 44 players getting promoted is quite the chokepoint. Instead, the top 4 recruits in each division will be promoted creating 23-24 minions for season 5. Additionally, the bottom 3 of each recruit division will be relegated into the cadet division for season 5. This is a bit experimental as it relies on people finishing the season to really work out. It will definitely be a point of discussion post season. Finally, the top recruits in each division will face each other until only 1 remains for the path of the hidden master.

Therefore the path of the hidden master is a 4 legged series. First being the 4 recruits eliminating 2 of each other. The second leg being the final 2 recruits becoming the recruit champion. In the third leg the recruit champion will face off against the minion's 4th best player (this is determined after playoffs). The last leg of the race will be the winner of the minion/recruit champion series playing the 9th best master.


Season Forfeit

There's no reason having to be disgracefully booted out of the league just because you find yourself unable to fulfill your obligations.

Season Forfeit is sent per email (titled SEASON FORFEIT) in order to forfeit the current season, immediately placing you last in your division. Naturally you'll be relegated down one division and will be able to participate next season from that particular division.


Waiting List
The RAGL waiting list is a measure to ensure each recruit/cadet division is filled as much as possible. Should a season start and a player strike out (not show up for their first three games) Or a player forfeit the season that player will be dropped and the first in line on the wait list will replace that player. For future seasons the wait list will be made up of players who are last to sign up during registration after divisions have been filled.



Disconnects during a match

Players decide between themselves the outcome of a disconnected game. If the players cannot come to an agreement, they will have to submit the replay to the official (titled DISCONNECT) for 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 official evaluating regardless. Players who disconnects more than 3 times during a season will forfeit the match points of their remaining disconnected matches regardless of the state of the ongoing match.





Disputes

Disputes are sent per email (titled DISPUTE or CORRECTION) to a league official in the event it is believed the officials has handled a situation incorrectly or has recorded erroneous information. The league officials reserves the right to make the final call in disputed situations with the health of the league in mind.





Game setup

All players will play a 'host' and a 'guest' match every week/round against an opponent. The host player simply picks the map. Both host and guest matches counts towards 1 point.
Players ranked higher during the season are to 'host' the map first. Guests will then pick their faction. Players are allowed their own discretion in following this rule. In the event of two players being equal in the standings players are again encouraged to use their discretion in who picks a map/faction first.
The standard game settings in the game lobby should be familiar to all players. These will be used consistently across all divisions:
  • Explored Map: On
  • Short Game : On
  • Fog of War : On
  • Crates [tab] : Off
  • Debug Menu : Off
  • Starting Cash : $5000
  • Tech Level : Unrestricted
  • Starting Units : MCV Only
  • Game Speed : Normal
Player spots has to be random.

*Please note that Masters division is no longer faction locked. Players are free to choose which faction they wish to play game by game.


The league will by default always run on the latest release. In the event a new release is shipped during an ongoing season, both releases are acceptable for that given week/round of the new release date. Using Playtest is allowed at the discretion of the players. Exploiting bugs during a match on a playtest disqualifies the match played. Both players in a match will have to agree if a playtest is to be used.


Playoff Format:

For Path of the Hidden Masters, players will be randomly seeded against each other.
For masters and minions, players who finish 1-4 will be seeded respectively. The 1 seed will face off against the 4 seed. 2 seed will face off against the 3 seed. The winners will then play each other and the losers will play each other. Results of the match ups will determine final standings and the prizes those positions contain.


League tables: Placements and tie-breakers

Players are ranked within each division based on match points. In the event of tied points at the end of the season, the players will be ranked against each other based on:
  1. Result from the players' current seasons' match-up.
  2. Highest guest points.
  3. 1 game rematch

Meaning the match-up between players will primarily decide the ranking. In the event this match-up went 1-1 (or the match failed to report) the secondary tie breaker is the higher guest points. In the event that the primary and secondary tie-breaker don't break the tie the player are set to play a one game rematch post-season to determine the placements.


Strikes can be given out for a a number of different reasons, failure to report a match, cheating, etc. 3 strikes results in a Season Forfeit.
Global strikes are a record of strikes carried over from all seasons, starting with season 4. Basically they are just a record to keep track of any trouble makers. At the end of each season player will lose a strike accrued against them thus allowing good behavior to be shown.


Playoffs/Tie-breaker Game Settings:
Playoffs and tie-breakers will use the same game settings as above, with the exception that the first map shall be randomly chosen.




Map pool for Season 4

All maps used in RAGL, Season 4 are custom maps. 10 maps have been pre-selected to the map pool. 4 additional maps will receive a popular vote, with the top 2 being granted access. The Map pool be finalized On the 6th of September.
The maps are:
  • Keep Of The Grass 2
  • Winter Storm 2
  • Behind the Veil 2
  • Sidestep
  • Pitfight
  • Borrowed TIme
  • BBWD (Siberian Summer)
  • Duel Cold Front
  • Agenda
  • Shadow Fiend
The 4 additional maps are:
  • Nuclear winter
  • Ysmir
  • Sirocco
  • Almost Arid
UPDATE: Ysmir and Nuclear Winter took the popular vote in a pretty decisive victory. They are now apart of the map pool while Sirocco and Almost Arid are out!

Link to the poll.

Replay files: Renaming and Uploading

Replay files are the sole documentation of the matches played and thus should be treated with great care. 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-S04-[MASTER/MINION/RECRUIT/CADET]-RXX-[host initials]-[guest initials], all letters in CAPS.

S04 stands for Season 4, RXX stands for Round and then XX a round number (01, 02, 03 etc.).

Example: In Season 1, 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' Division. 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

Replay files not properly renamed will not be accepted.

All replays are uploaded to Jazz_KCS's file server: http://64hdb.mine.nu:5534/mIRROR/ora_re ... ason_four/ In the correct Round and Division sub-folder, click the 'Upload files' link on the right side of the page. You'll have to rename the replay file before uploading. If the replay is uploaded erroneously, re-upload the correct file and notify the tournament official so that the wrong file can be removed.





Emails: Reporting Results

After the replay files are uploaded the results are reported per email (titled RESULTS). The report needs to include who won the host and guest matches. As with replay files the host player is ultimately responsible for reporting the results but practically it is sufficient for one of the players in a match-up to report the results. The results can be shared with a league official through any means but as stated earlier, league officials cannot guarantee a fair count of your match points without the Result Report by email.





Streaming and casting

The Red Alert Global League has a stream channel dedicated to RAGL streams and can be utilized by verified streamers. However, streamers of the event will need to add a minimum of 3 minute delay to their streams when covering an official Live league match. For this season in particular, the league will attempt to highlight a match up each week to be streamed. A thread to organize when streamers are available as well as when players are available is here.





Prize Pool contributions

For those interested, a personal email account, OpenRA.RAGL@Gmail.com is connected via PayPal to host the prize pool contributions. Just send a payment through PayPal to that email address via PayPal and in the 'Write a note' section either write your playername/name or state if you wish to remain anonymous given that all individual contributions will be listed in this post under 'Current Prize Pool'. Further you can add a request as to how you would want your contribution to be paid to the league positions specifically (including all divisions). By default the prizepool will be split among the divisions (roughly estimated) ~70% Master's Division (top 4), ~20% Minions' Division (top 2). The last ~10% will be used to reward players who stuck through with the season, Best use of Tanya, Iron Curtain or Chronosphere, and best use of grenadiers will each receive a prize. Additionally, random prizes will be given to a player in each division below masters for finishing the season. PayPal contributions are converted into Dollars ($), if you send money in your local currency the prizepool host will cover the conversion fees. Future seasons may convert the prizepool in Euros (€).

In this season you can also donate Kel which is a forum currency on Sleipnir's Stuff to which you can shop for some features such as the Quick Reply, Custom Avatar, Signature etc. Kel donated to 'Blackened' are added to a Kel prizepool that will be awarded to all the Season 4 division winners.

*Prizepools are completely voluntary and are not expected to be significant each season. IF the prize pool for a particular season is thin the exact spread and rewards will be carefully considered. (No one wants to win 5 cents as a random prize!) Eventually it would be nice to create a surplus so that each season has a minimum prizepool. However, for season 4 no such thing has been implemented.


Current Season 4 prize pool

Contributions:

Blackened: 25$ xy: 5$ netnazgul: 15$ FAX: 20$ Wippie: 41$ Lorrydriver: 50$ NoobMapMaker:50$ Barf:25$ Doomsday 22$ (through NMM Play of the season!)

Current Kel pool:

Blackened: 210 Sircake: 90 Whocares: 100

RAGL officials:


Jazz_KCS
Blackened
.1
Honorary Official SoScared


RAGL graphic designer:

Warman





League officials reserve the rights to alter or override the rulebook during an ongoing season. All players will be immediately notified if any substantial changes are made during the season. For all inquiries you can contact us at OpenRA.RAGL@Gmail.com or reply on this thread.

Discussion and feedback on the rulebook Season 4 is also encouraged below.

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 9:20 pm
by Blackened
I wanted to add here, you'll notice .1 is helping run RAGL. Welcome your co-commander :)

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 9:31 pm
by maceman
Hi, I'm thinking of signing up but want to make sure I can make it first. Do you know what days / times games are played on? Also is there any flexibility?

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 9:31 pm
by noobmapmaker
Awesome!!!

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 9:32 pm
by Blackened
maceman wrote: Hi, I'm thinking of signing up but want to make sure I can make it first. Do you know what days / times games are played on? Also is there any flexibility?
Each week you have 1 opponent. During that week you two are to figure out when you have the time to play your matches. If neither of you have time, you have the option of delaying the match up to a later week. So it is entirely flexible.

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 9:35 pm
by maceman
Cool, sounds good, thanks

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 9:55 pm
by jaZz_KCS
Yes, we want the experience to be trithe - Fun, challenging, and flexible.

Hope to see you all report back for Season IV! :)
Also let's embrace all new contestants!

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 3:12 am
by WhoCares
Congrats to the new staff, it's nice to see you jump in the action so quickly. We (at least I) will do our (my ?) best to comply with the rulebook and the requirement to make your job as light and easy as possible.

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 6:14 am
by netnazgul
Replay files: Renaming and Uploading
Filenaming for playoffs/hiddenpath should also be described. As this wasn't done for S03 for example, currently there are freenamed replays for hidden path. Jazz was deeply offended with spaces in names too :)

Something like this will be fine I assume

RAGL-S04-MASTER-[POSF/POF]-[p1]-[p2]-[#]
RAGL-S04-MINION-[POSF/POF]-[p1]-[p2]-[#]
RAGL-S04-[MASTER/MINION/RECRUIT]-[POHM]-[p1]-[p2]-[#]

Where
POSF - Playoff Semifinal
POF - Playoff Final
POHM - Path of the Hidden Master
# - game number in bo5 series

By the way, if there is no promotion/relegation play-off between the leagues, Path of the Hidden Master mechanic will not work. Or rather rising up player would be playing against 2nd placed in higher division to take his promotion spot.

Also I suppose 3 tier structure of previous leagues with 3rd tier split into Alpha and Beta is changed to 4 tier strict vertical? Or is it a subject to change during the following month?

And I think playoff against promotion will need to be clarified. If there are 2 promotion spots in Minions, but 4 player playoffs - will the 4th placed player win a promotion after the playoff (when he gets to the playoff final) or it's only for the money? Also important is whether it's 1v4/2v3 or 1v3/2v4 or 1v2/3v4 semifinals in playoffs.

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 7:31 am
by Murto the Ray
This thread has been added as an announcement.

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 7:35 am
by 3.Lucian
In previous Seasons, I believe players were given the option to play the game on normal or faster speed. Would you consider allowing players to play the games on both normal and fast speed this season?

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 7:50 am
by netnazgul
The last ~10% will be used to reward players who stuck through with the season, Best use of Tanya, Iron Curtain or Chronosphere, and best use of grenadiers will each receive a prize.
If it's not a joke, I think hijackers are being neglected here :\

All in all I'd suggest combining this up in a "Best Unconventional Play of The Season" nomination or something like that.

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:46 pm
by noobmapmaker
Ill add $50 to the prizepool.

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 5:37 pm
by Blackened
@netnazgul

Playoffs will have a standard, what you suggested would be fine, will update at a later time. Path of the hidden master is different however. That can't be announced until the divisions are locked and is based solely on the number of sign ups we have. IF say we have 3 recruit divisions Path of the hidden master will be very weird.

For minions playoffs the idea is this, 1st gets a promotion/money. 2nd get promotion/money. Third will have a playoff series against the 10th ranked master's player. 4th would be involved in the path to the hidden master. (this is how it was done last year.)

If hijackers weren't so buggy maybe. The point was to also limit gimmicky builds by someone in an attempt to win the award.


noobmapmaker wrote: Ill add $50 to the prizepool.
Thanks!

@lucian, I'm not sure anyone ever chose faster as a setting so it was dropped. I think it was even dropped in season 3.

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:02 pm
by Blackened
BBWF has been changed to BBWD. Siberian Summer

Nuclear winter has seen minor alterations. please see:
http://resource.openra.net/maps/22481/