[Regs. closed] Beginners' Taiko Tournament Season 6

Welcome, potentially new Taiko players, or just beginning Taiko players aiming to improve their game! It's perhaps a bit difficult to get into Taiko just due to how intimidating the game looks, or based off of the colors confusing you, or even just afraid to jump out of your comfort zone* (*note not all reasons listed here)! Not to worry, we're here to put the spotlight onto you, with the Beginner's Taiko Tournament Season 6! In this, we'll get to see new members of the Taiko community partake and improve their skills. Who knows, perhaps one of these players will be a top Taiko player in the future? In any case, to get to the top, you must work hard from a lower point in the pyramid so to say.

Discord Server | Spreadsheet | Challonge | Signup | Twitch

The only restriction that exists here for registration is that you cannot be in the top 10k in ranks. This is meant to be a beginner's tournament, and many, if not all the maps are catered towards those who are below 10k. We don't want an unfair advantage! That's why we also give ourselves the right to refuse certain registrations or to disqualify certain players if we consider that they are well above the expected level intended by the tournament.
There's two exceptions to this rule.
1. If you're the appropriate rank upon registration but rank past 10k before the tournament begins, if you are still below 9k, you're considered eligible.
2. If you rank while the tournament is taking place, that cannot be stopped, but please refrain from doing so (ranking too far below 9k will require eliminations).

Registering to this tournament is fairly simple. You just have to fill in the Registration Form and join the Discord Server, and you're all set! We'll accept as much players as we can for now, but only the top 64 (if there are enough players) will go through the qualifiers stage (otherwise it will be top 32).

There's a lot of ground to cover in the Rules section, so please bear with me as I cover the various sections. If you already know how a general tournament works, a refresher never hurts.

GENERAL RULES

1. This tournament is double-elimination and single-player. There are no teams here.
2. The Score System used will be Score V2.
3. The mapset will be announced every Sunday, and the categories are as follows:
NoMod, Hidden, HardRock, DoubleTime, FreeMod, TieBreaker
4. Match schedule is decided by the organizers. Players may feel free to ask for a reschedule if that doesn't work for them. Each stage of this tournament will last a week-end (except for group stage).
5. If there is no referee available, the match can be postponed.
6. If both players tie on the TieBreaker, the TieBreaker will be replayed.
7. If a player disconnects from the game, the opponent wins the round. The only exception is if the player disconnects during the first ten seconds of the song, in which the round is restarted (any abuse of this rule will be sanctionned).
8. Maps cannot be used twice in the same round.
9. You have 15 minutes to show up to your scheduled match. If the opponent doesn't show up, the player who was supposed to play automatically advances onwards.
10. Any other rules changes or unexpected occurrences will be announced on the discord server.

STAGE REGULATIONS

1. There are eight stages to this tournament: Qualifiers, Group Stage, RO32, RO16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Finals and Grand Finals.
2. Matches are seeded. This will happen in the seeding round (Qualifiers). More information will be held in Seeding Regulations.
3. In order to win in Group Stage and RO32, it's a Best-Of-7. In RO16 & Quarterfinals, it's a Best-Of-9. In Semifinals, it's a Best-Of-11. In Finals and Grand Finals, it's a Best-Of-13.
4. During Group Stage, a group = 4 people. The top 2 player from each group will advance to RO32

SEEDING REGULATIONS

1. During the seeding round, there will be multiple lobbies available at various hours. Players will be free to sign up to the lobbies they please.
2. This stage is mainly used to weed out the no-shows, and to classify the players in several seeds : Top Seed, High Seed, Mid Seed, Low Seed.
3. A private lobby will be created for all the players, and they will be invited into their lobby when it's their time. Make certain you're online at this time.
4. There will be no warmup during this, but rather all the players will play through a shorter mappool.
5. Seeding will be made with the average rank of each player on each map.
6. Maps will be played twice in a row during the lobby. However, players can ask for a break of between 2 and 5 minutes between each run.
7. Results will be announced on the Discord Server after the end of the week-end.

MATCH REGULATIONS

1. A private match will be created for your match, and both players will be invited into their match when it's their time. Make certain you're online at this time.
2. Each player is allowed one warm-up, but it must be below 4 minutes. (NO EXCEPTION)
3. Here is how bans and picks will happen. The first person to ban will be the loser of the !roll, then they will alternate bans. (Loser -> Winner -> Loser -> Winner) And the first person to pick will be the winner of the !roll, then they will alternate picks. (Winner -> Loser -> Winner -> Loser, etc...)
4. A player can't ban a map from the same category twice, but his opponent can ban a map from the same category as him.
5. In case of a tie, the tiebreaker is selected.
6. Results will be displayed on the Mastersheet, on Challonge, and announced by the referee in the #match-feed channel of the Discord server.

MAPPOOL REGULATIONS

1. There's a different pool in each stage of the tournament, becoming progressively harder.
2. As stated before, NoMod, Hidden, HardRock, DoubleTime, FreeMod, and TieBreaker are the six categories that exist for this tournament.
3. Tiebreaker is played with FreeMod.
4. FreeMod is played with NoMod, Hidden, or / and HardRock. It means that you do not HAVE to play with a mod.
5. As stated previously, the mappool is released every Sunday.

SCHEDULING REGULATIONS

1. Every stage is held during the week-ends to let players practice.
2. Matches are allowed to overlap if referees are available.
3. You must complete your match at the designated time.
4. However if you and your opponent can come up with a better time than what we have schedule for you, please inform us of this. We will change your match if informed before the Thursday before the week-end of matches.

If there are questions, feel free to ask in the #questions channel on the Discord server, or post in the thread !

December 27th 2020 - January 17th 2021 23:59 UTC : Signups

January 17th - January 27th : Screening phase

January 31st - 15 UTC : Mappool Showcase

February 6th - February 7th : Qualifiers

February 8th - 18 UTC : Live Drawings + Mappool Showcase

February 13th - February 21st : Group Stage

February 27th - February 28th : Round of 32

March 6th - March 7th : Round of 16 + Loser's Bracket Round 1

March 13th - March 14th : Quarterfinals + Loser's Bracket Round 2 & 3

March 20th - March 21st : Semifinals + Loser's Bracket Round 4 & 5

March 27th - March 28th : Winner's Finals + Loser's Bracket Round 6, Loser's Finals & Loser's Grand Finals

April 3rd - April 4th : Grand Finals