Foreword
This whole idea blew up more than expected. It begun with me and Smoothie World talking about tournament ideas and then suddenly there were 200 people in my discord. I guess after my 3 weeks of retirement from tournament staff, I'm here to announce the unofficial osu! Solo Queue Ladder! This queue will throw you into a 1v1 tournament-style scenario against players internationally in a competitive environment, without the commitment of sometimes harsh tournament times. If you think you have what it takes to compete with the best, this is the right place for you to hone your skills.
Summary: In theory, this ladder is like every other one. You queue up, you play, you win/lose, and then your rating changes. Simple. However, to give that osu-eque touch to this unique event, we've put a spin on it. To accommodate each skill level of player in the community, we've planned to issue out 3 separate map pools every 3 weeks - the Beginner Pool at 3 - 4 stars, the Standard Pool at 4.5 - 5.4, and the Expert Pool at 5.7 and beyond. Of course, to promote competition at the highest level, we've implemented 2 ranking systems. Overall Rank, which is sort of like osu!'s Global Rank system, is a way to measure how you stack up against every other participant in the ladder. Bracket Rank, which corresponds with osu!'s Country Rank system, is a way to aim for a smaller goal against a smaller group of people. This rank will measure how you compare against the others playing in your specific map pool. That way, players can set a smaller goal for themselves before immediately jumping in to fight for Rank 1.
Weighting of Global Rank: Straightforward. If you play in the Expert Pool, you will gain rating at a faster pace than those who play in the lower pools. This reasoning is so that, firstly, a low 4 digit player can't grind the Beginner Pool and, because the maps and matches are easier, climb to rank #1 while the matches in the highest pool are closer and more likely to be 50/50. Also, it's so it doesn't encourage players who can play in the Expert Pool to play in lower pools for freelo.
Seasons, map pool changes, and end-season invitationals: To start, each season will last 13 weeks (9 months for regular season, 4 months for final tournament). Within these spans, 3 map pools will be rotated each week (1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3) in order to provide variety and flavor for our players. After each week's phase, participants can choose to vote off 3 maps for the next rotation in the pool of their desire. This is so certain players aren't stuck with a map pool they hate for 3 months, causing them to suffer through needless play of things that they simply can't. At the end of each season, the top 32 players on the GLOBAL ladder (or expert while we don't have global rating ready) will be taken into a single-elimination bracket to (hopefully) play for prizes and the the prize of being the reigning ladder champion.
Signing up: Simple! Just add our bot, as mentioned above, and type to it !register.
How to Queue: After looking at the map pools, maybe giving a few test plays, and determining which skill group you'd like to join, you queue up by typing the following command to our bot. If you want to play in the Beginner Pool, you'll type !queue beginner (or !q b) to be matched against someone who's queued at the same level as you. For the Standard Pool, it'll be !queue standard (or !q s), and for the Expert Pool, it'll be !queue expert (or !q e).
How matches work:
With osu_SQL bot v2, everything got much simpler. Thanks peppy!
- Matches are BO5
- Matches are score v1, please stop asking
- You are NOT forced to take a mod on freemod.
- Commands like !pick and !ban are now done through #multiplayer, NOT through the bot.
- !queue obviously queues you up
- !ban <map #> bans a map
- !pick <map #> picks a map
- !rejoin will automatically rejoin a room you've accidentally left
Moderation Team:
Programming Team:
Map Selection Team:
Commentary Team:
Thank you for allowing me to create this event for the community once more.
