- I. PREFACE
II. TOURNAMENT STAFF
- A. HOST/COORDINATOR
- B. MAP SELECTORS
- C. MATCH REFEREES
- D. STREAMERS
- E. COMMENTATORS
- III. TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
- IV. TOURNAMENT ORGANIZATION
- NEW: A. ROUNDS
- NEW: B. QUALIFICATION PROCESS
- 1. INFORMATION
- 2. SCORING
- NEW: C. POST-QUALIFICATION
- NEW: D. GROUP STAGE
- V. TOURNAMENT PLAY
- A. PROTOCOL
- B. WARM-UP SONGS
- C. ROLLS, BANS, SONG SELECTION
- D. TOURNAMENT ROUNDS
- VI. ROUND OVERVIEWS
- A. OVERVIEW
- B. QUALIFICATION STAGE
- C. ROUND OF 64
- D. ROUND OF 32
- E. ROUND OF 16
- F. QUARTERFINALS
- G. SEMI-FINALS
- H. FINALS
- VII. PARTICIPANT LIST
- VIII. PRIZES
- IX. CREDITS
- X. MATCH SCHEDULES
- XI. MAP POOLS
- XII. MATCH RESULTS
- XIII. STAFF APPLICATIONS
I. PREFACE
You really thought we would do only one edition?
SOFT, short for springtime osu!mania free-for-all tournament, is a one-on-one, country-independent tournament. As the title indicates, this tournament is for the osu!mania game mode. More specifically, it is a 4 key tournament. This time around it is scheduled to start by the end of February / start of March, and will end at some point between mid/late April depending on the number of participants. And of course, it doesn’t quite start in spring, and barely even touches it for that matter, but our pre host Halogen- definitely wants us to keep the clever, memorable acronym, right?
Compared to last year there are some changes being prepared by us but for now we will keep them behind the gates as we are still doing some testings to figure out how to make it work but expect something good!
There are no prerequisites for entering this tournament! You can enter from any country, with any rank or performance points. Read on to see if this tournament is a good choice for you!
TO ENTER, STATE YOU WANT TO ENTER THE TOURNAMENT AND GIVE ME YOUR TIME ZONE BASED OFF OF UTC. I WILL DO MY BEST TO MAKE A SCHEDULE THAT FAIRLY ACCOMMODATES FOR YOU AT ANY GIVEN POINT, BUT NO PROMISES CAN BE GUARANTEED.
II. TOURNAMENT STAFFII. Tournament Staff
HOST/COORDINATOR: Responsible of the organizing all facets of the tournament that directly affect players, including match scheduling, and staffing.
HOST:juankristal
COORDINATOR:-Konner-
MAP SELECTORS: Responsible for the selection of the maps in each given map pool. If you hate something in the map pool, feel free to (respectfully) direct your hate to these people.Tidek
MATCH REFEREES: Responsible for the administration of individual tournament matches. They will be the ones inviting to rooms and running through protocol to ensure that the matches run smoothly and on time for users and staff.Mathisca
shadowsnoop
Ciel
SurfChu85
eiuh
WalterToro
STREAMERS: Responsible for the broadcast of the tournament via streaming mediums and the tournament client.
COMMENTATORS: Responsible for play-by-play, live analysis of tournament matches, maps, players, and more.RemFangirl
Shoegazer
III. TOURNAMENT SCHEDULEIII. Tournament Schedule
Tentative on number of entries; a finalized schedule will be put into place after registrations have been officially closed, and the schedule will be adhered to unless noted by the tournament host.
Sign-ups:30th of January - 11st of February
Qualifiers released: February 12nd
Qualification stage play begins: February 18th
Post-Qualification Week 1: 25th February
Post-Qualification Week 2: 4th of March
Group Stage Week 1: 11st of March
Group Stage Week 2: 18th of March
Round of 32: 25th of March
Round of 16: 1st of April
QuarterFinals: 8th of April
SemiFinals: 15th of April
Finals/Grand Finals: 22th of April
Expected tournament conclusion date: April 15th to April 30th (This depends on the amount of players signed up)
Matches will be played on Saturday and Sunday, with the potential exception of the qualifier stage, which may need a Friday run depending on availability.
IV. TOURNAMENT ORGANIZATIONIV. Tournament Organization
A: ROUNDS
Rounds are still to be designed as we are currently experimenting a bit with it. Expect something cool!
B: QUALIFICATION PROCESS
1 -- INFORMATION
All players that enter the tournament will be eligible to play in the qualification round; however, participants cut down to a power of 2. The maximum number of players to advance into the post-qualification stage is 128.
If 32 players enter, all 32 players will qualify and no one gets eliminated.
If 33 players enter, the lowest individual gets eliminated and the top 32 go on.
If 49 players enter, the lowest 17 individuals get eliminated and the top 32 go on.
If 63 players enter, the lowest 31 individuals get eliminated and the top 32 go on.
If 64 players enter, all 64 players will qualify and no one gets eliminated.
If 127 players enter, the lowest 63 individuals get eliminated and the top 64 go on.
The purpose of the above example is to reiterate that there will not be any rounding up with regards to tournament cut decisions. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask them in the tournament thread.
The qualification round will have a 4 song mini-pool that varies widely in difficulty. Each map will be assigned a tier, with tier 1 being the lowest difficulty, and tier 4 being the highest difficulty. All four maps will be created by the map selectors and will be unreleased prior to the tournament qualifier, to provide 0 opportunity for advantage through familiarity. All players will have two chances at each qualifier, making a qualifying session 8 songs total, where the highest of the two runs on each qualifier will be tabulated and cumulated for your final score.
Players will be organized in groups based on their availability. Because qualification is not a process that involves 1 on 1 matchups, it is actually possible to have 8 players go through the qualification process at once, streamlining the process. If this is a confusing process, do not worry if you do not understand: simply adhere to the schedule put out and follow referee instructions during the match. The purpose of putting you guys in groups of 8 is to give everyone streaming time, as qualifiers will be streamed as well!
Regardless of the number of entrants and eliminations, the qualification process will also be done to seed players. Players will be ordered based on their cumulative score from all four songs after the customized formula for the tier 1 song has been applied (see - TOURNAMENT ORGANIZATION > QUALIFICATION PROCESS > SCORING), with the best score being seed #1, and the worst score being seed n, with n being the number of players to clear the qualification stage.
2 -- SCORING
NEW: The score system we will be using this time is SCOREV2 in all the rounds. The total of the four songs played will accumulate to your final qualification score.
C. POST-QUALIFICATION
The round post-qualification will be a SINGLE ELIMINATION bracket stage with specific rules. Those who advance during this post-qualification stage (or second qualification) will be placed with 3 different players (with a total of 4 players) in a group.
After the first qualification round the remaining 128 (or 64, depending on the registrations) players will be placed in 4 DIFFERENT GROUPS determined by their seeds during the first round of qualification.- Top16: The top 16 seeds of the first qualification stage will advance directly into the group stage and they wont play the second round of qualification or post-qualification stage. This teams will be the top seeded teams of the group in all the cases.
- 17°-32° seeds: Those who get this seeds will get guaranteed High-Seed in the group stage if they manage to advance further into the tournament but they will have to play and win one match in order to qualify to it.
- 33°-96° seeds: This players will have to play once as well but they will play against each other (example, seed 33 plays against seed 96) and the winners of those matchups will advance and depending on who ends up qualified their seed of the qualification stage will determinate their seeds in the group stage.
- 97°-128° seeds: Those who end up in the last spots will be forced to play 2 MATCHES instead of one if they want to qualify into the group stage. The first match will be once again a single elimination between themselves (for example, seed 97 against seed 128) and the second one will be against those who ended up being in the 17°-32° seeds for a spot in the group stage.
To reiterate, the number of players entered in the tournament determines the number of players to move on past the qualification period. See B-1: INFORMATION for details.
D. GROUP STAGE
Following the qualification process will be a group stage tournament style that transitions to a double-elimination. The groups will be made of 4 players each and they will be a number of 16 groups (or 8, depending on the amount of players registrated).
V. TOURNAMENT PLAYV. Tournament Play
PROTOCOL
Following the qualification round, all subsequent rounds will be player versus player however, its still to be decided how those rounds will work. More details soon!
All matches must have a referee that is listed in the staff section of this tournament unless otherwise noted by myself. For maximal accountability on myself and my staff, each match will have a primary referee and a back-up referee in the event that the primary cannot make the match. This way we ensure you that there will be someone there to handle your tournament match. Overlaps between matches in dense stages might and will happen and because of that streaming every single map is just literally not doable. Even still, we will do our best job to get stream time for everyone.
Matches will be listed in time blocks of a certain duration depending on the stage. If it is required the match schedules will consider running them for more time (for example, the finals will likely be scheduled to last for 1:30 hours).- It is your right as a player and tournament entrant to expect that staff will perform to the best of their abilities in moderating matches in such a way that they will conclude in a timely manner. This means that rooms with matches will be created before the match start time, and you will be invited to the corresponding tournament room before the match start time. If both players arrive on time, tournament proceedings will begin promptly at the start time of the match, no earlier and no later. Take care of any priorities you may have immediately before and/or after the match, as we will be running on a fixed schedule. If it is less than five (5) minutes before your match start time and you have not been invited to your corresponding multiplayer room, find the designated referee for your match in game and send them a message. If they are not available, send a message to the backup referee of the matchup. If for any reason neither of them are available, send me a Discord message at juankristal#4568, with your invitation to add as a contact indicating that you are a player in my tournament and do not have a referee for your matchup. I will mitigate the situation both with your tournament match and unreliability of my team at that point.
- It is our right as tournament staff to expect that you will arrive for your matches before your expected time. Players will be given a ten (10) minute grace period after the match start time to enter their room; if they have not entered by this point, the match will be forfeited and the player that has arrived will win by default. In the extreme circumstance where both players have not shown up, the player with the higher seed in the match-up will advance automatically. This is to prevent byes for multiple matches while providing potential for more intense matchups to still be possible.
- It is your privilege as a player and tournament entrant to have an opinion about the content/structure used in the tournament. You are experiencing this event as a competitor, and every choice made in the process directly affects how you will progress in the tournament. If you dislike something, you are allowed to state your dislike -- however, do so reasonably. Speaking in absolutes/matter-of-fact tone is the fastest way for an argument to start, especially over an opinionated statement. Keep in mind that some of your fellow competitors and other users on this website will have content that will inevitably be used in the tournament, and it is best advised that you make it clear that it is your opinion so as to not be hurtful.
- It is our right as tournament staff to reprimand users for intolerable behavior. I (juankristal) will have sole discretion over decisions that affect your standing in the tournament; however, other members of tournament staff may forward any information to me that in any way represents uncalled for behavior towards other users or staff in my tournament. I will attempt to escalate serious situations beyond the scope of this event if need be, so please -- do everyone (and yourself) a favor and just be respectful. Minor instances will receive warnings, and continued instances will result in forceful removal from the tournament.
Each player in the match will be allowed one (1) warm-up song to be played, making for two (2) warm-ups total between both players. The warm-up must be uploaded to the osu! website and accessible by everyone prior to the tournament match. Maps that have a beatmap listing but cannot be downloaded are not allowed for the purpose of warmup. Bloodcat links are not allowed, and neither are personal links featuring the beatmap that you want downloaded. Warm-up songs will be on free mode, allowing for any special modifications that you see fit for the purpose of warming up properly. NEW: In early stages your Warm-up cant be longer than 4 minutes. This includes the first 2 stages of the tournament after the qualifiers
BANS, ROLLS, SONG SELECTION
With the exception of warm-ups, all songs played in a given round must match those that are selectable in the corresponding map pool. Maps are to be played on a restrictive Free Mod: only Hidden, Fade In, or Flashlight can be used. NEW: A Hardrock bracket might be added sometime post-qualifiers.
Players are to ban one (1) map within the map pool that they are playing for the given round. Players will be instructed to do a !roll command by the referee that is overseeing the match; the losing roll picks the first banned song, while the winning roll picks the first song of the match.
After the bans and rolls have concluded, the player with the winning roll instructs the referee of their song selection, and the referee will switch to that song. After that song concludes, the other player will pick songs, and this process will continue until one of the two conditions is satisfied:
a.) One player has achieved enough wins in such a way that the other player cannot successfully win the round.
b.) Both players are at match point at the same time.
If situation A:- the winning player moves onto the next match
- the losing player falls to the loser’s bracket. If a player loses in the loser’s bracket, they are eliminated from the tournament.
- Both players will play the song designated as the tiebreaker. The winner of the tiebreaker will progress to the next match of the tournament, while the loser will be eliminated or sent to the loser’s bracket, depending on the position of the tournament.
DISCONNECTIONS
Disconnections are an unfortunate circumstance, but cannot be fully accounted for. However, there are some stipulations in place that will allow players to mulligan a single attempt for a map. Maps with a player disconnection that occurs within the first 30 seconds, or 25% of the song (whichever comes first) will be nullified and re-attempted. Matches will have a two disconnection limit -- upon the third disconnection, a point will be handed immediately to the player still active within the lobby.
A two minute timer will be placed on a disconnected player when the song played has concluded. When this timer hits 0, the grace period mentioned in PROTOCOL will be (re)activated. If the grace period timer hits 0, the match is forfeited, and the other remaining player will be declared winner. Situations with two player disconnections will be executed similarly to two missing players for a given match: the higher seed will be declared the winner if both players have no time left in their grace period.
VI. ROUND OVERVIEWSVI. Round Overviews
Every tournament round will have a specific number of maps to be played, a tiebreaker, and a maximum number of maps per match. The expected format is as follows:- Qualification stages: 4 song map-pool, no winning condition, no tiebreaker.
- Rounds until Round of 16: 10 song map-pool, best of 7 (first to 4), one tiebreaker song
- Round of 16/quarter-finals: 12 song map-pool, best of 9 (first to 5), one tiebreaker song
- Semi-finals: 14 song map-pool, best of 11 (first to 6), one tiebreaker song
- Finals and Grand Finals: 16 song map-pool, best of 13 (first to 7), one tiebreaker song
Thanks Halogen- for letting me use the old SOFT design! - Top16: The top 16 seeds of the first qualification stage will advance directly into the group stage and they wont play the second round of qualification or post-qualification stage. This teams will be the top seeded teams of the group in all the cases.
