The 32 entrants will initially be seeded into four pots - The top 8 in pot one, 9-16 in pot two, 17-24 in pot three, and 25-32 in pot four. A group stage will then be drawn, where each group will contain one player from each pot. The defending champion in future tournaments will always be the top seed. There shall be 8 groups in total (Groups A-H). Within these groups, each player will play the other twice (once as France, and once as Austria). These games will be played simultaneously. A win will be worth 3 points, a draw worth 1 point, and a loss worth nothing. The top two players will then advance to the knockout stage. In the knockout stage, you will once more play two games against your opponent (one as France, one as Austria). The player with the most wins will advance - draws are worth nothing. The losing player will be knocked out. In the Round of 16, the group winners will be seeded, and the runners up unseeded, so all Round of 16 ties will be a winner against a runner up. You will not play anyone from your group in the Round of 16. From the Quarter Finals onward, there will be no seeds.
Tiebreakers: Captainmeme's inaugural 1v1 tournament uses France wins as a tiebreaker, but this tournament shall be rather different. From the observations of many top players; whilst it is easier to win as Austria against poor-average players, when playing top players, France seems to be the easier country to play as. As a result, Austria will be the weighted country here.
Group Stage Tiebreakers: Should two (or more) players finish with an equal number of points, Head to Head record shall be the first tiebreaker. Number of Austria wins in the Head to Heads shall be the second tiebreaker. Total Austria wins shall be the third tiebreaker. Should there still be a tie after all of these, then a single play-off game shall be played, with Austria advancing in the case of a draw in that one.
Knockout Stage: If the two legs do not produce a clear winner (either 2-1 or 1-0), then a first tiebreaker game. If this game is also drawn, then a fourth game will be played - and only then will Austria advance in the case of a tie.
Phase Lengths will be 24 hours. However, readying up is STRONGLY encouraged, and if you repeatedly fail to ready up and your game is lagging behind others at the same stage, then as Tournament Director (TD) I retain the right to chase you up and demand you ready up if there is not a reasonable excuse not to do so. Obviously readying up is not necessary immediately, but games should ideally be progressing at a rate of at least a few phases per day.
Each player will get one week of total pause time, which can be split up throughout the tournament. If a pause is required, please send the TD (myself) as a message and I will pause the game for you, as long as you have pause time remaining. Please do not pause without letting me know.
A CD will result in a loss for that game. NMR's will not be punished, though this being a 1v1 tournament, they will almost certainly lead to a loss anyway. Replacements will be called up for anyone who CD's or drops out during the group stages. If a player drops out or CD's midgame in the knockout stage, they will forfeit that match. If a player drops out prior to a game beginning in the knockout stage, then the player they last knocked out shall instead be recalled to the tournament as they will be deemed to have lost the game unfairly due to doping, bribery, fielding an ineligible player, or some other terrible sporting blight upon the world.
Games will be cost 5 points to join, as that is the minimum bet. Being an unranked game, these points will still be returned to you at the end of the game. Games will be FP and Non-Anon, for the benefit of spectators and to allow maximum Global arguing for the rest of us to enjoy.
The TD retains the right to force draw games that are stalemated after one year of stalemate, should the players involved not draw it themselves.
Signups will be open until 11pm BST (UTC+1) on Wednesday 17th May. Groups will be seeded immediately after signups close, and games will begin as soon as possible after this.
PM's are going to be sent to the top 33 players (as I will not be playing due to being the TD, despite qualifying in the top 32) to encourage as many of them to sign up as possible. Lower ranked players are free to state their interest in playing in this thread, in the case of any of the top 32 rejecting the opportunity to play.
Hellenic Riot (1v1 Champions League Tournament Director)
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Remove Discussion phase on the forum as a variant
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