1st Official FFR League!
That's right everyone, we're going to start up an ongoing, competitive FFR league. Seasons, divisions, prizes, playoffs, you name it, it'll be here. This is still undergoing some tweaks and is a new idea, so we'll give it a go for a while, and see whether it picks up or not.
As you read on, the "qualifying tourney" which is mentioned as the precursor to this event is something that will probably start after this coming weekend of the 22nd of august, so you have a few days.
A few things to note about the FFR league:
1/ This is a high-skill, competitive league. Don't expect to be playing anything easier than a 10 under the vast majority of circumstances. Do be expecting to play a lot of 11s and 12s. This is not going to be a league for everyone, this is going to be a league for the already competitive top echelons of players to continue to compete and earn prizes and bragging rights.
2/ This league will require activity. Each round of the league season will probably be lasting between 4 days and a week, I haven't pinned down the best balance of time to work at songs, and difficulty to earn good scores quickly, (Though if shorter than 7 days, new rounds will still only be appearing once a week) and each season will likely be 8 "rounds" (2 months) long. This means if you want to take part and have a good chance at winning, you'll need to be putting time in fairly frequently.
3/ There is no division placement. There will, however BE divisions, but you will earn your way up into higher divisions where the competition is harder and the prizes are better.
Here's how it's going to work
We're going to start off the league with a qualifying tournament. The format for this tournament will operate the way my CT tourney song rounds operate. You will be given a song, and a time-frame in which to score the highest score you are able, and you will submit your score via screenshots (No word on whether LD can adapt the dashboard, we'll see)
The highest submitted score will earn 1000 points. Each score submitted below that will earn 90% of the points of the person above them. So a set of submissions of AAA, X-0-0-0-1, X-3-0-0-0 would get 1000, 900, and 810 points. Ties at a given score share the number of points. By doing it as a percentage, we allow an unlimited number of participants to submit scores while keeping the point progression linear, and giving the biggest point differential to the highest scoring players.
The qualifying tourney will last for 4 rounds, with credit prizes for the top finishers. This will also set up our divisions for league play. Depending on how many people take part in the qualifier, we will create 3 divisions of equal size, which will form the basis of the prize-winning categories.
League play will be scored in the same fashion, though the exact mechanism of each round may vary week to week. Some weeks it may be ranked by total score, some by pre-combo score, and some may involve direct competition. (There will be no anti-skill rounds, or other similar things [eg. no 'who can get the most goods' or other tricky nonsense like that])
Since each season of the league won't involve eliminations (until playoff time) this does mean that if you do well in a given week or two, you can do poorly, or miss a week, without jeopardizing your overall performance too much.
How Prizes will work
The qualifying tourney is going to have some small prizes to the top finishers (Being, all those who qualify for the top division)
The league will have prizes at the end of the season based on placement at the end of league play.
There will then be elimination playoffs with their own set of prizes, determining the champions of each division.
But how do I change divisions?
The top division will have better prizes than the lower divisions, the reason being that the top division is going to, over time, have the best and most consistant players.
The mechanism by which this is accomplished is that at the end of regular season play, regardless of placement in playoffs, the top 2 or 3 players (depending on division size) from each division will move up one division, and the bottom 2 or 3 players (depending on division size) from each division will move down one division, there to stay until they earn or fail their way into another division.
The top 2/3 in the first division will not be moved up into a newer division, they'll simply stay where they are. The bottom 2/3 of the bottom division however, will be removed from prize-winning competition the next season.
Where they go is into a big giant mess called "Division 4" Division 4 is "Everybody who isn't in division 1, 2 or 3" and absolutely anybody of any skill level or level of dedication can take part in division 4 play. At the end of the season, the top 2/3 people of division 4 earn their way into division 3 and the ability to earn prizes.
If we keep the activity level of this league high, and keep interest and competition going, this could be a really great ongoing event for the site. There's credits, subscription time, and possibly other goodies up for grabs, so I hope everybody who is at all interested comes out and tries to make this a success.
FAQ (Well: AQ, since anything that gets asked is being put in here)
Is this a team or what? AKA: Can I be a part of this while in TC? - This is not a team, this is not a clan, this is a site-sponsored event like the official tourney. You can be in the league while a part of any other event, team, club, or contest.
So how many people will be accepted in this league? - As many people as want to sign up for the qualifying tourney are able to. The size of the divisions after the qualifiers will depend on the number of entrants.
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