With the posting of this thread, Season 8 is officially under way! Start contacting folks in your group and playing matches! You have until the end of Labor Day weekend. I'm planning on being less lenient about unplayed matches than I have been in the past, so please get 'em done! Six weeks should be plenty of time!
1. The league's players are sorted into four groups of five or six, with each player having a home map.
2. In the first round, each player will play two one-on-one matches against each member of his group, once on each player's home map. (You do not have to use the same book in both matches.) Players are responsible for arranging their own matches. It's easiest to just send XBL friend requests to everyone in your group and coordinate that way.
3. The first round will end after Labor Day weekend. Sometime around then, I will post playoff pairings.
4. All matches will be played with a TG goal of 7,000, no E cards, random lands and no sudden death. Time and round limits are the defaults (60-second turns, 95 rounds).
5. Results are to be reported as replies to this thread. As results come in, I'll update the first post of the thread with each player's record. When posting results from your match, it's fair to talk in general terms ("It was a race to the castle after he landed on my Level 5 land and lost his huge lead.") Refrain from specifics, e.g., "I just didn't have anything that could stop his Hive Workers and Peludas."
6. The two cepters with the best records from each group will advance to the playoffs, for a total of eight players. If multiple individuals finish round 1 tied for a playoff spot, a tiebreaker match on a random map selected by Dirk will decide who advances. (If three players finish tied, the tiebreaker game would be a three-player game.) If more than three players finish tied for a playoff spot, Dirk will devise some other tiebreaker.
7. The playoffs will be run as a tournament. Each round of the playoffs will be set up as a best-of-three matchup, with one match on each player's home map, plus one match on a random map selected by me ahead of time. If players are tired of their home maps, both players can agree to play a best-of-three series on three randomly selected maps. Playoff opponents will be chosen at random, but I will doctor the results so that two players from the same division won't face each other again until the finals, if they get that far.
8. Please don't drop out. If you do, you won't be allowed to participate in other leagues I'm running. I'll allow exceptions for family emergencies, RROD, etc., but in general, the only way to get back in the mix once you've quit on a league is to serve as a dependable alternate for a season.
9. Eventual league champion gets a $50 GameStop gift card from Andy. Runner-up gets a $25 gift card. If Andy wins the league, the second place person gets the $50 gift card, and we'll have a third-place match for the $25 card. If I win a card, I will award it at random to a player who completed all of his or her matches.
10. Occasionally, we’ll run into disconnect issues. If you disconnect from your opponent mid-match, both players restart the match, and may edit or change their decks if they choose. (If players don’t want to get bogged down with editing decks after multiple disconnects, they can agree before their first match to just keep reusing the same decks if they disconnect. But in the absence of such an agreement or if both players are unable to agree on the editing/changing of books, assume editing of books is allowed.) Unfortunately, disconnects are a part of the game, so try to be cool and get along with everyone. You’ll probably experience the frustration of a disconnect when you’re up big, but you’re also probably bound to get bailed out by a disconnect in a game that isn’t going your way at some point. Such is the karma of disconnects.
11. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the thread or send an Xbox Live message to Dirk Dorkelson.
Group 1
*KSThor (Eusia), 8-0
MadPimp007 (Mt. Etumer), 4-4+
Jessickuh (Alcyon III), 4-4
CC Andyman (Two Towers), 4-4
Lynx1263 (Omengald), 0-8 (all matches converted to losses over failure to answer messages)
Group 2
*Jasoya (Stairway to the Gods), 8-0
Yolise (Lalasati), 7-3
Hyosetsu (Alcyon I), 5-3
Derceto7 (Windmill), 6-4
Gagun3 (Colosseum II), 0-8
Panic Attack 10 (Alcyon II), 0-8
Group 3
*IVIad IVIaxx (Zanador), 7-1
*Dirk Dorkelson (Vaulting Horse), 7-1
I MFC I Tiagox (Arrow), 3-5
Punkroc Chef (Cravonia), 2-6
Yo What Is This (Colosseum III), 1-7
Group 4
*Goavibe (Grave Canyon), 6-1
PB49er (X), 5-3
exp4tri4ted (The Second Morning), 4-3
AcePrositter (Santana Village), 3-3
Willben20 (Phoenixion), 0-8
Tiebreaker 1: MadPimp007 (4-4) def. Jessikuh (4-4) on Eusia
Playoffs:
MadPimp007 (2) def. Jasoya (1) (Stairway to the Gods, Mount Etumeer, Grave Canyon)
KSThor def. Goavibe (forfeit)
IVIad IVIaxx (2) def. Yolise (0) (Zanador, Lalasati, The Second Morning
PB49er (2) def. Dirk Dorkelson (0) (Vaulting Horse, X, Alcyon III)
Semifinals:
IVIad IVIaxx (2) def. MadPimp007 (1) (Zanador, Mount Etumeer, Alcyon II)
KSThor (2) def. PB49ers (1) (X, Eusia, Windmill)
Finals:
IVIad IVIaxx (2) def. KSThor (0) (Zanador, Eusia, Phoenixion)