Star Fleet Battles Online - Tournaments

Star Fleet Battles Online exists primarily to give its subscribers a chance to participate in a Star Fleet Battles tournament. SFBOL is not designed to replace face to face SFB tournaments, but rather to augment those with tournaments where all players from all across the globe can compete together. Many SFB players do not live in areas that are conveniently located near a convention that supports a local tournament. Other players simply do not enjoy the hectic schedule of playing SFB games back to back to back as is common in face to face tournaments.

SFBOL offers a way to satisfy the community of competitive SFB players to hone their skills against some of the best players that exist today. Not every type of tournament offers a Rated Ace Card to the winner, but it is the sincere hope that those which do not are still entertaining. Star Fleet Battles Online offers the following types of tournament play

The form contains a drop-down list of all tournaments currently accepting registrations.
Note: You do not need to register for NETKill Tournaments.
The World League tournament is a once a year event and requires a SFB Online Account. To register to World Cup you will need to contact the person running it.

To look at the previous Sapphire Star tournaments, you can got to the Sapphire Star Tournament Archives.

To look at the archived tournaments, you can got to the Tournament Archives.

To read some thoughts from tournament winners go to Victory at Articles.

• We recognize that in SFBOL - with non graphic SSDs players may mistakenly mark the phaser during damage allocation. If a player immediately (after the volley) recognizes this, as long as the next impulse has not been called, he should be allowed to use edit mode to change and mark the correct one.
• The graphic SSD's have produced some "quirks" that need to be mentioned
1. The graphic SSD may destroys all of one shuttle bay then start on the next. Players playing ships with 2 shuttle bays should consider shuttle bays to have taken equal hits (e.g. if you have 2 shuttle boxes left, they are from separate bays)
2. Also, the Klingon boom impulse is the last impulse to be destroyed on SSD. It should, of course, be the first to go since it does not produce impulse energy for movement. For this tournament, consider the first impulse to be destroyed to be the one that cannot produce movement, and the boom impulse does produce movement.

These are also known as "Captain's" tournaments which is how it is called at the Star Fleet Battles Championships held annually at Origins. The winner of a single elimination tournament must achieve an unbroken string of wins where each mistake could be the last. Star Fleet Battles Online is authorized by Amarillo Design Bureau to offer three such tournaments each year. They will be generally be offered to coincide with the first, second, and fourth calendar quarters of the year. The third calendar quarter of the year is occupied by some of the larger face to face tournaments such as Origins in July and GenCon in August. It is not the desire that SFBOL interfere with any player's pursuit of victory at any major face to face tournament.

Rules

The Star Fleet Battles Online Ace Tournament uses the standard tournament rules that are used at Origins. It is a single elimination tournament and the number of rounds and the number of Rated Ace Cards awarded will depend on the number of entrants.

• Game Start Procedures
  • Games normally must be completed within 2 weeks of the game assignment.
  • Players should notify each other, and come up with a game start time within 1 week of the assignment. (The game doesn't need to start, you just need to have a date/time set).
  • Both players are required to notify tournament desk if there is any problem in meeting this deadline. Upon notification, it will be up to the tournament directors to determine if an extension is to be granted.
  • Both players are to notify tournament control that a start time has been agreed upon. This ensures that both players are on the same page as to the start time when a start time has been agreed upon. To notify the tournament desk, send email to SFBOL Tournament Control.
  • If a player misses his assigned game, he could be subject to forfeiture. We do not want to forfeit anyone who had network problems, but feel players need to make an honest effort to meet their obligations.
• Multiple Sessions
• Matches may be played over multiple sessions.
• While we understand that circumstances may cause a short session, it is expected that each session shall last a MINIMUM of two (2) hours. Session termination must be agreed upon by both players with a date and time to resume the game agreed to BEFORE the game is suspended.
• If a session is terminated due to network problems, and one or both players are unable to reconnect, both players are to contact each other within 24 hours to set the time and date for the next session. Any session disruptions due to network problems are to be reported to tournament control with the re-scheduled date and time included.
• Game Length
• Games should be played to there natural conclusion - with no time limit. Players should be able to play till one player blows up or resigns. In extreme situations the judges will consider an adjudication.
• The adjudication procedures are:
  1. The player desiring an adjudication will inform his/her opponent that they desire an adjudication.
  2. All play in the game is stopped, and the game is saved.
  3. The player requesting an adjudication will attempt to contact the judges. If a judge is currently online, the judge will begin the adjudication process as defined in Module T.
  4. If no judge is on-line, the person requesting adjudication will e-mail the tournament desk informing him of the request. Both players will once again save their game prior to leaving the game channel.
  5. The judges will e-mail the requestor's opponent to verify that an adjudication request was announced prior to the e-mail.
  6. The judges will set a time that is agreeable to both parties to adjudicate the match as per the rules in Module T.
• Rules Questions
• Players may at some point need to stop the game because a judge is not online and they need to have a rules question answered or a ruling made.
• In this case, players should use the "adjudication" procedure listed above to contact the judges and have the ruling made.

Win the coveted "CyberKnight" award by collecting the most net points in a three month period and eliminating a 3 person mini-tournament. All NETKill tournament games follow the same tournament format and rules as the single elimination tournaments do with two important exceptions. Any game played on SFBOL between two subscribers can count as a game for this tournament so the Game Start procedures listed above are not used. Players are not required to keep the same ship throughout the tournament and can switch ships between battles.

Procedures

At the end of the quarter (i.e. April 1st, July 1st, October 1st, January 1st) the top 3 players will play a 2-round single elimination tournament to become a CyberKinght. If there are multiple players tie for the top 3 positions, additional elimination games (with byes as necessary) will be assigned to narrow the field down to 2 final contestants. The top player for each tournament gets a first round bye in this two round finals. This eliminates some of the problems where one player builds an insurmountable lead and others can not catch him. If the winner played at least 12 games during the quarter, with at least 60% of the games won, he gets the title "Cyber Knight," and the "Sir_" prefix is added to his callsign. If the winner did not meet the above criteria (playing less than 12 games, or too low a win percentage), then he gets a lesser title of "Cyber Squire" and the "Squire_" prefix is added to his callsign.

• How many points do I earn for winning a game?
  The exact number of points will range from 1 to 50 depending on the difference between your rating and that of your opponent. Basically, if you defeat an opponent of equal rating, you get 25 points. If you defeat a lower-rated opponent, you get fewer points, down to a minimum of 1 for someone rated far below you. If you defeat a higher-rated opponent, you get more than 25 points, up to a maximum of 50 for someone rated far above you.
• What happens to my points if I lose?
  The defeated player loses the same number of points that the winner gains.
• What if I am a new player and do not have a rating yet?
  If you do not have a rating, you will get one when you finish 4 or more NetKill games over a period of no more than 2 quarters against players who already have ratings.
• I need to post my win. Where do I do this?
  You don't! For a NetKill game only the LOSER of a match reports it. When that person posts your match you will be credited with your win.
• What should I do if someone does not report a match?
  There are several steps you must follow if someone fails to report a match result.
  1. First you need to be sure that you give your opponent enough time to report the match. You must wait at least 24 hours before you can file an unreported match complaint.
  2. If after that time the match has not been reported you should send the user a friendly reminder to post the match. Everyone forgets to report a match now and then. You can find someone's mail address using our Subscriber Search form. After you bring up their Ladder information, click on their username to get their E-mail address. Give them 24 hours to respond to your mail.
  3. If they STILL haven't reported or replied to your E-mail you should Email NETKill Desk. Please be sure you let us know the steps you have taken to contact the user and when the match was played. If you don't do this we can't process your request and you won't get your win. Be SURE to do this!
  4. Unreported Matches typically take two to four days to resolve as we attempt to contact the user ourselves. We also dig out records of that user and investigate any other claims against them.
• How do I report a loss?
  Go to Report NetKill Loss form and fill in the required fields. You and your opponent will receive a e-mail confirmation of the game result. The NetKill Standings page for the current tournament will be updated when the next batch of games is processed.

* The Unreported Match form will be available soon. Until it is ready please direct all complaints to the NetKill Desk.