Note : A version of this guide is also available in
Spanish (en espanol) here.
Translated by "TheCK" of DDR Europe.
One of the
things that people continue to ask on DDR boards all over the US is
how to run a DDR tournament. There are good ways and bad ways. I am
about to show you a way that is mainly accepted around the US as a
fair way to run a tournament. Plus it is the most accepted format in
major cities in Texas, including my area. This guide was originally
created as to help out with all the fighting that has been going on
about the European DDR tourneys being significantly different from
US/Japan tournaments, but others can benefit from this as
well.
NOTE: This tourney that I am describing will use the
Perfect Attack system. If you want more info about other systems,
please see the links at the very bottom of this guide. Also these rules
can be used for In The Groove tournaments, but there are some
differences, detailed in a separate FAQ. Link is at the end of this
guide.
Let's
see, how do we start?
Registration
Usually a morning time is when this starts, like when the
arcade opens. People will pay their entry fees to the tournament host
and they will get warm up time as well.
Always set a stiff cut
off time, usually when qualifying is almost over. This is so that it
is fair for those who show up on time. If you don't want to be left
out of a tourney,
Qualifying Song/Brackets
Everyone who has entered the touranment should do a qualifying
song. Why? Because if you seed people randomly, you are more likely
to have complaints that the good players face each other too early,
which is not good. Good players want to be in a tourney longer,
especially if they have traveled great distances. GOT IT?
Now,
the actual qualifer. There is no specific recommendation for this
song, it can be anything the tourney organizer wants. But please
let's not make it a roughly hard song, like Max 300, or Sakura,
etc... It should be something that everyone should be able to score
well on, say a 6-7 footer, or something like that. If the tourney
consists of players who can all play 8-10 footers, then you can make
it an 8 footer.
Again, know the feet range of the players when
determining this qualifer.
Can you have more than one song as
the qualifer? Yes. Go right ahead, sometimes it helps for people to
have more than one song, because it allows them to pick something
they can do their best!
After everyone has qualified, the
contestants will be placed in a bracket based on their total number
of perfects (or in the case of people doing different qualifying
songs, the percentage of perfects. Take the amount of perfects a
player gets and divide by the total amount of steps in a song.)
Ok,
so you need brackets. Well, I will link you to two such things.
16
Person Bracket
32
Person Bracket
(Note : You must have the adobe reader to
view these files. There is a free one at adobe.com. Click
here.)
Downloaded them?
Good.
Now open them up and look at the center of the bracket.
See the brackets with the numbers? Those are the seedings.
Arrange
the players in the order of their total perfects or perfect
percentage. For example:
Chris, John, Aaron, Bob
Chris
- 320 perfects
John - 400 perfects
Aaron - 150 perfects
Bob
- 200 perfects
The results are:
#1 seed - John
#2 seed -
Chris
#3 seed - Bob
#4 seed - Aaron
And you would place
them in the slot where the number is. #1 is always at the top of the
bracket, and #2 is always at the way bottom. Place all other players
in the bracket.
Byes : Sometimes, you will not be able to
reach 16 or 32 players. If you have like 14 players, you can still do
a tourney with a 16 player bracket! The top 2 players will receive
byes into the second round. If you have 2 byes, write bye in the 15th
and 16th seed. It will automatically lose a match, so move players up
accordingly.
Fail to qualify : Other times, you may have a few
more players than you need to make a bracket. Hence the qualifying
song. Those that do not place in the top 16 or 32, depending on what
you use, have failed to qualify and do not participate in the
elimination rounds. I recommend that you do refund some of their
money.
The brackets I showed you are what we call double elimination
brackets. That means that in these tourneys, no player is eliminated
until they lose twice. I'll explain this in full while I am telling
you how to run the actual portion of the tournament.
Elimination Rounds
Ok, everyone has been placed in the bracket. Great! Time to
begin the tournament. Oh wait, you don't know how to run the actual
tourney. Well, I will show you one way that is predominant in the US.
Then I will explain a few other ways, and other modes of tourneys.
This is the basic singles tech tournament, where players are tested
on their accuracy in singles play.
Note : Another way to
run the elimination rounds is with the card system, which seems to be
gaining more and more acceptance around the US. For this, scroll down
to the links below.
When a match is about to start, the
first two players will get on the game. Each match should be at least
2 or 3 songs, depending on what style you are playing (more on this
in a minute).
The choice of side is usually decided by each
player. If they cannot decide, flip a coin, rock paper scissors,
etc.
The high seed will get the choice of whether they want to
pick the first or second song. The player who does not pick the song,
picks the difficulty. Now as for options, they may or may not be able
to be picked, more on this in a moment.
After the players have
completed the song, the results screen will come up. The tournament
host will write down the amount of perfects that each player got on
that song.
In the second song, the same thing happens, only
that the roles are reversed (Player that picked the first song picks
the second song's difficulty, and player that picked the first song's
difficulty picks the second song.)
In the third song (if
necessary, again, I'll explain this in a minute) the roles can be the
same for the 1st song, or, and this is highly recommended, use the
roulette or random function and have a difficulty set before the
match. If your machine does not have random or roulette, let the host
pick the song in some way.
Who wins the match? Well, there are
two styles of play.
Cumulative style: The match lasts 3 songs,
no exceptions. Perfects are added up. Most perfects at the end of the
3 songs will win the match. If both players have the same amount of
perfects at the end of the match, then the two players will play
another song, usually selected at random, to break the tie.
Fighting
Style: The match will last a minimum of 2 songs. Perfects are added
up after each song. The player with the most perfects at the end of a
song gets a point. The player that reaches two points first, is the
winner. If a player wins the first two songs of a match, that person
is the winner and a third song is not played. If there is a tie after
a song, both players receive a half-point. Once again, after 3 songs,
if the players have the same amount of points, then a tiebreaker song
is played.
Options and other notes
Speed Mods: Allow players to pick their own speed mods. That
allows everyone to do their best.
Turn modifiers: These are
left, right, mirror, shuffle. Usually these are not allowed, but can
be used as long as both players have the same turn modifier.
Other
prohibited modifiers: Little (Why would you even put this on?), No
Freeze (Everyone should be able to hit the freezes, even though they
have no bearing on the scoring, hey, it's part of the game)
Solo
modifier: This is a little controversial. In Max-Extreme, there is a
bug in which if one player picks solo, then the other player has to
use it as well. This modifier colors the arrows brighter, and
distinctly shows what beat the notes run. You can prohibit this
modifier all together, or allow it if both players consent.
Rest
of the modifiers are allowed to be chosen individually.
Other Notes
One song rule - This rule is strongly recommended. It
prohibits a player from picking a song more than once in the entire
tournament. For example, if I pick So Deep in the first round of the
tourney, I cannot pick it again the rest of the tourney. It means
players will have to formulate a strategy to what songs they may
pick, as they can't use one song to beat everyone out.
Picking
song twice in the round - Never allow this. End of
story.
Restricting Difficulties - Usually when a tourney
progresses, difficulties are usually restricted, as the players that
are left are the best. You may restrict them all the way to heavy/oni
only, usually that is saved for the finals. Up to the organizer.
How to use the brackets
Ok, so look at the brackets again. Now where do you write the
people in when they lose or win? Simple. When they win, you move them
to the right. When they lose:
In the first round, the losers
are simply put in the bracket on the left side.
In other
rounds : If you look at one of the later rounds (not the first round)
you will see a letter and a number. (A1, A2, etc.) Now look to the
left of the bracket. See the "Loser of ..." underneath some
of the slots? The loser will go there. It's simple match up. For
example, let's take the 2nd round of the winner's bracket at the very
top, where the winner of the 1 vs. 16 seed faces the winner of the 8
vs. 9 seed. Let's say the winner of the 8-9 seed has won the match.
See the A1? Go to the left of the bracket, and find the "Loser
of A1" slot. Put the lsoer in that slot. Do the same for the
others.
Again, anyone who loses in the left side, is
eliminated from the tournament, since they have lost twice.
Placing
1st Place : Champion, or player who
wins in the finals. That person is the only contestant not to lose
twice in the tourney before the others do.
2nd Place : Runner Up,
or player who lost in the finals. That person is the last contestant
who loses twice in the tourney.
3rd Place : Player who lost in the
loser's bracket finals.
4th Place : Player who lost the match
before the loser's bracket finals.
In closing, once again,
this is only one way to run a tourney, but it is one of the most
successful ways to run a ddr tourney. Good luck!
FAQ
(Frequently Answered Questions)
In The Groove
Tournament FAQ
(Based on tourneys already done)
Card
System (Alternate way to do elimination rounds)
Triple
Threat Matches
Scoring systems in
detail
Challenge Mode
Event
Oni/Nonstop Events
Doubles
Tournament
How long does a
tourney last?