Rules

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Ingix

1. Eligibility to participate
1.1 To enter the tournament you must have a dominon.games Gold subscription starting on or before September 13th 2019, 12:00 UTC and continuing until at least November 6th 2019, 12:00 UTC. The Gold subscription contains all expansions that are currently available online, the newest one being Renaissance.
1.2 Your account must also have at least 20 rated games played (by September 13th 12:00 UTC).
1.3 Each person may only enter once.
1.4 Shuffle iT employees and users who have been permanently banned may not participate in this tournament.
1.5 Moderators (see the end of this document) come in two varieties, playing and not playing. Not playing moderators also may not participate in this tournament.
1.6.Playing moderators will not be moderating at round 4 or later and the Quaterfinals or later (whichever comes first). That is independent of their actual status in the tournament (still active or already eliminated). Playing moderators will only ever moderate matches that are not in their bracket (that means they will only affect matches whose players would at the earliest meet that playing moderator or players they played against in the finals).
1.7. If a mentioned playing moderator is actually not participating in the tournament, they become a not playing moderator.

2. Prizes
2.1 The organizers of the tournament provide a prize pool of 1000€ for the Top 4 finishers. Distribution:
    - 1st: 500€; 2nd: 300€ 3rd: 150€ 4th: 50€.
2.2 If more than 256 people participate in the tournament, players knocked out in the quarterfinals (5th-8th) will receive 6 months of Gold subscription added to their current subscription.

3. Tournament structure
3.1 The tournament will be a single elimination bracket.
3.2 All players will be seeded based on the 2 Player Shuffle iT leaderboard (as of Saturday, September 14th). You can find your current position and level in the leaderboard in the "Leaderboard" tab inside the game.
3.3 If the first round does not have a full bracket (e.g. exactly 256 or 512 players) the highest seeded players will receive byes in the first round, with a full bracket beginning in the second round.

4. Match structure
4.1 All matches are 2-player matches. A match is best of 6 games, a win counts for 1 point, a tie for 0.5 points. Determining who wins the game (or if it is a tie) is the only way in which the score for a game is used. Winning a game by 1 VP is counted exactly the same as winning it by 100 VP.
4.2 If either player reaches 3.5 points, the match is over and the winning player moves on to the next round.
4.3 Both players get to start 3 games. Alternate the starting player after each game. Starting player in the first game should be determined randomly.
4.5 If the score is 3-3 after 6 games, play a deciding 7th game with a random starting player.
4.6 If the 7th game is a tie according to the Dominion rules, the 2nd player in that game wins the match.
4.7 Should a game end in a stalemate, the result is void and the game will be replayed. (It is not counted as a tie.)
A stalemate is a game state where both parties do not alter the gamestate for several turns and do not intend to in the foreseeable future.
If player's do not mutually agree that a stalemate has occurred, players shall continue play for at least 10 more turns. After 10 turns have been completed, the player that disputes that a stalemate has occurred must break the stalemate within five turns by gaining more cards from the supply than they return, or gaining more VP (or losing less) than their opponent. At any point for the remainder of the game, if the disputing player is unable to gain more cards than they return, or gain more VP than their opponent over any 5 turn period, the game is declared a stalemate, and the game must be replayed.

5. Timing
5.1 The tournament starts on Monday, September 16th. There will be one round played each week. With expected participation between 129 and 512 players, it will continue until the week starting November 4th for 129-256 players or the week starting November 11th for 257-512 players.
5.2 Players are responsible for scheduling a suitable time with their opponent to complete the match during the week. Make sure to state your time zone clearly, or give times in UTC, when making scheduling proposals.
5.3 You can sign up until Tuesday, September 10th, 12:00 UTC. If you meet the eligibility requirements (point 1), you will be guaranteed a place in the tournament.
5.4 If you sign up later, you will be placed in a waiting list. Players in the waiting list that meet the eligibility requirements (point 1) will be used to fill up the tournament bracket up to the next power of 2, if the number of eligible players from 5.3 is not an exact power of 2. This will be done in ascending order of signup time among those players (first come, first serve).
5.5 Signups definitely close Friday, September 13th, 12:00 UTC.

6. Scheduling
6.1 Once the bracket for each week is released, contact your opponent as soon as possible via PM on this forum to schedule your match.
6.2 If your opponent has not communicated with you by Wednesday, 12:00 UTC in the week you are supposed to be playing, please contact the moderators.
6.3 Your match should be scheduled to be concluded before Monday, 6:00 UTC of the following week.
6.4 If your opponent does not show up to the match, you move forward to the next round (allow a grace period of 30 minutes).

7. Environment
7.1 The default is playing on the Shuffle iT platform (dominion.games), with the point counter enabled, on fully random sets including all expansions up to Renaissance and all released Promo cards (including Church and Captain).
7.2 The default is to disable liked cards, and enable disliked and banned cards (the table default configuration). In addition, do not change your banned list during the match. If your match needs to be continued later, restore the previous ban list before continuing.
Rules update to be used starting round 3:
7.3 Games are to be played rated by default, unless agreed otherwise by both players. In that case, for documentation purposes, please record the game numbers (found in the chat box at the start of each game) in your matches in case of any disputes in scores reported.
Previous version:
7.3 Playing rated games is recommended for documentation purposes. If you do not, please write down the exact game numbers for each game (found in the chat box at the start of each game).
7.4 The default match configuration may be changed by mutual agreement between both players. (e.g. disable point counter, always include/exclude some cards, etc.).
7.5 Using card trackers is forbidden. A card tracker is any system (besides the Dominion Online platform), at least partially automated, that keeps track of where cards you can't currently see are.

8. Spectating/Streaming
8.1 Please allow spectating for your tournament matches.
8.2 Players can hide their hand from spectators at their discretion by setting the option "Spectators can see my cards" to "No". This option is found under the "Options" tab on the main screen.
8.3 Make sure the table setting "Players can see spectator chat" is not enabled. This setting is found under the "Advanced Options" when setting up your table. This allows spectators to discuss the game without interrupting the players (or giving them hints inadvertently).
8.4 Streaming your own match is allowed and encouraged. Setting a few minutes delay is recommended.
8.5 From Quarterfinals onwards, every match will be streamed. Moderators may influence the scheduling to ensure no overlaps. The Players will not be penalized if this leads to a delay in the schedule.
8.6 The third party streams will be screened with a 10 minute delay and the live spectating will be limited to the streamers.
8.7 A dominionstreams Administrator account that has special spectating privileges will be used to view and stream the match.

9. Undo
9.1 Players may state (before the match starts) the undo policy they want themselves to follow, like they will be granting no undos at all, granting all undos for effects that did not reveal information to the asking player, or that they will decide on a case by case basis.
9.2 The default policy, if a player does not state anything, is to grant all undo requests for a small number of decisions, for effects that did not reveal information to the asking player.

10. Handling Disconnects
10.1 If you disconnect during a game, use the reconnect feature. If your opponent is disconnected, do not make use of the "make resign" feature. This will not be counted as winning the game.
10.2 If the disconnect takes an extended amount of time, write down the game number and reload the game (latest decision) at a later date.
10.3 Instructions for using the reload game feature can be found here.
10.4 If reloading the game fails, complete the remaining games of the match first. If no player has reached 3.5 points after completing the remaining games, contact your moderator about the lost game.

11. Sportsmanlike Conduct
11.1 As in every other game on the platform, sportsmanlike conduct is expected. Verbal abuse or slowplaying (not to be confused with taking time to think) may lead to a disqualification.
11.2 Keep in mind that in a competitive situation such as this tournament, players take a long time to consider a play. Do not make use of the "make resign" feature if your opponent is thinking.
11.3 If you are unsure of why your opponent is taking a long time to make a play, you should ask them to explain the situation.
11.4 Be respectful of your opponents time. You should make an effort to focus on the game and play at a reasonable speed. Inform your opponent if you are considering a complex play that may take a long time to decide on.
11.5 If you feel your opponent is breaking the rules of conduct, you may suspend the match and contact your moderator.
11.6 For any conflicts not covered under these rules, please contact your moderator, who will have the final say on the issue.

Moderators are:

Clicking on the links will open a page on the forum where you can write a personal message to them. You can also find them under the same names on the Dominion Online discord server. Click here to join that server.

Ingix

Due to events in round 2, we have updated rule 7.3 of the tournament rules, to be used for rounds 3 and further. It makes playing rated games the default for the tournament, instead of just recommending it (which can still leave players at an impasse when one wants to play rated, the other not).

7.3 Games are to be played rated by default, unless agreed otherwise by both players. In that case, for documentation purposes, please record the game numbers (found in the chat box at the start of each game) in your matches in case of any disputes in scores reported.