New Tournament Unveiling!

The S5 Tournament Staff and Judges are very proud to present our revamped tournaments! Although not all of the new tournaments will be implemented with this first season, we believe that this will help spice up tournament matches that have been rather depressing lately! There will be a lot of minor changes with a few big changes, and even some never-before-seen additions.

As always our tournaments are for competitive teams who are trying to prove that they've got what it takes to be the best. However in the previous versions of our system there wasn't a lot of reason to try and grab the top spot and some teams were too discouraged to try with some of the top teams bashing down some of the newer S5 Clubs. So without further delay, here is the new tournaments and rules!

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General Changes

Seasons will now last 6 months instead of 3. The Seasons are called the Winter Season (Begins in January and extends to June) and the Summer Season (Starts in July and finishes with the end of the year).

Rosters are only allowed 15 players max. In order to have your rosters changed, please send a PM to either Reiki or Particle requesting the changes you'd like done to your roster with a short explanation as to why.

QP's will be changed once more to try and find a balance that allows teams to move around the ranking ladder in a smooth manner.

Matches will standardly be played in the English(Europe) Free 3 server unless a alternate channel is specified in the Match Thread.

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Pro League

Replacing the Major League is the Pro League. Very similar in many ways, but here are the differences. The Pro League will last 5 out of the 6 months of the season.

1. Only the Top 8 Clubs are allowed to participate in this bracket. At the start of a Season the top 8 in the previous Seasons Finals will be used, in order. These teams are automatically signed up for the Pro League and are expected to play.

2. 5K AP is awarded to the winning teams 5 chosen(by captain) players.

3. The clothes/weapons limitations have been reduced to allow all of our Clubs to participate on more fair grounds.

a) MindShock and MindEnergy are prohibited. Also the use of any 'bugged' weapons.

b)Clothes can not exceed PEN stats and weapons must be basic colored.
+3 Crit Defense Hair Max
+4 Defense vs All Weapons Pants Max
+3 Attack For All Weapons Shirt Max
+4 HP Gloves/Shoes Max (+8 HP in total)
+6 SP Accessories/Face Max (+12 SP in total)
+1 Attack Weapons Max

c) Screenshots must be provided by all players before the first map is played to prove the validity of their equipment. Please send to S4Source@gmail.com via email attachments, links, or .rar's.

d) Though not required, we ask that players use non-force pack skins to avoid disputes.

4. If a team is inactive for two consecutive matches they will be removed from the Pro League and will have their QP's frozen until they return. Then that team will start in the Rookie League with the QP's they earned in that Season before marked as inactive.

5. Brackets will be Double Elimination and will be seeded be rank.

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Rookie League

1. The equivalent to the Minor Leagues, all teams can register as usual except for the "Pro Teams" that are automatically registered into the Pro League bracket. It will last 5 out of 6 months in the season.

2. a) All clothes are prohibited and weapons can not exceed +1 in power. All colored weapons must be cleared via screenshot. Please send the screenshot to s4source@gmail.com with the screenshot attached or a link provided to it.

B) MindShock and MindEnergy are prohibited, as well as, any 'bugged' weapons.

3. Brackets will be Single Elimination and will be seeded randomly.

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Junior Division

This new addition is for the teams who aren't quite ready for the typical bracket tournaments. We will only accept newly formed clubs into this section. Clubs may play in the Junior Division and Rookie League simultaneously. The Junior Division will occur twice per season will last 2 months each. First two months of a Season and the fourth/fifth months.

1) Only newly formed clubs are allowed to play.

2) Same equipment rules as the Rookie League.

3) Round Robin based play.

4) Swiss Elimination, best 2 out of 3 maps.

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The Finals

The Finals will be played differently than the other tournaments in terms of match scheduling, I want go to into detail here. Last month of the Season.

1) Top 16 in QP rankings will be invited to play in the Finals. Top 16 would be all the Pro Teams and the top 8 Rookie Teams.

2) 20K AP is awarded to the winning teams 5 chosen(by captain) players.
10K AP is awarded to the second placing teams 5 chosen(by captain) players.
5K AP is awarded to the third placing teams 5 chosen(by captain) players.

3) Brackets will be Double Elimination and seeded by rank.

4) Equipment restrictions is the same as the Pro League.

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Conquest

The newest idea to add to the system. Conquest, which probably won't be added until Winter Season 2011, is a Risk-styled gametype that will allow clubs to alliance and fight against other alliances to take over a "map" of randomly placed S4L maps (Both DM and TD). More information will be released once we know a release time.

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Well that's it for now! This is only a rough write up from my memory so if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask! Also, be sure to check back soon for the July Sign-ups for the new Rookie League and Junior Division!

NOTE**: I'm aware I left some things out (some on accident, some on purpose) and it might be slightly unorganized to your tastes.

Alright, some players are asking question about some of the tournaments since it was never clarified how they each interact with each other. So here's an explanation on what the system as a whole looks like.

Starting with The Finals which is the head of the pyramid, consisting of the current Top 16 ranked teams on the ladder at the end of a season.

The Finals uses the Pro and Rookie Leagues' ladder to gather the Top 16 ranked teams (8 from each currently).

The Pro and Rookie Leagues are essentially one League connected only by the ladder (ordered by most QP's). QP's awarded for first place in the Rookie League (counted as 9th place in that month) are slightly higher than that of 7/8th place on the Pro League, because of this a Rookie League team is capable of becoming 8th on the ladder. Since the ladder for the Pro and Rookie League is one and the same, teams are not allowed to sign up for both.

Separated from this small web of brackets is the Junior Division. Most of the confusion comes from what this small Round Robin is. The Junior Division is merely a practice bracket for newer, inactive, or inexperienced teams. Once a week the participants will be matched up with another new team to give them a match. This is so newer teams don't have to constantly find new teams for themselves or play against the hell that is Club Channel which is primarily dominated by better teams with lots of AP equipment in the 5v5 or 6v6 matches.

Conquest is the most separated of all. Conquest is not a tournament, it is more of a mini-game. The winners are not part of a ladder and the participants do not play as their own club/team. I won't say more until it makes some progress so I don't give any misleading information.

Channel S5: New Tournament Unveiling! - Channel S5