OFFLINE

main rules are below, if you are familiar with the general rules then you can just skim over this, and go to amendments for the specific changes for this draft

Last edited by

OFFLINE

WELCOME TO THE GAME DRAFT

As for how the game works... A lot of you may be familiar with most of this, but I'm going to go into detail for anyone who may be new to the game:

THE POSITIONS

Okay, first off, there are three different positions in this draft:

The Commissioner: (that's me) It's my job to randomize the draft order, post the matchups when we get to that point, enforce the rules and just basically run the show. If you have any further questions about the draft that isn't explained in this post, feel free to ask me, either in the proper thread or via message.

The Judges: There will be three judges. Me (Ken), Chase, and Gabe. It's the judges' job to decide who wins the matches. Simple as that. There are three judges so that each match will be decided as a best two out of three between them.

The General Managers (GM’s): There are twelve General Manager spots up for grabs. As a GM, it's your responsibility to draft a competitive team from the draft list, come up with a team name and assign numbers to your characters once the matches start. I'll explain all that in more detail as I go on.


THE DRAFT

Once all the GM positions are filled, I'll randomize the drafting order and post the final character list from which the GMs will draft their teams. There will be 11 rounds of drafting, which of course means that each team will consist of eleven characters. The draft order will also reverse after each round. This is to help remedy the fact that the GMs at the bottom of the drafting order will be picking after everyone else. This way the GM’s at the bottom of the drafting order get two picks in a row.

Example:

Round 1
1. Team A
2. Team B
3. Team C
4. Team D
5. Team E
6. Team F…

Round 2
1. Team F
2. Team E
3. Team D
4. Team C
5. Team B
6. Team A…

And so on.


THE CHARACTER LIST

Now, the Character list is split into two categories. There's the Power list, and the Regular list. Each GM is limited in how many Power Characters they can pick for their squad. The maximum number of characters that each GM can select from the power List for this Draft is Three.
It should be noted that characters from the power list are not unbeatable just because they're on that list. Certain characters from the regular list can exploit possible weaknesses of the power list characters, and certain characters from the regular list benefit greatly from being Prepped (a rule I'll get to in a little bit) and can perhaps defeat a power-lister that way.
The GMs are in no way obligated to select their characters only from the power list in the first three rounds. If you want, you can wait until your last few picks to take your power list characters, or you can take one in the first round and then wait until the fifth and sixth rounds, or you can only take one from that list, or none, and draft eight characters from the regular list. (Though, that's probably not recommended). It's completely up to you as the GM.


THE TOURNAMENT

The tournament style we will be using for this Draft will be Round Robin. This means that you will fight every other GM by the end of the tournament, and everyone has a match every Round. There are no Bye Weeks.
Once all eleven rounds of Character Drafting are finished, the GM order will be randomized again, with each GM being assigned a number, 1-12. This will be the final GM Lineup Order for the rest of the Tournament.
Round 1:
Team 1 vs. Team 2
Team 3 vs. Team 4
Team 5 vs. Team 6…

Round 2:
Team 1 vs. Team 5
Team 2 vs. Team 4
Team 3 vs. Team 6…

For a visual on how this all works out, go Here:
http://www.printyourbrackets.com/images/12-round-robin.pdf
In a typical Round Robin style tournament, the person with the most Total Wins at the end wins.
We’re going to add a little twist to that.

Win single character battle (Match): 1 Point
Win overall Round: 10 Points
Win Team Battle: 5 Points

This fixes many issues, and makes the Draft an overall much more enjoyable experience. It helps solve the “bad numbers bad luck” issue, strengthens the value of team cohesion, and ensures that the BEST team wins in the end.
Example: Team A has an amazing team, and every Round they win is by a landslide, 10-0. Unfortunately Team A had a streak of bad numbers and lost a Round. Now we have Team B, who has a terribly chosen team, but somehow has luck on his side and barely wins his Rounds, 6-4 each one. At the end, it would be Team B who gets the Gold, which doesn’t seem fair to me.
With this new format, if you have bad luck with numbers in the matchups but still have an incredible team, you could still walk away with a Team Battle Win and some kills.
Example: Round 1: Team A = 4, Team B = 6. If Team A wins the Team Battle, he walks away with 9 Points (4 kills, 1 TB). Team B would end up with 16 Points (6 kills, 1 Round Win). Team B still comes out ahead due to the Round Win, but the loss not as devastating to Team A as it would be if it was an all or nothing victory like previous Drafts.
The best part of this modification is that it will keep everyone invested in the Tournament the entire time. Every match counts, every debate and statistic and proof can make a difference not only in winning a single Round, but also in winning the entire Tournament.


THE MATCHUPS

Once the Character Drafting is completed, GM order has been randomized and the Tournament Bracket has been filled and posted, everyone will be able to see who they fight and when. I will then create and post a Finalized GM Character Roster, which will not change so you can refer back to at any time for reference. This Roster will show every character for each team. After the Bracket and Roster have been posted, each GM must send the COMMISSIONER ONLY your Round Picks. The list of which order you want your characters to enter the battlefield. The list can be in descending order by Character Name or by Character Numbers. Your list can only contain 10 Characters.
Example: hypothetical Team A (6-man team for brevity): Superman (P), Professor X (P), Apocalypse (P), Batman, Nick Fury, Spiderman (Order Drafted).

Finalized GM Character Roster order:
1. Apocalypse (P)
2. Professor X (P)
3. Superman (P)
4. Batman
5. Nick Fury
6. Spiderman

Team A Round 1 Picks:
Nick Fury
Superman (p)
Batman
Apocalypse (P)
Professor X (P)


OR

5
3
4
1
2

Now, you'll notice that you can only assign TEN characters in each Round. You always have to have one Character on the sidelines, or “Benched”. You have to decide which one of your characters will be benched for the individual battles for that round. GMs can switch which characters they want to sit out, however. In the example above, that hypothetical GM decided to sit out Spiderman, but after that match is over and he is facing off against a different GM, he could decide put that character into the match and sit out, say, Batman. It's up to the GM to decide which characters would serve him best in the individual battles for that round. That is why the full Brackets and Finalized GM Character Roster will be posted before the Tournament begins.

Not to worry, though. ALL ELEVEN of your characters will participate in Team Battles.
A team battle occurs after we get through all ten of the individual matches in a Round. Team battles are just what they sound like. This is where key components like team cohesion and imbues play a larger role. The judges have to decide which team would win in an all-out brawl between every character on both squads. Prep Time (below) is given to both teams. Imbues (also below) can benefit the entire team, but can only be USED by the character it was assigned to in it’s match.


ENVIRONMENTS:

Each Round will take place in a different game-related Environment. These will be listed within the Brackets posted before the start of the Tournament. Each environment features its own unique terrain and advantages/challenges. For example, Fighting in Sweegy Woods (FF Tactics), which is a very swampy environment, would be disaster for a Optimus Prime (P), but would be perfect for Turok. This is where a Benched character can come in very handy if you need to remove someone who might be terrible in a fight due to the environment.


OPTIONAL STRATEGIES:

Here are a couple of different things that you can use (or not use) when sending in your numbers:

Trumps:
A trump is when you place two or more characters together in a single match for a greater chance of winning their matchup. Sounds simple, right? But there's a downside. Trumping your characters together for a greater chance of success will result in an auto-loss forfeit for your squad.
Here's how it works:

Using the same team from above, you can send in your numbers like so:

Team A Round 1 Picks:
(5) Nick Fury TRUMPED with Batman
(3) Superman (p)
(4) Batman FORFEIT
(1) Apocalypse (P)
(2) Professor X (P)

In Match 1, Nick Fury and Batman may have a significant advantage over their opponent. Unfortunately, the empty slot left by Batman is equivalent to a loss. Plus there is always the possibility that the Trump’s opponent might be still out of their league, and that they'd lose despite the fact that there's two of them.
You are not limited to only Trumping two characters together, you can Trump as many as you want into a single match. Take care to remember that for a (possible) guaranteed win because of a Trump, you also get a guaranteed loss. That's the risk involved in trumping.
If a forfeit lands against a forfeit, it's a draw and no one gets the point for that matchup.


Preparation Time:

The second of our optional strategies is known as prep time. Basically what this means is that you can assign up to TWO of your characters prep time when sending in your numbers. So, again, your numbers could look like this:

Team A Round 1 Picks:
(5) Nick Fury PREPPED
(3) Superman (p)
(4) Batman PREPPED
(1) Apocalypse (P)
(2) Professor X (P)

So what does being prepared mean for a character? Simple. It means that whoever you assign prep time when sending in your numbers (in this case, Nick Fury and Batman) will be judged as though he or she knew before the match started who their opponent was going to be and that they had twenty-four hours to come up with a plan for defeating them, create a device, create a trap, or something along those lines. It's up to the judges to interpret how they think prep time would affect the match, within reason, of course. You could argue that, for example, Dr. Doom could use his prep time to invent a more powerful and effective shield that his opponent couldn't penetrate, or that he could use it to bring specific weapons to the fight that would be able to exploit the weakness of his opponent is fine. However, saying that he could use the prep time to find the all-powerful Infinity Gauntlet so that all he has to do is snap his fingers to obliterate his opponent is just ludicrous. We will not allow the “Prep Time makes me invincible” argument.
So that's prep time in a nutshell. When it comes to prep time, obviously certain characters will benefit from it far more than others. For example, Lex Luthor would be able become far more effective when assigned prep time, but with someone like The Thing, any benefit he would gain from prep time would most likely be minimal. It's up to the GM to decide who will serve their team best by being prepped.

Now, I put this under optional strategies, and yes, prep time is optional. However, unlike trumping, there's no penalty for using prep time for your characters, so it's pretty much in your best interests to assign two of your characters prep time for every match. Even if you don't end up with any characters that would obviously benefit a great deal from it, you might as well give the prep time to someone. The difference might be minimal, but you never know when it could be the difference maker in a really close match. Any of your Onfield characters can be given prep time.
Now, can you prep a trump? Yes, yes you can. However, prepping a trump will consume BOTH of your prep times for that match. So instead of being able to prepare two different individual fighters for that match, you would only have the one prepared trump. Again, that's completely up to the GM.


RECAP:
Tournament Style: Round Robin       Download example Here
General Managers: 12
Power Character Limit: 3
Total Characters: 11 (10 Onfield, 1 Benched)
Prep Time Limit: 2
Imbue Limit: 2
Total Rounds: 11
Match Win: 1 Point
Team Battle Win: 5 Points
Round Win: 10 Points


ON WITH TEH DRAFT!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -