Rounds will be broadcast at the times listed below on https://www.twitch.tv/puzzlegeneral.
TIMES LISTED FOR EACH ROUND ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BASED ON STAFF AVAILABILITY
Staff registration is still open. If you would like to volunteer for a staff role, apply here.
Welcome to Puzzle General's first Pokemon Puzzle Challenge speedrun tournament! This game sports a different win condition than the panel-swapping games we have showcased before. Prepare yourself for a new type of challenge!
Before The Tournament
You will need a Challonge account to sign up for the tournament, a SpeedRunsLive account to participate in the races, a timer to track the race time such as LiveSplit, and to join the Puzzle General Discord server to communicate with the other participants and staff. Be prepared to stream all of your gameplay and keep local recordings. If you need an emulator to play the game, read the leaderboard's rules to see which emulators are allowed.
After signing up for the tournament here, you will need to complete your registration by filling out the Player Availability form. You will also be required to check in to this tournament within two days before the start of the tournament.
Tournament Structure
Registration: Open until September 2, 2019 at 12:00 AM ET
Starts: September 8, 2019 at 12:00 AM ET
Game: Pokemon Puzzle Challenge
Speedrun Categories: Challenge Mode, Scroll Off, Game Levels Hard through Intense, will increase in difficulty as the tournament progresses
Match Length: Best of 7 (first to 4) races for Grand Finals (winner of Winners Bracket will start with a 1-0 lead), otherwise best of 5 (first to 3) races
On September 8, Stage 1 of the tournament will begin with a Round Robin group stage of matches played on the Hard difficulty. Players will be divided into two groups, distributed according to their personal best times on the leaderboard. Players will be given up to one week times the number of the largest group to complete one match with every player in their group in the presence of a tournament/assistant organizer. (If the largest group has 5 players, then all players will have 5 weeks to complete their 4 matches.) Players are allowed to complete their matches in any order. It is up to the players to schedule their matches around organizer staff availability. Matches will be restreamed live to the Puzzle General Twitch channel whenever possible, but not all group stage matches can be guaranteed to be streamed.
The top three players of each group after all matches are completed will move on to the final stage. If there is enough interest, the players that did not qualify for the final stage can register for a single-elimination "redemption bracket" for extra bragging rights. The redemption bracket would be run entirely on Hard difficulty. There will be an extra incentive to compete in the redemption bracket explained later.
One week after the group stage concludes, the double-elimination bracket final stage will begin. One loss will put you into a Losers Bracket. A second loss will knock you out of the tournament. The first round of the Winners and Losers Brackets will be played on S-Hard difficulty. The rest of the bracket will be played on Intense difficulty. Players will be given one week to complete each bracket match. The goal is to restream every bracket match live and complete all of the Top 4 matches on the same day.
Prizes
New to this tournament, there will be PRIZES for the top finishers in the main bracket! CardsOfTheHeart will be giving the top-placing players who make the final stage cash prizes (or other reasonable to acquire equivalent) for their performance. The value of these prizes will be as follows:
1st Place - $50
2nd Place - $20
3rd Place - $10
The winner of the Redemption Bracket will receive $10.
THE PUZZLE GENERAL DISCORD MODERATION STAFF ARE INELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE THESE PRIZES. They will be offered to the next highest place finisher(s).
Links
Puzzle General Discord: http://discord.puzzlegeneral.com/
SpeedRunsLive: http://www.speedrunslive.com/
Resource for Timers and Streaming Software: https://www.speedrun.com/resources
Player Availability Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfoeS_4hcnxrAp5iijDaltg5uJkYeiQB6xaxoXIus86vW5I4Q/viewform
Staff Application Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeZjifMvMdmlJ1PpT9H70YRLetmPS01CRRik3L_OYoL4BlJhQ/viewform
Speedrun Leaderboard with Guides and Resources: https://www.speedrun.com/Pokemon_Puzzle_Challenge
Game: https://lmgtfy.com/?q=pokemon+puzzle+challenge+rom
Puzzle General Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/PuzzleGeneral
Tournament Organizer: CardsOfTheHeart#9678