Abysmal Utopia

[Scotty]

Abysmal Utopia
A Stick Online scenario-based tournament



Description:

Abysmal Utopia is a scenario-based tournament where teams fight eachother across multiple battlefields to determine who is the strongest team to achieve domination across the span of the Stick Online world.  Teams will experience numerous battles in order to claim the land, ultimately declaring one as supreme, with the entire map as their own to rule over.

Tournament Rules Index:

• The Teams
• The Provinces
• The Preliminary Tournament
• The Phases of Battle
• The Rules of Invasion
• The Battles
• Tournament Staff
• Team Rosters

TL;DR:

• Abysmal Utopia is a tournament involving 8 teams, all tied to a spawn point.
• Your teams duke it out over different provinces/spawn points as designated by the tournament map.
• The first team to occupy all provinces on the map wins the tournament.
• If you want to host a team, read here.
• If you want to join a team, find one here.
• If you don't have the gear, or don't think you'd be a good team member candidate, you can request to help with running the tournament.  View the details here.

[Scotty]

The Teams:

Five properties compose a team:

• Provinces/Spawn Points - Each province starts with one Spawn Point (henceforth referenced as Provinces), and will either expand rule over multiple provinces or fail at defending their province(s) and lose the tournament.
• Team Leader - Each team must have a team leader (henceforth abbreviated TL).  The TL is decided upon by the team.  If the team fails to appoint a TL, the tournament will appoint one for them.  The TL is responsible for all decision making within the team and representing them during battles.
• Assistant Team Leader - The team leader will appoint an Assistant Team Leader (henceforth abbreviated ATL).  The ATL will act as the Team Leader when the Team Leader is not present to represent his team.  Should the TL require his ATL to take control, he must appoint publicly in his team's topic (discussed below).  If he fails to appoint his ATL as acting TL, and takes an unauthorized leave of absence, the tournament staff may appoint him as acting TL.
• Team Organizer - The Team Organizer (henceforth abbreviated TO) is the team's organizer for the rosters and accountability.  Anyone can be a TO, and is the first position appointed.  A TO may also hold other clan responsibilities (as TL or ATL) as well.  It is the TO's responsibility to ensure that the roster for his team is current, up to date, and that the correct members for battles are present at the time of a fight.
• Team Members - All the members of the team who do not hold a billet described above (TL, ATL or TO) are team members (henceforth abbreviated TM) that obey all orders from the TL and ATL.

To start a team, you must first determine whether you want to hold the responsibilities as a TO (Team Organizer).  If you are capable and have the time to dedicate to keeping your roster updated, you are a prime candidate.  The following steps are to be taken to start a team:

• Determine whether or not there are eight teams already.  A roster will be updated in this post of all active teams.  If there are less than eight teams, you may create one.  If there are more, you are too late, do not submit an entry, it will be ignored.
• Decide if you can uphold the responsibilities of a TO
• Start a topic in the General Discussion forum with the title: "Abysmal Utopia Team - <your team's name>".  replace the <text> with your team name.  keep the name appropriate and clean or else your team will be denied access to the tournament.
• Copy the quoted contents below verbatim (bold formatting and everything) into your first topic, and replace the <text> with the names of your teammates.  What is displayed in the quotes is to be the ONLY content of the first post, no deviations, no additional content outside of the roster.
• Start recruiting.  You may discuss anything further in the topic related to your team and the tournament.  Recruit no less than five members, including your TL, ATL, and yourself (the TO).
• Once your team meets all the requirements outlined above and have no less than five members, you are ready to participate!

Further Team Clarifications:

• Your team is responsible for designating a TL.  It is not the tournament staff's responsibility, although if one can not be agreed upon, the staff will appoint one for the team.
• The TL will appoint his ATL.  Use your best judgement TL's.  Do not appoint a flaky/immature/unreliable individual as your ATL.  Your team falls into his hands if you are unavailable to call the shots.
• The TL is sole decision maker of the team, unless not present, in which case the ATL is the acting TL and calls the shots.  The TL will determine and submit his weekly invasion requests.  All TM's are to obey all the orders of the TL and ATL.  If there is an internal dispute amongst the members of a team, and it cannot be resolved within the team, causing a disruption in the flow of the tournament, the staff may elect to resolve the problem for the team.  Do not let it come to this.
• The TO is responsible for keeping the first post of the team's topic up to date.  If the TO is determined to be unreliable throughout the tournament, another may be appointed.  Should another TO be appointed to duty, he must re-create a topic in the General Discussion forum.  The old will be locked by the previous TO, or hopefully a forum moderator to prevent confusion.  The newly appointed TO will abide by the same standards, and use the below template to submit his rosters.
• Once Phase 1 of battle begins, your roster is set, and no additions or changes can be made to the roster until Phase 2 begins.  Once Phase 1 is complete, you may make whatever changes to your roster that you see fit.  Once Phase 2 starts, your roster is once again solidified, and you cannot make any other changes for the duration of the tournament.
• All general team discussion is to be made within these individual team topics, or PMs, or offline mediums (i.e. Instant Messengers).  Do not use this topic to discuss any team specific posts past initial organizer posts with regards to who is going to begin their team's forum topic.

The below quote is the template the teams will use to create their team's forum topic.  Remember to post it in the General Discussion forum.  Replace all <text> with applicable names.  You may omit the Phase 2 Roster portion of the post until Phase two of the tournament begins.  Ensure that all formatting is included (bold words, list, etc...).  If your first post in your teams topic does not replicate the below quote, your team will be denied access to the tournament until it is corrected:

<Team's name>

Phase 1 Roster:

• Team Leader: <in-game name verbatim>
• Assistant Team Leader: <in-game name verbatim>
• Team Member: <in-game name verbatim>
• Team Member: <in-game name verbatim>
• Team Member: <in-game name verbatim>
• Team Member: <in-game name verbatim>
• ...

Phase 2 Roster:

• Team Leader: <in-game name verbatim>
• Assistant Team Leader: <in-game name verbatim>
• Team Member: <in-game name verbatim>
• Team Member: <in-game name verbatim>
• Team Member: <in-game name verbatim>
• Team Member: <in-game name verbatim>
• ...

[Scotty]

The Provinces:

Each Team is tied to a single province at the beginning of Phase 1 in the tournament.  As battles progress, teams will have the opportunities to invade and conquer new provinces.

• Each battle takes place in the defending team's province, and close to the respective spawn point to facilitate easy return to battle.
• There are eight spawn points within Stick Online, therefor there are eight provinces, and eight teams.
• Each team is attached to a spawn point.  In order to determine who will initially occupy any one of the eight provinces, a preliminary tournament will occur.  The best of the tournament will have its team leader submit which province they wish to start on.  See below regarding details for the preliminary tournament.

[Scotty]

The Preliminary Tournament:

Once all eight teams have their topics posted with a roster containing no less than five teammates, and all billets filled, a date for the preliminary tournament will be set.  The purpose of the preliminary tournament is to determine who will be able to pick their provinces.  The tournament will consist of four rounds:

• First Tournament Round -  All eight teams are laid out in a bracket style tournament.  Seven battles will determine the best team over the course of 3 brackets.  The winner of the first tournament round has first pick of his province.  The second best team has second pick.
• Second Tournament Round - The two teams that lost in the second tournament bracket will battle each other to determine who has third pick.  The loser of the fight will have fourth pick.
• Third Tournament Round - The four teams that lost during the first round's first bracket will battle over the course of two brackets to determine who has fifth and sixth pick
• Fourth Tournament Round - The two teams that lost during the Third Tournament Round will battle to determine who has seventh pick.  The losing team will have the remaining province.

The following rules will apply during the preliminary tournament:

• The preliminary tournament will occur at the arena in game.
• Each battle is best out of three fights.
• Each team will select four participants to battle for any given battle.  The team may switch out team members in between battles, the same four is not required to battle the entire duration of the tournament.
• Either the TL or ATL must be present for the tournament, but they are not required to battle.  If neither the TL or ATL show, your team is removed from the preliminary, and you are automatically designated a province left over after the tournament completes.  The staff will adjust the brackets as necessary in this unlikely circumstance.
• A tournament staff member will dictate the order of the battles.  Each team will be randomly paired with another for the tournament.
• During a battle, all members of both teams battling must remain on the platforms.  If they exit the platforms, it is counted as a death.
• All spectators and "dead" team members will remain in the bleachers either on the right or left of the arena.  At no time are they to enter the platform unless instructed to by a tournament staff member.
• Bleacher Shenanigans is strictly prohibited.  This includes attacking other spectators, entering the platforms at any time during the tournament, etc...
• If the tournament staff calls for chat silence (they will say "CHAT SILENCE") all players in the area are to cease chatting in game until the tournament staff releases the silence (they will say "RESUME CHAT").
• The following commands will be used by a tournament staff to control the flow of the battles (bolded text will be typed into the in-game chat):

 
• <team 1> AND <team 2>, PREPARE - The first team (<team 1>) will enter the platform that the tournament staff stands on, to his left.  The second team (<team 2>) will enter the platform to the tournament staff's right.  You will all start on the same platform that the tournament staff member who is announcing the battle is on.  The tournament staff member will not proceed further until all members are on the same platform.
• Round <#/3> READY - All four members per team are present and on the correct platform, the battle is about to commence.
• GO - Fight it out!
• <team> WINS - <team> has won by having at least one remaining team member from the winning team survive the fight, with no members of the opposing team still present on the platform fighting
• <team> WINS BRACKET - <team> has one the best of three, and will proceed to the next bracket, or be determined as winner, based off the current bracket the teams are fighting in.

[/list]

After the tournament is over, each team's TL will post in this topic, in the order they won, their choice of province to rule over. 
Each team will be assigned a number during the tournament by the tournament staff, ranging from the number 1 through the number 8.  The team's TL, who received the number one will post first with their province of choice.  After that, the team's TL who was awarded the number two will post his province, all the way to the team who was awarded the number seven, with the team who was awareded the number eight being designated the remaining province.

First Tournament Round:

+-1st Bracket-+------2nd Bracket------+-----3rd Bracket-----+----------------------Winner----------------------+

+-- Team 1 +
|          +-+
+-- Team 2 + +-- Winning Team 1 --+
             |                    +--+
+-- Team 3 + +-- Winning Team 2 --+  |
|          +-+                       |
+-- Team 4 +                         +-- Winning Team 1 --+
                                     |                    +-- Winning Team (first pick, losing team second pick)
+-- Team 5 +                         +-- Winning Team 2 --+
|          +-+                       |
+-- Team 6 + +-- Winning Team 3 --+  |
             |                    +--+
+-- Team 7 + +-- Winning Team 4 --+
|          +-+
+-- Team 8 +


Second Tournament Round:

2nd Bracket Losses

+-- Losing Team 1 +
|                 +-- Winning Team (third pick, losing team fourth pick)
+-- Losing Team 2 + 


Third Tournament Round:

1st Bracket Losses

+-- Losing Team 1 +
|                 +-+
+-- Losing Team 2 + +-- Winning Team 1 --+
                                         +-- Winning Team (fifth pick, losing team sixth pick)
+-- Losing Team 3 + +-- Winning Team 2 --+
|                 +-+
+-- Losing Team 4 +


Fourth Tournament Round:

Third Tournament Round Losses

+-- Losing Team 1 +
|                 +-- Winning Team (7th pick, losing team remaining province/last pick)
+-- Losing Team 2 +

[Scotty]

The Phases of Battle:

Over the course of the competition, there are two phases:

• Phase 1 - This phase is in effect when the competition starts, and lasts until there are no more than four teams remaining.  During Phase 1, each team is allowed one invasion attempt per week. 
• Phase 2 - This phase is in effect when there are no more than four teams remaining, and lasts until the completion of the tournament.  During Phase 2, each team is allowed two invasion attempts per week.

If you lose control of all your provinces during phase one, you are placed into a holding queue until phase two begins.  The following Sunday when phase two begins, you are permitted to submit an attempt at revolting, and taking control of your last controlled province.  Tournament Staff will post in this topic when it is time for teams who've lost control of all their provinces to revolt, at which time, the TL for the revolting teams will post in this topic their intent to revolt.  When that post is made, the tournament staff will designate a date for that revolting team to battle the team that took control of the revolting team's last controlled province. 
If the revolting team succeeds at beating the opposing team during a revolt, they will regain control of that province, and be back in the tournament for phase two.  If the revolting team reclaims their province, and coincidentally eliminates the previously controlling team off the map (i.e. the team who they are revolting against only has control of that province and none other, and loses it to the revolt), they are eliminated from the tournament, and cannot participate in phase two.
If the revolting team fails to reclaim their province, they are eliminated from the tournament for phase two.
If all teams who revolt manage to reclaim their province before phase two commences, the tournament will revert back to phase one, and will continue on as though the tournament just started.  In the unlkely event that this happens, there are no revolts permitted in-between the next transition between phases one and two.  If a team loses during this period in phase one, they are automatically eliminated from the rest of the tournament.[/list]

[Scotty]

The Rules of Invasion:

In order to invade a province, the team must occupy a province that neighbors the province they wish to invade.  The neighboring of the provinces is determined by the tournament map.  If you do not neighbor a province, you may not attempt an invasion it during that round.

The following guidelines are to be adhered to when attempting to invade a neighboring province:

• Each week, each remaining team's TL will submit their invasion requests to this topic, using the below quote as a template.
• The timeframe for invasion request submissions is each Sunday, between the hours of 12AM Sunday Morning Eastern Standard Time, and 8PM Sunday Evening, Eastern Standard Time.
• If a TL does not submit his invasion request before 8PM, the ATL has until 10PM Sunday Evening, Eastern Standard Time to submit his team's invasion request.
• If no submission is made by the TL before 8PM EST, or 10PM EST for the ATLs in the event the TL fails to post his invasion request, your team will not have the opportunity to invade for duration of that week, and you may risk having to defend your province on a night that inconveniences your team.
• If you win the invasion, from that point forward, you will occupy that province that you successfully conquered.  If you fail to win the battle, you will not occupy that province.  There is no penalty for losing an invasion.
• If you fail to appear to defend your province during an invasion, you will immediately surrender your province to the invading team.  If you have no remaining provinces after losing a defensive battle during phase one, you are placed into a holding queue until Phase two begins.  If you have no remaining provinces after losing a defensive battle during phase two, you are removed from the tournament.
• If a submission is made after the weekly deadline, it is disregarded by the tournament staff
• When submitting your weekly invasion request, the TL is to list ALL neighboring provinces, in the order in which they wish to invade.  If you do not want to invade a province, place it at the end of the list.  If you do wish to invade a province, place it at the top.  This will assist the tournament staff with determining who invades who.  If you fail to list all neighboring provinces, you may risk not being able to invade a province that you intended to invade.
• Also included in the weekly invasion request is your team's unavailability.  If your team is unavailable to defend on a specific day during the week, please include this date.  This will assist the tournament staff with assigning invasions.  If you fail to submit your team's unavailability, you may risk having a province of yours invaded on a day that your team will be unable to attend, thus forfeiting the battle, and surrendering the province to the invading team.

The weekly submission topic is to abide by the following format.  You may simply quote this and paste it with your individual team's info plugged in:

<Team Name>'s Weekly Battle Summary

Invasion List:

• <Neighboring Province>
• <Neighboring Province>
• <Neighboring Province>
• <Neighboring Province>
• ...

Unavailability

• <weekday>
• <weekday>
• ...

[Scotty]

The Battles:

Each team will have at least one opportunity to invade per round, depending on the phase of the tournament.  All invasion dates are determined by tournament staff, abiding by team's availability.  The invasion must occur on a neighboring province as defined on the map (the map is updated weekly to reflect the team's conquered provinces).  Your province must neighbor one which you intend to invade, else you may not have the opportunity to invade that province this round.  

Being that all invasions will occur throughout the week, if you invade a province after another team has already invaded and overtaken the province, you must either invade the new occupant, or bow out.  There is no penalty for losing an invasion, other than not occupying the invaded province.  If you lose in an attempt to defend your province from an invading province, you will surrender your province to the other team for them to rule over.  

If you are defeated within the first phase of the tournament, you are placed within a holding period until Phase 2 begins.  At the beginning of Phase 2, your province will have one opportunity to invade the country which you previously surrendered that caused you to fall out of the tournament.  This optional rebellion may result in you reclaiming your lost province should you win the battle.  If you win the battle, the province returns back to your control, and you may continue on with the duration of Phase 2.  If all teams manage to recover their provinces that they previously lost, in effect returning all eight teams on the map, Phase 1 will be re-instated until less than eight teams exist for the beginning of Phase 2.  Tournament staff will call for all teams who have lost during Phase 1 to roger up that they intend to revolt within this topic at the beginning of Phase 2.  Your team will be given ample time to post your intent, but if you miss the cutoff, you are out for the rest of the tournament.

For the individual battles, each team will select four individuals out of their team to invade or defend.  Only four team member may battle in a given battle.  It is required that either the Team Leader or Assistant Team Leader be present for each battle.  If the Assistant Team Leader fullfills the role as the acting Team Leader for the duration of the battle, he assumes all responsibilities that would typically be fulfilled as the Team Leader for the duration of that battle only.  It is recommended that more than four are prepared to fight, so that if one must bow out of the fight for unforseen circumstances, another may step in.  

The four participants must be determined before the start of the battle.  The remaining members may remain along the sidelines of the battle, prepared to step in should he be needed (non-participants will remain sitting, facing away from the center of the battlefield to indicate their lack of participation).  Each battle will be no more than three rounds, best of three winning the battle.  The invading team will stand on the left side of the battle moderator (tournament staff), and the defending team will stand to his right before the battle begins.  Once the moderator declares "GO" in the in-game chat, the the battle will commence, and the teams will commence battle.  

At all times will PvP remain toggled on for the entire duration of the tournament (including times between the three matches).  If a player is killed during a battle, he will respawn, and sit along the side lines, facing away from the battlefield.  At no point is the battle to occur past the point at which the moderator sits on the side, or the spectators, and respawned fighters.  If PvP is toggled off at any point during the tournament, that user is automatically disqualified.  If a player who is currently within the battle moves past the moderator of the battle or the spectators and respawned, that user is disqualified.  The moderator may make well defined borders before the tournament battles begin, so pay attention.  If these borders are crossed by any actively fighting member during the battles, that user is automatically disqualified.  

If a member is disqualified, he is removed from the remainder of that battle's rounds, and may not further participate for the duration of the battles, with no replacement to fill in for him.  

If unidentified participants interfere with the battle (ie random player decides he wants in on the fight), they will be marked as interference, and the battle will be temporarily halted until the user is removed from the battlefield, at which point the moderator will split up the teams and resume the battle.  Once the round is over, all team members will resume their positions, invaders to the left of the moderator, defenders to the right, awaiting the moderator's "GO" to begin the next fight.

A battle may not commence without a member of the tournament staff present.  The tournament staff is responsible for reporting the status of the fight, who has won, who lost.  All decisions made by the tournament staff are considered final, and are not disputable.  Any attempt at attacking the moderator, either in-game physically, verbally (in-game or on the forums) will result in punishment being dealt, determined by the staff members.

[Scotty]

Tournament Staff:

The following members are considered tournament staff for Abysmal Utopia:

• Scotty
• Mystery
• <NEEDS TO BE FILLED>
• <NEEDS TO BE FILLED>
• <OPTIONAL FILL>

I am in need of players to participate.  You must be reliable, punctual with regards to battles, and willing to assist with the tournament.  While you will not be able to participate within the tournament, your actions and assistance will most definitely not go unnoticed!

Might I also ask that GMs take part as tournament staff?  It would prove invaluable to have GMs with their almighty mod powers to assist with crowd control should the preliminary tournament get some un-welcomed attention, or battles manage to attract some of the more immature of the community's members.

[Scotty]

Team Rosters:

The following teams are accepted and will participate within the tournament:
 

 
• Team Name: Prestigious
• TL: DeamonClawz
• ATL: Razor1337
• TO: igufed
• Post: http://www.stick-online.com/boards/index.php?topic=1476.0

 

 
• Team Name: TBD
• TL: TBD
• ATL: TBD
• TO: TBD
• Post: TBD

 

 
• Team Name: TBD
• TL: TBD
• ATL: TBD
• TO: TBD
• Post: TBD

 

 
• Team Name: TBD
• TL: TBD
• ATL: TBD
• TO: TBD
• Post: TBD

 

 
• Team Name: TBD
• TL: TBD
• ATL: TBD
• TO: TBD
• Post: TBD

 

 
• Team Name: TBD
• TL: TBD
• ATL: TBD
• TO: TBD
• Post: TBD

 

 
• Team Name: TBD
• TL: TBD
• ATL: TBD
• TO: TBD
• Post: TBD

 

 
• Team Name: TBD
• TL: TBD
• ATL: TBD
• TO: TBD
• Post: TBD

[Scotty]

Before the date for the preliminary tournament is set, I await a few prerequisites to be fulfilled.  The tournament will begin until the following criteria is satisfied.

• A diagram of the world of Stick Online to be created.  See http://www.stick-online.com/boards/index.php?topic=1452.0 for information if you are interested in showing your artistic abilities.
• 4-5 Players are needed to assist as tournament staff.
• All eight teams must be constructed, and have their team's post created

Once the above criteria are completed, a date for the preliminary tournament will be set, and Abysmal Utopia will begin!

[Titan]

I would be happy to help as tournament staff.
(I do have school during the week however.)

[Scotty]

Updated the Tournament Staff category.  Click Here for a link to the topic.

[Scotty]

Updated with a TL;DR version for all you impatient folk.  View it here!

[Forum]

I'm thinking of making a team it's just if i have enough time and if i can get people to join -.-

[Danimal]

I think I'm inescapably recruited to take part. However I will help out as a GM when I am not fighting.