Dates

Finals 

Registration opens February 14th @ noon Pacific.

Signups close February 23rd @ 11:59 Pacific 

Groups built from the 23rd to 25th

Premier and Open Bracket group play starts the 26th

Group play - Groups will schedule their own times to play on these dates. All matches in each day of group play will be played consecutively:

• Day 1 - February 26th
• Day 2 - March 5th
• Day 3 - March 12th

Final 8 playoffs March 19th (TBA for exact time)

Signup through: VALVR.com and https://www.challengermode.com/

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Both the Premier and Open Brackets will involve a group play phase then move to a Single Elimination Bracket.

Players will be seeded into groups based on Blaston ELO (see below). Groups will consist of 4 opponents. Each day of group play, six matches will be played in each group, allowing each player to compete against each other. Two matches may be played consecutively (see Figure 1). Each win will be worth one point. At the end of the group stage (after all 3 days of group play, meaning each player has played 9 matches), players will be moved into a single elimination bracket of 8 players, seeded based on their group play scores. Tie breakers will be organized by VAL TO’s and will likely take the form of head-to-head matches.

Figure 1. The match schedule for each day of group play. Each round consists of two matches that can be played concurrently (i.e. Players 3 and 4 do not need to watch the match between 2 and 1, they can just play their own match at the same time).

Example: Jeff, Addison, Ryan, and Nate are assigned to a group. On Saturday, February 26th, they play six matches: Jeff v Addison, Ryan v Nate, Addison v Nate, Jeff v Addison, Jeff v Nate, and Addison v Ryan. The winners are each awarded one point, so at the end of the day, their scores are Jeff - 2, Addison - 2, Ryan - 1, and Nate - 1. They repeat this on March 5th and March 12th, and their points are cumulative. After March 12th, their scores are compared to those of all other groups, and the 8 players across all groups with the highest scores move onto the single elimination bracket finals.

Group seeding is determined by rank number.  A snapshot of rank will be taken on February 24th.  Expect exact details on how to communicate ELO via discord and with TO’s TBA.

The Blaston Premiere Bracket will consist of the top 64 players with the highest rank number who register for the tournament. For clarity, priority will be given to higher rank for building the official tournament bracket and seeding and only from those who have registered.

All matches until the round of 8 (playoffs) are best of 3 games. So, all group play matches will be best of 3 games.

The Blaston Open Bracket will accommodate players of all skill levels and no bracket size ceiling. A bracket ceiling may be put in place depending on total registrations.

If you qualify for the premier bracket, you can’t play in the open bracket.  TO’s will take and combine registrations from registrants to build final brackets. TO’s will sort out the entrants after all the signups have been closed.

Players must register on Valvr.com to register for the tournament (ranking on the leaderboards alone alone will not enter you into the tournament).  

Players will be able to contact and schedule their matches in the tournament in the Challengermode chat or official VAL Discord Server: https://discord.gg/YeKXzQpCyK

We encourage using additional methods such as Facebook contact your opponent, but only Challengermode chat and Discord messages will count and be official in case of disputes where the opponent does not show up. The opponent not showing up will result in a forfeit. VAL reserves the right to decide the forfeiting party.

Groups will schedule their own times to play on the above assigned group play dates. All 3 matches in each day of group play will be played consecutively. This format will be followed through to the final 8. Once to the final 8 VAL will coordinate the final 8 of each bracket to schedule the final matches.  Players will need to be prepared to sync at the best times with all other players as this is synchronous. 

The finals will have different recording and other spectating rules TBD. In general, players should expect to have their matches broadcast and casted over.

Players in the EU may play players in the APAC region for instance.  VAL will make reasonable efforts to match players by region, but this is not guaranteed.  No region locks.

Detailed Rules Summary

Code Of Conduct
All tournaments and matches must follow the official Resolution Games Code Of Conduct. This is to ensure that all players can feel safe and have fun while engaging in competition in games made by Resolution Games. You will find the Code of Conduct on the official Blaston Discord.
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Set Length‍

All tournament matches will be best-of-3 games, until winners, losers, and final 8 which will all be best-of-5 games.

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Global or Region Locked

Global tournaments are open to anyone. Region locked tournaments are made solely for players who are playing in the boundaries of whichever continent/country the tournament has specified. If the tournament is region locked, any player found to be playing from a region outside of the region(s) allowed, can be disqualified from the tournament and banned from subsequent installations unless they relocate to that region.‍

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Lag Dispute Procedure

This tournament also does its best to prevent lag in an online environment. To do so, there is a lag dispute procedure each player must follow in case they wish to dispute their opponent on the basis of game-altering lag.

1. If you wish to dispute your opponent you must first complete your match.
2. During your match you need to take any clip(s) of lag that occur to validify your claims and help the TO assist you to better understand what form of lag occured.
3. Limit your dispute to wherever the TO tells you to discuss lag disputes. There you can post your clips, your speed test (as seen in the step after the next), and ping a TO who is helping to run the tournament and they will help direct you.
4. Post your speed results that can be taken from the website http://www.speedtest.net/.
5. TO assisting you has the right to either stick with the standings of your match or advance either player. All decisions are final.
   
   

Set Procedure

1. Players select their loadouts.
2. The player with the higher seed creates a Friendly Duel and sends the code.
3. The players play the first game of the match.
4. Players either rematch directly, or change their loadout. Changes to loadouts do not have to be announced to the opposing player.
5. Player's re-enter the Friendly Duel and the next game is played.
6. Repeat steps ‘IV’ through ‘V’ until the match is complete.
   
   

Alting/Smurfing

You will be immediately disqualified from the tournament if you are found hiding your identity to manipulate the bracket/seeding. The only exception to this rule is if the player notifies a TO prior to the registration end date.

Tardiness

Anyone who is not present for their match by 15 minutes past the scheduled start time is subject to a total disqualification from their match. Efforts to contact opponents are highly encourage in challengermode, official records to contact will be in the #blaston channel on the VAL discord to prove tardiness.

Collusion

Players suspected of colluding may be immediately disqualified from the tournament. This includes intentionally throwing a game or committing any other form of bracket manipulation. 

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Network Connection Interference‍

In the event that a connection with another player is lost and an interference occurs, a TO should be called to determine how to advance. If a resolution cannot be reached in a reasonable amount of time, the player who disconnected from the match is subject to forfeiting the round, game, or match at the TO’s discretion.‍

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Final Rulings

If any unforeseen situations occur, judgment of Tournament Staff is final. Rules may be altered between phases of a tournament in the best interests of the event. (Example: A game breaking glitch that gives benefits to one player is discovered during a tournament. Thus, the stage may need to be removed from legal play for the remainder of the event.)

Game Rules

Game Settings

• Friendly Duel (Ozo Lounge Duels are allowed if both players agree)
• All weapons, and character skins are allowed.
• Games are played as Best of 3 Rounds
• Matches are played as best of 3 Games (until top 8)

Additional Rules

Offensive Gestures
No offensive or sexual gestures are to take place before, during, in-between or after matches by players. This is according to the Blaston Code of Conduct, and offenses will lead to immediate disqualification and can lead to bans depending on the severity of the breach of the CoC.

Social Gestures
Players are encouraged to show sportsmanship before, during, in-between and matches. However, this does not mean players are required to engage in social gestures such as high fives, and fistbumps. If a high five or fist bump is offered but not received, it is not considered a breach of rules.

Furniture Usage or ‘Boosting’
Players are not allowed to use any type of platform, furniture or equipment to raise themselves from the in-game platform in an unnatural way. This is to maintain competitive integrity, but also to prevent players from sustaining injuries to themselves when playing Blaston.

Excessive Recentering
Players are not allowed to recenter themselves excessively during active rounds.

Spectating
Spectating matches by other players is allowed as long as both players allow it. Spectators are allowed to clap while spectating. Matches will not be replayed if a spectator is disturbing the match with clapping. Any match can be spectated by a TO, to make sure that players are following the rules.

Voice Chat
No player is forced to use Voice Chat before, during, in-between or after matches. If a player asks the opponent to use voice chat but it is rejected - it shouldn’t be questioned.

Glossary

Round: One in-game round that has a 2 minute time limit.

Game: One set of best of 3 Rounds.

Match: One set of best of 3 or 5 Games.

Tournament Organizer (TO): An administrator organizing the tournament.‍

FITNESS INSTRUCTIONS

• Compete in the Summer Games “Fitness Circuit”
• Fitness Circuit workouts start the 21st, more details to come.
• Submit screenshots of workouts for additional gleam entries as well.
• YUR app can collect and coordinate points.
• Complete the total fitness circuit from the games from Synth Riders, Creed: Rise to Glory, VRworkout, Gym Masters, Blaston, In Da Hoop, Vzfit, Player 22 for the most points.

Additional Rules continued

• VAL admins will collect registrations and then release brackets.
• Byes may be possible
• Players must report results of their matches via challengermode.  Screenshots and recordings are highly recommended.  If players provide both in game names, VAL admins can work with Blaston admins to verify, however this is not guaranteed.  VAL may provide a Google form link for screenshots at a later date in the VAL Discord. Disputed matches are up to TO’s to determine final calls.
• Video recording of matches is highly recommended.  VAL reserves the right to enforce reschedules or other competitive rules due to crashes, etc or require video recording.
• If connection or other problems on behalf of a player causes crashes, players who are having connectivity problems will have up to 90 minutes to reschedule their matches.  Players who cannot fix connectivity or other tech issues will most likely be disqualified by VAL admins. For this reason, it is advised to stream, record, or otherwise document all matches.
• If in a best of 3 match, the 1st match is played to completion, but the 2nd match crashes for instance, the results of the first round will hold.
• Players found to be abusing or otherwise disconnecting often may be disqualified.
• Players should prepare for tech tests with VAL admins to verify home setups in the finals.