PCO / ODC IV - RULES

[Malarky]

TERMINOLOGY
Playdiplomacy Classic Open (PCO): The name of the tournament.
Tournament Director (TD): The person responsible for organising and running the tournament.
Round: A series of games, started simultaneously.
Qualifying round: A round which contributes to progression to the Medal Round.
Medal Round: The final round of the tournament, deciding final places.
Entrant: A player in the PCO tournament.
Top Board: The game that will decide the winner of the PCO.
Raw Score: The total points scored in the tournament before being converted to Tournament Points.
Tournament Points: The total points in the tournament: the Raw Score divided by the number of rounds played.
game End Date: Qualifying round games will end at the 1912 Build Phase.

A. ORGANISATION
1. The tournament will be run by the Tournament Director (TD) Malarky.
2. The TD’s role will be to:
- Organise and invite players to games.
- To ensure all entrants abide by the rules of the tournament.
- To adjudicate all rules issues that may arise.
- To maintain the scoring of the tournament.
3. The TD will remain neutral in regard to all adjudications.

B. STRUCTURE
1. The tournament will feature 5 rounds of Diplomacy games, split into two phases:
(a) The first four rounds will be Qualifying rounds.
(b) The fifth round will be the Medal Round.

Qualifying Rounds
1. Each entrant will play in the Qualifying rounds and score points towards qualifying for the Medal Round. (See C. SCORING below.)
2. The Qualifying rounds will result in a league table which will decide the final games of the tournament in the Medal Round.
3. No entrant will play any other entrant more than twice in the Qualifying rounds.
4. No entrant will play any power more than once in the Qualifying rounds.
5. The first two Qualifying rounds will have players drawn randomly to play in games. The gap between the start of the first and second rounds will be 4 weeks.
6. The third Qualifying round will be seeded based on the results of the first Qualifying round. Entrants will be split into groups based on the number of entrants in the tournament divided by 7. Players will be randomly drawn to play against one player from each seeding rank, but will not play against any player they have already played twice. The third Qualifying round will start upon the completion of all first Qualifying round games.
7. The fourth Qualifying round will be seeded based on the results of the second Qualifying round, using the same process as described in B7 above. The fourth Qualifying round will start upon the completion of all second Qualifying round games.

Medal Round
9. Following the completion of all games in the Qualifying rounds the top seven players will be invited to play in the Medal Round Top Board. Other games in the Medal Round will feature a random selection of other players.
10. If a player does not respond to the invite to play in the Top Board game, the position will be offered to players lower down the table, in order of position in the table.
11. The Medal Round Top Board game will decide the top seven places in the tournament. If this game results in a solo victory, the winner of the game will win the POC tournament.
12. If the Medal Round Top Board game ends in a draw, the points scored in this game will be added to the points scored in the Qualifying rounds. The top seven positions in the tournament will be reserved for the players in this game.
13. Points awarded in the Medal Round Top Board game will be doubled to decide the top seven positions in the tournament.
14. Other games in the Medal Round will be scored as per normal tournament rules and positions from 8th in the tournament will be decided by the combined totals.

C. SCORING
1. Games will be scored using the DC(C) scoring system:
(a) A solo scores 700 points; all other players score 0.
(b) A game that ends in a draw will be scored as follows:
- 2-way draw: 300 points each.
- 3-way draw: 200 points each.
- 4-way draw: 150 points each.
- 5-way draw: 120 points each.
- 6-way draw: 100 points each
- 7-way draw: 0 points each.
- Loss: 0 points.
(c) In the event of a draw, an additional 100 points will be awarded to all survivors based on Sum of Squares scoring (see below).
2. The Raw Score - the total number of points scored across all games an entrant has played - will then be divided by the number of rounds played to produce Tournament Points.
3. In the event of a tie on Tournament Points, the first tie-breaker will be based on head-to-head results across the tournament, using entrants’ Raw Score. (see below).
4. In the event that head-to-head results cannot be used, or do not break ties, ties will be broken based on Mean Comparison Scoring (modified to match the DC(C) scoring system) (see below).
5. Points awarded in any game in which a substitute features will be modified based on the percentage of completed turns in a game:
- If an entrant plays more than 60% of all turns in a game, the Raw Score for the game will be scored at 100%.
- If an entrant plays between 40 and 60% of all turns in a game, the Raw Score for the game will be scored at 90%.
- If an entrant plays less than 40% of all turns in a game, the Raw Score for the game will be scored at 75%. If this game results in a loss, it will not be included in the rounds played.

D. GAMES
1. All games will be played on the Standard map, and will be Classic games.
2. All games will be Schools games, allowing the PASSWORD to remain in force throughout.
3. All games will be anonymous Players games - fully anonymous.
4. All games will feature PREFERENCES for power allocation. When entering a game, each entrant must choose the power allocated by the TD in EACH preference box.
(a) In the first Qualifying round, the TD will randomly allocate a power to entrants.
(b) In subsequent Qualifying rounds, the TD will randomly allocate a power to entrants with the provision that no entrant will play the same power twice.
(c) In the Medal Round Top Board, entrants will select the power they wish to play following this process:
- Entrants will choose the order they wish to choose a power based on their final position in the Qualifying rounds table, ie the leader in the table will choose which order they select a power first, the second-placed entrant will choose second, and so on.
- When the order of selection has been finalised, the entrant who chooses the power first will be asked to nominate the power they wish to play; then the entrant who chooses second will select their power, etc.
(d) In the other Medal Round games, powers will be allocated using RANDOM allocation (the only time players may play more than one power).
5. Games will feature 1st turn NMR protection to protect the integrity of games.
6. If a player NMRs (does not enter orders before the deadline) the deadline will process as normal.
7. Qualifying round games will feature NON-DIAS draws. This means that players may survive to feature at the end of the game but not be part of the draw. Survivors will score points based on SoS scoring regardless of whether they are part of the draw or not.
(a) Medal Round games will feature DIAS draws.
8. Qualifying round games will end in a DIAS draw if they reach the Fall 1912 Builds phase (the game End Date), regardless of whether an agreed draw has been accepted.
(a) Medal Round games will not feature a game End Date but will be played to a conclusion.
9. Draws will be voted on using a Secret Ballot.
10. Deadlines will be:
- Movement Phase: 3 days.
- Retreats Phase: 24 hours.
- Build Phase: 24 hours.
- Spring 1901 Movement Phase will be 6 days.
- Finalization will be featured.

E. ANONYMITY
1. Within the game, players may reveal their identity. This has no impact on the game. Players may, after all, be lying.
2. Entrants are not allowed to reveal their identity on the Forum or otherwise outside the game. A penalty will result.

F. SURRENDERS/RESIGNING FROM THE TOURNAMENT/SUSPENDED GAMES
1. If a player surrenders, is auto_surrendered or is removed from a game then they will be removed from the tournament.
2. If a player cannot meet their commitments in the game, they should notify the TD. The TD will seek a replacement.
3. If a player needs to take an enforced break in the game, they should notify the TD and request a deadline extension. All players are expected to accept the deadline extension. Players are only allowed one extension per game. Players MAY request a deadline extension to find a substitute.
4. If a player cannot request a deadline extension, they should seek a substitute, who may or may not be an official tournament reserve but MAY NOT be a tournament entrant or someone who has previously been a tournament entrant.
5. If an entrant withdraws from the tournament, or is removed from the tournament, the TD will seek a reserve.
6. An entrant who withdraws from a game or the tournament is not allowed to act as a Reserve and will not be placed in the tournament.
7. If a game ends while a substitute player is involved, the points awarded for the game will be counted towards the official tournament entrant.

G. RESERVES
1. The TD will maintain a list of reserves. These will be people who have agreed to replace players in games, either for one game or to replace a player who is removed/withdraws from the tournament.
2. Scoring for reserves will be adapted based on the rules for scoring (see C.5 above).
3. A player who plays in one round but who does not play in subsequent rounds will not receive an official tournament ranking.

H. PENALTIES
1. Surrendering/being surrendered from a game (see F. SURRENDERS/RESIGNING FROM THE TOURNAMENT/SUSPENDED GAMES above) with an active position - removal from the tournament.
2. Breaking anonymity rules (see E. ANONYMITY above):
- First occasion: Reduction of 25% of final Tournament Points.
- Second occasion: Removal from the Tournament.
3. Failure to join a game within the specified deadline set by the GM:
- First occasion: Reduction of 25% of Raw Score for that game.
- Second occasion: Removal from the Tournament.
4. Failing to confirm participation in a game - removal from the tournament.
5. The TD will enforce all site rules.
(a) The TD will remove any player who seeks advice about playing the game outside of the game, whether on Playdiplomacy or any other platform.
6. The TD reserves the right to remove players from the tournament under extraordinary circumstances (as defined by the TD).

[Malarky]

1. Each player scores the number of SCs held at the end of the game.
2. This number is then squared, eg: 5 SCs becomes 25.
3. The total of all survivors’ SC squared score is found.
4. The percentage of each players’ SC squared of the game total is scored, rounded to two decimal places.

[Malarky]

If players are tied on Tournament Points, then the results the tied players had in games they played in common are used. If they had more than one game in common, then a comparison of Raw Points scored over all games is used.

If multiple (more than two) players are involved in a tie, then only games in which all the tied players featured are taken into account.

Players are ranked based on the scores they obtained in the head-to-head games featured.

The first criterion is whether they won the game,
The second criterion is the DC scoring from the games, ie ignoring SoS scoring points.
The third criterion is the full Raw Score amassed in those game(s).

[Malarky]

If head-to-head doesn’t split players, or if it can’t be used to tie-break, MCS is used:
- Find the average number of Raw Score points awarded to each power in all games: the Power Score. Total of Raw Scores for a power divided by the number of completed games.
- Find the difference in Raw Score points for each power a player has played from Power Score.
- Find the total of all differences a player has scored: the Player Score.
- Divide the Player Score by the number of rounds played for each player: MCS points.
- Rank players based on MCS points.

[Malarky]

Play for the (metaphorical) Tuggle Trophy by entering the Playdiplomacy Classic Open.

I'm hoping to start the tournament by mid-April if possible. It will be open to anyone registered on the site and I'll be combining sign-ups here with people who sign-up on The Diplomacy Hub (for people who aren't registered on the Playdip Forum, although why they wouldn't be, I don't know!)

Games will be hosted on Playdiplomacy, so all entrants will need to be registered on the site.

I'm also looking to get this registered as part of the Diplomacy Broadcast Network Invitational. I'll keep you updated.

If you have any questions about this, please post below.

[Malarky]

If you want to play, sign-up below. I'll maintain a list of those who have signed-up here.

RedCandle
Wargamer
Chairpusher
smartiperson
cairoblue
Badger1991
XPatriot11
knilgau
aDiplomat
Math Dad
- Hurricane -
formless
TheFlyingBoat
Captainmeme
Jensen
Josef IV
wardiecj
MrUPSBrown
Woolgie
Custer
Yonni
That1diplomat
MasterGR
Eulpic
Latanst1
MrPensive
Octavious
Conq
zyll
Von Klemens
LilDipper
GameKat
weakling
BrotherBored
BlueFingers
Tanjian
BullCall
BesharamSabi
Lady Razor
gerba
Pootleflump
Pete the Great
CapturingBravo
SixteenFortyEight
Baptist
MarsSaber
FloridaMan
EUPH1ST
SpoonLicker
DirtyHarry
Governor
slow
eze97
efwin
Klendathu
PercivalMerlin
dib
simonbets
Strategus
VGhost
TRUTH

GDevaldivia ???
MSC_1914
Ranger221
betweentheblades
cmoreman
boysenberry1
HWSNBN
dustballs
FireWantsToTrade
HammerMC
tobythefasicist
jashper
Mr DelPiano
fencertim
Elladan915
Chesney72
tarasbulba
Sinthoras01

[Malarky]

Anyone who missed out on signing-up, or who wants to only be a reserve, will be listed here.

[RedCandle]

I am signing up. I have not played a tournament before, so I'm looking forward to it.

[Jack007]

...
If you have any questions about this, please post below.

Hm..
Nice, but why do you call it "Classic"? Except of the map, it is not.

Jack

[CapturingBravo]

I'm interested - when would we be targeting to start?