The idea of the Unofficial FMM Tournament is this: teams of players will battle each other in a round-robin style format to determine the overall winner by accumulating Tournament Points (TPs). Each team battles one other team per round in three separate matches in the following battle modes: Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch and Territory Control. Depending on the outcome of the match, the following TPs will be rewarded:

• Win: 3 TPs
• Draw: 1 TP
• Loss: 0 TPs

There are two tournament draws, which will determine the size of the team at the start of the tournament. One draw will be composed of four-player teams (4v4). The other draw will have eight-player teams (8v8). So, yes, essentially there are two tournaments.

Setting up your Tournament Team

Teams should have one designated Team Leader that will represent their team at all times when dealing with me, as well as organizing and carrying the responsibility for their teams during tournament matches. The Team Leader should organize their team according to their draw and set a roster that:

• Reflects who will participate in the first round – the “Active” team.
• Includes a list of alternates.

Note that a pilot listed as part of a tournament team, whether they are on the “active” team or alternate, cannot be listed with another team in the same tournament draw. For example: Dave is listed as an alternate on a 4v4 tournament draw team. He cannot participate with any other 4v4 tournament team, but he can participate in another completely different 8v8 tournament team.

So a player can elect to play in both tournament draws on team with a totally different team roster. This list of players will remain permanent throughout the entire tournament. The logistics of participating in both however is completely up to the player and their team(s). Pilots can be of any level or rank. You do not need to be in any kind of clan or player organization to participate.

When the first round is over, the Team Leader can then re-organize their team (but only within the confines of their listed team) and shuffle their pilots accordingly. For example: Dave sat out in the first round as an alternate, but Jimmy can’t make the second round after playing the first so Dave can take his place.

Generally a roster re-organization can only take place between rounds, not between matches within a round. However, an exception may be made if the opposing Team Leader agrees to the roster change beforehand. Otherwise the team will be forced to play with a smaller team or may forfeit. Note the rule change.

Team Leaders will send me a forum PM (to: NC_HawkSteel) with:

• Their Active squad for Round 1
• List of Alternates
• Name of the Team (which must fit all game Rules of Conduct)

The Team Name is simply a name you wish to identify the team with, and is how they will initially be identified (the team rosters will also be listed publicly).

If the "active" team roster changes for the next round, this will also need to be communicated to me.

Forum Accounts

Yes this will require a forum account for the Team Leader. Not only must the Team Leader send in rosters and round result information, but they must also use the forums to communicate with other Team Leaders. If you don’t have a forum account, it’s pretty easy to make one, just follow the instructions sent when you first created your Exteel account, or create one here.

Tournament Structure

Initially each tournament draw will be organized in a pool-based round-robin format. What this means is that each team in the pool will wind up battling every other team in the pool at least once. Currently each tournament draw has one pool, but if there are a lot of teams, there may be multiple pools and a playoff format will be instituted. I won’t know which format to institute until I know how many teams will participate in each. It’s possible the 4v4 tournament will have multiple pools and the 8v8 tournament will have one pool.

The tournament draws and pools will be posted two days before the start of the tournament.

Teams will have one week to finish the three battles for their round. If all of the teams finish early, there will be a one to two day lull while the round results are tabulated. The next round will then be announced and teams will have a week to finish that round. So, theoretically, a round may only last one day instead of seven if every team finishes on that one day. Then, the second round may take five days. Teams that don’t complete their matches will forfeit each (or if they don’t send in their results, see below).

Who a team will face in each round will be randomly chosen by myself, so the team will not know who they will be facing until the time for the round is posted.

The Team Leader will take a screenshot (the print-screen key) of their team roster (the tab key) as it begins the match and then again for the match results. So for each round each team should accumulate six (6) screenshots. These screenshots will then be sent to me for match results verification, as well as team roster verification. If I’m satisfied with the results, TPs will then be rewarded as per the method listed way above. This is the only way I will verify a match result, by analyzing the screenshots from both teams. These results must also be turned in to me by the designated end time of the round, and/or within 24 hours of the end of the round.

Tournament Round Structure

The three matches fought within a tournament round must be completed before the round ends. The logistics of how and when these teams will meet for their matches is totally within the power of the teams. One match must be fought in CTF mode, TDM mode, and TC mode, and the results verified before TPs are given.

Teams must play on a designated map. This map depends on the tournament draw and the battle mode:

• 4v4 TDM: Dreadnaught
• 4v4 TC: Defrosted Summit
• 4v4 CTF: Underground City

• 8v8 TDM: Master Road
• 8v8 TC: Trident Way
• 8v8 CTF: V Hill

You have to play on these maps for these matches. No exceptions. Map selection will not change for the tournament.

Important Dates

• Team Leaders must have their info in to me via forum PM by noon CDT Wednesday, May 21, 2008.
• Tournament draws will be posted later that day, probably around 6PM CDT.
• Round One starts at 12:00AM CDT Friday, May 23 and is scheduled to end exactly one week later (May 30), though if all of the teams finish early, it will end much earlier.
• Once Round One ends, Round Two will start within two days. Match-ups and previous results will be posted at that time.

Forum Discussion

I’m sure there will be a lot of talk in the forums about this, so here are some designated threads to start with:

• The general discussion thread for the Unofficial FMM Tournament will be here.
• Each round will have a designated thread and Round One will be here. You can smack-talk (again within forum rules) or just talk about... stuff.

Other things to note

All tournament rules are subject to change depending on how cranky I am. I'm sure there are some exceptions that will need to be made at some point, but don't plan on it happening to you.

I won’t tolerate any shenanigans, attempts to cheat, fudging with results, team roster weirdness, use of map exploits or violations of our terms of service. If I feel like something is awry, then you and/or your team are out of the tournament. Poof.

This tournament is unofficial. NCsoft will not be supporting any part of it, other than having the game service being available as it always is. There will be no added customer or GM support because of it.