This has been a long time in the making and we are glad to finally be dipping our feet in the water. While we are working on a much more advanced system of running tournaments online for Monsterpocalypse, we wanted to start with a free tournament to work out some logistics and rules. So how is all of this going to work?
Vassal
In case you didn’t already know, the vassal engine is what we will be using to play matches online. If you don’t have vassal or are experiencing trouble getting it installed or set up, we published a piece here detailing the process and making it very simple. If you still cannot figure it out, you can post in the comments and we will hopefully be able to solve your problem.
Sign-up
So how are you going to sign up? Well for this event, we are going to have you guys go to our store and purchase a product that is free. The product will be the tournament sign up found here. When placing the order, please include an accurate name, address, and email. Also in the notes of your order please include your vassal name and your full army list, including both monster forms, units, and buildings.
We decided to make it much more simple. Just send an email to tournaments@covenanttcg.com with the following information
Name
Email
Vassal Username
Army List
Deadline for entry is January 31, 2010.
General Rules
We are going to try to keep this as straight forward, fair, and simple as possible. The following rules apply to all online tournaments hosted by Team Covenant unless otherwise stated.
1. The Tournament Bracket will be posted on Monday February 1st. Every Monday an updated bracket will be posted.
2. Players have until Tuesday at midnight after an updated bracket is posted to agree upon TWO times before the following Sunday at Midnight in which they should have a minimum of 2 hours available to play online. If two times are not agreed upon, then the winner will be determined by Team Covenant. The main purpose of this is to simply provide consistency. We don’t care when you play, however we want a rule in place in case one player is not responding to the other.
3. Players will meet and play at the first scheduled time unless there is an emergency, vassal issues, etc. If the game hits the two hour mark, either player has the option to stop playing and resume play at the second scheduled time. However, there are NO time limits so if players choose they can continue play until the game is finished.
4. If there is a significant rules question or dispute that cannot be settled between the two players, both players should save the game and send a log file to tournaments@covenanttcg.com explaining the issue and the situation. The judge will make the final call and reply to both players. Gameplay will resume at the second scheduled time.
5. All rounds in the tournament will run between Monday at midnight through Sunday at midnight central standard time. The winner of rounds in which results are not reported by Sunday at midnight will be decided by Team Covenant.
6. All results should be emailed by both players to results@covenanttcg.com
Specific Tournament Rules
There are rules specific to each tournament we host. This includes things like format, etc. For this tournament, specific rules include:
1. Armies can be constructed of any figure from any set. Standard army rules apply
2. The tournament will be single elimination bracket style. When you lose, you go home.
3. Whatever army you use in round 1, you must use in all rounds.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
*Please note, members of Team Covenant will be participating in the tournament to do some serious smashing (and likely to get smashed a time or two). Don’t miss this chance to prove you can kick some TC butt.
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Team Covenant is a community of gamers with a single mission: Gaming Reborn. 
Are you guys going to get something like a ventrillo server so we can all voice chat? That’s about the only thing I really want when playing on vas.
This is very exciting! I can’t wait.
This is the bestest thing evar!
What do we do about Shipping?
There should be a free shipping offer entitled ‘Online Tournament’. Be sure and include your vassal name and army list in the gift message section when checking out.
There it is now. Thanks Zach!
Crap, I just realized, does “army” list include the buildings? I totally left them off (because I was having such a hard time figuring out my units).
Where are the notes that we are supposed to fill in? Is that in the cart, or what? I can’t find them…
Under the “Shipping Method” tab of the checkout, you can select “add gift message”.
Voila!
K, gotcha. This’ll give me more of a reason to play with Ulgoth. Thanks! And btw, what’s the prize for this tourney? Just curious.
How long do we have to sign up? I should’ve asked this earlier, but I have some things I want to hammer out in my armies.
Quick thought too; Could you please post a person’s list under their name on a bracket? That way we could know if they were changing lists without us knowing and also so that if we were, for say, playing against Osheroth, we would know to not pick Killer Canals. Just a thought that I’d highly recommend implementing.
We switched the sign-up method. Now it’s just an email. If you already signed up, please go ahead and just send an email.
Guess I’d better resolve my Vassal issues if I ever want to participate.
Also, my “free” time is mostly limited to very early morning and very late night. I’m talking 5-6am weekend days, and after 10 or 11pm every night, Central time. What are the chances that I’ll be able to get game time in on that schedule?
You’d be surprised Bobb. At the least you’ll be able to play Mark Garton. He never sleeps….
Bobb, we’ll just have to wait and see. We’re doing a trial run for this very reason!
Two times available to spend two uninterrupted hours online, per week? Ha Ha Ha! Ain’t gonna happen for me, sorry. I’d love to participate, but I have a hard enough time finding one evening to do my physical MonPoc playing.
I included a map as part of my team build list. Will it be like standard in person tournaments where we roll off for first and second player and the second player chooses which map from either side of either player’s maps? Or can we use any map we want for each game?
Kevin, I thought official tournaments were 1st player picks color (red/blue) and second player picks map. Is that not how it goes?
Yeah…say player A brought Block War/Smashville and player B brought Riverside Rampage/Kill’agains Island. They roll off. Player A rolled highest so player B gets to choose which of the maps the game will play on and he chooses Riverside Rampage. Player A gets to choose which side, Red or Blue, he will start on. The question is, will this be reflected in the online tournament? If so, how?
I also included a map. My understanding of which map the game takes place on is the same as Kevin’s, although I don’t know that our venue requires the map to be considered part of your build.
Looks like I got my Vassal issues solved…have to play with my firewall turned off…so the only issue will be getting mutual play times. I’m pretty much going to be limited to early mornings, although I should have some time every day.
Bobb, can you add an exception to your firewall for Vassal? I know some firewall applications let you do that so that you’re not completely unprotected just because you want to use Vassal for a couple hours.
I’m so ready for this. Getting to smash face in publicly just excites me.
I don’t know if I’ll have the time or not, but I like this idea, so I’m signed up. Can’t wait to beat some face either. Better watch out, ’cause I couldn’t resist breaking out the tried and true.
Yep, that’s right – I’m going with Macros!
I’m signed up, but like so many others, the time constraints could be an issue.
Okay I missed the sign ups, did you happen to end up with an odd number and need another player to even things up?
Send in quickly! Don’t know if you’ll get in but worth the shot.