Hello everyone!

I'm happy to announce the L5R Disco League, a monthly competitive league for L5R players! The league will run from September 1st to September 29th with a top cut tournament the 30th! Interested in playing? You can sign up via Challonge here and keep reading below for full details!

This is the beta iteration of our monthly online L5R league! This month we will have 6 rounds of Swiss. Each round will have 1 week to report, starting on September 1st. After the Swiss rounds we'll have a cut to top 16.

Format

3-core, Swiss (6 Rounds into a top 16 cut)
Using Assigned Clan Roles

You may change your deck between Swiss rounds! However, the following things must remain the same:
Stronghold, Role, Splash

Registration

Registration will be open until 23:59 PST Tuesday, August 29th.

Playing Games

For the beta season all games will be played via Tabletop Simulator (TTS). In future seasons Ringteki will be the platform of choice. In the event that Ringteki is ready before this season ends it will be considered a valid mode of play.

Coordinating Rounds
Challonge has a private messaging feature. Please use this, the discord, or email to contact your opponent and establish a match time. Matches must be reported by 00:00 every Wednesday (so Tuesday night)

Tie Breakers

1. Match Wins

2. Strength of Schedule

3. Extended Strength of Schedule

Reporting

Please report every game played to an administrator (Reiga, InsanityRises) via Google Form, links will be provided each round on the Discord and on the Discussion Board in Challonge.

Participants will have until end of day Tuesday (23:59 Pacific Time) every week to report the outcome (simply W or L), administrators will attempt to contact any unreported pairings by Wednesday and every Thursday (12:00) new pairings will be posted.

Any pairing unreported by end of day Wednesday (17:00) will result in a double loss.

Example Reporting Form

Round Time
The Swiss rounds are untimed. Each game should go to completion, across multiple sessions if necessary.

Judges

In the event of rules questions please refer to the #lcg_rules channel on the L5R discord. Myself and Khift will be judges for this event, feel free to ping one of us on discord as well.

Legal Cards

Only cards from the Core Set will be legal this season, no preview cards will be permitted despite the fact they exist in the TTS mod. Use of an illegal card will result in a round loss.

Forfeiting Rounds
Players will forfeit a round if any of the following occur

1. Players fail to coordinate with their opponents, resulting in no match occurring
2. Players do not arrive to the agreed upon match time within a 15 minute grace period

3. Players use illegal cards in their deck
4. Players disconnect mid-game and refuse to load the latest auto-save to resume the match

5. Players lie, cheat, or generally act maliciously toward their opponent, players will be disqualified from the league and tournament for repeat offenses.

Disqualification

1. Players who fail to submit a round will be disqualified.
2. Players who lie, cheat, or act maliciously as in #5 above will be disqualified from the league

Video Recording and Disputes

It is highly recommended that participants record their matches in the event that disputes arise. Additionally, the Tournament Organizer may request footage for weekly league recaps.

Voice Chat

Voice chat is not a requirement in this league, players will determine the best mode of communication between themselves (text only, voice only, or a mix)

Top Cut

After 6 rounds of Swiss we will cut to the Top 8 and host a tournament on October 21st.

The top cut tournament will be a live single elimination event, likely with 75 minute rounds in a best of one format.

More info to come.

Prizes
In the beta season there will be no prizes given out, other than bragging rights, as we streamline the tournament format. Future seasons are planned to have limited prize support.

Feedback

Feedback is welcomed, especially in this beta season. If you have an idea for future seasons or how to streamline rules or logistics of the tournament please feel free to send them to me via Discord or your social media platform of choice.

Helpful Links

How to Play L5R
How to Set Up Tabletop Simulator for L5R

L5R DIscord

OBS Studio (Audio/Video Recorder)

Discord Instructions

For those unfamiliar with the platform, DIscord is "a modern voice & text chat app" that has both a web client as well as a desktop application and it is where we will be coordinating for this league.

To join the L5R discord simply click on the link above (in the Helpful Links section) and create an account.
Once you have that all squared away you'll be in the #l5_general channel.
Type "!clan lcgplayer" to join the LCG Player role, which will open access to our tournament channel
Navigate to the #discord-league channel on the left-hand pane of your application
Say hi!

If you have any questions feel free to post them there by mentioning me @Reiga or my co-TO @InsanityRises

Are players not allowed to concede? What happens if a player concedes after losing only one province? The winner only gets 2 tiebreaker points?

4 hours ago, player2636234 said:

Are players not allowed to concede? What happens if a player concedes after losing only one province? The winner only gets 2 tiebreaker points?

That's a good question ! Anyways I'm in !

Maybe when you concede you give the max points available to your opponent.

I would be willing to be a guinea pig for this and give it a go as well.

I certainly want to be a part of this! I guess I'll have to set up discord again.

Alright I updated the rules both on the tournament and the OP here. Things of note:

1. Tiebreakers caused confusion, moved to FFG's SOS and ESOS system using their tournament software (TOME)
2. Added a lot of rules clarification from questions here, on reddit, and the discord
3. Moved to 6 rounds instead of 3 due to a large amount of interest

Hey Reiga?
I am not really fluent on Discord. How do I find the L5R discord page/part/site?
To be honest I am about as tech savvy as a blind water buffalo so there is a lot of new programs and things here for me to learn on top of the new game. (which is awesome) I hope I am not to much of a pain.

"3-core, Swiss" - Does this mean we will need 3 decks?
"Using Assigned Clan Role" - You will give us the role we will play?

"You may change your deck between Swiss rounds but these things must be consistent:
Clan, Role, Splash Faction" - If I start with Lion/splashScorpion Keeper this will be my main focus for the tourny and I cannot change to Drgon/sCrane?

@MadMonkZero

1) 3-Core means you can construct a deck as if you had three core set boxes available to you. This is shorthand for standard deck-building rules, and distinct from the aptly named 1-Core format.

2) Assigned Clan Roles are the roles determined at the Kiku Matsuri which can be found here: https://l5r.gamepedia.com/Role among other places.

3) Correct. If you choose Lion>Scorpion, you are automatically assigned Keeper of Earth (due to it being the Lion's Role). You may rebuild your deck between rounds, but only so long as your stronghold is a Lion stronghold, and your conflict deck contains cards from Lion, Scorpion, and Neutral factions.

How is it best to record matches and is the simulator loaded with cards or is it a webcam at desk sort of thing.. (trying to purchase now but steam is playing up)

3 hours ago, MadMonkZero said:

Hey Reiga?
I am not really fluent on Discord. How do I find the L5R discord page/part/site?

I added a links section to the Challonge description, here is the direct link to Discord: https://discord.gg/zPvBePb

Once you join discord you'll want to type "!clan lcgplayer" to see all the LCG channels

1 hour ago, Matrim said:

How is it best to record matches and is the simulator loaded with cards or is it a webcam at desk sort of thing.. (trying to purchase now but steam is playing up)

There's a great TTS tutorial for L5R here:

As for recording matches, which I glossed over previously I'd suggest OBS Studio which is free.

You can download it here: https://obsproject.com/

OK I think I have everything figured out. Would there be anyone willing to do a trial run on this TTS thing with me. A test game or whatnot?

36 minutes ago, MadMonkZero said:

OK I think I have everything figured out. Would there be anyone willing to do a trial run on this TTS thing with me. A test game or whatnot?

Sure are you on the discord?

Also, one last bump as registration closes tonight, with brackets up Thursday!

I do have a Discord account, its the same name as this one.

Quick thought, has any consideration been put into time zone differences and pairings at all? I ask because I know I will not function the same at 1am as I would at 4pm.

38 minutes ago, MadMonkZero said:

Quick thought, has any consideration been put into time zone differences and pairings at all? I ask because I know I will not function the same at 1am as I would at 4pm.

I think it will be up to the participating members to schedule their matches. I'm not sure what to do about disputes though.

3 hours ago, MadMonkZero said:

Quick thought, has any consideration been put into time zone differences and pairings at all? I ask because I know I will not function the same at 1am as I would at 4pm.

2 hours ago, Mirith said:

I think it will be up to the participating members to schedule their matches. I'm not sure what to do about disputes though.

Yes, it is up to the participants to schedule - that's why we've allowed almost a full week between matches! As for disputes, it is strongly recommended that players record their sessions. Disputes without video evidence will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

In other news, registration closed last night and the league pairings have been posted!

5 minutes ago, Reiga said:

Yes, it is up to the participants to schedule - that's why we've allowed almost a full week between matches! As for disputes, it is strongly recommended that players record their sessions. Disputes without video evidence will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

In other news, registration closed last night and the league pairings have been posted!

I meant disputes over scheduling. Player A cannot do this Weekend, Player B can only do this Weekend, what then?

That's why I didn't sign up. I know I'm going to be on travel for two weeks in the schedule. Maybe next time.

In other online tournaments of this sort (like the ones we ran for Conquest) if a player could not schedule a match during the week for what ever reason then they conceded and took a loss for the round. That's really the only fair way to do it if your opponent was ready and willing to schedule a game during the week.

Yes, that's how we recommend doing it. If there's a heated dispute we'll handle that case-by-case but we'll probably default to the player who tried to be the most accommodating of schedules. Obviously if timing disputes become an issue with a certain player we'll have to review that case specifically as that could be indicative of foul play.

It'd be cool if some participants would be willing to post recordings of their matches, or maybe even announce them for other folks to spectate.

Anyone willing to run through a demo game so I can see how tts works tonight? I am UK based so BST and any time between 8-10 would be good..

15 minutes ago, Matrim said:

Anyone willing to run through a demo game so I can see how tts works tonight? I am UK based so BST and any time between 8-10 would be good..

I can help out, will be free from 9PM onwards UK time. Plan on possibly running someone through TTS at another point too, so I was planning on being online as is.

great, I will keep an eye out for you...

6 minutes ago, Matrim said:

great, I will keep an eye out for you...

Awesome! My Discord tag is #2289, I'll sign in as soon as I get to my computer