June 13, 2020 July 8, 2020

Grand Pirate101 Championship Qualifier #2

The Grand Pirate101 Championship continues with our second qualifying tournament! The first qualifying tournament had an absolutely massive turnout, with over 50 participants duking it out for awesome prizes, as well as an invitation to the exclusive Championship stage later this summer. As such, I’ve decided to try something slightly different to best accommodate the increased turnout. Before I talk about that, however, let’s go over the general format of this tournament series. If you’re already familiar with the format from the previous tournament, skip ahead to the info about this tournament

As always, we have lots of awesome prizes, generously provide by Kingsisle, so this isn’t a competition that you’ll want to miss! Furthermore, it’s a low-stakes way to get your feet in the door of PvP, so I’d love to see some new faces joining! But first, let’s go over the basic tournament info.

Grand Pirate Championship Format

Format

Over the summer we plan on having 3 normal tournaments, no different than what we’ve done in the past. There will be one in May (completed), one in June (this article), and one in July (announcement later). However, instead of just having 3 single, disconnected tournaments that each end when the winners take home their prizes, we’ll be adding a second stage to this tournament series.

This second, championship, stage will be an 8 person tournament in early August, accessible by invitation only, featuring a 80,000 crown grand prize, 40,000 crown second place prize, 20,000 crown third and fourth place prize, and 10,000 crown fifth through eighth place prize! This format takes inspiration from the Grand Chess Tour.

Note that the 3 normal tournaments are open to everyone, regardless of performance in the previous tournaments. Furthermore, participating in one does not mean that you have to participate in the others, or that you are automatically signed up for the others. As always, we’ll still be giving away tens of thousands of crowns, bundles, and mounts as prizes, so you definitely don’t want to miss out! It’s also a great way to get your feet in the door, so I’d love to see some new faces in the mix.

Qualifying for the championship tournament will be based on your performance in the three normal tournaments we host. Six of the slots will be auto-bids, going to the winner and second place finisher in each of the normal tournaments.

The last two slots will be at-large bids, based on overall performance across the three tournaments. Essentially, the best-performing individuals that didn’t get auto-bids will get these at-large bids. We’ll calculate this using a point system, explained below.

pirate championship 2020

Points

As mentioned above, the at-large bids will be determined by a point system. This point system will also be used to determine the seeding in the championship tournament. If the prizes weren’t incentive enough to participate in multiple tournaments, this should also be an added reason to participate in as many as you can!

If you win or get second in more than one tournament, your auto-bid in the later tournament(s) that you win will go to the next highest placer in the tournament in question. For instance, if someone gets second in the first tournament and wins the next one, their auto-bid for the second tournament will actually go to the person that got 3rd place. Furthermore, if you decline an auto-bid altogether, your bid will also go to the next highest placer in that tournament.

Here’s how you earn points in each of the 3 tournaments:

32 points – Win a tournament
16 points – Get second place
12 points – Get third place
8 points – Get fourth place
4 points – Place 5th-8th
2 points – Place 9th-16th
1 point – Place 17th+

Everything related to point totals will be tracked on this spreadsheet. Now that all of the explanation is out of the way, read on for the rules and signups for the second tournament.

Tournament #2: What’s New?

As I already mentioned, I’m trying out a slightly different style of tournament this time around that attempts to ensure a more fair outcome, potentially eliminating the impact of unlucky (read: difficult) placement within a bracket. This tournament will be a Swiss style tournament, with a cut to the top 8.

What’s a Swiss tournament? In this tournament type, all players participate in a pre-determined number of rounds (here, 6). Unlike in previous tournaments, which were bracketed, knockout tournaments, your opponent each round is not determined randomly. Instead, players will be matched with opponents with the same record (whenever possible). This means that people who are doing well will face players who are similarly successful, while those who are having a rougher go of it will face opponents in the same situation.

Furthermore, if there are an odd number of participants, one player will have a bye in each round of the Swiss. If this happens to you, you will receive 1/2 a point for that round (obviously, winning is worth 1 point and losing 0 points). At the end of the 6 rounds of swiss, the top 8 players will proceed to a single elimination knockout phase to decide the winner.

Swiss Tiebreaks

In the event of a tie between one or more players in the Swiss portion of the tournament, the tiebreaks will be calculated in order as follows (most of this information is automatically calculated by the website we will use):

Head-to-head: The player with the best performance against the player(s) they are tied with
Sonneborn-Berger Score: Sum of defeated opponents’ scores plus half the sum of drawn opponents’ scores. This method gives further weight to beating or getting draws against stronger players.
Median Buchholz Score: Sum of opponents’ scores, with the highest and lowest values discarded. Similar to a strength of record

Signups

The signups for this tournament will remain open until 11:59 PM Eastern time on Sunday, June 21st, at which point it will immediately be closed. Don’t be late!

IMPORTANT: WHEN YOU SIGN UP YOU WILL RECEIVE A FRIEND REQUEST FROM DISCORD USER MATTHEW#9684. PLEASE KEEP YOUR FRIEND REQUESTS OPEN SO I CAN INVITE YOU TO THE SERVER.

Tournament Info

All participants must be on the US Pirate101 server and be level 60+. Players declare a single pirate during sign-ups. There will be no switching pirates.
The tournament will be run in two phases. The first phase is a 6-round Swiss (read above for info). The top 8 players will then participate in a single-elimination, bracketed second phase (seeding according to results in the first phase). The first phase will start June 22nd (signups remain open until the 21st at 11:59 PM eastern time).
- The 6 rounds of Swiss will be best of one.
- The second phase will be best of 3 (There will be a 3rd place match)
All participants will join a tournament-exclusive Discord server in order to schedule their matches with their opponent. Within this server, participants are to be civil to one another and refrain from using inappropriate language. Breaking these rules are grounds for immediate disqualification. You will receive a Discord friend request from Matthew#9684 to invite you to the server.
- Also worth noting: this server is not a general gameplay server. While you’re welcome to chat with fellow participants, pinging everyone to ask for help farming for something or to do random pvp matches isn’t this server’s intent. There are lots of other wonderful places to get in-game help.
Participants have 4 days to complete the matches for each round of Swiss. However, if you and your opponent cannot schedule a mutually acceptable time, let an organizer know and we can look into providing an extension.
- Participants have 1 week to complete the matches for each round of the second phase.
All matches will take place in the Spar Chamber.
Your internet connection is your responsibility. Should both players disconnect simultaneously, however, (due to a server DDOS attack, for instance), the match will be restarted with no consequences to either player.
If you have any conflicts during your match (an opponent breaking the rules, a game-altering glitch, etc.) it is your responsibility to provide concrete visual proof of these claims, preferably a screenshot or video recording. Only then can I force players to redo a match.
Please ensure that your friend, group, and friend finder requests are turned OFF when you’re doing a match. Furthermore, players caught interfering in another’s match (of your own volition or on behalf of another) will be permanently disinvited from future tournaments.
Prizes are as follows:
- First place: 15,000 Crowns + Pack companion of choice or Pirate101 Bundle of choice (plus an invitation to the August championship)
- Second place: 7,500 Crowns + Pack companion of choice (plus an invitation to the August championship)
- Third and fourth place: 5,000 Crowns
- Fifth through eighth place: 2,500 Crowns

Basic Rules

Players are subject to the following rules in all matches during both phases of the tournament. Breaking these rules will result in your disqualification.

All Doubloons are banned.
Old Scratch is banned.
The Spring and Fall Champion weapons are banned.
All tiers of the Beastmaster Banner are banned.
The Imperial Robes of Moo Manchu are banned.
Ghor is banned, due to his Eagle Eyes glitch.
Overwatch 5 is banned.
Firstmate’s Boon is banned.
Blast of Discord is banned.
Haywire Companions are legal, but note that Overwatch 5 cannot be given to them.