Well folks, the moment you've all been waiting for is here: playoffs! That's right, it's that time of the season where wifi warriors to go head to head for prizes totaling $520! But this time, there are some notable changes in how things are going down, and this article will give you all the details. Let's get started.


1. Playoffs will last for exactly twelve days. (The twelve represents the ten rounds for doubles, and two extra for singles.) What does this mean for you? Well, from here on out, provided there are no interruptions, you will have ONE DAY to play your round. The reason for this is simple: in the past, when Enrish of the Hidden ZipFizz ran playoffs, he allowed you all to make up your own schedules and play your matches whenever. However, that caused quite a few issues with respect to organization, which in turn resulted in numerous disqualifications. Does this intend to eradicate disqualifications completely? No, because you will get disqualified if you don't play your matches on time. Should this make things more organized, however? Yes. That being said, it's important you all have easy access to the bracket so you know who you're supposed to play, which brings me to my next change.

2. The bracket will be streamed on the front page. Keitaro's blog raised an excellent suggestion about live brackets. When I sent a message to him asking for what exactly he wanted, he said that something similar to Challonge would do just fine. Sounds good...except that requires programming, which neal's too busy (and in some cases, lazy) to do. But then it hit me: we already have a live stream panel, and theoretically, anything can be put there so long as it's in a neat little hyperlink form. Therefore, during the weeks playoffs occur, the bracket will be up on the front page for all to see. I will also save all the links for the aftermath article at the end of the season, in case you all are interested to see how things have progressed over time.

3. Subbing, disputing, or any other kind of misconduct/cheating WILL NOT be tolerated. To those who don't know, playoffs were quite chaotic last time. Among site and wifi issues, there was a dispute and claims of subbing. This fiasco was the first time anything like it has happened (to Enrish's and my knowledge, at least,) and we certainly don't want it to happen again. If you get in a dispute with a user, you both will be disqualified and possibly never play in playoffs again (if you have a habit of disputing people on ladder.) If you have someone sub for you, and we find out, the following will happen:

• Permanent disqualification from ladder.
• Cheater badge.
• Ladder cheating infraction.
• Three permanent infraction points.

 

This isn't some match on the regular ladder. This is playoffs. Money's involved here, and I don't think JV appreciates people trying to steal some of it. I know it's wifi and a majority of you think it's terrible, but don't let your hatred for online play cause you to get greedy and disruptive.

Those are pretty much all of the changes in a nutshell. Now it's time to tell you the generic playoffs stuff:

Due to WHOBO 4 taking place this weekend, I have pushed the first round back a day to give attendees an opportunity to return home. The schedule is as follows:

August 8th: Round 1
August 9th: Round 2
August 13th: Round 3
August 14th: Round 4
August 15th: Round 5
August 16th: Round 6
August 20th: Round 7
August 21st: Round 8
August 22nd: Round 9
August 23rd: Round 10
August 27th: Losers and Grand Finals

For all of these dates, singles matches will occur from 8-9 PM EST in Tournament Chat 1. Doubles matches will occur from 9-10 PM EST in Tournament Chat 2. If you cannot play your matches during these times, you are allowed to play earlier if your partner is online. Other than that, remember that these are strict deadlines, so be sure to play on time.  Whenever a match is played, or if your opponent(s) is/are MIA, report to me so that I can make a note of it.

Here are the payouts for the event:

Singles:
1st - $200
2nd - $100
3rd - $50
4th - $20-25

Doubles:
1st - $100 ($50/player)
2nd - $50 ($25/player)

I thought I had included something about this in the first writeup, but I didn't. Also, shoutout to Enrish to ninja-ing me to the edit. You're so cool!

Back to the article. I plan to make the brackets this weekend (Sunday or Monday perhaps,) so if you do not wish to participate, please let me know. I don't want to make a thousand edits when I can easily make one or two by getting your input on the matter. Also note that if you do choose to withdraw, this decision is final. Think long and hard before you say anything to me.