Council of Elrond

Dear all,

This is a short pre-announcement that I will soon open the registration for the 3rd edition of the MECCG Hero "Fifa World Cup" on-line tournament (on play.meccg.com). This will be a sealed hero tournament, with players receiving a increasing number of cards during the event and eventually covering all MECCG sets. the tournament will consist of an initial set of qualifier games followed by a knock-out stage culminating in a final standoff.

More details will follow soon, but you should note two important aspects:

1) the tournament will involve strictly 16 players, the ones who will register first.
2) the tournament rounds will last one week, not two, and according to the tournament schedule appended to this message.

So please keep this in mind when pondering whether to join this tournament.

Cheers,
Marc

Oct 21 - Nov 3 Registration on play.meccg.com
Nov 4 - Collections out
Nov 11 - Nov 17: 1st Qualifier Games
Nov 18 - Nov 24: 2nd Qualifier Games
Nov 25 - Dec 1: 3rd Qualifier Games
Dec 2 - Dec 8: Quarter Finals
Dec 9 - Dec 15: Semi Finals
Dec 16 - Dec 22: Final

2024 Hero "Fifa World Cup" tournament:

FORMAT: Involving 16 players, the tournament will consist of an initial set of qualifier games followed by a playoff stage culminating in a final standoff. The players will be divided in 4 pools of 4 players each, who will face each other over the course of three games, accumulating tournament points (TPs) as per standard Council of Lorien rules. The first two players from each pool will then go on to the playoff stage consisting of quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final.

DECK CONSTRUCTION: This will be a sealed hero tournament, with increasing number of cards eventually covering all sets. Building from past experience of sealed tournaments the card set will consist of:

- For pool qualifier games: 2 TW starter from different fixed packs, 4 TW boosters, 1 random TW promo, 1 common ally (either Noble Hound or Noble Steed), one 1 or 2 mind TW ally, and 4 random TW characters (1 each worth 3 MP, 2 MP, 1 MP, 0 MP). In addition to these cards, each player will receive one The One Ring, one Cracks of Doom and a Wizard's Test card. Starter deck will include randomised fixed card as described by Theo here viewtopic.php?p=40097#p40097

- Quarter-finals: 4 additional TD boosters

- Semi-finals: 4 additional DM boosters

- Final: 2 LE boosters, 2 AS boosters and 2 WH boosters + 20 random cards from BA. Characters and resources from non-Hero alignment should be disregarded.

Players can change decks as they see fit throughout the tournament using their initial card pool and subsequent additions. Maximum sideboard size will be fixed at 20 cards during pool qualifier games and increased to up 30 for knock-out games.

SPECIAL RULES

1) Legal sites. Only TW site can be used in the qualifier pool games. Quarter finals games will also access to TD sites, with all hero sites being then available for semifinals and the final.

2) During knockout-stages, characters that were eliminated (through combat or corruption) or taken prisoner in one game cannot be used in the next game.

3) Tie breakers at the end of the qualifier stage. Ties in total TPs will be decided by applying in order the following criteria a) One Ring victories, b) overall MPs difference score across the qualifier games, c) direct confrontation result between tied players, d) total MPs scored across the qualifier games.

4) Tie breaker at the knock-out stage. Ties in total MPs at the end of knock-out games will be decided first on past number of One Ring victories and then using the Weakest Link method. If an MPs tie persists, a final dice roll will decide the winner, except for the final where the final victory will be split.

SPECTATING

Spectacting for participants in the tournament is not allowed for the first three games of the qualifier stage. Eliminated players can follow subsequent knock-out games but should not share any information about these games with players still in the competitions.

REPORTING GAME RESULTS AND "INJURED" CHARACTERS

To allow breaking ties at the end of the qualifying stage , players should also report their MPs scores for their pool qualifying games, by sending a screenshot of their final MPs tally via e-mail to the organiser. For knockout games, the winner will also need to indicate which characters in their deck were eliminated during the game (through combat or corruption) or taken prisoner.

"DOPING" TESTS

During each round, one random game will be selected and the decks used on play.meccg.com for this game will be checked against the card collection sent out to the players. This will be done by the organiser or a co-organiser not taking part in the tournament.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

Oct 21 - Nov 3 Registration at https://play.meccg.com/tournaments/mecc ... d-cup-2024. Deadline Nov 3 at 00:00 GMT
Nov 4 - Collections out
Nov 11 - Nov 17: 1st Qualifier Games
Nov 18 - Nov 24: 2nd Qualifier Games
Nov 25 - Dec 1: 3rd Qualifier Games
Dec 2 - Dec 8: Quarter Finals
Dec 9 - Dec 15: Semi Finals
Dec 16 - Dec 22: Final

Great idea. I have to test it

Grishnakh/Heiko

Registration is now open at https://play.meccg.com/tournaments/mecc ... d-cup-2024

A couple of additional notes on this tournament

1) do register even if the 16 quota is passed, I *may* find ways to accommodate more players,
2) we do have an actual prize for this tournament: it’s a signed Anduril card that the winner gets to sign on the back and keep for one year
3) Time zone will be kept into consideration when creating qualifying pools

Deadline in 2 days. If we hit 24 or 32 it won't be a problem.