We've been working towards it for a while now, but we're finally ready to announce details for the 2014 R&D Invitational for GOIO! Here's our ruleset that we'll be using, the timeslot, and how to apply your team/clan:
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-The Invitational will be held on the second Saturday in November and running two Saturdays after that.
-There will be two separate brackets. A European bracket held at 1-3pm EST (6-8PM UTC) the first day, and the American bracket at 5-7PM EST (10-12PM UTC) the second day. Day 3 will be the finals, and either be from 2-3pm EST (7-8 PM UTC) or 5-6pm EST (10-11PM UTC). It will be teams choice (as long as one bracket isn't full) as to which bracket they would like to be placed in.
-8 Teams of two full ships will be admitted in total, based off of personal preference from myself and our organizational team and teams that applied.
-Teams are asked to submit the names of not only their captains but their crew as well. If this isn't possible, or you'd like to submit names for replacements as well, we're willing to work with you to make this happen.
-All matchups will be best of three, with no losers bracket or second chances. You lose your best of three, and you're out!
-Days one and two will both be three best of threes, with the final day being the final two teams meeting in the finals. This is done not only to put emphasis on that singular best of three match, but to give the teams that make it that far to be rested and prepared for the finals.
-We will be following all standard rules of MLG events for Guns of Icarus Online, and will be submitting our event to Major League Gaming as a possible event. We will not be requiring teams to register with MLG ahead of time, but it is strongly encourages as you will earn points in the arena system for this event.
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IN MATCH REGULATIONS
-Each preliminary best of three will last a maximum of forty (40) minutes, with timing being structured very similarly to the Sunday Community Skirmish. Each Bo3 will have a ten (10) minute pool of overtime to pull from, with each game lasting an initial time of ten (10) minutes.
-The finals Bo3 will be slightly different time-wise. Instead of a ten (10) minute pool of overtime, there will be a twenty (20) minute overtime pool.
-There are no official pauses or holds. We expect every team to come prepared to fight at the highest level, if that means beating your ISP into making sure your connection is solid, that's what we expect. Gentlemens agreements on pauses are allowed, but we will not under any circumstances hold teams to them.
-Under no condition should any team be watching the broadcast stream of the game during the event. We understand that a lot of you don't believe stream sniping is effective, but we're putting this is writing either way. We'll be directing our referees to watch for major signs of stream sniping, and how to react without impacting the game/team in question.
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To apply to be a team in the 2014 R&D Invitational, email us at therobanddanshow@gmail.com with your CLAN NAME, TEAM NAME, CREW NAMES, TEAM LOGO, EURO OR US BRACKET, and PRIMARY POINT OF CONTACT. You will be replied to with a confirmation email and, if your team is selected, receive a congratulatory email a few weeks later.