[Tournaments]
Clan Tournaments are the largest sporting event for the Mech Mercenary Clans, in which the different factions, clans and squads clash to face the glory in a competition that mimics real wars.
The competitions come to unleash such great passions among the supporters of the different Mercenary Clans, that there are times when they forget their sporting aspect, considering the tournaments as real wars. But these are bloodless wars, in which the effects of weaponry are calculated by powerful AIs without the need to fire a single salvo of real fire. Over time, non-lethal ammunition and blast effects were added to give greater effectiveness and spectacularity, increasing the sense of realism and thus the enjoyment of the viewers across the galaxy.
Clan Tournaments are held every year, and are usually organized prior to any possible real threat that needs to be fought, in order to use the event itself as preparations for the actual conflict. But also the opposite has happened, that a real war has been delayed to allow the celebration of the Clan Tournaments, such is the degree of passion that Clan Wars can generate.
History
Hosted by the Mecha Games and Tournaments Organization led by General Nova, with the support of the Craftsmen and numerous sponsors throughout the Galaxy, the Clan Tournaments allow to keep the Mercenary Clans entertained from interfering the politics of the Major Powers while well trained and ready to defend the galaxy against the many threats.
A first test tournament was held in 3262, with the participation of six mercenary clans and a single battle round:
After the tests, the Organizers released on 3263 the First Clan Wars, with as much as twenty participating clans organized in three divisions. In that first official tournament, the combats were established throughout three rounds, but the pairing system favored the anomaly of allowing multiple champions, by not pairing them in the final round. This happened in the second and third divisions.
"MurderBots" became the champion clan for the First Division and "Northwind Highlanders" as sub champions.
"Majestic Madness" and "Elite Warriors" tied as champions for the Second Division, with "The Pyros" as silver.
"SheepDogs" and "Reddog's Roughnecks" tied as champions for the Third Division, with "The Dysonians" as silver clan.
After the inaugural tournament, many others took place. First spaced out in time, became to be ceelbrated more regularly as also got polished their rules, that were outlined to favour the sportmanship and clarity of their results.
History
Hosted by the Mecha Games and Tournaments Organization led by General Nova, with the support of the Craftsmen and numerous sponsors throughout the Galaxy, the Clan Tournaments allow to keep the Mercenary Clans entertained from interfering the politics of the Major Powers while well trained and ready to defend the galaxy against the many threats.
A first test tournament was held in 3262, with the participation of six mercenary clans and a single battle round:
MurderBots won against Black Watch
Northwind Highlanders won against Achtung Pig
Lunite Pirates who won against New Eden
After the tests, the Organizers released on 3263 the First Clan Wars, with as much as twenty participating clans organized in three divisions. In that first official tournament, the combats were established throughout three rounds, but the pairing system favored the anomaly of allowing multiple champions, by not pairing them in the final round. This happened in the second and third divisions.
"MurderBots" became the champion clan for the First Division and "Northwind Highlanders" as sub champions.
"Majestic Madness" and "Elite Warriors" tied as champions for the Second Division, with "The Pyros" as silver.
"SheepDogs" and "Reddog's Roughnecks" tied as champions for the Third Division, with "The Dysonians" as silver clan.
After the inaugural tournament, many others took place. First spaced out in time, became to be ceelbrated more regularly as also got polished their rules, that were outlined to favour the sportmanship and clarity of their results.
MODALITIES
Clan War (CW)
This is the most frequent format that allows the clash between the different Mercenary Clans registered in the tournament, grouping them in divisions according to a weighted average of the pilotage ability of the Mech pilots.
Typically, a Clan is composed of 8 to 16 Mech Commanders, each of whom is in charge of a Mech force whose size varies according their tactical capacities. The Clan is led by a Clan Leader, also known as Clan Officer or Clan Overlord (CO).
Faction War (FW)
This format have not been celebrated for years, since the number of Mercenary Clans participating has been reduced after the Great Clone Purge.
These were celebrated approximately every four years, and offered the appeal of better rewards than the Clan Tournaments.
The faction grouped two or more clans and was composed by 16 to 32 Mech commanders under the orders of a Faction Officer or Faction Overlord (FO)
Squad War (SW)
After the Clone Purge, a new format was designed to alternate with the Clan Wars. This time, generating smaller teams that forces the clans to split members.
This format doesn't enjoy the prestige that reached the Faction Wars, since the rewards often turn out to be lesser and because the SW forces the larger clans to split, separating the team members.
A squad team requires 5 to 8 Mech Commanders and their respective squadrons, all led by a Squad Officer or SO.
TOURNAMENT RULES
Every year, sign ups are opened to allow the registration of all Mercenary Clans interested to participate.
Membership
Faction Wars: Between 16 and 32 members.
Clan Wars: Between 8 and 16 members.
Squad Wars: Between 5 and 8 members.
To ensure balanced teams, every Mech commander of the Faction, Clan or Squad, has to be within a 50% of the average clan level at sign up (average counting all members).
During the celebration of the tournament, the unit can't change the membership to avoid trickery.
Divisional assignment
When a Faction, Clan or Squad is registered, the Mech Tournament Organization records the Clan level for division assignation purposes. Once all factions/clan/squads are registered and the registration time is locked, the divisions are calculated and from that point, the pilots can continue leveling without affect the position of their unit in the divisional assignation.
For divisional bracket placement, the lowest level pilots in each team will not count toward the calculation of the average level of their respective teams.
If there is a very odd number of teams registered, the organizers may add additional teams from those who registered after the deadline or had less than the minimum number of applications to register. Having less than the minimum registrations does not guarantee a team to avoid the tournament. Any clan who registers before the deadline is guaranteed entry.
The Mech Tournament Organizers usually try their best to find space for every team looking to participate.
Participation in the tournament is at the discretion of the organizers, and unsportsmanlike conduct may be grounds for disqualification.
Specialist formations
Every Mech Tournament allows a different amount of specialist formations, that can go from zero to the full Clan/squad, but being usual the format with up to 3 specialists.
Battle Rounds
There are held three rounds with a duration of 1 day, and another day of rest between every round.
The system of assignation will usually face the 1st faction/clan or squad against the 5th, the 2nd against the 6th, the 3rd against the 7th and the 4th against the 8th. After that, in successive matches, the winning teams will face other winners from the previous round, as long as it were possible.
If a round ends in a tie, that war will be automatically extended for 14 hours of "overtime".
The team that accumulated three consecutive victories will be declared the champion of its division.
Available targets
During each round, pilots may attack any or all of the pilots of the enemy side, stopping once they reached two victories on a same target, beyond which they can't assign new attacks to the same target.
Until a certain target hasn't been defeated twice, he can be attacked more times, although this will be counterproductive for the team, since with every attacking lose, the opponent will win an additional point to their score.
After attacking a certain opponent in a clan war, a pilot can't attack the same one in that clan war for 90 seconds. In the final hour of each battle round, this will be reduced to 45 seconds.
Beatdown Rule
A pilot cannot continue to attack opponents that he has already defeated twice that day (Beatdown Rule)
Defensive wins count as wins for the defender's team, but don't count as wins for the Beatdown Rule.
During a Tournament Round, if a pilot aimed another pilot from the opponent side, the odds will count for the ongoing Round Score, despite if the attack was produced outside the competition or as a regular duel outside the tournament.
Score
Each victory, whether in attack or defense, grants to the victor's team +1 point to their score.
Each pilot can produce as much as +2 points to their team score from beating as much as twice to each enemy target.
Defensive wins will count as victory for the defending team an score +1 point, but don't count as wins for the limit of wins that a pilot can get on a determined target.
Each pilot who loses in attack, will penalize his team, as the opponent defending pilot will get +1 to their score from every defending victory. There is not limit to the amount of attacks that can be done to a certain opponent in case of being successively defeated, so technically, an attacking loser could produce a high bonus to the enemy score. But it should be noted that the Craftsmen and the Organizers might disqualify someone showing this unsportmanship behavior.
Medals & Awards
Medals & Awards
All kind of rewards await both the participants and the winners of any of the tournament medals.
The clan winning all the three rounds has the honour to become champion for their respective division, and are awarded with the Gold medal and the large rewards assigned to their divisional bracket. They also receive the formidable Vizi mech from the mysterious Craftsmen. For lower divisions, the champions receive a Zadok, also manufactured by the Craftsmen.
Those achieving two victories will earn silver and the second best tier of rewards for their respective divisions.
Those achieving a single victory, will earn a bronze medal and the third rewarding tier.
The clans who couldn't defeat any of their opponents, will receive a participation medal, with a small sample of goods.
Single Tournament Competitions
Other Related Entries
(By GJ - 685605)
