Announcing the Doom GBA Open 2019 Tournament! Full Entry Guide and Rules.

[Alexo]

This is an open invitation to all Doom players across the world!

 

Anyone who can complete the full game in 13 minutes or less, will be invited to compete in the world's first organized tournament in Doom for the Game Boy Advance!

 

Announcing the Doom GBA Open 2019, on October 26th!

A limit of eight players will be accepted. Only one will be named 'Master On-The-Go'!

Doom GBA, like many of its obscure console counterparts, was long considered slow and a laggy version to play...

In just 2 Years of Speedrun's for this version, 18 years since it's original release, Doom GBA stands out. With higher technical management of health, out of bounds strategy, lag reduction, and frame perfect returning into levels from out of bounds. It's become an intense game to play at a high skill level. With a 10 minute game being possible on a real Game Boy!

 

I'm announcing this far ahead of time to ensure anyone who has been keeping up on the GBA version in the past, presently, or anyone interested in trying out a new sport in the future, can join the tournament! This will give anyone the chance to learn and practice the strategy needed in the next half year at the tournament. I know for some, it will be really easy to get 13 or below with all of today's optimizations and tutorials provided below! Even with the tournament accepted route. :)

 

The Doom GBA Open is going to be the first organized tournament hosting any% races of the Game Boy version of Doom.

Below is an example of how races will be played out.
Hosted under that is a full series of Tutorials for the speedrun.

The tournament rules, and additional entry information, can be seen below the tutorials in a series of spoilers.

 

 

Players will race an average of 13 minutes through 23 levels, performing accepted glitches and strategy for tournament play.

3 levels have banned out of bounds for tournament play, balancing the race for skill ceiling and crashes/common resets.

5 levels removing 1 or 2 out of bounds strategies to prevent skill gaps and crashes.

 

I average 11:40-12:32 with no resets and this route.

This is an inviting tournament of all skill levels, which removes level 7 out of bounds to prevent a high chance of resetting races. 

High skill ceiling strategies to play under 10 minutes have been banned. This is to keep balance for all players entering the tournament.

As time goes on, it stinks to be the only person grinding for new strategy. I know people that have played doom for so much longer.

I believe there is someone out there who has yet to even play the game as a speedrun, who could perform at an even higher level compared to myself...

 

My hope in starting the tournament is to help people discover the speedrun. 
Learn a route that is an easy 12 minute game with a few days practice.
Have a couple of players competing for a first of it's kind title
Starting a yearly tournament for said title, and allowing more players to compete in future years!

Full detailed tutorials for each episode.
Episode 1: Basics, Level 1-8
Episode 2: Level 9-16
Episode 3: Level 17-24, Infinity Mode

Hope to see some new people checking out the game! Its a blast once you get the route down.... because rockets.

 

 

Links:

Spoiler

Bracket: https://challonge.com/DoomGBA2019
Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/DoomGBA
Discord: https://discord.gg/4JbaV4B

Leaderboard: https://www.speedrun.com/Doom_GBA

Saturday, October 26th, 2019. 12PM EST
8 PLAYERS, 1 CHAMPION

Listed below are all of the Rules which all players registered for the tournament agree to abide by, and follow during their time playing. 
The sport is just beginning. These rules are here to help enable it as a welcoming environment for all players of all skill levels, while still keeping an edge over standard doom speedruns. Specified measures have been put in place to help in preventing softlocks and game crashes where possible, and keep races balanced.

Spoiler

 

Seeding & Entry.

Spoiler

 

Hosted by and including the Doom GBA pioneer, Alexo. 
8 players (7 others excluding Alexo) will complete in 1 on 1 races. These will be played on the second difficulty, in best of 3 matches. The bracket will be played with double elimination settings.

Players must be a member of the Console Doom Discord, and make direct contact with event organizers before October 23rd, 2019 at 11:59 AM EST.
Players must have their own twitch.tv account, and be available to stream on October 26th, 2019 between the hours of 12PM EST and 7PM EST.

15 minutes will be allowed to anyone late a maximum of 2 times.

In the event a player is late for a race more then twice, they will forfeit the tournament.

Initial seeding will be decided based on a players personal best time for the full 23 levels. This is the Full game Any% category on Speedrun.Com/Doom_GBA. 
Seeding can change up to 3 days before the tournament (October 23rd, 2019 at 11:59PM EST).
The only Requirement to enter is a 13 Minute or less Personal Best for the Full Game Any%. Players with a 13:01 or higher will not be accepted.

VBA 1.8.0  Will be provided to every player prior to the tournament. 
VBA 1.8.0 will be the only accepted emulation.
Game files will NOT be distributed to players.
The NTSC version is required.

 

 

 

Double Elimination settings.
To help prevent from being a drawn out event, all Loser Brackets for the first 2 rounds will be played with only 1 race per round. The winner will move into the next round, and the loser will be eliminated. All loser Brackets in the Semi-Final and Grand Final will be played as a best of 3, just like the first 2 rounds Winners Brackets. This will help ensure the event will happen in under 8 hours.

 

 

Referee.
A non-player, who will call out to begin each race. The Referee will control the ruling of the game, and make unbiased calls in the event the race plummets. The Ref will look for any inputs that seem wrong, re time runs if needed, and commentate the races.

 

Game settings must be shown to the Referee before every match. This is a proof call, to ensure legitimacy.  The Referee will ask each player to change a randomly selected setting, in game, for each player before each match. 
This is a preventive measure for cheating, and will happen before timing begins for each race. 
An input display will be required for each player, and must be shown during the entire match. 

 

 

Starting Each Race.

Each player will load up the First level (Hangar), on difficulty 2, and Pause the game immediately. 
The Proof Call will then take place (Checking settings). When both players give word, the referee will then make the call to allow both players to start at the same time. 
Runners will control their own timers, with close races being re timed. 
In game time is irrelevant on the first level, but both players must be in the exact starting position.
Starting the races this way each time will help to prevent mistakes with settings, cheating, and sitting in the menu for long periods.

 

 

Default settings.
Game settings must be these for every race for consistency:

Messages On
Sound FX On
Music     Off
Static Lighting
Brightness 2
Auto Run On
All control schemes are accepted.

 

 

Wrong Settings.
In the event a race begins with settings wrong for one or both players: The match will cease, and the settings will be confirmed.  Another proof call will happen for both players. The match will then begin again for both players.

 

 

 

Levels With Out of Bounds Allowed/Banned Techniques.
Below is a list of all levels with out of bounds allowed, including the levels with out of bounds that are not allowed. This is to keep races balanced, and prevent crashes, high reset chances.
 

Spoiler

 

All Level 5-6 Out of Bounds Allowed

Level 7 Out of Bounds is BANNED

All Level 8 Out of Bounds Allowed

All Level 9 Out of Bounds AFTER the First teleport.

 

All level 10 - Level 13 Out of Bounds Allowed

All Level 14 Out of Bounds AFTER the second switch.
 

All Level 15 - Level 17 Out of Bounds Allowed

Level 18 Out of Bounds is BANNED

 

All Level 19 Out of Bounds Allowed

All level 20 Out of Bounds AFTER the starting room.

 

All Level 21 Out of bounds Allowed

All Level 22 out of Bounds AFTER the starting room.
Level 23 Out of Bounds is BANNED

 

 

 

Banned Techniques Reasoning.
The list below explains routing to ensure the sport is as balanced as possible for all competitors. Some of these techniques have a high chance of failure, and will not be allowed for the tournament. Others are banned for reasons related to needless routing, and keeping the game as consistent to the full any% route in a competitive setting. Using any of these techniques by accident will not necessarily ban someone from the tournament, but lose them the single race.

Spoiler

 

Using the Enemies to get out of Bounds

Shooting an enemy with a rocket, while it pushes you into any wall, is banned. This is arguably the hardest event to produce, but allows out of bounds on all walls, and could be manipulated to disadvantage players unfairly.

 

Level 4 (Command Control) 2 BANNED PICK UPS
Blue Key and Yellow key pickups are banned. The only accepted way to finish is to jump the gap.

 

Level 7 (Computer Station) TOTAL BANNED OOB
Out of Bounds is Banned due to skill ceiling and time loss. The Extra health orb and armor on the No Out of Bounds route, will help ensure the Level 8 boss skip has a higher success rate.

 

Level 9 (Deimos Anomaly) 1 BANNED OOB
Out of Bounds before the first teleport is Banned. Building enough health, and defeating the bosses on the previous level, would allow for an under 20 second completion, and is banned for this reason.

 

Level 14 (Halls of the Damned) 1 BANNED OOB
Double wall clip in the first room is Banned due to skill ceiling. Out of bounds is allowed for the exit, after the second switch has been clicked next to the berserk in the courtyard.

 

Level 18 (Pandemonium)  TOTAL BANNED OOB
Out of Bounds is Banned due to skill ceiling and time loss. It is possible to go out of bounds, and skip the blue key door. This is an advance strategy for even the most well practiced, and will not be allowed.

 

Level 20 (Unholy Cathedral) 2 BANNED OOB
Out of bounds is the starting room of the level is Banned due to skill ceiling. Using out of bounds in the beginning of the level gives a chance for an 8 Second completion of the level. The chance of it happening, and staying alive, is very low. Its a very precise trick.

 

Level 22 (Limbo) 1 BANNED OOB
Out of Bounds in the starting room is Banned due to skill ceiling. You can go out of bounds to your direct Back left at the spawn, skipping the blue orb section, but has a higher chance of crashing the game.

 

Level 23 (DIS/Fortress of Mystery) TOTAL BANNED OOB
Out of Bounds is Banned due to skill ceiling. Using the corners in the Caco room can bring a player out of bounds. It losses more time then it saves, and eliminates the chance of the Caco's effecting a race.

 

 

Specifics.
 

Spoiler

 

Crashes.
If a player is unable to finish (crash), the race will be restarted. Only random crashes will allow a single reset for both players, without any points given.  
In the event a crash happens twice to one player, the runner in the lead when the crash happens, will take a win. 
In the event a crash happens to both players on both races (player 1 crashes race 1, re-attempt see's player 2 crash) the race will be replayed with no one winning. 
The first player to have 2 crashes, in this rarest scenario, will take the loss.

 

SoftLocks.

(Not dead, but unable to leave an area/stuck with no possible death).  A soft lock (Stuck out of bounds) will result a loss to the player that has it happen. 
This has been decided to add a higher skill level, as they can be avoided. 
In Level 8 (Phobos Anomaly) failing to do the boss skip is not considered a softlock, unless the player is out of rockets. The player will be forced to use rockets to die, and restart the level, or 'Call the match'.
Level 12 (Deimos Labs) has the most common, but avoidable, softlock (deleting the door opening to access the final teleport. Walking to far away). 

 

Death Warps = Allowed.
A death warp is when a player Dies over a teleport that exits a level. It is often considered a higher skill ceiling. However, there is only one useful spot where it would come into play (Level 20, Unholy Cathedral). This will be allowed, and encouraged on level 20.

 

'Calling a Match'.
In the event a player feels they have no chance at winning, become stuck in a level, die repeatedly, or know they are too far behind, they can 'call the match'. This will give their opponent the win for that round. 

 

Cheating.
There is no excuse for any cheaters. The preventive methods put forward are to keep the integrity of the sport in tact, and each player should be welcomed to any proof call. 
Any player caught cheating, inputting cheat codes, gameshark codes, any disadvantage to other players, unwilling proof call when the Referee asks, or any proof of editing the internal files of the game (even red blood mods), or claiming a pre-recorded run as live play, or claiming someone else's run as your own, will be disqualified from all future events.

 

 

 

 

Semi Finals and Grand Finals:
Semi Finals will begin to require a full reset before each match, including proof calls from the Ref. Random settings measure will be asked before every single race at Semi and Grand Finals level.
Beginning at the Semi Finals, matches will begin to be best of 5, and continue as double elimination.
The top seeded player, in the event they never dropped into the losers bracket, will need to be defeated twice in the Grand Finals.

Tied match.
In the event a race is Tied to less then a second ( 10:30.55 vs 10:30.67 ), The Match will be replayed. No points will be awarded to either player for the tie.

 

 

Edited March 11, 2019 by Alexo : Title errors, descriptive section.