Tournament Details
Our first tournament is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 11th at noon EST (5pm GMT, 9am PST)! The format will be Swiss into a top-8 cut. For the entire tournament, you will bring a single deck that does not change. No cards are banned (you can build whatever deck ya want!), and anyone is free to particpate from anywhere in the world so long as you can make the times (prize support has some limitations potentially however - see below).
Swiss
- One full battle mode challenge is equivalent to one round of Swiss.
- 30 minute time limit. Extensions are available if you contact an admin.
- 5-minute grace period before auto forfeit at start of round.
- Number of rounds will be based on signups, at least enough to leave 1 undefeated player.
- A win is worth 3 points, a draw is worth 1 point. This is for determining the cut to top-8.
- Tiebreaker - See below.
Top-8
- Single Elimination.
- Best-of-3 matches with no time limit. First player to win 2 battle mode challenges wins the matchup.
Prizes
- First Place : $75 USD (paypal).
- Second Place : $25 USD (paypal).
- Top-8 : 3 months snap.fan premium subscription
- Everyone : A good time!
Tiebreaker
I am dedicating a whole section to this because we are not reusing old tiebreaker systems from other card games and systems. I have always had a problem with "opponent match win percentage," "game win percentage," or "opponent game win percentage" as tiebreakers in MTG for example. The idea is you had a stronger schedule, but the reality is not precisely that.
- "Opponent Match Win Percentage" : If you play the best player in the world and they drop after losing to you in round-1, you are punished for having an easier schedule than someone who has their first opponent continue playing at 2-4 and get a free win to a no-show opponent.
- "Game Win Percentage" : This is fine in MTG, but struggles in Snap. Games here would be individual 6-round games. So if you win an 8-cuber, then lose 2 1-cubers, then win a 2-cuber...your win percentage is 2/4, or 50%. If you instead lose an 8-cuber, then win 5 2-cubers, your win percentage is 5/6 or 83.3%. Surely winning the 8cuber and taking 2 good concedes at 1 value to preserve health is the better play pattern.
- "Opponent Game Win Percentage" : Same as above, honestly.
It turns out that Marvel Snap has its own interesting and unique mechanic in snapping that lends itself to assisting with tiebreakers. As such, this will lead to slightly different reporting and a different tiebreaker system. When you go to report a match, you do not report wins/losses. You instead only report 1 number - health remaining for the winning player at the end of the match (losing player has 0 health, regardless of if they concede the match before the final game). YOU MUST PAY ATTENTION TO THIS AS YOU PLAY IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR TIEBREAKS!
An ID (Intentional Draw) should be worth 1 remaining health to each player - you give up tiebreaks to get the extra point on Swiss.
The first tiebreaker will simply be your total final remaining health. This rewards good retreats (less health loss) and more decisive victories (similar to game win percentage).
The second tiebreaker, if needed, will be opponent average remaining health. Average is being used to not overly punish someone for having an opponent that drops early.
Sign-up link
This is being hosted on battlefy.com, with a direct link at https://battlefy.com/snapfan/snapfan-open/63dc2cbd6d282246cee8d6fa/info?infoTab=details.
Top-8 decklists will all be posted in an article on the site, and I would love to get some quick commentary as well if able!
Snap.fan Premium Subscription
As mentioned above, one of the prizes is a snap.fan premium subscription, so consider this the first official announcement as such! The expected date for this to be available is next week. If there is a delay however, tournament winner will still receive the listed prize when it is available. Here is what should be available initially:
- No ads.
- Exclusive filters on site.
- Discord role.
- Early app betas.
- Exclusive tournaments.
- Price: $3 USD/month.
Conclusion
If you have any questions or need to speak to a tournament admin, stop by the snap.fan community discord. There are channels there for exactly this purpose.