A very belated happy new year to everyone!
I just wanted to give a quick update on WASD as the initial two to three week break I’d planned has obviously spanned much longer.
To be upfront, I've been combating major health issues and burnout regarding running tournaments for a while now. After over four years of regular online and offline events, I'd hit the point where I seriously thought about just sunsetting WASD altogether and reclaiming the time and money I spend on it for other activities. However, at the end of the day, I do love organizing events for the FGC, so rather than just completely blowing WASD up, I've decided to change the way tournaments are handled to alleviate some of that pressure.
Going forward, we'll embrace a seasonal format for all WASD games.
Those of you who have been around for a while know that we've done this a handful of times, and while I haven't stuck with it long term, after taking an extended break, I believe it's the best way forward to prevent burnout. I can bake in breaks between seasons as well as schedule/staff tournaments months in advance more easily.
Seasons will be structured as follows:
1 Preseason Tournament 12 Season Tournaments 1 LCQ 1 Finals Event
Players will accumulate points throughout the season, and the top 15 + the winner of the LCQ will be invited to play in the finals event for a larger prize pool.
There will be a two-week break between seasons for staff to rest and recuperate and, if interested, run other fun formats. This will break down to roughly three seasons a calendar year (this year may only fit two as we’ll be starting starting late).
If you're interested in reading more about seasons you can check out our rules from the 2023 MBTL season here: https://tour.wasdgaming.gg/files/rules-and-regulations.pdf and take a gander as to what the ladder will look like here: https://tour.wasdgaming.gg
I will have a full schedule for all of our games up after I return from Frosty Faustings.
Along with changing the format of events, I’m also making slight tweaks to the rules of our online events detailed below:
REGIONAL CHANGES
Going forward, as of 2025, Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska will be banned from all of our online events. We'll be changing the allowed regions to the continental US and Canada.
While I'd love to keep our brackets more open, the sheer volume of complaints we've received over the years due to connections from these regions has made it necessary to shrink our list of our allowed regions. Also, I am frankly tired of debating with and receiving unkind words from people after informing them that their connection isn't up to snuff vs the majority of other entrants. I want to reduce these interactions as much as possible for myself and staff members dealing with connection tests. This is a clear way to do it.
DQ CHANGES I'm going to institute a more strict DQ timer for our online brackets:
If you haven't shown up for your match after 10 minutes, you'll forfeit it. This includes people double bracketing without warning. If you're on the winners' side, you'll be sent to losers, where a new timer will start. If you're in losers, you'll be DQed entirely.
If you are double bracketing AND HAVE LET US KNOW BEFORE BRACKET STARTS, you will receive a 15-minute timer as an accommodation. At 15 minutes, you will either be moved to losers or DQed. If a player lets you know they're double bracketing after the tournament starts, it's too late, and they will be held to the 10-minute timer.