5th Trials - Rules

[kev]

TRIALS
   Challenge a Master, Become a Master

What is a Master?
Each of the 12 Elements has a Master, which is a forum title. Master is usually a decorated and respected veteran player who knows a lot about Elements and is skillful in PvP. Masters participate in big forum events like War, and defend their title against challengers during Trials. Staff page (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php?action=staff) has all the current Masters listed.

Element 1st Term 2nd Term 3rd Term 4th Term 5th Term Current Term AETHER icybraker icybraker - Higurashi Higurashi deuce22 AIR unit acelink - unit - QuantumT DrunkDestroyer Jenkar DARKNESS Bloodshadow Miniwally Kael Hate TheonlyrealBeef TheonlyrealBeef TheonlyrealBeef DEATH coinich MrBlonde MrBlonde MrBlonde MrBlonde MrBlonde EARTH Terroking Terroking Terroking Kakerlake kirchj33 Terroking ENTROPY Jmizzle7 Zeru Zeru Zeru MatrimKK Onizuka FIRE Kamietsu Antagon kevkev60614 ~Napalm ~Napalm YoungSot GRAVITY Yoyobro - Jumbalumba Jumbalumba Girlsgeneration Girlsgeneration nilsieboy nilsieboy LIFE Ohmega Gl1tch Killsdazombies Wizelsnarf willng3 willng3 LIGHT xdude xdude xdude Ryan666 majofa xdude TIME Puppychow Xinef Xinef SpikeSpiegel 10 men 10 men WATER Essence Essence Essence RavingRabbid Tiko RavingRabbid

What are Trials?
Every so often we will hold Trials, during which community members compete for a chance to challenge one of the 12 Masters.  Trials have 4 parts.  The first three parts are for collecting points.  The one challenger from each element with the most points gets to fight for the title against the current Master. How many points you gathered during parts 1-3 determines how many upgraded cards you can use in the epic Final Battle, where the winner gets the title of Master.

Requirements for joining the Trials?
Not everyone can join the Trials. There are some minimum requirements to ensure that the person is serious about becoming a Master.

• 20,000+ score in Elements
• 200+ forums posts
• Joined the forums no less than 3 months ago (at the time of signing up)

Spamming the forums to get those 200 posts is not allowed, and you have to provide a screen shot of your score if asked.

One last thing. Some people might think they are not "worthy" of becoming a Master so they skip this event. Please don't do that. This is all just for fun, and shouldn't be taken too seriously. If you think this kind of event would be fun, I order you to participate. Like I always say, if you manage to take a title from that Master, that alone proves you have earned it.

How do I join the Trials?
Things are going to be handled a little differently during the 5th Trials.  Previously you chose an element, and because there were only 4 challengers per element allowed newer players were turned away from the more popular elements.  During the 5th Trials there is no need to register.  Registration and selecting the element for which you'd like to challenge will occur after Phase 1 as described below.



PATH TO BECOMING A MASTER

Trials have 4 different phases. Phases 1-3 are for collecting points. Last phase is Final Battle between the current Master and the most promising challenger, and the points you collected determines how many upgraded cards you can use in the fight.

PHASE 1 - Proving Your Worthiness
This phase is different in each Trial. It usually has something to do with helping out the community, but it can also be something where you show your skills as an Elements player. It's divided into 2 parts, each scoring 5 points if you complete them.

Part 1

Completed	5 points
Not completed	0 points

Part 2

Completed	5 points
Not completed	0 points

 REGISTRATION - Choose the Master you wish to challenge
Following Phase 1 challengers choose the element for which you'd like to become Master.  Priority will be given first to players with the higher Phase 1 scores and second to a combination of score/post count/registration date.  This means if you have 100 million score, 100 million posts, and you've been on the forum since before zanzarino but you didn't complete both tasks during Phase 1, you may find yourself unable to register for your preferred element.  If players are pushed out of the element for which they registered time will be given for them to register for a different element.

PHASE 2 - Battles

Challengers Challengers will fight each other in a mini-tournament with round-robin rules meaning each challenger fights every other challenger once. Battles are "best-of-five" with the winner gaining 1 point. At the end of the round points are calculated and standings are built. 1st 4 points 2nd 2 points 3rd 1 point 4th 0 points Challengers also fight all challengers of the opposing element.  Battles are "best-of-five" with the winner gaining 1 point. At the end of the round points are calculated and standings are built.  Ties are allowed, meaning if two challengers collect four wins they tie for first and each receives four points.  If the other two collect no wins they tie for third and each receives one point. 1st 4 points 2nd 2 points 3rd 1 point 4th 0 points

Masters Masters will fight each other in a mini-tournament that consists of series of "best-of-five" PvP matches. Starting opponents are determined randomly. Points are rewarded based on tournament standings. 1st 12 points 2nd 9 points 3rd 6 points 4th - 6th 3 points 7th - 9th 1 point 10th - 12th 0 point

PHASE 3 - Community Vote
The community votes on who they think would make the best Master. Each community member has one vote per element, and can vote for either one of the Challengers, or the current Master.

The number of points you score is based on the percentage of votes you get, rounded up. If there is a situation where rounding up would mean more than 10 points given, the player with the most votes gets the advantage (55%/45% -> 6 points and 4 points).

100% of votes	10 points
90% of votes	9 points
80% of votes	8 points
70% of votes	7 points
60% of votes	6 points
50% of votes	5 points
40% of votes	4 points
30% of votes	3 points
20% of votes	2 points
10% of votes	1 points
0% of votes	0 points

* War Bonus *
Masters who were also Generals during previous War will receive extra points based on how successful they were. Challengers do not receive War bonus.

1st in War	9 points
2nd in War	6 points
3rd in War	3 points
4th - 6th	1 points
7th - 13th	0 points

TOTAL SCORE
After phases 1-3 are over, we will count the total score.

Challengers PHASE 1     / 10 PHASE 2     / 8 PHASE 3     / 10   TOTAL SCORE     / 28

Masters PHASE 1     / 10 PHASE 2     / 12 PHASE 3     / 10 War bonus     / 9 TOTAL SCORE     / 41

One challenger from each element with the most points gets to fight for the title against the current Master.

PHASE 4 - Final Battle
The Final Battle is "best-of-nine" meaning that the player who gets 5 wins first, wins the battle. If a Master wins, he or she retains the title. If a challenger wins, he or she becomes the new Master.  Each Trials winner of the past, present, and future will also be given a forum award icon.

During Final Battle deckbuilding the maximum amount of upgraded cards is the number of points a player scored during phases 1-3.


If you want to see what previous Trials looked like, please visit Trial Archive (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/board,183.0.html).

Thank you for reading and post any questions on this topic.

[Captain Scibra]

The War bonus could use tweaked, since 8th and above were bracket places, that 5th-8th and 3rd/4th should give the same worth respectively.  The places given were to my knowledge only given based on order of defeat.

[TheonlyrealBeef]

Interesting changes, am I right to assume this means Phase 1 is no longer tied to any one element? Can't wait to see what's in store for that!

Not sure what to think about the opposite element thing, I guess it sort of depends on the deckbuilding rules (just mono, or how many and what sort of off-element cards) since many elements have a clear advantage over their opposite (most notably Entropy over Gravity or Aether over Time with sheer monos). Could be nice if all things go well, though.

I sure hope shards won't be allowed in any phase

[GG]

Holy molly. The score gap between masters and challengers finally got standardized

[kev]

Interesting changes, am I right to assume this means Phase 1 is no longer tied to any one element?

For the record the suggestion to move registration back to after Phase 1 was torb's.  Thanks for the suggestion, torb.

On that note I always have my ears open to suggestions.  The 4th Trials Feedback thread was emptier than I would've liked and due to technical difficulties we were never able to circulate the PvP Event Feedback Google doc form.  If you have something to say and I know many do doing so before Phase 1 is posted would be wise.  I expect Phase 1 to be up early Monday.  Plenty of good undiscussed discussion items in torb's post, for instance...

[MatrimKK]

Where can I sign up??? :O

[Jenkar]

Where can I sign up??? :O

Tommorow iirc.

[Dm]

Where can I sign up??? :O

Sorry, not enough Pony.

Edit : Upon reading further I agree with Torb on the opposite element as some elements have a bigger advantage to the opposing than the other; but I guess we'll have to wait for deck building rules to see.

[mrpaper]

If I understand correctly, it shouldnt really matter.. if water struggles against fire for exemple, it's all good because water challengers needs to be better then other water challengers.. and they will all face a tough element.

[deuce22]

The War bonus could use tweaked, since 8th and above were bracket places, that 5th-8th and 3rd/4th should give the same worth respectively.  The places given were to my knowledge only given based on order of defeat.

Also regarding war bonus, the wording may need clarification. Does it take into consideration ONLY the results of the last war, or the master's best finish in all previous wars?

[ralouf]

Considering that team death won the war Blondey will have moar point for the final phase.. I should go for life trial so or maybe I should have make suicide deck in war to make team detha loose to become easilier the master interesting..

Beeing serious 2 min : this will be AWESOME can't wait for it !

[Onizuka]

The thing I dislike that assuming a dominated element has everyone get max points for the Vs. opp element (Which could be a very likely reality depending on the ruleset), that the difference between second and third overall is now only 1 point (from 2 points in trials 4), the difference between first and third is now only three points (from 5 points in trials 4), and the difference between first and second is only 2 points (3 points in trials 4). This now makes the points you get in the popularity vote all the more important, which is something I didn't want to see.

First: Only a 4 point difference (Compared to 6)
Second: Only a 2 point difference (Compared to 3)
Third: Same as last trials.