Grandmaster Battle 2 - Rules

[Zawadx]

Welcome, Elementals, to the second Grandmaster Battle in Elements history!

Physsion: Ok Root, you're going down!
RootRanger: But do you have any idea why we're fighting?
Physsion: I'm not sure... it said in the memo that it's for entertainment.
RootRanger: I suppose that's what we made the rules for.
Physsion: Wasn't a fully-fledged TrO Supposed to make our rules for us? I mean!
Zawadx and rest chant: FIGHT!


1. Grandmaster Battle Game Structure

• Competitors will play an epic best-of-17to25 match with 3 phases.
• Games may be played over the course of multiple days, if the players' schedules don't allow for all of them to be played at once.
• Games will follow a 3 phase format themed around Chess.
• Each player will prepare a total of nine decks for use during the event, and send these via private message to Trial Overseer Zawadx.
• These decks do not all have to be prepared before the battle begins, but must be sent in before their respective phase can begin. The TrO will announce the beginning of the phase only after verifying decks from both participants.

2. Games

• Competitors will play a 3-phase format match. The rules for each phase are detailed below. Deckbuilding rules for each type of deck are in the next section.
• Games will follow a Last Deck Standing format in each phase.
• Once a player has lost a game with a deck, that deck cannot be used again for the remainder of the match.
• The first player beat each of their opponent's decks, wins the match.
• The winner will reign as Grandmaster for the next term, until a new challenger is eligible for another Grandmaster Battle.

• Phase 1
• Both players begin the event by submitting four Pawn decks, one of each type (Chaotic, Righteous, Lawful, Evil).
• Players will battle using these four decks in a Last Deck Standing format.
• Phase 1 ends when one player defeats all four of his opponent's Pawn decks.
• Phase 2
• Both players begin the phase by submitting four Piece decks, one of each type (Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen).
• The winning player of Phase 1 will continue using his remaining Pawn decks, while the losing player will begin using his Piece decks.
• If the winning player loses all his remaining Pawn decks, he will begin using his Piece decks.
• Phase 2 ends when one player defeats all four of his opponent's Piece decks.
• Phase 3
• Both players begin the phase by submitting their King deck.
• The winning player of Phase 2 will continue using his remaining Pawn and Piece decks, while the losing player will use his King deck for all remaining battles.
• If the winning player loses all his remaining Pawn and Piece decks, he will begin using his King deck. The King vs King will be a best of 5 to determine the winner.
• Phase 3 ends when one player defeats his opponent's King deck. He is declared the winner!

2. Deckbuilding

• Shards are allowed.
• Each deck (With the exception of the Knight piece deck) must contain a minimum of 40% in-Element cards, rounded up. This amount includes pillars and pendulums.
• "Other" cards are considered off-Element for both players.
• A player may NOT use any cards from his opponent's elements. SO Fire cards are banned for Physsion and Darkness cards are banned for RootRanger.
• Mark cards are treated as pillars of the Element whose quanta they produce for all deckbuilding rules.

Spoiler for 40% rule:

Deck Size	Minimum Cards From In-Element
30	12
31-32	13
33-35	14
36-37	15
38-40	16
41-42	17
43-45	18
46-47	19
48-50	20
51-52	21
53-55	22
56-57	23
58-60	24

• Pawn Decks
• General Rules
• A maximum of 12 upgrades.
• Deck must have one of three marks, based on the type of pawn.
• Only in-element pillars and pendulums allowed
• Types of Pawns
• Chaotic Pawn: Entropy, Air, Death
• Righteous Pawn: Time, Water, Light
• Lawful Pawn: Gravity, Earth, Life
• Evil Pawn: Aether, Fire, Darkness


• Piece Decks
• Knight
• A maximum of 15 upgrades.
• Deck must have mark of your own element.
• Deck may have less than 40% of the cards of your own element.
• Only off-element pillars and pendulums allowed
• Bishop
• A maximum of 15 upgrades.
• Bishop may only be played for the first time after losing the previous game.
• Opponent must use the deck used in the previous game.
• Bishop designates a non-pillar/pend card of the opponent's deck to be replaced with relics, but only while playing the Bishop. This only applies to the first game the Bishop is played in.
• May not use any spells in the Bishop deck.
• Only in-element pillars and pendulums allowed
• Rook
• A maximum of 18 upgrades.
• Deck must have a minimum of 45 cards.
• Only in-element pillars and pendulums allowed
• Queen
• A maximum of 21 upgrades
• Is a copy of one of your Pawn decks, with up to 9 more cards upgraded.
• May not make any changes besides upgrading up to 9 cards to the original Pawn deck


• King
• No upgrade limit
• Only in-element pillars and pendulums
• May remove up to 6 cards from the deck for a game i.e. a 6 card sideboard.
• May change the mark before each game.

4. Match Rules

• In the event of a disconnect, both competitors should play out their game versus the AI on both sides.
• If the same player wins on both sides, they are considered the winner of that game.
• If the two "games" result in wins for different players, the game is voided, and players may not switch or modify their decks before the next game.
• You also have the option of claiming, with screenshots as evidence, that you would have won if the AI had not taken over. First talk to your opponent, then if necessary, the Trial Overseer.
• If the desynch eror symbol appears or both players, replay the game with same deck and mark unless there was a clear winner at that point. If it appears for only one player, take screenshots every turn to explain strange stuff.
• If it is obvious that a game will never end (e.g. if both players have zero net damage output (where they can both heal off the damage done each turn easily) and will never deck out, and both players have no means of breaking the stalemate), that game is voided, and players may switch or modify their decks prior to the next game.
• In the event that an illegal deck is used in any game (whether that game was voided at the time of the match or not) the user of the illegal deck will be given a loss for that game, and their opponent a win.
• A loss due to an illegal deck will be considered to remove the deck from the player's choice as per Last Deck Standing rules. If the deck doesn't resemble any submitted deck, the opponent decides which deck receives a loss.
• Losing access to the Elements the Game during a game (refreshing the tab, clicking on ad that isn't a popup type, closing the tab/window/browser/computer, power loss for any reason) counts as a disconnect for the player. His opponent should have the CPU take over, and they should play vs the CPU. If the opponent wins, the game is a loss for the person who lost connection. If the CPU wins, the game should be replayed with same deck and mark, unless the player who lost connection can prove that they'd win despite any series of draws from the opponent..

5. Post-Battle

• Once the match has been concluded, the winner will post their results in a new thread in the Trials Final Battle sub-forum with the subject:
       [Grandmaster Battle] Player_A 5 - 3 Player_B
       with the names and scores updated to reflect the outcome of the match.
• Both players will post the decks they used in the Grandmaster Battle. They must also include all sideboard modifications made before each game.
• They are also encouraged to write a short description of the battle, and include screenshots/videos of the games.
• Any posts made in this thread before both players have posted their decks will be removed.

[Physsion]

Bring it on.

[rob77dp]

FIGHT!

[Zawadx]

Rules have been updated to include a restriction of using at least 40% of your own element.

[Avenger]

I didn't see the most important info: when?

[Zawadx]

I didn't see the most important info: when?

I haven't put in any deadlines as both participants are busy and we don't need to rush into it. I'm hoping they finish in the next 4 weeks, so if there's no progress by then I'll fix a deadline.

[Avenger]

I wanted to spectate, but sadly i missed any announcement

[RootRanger]

I wanted to spectate, but sadly i missed any announcement

Right, yeah, we'll have an announcement for the next stage at least a day in advance.

[Physsion]

Phase 3 is scheduled for 0300 GMT on Saturday 23 April. My King deck will face Root's Knight, Bishop and King.

Will I succeed in taking over the forums, plunging the entire world of Elements into unfathomable Darkness? Or will Root's Fire burn too bright for the shadows to take hold? Find out... soon!

The match has begun!


I will try to record the final so that everyone can see a replay of it - recordings haven't been working thus far, even crashing my browser during a game at one point in Phase 1, but with a bit of luck I'll get OBS or XSplit working and I can save the footage to upload afterwards.

Thanks for all the excitement following this event thus far, it's awesome to be a part of such a big match with an incredibly skilled opponent. Really hope I can take this to King vs. King - I'll be stoked with the result no matter which way it goes if we can make that happen. Thanks for being such a good sport and a great guy in general, Root - looking forward to this final phase with you!