TRIALS WILL (HOPEFULLY) BEGIN BY:
TRIALS HAVE BEGUN!
TRIALS
Challenge a Master, Become a Master
What is a Master?
Each of the 12 Elements has a Master, which is a forum title. A Master is usually a decorated and respected veteran player who knows a lot about Elements and is skillful in PvP. Masters generally lead their elements in big forum events like War and Brawl, manage their respective Card sections, and defend their title against challengers during Trials. The Staff page (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php?action=staff) has all the current Masters listed.
Link to Table of Past Masters (A Gdoc) (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlBBaBnQXMSLdDBIVmh1NW5ESkVVYndtemNBVHIzLXc#gid=21)
Link to Trials Deck Archive, and list of Masters (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,41610.0.html)
What are Trials?
As part of the Forum Major Event Cycle, before each War, we will hold Trials. During Trials, 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 Trials?
Not everyone can join the Trials. There are some minimum requirements to ensure that the person is serious about becoming a Master.
- 50,000+ score in Elements
- 200+ forum posts
- Joined the forums no less than 3 months ago (at the time of signing up)
- Participation in at least three separate PVP Events (Leagues, War, Weekly Tournaments, etc.)
Spamming the forums to get those 200 posts is not allowed, and you have to provide a screen shot of your score.
A player may participate in Trials without meeting the 200 post and 50,000 score requirements if they are able to provide evidence of a significant PVP achievement. Examples of sufficient achievements include:
- Winning a Weekly Tournament
- Finishing in the Top 3 in Leagues or other forum PVP Events
- Finishing on the winning War team
- Becoming a Master of any Element
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, we order you to participate. Like we always say, if you manage to take a title from that Master, that alone proves you have earned it.
How do I join Trials?
Once Phase 1 has begun, there will be a thread titled "9th Trials - Phase 1" under each of the Elements. Simply post the following information in the thread under the Element you are challenging (you may only challenge 1 Element). This post may be edited as many times as desired up to the end of Phase 1.
-Evidence of Score Requirement
-Evidence of Established Account Requirement
-Name of Task
-Evidence of completion
-Name of Task
-Evidence of completion
-Name of Task
-Evidence of completion
-Evidence of participation last war for the same element you are challenging (or defending as a Master)
-If you were a General, evidence of your General-ship
-Tell us how many times you have participated in Trials for this element before
-Give us evidence of your participation in each of those trials
Masters returning to defend their titles should drop by the Challenger's Entrance to scope out their challengers and also provide us with their War Bonus and Loyalty Bonus information. Masters are already worthy, and will not need to prove their worthiness in Phase 1. They do, however, still need to sign up.
It is no longer
Time to join!
After the Phase 1 timer has ended, there will be a 24hr period of "Extra Time" where players may join any Element with less than 2 competitors (that is either 1 challenger and no defending master or no challengers and a defending master). Players who join during this extra time will be considered to have declared for tasks Waging War on FGs, Starting Your Own Little War, and Beginning War Training. However, because they completed no challenges before Phase 1 ended, they WILL NOT have access to the upgrades from Beginning War Training.
NO MORE
Extra-time
PATH TO BECOMING A MASTER
Trials has 4 different phases. Phases 1-3 are for collecting points. Last phase is the Final Battle between the current Master and the most promising challenger or the two most promising challengers if there is no defending Master. The points you collected in Phases 1-3 determines how many upgraded cards you can use in the fight.
PHASE 1 - Proving of Worthiness
For 10 days after the elemental registration topics are posted, you may register to join trials by declaring which Proving of Worthiness tasks you intend to complete. Completing these tasks will award up to a total of 8 points to use in the final battle. These points will also provide bonuses for Phase 2 deckbuilding. Masters who wish to defend their titles will sign up in their respective registration topics but do not need to declare tasks, as they will automatically be assigned the "Returning Master" task. No new sign-ups will be accepted after Phase 1 has ended (except per the appropriate rules and/or addendum).
PHASE 2 - Battles
All participants will play a total of 24 games, 12 in element games and 12 off element games, distributed as evenly as possible between opponents of the same element(s). If extra opponents are required to ensure each challenger has 24 games, the extra opponents will be, if possible, the same for every person in a single trial. Winning a game awards 0.5 points, if that game was against a current Master, it will also award a bonus 0.25 points. For in-element games, Masters and challengers will play against each other. For off-element games, Masters will only play other Masters, and challengers will only play other challengers.
Any player who does not post their Phase 2 decks during the 2 days between the end of Phase 2 and the beginning of Phase 3 will both not receive Phase 2 points and be disallowed from being in the Phase 3 poll.
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 one of the Challengers, the current Master, or simply place a no-vote (i.e. they do not want to see any of the Trialists as Master and are voting for no-one).
Anyone who does not post their Phase 2 decks in the 2 days between the end of Phase 2 and the beginning of Phase 3 will not be included in the Phase 3 polls. This applies to Masters as well.
It is an encouraged tradition that during Phase 3 the community may ask questions of the challengers and that the challengers answer these questions to the best of their ability.
The number of points you score is based on the percentage of votes you get.
* War Bonus *
Trialists who participated in the previous War will receive extra points based on how successful they were. This bonus is increased if the participant was the General, per the table below. War bonus points for Challengers will only come into effect if they make it to the final battle.
Please include if the War Bonus applies to you when you sign up. If you do not claim your War Bonus during Phase 1, it will not be awarded to you.
| Rank in War | General | Soldier |
| 1st in War | 7 | 5 |
| 2nd or 3rd | 5 | 3 |
| 4th-6th | 3 | 2 |
| 7th-12th | 2 | 1 |
* Brawl Bonus *
Trialists who participated in the most recent Brawl may also be eligible for a small number of bonus points.
Players on the team finishing 1st may receive 2 points, and those in 2nd and 3rd place may receive 1 point. Please include this in your post when you sign up for Trials, or the Brawl bonus points will not be awarded to you.
Elemental Loyalty
If you have participated in trials before, and you trial for an element you have trialed for before, for every trial you provide proof of participation for in your registration post, you can gain 1 point (maximum of 4). These points will not be added until the Final Battle. I will not look for proof of participation for you, and if it is not linked in your post you will not receive credit for it (yes, even if you are a master and retaining if you do not post proof you will not receive the point).
Proof of Participation may be at least one of the following for each Trial of an element you have participated in: Phase 1 submissions, Phase 2 battle reports, Phase 3 polling topics, and final battle reports.
Post this in your Registration Post.
TOTAL SCORE
After phases 1-3 are over, we will count the total score.
Challengers| PHASE 1 | | / | 8 | | PHASE 2 | | / | 12+ | | PHASE 3 | | / | 10 | War bonus | | / | 7 | Brawl bonus | | / | 2 | Elemental Loyalty | | / | 4 | | TOTAL SCORE | | / | 43+ |
| Masters| PHASE 1 | | / | 6 | | PHASE 2 | | / | 12+ | | PHASE 3 | | / | 10 | War bonus | | / | 7 | Brawl bonus | | / | 2 | Elemental Loyalty | | / | 4 | | TOTAL SCORE | | / | 41+ |
|
The Final Battle will be between the current Master and the challenger with the most points, or between the two challengers with the most points if there is no defending Master for that Element. In the event of a tie, the player who won the majority of their head-to-head games in Phase 2 advances. If multiple players tie, the tiebreak will be games won during phase 2 in-element play. If there is still a tie, the player with more votes in Phase 3 advances. If there is still a tie, the player with the higher bonus points (loyalty+war) advances. If there is still a tie, the player with higher in game score advances.
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. All Trials winners are given a forum award icon.
During Final Battle deckbuilding the maximum amount of upgraded cards allowed is the truncated integer number of points a player scored during phases 1-3 plus the war and loyalty bonuses. (e.g. A player with 23.46 points will have 23 upgrades. A player with 17.99 points will have 17 upgrades.)
During this event, all games must be played using the same account you used when registering for the event.
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.
Some small changes have been made regarding event bonus points.
The number of possible bonus points from War has been slightly reduced, from a maximum of 7 down to a maximum of 6.
A small number of bonus points are also now available for members of the top 3 Brawl teams.
EDIT: these changes have been reverted. Instead, a small reduction (-1) in bonus points will occur for those on different War teams to the Element they are trialing for.
In other words, Trialists competing for mastership in an Element they fought for in the most recent War will receive full bonus points, as detailed in the original post. Trialists competing for mastership after fighting in a different War team will receive the -1 point reduction.
As an example to make things extra clear, if Player A competes as a General for Team Light in War, and his team wins in first place, and Player A then enters the Trials of Light, he will receive the full 7 point War bonus.
If Player B competes on Team Aether as a Soldier, and comes in third place, and then enters the Trials of Darkness, he will receive a 2 point War bonus, instead of the 3 points he would receive if he entered the Trials of Aether.
Please let us know if you have any further feedback on this rule change.
A small number of bonus points is still awarded to the top three teams in the most recent Brawl.
Some small changes have been made regarding event bonus points.
The number of possible bonus points from War has been slightly reduced, from a maximum of 7 down to a maximum of 6.
A small number of bonus points are also now available for members of the top 3 Brawl teams.
EDIT: these changes have been reverted. Instead, a small reduction (-1) in bonus points will occur for those on different War teams to the Element they are trialing for.
In other words, Trialists competing for mastership in an Element they fought for in the most recent War will receive full bonus points, as detailed in the original post. Trialists competing for mastership after fighting in a different War team will receive the -1 point reduction.
As an example to make things extra clear, if Player A competes as a General for Team Light in War, and his team wins in first place, and Player A then enters the Trials of Light, he will receive the full 7 point War bonus.
If Player B competes on Team Aether as a Soldier, and comes in third place, and then enters the Trials of Darkness, he will receive a 2 point War bonus, instead of the 3 points he would receive if he entered the Trials of Aether.
Please let us know if you have any further feedback on this rule change.
A small number of bonus points is still awarded to the top three teams in the most recent Brawl.
^That is a bad rule - this is my feedback.