| GSF Rules |
| You may not challenge for any title not granted through a tournament, such as Founder or GSF Designer. You may challenge anyone for any title they won in a tournament; the match must be observed by a referee, and must follow the same rules as the final round of the tournament in which the title was won. |
| The ranking system of the Global Smash Federation is based on three factors: wins, losses, and penalties. Of these, the most important is a member's number of wins. |
| You can play as many matches with as many people as you want -- obviously, we can't limit that. However, only matches that are observed by a referee count towards your ranking. You can battle any member you please, but unless you specify that a match is ranked, it won't be ranked. Also, the person you are challenging must agree to the status of the match. All ranked matches must be 1-on-1. |
| All ranked challenges must be in the Compete forum and must be labeled as such in the topic title. If these two conditions are not met, the match will not be observed by a referee and will not be counted. Also, editing the topic title after the fact to make the match ranked will not work, because you both must agree on the match's status before it begins. No match that is set up via PM will ever be accepted as ranked. This is because it is far too easy to edit the replies of the other person within a PM, so what is true and what isn't is impossible to determine in the case of a disagreement. So don't even try. |
| With that said, you are allowed to use a PM to set up matches. If you want to challenge a friend to a friendly battle, by all means, use a PM. If you want to call out a certain person for a ranked match, but you aren't sure that s/he will see your topic in the Compete forum, feel free to send that member one PM (with an obvious subject, like "Ranked Challenge") containing a link to the challenge topic. Note that spamming challenges is grounds for moderation. As the cliche goes, patience is a virtue. |
| Eventually, someone will be crowned GSF Champion. It is possible to challenge a person for this title. However, some special rules apply. A title match must be actively observed by a referee. A title match must be recorded and uploaded by said referee. Also, the match must follow the below rules: |
| 4 Stock, 8 minutes No items No unfair stages (which stages are "unfair" will be determined as the game is played) No character-specific glitches Character-specific glitches are, as the name suggests, glitches that give only a specific character an advantage. In SSBM, every character could wavedash. Some got more use out of it than others, but character choice is left entirely to the player. If a player chooses a character that gets a negligible benefit from wavedashing, that is the player's own decision. However, in SSBB, only Bowser can do that infinite jump thing, and only Toon Link can do that thing with his DownAir. Those are character-specific glitches and are forbidden in all ranked matches at GSF. |
| In individual matches like this, GSF does not impose any rules besides the banning of character-specific glitches (discussed above). Beyond that, whatever rules the two players agree on will be the rules of the match. You can play any style of match, ban or allow whichever items you want, etcetera. Note that if you do not play by these rules, the ref will call a penalty. |
| Having the "Ranked" status in the title of your challenge makes it easier for referees to spot and respond to it. Referees are required to browse the Compete forum frequently; chances are that one of them will find your challenge and agree to observe it, stating if s/he is able to actively observe the match (be "physically" present as the match ensues). The challenger and the person challenged must state whether or not they are capable of uploading the match as a video. If neither is able, the challenger should edit the topic title to say "No Video". If a challenge does not have this notice, it will be assumed that one of the two players will post a video of the match. If there is a specific referee that you would like to observe your match, feel free to send him/her one PM with your request. Note "Special Ref Req'd" in the topic title to reflect this. Both players must agree to the selected referee. |
| Videos must be clear. If a referee cannot tell what is going on, the match will be discarded. Also, it must include everything from the character select onward in order to ensure that the two people playing are the challenger and the challenged. Videos should be uploaded to Youtube as quickly as possible (in no more than a day) after the match is over. |
| Truth be told, there aren't many things that can truly be off-limits in a competitive game. Thus, GSF's basic rules are very limited. The only things that are absolutely forbidden in any ranked match on GSF are the various character-specific glitches that have been discovered in the game. These will never fail to earn a penalty. In individual matches, a player will be penalized for breaking any of the additional rules of the match. If a player receives three penalties during a single match, that player is disqualified. DQs naturally count as losses. |
| Once the referee has observed the match, either actively or via video, s/he will post the final results (who won, who lost, penalties incurred and the reasons for them) in the challenge topic and close the topic. These results will then be added to the GSF rankings. |
| Rankings are based primarily on the number of wins. The more wins you have, the higher your ranking will be. Thus, if you want a high ranking, it is in your best interest to play as many ranked matches as posible. Losses come into play whenever two members are tied in wins. The player with the smaller number of losses receives the higher ranking. Penalties contribute to the number of losses: every four penalties received (and these are cumulative) counts as one loss. If a player receives three penalties in a single match (thereby getting disqualified) the third penalty is not counted. |
| Tournaments will be held fairly frequently at GSF. We pride ourselves on our unique and creative themes for our tournaments. The information for the next tournament is on the main GSF page; information for every tournament planned or past is on the Tournaments page. |
| As the date of a tournament draws near, either Memento Mori or Ezekiel will make a topic in the Tournaments forum describing the rules and format. This markes the opening of sign-ups for that tourney. Simply post that you would like to enter the tournament, and if there is room, you will be entered into the tournament or the preliminaries (depending on the format). |
| There are four ways to enter a tournament. The method of entry for each tourney will be listed in its information on the Main/Tournaments pages. Open: Signing up in the topic for the tournament is all you need to do. Preliminary: We will accept twice or four times the number of entries as can actually participate in the tournament. Entrants must pair off and do battle to determine who will enter the tournament (and again if there are two rounds of preliminaries). Who you battle is up to you. Naturally, these matches must be observed by a referee. Qualifying: Entrants are divided into groups of four (or more, depending on the number of entrants) and fight each member of their group once. The players with the worst records in each group are eliminated until the correct number of participants is reached, and the order of the battles in the main tournament is determined by the records of the players who qualify. Invitational: Entry is open only to selected individuals. It is highly unlikely that this will ever be used. |
| Currently, we have two formats for tournaments: Elimination and Round Robin. Elimination is the usual format. Entrants are placed into brackets, and they battle the people with whom they are paired, ending with 1 person left standing. Elimination-style tournaments are single-elimination unless otherwise specified. Round Robin has every entrant battle every other entrant. In this format, the person with the most wins at the end is declared the winner. |
| Every battle in a tournament contributes to the win-loss rankings of the participating members. The usual methods apply. The number of tournaments won will be shown in the rankings, but this does not affect the rankings in any way. It's just for show. |
| Each tournament will have its own unique set of rules. These will naturally vary according to the tournament. Violating any of these will result in a penalty. The cardinal GSF rule (No character-specific glitches!) still applies. |
| The prize for winning a tournament usually consists of a Virtual Console game (sometimes of our choice, sometimes the winner's) and a custom title. If the winner declines to accept a prize, we have a method for determining who will get it. (We like to keep it a secret because it's so much more fun for us that way.) |
| First note that in order to challenge a penalty, a video of the match must be available. It is not the referee's responsibility to record matches. If that condition is met, and you feel that a particular penalty is wrong or unjust, you may PM the referee who judged your match with the contest. Only PM once. If you get no reply within a week, you may send another PM. Explain why the penalty in question was not, in fact, a penalty. If the rule that was broken was vague or has a loophole, press that point. Note that claiming you broke the rule by accident is not an acceptable explanation. However you do go about making your argument, do it rationally and calmly. Insulting the referee will get you nowhere. The referee should be able to justify his/her decision. If it turns out that a referee is wrong, the penalty will be removed. If no decision can be made, the contest will be sent to an administrator for review. The administrator's decision is final. |