draft - SM tourney text

Welcome to the 2016 Super Metroid Any% Tournament!

Signups close on April 16.  Prior to the tournament, we will be confirming your participation and getting players to join the Discord server.  Discord will be used to communicate with players and schedule races.

The first stage of the tournament is a round robin format.  Players will be divided into groups of 5.  Every player will do a race against every other player in that group.  The top 2 players from each group (based on # of races won) will advance to the 2nd stage of the tournament.  Ties will be broken using average completion time over all 4 races.  A player who has forfeit a race will not be able to win a tie-breaker.

The second stage of the tournament is a single elimination bracket of all the players who advanced from the first stage (2 per group).  All the #1 players will be seeded first (according to average race time), followed by all the #2 players.  The semi-finals and finals matches will be scheduled for a single date (a Saturday or Sunday, to be determined).

Runners of all skill levels are encouraged to compete!  Seeding into the groups will be done according to PB (personal best), such that each group contains an equal mixture of high, low, and mid-range PBs.  PB times for each player will be taken from the [deertier.com Any% leaderboards]<<http://deertier.com/Leaderboard/AnyPercentRealTime>>.  Seeding is determined on the day of the signup cutoff (April 16th), so submit your PB before then.  Runners with no PB time will be randomized and placed at the bottom of the seeding.

The category for this tournament is Any% No Major Glitches.  You can use the North American (U) or the Japanese (J) version of the game (but not PAL).  << specific notes about what glitches are allowed >>.  All files should start at 0:00 with the intro sequence completed, so play begins at Ceres station.

Players may use cartridge, flashcart, or emulator.  ZSNES and Snes9x 1.43 are banned.

Players will use [SpeedRunsLive]<<http://speedrunslive.com>> to time and record their race.  The time listed on SRL is the official time for the match.  Players are allowed to forfeit, but if a player forfeits a match, that player will not be able to win a tie breaker.  All players are required to stream and to follow all [SRL rules]<<http://speedrunslive.com/faq/rules>>.

Matches will be streamed to [twitch.tv/speedgaming]<<http://twitch.tv/speedgaming>> along with commentary.  A schedule of upcoming matches will be posted here once the tournament begins.

For questions contact Straevaras (<<contact method(s) here>>) or feasel ([email]<<mailto:feasel@speedgaming.org>>, [twitter]<<http://twitter.com/feasel0>>).