Ace's SM Tourney Rules

---General Rules---

First of all, this is not a super-serious tournament with incredibly high-level players, alright?  This is a more or less casual competition with members of my community participating.  It is likely to be a small tournament.  Still, it will require rules and regulations to ensure ease of participation and that everyone has fun.

* There are a LOT of versions of StepMania out there, and a lot of themes (between them, many timing and scoring methods), as well as a lot of songs.  It would be literally impossible to conduct a tournament without setting restrictions on all three of these things.  Therefore, in the spirit of ensuring anyone can participate in this tournament:
-> You will get StepMania 3.95 and my PrismRhythm Normal theme, to ensure everyone is playing on the same SM build and the same theme with the same timing and scoring.  I don't care if you get the base installer plus downloading the theme separately, or if you download my current with-songs starter bundle.  [Surely people will complain that I'm not having people play on SM5 and/or using StepMania Online.  Straight-up, I don't care.  Get over it.]
-> You may only pick songs that are present in the current With-Songs Starter Bundle (which is kinda like an all-stars collection in some ways, and is over 250 songs; here's the song list: https://pastebin.com/wvNPsaLV).  I don't care if you get all the full packs from my website, as all of the starter bundle songs are present in those same forms in those packs as well, as long as you're only playing songs that are on that list.  This ensures everybody is playing from the same pool of songs and doesn't have to go out of their way to acquire songs any farther than downloading one of my starter bundles.

* All matches will be played in a manner where both current competitors play at the same time.  It's up to you two to schedule your match.

* I DEMAND proof of your score in some manner; I will not take anyone's word.
-> When playing a match, you will broadcast on Twitch or screenshare on Discord if it is at all possible.  This should be perfectly fine for most participants.  For those whose internet and/or computer cannot handle live streaming, I will accept recordings.  I will only accept a screenshot if broadcasting or recording the play is totally not feasible for you, and only if you post a screenshot within 2 minutes of the song's finish time (I'll be present for all matches).  Given that screenshots go in the StepMania CVS/Screenshots folder, they are easy to find, and therefore there is NO reasonable excuse for not posting a screenshot to my Discord quickly.

---Actual Tournament Format---

* There will be a qualifying song to play, which one being announced a week before the tournament start date.  This will also be expected to be streamed, shared, or recorded if possible to provide proof of your score.

* Participants will be seeded based upon how they scored on the qualifying song.

* Each match is best of 3.  This means you must win 2 songs total to win the match.

* Per match, the higher seed will be first to select a song.  With a song selected, the competitors need to agree on which difficulty to play the song on (the two must simply talk until a difficulty level can be settled on).

* Any song rated 1, 2, or 3 is unacceptable due to extremely low arrow counts, high chances of a 100%, and higher chances of a tie.  This means that any other numeric difficulty of 4 or more is technically acceptable if both competitors agree to go that low.  Similarly, if both the competitors are capable of an Expert 14, who am I to tell them they aren't allowed to agree to play one?

* The match's second song will be picked by the lower seed.

* If a tiebreaker is necessary, I will get on Random.org to pick a song randomly.  Competitors may still choose to use a veto on a random tiebreaking song to get me to roll again, but that is understandably a possibly risky decision.

* Each competitor gets 3 song vetoes.  If one of your picks is vetoed, I will record the veto, and the competitor MUST pick a different song (no picking the same song to make people waste vetoes).  Vetoes will be refreshed for the finals.

---Passing & Failing---

* If you pick a song, you MUST pass it to prove that you are capable of doing so, in order to prevent picking a song expressly to brute-force your opponent out of the match by deliberately picking a song/difficulty YOU also aren't capable of (this makes things fair as well).  If you do not pass your own pick, you will incur a loss.

* If there is an exact score tie, the song is a draw, no one scores, and the current picker must choose another song.

* If both competitors fail a RANDOM song pick, whomever has the higher score at time of failure wins the song (may or may not be whomever got farther, although that's a strong possibility).  This is to encourage players to do their best.

* If both competitors fail a song one of them PERSONALLY chose, the one who picked it loses the song by default regardless of the other player's score (given the "picker must pass" rule), and the person it was picked against therefore wins that song by default.

* If both players pass, whomever got the higher score wins the song.

* Once a competitor has 2 song-win points, they win the match.

* Finals will be best of 5 (3 points will be necessary).  Order of song choice will be higher seed, lower seed, random, repeatedly, until somebody has 3 song-win points and takes the tournament.

---When You Can and Can't Stop During a Song---

* If your competitor has failed a song YOU personally chose, you MUST keep going and pass the song.  (Picker must pass.)

* If your competitor has failed THEIR pick, you can and should stop, as they lose the song automatically anyway.  (Picker must pass.)

* If your competitor has failed a RANDOM song pick, if you expect to win the song, you must at least play until your score is higher than their failing score, if possible.  Then you can stop if you want, because your victory is ensured the moment your score is higher.