International Thud Tournament Rules 2007
The International Thud Tournament 2007 (ITT2007) is the obvious follow up to ITT2006, the first ever International Thud Tournament. A couple of things arose back then, which allowed us to fine tune the Rules for this new ITT2007. As such please read these new rules carefully, and be sure you will be able to abide by them before you join.
1.Definitions:
- “Slowfire Thud” is another name for Forum Thud, that is games played in forum;
- “Online Thud” and “online” is playing games live and online in the Thud games client. Please do not refer to online as “Quickfire”, because that is a another, different type of playing;
- “Thudguild” is the group of Thud afficionados, all paying members of thudgame.com;
- “Double” means you have to play both sides, Trolls and dwarfs, at the same time instead of one after the other;
- “unlimited” means there is no limit to the number of moves;
- “ThudBoard” is an application that helps you keep track of your moves in several games at once;
- “locked”, a topic no one can post in anymore.
2.All games must be played via pre-arranged Slowfire Thud on the forum or via Online Thud. These rules stand for Slowfire Thud, the default. For online games the game result will stand from the database results.
3.Oograh Boike will set up the tournament; he, Lee Alley and Dewi Morgan are the referees for the duration of the tournament. They will, as a consequence, not partake in ITT2007.
4.Participants must join the Thudguild to be eligible for play. Details on how to do this are at https://www.thudgame.com/shop.
5.All games MUST be double unlimited. All games MUST be played on forum until an online game has been played. Forum is default!
6.a. Participants must be able to play several simultaneous, double unlimited games until the end of the semi-finals. Simultaneous play is necessary to accommodate a fair but lengthy tournament. It is much like football tournaments (soccer to Americans): depending on the number of players several pools are made at random. Players within the same pool need to play all other players in that pool simultaneously. The best two of each pool go on to play in the next pool, and play the next set of three simultaneous games, and so on, until we have two finalists.
b. If the number of players is an odd one (as opposed to an even one), or even worse, a prime, the Referees will think of another way to get Round One going.
7.Because we have a fixed date for the end of TT2007, we will maintain a strict time management program. All moves must be answered by a new move within 24 hours. Posting early is allowed and cheered on, but it does not buy extra time to use later on; it only keeps the game interesting. Games get a maximum of fourteen days in which they can be played after which the scores will be tallied, and the next round will begin.
To elaborate: this rule deals with a situation in which someone might think “I've taken 3 dwarfs, all I need to do now is not post until the end of the fortnight! Three points for me!” Sorry, no cow. You need to answer within 24 hours after your opponent's post, or you will lose a point in the next six hours, another one in the next six hours, and so on, until another 24 hours have expired. After that, you will be disqualified if you have not posted yet.
Another thought might be “hey, yesterday and the day before that I posted within the hour. That gives me at least 47 hours more for this move!” Again, no cow. Sorry mate, the 24-hour rule stands.
To elaborate even more (we can't stress this enough): forum games are default. You WILL need to post every 24 hours after your opponent has posted, EVEN IF you both agreed to play online at a fixed date in the future. Only agreeing on a score will relieve you and your opponent of your duty to post every 24 hours after last post.
And yet again, to be perfectly clear on this: it is NOT that you can only post once every 24 hours after your opponent, you must AT LEAST post once every 24 hours after (s)he did!. Check the forum regularly, and tick the notification boxes in “My account / my notify settings” to get a daily update on new posts by email.
8.All rounds in ITT2007 have a fixed fortnight in which they will be played thus it's in everyone's interest to play quickly rather than in a leisurely fashion. But players who start and/or post in new pools and/or games ahead of time will be disqualified.
9.We do not know of any games “out of sync” and this shouldn't change with the tournament. Using ThudBoard 1.7 is as easy as 1, 2, 3, as far as copy/paste is concerned. Use it to your advantage. Any move and/or post you make stands as played, even if it is blatantly obvious that it is foolish! Check and double check each post before submitting.
10.Do not edit your ITT2007 posts, even if it is only to change spelling. Anyone editing posts will be disqualified.
11.The Thudgame Druids will notify the head referee, Oograh Boike, who will be participating before the start of the tournament. Those who wish to sign up for the Thud Tournament must do so before midnight of the 25th of March 2007.
12.Participants playing the Slowfire (ie Forum) game in the tournament –that is all of you, untill an online game has been played and ended– must keep OograhBoike.com updated by sending savegames at least every few days, or when asked for them. As a consequence, Oograh Boike needs to know your email address before ITT2007 starts. He will never, ever, give your address to anyone else, not even Lee or Dewi, without your strict approval.
13.All games in the forum that have to do with the tournament, will have to have ITT2007 at the start of their topic line, to distinguish them from other ongoing, non-tournament games. But Oograh Boike will set up each ITT2007 game topic anyway, with specifics on who gets first post and so on.
14.All ITT2007 games topics will be locked after each round has been completed. You are free to continue a game if it has not been concluded, but you will have to do so in another, non-ITT2007 topic. Please contact one of the tournament referees if you'd like to do so, and want a copy of all posts in your new topic. Please understand that due to the nature of the tournament they will probably only be able to comply once the tournament is finished.
15.Please keep this as fairplay. OB, Lee and Dewi and two not to be named other parties, worked very hard setting all this up. Once these rules are online, we won't change anything, as it wouldn't be right to others. However, we do keep an open mind for ideas, rants, raves and maybe even outright abuse (hey, you lost a game, we understand; if you need a place to vent, we are here for you 
). However: please stick to the topic we opened just for that cause in the forum called “Thoughts on ITT2007”.
