Navigating the New Tournament System

Need some help finding your way through the new tournament web screens? Here is a guide that should answer most of your questions. If you still have problems or questions, email tournaments@decipher.com.

Signing Up To Be A Tournament Director (for new directors)

If you are not a registered tournament director with Decipher (if you are, proceed to the login section), then you need to follow these instructions. NOTE: You must be 18 years of age or older to sign up as a Decipher tournament director.

1. Click "Sign Up to be a Director"

2. Fill in the form provided, noting the mandatory fields. Keep your information accurate such that Decipher can contact you if required.

3. Proceed to the next section and sign in!

About Your Email Address: Your email address is the unique identifier of your director account, and you need it to login to this system. If you are about to change email accounts due to a change of ISP, company etc, ensure you change your email address on file!

Tournament Director Login

1. Click the Director Login button.

2. Enter your EMAIL ADDRESS and PASSWORD.

You must use the email address that is on-file with Decipher. If you have no email address on-file, contact tournaments@decipher.com.

If this is your first time logging into this new system, then you will not yet know the random password that was assigned to you. Select "Forgot your password?." Here you can enter your email address and if a match for that email address is found in the tournament director registry, the password will be mailed to that address.

Once you are signed in, you will be able to edit your current email, password or other details by going to the tournaments home page clicking on Edit Your Director Info.

Posting A Tournament

To be a sanctioned tournament, you must register the event online at least 14 days before the event takes place. Note - this period is reduced for the first week of this system's release such that tournaments can be posted for The Lord Of The Rings TCG opening weekend up until Monday 12th November 2001. Unsanctioned events receive no prize support (where eligible) and you will not be able to enter the results for player ratings.

Once registered, players will be able to search and find your event, and once it has occurred, the results will be able to be entered, and player ratings updated!

1. Ensure you are logged in.

2. If you are not already on the page with your tournaments, go to the tournaments home page and click "View All Your Tournaments"

3. Click "Create New Tournament".

4. Select the game you wish to register a tournament for, then press "Submit".

5. If you selected The Lord Of The Rings TCG, you will be asked to specify the game format (Swiss or Double Elimination). Refer to the tournament guidelines for details on these formats.

6. Enter the required data in the form provided. Short explanation of some options is provided below, refer to your tournament guidelines for more detail.

7. Press "Submit". You will be informed of any errors that must be corrected.

Player Format: Only 1 player versus 1 player format is available for sanctioned events except for The Lord Of The Rings TCG which also offers a multiplayer rating.

Deck Type: Offers constructed and sealed deck options, which affect different player ratings.

Card Pool: Unlimited card pool is the standard for constructed events, meaning all tournament legal cards (with current clarifications and errata etc) are legal for this event. Unlimited cannot be selected for Sealed deck events because all sealed deck limit the number of available cards for a player to choose from. Limited is the standard card pool available for sealed deck events. Some games also support special constructed deck formats, such as Episode I or Voyager Only formats for Star Wars CCG and Star Trek CCG respectively. These will be listed by name (choose them by name, you cannot choose limited for constructed deck events). Other card pool can be selected if you wish to advertise your own unsanctioned event, such as a special scenario tournament or similar. No ratings updates will be made to unsanctioned events.

Date Of Tournament: Remember, you must enter the event at least 14 days prior to the date it will be held.

Once posted, your event will be listed under your tournament view with the status "Scheduled" or "Awaiting Kit" (LOTR TCG). Refer to the Event Status section of this document for a description of these.

Adding Players to a Tournament

Players must be added to your event in order for you to be able to record their game results. There are three ways to add a player to an event you have posted.

(a) Select from the list of players you have in your personal player registry (which reflects all players who have played in a sanctioned tournament you have run).

(b) Search the entire player database for the player, using his or her command card details,

(c) If not found in (b), you will be given the option to create a new player.

It is important to note that regardless of which method you wish to choose, the menu structure will lead you through all three options in the above order. Thus you must bring up your player registry first, before you can search the entire database, and you cannot create a new player without first searching the entire database. This reduces the chance that player data will be entered twice.

1. Have your command cards ready.

2. Go to "View All Your Tournaments" listing.

3. Click "Edit Results" for your event.

4. Click "Add A Player To Event". Here you can tick as many players as you wish from your personal registry, and when you select "Add" they will be added to your event.

5. If the player is not in your personal player registry, select the option "Search Entire Player Database". You will be prompted for first name, last name and date of birth and then hit "Search". All three fields must be entered to search. Thus it is very important that you ensure players fill out their command cards completely and correctly, and the same way each tournament! Also, ensure your players do not use shorthand names like "Mike" if they have been registered as "Michael" etc. IF a match is found, it will be presented to you, and choosing that player will add him or her to your personal player registry as well as the current event.

6. If your check in step 5 returned no exact matches, you will get the option to "Create A New Player". If you have any suspicions that this player must have already been registered, do not create him or her again (they will just end up with two separate ratings), instead contact our tournament coordinator at tournaments@decipher.com to resolve the problem.

7. The search data you entered will be carried over into a player details form, and you must complete all the required details from that players command card. Once submitted, that player will be added to the overall database, your personal player registry, and also your currently selected tournament.

Entering Game Results

You cannot enter tournament results unless:

(a) you have posted the event first! Refer to the previous section for details on posting tournaments.

AND (b) the event date has passed (but was less than 14 days ago). That is, the tournament has an event status of "Awaiting Results."

After you have run your tournament, you will need to submit the results to Decipher so that the ratings will be updated and prize support will be sent. Once the tournament date has passed, you will have 14 days to submit the results to Decipher. After 14 days have passed, the event will automatically be marked as "unsanctioned" and you will be unable to edit it.

1. Have your command cards ready.

2. Make sure you have added all the players that participated into the event as detailed in the section above, because only players listed in that event will appear in the "Choose opponent" pull down menus for each game.

3. Go to "View All Your Tournaments" listing.

4. Click "Edit" under the Edit Player Results column for the tournament you wish to put results in for.

5. You will be presented with a list of all the players you have listed as participating in this event. Choose a player to edit by clicking "Edit Results."

6. You will be presented with a form that looks like a command card. Enter the data required and submit to save that player's game data. All games must be entered for a single player before that player's data can be saved. You can then return to the screen listing all players in this event, and see that the Results Status for that player indicates "Complete".

NOTE: You must enter every game for every player. This system will not use the result of one player to automatically populate the game result of his opponent. This is impossible to determine automatically for some formats and some game results (such as multiplayer).

The fields on the electronic command card are described briefly below. Refer to your tournament guidelines for the appropriate game for more detail.

Opponent: contains a pull down list of all players in your event (besides this player), as well as dummy selections for BYE (player is awarded a win for that game) and MISSED GAME (player is awarded 0 points). If a multiplayer format event, 3 opponent fields will be shown.

Result: is a pull down list of all results possible for this format and this game type. If multiplayer, it will be a pull down list of point values 0 to 7, as you will have on your command card. Also shown is the game results of MISSED GAME, BYE, THIS PLAYER FORFEITED (player receives a loss) and OPPONENT FORFEITED (player receives a win).

Dropped? : This option (yes or no) allows you to specify if the player dropped from the event at the end of that game (meaning that game was completed, but no subsequent games were). Completed games will be used for ratings, but no game data is permitted after the dropped game.

If you have entered all the game data for every player, then a button will appear at the bottom of your event's player listing which says "Submit For Ratings Update". Note that if you have even one player who's results status is "Incomplete", then this button will not be shown.

Clicking this Event Submit will lock your event from further modification, so you are asked to confirm this choice. Confirming this will do the following:

(a) Check that your event has enough players (and enough games were played) to satisfy the sanctioning requirements for that game (refer to your tournament guideline for these quantities). If your event fails this final check, it will be marked as "Unsanctioned 2" in the event status field and you will not be able to perform any further actions.

(b) If your event was a sanctioned The Lord Of The Rings TCG tournament, you will be presented with a screen where you must enter the address details of the players who qualified for a prize. Carefully enter and confirm each of the 1st place, 2nd place and "Random/Other" players details, and their prizes will be mailed directly to them.

(c) If the event passes the sanctioning check, it is placed on a timed queue for an automatic process that will calculate and update every players rating. All ratings for an event are processed exactly 14 days after the date the event was held.

A new feature in this system is the tournament status field. This allows tournament directors to see where their tournaments are in the process. Most of the status changes happen automatically, but a few of them require action on the part of the tournament director or Decipher. Below are all of the tournament statuses and what they mean. A tournament will not necessarily go through all of these statuses.

• Awaiting Kit - (Specific to The Lord of the Rings TCG) - The tournament director will be sent a Tournament Kit with promotional items. This kit is mailed to the director's on file address. Once the order is placed by Decipher, the status will be changed to "Scheduled".

• Unsanctioned - This status is triggered by a director selecting a card pool of "Other (unsanctioned)." No further event changes or ratings updates can be made.

• Scheduled - The tournament is properly posted. The tournament date has not passed.

• Awaiting Results - The tournament date has passed and the tournament director must enter the player's results and submit the tournament for ratings update.

• Unsanctioned 2 - Results have been submitted, but insufficient number of players attended, or not enough games were played to meet the sanctioning requirements. No further event changes or ratings updates can be made.

• Awaiting Ratings - Results have been submitted on time and will be processed 14 days after the tournament date.

• Unsanctioned 3 - Results were not completed within 14-days of the event being held. No further event changes or ratings updates can be made.

• Awaiting Prizes - Results have been submitted, ratings have been processed, prizes will be sent out by Decipher to either the listed prize winners (The Lord Of The Rings TCG tournament kit prizes) or the tournament director (other games). Once the prize order is placed by Decipher, this status changes to "Completed".

• Completed - All phases of the tournament are complete. The prize support has been sent and ratings have been updated.

The Future

This new system is an evolving one. We will continue to add on and improve where needed. Please send your comments or suggestions to tournaments@decipher.com.

An evolution of this system to be examined is stand-alone downloadable software that enables a tournament director to run an event in real time and record the results on his or her computer/laptop, and then submit them to Decipher using an automated web-interface. Stay tuned for more information as we go forward!