Ladle/Operations

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The One hundred and fifty-seventh TRONIC Ladle will be played on Sunday, March 3rd, 2024!
  • Discussion for Ladle 157 is taking place [ here].
  • Server administrators please update your config files.
  • Teams please sign up on the Challenge Board.
  • Then get some practice in before the big day! :)

Rules for players

  1. To be considered valid, a team must have a minimum of 4 players including at least one but not more than two Team Leaders.
  2. Team Leaders must list their Global ID on the Challenge board. Players can not be signed up under multiple teams. You may only play for one team each Ladle.
  3. Only Team Leaders may add, edit or remove their team from the Challenge Board. Modifications to the position of Team Leader may be done by the current Team Leader(s) or the new Team Leader(s).
  4. Changes may happen at any time until the cut-off for the provisional placement of teams, which is currently 18:00 GMT on Thursday before the event (See Stage 2 for more information).
  5. After the brackets have been set a Team Leader may change a maximum of two players per team. Only two players per team can be added or switched. A combination of one added and one switched is acceptable, as long as the total number of changes does not exceed two.
  6. Team Leaders should not change after the brackets are chosen or they may lose authority (servers need to be updated).
  7. Players listed on the Challenge Board are not allowed to join or switch teams under any circumstances in the hour before opening rounds. The Challenge Board is effectively locked until Ladle starts, after which changes may be made to reflect actual playing situations (scores, server changes, substitutes, no shows).
  8. Substitutes may be added until the start of the semi-finals. After the semi-finals begin, a team needs the approval of the opponent to add a substitute.
  9. Everyone must be authenticated in order to participate during the Ladle.
  10. Regarding times, if an opponent team has not shown up on time and the opponent team is not currently engaged in an earlier scheduled match, then the match can begin even if the opponent team is not full strength. A team can decide to give the opponent team a maximum of 10 minutes to prepare themselves. A forfeit is considered a bye. After the opening rounds, players may take no longer than 10 minutes between finals to organize themselves for the next match.

Rules for server owners & operators

  1. Use only the official Ladle settings and no other.
  2. Make sure your server is up to date with the final version of the Ladle settings.
  3. Please run the Ladle settings from default server configurations in order to make sure everything is unchanged. Also make sure you have no settings in your everytime.cfg or autoexec.cfg that would otherwise change the settings.
  4. Do not authorise or give anyone other than Global Moderators an access level of Moderator (2). Please also ensure Team Leaders have the correct access level.
  5. Do not use customized colours for teams. Gold and blue should be the standard.
  6. Do not use customized language strings on your server.
  7. Please limit the number of messages to promote or advertise your own site/server. One message in the ROUND_CONSOLE_MESSAGE should be enough. MESSAGE_OF_DAY is reserved for use by the Ladle configuration file.

How the Ladle works

Stage 1 - Preparation

A Ladle Enthusiast will prepare the wiki for a new event keeping the following in mind -

  • Per tradition, the Ladle will be played on the first Sunday of every month (except for January, which will take place on the Sunday following the first Tuesday of the month).
  • The opening round of play will start at 18:45 GMT for a 16 team bracket, and 18:00 GMT for a 32-team bracket.
  • The start times will change to follow Daylight Savings Time in the EU.
  • Generally, 45 minutes is allowed to complete each round.

When clearing the Challenge Board for the next Ladle, be sure to move the teams and brackets to their proper place on the Ladle/Results page and link to the relevant discussion thread on the forums. While editing the Challenge Board, pay special attention to comments and any references to the previous Ladle. Create a new bracket and plant the seeded teams in their proper place. After the Challenge Board has been cleared, post a new topic on the forums and cross-link that to the Ladle/Blurb on the Competition Hub, which should also be edited and made current.

Stage 2 - Team Sign Ups

Teams are added to the Challenge Board until the cut off for provisional placement, which is currently 18:00 GMT on Thursday before the event. This will allow time for server administrators and moderators to update their servers, teams to discuss strategy and players/enthusiasts to share their predictions on the forums if they wish to. In the event your team misses the sign up deadline, and one or more teams have a bye in the first round, you may ask the team with the first bye for permission to fill the open slot. If they refuse, go through the byes in order. No team is under any obligation to give up a bye, and open slots are first come, first serve. Note: If your entire team does show up for Ladle, you may be subject to disciplinary action.

Stage 3 - Setting the Challenge Board

Ladle Enthusiasts meet up on the official #Armagetron IRC channel sometime between 17:00 and 20:00 GMT the Thursday prior to the Ladle to determine the brackets. Once on the IRC channel, one enthusiast will fill in the servers to play on, following these procedures -

  • Odd numbered ladles have Finals played in a US server.
  • Even numbered ladles have Finals played in a EU server.
  • Servers must flow smoothly and not have too many unnecessary switches.

Once servers are set and agreed on by players then someone will check to make sure they have .randomteam working (try to make sure you put testing prior to this) this divides arguments by spaces so no names can contain spaces or else there will be errors. once confirmed one players does .r and another follows with the .randomteam command, the result of that .randomteam sets the challenge board up. once player adds them in accordingly and others confirm. If a .randomteam error was not caught in the initial testing than test and redo the .r and .randomteam commands.

.randomteam can now handle seeds, to use

.randomteam <number of seeds> seed1 seed2 .... seedn teama teamb teamc

Example being for ladle 38

.randomteam 4 ct sp unk r tx una tu ds da pru id nbk ot ctb vcl

remember spaces separate teams, so don't use them in team names

Make sure to include the byes are the are listed with the number next to them When submitting the bracket remember to add a useful comment such as "Setting Teams based on <link to .randomteam output>"

code for .randomteam is here

Stage 4 - Playing the Ladle

Team Leaders meet in IRC in the #armagetron.ladle channel on freenode (IRC web client) 45 minutes before the opening rounds. This meeting is to make final preparations for Ladle, and to solve any problems that have arisen after the brackets were chosen. Teams then meet at the designated servers and play the best of 3 matches. Ladle Enthusiasts will record results on the brackets as they come in. The brackets should be followed precisely unless there is an issue with the primary server. Team Leaders can discuss moving to the secondary server (examples: the majority of the players are from the same region and want to play on a closer server, or the primary server becomes unstable). Team management is available on all Ladle servers. Designated Team Leaders should lock their teams so no random people can join, then invite their teammates as they arrive. All players are required to login to play, and those without forum accounts must be /OP'd by the Leader. More on that here.

Stage 5 - The Outcome

Players use the forums to congratulate the winners, discuss issues, and eventually vote for changes where needed.

The majority of Ladles run smoothly, however, problems occasionally arise. Issues regarding settings, dates, and general Ladle management can be settled using the quarterly voting system (currently every 3 Ladles starting from L-21). A Ladle Enthusiast creates a "voting discussion thread" on the forum to decide on which issues need a vote. An example can be found here. If the problem is a specific player or group of players, then they can be punished. If the violation is serious enough and requires a timely change in rules or settings, the community can opt for a emergency vote (which follows the same format as the quarterly vote). Quarterly voting then resumes on schedule.

Stage 6 - Ladle voting

Notice: Voting has been suspended as of January 20th, 2011, due to irreconcilable differences

After the discussion is exhausted, and with enough time for a fair vote (at least a week before Ladle day), a "Ladle XX voting" thread is created. An example of such thread exists here. Only Team Leaders may vote. Any other person voting is subject to be accepted by the referee or Team Leaders that are voting. Only one vote per team. The vote ends when the Challenge Board is closed to sign ups (see above). The results of the vote are then edited into the wiki and the ladle.cfg files. Read more about Ladle/Guidelines/Voting.

Things to know

Players & Teams

The most important things for players and teams to know and do is -

  • Elect a Team Leader who you can trust, who listens to everyone in the team, who is capable of communicating with other Team Leaders, and can follow the procedure to the letter on Ladle day. If you have doubts about the reliability of the Team Leader, then you should select an additional Team Leader for your team.
  • During the event, do not listen to anyone external to your team; rely on your Team Leader for information as to who you are playing and where.
  • Regarding ping, make sure your Team Leader is aware of your server location preference.

Team Leaders

The most important things for Team Leaders to know and do is -

  • A Team Leader should have their team signed up before the deadline.
  • A Team Leader should make sure all team edits, changes have been finalized before the last deadline.
  • Team Leaders must log-in under the same global ID they used on the Challenge Board. Failure to do so may result in loss of in-game authority.
  • Anything less than a full team of six players is considered your problem. An obliging opponent may reduce their numbers if they wish.

Global IDs and authentication

We recommend that you use @forums authority due to the chance of having a PM vote, however all other authorities are still accepted. Read more about Authentication

How a PM Vote Trial works

  1. A Ladle enthusiast creates a new forums thread about the PM Vote Trial.
  2. The enthusiast sends PMs to the Team Leaders and server admins of the Ladle in which the incident occured. All Team Leaders must be included, even if one of them is accused of committing an offense.
  3. Ensure the voter names are in the BCC field and not the TO field.
  4. The voting period should be open for one week.
  5. Team Leaders discuss the vote with their team.
  6. Team Leaders and server admins, send their vote back to the Ladle enthusiast. Teams with more than one Team Leader should only send one vote.
  7. The Ladle enthusiast tallies the votes.
  8. The Ladle enthusiast posts the results. (Should we keep the votes confidential, or should we make them public?)

How Global Moderators are elected

Still needs to be voted on and finalized. How will they be elected? Will they be referrals or applications? etc, etc. Requirements Before becoming a Global Moderator the requirements are -

  • To not be participating part in the current Ladle that they will be moderating.
  • They must be able to oversee two matches simultaneously.

Seeding

Still working out the details, but here is an outline to start...

Regarding the brackets

  • Seeds are taken from the previous Ladle only.
  • Seeds must be planted in the bracket to ensure they do not meet in the first round of play. The higher the seed, the further apart they should be placed. For example, on a full 16 team bracket, the seeds might be placed as such:
| RD1-team01= Seed 1 (winner)
| RD1-team16= Seed 2 (loser)
| RD1-team09= Seed 3 (lost to winner)
| RD1-team08= Seed 4 (lost to loser)
  • Byes get filled in reverse to give the winner the greatest chance of getting one (if there are 15 teams registered, seeds 4, 3, then 2 will face teams in the first round, but not seed 1)

Retaining your seed

  • The team name must remain the same. The exception is a slight variation or abbreviation of the name. However, it should be obvious to the person making the brackets this is a returning team with a seed. Please use good sense if you must use a variant or abbreviation.
  • The team must have either:
    • The same captain (or at least one captain out of the two, if there were two) and three additional players who were on the challenge board the previous ladle or
    • Five players who were on the challenge board in the previous ladle. Player names are restricted to the same guidelines as team names (above).
  • If your team does not meet these requirements you lose your seed and lower seeds move up to fill your position.

Responsibilities & duties during the Ladle

Global Moderators

Duties include starting the matches, editing team names to reflect scores, settling disputes between teams, silencing spammers or disruptive spectators not using the /team chat. They may also silence participating players if they are being insulting to the opponents or distracting them in a obvious way. They may kick constant hassling spectators that are avoiding the silence feature by rejoining. They are also above the Team Leaders and Team Members in terms of authority so they may make the final decision if there is a disagreement between the two team leaders.

Team Leaders

If there is no GM to referee over the round then both Team Leaders equally decide what should happen. Duties include starting the matches, editing team names to reflect scores, silencing spammers or distributive spectators not using the /team chat. They are above the Team Members in terms of authority so they make the final decision for their own participating team. Both Team Leaders have equal share of the complete decision, if there is no GM present and there is a dispute between a decision that prevents the matches from beginning (or continuing) then a GM must be called in to make a decision.

Team Members

They have no specific authority other than all equally deciding on a new Team Leader if the original team leader is not present (or wishes to promote somebody else to the new Team Leader).

Warnings & Penalties

Players can be issued warnings by the Ladle community using a voting trial. If a player is accused of violating a rule or committing an offense not defined by the rules, then a trial will be run with the following question. Note: this question should be modified to pertain to the accused player and action committed.

Did the accused player, <name>, violate Rule #<n> or commit an offense? No, Yes and they should receive (1 warning, 2 warnings, 3 warnings)

If neither option receives 2/3 of the vote, then “No” is the winner. For the “Yes” option to win it must receive 2/3 of the vote. If the “Yes” option is the winner and there is a tie between the number of warning choices, then the leftmost tied-option is the winner.

Warnings have the following rules:

  • If a player is convicted of committing an offense, then all active warnings will stay active for an additional 2 Ladles. Otherwise if a warning has expired, then it can be rescinded.
  • If a player is sentenced to 1, 2, or 3 warnings from the trial, then the warning(s) will be added to the Penalty Box. They will initially expire after 4, 8, and 12 Ladles respectively.
  • If a player has 2 or more active warnings, then they can not be a Team Leader.
  • If a player is convicted of committing an offense and has 3 or more active warnings, then they will serve a Ladle suspension of length 2 ^ (number of active warnings - 3). Here is a list of examples:
    • 3 warnings: 2 ^ (3 - 3) = 2 ^ 0 = 1 Ladle
    • 4 warnings: 2 ^ (4 - 3) = 2 ^ 1 = 2 Ladles
    • 5 warnings: 2 ^ (5 - 3) = 2 ^ 2 = 4 Ladles
  • If a player is suspended from the Ladle, then all active warnings will stay active for an additional amount by the length of the suspension.

The rules are applied in the order in which they are defined, and they will be applied after all Ladle-specific activites have completed (games, voting trials, etc…). Warnings and suspensions will be tracked on the Penalty Box page, each entry having a supporting link to the forum thread with the results.

Flex's Alternate

For any Minor rule violation you will receive one warning. For any Major rule violation you will receive a Ladle suspension. These are all pre-written in order to simplify the procedure and to avoid any biased disciplinary action against any player. If no rule has been violated, but clearly an offense has been committed then on the quarterly or monthly voting the community or committee can vote to punish you with one or two warnings. If a very serious violation has accured, then the community or committee can decide to vote for a direct Ladle suspension, but the decision to suspend must hold a 3:4 ratio.

  • Three warnings and you get one Ladle suspension.
  • Two Ladle suspensions and you are suspended for 12 months from all Ladles. This starts exactly on the date of your last warning given and finishes exactly 12 months later.
  • After six months, one warning resets. If you commit an offense during your six months probation, another warning is given and the duration is increased to 12 months in order to allow offending participants to not be able to reset their warnings.
  • If you receive one warning; you are not allowed to add a team to the Challenge Board till your warnings reset and you may not be entitled to vote in any community voting. You may only join a team.