SMC 2022 Rule Intro
This page has an abbreviated version of the SMC 2022 rules. The comprehensive rules are here.
In the event of any difference between the abbreviated rules and the comprehensive rules, the comprehensive rules govern.
Summary
SpyParty Masters Championship 2022 will take place shortly after Summer Cup 2022 finishes. Over the course of the SMC season, players earn Master Rank Points for placing in SpyParty tournaments, and those points help them qualify for entry into SMC. SMC 2022 has a $2000 prize pool, with a $1000 top prize.
SMC 2022 has fourteen players, in two divisions. The Challengers Division has the bottom eight qualifiers fight for a chance to play in the Champions Division. Those two players join the six players seeded into the Champions division to play for the SMC Championship.
Qualification
The qualification list is the following:
- The Previous SMC Champion (for SMC 2022, Lazybear is grandfathered for this slot)
- The Previous SMC Runner-Up (for SMC 2022, WarningTrack is grandfathered for this slot)
- Winners of "Premier" events during the year (Premier Events are large tournaments with standard formats; for SMC 2022, it is anticipated that the Winter Cup and the Summer Cup will be Premier events)
- The players with the greatest number of Master Rank Points, to get to 12 qualified players
- The player with the highest SPRanked rating
- A Wildcard entry, determined completely at the discretion of Corvusmellori, the organizer of SMC 2022
The qualification rules have fallbacks for cases where players may have already qualified in a previous step or don't wish to play in SMC; see the comprehensive rules for details.
Format
The eight players in the Challengers division are seeded into two separate four-player single-elimination brackets. The winners of the two brackets promote to Champions. The eight players in Champions are seeded into two separate four-player round-robin pools. The top two from each pool proceed to a final four-player single-elimination bracket (plus Bronze match) which crowns the SpyParty Masters Champion.
The top four finishers receive prizes: $1000, $400, $200, $100. There is also a $100 appearance incentive for the previous Champion and Runner-Up. Finally, SMC 2022 includes a side scramble event that happens at the SMC launch with a $100 prize for the winner.
Player Expectations
Players may not enter the tournament as an alt or smurf. If the player qualified from play as an alt or smurf, they may not enter SMC, even with their main account, unless the qualifying play was in a format that allowed that play (for example, Hidden Cup). If players change their name, and have any competitive SpyParty results prior to the name change, the connection to their previous results must be clear to the community and their opponents.
Players are expected to uphold the highest levels of competitive integrity. Any players who wish to stream their SMC match are highly encouraged to do so, but must include a 6 minute stream delay and must not interact with chat while they do. Players must play the match formats as set in the rules or directed by the TO, and match results may not be prearranged or settled in any way other than the format set in the rules. For the avoidance of doubt, this includes matches where one or both players have no “stakes” (for example, when one player in the Champions round-robin has already ‘locked’ their result). Players may be dropped from SMC if their conduct is disrespectful, obscene, or otherwise disruptive.
Players are asked to schedule their matches with some buffer time to account for technical issues, etc. In the event that technical issues result in a match being unplayable, the TO will ask the players to make every reasonable effort to reschedule. If the match still cannot be played, the TO will adjudicate a result.