Update 1:
The tournament now starts at 3 pm New York time!Update 2:
Check out Bill Green's amazing statistics sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qz-pwKO7TR14TaQCvzcQy89qp5MK5kuNYIXZXvTeFSE/edit?usp=sharingUpdate 3:
Introducing TT Finals 2025 Welcome to what is going to be the RT highlight of the year! During the third weekend of December, we will be crowning the TT World Champion 2025. I have given a lot of thought to the question how to successfully organize a final round of a RT competition without making it MD, and here comes my creation. I reserve the right to make any changes I deem desirable later, however, I will give as much notice as possible to all qualified players in any such case.
If you are interested in streaming the event, kindly reach out to me! It would be ideal if the same streamer could cover all three tournaments as outlined below.
Who will qualify? Any winners and runner-ups who rank within the top 16 as of after the tournament on December 9th, 2025, in the “Ranking of the winners” I post after each tournament, will be qualified. The tournament on December 16th will no longer count towards this year’s finals, as this would create a too short time frame until the finals to hear back from all qualified winners and offer reasonable room for preparation.
However, do not give up just yet: If you are top 32, you can secondarily qualify based on how many players of the top 16 decide not to participate. For example: If one player cancels, whoever is ranked 17th will qualify. If three players cancel, so will 18th and 19th. If all players cancel, 17th to 32nd will be invited. Realistically, if you are top 20, you should watch out for a mail from me.
Attention please: Kindly refrain from accepting the invitation if you already know that you will not be able to play during the allocated time of the Grand Final. If you accept the invitation, I understand that you are generally available during all three tournaments. If you sign up and later realize you cannot play, please inform me, so I can give your slot to the next player.
If any of the secondarily qualified players decide not to participate, I will invite the player ranked right behind them. How many of such rounds I make will be at my discretion. Should I not hear back from the last player I message, there might be a bye. I will make sure that this is unlikely.
There will be one player who will be qualified for the 2nd Candidates Tournament, but not the 1st. This is because the winner of the 1st will not require the 2nd (as they will already be qualified for the Grand Final) and will not be invited. Whoever that one player is will be notified by me accordingly.
Why not just declare the player ranking 1st World Champion? Some players participate much more frequently than others and therefore have a competitively unjustified advantage. A final round eliminates that distortion and creates an exciting highlight.
Schedule December 9th: Last regular Titled Tuesday tournament counting towards qualification
December 10th: I will message all qualified players (top 16)
December 10th: Announcement of the templates for all phases
December 14th: Deadline for the qualified players to confirm their participation
December 15th: I will message all secondarily qualified players, if applicable, as explained above
December 18th: Deadline for the secondarily qualified players to confirm their participation
Friday, December 19th, 3pm New York time: 1st Candidates Tournament 2025
Saturday, December 20th, 3pm New York time: 2nd Candidates Tournament 2025
Sunday, December 21st, 3pm New York time: Grand Final
Format of the Candidates Tournaments 16 players double-elimination, 3 minutes boot + 5 banked, on a template picked from the pool of all templates so far played in a Titled Tuesday at random. I reserve the right to disqualify a selection of templates that take too long to be enjoyable in RT according to my judgement (so far, I intend to disqualify Turkey LD and Poland on these grounds).
Further template restrictions: If RNG selects the same template for both Candidates Tournaments, it will be played in the 1st and I will run RNG again for the 2nd until it selects a different template. Both templates played in the Candidates are disqualified for the Grand Final, to minimize advantage by specialization (the winners of the candidates might well be template specialists).
Format of the Grand Final Best of 7 on seven different templates selected by RNG from the pool of all templates played in TT thus far, excluding the disqualified templates and those played in the Candidates. 3 minutes boot + 5 banked. Should one player reach 4 wins before game 7, all further games do not have to be played.
I will create all seven games with the corresponding numbers before 3 pm, New York time. In case I am a competitor myself, I will do so from an alt, otherwise I would face the disadvantage of missing the up to 10 minutes break before joining the game (see below). Both players will have time until 3:10 pm to accept the invitation to game 1.
If either player fails to do so and the other wants to claim the win from that game, the fact will have to be proven by a screenshot, after which the referee (further details about the referee can be found below) will delete the game (or, if it is joined after the deadline, it will count as a win to whoever was in time). Should the same player fail to join game 2 by 3:20 pm without declaring an emergency (see below), they will be disqualified.
After game 1 has ended, both players have 10 minutes to join the next game (toilet break, counting from the moment game 1 has ended). Both players have a timeout option which each can use once: If used, both players have an extended time frame of 30 minutes to join the next game, also counting from the moment the latest game has ended.
In case an emergency occurs, either player has the right to interrupt the Grand Final and demand a continuation on a different day, which will be scheduled informally between the two competitors and myself (in case I am not one of the competitors). It is at each competitor’s discretion to decide what constitutes an emergency and it is not required to share the details with anyone. If you declare an emergency and a break until further notice, this will be respected, guaranteed. There will be no such option during the candidates, as there is no practical way to allow it without repeating the whole tournament.
In case an emergency is declared during a match, both players have to vote to end. I will serve as a referee to decide whether that last game will be counted as a win for the other player or whether it will be repeated, based on the position during which the game was aborted. In case I am one of the players, I will ask the strongest player available who volunteers to be the referee, sorted by MTL record ratings. In any case, it will be announced before the beginning of the Grand Final who the referee is. The referee will have the additional task to settle potential disputes between the two competitors, based on the rules outlined in this post and common sense.
The referee is explicitly authorized to punish a player who abuses the nature of the game, such as by obvious stalling or excessive provocation in the chat. The winner should be the better player, not whoever is better at hybrid warfare. The possible punishments are completely up to the referee.
The player who wins 4 games is the TT World Champion 2025!
I will edit this post in accordance with any changes I might make. Proposing changes to me is highly appreciated, implementation is up to me. If you observe a contradiction between this post and a statement of mine elsewhere, please be so kind and inform me. If I make an important change, I will make a separate post to keep you informed.
I hope you are as excited as I am!
- CONSEQUENCER
Original post:
Addition for the sake of our friend Swiftscout: If you have a boyfriend, wife, husband, or another SO (whatever an SO is) that objects, you are also encouraged to refrain from putting your certificate up on the wall.
Edited 7/2/2025 18:52:36
