Wolves' Den PvP Tournament - The Great Aether Cup

[Blubbers]

You've conquered Bahamut, saved the realm, and fished every single big fish there is. There is one frontier left to conquer, the Wolves' Den! The Aether PvP community would like to formally invite you to the Great Aether Cup, the first and final pre-Heavensward Wolves' Den tournament. What's better than getting your friends together and beating the crap out of other people in a 4v4 arena? Whether you are a seasoned Wolves' Den veteran or a Frontlines champion who's looking to try out the Den, this event is for you!

​

Event: The Great Aether Cup

Data Center: Aether

Tournament Date: Sunday, June 14, 2015, at 1:00 p.m. (EST)

Entry Period: Monday, May 18, 2015 at 9:00 p.m. (EST) through Saturday, June 13, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. (EST)

Duty: The Wolves' Den (IL80, Light Party)

Youtube Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThftNXcfbg0

​
​

• When participating in this event, please be sure to queue for the correct duty and meet the necessary party requirements (1 tank, 1 healer, 1 melee DPS, & 1 ranged DPS). On the duty list, Wolves' Den IL80 will have a yellow square icon to the right of the duty, indicating that it is under the effect of level sync, as shown above.
• Wolves' Den IL80 can be unlocked by speaking to Berkoeya Loetahlsyn in Wolves' Den Pier (X:6 Y:5). In order find him, starting from the Aetheryte, board the Braveheart (the ship) and make an immediate right turn. He should be at the entry counter between two "entrances", as shown below.

​


Prize


​
A total of 6 Sleipnir mount gift codes from Mog Station will be awarded to the first place team. Each member of the winning team will receive an individual code within 24 hours after the closing of the tournament; however, teams with less than 6 members will have the extra code(s) sent to the lead representative.

• e.g. The winning team consists of 5 members. Since the prize is a total of 6 gift codes, each of those 5 members will receive an individual code, but the lead representative will receive an extra code, which can be freely distributed to any other player.

Tournament Rules

• All items, equipment, and abilities are allowed.
• A team may only rotate members and jobs after losing a match.
  • e.g. Teams A and B both select their members and jobs before the match set begins. Team A wins the first match and must keep the same group composition, whereas Team B loses and, thus, may rotate team members and jobs for the second match.
• Individual connection failures will be disregarded and will not be compromised with rematches. Rematches will only be held if the connection failure is due to official FFXIV servers, whereby a formal Square-Enix announcement is made.

Tournament Format

The tournament will begin with a round robin between all participating teams (Round Robin 1), where each match point is earned from a best of 5 series (3 wins per match point). The top 4 teams from round robin will advance to the Top 4 Single Elimination Bracket, where each match point is earned from a best of 9 series (5 wins per match point), and the initial matchups for the bracket will be determined by round robin placements: 1st seed vs 4th seed & 2nd seed vs 3rd seed. The two winning teams from the first round will advance to the finals and play each other for the championship while the two losing teams will fall to a lower bracket and play each other for 3rd place. Please see the example below for how the tournament may progress (note: green boxes indicate wins, red losses, and brown withdrawals).

• Depending on the turnout, the number of wins to earn each match point may change due to potential time constraints.
• Tie Breakers and Withdrawals:
  • Ties from Round Robin 1 will be resolved through an independent Round Robin 2 (2 wins per match point). If ties, however, cannot be resolved from Round Robin 2, then a Round Robin 3 (1 win per match point) will take place between the tied teams
    • e.g. Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms, and Rice Krispies are tied for 3rd place in the standings from Round Robin 1. They continue to Round Robin 2, where they compete for 3rd place, but the tie still persists with each team earning a score of 1 – 1. As such, they further advance to Round Robin 3, where the tie is finally resolved with Frosted Flakes taking 1st place (2 – 0), Rice Krispies 2nd (1 – 1), and Lucky Charms 3rd (0 – 2). Translating these results to the overall standings, Frosted Flakes takes 3rd place, Rice Krispies 4th, and Lucky Charms 5th.
  • If two or more teams are still tied for placement after Round Robin 3, the tie will be resolved through the win rates from Round Robin 1. Teams with higher win rates will receive higher placements.
  • Teams that withdraw midway during Round Robins 1 to 3 will have their scores completely omitted from that bracket. Withdrawals during the Top 4 Single Elimination, however, will be considered as losses.
    • e.g. Mini-Wheats and Special K withdraw midway during Round Robin 1, and thus, their scores are void for Round Robin 1.
  • If two or more withdrawn teams are tied for placement, the tie will be resolved through the win rates from Round Robin 1. Teams with higher win rates will receive higher placements.
    • e.g. Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cocoa Puffs withdraw shortly after Round Robin 1, where they are scheduled to play each other and Cap'n Crunch for 8th place in Round Robin 2. Since Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cocoa Puffs have withdrawn from the tournament, Cap'n Crunch wins 8th place by default. 9th and 10th places are, then, determined by Round Robin 1 win rates due to the withdrawals. According to Round Robin 1 results, Cocoa Puffs has a higher win rate than Cinnamon Toast Crunch (48.86% vs 45.00%); thus, Cocoa Puffs takes 9th place while Cinnamon Toast Crunch takes 10th.

​

How to Enter

• To register your team, please complete the form below and post it in a reply to this thread. Your entry will include your team name, representing server, current server, and character name of each team member in alphabetical order by first name (please indicate the lead representative at the top). The list of registered teams on the OP will be promptly updated with your team's application.
  • Players transferring servers or data centers for this event is a possibility; hence, a team's representing server and current server may differ.
• Send a reddit PM to "Blubbers_" that includes the following: (1) each team member's Lodestone profile link for verification and (2) the FFXIV and Skype usernames of your team's representative(s). Provided Skype usernames will be added to the Great Aether Cup group chat, which will be the main method of communication for this event. Having more than one team representative in the group chat is highly recommended. Applications without valid Lodestone profiles or Skype username(s) will be not be considered. DO NOT post personal contact information directly on this thread!

Team:
Representing Server:
Current Server(s):
Server:
Members:
• (Lead Representative)
•
•
•

Rules for Entry

• Skype and reddit usernames are required for this event. Refer to step 2 of "How to Enter" for more details.
• Each team may register up to a maximum of 6 members. Having more than 4 members is recommended in case of individual withdrawals midway through the event.
• Teams can consist of members from a maximum of 2 servers.
  • e.g. A team can recruit members from both Balmung (Aether) and Sargatanas (Aether) but not from a third server.
• All participants must have a PvP rank of 43+ to ensure the safety of instant queues and proper matchmaking.
• Teams may freely change their rosters by making a request on this thread or through reddit PMing ("Blubbers_") within the registration period. NO further roster changes can be made after Saturday, June 13, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. (EST).

Day of the Event

• Depending on the number of participants, the tournament may last upwards of 5 hours. Please have a generous block of time available. During the course of this event, having readily accessible foods and beverages, such as instant ramen, Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup, Red Bull, and Monster, is highly recommended.
• On the day of the event, at least one representative from each team must be logged on to the Great Aether Cup group chat on Skype at 12:00 p.m. (EST). All participating teams must be ready by 12:30 p.m. (EST). Teams that are not ready by that time will not be considered.
• When all participating teams are ready, Round Robin 1 matchups will be assigned and corresponding queuing instructions will be issued via Skype. IMPORTANT: Please carefully follow the queuing instructions in order to ensure smooth proceeding of the event.
• Screenshots of match results must be provided when reporting wins and losses. Using image hosting sites, such as Imgur, is encouraged for image sharing. Please assign equal responsibility to each team member to take screenshots of match results after every game.
• Scores and standings will be updated on this thread live after each full round.

Thanks for reading this GINORMOUS post! To wrap things up, I'd like to give a huge shoutout to the PvP community. I only started doing Wolves Den about 2 months ago, and it's been an awesome experience. I'm looking forward to having some great matches in the tournament with both veterans and novices alike! If you're on the fence about joining, we're hoping to have entrants of all skill levels and always looking for new people. Everyone has to start somewhere! Hope to see you all in the Den


Registered Teams

Team: No damage, CC only, Final Destination
Representing Server(s): Faerie (Aether)
Current Server(s): Faerie (Aether)
Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/robes52
Members:

• Blubbers Ubbers (Lead Representative)
• Brae Afference
• Raven Madd
• Robes "The Lala" Maet'der
• Tubbers Ubbers

Entry: May 18, 2015



Team: GAIA (FROM JAPAN!!!!!)
Representing Server(s): Valefor, Ifrit (Gaia)
Current Server(s): Balmung (Aether)
Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/elyne_evarle or http://www.twitch.tv/kirispring
Members:

• Elyne Evarle (Valefor / Lead Representative)
• Garu Dn (Valefor)
• Kiri Springwater (Ifrit)
• Mini Yun (Valefor)
• Siro Randolph (Ifrit)

Entry: June 12, 2015



Team: Rum Raisin Fan Club
Representing Server(s): Ultros (Primal)
Current Server(s): Faerie (Aether)
Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/tiffyxy
Members:

• Tea Pan (Lead Representative)
• Ayerro Valyra
• C'eve Arthu
• Kazuhito Harato
• Lisa Summers
• Mona Carmona

Entry: June 12, 2015



Team: Sultana Syndicate
Representing Server(s): Gilgamesh (Aether)
Current Server(s): Gilgamesh (Aether)
Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/PBnJammy
Members:

• Health Pack (Lead Representative #1)
• Ivy Knoll (Lead Representative #2)
• Hiro Yui
• Jammy To
• Jin Kisaragi
• Mezzu White

Entry: June 12, 2015



Team: PreludeXIV
Representing Server(s): Balmung (Aether)
Current Server(s): Balmung (Aether)
Members:

• Frederic Chopin (Lead Representative)
• Ace Reborn
• System Failure
• Zok Kairgon

Entry: June 13, 2015



Team: Midgard team 1
Representing Server(s): Midgardsormr (Aether)
Current Server(s): Midgardsormr (Aether)
Members:

• Dino Bravo (Lead Representative)
• Blitz Leistung
• Element Xi
• One Tonne

Entry: June 13, 2015



Results






I just wanted to thank everyone for making this possible, especially the new groups that showed up for the first time and the group from Gaia that transferred over and stayed up all night to play with us! This would not have been possible without you all!

I'm looking forward to seeing you all in Heavensward!

[kpxmanifesto]

Dis gon be good.

[Clessx]

Of course frosted flakes had to be first place.

Nice job on this, hope to see many teams in the tourney.

[Ayerro]

Excited for this. >;D

[zeopower6]

Will this cup be televised? ;o

[Ayerro]

Will this cup be televised? ;o

It will be on my end. ^___^b Think a few others would be willing to stream as well.

[kpxmanifesto]

Will this cup be televised? ;o

ESPN and NBC.

[Logos]

• Participants may freely rotate team members and jobs between matches.

• Each team may register up to a maximum of 8 members. Having more than 4 members is recommended in case of individual withdrawals midway through the event.

• Depending on the number of participants, the tournament may last upwards of 5 hours. Please have a generous block of time available. During the course of this event, having readily accessible foods and beverages, such as instant ramen, Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup, Red Bull, and Monster, is highly recommended.

• On the day of the event, at least one representative from each team must be logged on to the Great Aether Cup group chat on Skype at 12:00 p.m. (EST). All participating teams must be ready by 12:30 p.m. (EST). Teams that are not ready by that time will not be considered.

A PvP tournament -- Awesome! This is a great idea, but I have to point something out...

The only thing I'm not cool with, same with other active Den PvPers I've talked to, is the 8 player team & swap players between matches rules that I quoted in the previous post. I only know of one team, the guy's team who wrote up the draft for this tournament, who will benefit from those rules. Other servers/teams will struggle to find 4 players who have a chance at winning, let alone more than 4 players. What this rule ultimately does is allow the one team (or very few teams) that can take advantage of it to have the ultimate counter-composition ability. In effect, that team will have no weaknesses, because they will have someone who mains whatever job they need to counter the composition of the other 4 player teams.

It sounds like a good idea to have these rules at first glance, "in case of individual withdrawals", but that good intention is contradicted by the rest of what I quoted, which is pretty cut throat (rightfully so) about teams being available and ready.

If people are going to not show up nor have the time, they should not sign up for the tournament -- if they are going to withdraw midway, disqualify. Pretty simple. The rules I am pointing out seem to be an attempt to stack the tournament in a certain team's favor, and I think they should be changed to this to level the playing field for every team that wants to play in the tournament:

• Participants may freely rotate jobs between matches.

• Each team may register up to a maximum of 4 members. The same 4 players will be used for every match.

Let me know what you all think about this. If other people agree with me, we should at least have a legitimate vote as to whether the rules should be changed or not. I just want to make sure that the tournament rules do not favor any team, because that is the way it should be if we are going to see who is the best team. True or false?

[Houston009]

RIP Balmung (No Healers)

[zeopower6]

You can go back to the original post and edit it to whatever length you want once it is posted. The character limit here really stinks though.

I'm guessing the rule is there ~just in case~ because things CAN happen and probably will. I assume a lot of the heavy Den players on Primal will head over for the tournament and possibly be in a team of 4-8. (joining with those that transferred over already a while ago) What happens if someone from a team of 4 has to back out and they have no substitute?

Just curious, but are there enough teams for this sort of thing to happen? (and not be a complete wipeout of anyone else that participates aside from like two teams)