Hello Survivors! Since the first announcement of Survivor League, we have had constant feedback from the Community and we’ve been working together to figure out what would be the best way to run a competitive league for our players. During PAX we had the opportunity to meet up with many players, and discuss where we really wanted to go with Survivor League. After many conversations with the community, a lot of the players who placed/ranked in the survivor league, people who stream SotF and other players and influencers in other competitive scenes gave us a ton of great feedback about the Survivor League, prizing, and tournaments/gameplay. This, combined with some metrics that were collected on the League, led us to make some pretty exciting changes to the upcoming way we will handle Survivor League, and these changes are made effective immediately in order to create a better League and competitive environment for our community and the game.

Survival of the Fittest

6 Player Mode

• This “Official” game mode has been removed.

Going through our metrics and speaking to many players it was evident that this game mode, in it’s current state and the current state of SotF, showed that it was not the most optimal way to host tournaments or host a practical official competitive scene. This could of course change in the future, but for now we would like to steer away from 6 versus 6 and focus on our more popular team-game modes, 2 Player Tribes and 4 Player Tribes. 4 Player Mode

• This is now the primary tournament mode.

This means that we will be using this mode to decide the players who are invited to take place in the Offline Summer Cup Championship Tournament matches based in Shanghai during ChinaJoy, where they will meet up with and compete against 4 top Chinese Tribes. As this is now the Tournament mode, it will enforce Tournament Graphic Settings. Namely this will be minimum Medium Quality with ground clutter turned on for fair and competitive gameplay. Adjusted Match Times To make the 2v2 and 4v4 modes easier to play for people with less free time, we have adjusted the standard match times for these modes to 45 minutes (down from 60) for 2v2, and 60 minutes (down from 90) for 4v4. We’ve also added the Giganotosaurus, because Big Dinos :)

Survivor League

Finishing in the Top 10 no longer guarantees a prize. Where you place on the Survivor League does not determine how high cash-prize you could possibly win, but instead only determines whether you qualify for the shout-casted end-of-month Survivor League Tournament match (which will itself yield the prizes). To qualify for the Survivor League Tournament you must place within the cut-off by the last day of the month:

• FFA: Top 40 Players
• 2 Player Tribes: Top 60 Players
• 4 Player Tribes: Top 80 Players

The Tournament Match This Tournament Match for each of the 3 Game Modes will take place on the first Saturday following the end of the month of the Survivor League qualification process. This means that the first tournament will then take place on: June the 4th. There will be 3 tournaments that take place that day at 12pm Eastern, all to be streamed and shout-casted on www.twitch.tv/survivetheark with a 15 minute delay. Qualification for the Tournament does not guarantee a cash-prize. To be eligible for a prize you must place in the Tournament Match:

• In the top 10 for FFA Mode
• The top 5 Tribes in 2 Player Mode
• The top 3 Tribes in 4 Player Mode

The winners will be entitled the ‘Survivor League’ for that month, and the qualification process for the next tournament would have already been underway, as that will always begin on the 1st of every month. Survivor League Cash-Prizes Due to the immediate removal of 6 Player Mode, the cash-prizes for Survivor League must change. The new values are listed as: FFA

• 1st Place: $4000
• 2nd Place: $3000
• 3rd Place: $2000
• 4th Place: $1800
• 5th Place: $1600
• 6th Place: $1400
• 7th Place: $1200
• 8th Place: $1000
• 9th Place: $900
• 10th Place: $800

2 Player Tribes

• 1st Place Tribe: $3500 per member
• 2nd Place Tribe: $2500 per member
• 3rd Place Tribe: $1800 per member
• 4th Place Tribe: $1650 per member
• 5th Place Tribe: $1500 per member

4 Player Tribes

• 1st Place Tribe: $3500 per member
• 2nd Place Tribe: $1800 per member
• 3rd Place Tribe: $1200 per member

If a tribe does not have the maximum number of players, they will not receive the extra prize-pool. It is recommended that for these Tournaments, you are in a full-sized tribe to ensure that you have the opportunity to win the largest amount of prize available. A three-player tribe will not receive an extra $3500 for placing first. New Zero Tolerance on Teaming Players found guilty of illegal teaming with the intent to manipulate the competitive system will be absolutely permanently banned from Survival of the Fittest. This includes but is not limited to: Survival of the Fittest the game, Survivor League’s Qualification Process, Survivor League Tournament and all future Wildcard Sponsored Tournaments. We do not tolerate teaming, however we understand that there are certain elements of the game where teaming may occur naturally, or in some cases have no effect due to the skill-level of the game. We will evaluate teaming reports on a case-by-case basis and collect video evidence to prosecute offenders. We will have an in-game report system, as well as in-game monitoring conducted by the Wildcard GM Team. The slate was wiped clean at the end of the first Survivor League, we will not be so lenient going forward. Don’t team, it’s not worth the disqualification! Sportsmanship We understand that in the heat of the competition, emotions can get the best of us. We would like to remind all players to ensure that they have respect for each other during the games, you do not have to enjoy the company of the people you’re playing against, however there is no need to hurl verbal insults or harass members of the community, one which you’re a part of. We would like to make it clear that in future circumstances, players found showing a poor sense of sportsmanship may risk being banned from Survival of the Fittest. This includes but is not limited to: Survival of the Fittest the game, Survivor League’s Qualification Process, Survivor League Tournament and all future Wildcard Sponsored Tournaments.

Summers Cup Championship

Due to the removal of the 6 versus 6 mode, there will be some necessary changes that will be made to the Summers Cup to take place at ChinaJoy in Shanghai.

• 6 Player Tribes have been removed
• 4 Player Tribes have now become the Official Tournament Mode
• Tournament Graphics will be enforced
• The 40 top scoring Summer Cup registered players from May and June each month will be invited to a Finals Match on July 1st. (80 Players in Total). We also may at our discretion invite additional contestants to complete 4-player Tribes, depending on their Score placement.
• The Top 8 Tribes (approximately 32 players in all) will be invited to ChinaJoy in Shanghai for the Offline Summer Cup Championship matches, where they’ll meet up to compete with 4 top Chinese Tribes.

We’d also like to address some points that we’ve seen from the Community in regards to the Summer Cup:

• You cannot compete in this Tournament if you are under the age of 18
• The top 40 unique registered players in the Tournament League for each month will be invited to the Finals Match, so if a Survivor has placed in the Top 40 twice, it will skip them and then grab the next-best player. Similarly, if a player has placed in the top 40 but not registered for the Summer Cup, he or she will be skipped.
• Your Team Leader must ensure that when registering your team, you use the same Team Name and Survivor Name in the game, as well register all members of your team.
• You are permitted to have mixed-member teams from different regions, but all of your team members must, for the time being, hail from North America or European countries. Next Cups will include more regions.
• Teams in China will have their own qualification process and they will already be there ready to play for when you arrive for the finals.
• Graphical settings will be enforced for the qualification period and for the tournament.
• Going forward on our website, we will be displaying the concurrent Top 100 Players’ Scores in each mode, so you can see where you place and how close you are to qualifying for the Summer Cup Finals, and also for each Month’s Survivor League Tournament Match.

These changes are made effective immediately in order to create a better League and competitive environment for our community and the game. We’re going to release the patch so that you guys can start playing and get a feel for how everything is running. Thank you again for your ongoing support and we looking forward to hearing your feedback and making the necessary adjustments to improving the game. All the best, Wildcard Jat and the ARK: Survival of the Fittest Team

[ 2016-04-28 05:17:16 CET ] [ Original post ]