Detailed rules

For details on each game: Information/Games

Point system and leaderboards:

The basic rule is, one challenge per game, one game per challenge, so there are ten challenges since we are in a decathlon. The challenges here are speedruns (finish the game, or at least the objective set, as fast as possible).

For each speedrun, we set a maximum time in which the run must be completed in the tournament (see below for details by game). For the championship: when you submit your personal records (PB), there is no maximum time. Depending on how long it takes you to complete your run, you will be awarded a certain number of points. If you play slowly, it will tend towards 0, if you play moderately fast, it will tend towards 100, and if you play fast, towards 200. In other words, the faster you go, the more points you earn, and you can earn up to a maximum of 200 points per event, or even a little more in very rare cases, if your record is particularly exceptional. However, the score is capped at 205 for this season.

Your place in the ranking of a particular game depends on your score on that game, your place in the championship depends on your overall score, which is the total of the points made on each game (10 in this case, no joker system like in season 9). It will be the same for the tournaments, unless specified otherwise.

LIGHT and DARK :

With names inspired by Super Meat Boy and Zelda: A link to the past, LIGHT and DARK are two championships that will run in parallel during this season. By registering to the event, you automatically earn the right to submit times in each of these championships as well as to participate in tournaments and team events. The DARK corresponds to the classic championship as you may have seen them in previous seasons: 200 points per game, and the events generally correspond to completing the game in question. The LIGHT also covers all games but has shorter events (usually half the length of the DARK event). The season finals and main tournaments will be played according to these rules.

Our scoring formulas (algorithms) are designed to make it easier to score in LIGHT than in DARK from 0 to 150 pts, and vice versa from 150 pts onwards. So it will be possible to score more than 150 pts in LIGHT but it will start to be difficult (and vice versa, you will be able to score less than 150pts in DARK). Be aware that while DARK's world record is often 205 or much higher, the LIGHT one is about 175 pts.

In a DARK tournament (default tournament), it is possible to submit a LIGHT time as well as a DARK time (only the time giving the best score will be taken into account). In a LIGHT tournament (early season tournaments,Last Chance LIGHT and Grand Final LIGHT), it will only be possible to post a LIGHT time.

LIGHT Championship: only the best LIGHT score of the participants on each game will be taken into account.

DARK Championship: only the best DARK score of the participants on each game will be taken into account.

Decathlon Championship: only the best LIGHT or DARK score of the participants on each game is taken into account. Basically, this should take the DARK score on each game for which the player has submitted one and take the LIGHT score when there is no DARK score for a particular game or the LIGHT score is higher than the DARK score for that game.

Access to the LIGHT mode:

No requirements: just register for the current season.

Access to the DARK mode:

No requirements: just register for the current season.

The Championship:

You can submit your personal records to gain places in the ranking of each game and in the general ranking. You can view the records of each participant and the videos of their different records.

On cards as well as on the leaderboards, players on the games' podiums will be awarded special icons.

Scores appear on a gradient of the game's color, getting darker as the number of points increases.

DARK : Tier C (150+), Tier B (175+), Tier A (190+) and Tier S (200+) are the key values (with 200 the background gets black).

LIGHT : Tier C (125+), Tier B (150+), Tier A (160+) et Tier S (170+) are the key values (with 170 the background gets black).

One can participate for various reasons (to have fun, to improve oneself, to share moments...) and it is, with the tournaments, one of the competitive axes of the event. The ranking is an objective in itself and is also a way to qualify for different final tournaments.

Tournaments:

Tournaments are held every Saturday at 2pm and will be available to watch directly on the UD channel: twitch.tv/ultimedecathlon. They contain between 1 and 10 separate races and generally follow this format: ranking on the X best performances on a selection of Y games.

Beyond the personal glory and the opportunity to practice, tournaments offer visual rewards that will appear on your personal record: gold, silver and bronze stars will be distributed. The tournaments are commented live, and the players' performances are shown.

One can participate for various reasons (to have fun, to improve oneself, to share moments...) and it is, with the tournaments, one of the competitive axes of the event. The tournaments are an objective in themselves as well as a means to qualify for the Grand Final, for example, and are the only way to reach the Ultimate Final (see details below).

The maximum times in tournaments are approximately equivalent to the 150 pts DARK time of the respective games. If the event is a LIGHT event, it is the 100pts LIGHT time.

The tournaments are open to everyone without any prerequisite skill level, except for the final tournaments.

General season schedule: (game order is tentative)

29/10 Pre-show and season's launch

5/11 Live WR commentary on all 10 games

12/11 First tournament - 4/5 LIGHT: Celeste, Cranked Up, Spacegulls, Salt and Sanctuary, Tinykin

19/11 Tournament 2 - 4/5 LIGHT: Aladdin, Disc Room, Crash Team Racing, Lonely Mountains: Downhill, Neon White

26/11 Team tournament LIGHT: all 10 games

3/12 Tournament 3 - 4/5 LIGHT / DARK*: Aladdin*, Disc Room, Salt and Sanctuary, Lonely Mountains: Downhill, Tinykin*

10/12 Tournament 4 - 4/5 LIGHT / DARK*: Celeste, Cranked Up*, Spacegulls*, Crash Team Racing, Neon White

17/12 Team tournament LIGHT / DARK: all 10 games

24/12 Holidays

31/12 Holidays

7/1 Tournament 5 - 4/5 DARK: Celeste, Cranked Up, Spacegulls, Salt and Sanctuary, Tinykin

14/1 Tournament 6 - 4/5 DARK: Aladdin, Discroom, Crash Team Racing, Lonely Mountains: Downhill, Neon White

21/1 Team tournament DARK: all 10 games

28/1 Beginning of the Final phases, see Final Tournaments.

Participation in a tournament:

You must be registered for the current season, then join the relevant tournament in advance (on the website or via discord using the !register command): account / join a tournament / select the given tournament.

LIGHT and DARK tournaments are open to everyone, except for the final tournaments (see details below).

Participation in a race:

Speedrun races are all organized on discord. They can be friendly: freely organized by players, or official: in conjunction with an ongoing tournament.

Races take place in dedicated rooms with the *!start* command, players indicate that they are ready with the !ready command and the race starts with the !go command. A player will then indicate that they are done with the !done <temps> command, specifying their time if they wish. Once all players have finished, the show closes, and a ranking summary is published.

Submission of a personal best (PB):

Must have previously joined the season. It is desirable to have a video of your performance. On the website, under " Account">"Submit a PB" (or the "submit" button at the top right of the championship), select the game, the LIGHT or DARK mode, and state your time.

Submit a LIGHT PB: the time must have been done during the season 10.

Submit a DARK PB: the time must have been done during the season 10.

Final Tournaments:

All final tournaments are played on the 10 games in DARK except in LIGHT tournaments. We remind you that it is still possible to submit LIGHT times in DARK tournaments. Abbreviations: TDC (Last Chance Tournament) ; GF (Grand Final) ; UF (Ultimate Final) ; TDC1 (Last Chance Tournament Day 1) ; unless specified, the tournaments are DARK.

LIGHT qualification chart:

January 27th at 7pm: the LIGHT ranking is frozen. The top 4 qualify for the GF LIGHT.

January 28th at 2pm: TDC LIGHT. A minimum of a Bronze THUNDERBOLT is required to participate. The top 4 qualify for the GF LIGHT.

February 10th at 7pm: the LIGHT ranking is frozen. We then undertake a second chance. If people who are not otherwise qualified are in the top 4 of the LIGHT championship, they are qualified for the GF LIGHT.

February 11th at 2pm: GF LIGHT. The top 4 qualify for the UF LIGHT.

March 4 at 1pm: UF LIGHT.

DARK qualification chart:

February 3rd at 7pm: the DARK ranking is frozen. The top 12 qualify as follows: the first 8 qualify for the GF1 & GF2 weekend (it will be determined later who goes where). The next 4 are qualified for the TDC2.

February 4 at 1pm: TDC1. You need a Dark+ DUMBBELL or a Silver+ THUNDERBOLT to participate. The top 4 qualify for TDC2.

February 5 at 1pm: TDC2. The top 4 qualify for the GF1.

February 17 at 7pm: the DARK ranking is frozen. We will then conduct a second chance. If people who didn't qualify for the GF weekend end up in the top 8 of the DARK championship, their name will be added to the list of those already qualified. On this list of names, the top 4 DARK championship is qualified directly to the GF2, the rest to the GF1.

February 18 at 1pm: GF1. The top 4 qualify for the GF2.

February 19 at 1pm: GF2. The top 4 qualify for UF.

March 5 at 11am: UF.

Special rules:

Players can only participate in one day of UF. If players were to qualify for both UF LIGHT and UF DARK, the latter would have priority, and we would then take as many people as necessary according to the order of the GF LIGHT ranking to have 4 people at UF LIGHT, the goal being to have 8 different people between the two days.

Awards and Cards:

A personal card is linked to each profile and is updated according to your best performances on the season's games, show your strengths and weaknesses, and will be shown on Saturday tournaments. This is a picture that you will keep once the season is over. The stronger you are, the higher the bars will fill up! The gray bar fills up between 0 and 150, beyond that the game' color appears, whether the score was made in LIGHT or DARK. If you manage to fill up the bars, some special arrows may appear...

STARS are awarded during tournaments.

Gold, silver, bronze: respectively 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the tournaments.

Dark: 4 out of 5 games (or 8 out of 10 games if applicable) at 175+.

Light: 4 out of 5 games (or 8 out of 10 games if applicable) at 150+.

THUNDERBOLTS are linked to the LIGHT championship:

Light: at least 8 games at 125+.

Bronze: at least 8 games at 150+.

Silver: at least 8 games at 160+.

Gold: at least 8 games at 170+.

DUMBBELLS are linked to the DARK championship:

Dark: at least 8 games at 150+.

Bronze: at least 8 games at 175+.

Silver: at least 8 games at 190+.

Gold: at least 8 games at 200+.

SHOES are distributed during the Saturday team tournaments:

Gold, silver and bronze for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd teams respectively.

DARK STAMPS are awarded based on your progress towards the Ultimate Final. Work in progress:

Color 1: qualify for TDC1

Color 2: qualify for TDC2

Color 3: qualify for GF1

Color 4: qualify for GF2

Color 5: qualify for UF

LIGHT STAMPS are awarded according to your progress towards the Ultimate Final LIGHT. Work in Progress:

Bronze: qualify for TDC LIGHT

Silver: qualify for the GF LIGHT

Gold: qualify for the UF LIGHT

Championship and Team Tournaments

Team championship

Mini-leagues are organized every week (similar to the UD9 team league but without the jokers / bans). Register in a team (up to 5 people) and participate in races during the week, on the UD discord. The scoring system is simplified and follows the LIGHT and DARK tiers. The score of a team is the total number of boxes filled by its members. Each week on Saturday night, we start at 0. Submit your times and feel free to improve them during the week. No reward, no qualification, the emphasis is on learning and the pleasure of racing. Every week the scores of the cells can be re-evaluated and will be communicated to you. The mini-championships will be LIGHT at first, then mixed (some LIGHT games and some DARK games (probably first the short games, but we will follow the general interest and progress of the community), then DARK. Reminder: you can always submit a LIGHT score even in a DARK tournament.

Team tournaments

They give access to rewards (see SHOES), are open to everyone whatever the skill level and will take place on Saturday, instead of an individual tournament.

November 26, 2021: LIGHT team tournament; before this date, the team championships are LIGHT, after this date they are MIXED (LIGHT + DARK)

December 17, 2021: LIGHT / DARK team tournament. After this date, the team championships are DARK.

January 21, 2022: DARK team tournament

Friday recap:

Not planned at this time.

About emulators:

For roms, it is mandatory to use those explicitly allowed in the detailed rules per game, for emulators, it is at your discretion. However, we strongly advise you to use the ones provided in our seasonal pack. On a case by case basis, if some emulators are deemed unfair, they will be banned.

It is forbidden to use a turbo controller and/or to make macros. The binding of the keys must follow the simple rule: one key per action, one action per key. Example: the A button on the NES controller must correspond to a single key on your controller, and this key on your controller must not be associated with any other key on the NES controller.

Clarifications:

There is no miracle recipe to progress, except playing, but different strategies are possible depending on how much time you have, which method you have a natural affinity with, the type of game, etc. Don't hesitate to ask for or give methodological advice, practice collectively, relax by talking with others. Don't hesitate to take it easy when you feel more vulnerable, tired. On the medium/long term in an event like this, you have to take it easy!

Useful links:

• Download season's 10 pack: Info/Download/Pack UD10
• You will find emulators, roms, game icons, livesplit files (tool we use to time runs).
• Mumble, Discord..., tutorials : Information/Tools & Tutorials

Statement of intent towards the participants:

Speedrunning is a discipline that is both demanding and fun. On one hand, the idea is to beat the game, to surpass oneself and possibly aim for the world record or to beat friends in a race. However, it must always remain a friendly experience. We can practice in a competitive way, but it is important to have fun and always respect others. The rules we set are a framework, giving purpose and goals to make the most of the event, but you should always feel free to set your own seasonal goals. You can play all the games listed, or just one!

UD is an event often described as a friendly competition, but it is also a community, i.e. a human group that shares a practice and a culture, which leaves room for individual and collective initiatives: organizing races, making a tutorial, proposing exceptional events (team tournaments, increased difficulty...). For reasons of cost and accessibility, all the games are played on PC and some of them on emulator. The general idea, beyond introducing you to a discipline or allowing you to acquire skills in it, is also to watch other players, in the context of tournaments or their training, and not to hesitate to stream your own training sessions. Play, watch and be watched playing.

This season, like the previous one, we want to support the process of learning runs through the LIGHT and DARK system. Learning in sequential order with the idea that it can be more interesting to be more demanding with yourself on a shorter run than to be less demanding on a longer run (with the same time investment). Once the basics are in place, further learning should be easier. It is interesting to consider doing the best you can, even if it means adapting your strategies during the race to be more cautious, for example, than to start cautiously to make a good time, and then learn new and more demanding strategies (it is sometimes difficult to relearn and to get back on track). We have taken into consideration that some of us sometimes have less time to devote to the discipline because of professional or family obligations or simply because a game blocks them, puts them off too much, does not run well on their computer... LIGHT should satisfy these players.

Anyway, the team welcomes you and hopes you will have fun with us!