S.P.E.R.G.I.N.:  Stepcharts Produced by Enterprising Rhythm Gamers In the Northwest
Brought to you by Laura (Laura) and Ben (sfxazure)
With help from Jonathan (BlueSS)
4 June 2011/16 July 2011
Entry Fee: $5.00 if you preregister, $10.00 at the door.

Ben (sfxazure) recently moved to this area from the East Coast, and introduced me to several stepcharts from a tournament called D.O.W.N.S. (Dancing Over the Weekend to New Stepcharts) in which local players had a certain amount of time to create their own charts, which were then compiled into a tournament pack by the organizers.  Information on D.O.W.N.S. can be found here.

Ben and I have decided that we absolutely need to give a tournament like this a go on the West Coast.  I even managed to clear us a Saturday date this summer for the actual tournament - July 16th.  But, in order to make this happen, we need YOU!  


Phase One: Preregistration and Stepchart Submission
Due Date: 4 June, 2011

Preregistration will begin immediately and will run until the end of Phase One.  Attendees who preregister will pay a discounted rate ($5.00 instead of $10.00.)  Preregistration will be handled through PMs to Ben/sfxazure, who will accept payment through Amazon Payments, PayPal, or in person.  To keep things organized, please use the title “SPERGIN Preregistration” for your PM.

You will have from today until June 4th to submit up to three songs (one stepchart each) to be included in the tournament pack. Please use this submission form, and make sure to identify yourself by name/forum name somewhere in the file.   We encourage you to create and submit new stepcharts, but any are fine as long as you had a hand in their creation.  Submitted songs/stepcharts will be rejected if they do not conform to the following rules:

1. The chart must be to a song no longer than three minutes and thirty seconds (3:30) in length.  There are many reasons for this, including but not limited to the fact that we have to keep the tournament moving and the fact that 3:30 is ACME’s cutoff for a “long song.”  We don’t want people to have to pay more to practice some charts than others.

2. Songs must be appropriate for play in public venues such as ACME Bowl.  Please avoid profanity or find some way to work around it (clean versions, comedic censoring, etc.)  Any content deemed inappropriate for a public venue will be rejected.

3. Songs must be ITG Arcade Ready.  Details for preparing your songs can be found here.  If your song is over 2 minutes, DO NOT .OGG PATCH IT. Also, it is recommended that you test your file on Acme’s ITG machine before submitting it, as different machines have different syncing.

4. Stepcharts must have at least 50 hittable arrows.  We are all for exploring a wide range of difficulties, but please no “Beginner mode.”  While there may be ways to make an interesting chart with under 50 steps, it would increase the likelihood of ties and slow the tournament down.


We also reserve the right to reject a stepfile for unusual reasons, such as the file crashing StepMania.

Note:  If a song is rejected for any reason, you may submit a replacement; cleaned-up versions of rejected submissions can be submitted, as well as completely different songs/charts.  After a song has been accepted for the pack, it is finalized and can not be replaced or modified.

As soon as a stepchart is accepted into the pack, it will be made available for download at the bottom of this post.  This is because Ben and I will be entering the tournament ourselves, and we don’t want to gain an unfair advantage by viewing songs before they are released publicly.

By submitting charts to the tournament pack, you agree to enter the tournament.  While people who have not submitted stepcharts may enter, those of you who submit stepcharts must enter.  Because of this, we will not begin to evaluate stepcharts from any given entrant before they have preregistered for the tournament; consider your entry fee a form of collateral.  


Phase Two: Practice

During this period of time, the organizers will combine your charts into a pack.  If the organizers feel that there are not enough new stepcharts on which to run a tournament, we will find some quick hack to fix this issue.  This should take about a week.  After this, the pack will be released and installed on the ACME machine, so that you may practice these charts at your leisure.  This should take about a month.


Phase Three: TOURNAMENT!
16 July, 2011, start time TBA
Please note:  You will see the phrase “Because this is not intended to be a serious tournament...” many times.  This is because this is not intended to be a serious tournament, and is supposed to be for fun!   Please, then, do not get too caught up in minor details.

This will be a double elimination event with room for up to 32 entrants.  Only songs from the S.P.E.R.G.I.N. pack will be playable in this tournament.

Seeding:  Because this is not intended to be a serious tournament, seeding will be random.  If you complain about this, we will make fun of you on the internet.

Matches:  High seed gets first choice of machine side or pick order.  The other choice goes to low seed.  Each player will then pick one song of their choice to play against the other player.   Whoever gets the highest percentage (as calculated by the machine) on a given song wins that song.  (You know how this works by now.)  If both players are tied at the end of two songs, a third song will be chosen from the S.P.E.R.G.I.N. pack by way of the ITG machine’s “random” function.  If both players are still tied, another random tiebreaker will be chosen until the tie is broken.  

Song Selection:  Each player may only use a song as their “pick” once over the course of the tournament.  Because this is not intended to be a serious tournament, either player may fail any song throughout all tournament rounds with no additional penalty - once you fail, your percentage is “locked” as your score.  

Level Caps:  Because this is not intended to be a serious tournament, there will be no level caps. Any chart may be picked at any time in the tournament, regardless of difficulty (or opponent, since seeing is random.)  

Prizes:  Once preregistration ends and we have a better idea of how many entrants we will have, we will determine a prize structure based on 90% of the entry fees.  The remaining 10% of the cumulative entry fees will be donated to the Seattle Asperger Support Network.

Please note that although the “IN” in “S.P.E.R.G.I.N.” does stand for “In the Northwest,” out of state players are still more than welcome to participate and submit stepcharts.  It is our formal policy to welcome out of state players with open arms.  

Be assured that we have thought these rules through very carefully and have consulted competitors from D.O.W.N.S. to see what went right/wrong.  If you have any complaints regarding our rule-set, please refer to our FAQ infographic here.

EDIT: Files are now available for download HERE as they are submitted!

IMPORTANT EDIT 2:  Due to June 4th coinciding with the end of finals week (among other things,) we are giving everybody an extra week to submit charts; charts are now due by Midnight on Saturday, June 11th.  Additionally, each participant may now submit up to four charts.