EAB/Lemon Super League Rules and FAQ

[Graham Humphrey]

EAB/Lemon Super League Rules and FAQ

This thread will tell you everything you need to know about the Super League.

The first post is for newbies to get a feel for what goes on.
The second post is a more detailed breakdown of the rules.
The third post is a schedule of when the 2011 rounds will be played.
The fourth post is for the separate knockout tournament at the end of the year.

You don't have to read all this in order to play, although it is advised. The very basic rules to get started are always at the beginning of every thread. For more information this should be your first stop, and will hopefully answer all questions.

What is the EAB/Lemon Super League?
Simple. Everyone plays the same game for three weeks and the person with the highest score wins. Players get points for each round that go towards a year long championship. One player will be crowned champion at the end of the year.

What's so super about the Super League?
It brings the Amiga community together. Gamers from the websites Lemon Amiga and EAB all play together from their own forum. In every round the site with the highest average submitted scores gets a point. At the end of the year the site with the most points is declared the winner.

How do you choose the games?
Everyone gets a say in the matter. There are voting threads for each round, where you can vote for five games you'd like to play (that haven't been played before). The game(s) with the most votes gets played in the next round.

How do I take part?
Easy. Firstly get yourself either a real Amiga or an emulator like WinUAE or E-UAE. The current round thread will tell you which game to play, give links to where it's available, link to manuals (if they are online), and tell you any extra rules for that game. To enter take a screenshot of your highscore (or a photo of your tv/monitor screen if you're using a real Amiga) and post it in the game thread. You can use free image hosting sites like Imageshack or Photobucket to post your scores. Don't forget to vote for the next round's game too.

Where do I post my screenshot, Lemon or EAB?
The time has come to choose young padawan. You can either post here at EAB, or defect to the evil ways of Lemon. If you're reading this, the chances are you want to join the good ship EAB, otherwise you will be forever known as a traitor. You can still join the other site and chat (or taunt), but you must only post your scores to the one you want to win. The Moderators will bring all the scores together, so they can be seen at a glance in the current game thread.

Where can I get ROMs for this competition?
If you mean Kickstart ROMs (that you need to get the emulator up and running) then we’re not allowed to distribute them due to copyright, but they are available. They can be bought from Cloanto's Amiga Forever Package, or there are some disreputable free outlets for those who take time to search and enquire. Game disk images (and - where applicable - WHDLoad pre-installed versions) will be linked to in each round.

What are Special Rounds?
There are three special rounds over the season. In them we narrow the options for voting, and increase the number of games played that round. It makes a nice change of pace, and more championship points are available. The voting thread and round thread will describe the special round changes in the first post. So make sure you read it.

And what about Open Rounds?
There are two of these over the season, in which any game can be voted for, regardless of whether we've played it already or not - the total opposite of Special Rounds, if you like. This is to allow our more recent converts to play some of the classics and for old times' sake for the veterans. Also note our "Bring a Friend" initiative, where inviting a new player on board during the round prior to an Open Round will double your vote.

Why should I play?
Because it's fun! You get to meet new people, really talk about the game you’re playing, and learn many of its secrets. It gives you a good reason to play a game you might not know very well. You might even discover a gem you've never heard of before. And it keeps you in touch with the Amiga, even if you only have a little time for it. There are no prizes on offer for winning, but imagine the looks you’ll command from people in the street. That just cannot be measured in money.

I missed a few rounds, should I bother joining in?
Of course you should! It’s all for fun, and not all about the League anyway. If you only fancy playing certain games then dip in when you like. The regular players like to see new people. Besides, everyone had to start at some point, and you’ll really get into it once you start.

I finished outside the top 12 and scored no points. Should I quit?
No way. Over the 14 rounds there are a total of 17 different games played. Plenty of chances to score some points and get on the leader board. Most of all, just enjoy each round as it comes, and after a while those points will stack up. Remember, it's a relaxed friendly league.

I still have questions...
No problem. The next post has a more detailed description of the rules. Keep reading.

[Graham Humphrey]

This is a longer, more detailed description for anyone that wants a more precise answer to how things work. It's a lot simpler than it looks.

Super League Structure
The Super League consists of fourteen rounds played across the year over two separate legs.

(2 weeks voting)
Leg 1 = Rounds 1-7 (21 weeks play)
(2 weeks break)
(2 weeks voting)
Leg 2 = Rounds 8-14 (21 weeks play)
(4/5 weeks break)

Each round lasts for 3 weeks, starting on a Sunday. The round officially starts at 00:01 GMT on the Sunday, and end at 23:59 GMT on the saturday three weeks later. A thread will appear later in the day to reflect this (obviously we can't all hang around stopping and starting threads on the dot of midnight). Rounds are played back to back with voting taking place alongside in a separate thread (see the voting section).

There are also three special rounds over the course of the year, in which two games are played instead of one - see the special rounds section a bit later on.

At the end of the year the player with the most points overall will be named Champion, and the winning website crowned, and both showered in glory and jealousy.

The gap between seasons will be four (or five, depending on the format of the Knockout tournament) weeks over the New Year period. That's the maths of it.

Players should vote and submit their scores to only one website (Lemon or EAB), making them a part of that 'team'. It is okay to register at the other site and chat though, in fact it is a lot of fun, so do.
Any scores submitted must have been played and posted during the named time period (see season schedule below).
Any scores submitted before or after the round will not be counted.

Voting
Each new Leg will begin with a voting thread for the next round. After this, the voting threads for the next round will be started on the same day as the current round. Voting lasts for two weeks.

To vote you choose any five different games you would like to play and put them in order of preference. Please remember to try and choose games that will be suitable for competition play. The games you choose are given the following points:

1. 5 points
2. 4 points
3. 3 points
4. 2 points
5. 1 point

As a bonus, the winner of a round has double voting power for the next round. (1 = 10 points, 2 = 8 points etc). However, because the voting for the next round ends before the current round ends, players must place their votes and wait for the current round to end to see who will have their vote doubled. Leaving the possibility of an unexpected game suddenly coming top. The only exception to this are rounds one and eight which, of course, come after a break so it will be known in advance who has double voting power. However if first place is tied between at least two players in a round then double voting power will not be awarded.

The game with the most votes will be played. In the event of a tie the game with the most 5 point votes will win. If it is still tied then the most 4 point votes is looked at and so on.

If a game comes in both OCS/ECS and AGA, or has special editions, players must make it clear which version they want to play when voting. If nothing is stated we will always revert to the A500/original versions.

The rules for voting differ slightly during special rounds. See the special rounds section for details.

Once a game has been played it cannot be voted for again (except for Open Rounds - see below). Each voting thread will tell you what games have already been played.

IMPORTANT: Votes cannot be edited. If you edit your vote it will not be counted. This is to avoid any manipulation of the result. So think carefully before you vote. There's a whole two weeks to think.

Bugged/Ineligible Games
Unfortunately some games have bugs which makes organizing a competition very difficult, so from time to time a game may be excluded from voting as they are discovered. Currently there are only two games causing problems. They can be voted for but with certain limitations - read below. If you think other games may be problematic please let us know.

Lotus 2: The different online versions all have different scoring systems. If Lotus 2 is played everyone must use a special version that will be provided by this board, in WHDload and ADF format. (UAE requires A1200 setup, High-Density floppy drive, 4MB Fast RAM)

Pinball Fantasies Stones and Bones Table - Bugged (random crashing, infinite balls, messed up scores). This table will be excluded - you can still vote for Pinball Fantasies, but we will only play the other 3 tables.

Special Rounds
There will be three special rounds played over the course of the year - one in the first leg, and two in the second leg. These are...

Special Round 4: PD Games
When voting you can only choose games that are listed as either Public Domain, Freeware, Shareware, Coverdisk full games, Promotional, or even hidden games. Basically anything considered non-commercial. The two games with the most votes will be played.

If you are in doubt about a game's status, ask in the thread before you vote, or contact a Moderator. It will be sorted out before the end of voting.

Special Round 8: Games released in the year ____
The winner of Round 7 will get to choose a year between 1987 and 1995. Only games originally released in the chosen year can be voted for. The top two games at the end of the vote will be played. Once a year is chosen it can't be used again until they've all been used.

Special Round 12: Will Be Represented by the Letter __
The winner of Round 10 will get to choose a letter for this round. Only games beginning with that letter can be voted for, and the top two will be played. Games beginning with 'The' will not be listed under 'T' (eg The Great Giana Sisters is considered beginning with 'G'). Once a letter is used it can't be chosen again until all letters are used. That's 26 years of the Super League.

Remember that both games will be played over 3 weeks so pick things that are suitable for that length of time.

In a special round there are two sets of championship points available - one for each game - which could lead to a big shake up in the leaderboard.

Open Rounds
Starting from the 2011 season, certain rounds will be designated as Open Rounds, meaning any game can be voted for, regardless of whether it's been played before or not - giving newer players the chance to play some old favourites. From the 2012 season, these will be Rounds Two, Six, Ten and Fourteen.

Scoring
For each game played championship points will be given to the top 12 scorers.

1st = 15 pts
2nd = 12 pts
3rd = 10 pts
4th = 9 pts
5th = 8 pts
6th = 7 pts
7th = 6 pts
8th = 5 pts
9th = 4 pts
10th = 3 pts
11th = 2 pts
12th = 1 pt
Lower = 0 pts

For multi-event games, like pinball or sports events, a modified scoring system will be used depending on the game. There will still only be one set of championship points given, and details of the scoring system will be put in the game thread.

Lemon vs EAB
For each game played the scores of the top five players from each site will be averaged - if one site has less than five entrants, the number of scores averaged on both sides will be reduced to make things fairer. The highest average score will be declared winner of that game and a point given. The site with the most points at the end of the year is declared the champion (best of 17 games).

No Cheating
Don't tamper with your score by altering the numbers.
No continues allowed.
No use of trainers, action replay, or any other get-around to make the game easier.
No use of emulator save states (including as a way to practise parts of a game).

Occaisionally restrictions will be placed on specific games, such as the banning of autofire if it is a power-up within the game.

The spirit of the rules is to play games as they were originally intended, creating a fair playing field between real Amiga users and emulator users.

Score whoring/leeching/taking advantage of infinite spawning enemies or bugs in the game is seriously frowned upon. If you are discovered doing it, you're not going to make any friends, and your score will not be counted.

This is an honest competition, we’re not playing for money or prizes, simply the honour and glory, and of course the taking part. If someone is found to be cheating (and fake scores tend to be easy to spot), they will get a ban. It's not worth it, so play fair.

IMPORTANT: If you do suspect someone of cheating then please PM a Moderator. It's okay to query a score to understand how they achieved it, but refrain from posting wild accusations in the game threads.

Additional Rules
This is a worldwide tournament, but for simplicity all times and dates are done using London, UK Time. Please be aware of the time difference.

[Graham Humphrey]

2013 Season Schedule
Rounds start Sundays at 12:01am UK time, and finish Saturdays at 11:59pm UK time, on the relevant dates. Make sure you use that 2 minute break wisely.

Leg 1 [Rounds 1-7]
Jan 06 - Jan 19: Round One voting
Jan 20 - Feb 09: Round One
Jan 20 - Feb 02: Round Two voting
Feb 10 - Mar 02: Round Two [Open Round 1]
Feb 10 - Feb 23: Round Three voting
Mar 03 - Mar 23: Round Three
Mar 03 - Mar 16: Round Four voting
Mar 24 - Apr 13: Round Four [Special Round 1: PD Games]
Mar 24 - Apr 06: Round Five voting
Apr 14 - May 04: Round Five
Apr 14 - Apr 27: Round Six voting
May 05 - May 25: Round Six [Open Round 2]
May 05 - May 18: Round Seven voting
May 26 - Jun 15: Round Seven

Leg 2 [Rounds 8-14]
Jun 23 - Jul 06: Round Eight voting
Jul 07 - Jul 27: Round Eight [Special Round 2: Year]
Jul 07 - Jul 20: Round Nine voting
Jul 28 - Aug 17: Round Nine
Jul 28 - Aug 10: Round Ten voting
Aug 18 - Sep 07: Round Ten [Open Round 3]
Aug 18 - Aug 31: Round Eleven voting
Sep 08 - Sep 28: Round Eleven
Sep 08 - Sep 21: Round Twelve voting
Sep 29 - Oct 19: Round Twelve [Special Round 3: Alphabet]
Sep 29 - Oct 12: Round Thirteen voting
Oct 20 - Nov 09: Round Thirteen
Oct 20 - Nov 02: Round Fourteen voting
Nov 10 - Nov 30: Round Fourteen [Open Round 4]

It's a Knockout 2012/13
Nov 11 - Nov 24: Voting
Dec 02 - Dec 15: Qualifying Round
(12+ plyrs) Dec 16 - Dec 29: Round One
(12+ plyrs) Dec 30 - Jan 05: Quarter Finals
(12+ plyrs) Jan 06 - Jan 12: Semi Finals
(12+ plyrs) Jan 13 - Jan 19: The Final and 3rd place Play-off
(8 plyrs) Dec 16 - Dec 29: Quarter Finals
(8 plyrs) Jan 30 - Jan 05: Semi Finals
(8 plyrs) Jan 06 - Jan 12: The Final and 3rd place Play-off

Jan 06: 2013 Super League Voting starts (or Dec 30 if only 8 players compete)

You can find out the results of Lemon and EAB's previous seasons here:
Lemon Amiga: 2005 | 2006 | 2007
EAB: 2007
EAB/Lemon Super League: 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011

We hope you enjoy playing in the tournament, and special thanks to VermillioN for first saying those fateful words 'Super League', and to Biscuit for taking the time to type all this up initially, leaving me with the embarrassingly simple task of copying and pasting it here, with a couple of subtle modifications (not forgetting various updates as the years go by).

If you've still got a question you can't find an answer to, post it below and someone will try to answer it for you. Don't be shy, you may have discovered something we all forgot.

If you have any suggestions to improve the season feel free to post your thoughts here. We're open to all new ideas.

[Graham Humphrey]

It's a Knockout!

Voting
Duration: 2 weeks

You must vote for five games out of the 17 games played during the previous season, in order of preference.
Vote scoring is the same as for the Super League (see above)
Sometimes the way a game is played will be altered to fit better with the shorter round lengths. For instance only playing one pinball table out of four. This will be highlighted in the voting thread, and voters asked to nominate any preferences. Such as voting which pinball table to play. If the game goes through the votes will be tallied.

The game with the highest votes will be played in the qualifying round. Then the game with the second highest played in next round, and so on until the end. A different game for each round.

Qualifying Round
Duration: 2 weeks

This is a free-for-all round, anyone can enter. When the round ends, players with the best scores will continue to the next round. How many depends on how many entered the qualifying round.

9-13 entries: 8 people qualify
14-17 entries: 12 people qualify
18-24 entries: 16 people qualify
25+ entries: 20 people qualify

If only 8 people qualify, the tournament skips onto the quarter-finals. A random draw will decide which players face each other, and the quarter-final round will last 2 weeks.
If 12+ people qualify, we move on to Round One.

Round One
Duration: 2 weeks

Qualifying players will be seeded into groups, based on their high-score in the last round.

12 Players: Players are split into four seeded groups of three players.
16 Players: Players are split into four seeded groups of four players.
20 Players: Players are split into four seeded groups of five players.

Players compete for the highest score within their group.
The top two players from each group go on to the next round.
The bottom players are knocked out.

One-on-One Rounds
Duration: 1 week for each round (unless round one is skipped - see above)

Group winners from Round One will be seeded against group runner-ups for the quarter-finals. Group winners can only play runners-up from the other groups.

From here on it's a straight one on one knockout tree up till the grand final. Including a third place play-off.

Additional Bits
For all other rules and info refer to the Super League rules.
The Knockout schedule is listed in the post above.

[Graham Humphrey]

The Hall Of Fame (Last updated: May 6 2013, 9:40)

The EAB/Lemon Super League

Winners/Current Standings

2008: 1. john4p - 183 2. Biscuit - 118 3. TodaysForgotten - 114
2009: 1. rexsu - 162 2. john4p - 117 3. Robo-Sparkle - 101
2010: 1. rexsu - 196 2. john4p - 113 3. mailman - 105
2011: 1. john4p - 161 2. capehorn - 153 3. lifeschool - 131
2012: 1. premmisseth - 167 2. Biscuit - 144 3. lifeschool - 129
2013: 1. premmisseth - 53 2. lifeschool - 53 3. who - 35

Number of competitors

2008: 49, 41 of whom scored points (average 14 competitors per game)
2009: 47, 35 of whom scored points (average 17.2 competitors per game)
2010: 50, 39 of whom scored points (average 14.6 competitors per game)
2011: 48, 42 of whom scored points (average 15.9 competitors per game)
2012: 49, 44 of whom scored points (average 16.6 competitors per game)
2013: 39, 32 of whom scored points

Most competitors for a single game: 24 (James Pond 2: Codename RoboCod, R1 2012)
Fewest competitors for a single game: 9 (Alien Breed, R7 2008)

EAB vs Lemon

2008: EAB 6 - Lemon 9
2009: EAB 12 - Lemon 3
2010: EAB 15 - Lemon 2
2011: EAB 12 - Lemon 5
2012: EAB 1 - Lemon 16
2013: EAB 3 - Lemon 3

Number of Gold Medals

16: john4p
9: lifeschool, rexsu
7: capehorn
6: premmisseth
5: Biscuit, xpect
4: Anakirob
3: Harry, Robo-Sparkle, TodaysForgotten
2: Graham Humphrey, jPV, LinesMachine, who
1: aca0808, humble worm, mailman, Masterblaster, mihcael, mosfet, off1k, Parpala, peace, Shawn Dimery, Simon Humphrey, TheCyberDruid

Number of Silver Medals

10: rexsu
9: john4p
7: TodaysForgotten
5: Biscuit, Harry, mailman
4: capehorn, premmisseth
3: jPV, lifeschool, Parpala, Robo-Sparkle
2: Anakirob, DamienD, Graham Humphrey, LinesMachine, Lonewolf10, Retroplay, roy bates, TheCyberDruid, Ze Emulatron
1: bbsteal, blade002, eMTe, Predseda, Shawn Dimery, TurricanX, xpect

Number of Bronze Medals

11: john4p
9: mailman
8: rexsu
6: lifeschool
5: Biscuit
4: capehorn, Harry
3: ChrisN82, mosfet, Ze Emulatron
2: Graham Humphrey, john1979, jPV, LinesMachine, Lonewolf10, premmisseth, TodaysForgotten
1: aca0808, Anakirob, CHook/OTT, comiga, DJCruicky, frikilokooo, Lielo, mipe, nujack, Parpala, ppill, Predseda, Robo-Sparkle, Shawn Dimery, Simon Humphrey, TurricanX, Wayne

Top ten all-time appearance makers (Maximum 87 games)

1. mailman - 87
2. Graham Humphrey - 85
3= john4p - 68
3= mihcael - 68
5. Biscuit - 65
6. LinesMachine - 56
7. Simon Humphrey - 45
8= capehorn - 39
8= Lonewolf10 - 39
10. lifeschool - 35

It's a Knockout!

Winners

2008/09: 1. rexsu 2. turrican3 3. ElB
2009/10: 1. jPV 2. rexsu 3. john4p
2010/11: 1. rexsu 2. john4p 3. capehorn
2011/12: 1. john4p 2. Harry 3. Simon Humphrey
2012/13: 1. john4p 2. Harry 3. jPV

Number of competitors

2008/09: 21
2009/10: 16
2010/11: 22
2011/12: 29
2012/13: 20