SRB2 Tag-Team Speedrun Competition

SRB2 is such a wonderful game, we've made that little hedgehog run miles and be heard from near and far. And now it's time to put those cute little animals to their very limits.

The game is simple, and the rules are somewhat simple too. This competition is not only about speed, but about cooperation. The game-play will be fierce as well as fun to play as well as watch.

Objective: To reach the end of the game as fast as possible in a continuous play-through (This means, complete all the regular levels) as a team.

Rules:
- You must apply as a team. (Two players) No more, no less.
- Each team member must pick a character and stick with it for the entire play-through. This means, if you play as Knuckles, you must play as Knuckles for every level you play. (Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles)
- Both team members cannot use the same character
- Both team members must complete at least 1/3 of the levels (One cannot do more than double the levels of the other)

Recording options:

Option 1 - Netgame
You may choose to play together in a netgame should you both have a considerably good internet. At least one player must record the entire play-through. (You must press F12 when it's not your turn)

Option 2 - Livestream
You may also team up with a partner in a web-based video program. You MUST show that it is a continuous run, by giving cues to each other, either by chat, voice, or by displaying the live stream in the other's stream so viewers know what both players are doing no matter who's stream they are watching.

So, long story short, you and your partner are on a constant time trial of all the main levels, excluding Special Stages. Please note, this is a speedrun and not a time trial. This means you can't just pick up bits and pieces of old time attacks and slap them together and say "voila", you must do it in a row. This tournament is open to all players and teams. You may contact me via Youtube with the name kitokofox, Skype with the name kitokofox, E-Mail with kitokofox@hotmail.com, or message me with the SRB2MB PM system, or post on the forum.



How this tournament is played:
You have a set time (A few weeks) to try and obtain the best time you can along with your partner. When you show your time to me, I will only tell you what rank you're in, and if a team surpasses you, I will only say the new rank. At the very end, the entire leader-board will be shown, with names and times, and prizes awarded. There will also be a link to their best achieved time, as well as the characters used to obtain said time, and what's there to lose? You get to show off your skills on YouTube or Livestream, get a crowd of viewers, we get the game shown out there to potential players of the game, and you might even snatch a cool little prize too as well as followers/subscribers, as well as fame!

Sounds fun! But are those money prizes legual? This game should not be sold.

Ors said:

Sounds fun! But are those money prizes legual? This game should not be sold.

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No, but not because the game is freeware. In most jurisdictions handing out cash prizes is considered gambling and therefore illegal. If this contest wants to move forward it'll need to come up with another kind of prize support.

Honestly I can't even figure out what this contest is even supposed to be about, which is kinda a death knell for most people's interest.

Mystic said:

Honestly I can't even figure out what this contest is even supposed to be about, which is kinda a death knell for most people's interest.

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It goes something like this, as far as I can tell:

Contestants enter as teams of two players, each player picking a separate character. The goal is to produce a contiguous speedrun of the entire game, wherein each contestant does only some of the levels(doesn't have to be an equal number, but a contestant can play no fewer than 1/3rd of the stages). Contestants coordinate their selection and playthrough via netgame or livestream, and a non-edited recording of the entire playthrough is required.

When submitting a time, the team will be informed of its rank, but not of the times of their competitors nor the time they have to beat to move up. Teams are informed when their rank moves down due to a better time being sent in. (whether or not you can resubmit your time is not made clear)

Wouldn't it be exceptionally easy to cheat the requirement that you have to do it contiguously by splicing the video? All you'd need to do is make an edit so that you start with the score you had last time.

As for the prizes, I was hoping to make it a little fun for the players as those kind of things don't come around too often. What alternatives can you suggest for this?

Yes, you can resubmit your time multiple times.

As for submission methods and possibility of cheating, having an on-screen timer (Like WSplit.exe, the SpeedRunsLive love those) is very handy to have while recording such videos, as the person doing the play knows how fast they are, while also showing that the play is done in a row without stopping.

I assume using a recording program that allows you to insert a timer will make videos more valid (WSplit.exe does not allow you to resume from times) and XSplit.exe even has a local recording option you can use, if you feel your internet isn't sufficient enough to put up a livestream or for whatever reason you wish to make a video instead of going live.

http://speedrunslive.com/tools/ There's a whole host of stuff here you can use to help show it's a continuous run.

So, for all those of you who are doing a video - a timer on the screen is mandatory to show continuous play. (I'm able to spot kinks in the timer, don't test me) For those that choose to do it live, a timer may not be necessary but it is recommended for sure.

I will be taking the time from the first frame of transition, so whether you get the timer synced with your game is not my business.

In fact, overall I suggest the two players do it live, since it's easy to look at the time frames of the videos and see what is continuous.

The other obvious issue is that our game really doesn't have any benefit to playing multiplayer time attack. The only cooperative feature in SRB2 is having Tails fly you, but in reality that's one of the slowest features to use since in practical reality it requires you dead stop to do it. I wouldn't be surprised if the optimal method for your contest is to have two players independently time attacking without interacting with each other whatsoever.

Mystic said:

The other obvious issue is that our game really doesn't have any benefit to playing multiplayer time attack. The only cooperative feature in SRB2 is having Tails fly you, but in reality that's one of the slowest features to use since in practical reality it requires you dead stop to do it. I wouldn't be surprised if the optimal method for your contest is to have two players independently time attacking without interacting with each other whatsoever.

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Mystic, that's exactly what you're supposed to do. Each player in the team plays only some of the maps in the run, hence why it's called a tag-team.

Mystic said:

I wouldn't be surprised if the optimal method for your contest is to have two players independently time attacking without interacting with each other whatsoever.

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That just turns it into a racing contest, and if that's the case just host a server, start the race and make the prize becoming admin of that server.

Duon the Adventurer said:

That just turns it into a racing contest, and if that's the case just host a server, start the race and make the prize becoming admin of that server.

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A team contest, that may not even require booting a server at all should the players decide to use the Time Attack menu and take turns, which is allowed (All intermissions are sliced out of the total time when I calculate anyway.)

I thought of making something where many players can play together regardless of network or ping and enjoy SRB2, and I thought of having players take turns in time attack. But then I thought it would make things too easy, anyone could just pick what they wanted and speed through normally. So I imposed a character limitation challenge to get people to team up with those they may not normally do so (Finding yourself a Knuckles player or a Tails player while being most fluent with Sonic) And teamwork and get to know others better, and hopefully learn a lot in the experience.

Prime 2.0 said:

Mystic, that's exactly what you're supposed to do. Each player in the team plays only some of the maps in the run, hence why it's called a tag-team.

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Yeah, don't know how I missed this when it's so explicitly written. Probably having a brain fart and assuming something and reading things wrong.

Kitoko said:

A team contest, that may not even require booting a server at all should the players decide to use the Time Attack menu and take turns, which is allowed (All intermissions are sliced out of the total time when I calculate anyway.)

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How would you deal with the fractions of a second? They're only displayed in certain circumstances, and with just a video you wouldn't have an easy method to access that information.

timetic, maybe?