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Rules

For Spyro tournaments, there are a number of rules and guidelines to follow in order for it to be fair for all competitors. Each race has a general set of rules, however exceptions can be made when agreed upon by all competitors. The following outlines those rules and guidelines and lists other competitors requirements, such as audiovisuals for clarity and transparency.

This article has been created for those who wish to stay up to date on what is known as the General Ruleset and to verify what the existing rules are.

Rules / Rulebook | Spyro Speedruns Website

ISGP Tournament Outline

Tournament Progression

Group Round

The International Spyro Grand Prix (ISGP) will consist of three (3) groups each featuring ten (10) competitors. The tournament format was inspired by New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual round robin tournament, the G1 Climax.

The 10-person group ensures that every competitor will be required to play every other competitor in their group once. This reduces the element of luck as progressing to the next round is still possible even if a competitor loses one or two matches in their group.

Points

In the Group Round the points allocation are as follows:
Win: 1
Loss: 0

Draw Times

There are no draw times in this tournament.

Progression

The ISGP will consist of two preliminary rounds and a Grand Final. Round 1 will feature three (3) groups of ten (10). Each competitor will face every competitor in their particular group, receiving one (1) point for a win and zero (0) points for a loss. After all matches in Round 1 are completed, the top 2 competitors from each group will move on to the Semi-Finals, while 2 more will qualify to “Crassic Speedrunning Championship League”. Competitor placement will be determined based on points received during Round 1.

In the event that 2 competitors finished with the same points, a determination on who will progress to the Semi-Finals will be made based on which competitors each player won and lost against. For example, player’s A and B are finished on the same amount of points and player C finished third in the group. If player A lost to player C yet player B defeated player C, then player B would progress to the Semi-Finals and player A would be eliminated.

The Semi-Finals will feature six (6) competitors, 2 from each group. The top ranked competitors from each group will playoff against a second-place competitor from one of the other groups. This will reduce the field down to 3 players.

Finally, the Grand Final will be a traditional triple threat match with the winner being crowned the World Speedrunning Champion.

Accepted Games

Despite the ISGP being a Spyro the Dragon tournament, exceptions have been made for the specific games that are allowed to be run. These games are as follows:

  • Spyro the Dragon [NTSC/PAL]
  • Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage/Gateway to Glimmer
  • Spyro: Year of the Dragon [NSTC/PAL]
  • Spyro the Dragon [NTSC-J] [Japanese]
  • Spyro x Sparx: Tondemo Tours [NTSC-J] [Japanese]

Tournament Rules

These rules apply when doing a speedrun, not when the video is being uploaded or edited.

Competitor

  • There must be two or more competitors for a race.
  • They must be able to record video from the game with acceptable visual quality and minimal slowdown. If the video is badly pixelated and/or or choppy, it may not be accepted.
  • The competitors need to sort out what they will be doing such as the game, objective(s), and other details. If needed, a Randomization can be requested.

Game

  • The game must run at a playable speed (25 to 60 fps depending on game and region) on emulator or real hardware.
  • If a game is running through an emulator, the competitor(s) must not use save states or speedhacks that artificially speed up the game.
  • It is advisable that the games be of the same region (NTSC, PAL, JAP) as notable speed difference such as load times can give an opponent an unfair advantage. However, in such cases that a rematch can’t be done, the opponents may take full responsibility of the outcome.

Commentary

  • Competitors must to be able to use a microphone and record audio from a VoIP application such as Discord.
  • When doing commentary, note your username, objective(s), and match rules if any. Doing this ensures the info is provided in the run itself as well as to avoid it being lost if the video is removed from the hosting site.

Conditions

  • A void is called if a race falls below the minimum time limit of the round.
  • A regular match, in exploitable bugs/glitches can be used, can be done by the competitors. Unless stated, a match is considered “glitched” unless explicitly stated and agreed upon before the start of the match. If one or more competitors use game exploits in a non-glitched match and ‘wins’, it will not count.

Technical Difficulties

  • If the commentary is somehow lost or not usable after recording of the race, a post-commentary is recommended.
  • If one or more competitor’s video is somehow unusable or lost, the race should be redone or it will be considered void, unless both competitors agree otherwise.
  • If you or one of the competitors drop from the Skype call, continue the match as normal and attempt to reconnect when able. A good place to do so is during an unskippable part of the game such as a cutscene or loading screen.

Editing

These rules are for when the video is being edited.

Sending Video

  • If you need to send your video and/or audio, make sure to compress it first if it is fairly large. Ensure though that the compression doesn’t degrade the video too badly in the process.
  • Good places to upload video and audio include Speedy Share, Mega, WeTransfer, and File Factory due to their generous upload size limit for free users.

Splitscreen

  • The editor of the speedrun must have each competitor’s video shown in a splitscreen format. Otherwise, it will count as void.
  • As an effect of splitscreen footage, visual aids such as text are needed to note who is who.

Editing Footage

  • Do not edit the footage make it appear a competitor has won when they actually did not.
  • Avoid getting so fancy with editing that it blocks or changes the visibility of the footage.

Uploading

These rules are for when the video is being uploaded to the tournament channel:

  • The video must be uploaded before the deadline or it will be noted as void and the possibility of disqualification. In some cases, competitors may upload their match past this deadline when permitted.
  • Avoid making the title too long and make it quick to read at a glance. A good format would be: Round X – A vs B – Game – Objective(s), with any other information in the description.
  • To make it easy to find in the future, good organization such as putting videos in a playlist and having appropriate tags helps a lot. Though not a requirement, it is recommended.