4 Player Chess Ultrabullet Cup Season 1

Hello all, I have just gotten permission from the admins to create and run a series of high-level 4 Player Chess ultrabullet arenas on the variants server, and in this post I'll be detailing how everything is going to work.

(This event will have no direct affiliation with the official chess.com 4 Player Speed Chess Championship coming in November/December, nor with the 4 Player Chess League.)

Basic Details

• Time Control: 6 sec, no increment or delay
• Gamerules: 1pt Queen Promotion, Semi-Anonymous
• Rating Restriction: 2100+
• Rating Formula: Solo
• Setup: Various, see below
• Winstreak: Enabled
• Arena Duration: 1 hour

Also, for those concerned, blocking will have no effect on matchmaking, as per usual with arenas.

Schedule & Rotation (Dates and Times in UTC)

• Arena 1: New Setup, August 26 - 0 UTC (✅)
• Arena 2: Old Setup, August 26 - 17 UTC (✅)
• Arena 3: New Setup, August 27 - 0 UTC (✅)
• Arena 4: Old Setup, August 27 - 17 UTC (✅)
• Arena 5: BY Setup, September 2 - 0 UTC (CANCELLED, SERVER ISSUES)
• Arena 6: New Setup, September 2 - 17 UTC (CANCELLED, SERVER ISSUES)
• Arena 7: Old Setup, September 3 - 0 UTC (CANCELLED, SERVER ISSUES)
• Arena 8: New Setup, September 3 - 17 UTC (CANCELLED, SERVER ISSUES)
• Arena 9: Old Setup, September 9 - 0 UTC (✅)
• Arena 10: BY Setup, September 9 - 17 UTC (✅)
• Arena 5 MAKEUP: BY Setup, September 10 - 0 UTC (✅)
• Arena 6 MAKEUP: New Setup, September 10, 17 UTC (CANCELLED, NOT ENOUGH PLAYERS)
• Arena 6 MAKEUP 2: New Setup, September 11, 0 UTC (✅)
• Arena 7 MAKEUP: Old Setup, September 16, 0 UTC (✅)
• Arena 8 MAKEUP: New Setup, September 16, 17 UTC (✅)

Remember to convert the times correctly or go to the Arenas tab to check the start time in your timezone! If I find that not enough players come to each arena, then some timings may be reconsidered.

Note: Practice Arenas will be held from 0 UTC to 1:30 UTC and 12 UTC to 13:30 UTC! They are U2100 (contestants are free to make their own queues) and are FFA instead of Solo!

Scoring (Regular Season)

(To avoid confusion, the terms "Arena Points", "League Points", and "Playoff Points" will be used.)

In accordance with the rating format being used (Solo), the arena will use the same format. This means that you only gain Arena Points from winning.

League Points are the overall determining factor for getting into playoffs, and will be distributed as such:

• The winner of every Arena gets 3 points
• The 2 runner-ups of every Arena get 2 points
• Anybody who plays more than 15 games but doesn't qualify for either of the above gets 1 point

At the end of the 10 arena regular season, League Points will be tallied up. The top 4 players will be chosen for the playoffs. (In the case of a crucial tie for playoff qualification, rating will be the tiebreaker; in the case that a player drops out, the player directly below them will qualify.)

Scoring (Playoffs)

In the playoffs, the 4 players will play 20 games for each of the 3 setups mentioned above (for a total of 60 games, aka of a best of 60 match). The setup order will be randomly chosen before the event via a fair randomizer. Players will be asked (hopefully not multiple times) to not rematch until I announce the overall playoff scores after each game. 

Playoff points determine the winner of the league, and will be distributed as such:

• Undisputed 1st place in a game gets 1 point
• Tied 1st place (2 players) in a game gets 0.5 points
• In every other scenario, a player will get 0 points.

Even if a player has already clinched the victory, the match will continue until all 60 games have been finished.

Prizes

• 1st Place will receive 1 month of membership
• 2nd Place will receive 1 month of membership
• 3rd Place will receive 1 month of membership

(In the case of any tie, rating will be used as the tiebreaker.)

(P.S, if you have a preference for a lower tier of membership, you can always contact Chess.com Support to get them to convert it.)

Account Rules

This was not clarified earlier, so for this season, playing on a secondary account will be permitted. However, if you win a prize, you will only be credited on the account that you played on. Either way, it is encouraged that you play on your main account so that people actually know who you are.

Server Issues (added on September 2)

In light of the recent issues surrounding the server after the Spell Chess + board update, the following measures will be put into place:

• If the arena standings bug is not fixed by the time of an arena, the arena will be postponed.
• If the arena standings bug is fixed but the lag issues are not, any arenas at that time will still continue as planned; however, the time control will be adjusted to 6s|1D to compensate. 

Sportsmanship Rules

• Remember to follow Chess.com Variants rules, this means:
  • No revealing or pretending to reveal your color in chat (yes, this actually happens in speed chess quite often when some people decide to troll)
  • Loosely tying into the above, no prearranging in chat. Given the nature of this competition, however, I will be allowing players to make statements such as "This player is close to winning, play harder". 
• Be civil. It is always encouraged that you say "gg" after the end of a game, and especially so after the end of a playoff match or arena. You are free to not do so, but don't be toxic instead.
• Give constructive feedback to your opponents after games. Blindly blaming your opponent(s) or attempting to belittle them is heavily discouraged.

Afterword

Speed Chess as a whole on Variants has never been that organized, with players usually just playing for rating in an extremely closed pool.

With this, I hope that some competition can be sparked; if you're not 2100 yet, that's a good milestone to get to so you can participate! Even if you don't feel confident that you can make it to the playoffs, this is still a really good opportunity to face off against the best players. 

Again, remember to hit the "Follow" button located near the comments section, so you don't miss any updates, and make sure to spread the word to your fellow 4 Player Chess players!

Brought to you by: @ChessMasterGS (Organizer, CGA) and @martinaxo (Representative to Chess.com, Variants Admin)