Note: All dates/times are in UTC+0.

Code of Conduct

• Participants are expected to treat fellow competitors and staff with respect, and to refrain from bigotry, including sexism, racism, and LGBTQIA+phobia. This includes derogatory language, even if used in a 'non-hateful' manner, and includes its use in profile names, pictures, bios and similar.
• All players should be aware that this tournament will be streamed on Twitch, and therefore they should comply with their terms of service for all streamed matches.
• During matches streamed on the Custom Songs Central Twitch account, players' names must be as they appear (or be a recognizable derivative) in the official tournament standings.
• Custom Songs Central reserves the right to disqualify and eliminate any player from the tournament for any reason, should they be deemed sufficiently harmful. CSC also reserves the right to forward any warranted community ban to the CSC and Clone Hero Discord servers in extreme cases.
• Individuals banned from the CSC, Clone Hero, Clone Hero Score Challenges ("CHSC") or ScoreSpy Discord servers are not eligible to participate.
• To take part in the tournament, players must be a part of the CSC: Championship Series Discord server.

General Gameplay

• All stages of the tournament will use the latest version of Clone Hero found on Clone Hero website (currently v1.0.0.4080final).
• Players may use any guitar controller, keyboard or other input device (e.g. Xbox controllers, etc.) as long as the inputs are mechanically triggered by the players themselves. The underlying specs therein (e.g. mechanical frets, raking strumbar, etc.) are not restricted.
• Players may use any means of employing auxiliary features, such as whammy and star power, as long as they are mechanically triggered by the players themselves. Macros for multiple inputs or pre-timed inputs are not permitted.
• Modifiers (all taps, all strums, double notes, etc.) are disallowed. Any exceptions will be explicitly stated by the organizers.
• Unless otherwise indicated, every song will be played at 100% speed.
• Any highway scroll speed can be used, unless a non-standard highway scroll speed causes bugs when playing online or causes problems for the streaming setup. In such cases, highway scroll speeds will be normalized to 100% speed.
• Any instance of match fixing, including cheating, sandbagging, or intentionally missing a match, is not permitted under any circumstance. Staff will be the sole arbitrators of such occurrences, which should be exceptional.
• During all stages of the tournament, players will use online versus mode. Non-staff spectators are allowed if both players agree to it.
• Where available, players should join a server created by one of the organizers. The connection details of the server will be communicated prior to the match by the organizer.
• For online matches, players are encouraged to experiment with the "show remote players" toggle setting, which can be leveraged to gain computational performance if needed.
• Players are encouraged to stream their matches, if they wish.

Qualifying Round

• To join the tournament, participants will take part in the open qualifying round. The qualifying round will span from Saturday, January 27th at 18:00 UTC+0 to Wednesday, February 7th. at 18:00 UTC+0.
• Participants will submit their best score on the CSC: Championship Series Qualifying Chart. The chart is made up of multiple songs put together, which can also be found separately on Chorus Encore for training purposes.
• Only scores on the Qualifying Chart will be considered - scores of each song separately are irrelevant and will not be considered.
• Participants should spend the qualifying period learning the three songs and aiming for the best score possible on the single qualifying chart.
• Participants should take screenshots of their scores using the in-game screenshot function on the results screen or pulling it from ScoreSpy directly. Screenshots of the song select screen or any other means of sharing scores are not permitted.
• Participants' Clone Hero profile names must exactly match the nickname they wish to participate with.
• Score submissions are done via Google form. Participants will be required to submit their email address. They may submit only once, but will be able to update their submission, in case they improve their score.

Group Stage

• After the qualifying round, the tournament will proceed to the group stage. The group phase will span from Saturday, February 17th to Saturday, March 9th.

• Players will be seeded into round robin groups of approximately 5-8 people based on their qualifying score. Within these groups, players will play against each other either once or twice (to be decided based on groups size). Matches will be played per the match process detailed below.

• For each match, players are awarded 1 point per song victory, and 2 points for overall match victory. Within each group, players will be ranked based on points earned. Once all matches have concluded, the top 2 players from each group will proceed to playoffs.

• If, at the end of the group stage, two or more players have the same amount of points, the tie will be broken in the following order:

1. Total matches won
2. Least songs lost
3. Head-to-head record
4. Sonneborn-Berger Score
5. Tiebreaker match (details TBD)

Playoffs Stage

• After the group stage, the tournament will proceed to the playoffs. The playoffs setlist will tentatively be revealed on Saturday, March 9th and matches will tentatively begin on Saturday, March 16th.
• Players will be seeded into the bracket based on their performance in the group stage. Initial seeding will be based on standard round robin pool progression, but may be altered slightly depending on circumstance.
• The bracket will be played in a double elimination format. All players will start in the winners bracket. As with the group stage, matches will be played per the match process detailed below.

Chart pools

• The tournament will feature two chart pools: one for the Group stage and one for the Playoff stage. Each will be revealed one week before it is put to use.
• Each chart pool contains thirteen (13) charts spread across 4 categories: Solo, Strum, Hybrid, and Tiebreaker.
• Solo: Three (3) charts that test one-handed and/or tapping proficiency.
• Strum: Three (3) charts that test strumming proficiency.
• Hybrid: Four (4) charts that test a mix of soloing and strumming.
• Tiebreaker: Three (3) charts used in the event of a score tie that test solo, strum, and hybrid proficiency, respectively.
• The playoffs chart pool will also feature three (3) Boss songs. Boss songs are harder than the other songs, and can only be picked during Top 8 matches. They are otherwise treated as non-tiebreakers.
• Each chart pool will also have three tiebreakers, composed of 1 solo-oriented hybrid, 1 strum-oriented hybrid and 1 mixed hybrid. The tiebreakers will be the same for both group stage chart pools.

Charts and chart terminology

• All players must use the correct version of the charts featured in the chart pools. Any alteration will make charts incompatible in Clone Hero's online mode, in any case.

• Solo, strum and hybrid categories will feature one of the following subcategories:

• Consistency: Not necessarily too fast or complex, but always long and/or dense. Places an emphasis on focus, pathing and nerve management.

• Stamina: Somewhat fast or technical in long stretches - likely to test a player’s stamina.

• Technical: Features the hardest sections, but speed and/or complexity are kept to short bursts.

• Gimmick: Has particularly unconventional or niche elements that are crucial to victory.

• Tiebreaker: Longer and harder than standard charts, and always features at least some element of hybridity.

Matches

General

• A match is a head-to-head between two players.

• A match is won by winning a certain amount of rounds, depending on the current stage:

• Group stage/Playoffs start: Best of 7 (Bo7), first to 4

• Playoffs end (approx. top 8): Best of 9 (Bo9), first to 5

• The primary condition to win a song is to achieve a higher score than one’s opponent.

• Should a score tie occur, the win is determined by considering the following elements in order:

1. Total amount of notes hit
2. Highest note streak
3. Amount of star power phrases earned
4. Lowest section accuracy percentage (higher of the two wins)

• If all else fails (i.e. a double FC with the same path and execution), the next song counts double. If this is the case, song pick is granted to the player who did not pick the tied song. If the tie occurs on the chart before the tiebreaker, the tiebreaker is played. If the score tie occurs on a tiebreaker, organizers will decide on another song to play, usually a second tiebreaker.

Match Process

First Song

• The higher seeded player bans one song.
• The lower seeded player bans one song.
• The higher seeded player picks the first song.

Middle Songs

• The player who lost the previous song picks the next song. Any song cannot be picked twice in the same match.
• If a player wins enough songs before the final song (eg. 4 song wins before round 7 in the group stage), the match ends. Otherwise, the match progresses to the tiebreaker.

Tiebreaker

• If more strum songs have been played than solo songs, the solo tiebreaker is played.
• If more solo songs have been played than strum songs, the strum tiebreaker is played.
• If the number of solo songs and strum songs played are equal, the hybrid tiebreaker is played.

Additional Notes

• Players can ban songs in the Solo, Strum, Hybrid, or Boss category. A banned song cannot be picked during the whole match. Tiebreakers may not be banned.
• Players are responsible for warming up on their own before the match. No warm-up songs are allowed during a match.
• If a player needs to restart a song for any reason (e.g. hardware/software failure), they may request one at any point, but it is up to the discretion of the opposing player (and referee, if applicable) if a restart will be granted. Players can only request one (1) restart per match.

In-match communication

• Players are encouraged to communicate through a Discord voice channel (VC). As such, players should have a microphone ready to use. Text-based communication is also acceptable if you are not comfortable joining a voice chat. Voice channels are available in the CSC:CS Discord server.
• Players should not under any circumstance join a voice channel of a tournament match in progress. The streamer and casters in spectator mode joining in for brief player interviews and insight are the only exception.
• Players are encouraged to mute and deafen themselves whilst they are playing songs. If a referee is present, they will control server mutes and deafens for the match. During non-gameplay portions, both players should, of course, be undeafened.

Scheduling and Reporting

• During all stages of the tournament, CSC will schedule designated times that players should aim to be available for. CSC will also designate streaming time slots, which players are encouraged to sign up for if they are available. However, matches may be played at any time, and players are ultimately responsible for finishing their matches - doing so will be beneficial for their chances at progressing.

• Exhibition matches are encouraged to be scheduled for any remaining stream slots not filled by official matches no earlier than 24 hours before the scheduled stream start time. If, during the 24 hour time frame, any official participants would like to schedule a match during the exhibition match’s time slot, they will take priority over the exhibition match.

• If a player advances to the Top 4 players in the playoffs, they will be expected to be available for the grand finals stream. We encourage every participant to play on stream, but only the aforementioned players are required to attend a stream.

• If a referee is present, they will report the match. If no referee is present, then players may self-report their matches. Reports must include the following:

1. The match results (e.g. KhromaticScale 5 - 3 Brad)
2. The banned songs (e.g. KhromaticScale bans Synchronal Steps)
3. The song picks in order, and who won them (e.g. Brad picks Giant Steps (120%) - KhromaticScale wins!)
4. Screenshots of each song results screen OR from each player’s ScoreSpy account.
   A template is provided for you at the bottom of this document.

• Any self-reported match that has rule-breaking anomalies (e.g. a song that was banned gets picked, wrong order of picks/bans) can be nullified by an organizer. Nullified games must be redone in their entirety. However, once a match has finished, it will usually stand. This is at the discretion of tournament staff. Participants should make themselves aware of the banning order and if there are disagreements, please contact an organizer or referee.

Reporting Template

HigherSeed 0-0 LowerSeed

HigherSeed bans A
LowerSeed bans B

G1: HigherSeed picks C - HigherSeed wins!
G2: LowerSeed picks D - LowerSeed wins!
G3: HigherSeed picks E - HigherSeed wins!
G4: LowerSeed picks F - LowerSeed wins!
G5: HigherSeed picks G - HigherSeed wins!
G6: LowerSeed picks H - LowerSeed wins!
G7: TIEBREAKER - J - HigherSeed wins!

HigherSeed wins!

[screenshots, video link, Twitch VOD or anything else]

Updated by Khromatical on 02/13/2024

Tags

• Esports