New FAQ and Tournament Rules are Available for Star Wars: The Card Game

The 2014 Star Wars™: The Card Game Regional Championship season is almost over, but there is no time for rest in the galactic struggle. Both Rebels and Imperials alike are regrouping and preparing for National Championships around the world.

When resupplying and taking stock of your forces, there’s no better way to prepare than reading the new Star Wars: The Card Game FAQ (pdf, 5.7 MB) and Tournament Rules (pdf, 15.5 MB) and staying up to date on the latest changes.

A Word from the Developers

Hello Star Wars: The Card Game players!

As National Championships kick into full swing, we have been hard at work on a new FAQ and Tournament Rules update.

In the FAQ, we have released a formal definition of the word “copy,” establishing that a copy of a card is any card that shares the same title. We have also outlined (on page 8) the step-by-step process by which damage is dealt. Finally, we have answered some common questions about Echo Base (The Search for Skywalker, 205) and the 3.6 entry in the Q&A section on page 11.

The more significant changes in this release can be found in the Tournament Rules, where we have introduced a Code of Conduct and changed the process by which tournaments are scored and the elimination rounds are handled.

The Code of Conduct

When two or more players sit down to play a game with one another, there are a number of social assumptions being made. One group of gamers may have an implicit assumption that “everyone is equal and competing to win” while another group may make the assumption that “everyone should take it easy on the six year-old.”

In private gaming groups, participants come to their own mutual understanding of why they are playing and how they will play any given game. They essentially create their own implicit code of behavior.

In public gaming, a number of these basic courtesies, social practices, and ethical beliefs that make it possible to sit down and enjoy a game with another human being are sometimes questioned or even challenged as the level of competition intensifies. When results become more important—to some players—than the means to those results, the social fabric that holds a gaming community together can begin to erode, and the integrity of fair play and legitimate competition is lost.

To combat the development of such a situation within the Star Wars: The Card Game community, we have created a more explicit Code of Conduct, and we are taking this opportunity to acknowledge that FFG does not desire and will not tolerate the behavior of cheating or the presence of cheaters at sanctioned Organized Play events.

Scoring Changes

To improve the tournament experience at our more competitive events, we are introducing some significant changes to the method by which such events are scored and run.

First, we are doing away with the “tiebreaker” point in the Swiss rounds. This change is being made so that players are more incentivized to play for a win in each game, instead of seeking to win game one and then play for the tiebreaker point in game two. In addition to eliminating the Swiss tiebreakers, we are adjusting scoring so that a game win is now worth 3 points, a game loss is worth 0, and a game draw (because of time limit) is worth 1 point for each player.

In the elimination rounds, we are introducing a double-elimination system, in which players who make the cut are seeded into a tournament bracket and then play single game matches until one champion remains. In each round, a player uses the deck representing the side of the Force that he or she has played the least over the course of the elimination rounds (in the case of a tie, the higher-seeded player chooses a side). As a player plays more with one side, the likelihood of playing the other side later in the bracket increases.

As elimination games cannot result in a draw, we have also developed a tiebreaker scoring system that will be used to determine the player who is closest to victory whenever a game is called due to time. (The championship game(s) between the final 2 competitors is not timed.) We previously introduced a similar double-elimination system to our Android: Netrunner Tournament Rules, where it has worked well and been well received.

The intent of these changes is to reduce the effect that “match mentality” has had on recent tournament play. We seek to encourage an environment where competitors play for a win in each individual game and build decks toward that end.

Legal Card Sets

Finally, we have added a note to the card legality section of this document stating that the Darkness and Light Force pack will not be legal for the 2014 North American Championship.

Good luck to all players competing in upcoming National championship events, and to those coming to Gen Con, we’re looking forward to seeing you at the show!

Nate French & Erik Dahlman
Fantasy Flight Games

Thanks guys!

Regrouping takes time. Speed up the process and get a jump on your opponents by downloading and reading the FAQ and Tournament Rules now.

…