Frote's Speedrun Community - Documents and Rules

Tournament Format (Swiss)

Matches, Brackets, Scheduling, Deadlines

Roulette Rivals events are hosted in several different formats. The following page describes the Swiss format, a two-stage tournament in which players compete in a fixed number of matches, facing opponents with the same or similar record as the tournament progresses.

đź”´ Inactive Format: Swiss was last used for Roulette Rivals 19 (Apr-Jun 2026).

Overview

The Swiss format in Roulette Rivals is a two-stage competition, consisting of a Swiss Stage followed by a Knockout Stage. In the Swiss Stage, every player is guaranteed to play six matches, with matchups becoming progressively more even each round. After these six rounds, the top 16 players advance to the single-elimination Knockout Stage.

Unlike other Roulette Rivals formats, Swiss does not use pre-tournament seeding. Round 1 is drawn completely at random, and after each round in the Swiss Stage, players are paired against others with the same or similar score, while avoiding rematches. These pairings are generated using a Buchholz-balanced system, where within each score bracket, players with the highest and lowest opponent difficulty are matched against each other.

Each match awards 1 point for a win and 0.5 points for a tie to both players. At the end of the six rounds, the following tiebreakers are used to determine the final Swiss Stage standings:

  1. Buchholz Score: The weighted average of opponents’ scores, excluding forfeits
  2. Map Point Differential: The average of map points scored minus map points conceded
  3. Direct Comparison: Head-to-head result between tied players
  4. Sonneborn-Berger Score: The weighted total of defeated (and half of tied) opponents’ scores, excluding forfeits
  5. RRStats Elo: Player Elo according to the current model on RRStats

In the Knockout Stage, players are arranged into a semi-seeded single-elimination bracket, placed into four pots of four for the draw. Winners advance, while losers are eliminated from the tournament, with the exception of a potential third-place playoff. The Grand Final is played between the winners of the two Semi-Finals. The winner of the Grand Final, the longest and most prestigious match of the tournament, is crowned Roulette Rivals Champion.

Matches and Scheduling

Every match in the Swiss Stage is Best-of-5, meaning the match ends once one player reaches 6 points, or with a 5-5 draw.

Every Knockout Stage match apart from the Grand Final is First-to-8, meaning the match ends once one player reaches 8 points.

The Grand Final is First-to-10, meaning the match ends once the champion reaches 10 points.

Deadlines and Inactivity

Roulette Rivals tournaments using the Swiss format typically last 6.5 weeks. The main tournament deadlines for Roulette Rivals 19 are as follows, while detailed round deadlines are shared in the #info channel on Discord:

The Swiss Stage lasts 4.5 weeks and consists of six rounds, each lasting five to six days. These are hard deadlines, meaning players are required to complete their match within the round window. If a match cannot be played, it will result in a forfeit for the player or players deemed at fault. Players who are unavailable may also choose to opt out of a round in advance by contacting a Roulette Admin.

The Knockout Stage lasts 2 weeks and uses several soft deadlines to ensure the bracket progresses smoothly. In general, players are expected to play one match every four days. Soft deadlines do not have to be met exactly. However, admins may step in if matches fall significantly behind schedule due to lack of availability or repeated no-shows. Players are asked not to fall more than two days behind schedule, and if they do play late, they should aim to catch up as quickly as possible, for example, by prescheduling with potential next-round opponents. If a match delays the bracket too much, admins may issue a forfeit to the player deemed at fault.