Calling all duelists! It’s that time again: the Sixth Tournament of the Sanguine Ribbon Society is now officially open for signups. Ready for a slew of Lethal Sparring Bouts? Want to meet some new delicious friends, fight with them, and send them to meet the Boatman? You’re in the right place: Sanguine Ribbons, prizes, and prestige await you in the Sixth Tournament of the SRS.
What is the Sanguine Ribbon Society (SRS)?
The SRS was created by Mike Hawk (no longer active) as a way to connect Fallen Londoners who are interested in Lethal Sparring Bouts and earning Sanguine Ribbons, and also for hosting tournaments such as this one. The SRS is purely player-run, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Failbetter Games. There are currently over 90 active players in the SRS, and anyone with a Black Ribbon can join simply by adding their profile information to the Leaderboard.
What are the rules?
The complete rules for the Sixth Tournament can be found on the rules page of the SRS document; please review them carefully before signing up. The rules will be very similar to those of the Fifth Tournament; the only significant change is that participants can now spar with a given opponent twicerather than once, although this is not required. This is to avoid an issue in the 5th tournament that some participants experienced towards the end, when they were unable to find anyone left to spar with.
What can I win?
Glory, fame, Sanguine Ribbons, and cash! The champion and runner-up will both be entered into the Sanguine Hall of Fame, and will receive 900 and 600 First City Coins, respectively. Their titles will be appended to their names on the Leaderboard. The third-place winner will receive 300 coins as well. All prize Coins come from generous donations to the SRS treasury. I’ll throw in some Surprise Packages for the top three as well: 3, 2, and 1 respectively. The current champion is TheRaggedMan, and the Runner-up is Padraig Cooper.[/li][/ul][ul][li]All other participants except the lowest-scoring one who complete the maximum number of allowed Lethal Sparring Bouts will also receive Coins, the precise number based on the total number of participants, and to be announced at the start of the tournament. Last time it was 120 coins per person, so even if you’re not the winner you’ll still walk away with some loot, and hopefully some Sanguine Ribbons too.[/li][/ul][ul][li]The lowest-scoring participant who completes the full number of sparring bouts will receive the coveted title of "Wooden Spoon" (currently held by Arwen McDuling who scored a grand total of 3 points in the 5th Tournament) and be entered into the Sanguine Hall of Fame, and will receive 1000 rats. Participants will be encouraged to send this player rats, as well. Lots of rats.[/li][/ul][ul][li]All participants who complete the maximum allowed number of sparring bouts will receive an exclusive Sixth Tournament badge icon, which will be displayed on their Leaderboard entry. Participants are also welcome to use it here in their forum signatures.
How do I sign up?
First, you have to be a member of the Sanguine Ribbon Society. All you need to join is to have a Black Ribbon (which is required in Fallen London to participate in Lethal Sparring Bouts). If you’re not a member already, just head over to the Leaderboard page and add yourself to it, along with a link to your Fallen London profile. In the ‘Applying for’ column of the Leaderboard, just type in ‘Yes’. Congratulations, you’re now officially signed up for the Tournament!
When does the tournament begin?
Signups for the tournament will conclude at the end of March. The tournament will commence a few days after that, and will be announced here in the forum and on the Fallen London subreddit (& Discord, maybe; I haven’t used it much). During the event, participants will be responsible for recording the outcome of their bouts on the 6th Tournament log page. I will send in-game letters to all registered participants to notify them when the tournament has officially started.
Feedback and suggestions are welcome, and feel free to post here or contact me directly (either via PM or in-game) with any questions about the tournament or the SRS. Please note that the rules are subject to change prior to signup cut-off date; if there are changes, I will update the official Sixth Tournament rules page and note them in the announcement when the event starts. For now, you can indicate your interest by signing up as described above, and keep an eye out here and/or on the Fallen London subreddit for the official start date announcement. Until then, keep your blades sharp and your wits sharper still.
EDIT: Signups are now closed. The tournament will commence in a day or so; I will make send in-game letters to all participants and announce the official start at that time. edited by James Sinclair on 4/1/2020
Participants: please carefully review the tournament rules before beginning, and record the outcome of all your bouts on the Tournament Log page. Remember to accept or decline all Lethal Sparring Bout invitations in a timely manner, and when challenging another participant, indicate in your message that it is for the tournament. You can refer to the roster page for quick links to participant profiles.
Contact me if you have any questions or issues, either via PM or in-game (link to my profile is below). Finally, if you wish to withdraw, please let me know as soon as possible. Good luck, have fun, and remember: keep your blade sharp, and your wits sharper.
[quote=Tsar Koschei]Just to confirm, there’s no reason we can’t attack the same person twice?[/quote]While I don’t have any legal authority, I think the rules make it clear that this is allowed.
Which does shift the ideal strategy to finding 9 "easier" wins and attacking 8 of them twice, but eh. To each their own.
It does seem like the rather obvious thing to do if you want to secure the win, assuming they all accept.
One thing I’m finding a bit difficult to manage is people not responding to challenges. The page suggests cancelling, but unless I’m missing something I can only cancel a bout that’s already in progress, I haven’t found a way to recall a challenge. That makes things rather tricky, since if you then, say, accept a challenge from someone else, due to bugs in the system the other person might accept your earlier invite at any moment and ruin the duel begun first. edited by Tsar Koschei on 4/6/2020
I feel for you. I’m very happy I finally made it into my first tournament. I wouldn’t have realized this one had started, either, unless my first opponent had wished me luck at the end of our duel.
[quote=Tsar Koschei]Just to confirm, there’s no reason we can’t attack the same person twice?[/quote]That is correct. You can spar with any other participant up to two times, in any combination of attacks and defends. I made this change because in the last couple of tournaments, towards the end people started running out of opponents to spar with; everyone else had maxed out their sparring roster, had withdrawn, or disappeared. Hopefully this will provide more targets and prevent participants from getting stuck.
[quote=Tsar Koschei]It does seem like the rather obvious thing to do if you want to secure the win, assuming they all accept.[/quote]It’s ultimately up to the challenged party to decide if they want to accept. They’re under no obligation to. I would advise that weaker players avoid attacks from strong players, but it’s ultimately up to the participants to decide what to do – that’s part of the fun. Good luck!
[quote=Tsar Koschei]One thing I’m finding a bit difficult to manage is people not responding to challenges. The page suggests cancelling, but unless I’m missing something I can only cancel a bout that’s already in progress, I haven’t found a way to recall a challenge. That makes things rather tricky, since if you then, say, accept a challenge from someone else, due to bugs in the system the other person might accept your earlier invite at any moment and ruin the duel begun first.[/quote]Yes, there are some unfortunate mechanical issues where the communication wires get crossed (figuratively speaking). I was hoping FBG would have the social actions sorted out by now. The only way around this that I can see is to write to your opponent beforehand (such as by letter or coffee invite, or forum PM) to ask whether or not they’re interested before sending a lethal sparring bout request. That’s clunky, I know. Hopefully the bugs won’t cause too many problems.
[quote=James Sinclair]It’s ultimately up to the challenged party to decide if they want to accept. They’re under no obligation to. I would advise that weaker players avoid attacks from strong players, but it’s ultimately up to the participants to decide what to do – that’s part of the fun. Good luck![/quote]So far everyone has opted for courage over tactics. Whether they would accept rematches is of course an open question, but I am, for the time being, refraining from double-dipping in the name of being sporting, since my main rival appears to be doing the same.
[quote=James Sinclair]Yes, there are some unfortunate mechanical issues where the communication wires get crossed (figuratively speaking). I was hoping FBG would have the social actions sorted out by now. The only way around this that I can see is to write to your opponent beforehand (such as by letter or coffee invite, or forum PM) to ask whether or not they’re interested before sending a lethal sparring bout request. That’s clunky, I know. Hopefully the bugs won’t cause too many problems.[/quote]I’ve had one challenge left hanging for some time now, but in the end I just sent them a note asking them to refrain from accepting without contacting me first, so that I could get on with the tournament. Since then the main inconvenience has been having to turn down challenges sent to me while I had outgoing challenges of my own, so as to avoid keeping anyone waiting too long. A sudden rise in interest in fighting me may mean I will have to put my offensive strategy on hold for a while, though. It hardly seems right to keep refusing all comers. edited by Tsar Koschei on 4/7/2020
Heads up that Lord Misfortune isn’t active and I have an invitation sent 7 days ago. At this stage I can’t cancel it nor do I want to initiate another duel because that can lead to bugs. :(
That’s the situation I had with Hikod earlier. After waiting a while, I just sent her a message asking her not to accept my challenge without consulting me about it first. It’s really the only way you can keep playing.
It’s interesting watching the standings develop. From the looks of it all the prize positions are quite likely already decided, but there still exists the possibility of an upset on third place. The wooden spoon is close to locked up, but potentially headed for a tie breaker.
There are currently four participants in the tournament who haven’t recorded any lethal sparring bouts. I contacted them a couple of weeks ago to remind them about the tournament, but received no reply. I will try again, although in future tournaments I’ll add a clause in the rules about disqualifying participants if they haven’t recorded any bouts after a certain (generous) amount of time.
Some of my opponents have also been remiss in recording the results of our duels, and those they’ve fought with others as well, from the looks of it. It’s rather strange, participating in the fights but not the logging.
Also, it would appear we’re in for a wooden spoon showdown.
