Greetings all,

Today we are bringing you some technical updates on Great Jedi War XII! We're extremely excited for what we have in store for this War, not only because of the emergence of The Collective and the opportunities they hold for fictional development across the club, but also because we're getting a chance to utilize many more competitions than in past Great Jedi Wars. Today, I'm going to explain how we plan to handle so many competitions, how members will earn participation in the war (and subsequently a bit about scoring), release signups for two gaming brackets that will run the duration of the War, and detail what team competitions you can expect. The War will start in one week, last for five weeks, and be made up of two individual two week phases, and one event long phase running concurrently to the two week phases.

Participation and Competition Types: Bins

For this War, the Dark Council has worked hard to create plenty of enjoyable activities for every member. In previous events, we were always worried about running too many competitions, as participation points invariably put pressure on members to "do all the things!" While we think it is important for members to participate in competitions outside their comfort zone, we also recognize that members doing 20 competitions in 5 weeks - especially if most of those are not things those members would routinely do and enjoy - is a bit much for some. Plus, we feel strongly that any member should be able to earn as much participation as an event has to offer, which served to limit the gaming platforms and competition types we could utilize in past events.

To that end, we are grouping competition types within a phase into a single participation category we are calling a 'bin.' For example, we might run a Jedi Academy competition and a Pazaak competition in the same phase - these two competitions would occupy the same competition category or bin. Members participating in one of these competitions, the other, or both competitions earn the same amount of participation points for their Clan. However, members can still place individually in each competition, earning their unit points for placing, as well as netting Seals, credits, and potentially Novae. Each two week phase has competition types/bins for fiction, gaming, graphics, and miscellaneous.

For members participating in the pre-war ACC competition, they have already earned participation for the 'Combat Writing' bin in the Event Long phase; The 'Combat Writing' bin will also contain a 'single player' combat writing prompt (graded similarly to an ACC match) and the ACC Bracket Tournament for Clan champions. Future news posts will release details on event long bins, and exact participation points of bins. Members that participate in all possible bins during a given phase will also earn a small bonus participation - note that this does not require participating in all competitions in a bin, just one competition in each bin!

Placing in different competitions will earn points depending on the Dark Council's relative view of skill in that competition - as in recent major events of the past, not all competitions will be equal in their placement point contributions. More details on this aspect of scoring will be released soon. Please feel free to ask any questions about bins in the comments here, or you can reach out to me by Telegram or Email as well!

Gaming Signups

Event long gaming will feature two single elimination bracket tournaments (as well as one other gaming option that will not require prior signups). Signups will close at 11:59 PM Pacific on 10/12. Brackets will be organized and released the following day, and we will give participants the maximum possible time to find assigned opponents each round, based on the number of sign ups, but we estimate between two and three days will be given to find an opponent based on signups and the duration of the War. This does mean that participants will have to find opponents during week days, and we recognize that due to time zone differenes this could be difficult, but we think it is still feasible for our members. Exactly how we will handle situations where members do not locate each other is something we will address in later posts by the Fist. If either of these bracket signups passes a threshold we have established internally, one or both could be converted to a 'Ladder' event instead. We prefer the bracket format ourselves, and while there is not unanimous agreement brackets are best, we know many members and leader feel they are superior at determining the most skilled player. These brackets will be in the same bin, and share the bin with one other gaming option that will not require a sign up.

Jedi Academy 1v1 Bracket Tournament Signups - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdSVcHPU6d95rNbTyH4-E-FMpnqUNtrVbQwHuSaQTr0SNhlkQ/viewform
Heroes of the Storm 2v2 Bracket Tournament Signups - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSftd2hYSL_U5OmQ5oaoOX6y5bN6fIc1FzrDKYzzSOnTKCzJ9w/viewform
Note that members may only sign up for one Heroes of the Storm team; members signed up for more than one team risk disqualification for both teams if we can not resolve the teams before the War. We will make efforts to contact members to avoid this, but the responsibility is on the members to not agree to be on multiple teams!

Team competitions in the War
We have several team competitions slated for the War. In most cases, members may enter at any point before the competition closes, and so we aren't going to be putting up early signups the way we are for a couple of gaming competitions (see above). However, so that members are aware what team competitions will be coming, we're giving you guys a few details on these competitions. Note that all competitions will allow for small team sizes to earn at least participation (and some may be entered by single members for full chance at placement). Maximum team size is still being finalized, but all team competitions will have at least 4 members on each team. The current slate of team competitions (in no particular order, and with team sizes dependent on the particular comp) are: Run-On, Battle Plan, Voice Acting, Graphics & Text, and Heroes of the Storm. So go ahead and start planning with your Clanmates!

Expect quick releases of ever more GJW-related information in the coming days! For now, have a great weekend!

Telaris "Mav" Cantor

Deputy Grand Master