FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: How will the People’s Champion Tournament be different from the Free IF Playoffs?
A: The overall structure is quite similar, but there are some important differences:
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For FIFP, the contestant games were selected on the basis of their standings in the IFDB Top 100 chart at the start of the event. For PCT, contestants must be nominated by one or more fans/players.
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For FIFP, matches began immediately. For PCT, there will be an 8-week “quiet play” period to allow people to play games prior to the start of matches.
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The rules on fan commentary have been changed; the requirement that all comments be “positive” has been removed, though normal forum rules will still apply.
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The rules on voting have been changed; all voting fans must register as part of the PCT Fans group in order to cast votes. Voting on matches will still be anonymous.
Q: How do I nominate games for the tournament?
A: Select up to five different qualifying games and then do one of the following:
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Send a PM to otistdog. I will add you to the PCT Fans group and register your chosen candidates, but your choices will be kept private unless you choose to make one or more of them known.
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Send a PM to FIFP Fans after joining the group. Your choices will be shared with everyone who is already registered as a fan, and I will register them as candidates.
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Make a post onthe nominations thread to boldly announce your backing of your selections. I will add you to the PCT Fans group and register your nominees as candidates.
Please note that at most 64 contestants will be selected for the tournament, but any number of players can nominate games as candidates. A lottery is planned to determine contestant games from among nominated candidates. (See the question about how games will be chosen below.) Once these have been selected, nominations will be closed. (See the question about the tournament schedule below.)
Also note the restrictions on which games can be entered, as discussed in the next question.
Q: Which games can be entered into the tournament?
A: In order to qualify, a nominated game must meet the following criteria:
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The game must be listed on IFDB, and current links to download the game or play it online provided there. (If you want to enter a game not currently listed, go ahead and create a page for it!)
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The game must be legally free to play. This means that the person who owns the rights to the game has formally declared in some written and publicly-inspectable form that anyone is allowed to download and/or play the game without an obligation to pay money or provide identifying information. The vast majority of games listed on IFDB and found in the IF Archive meet this criterion; any game that constitutes an edge case is likely to be rejected.
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The game must not have been a contestant in the Free IF Playoffs. The complete list of those games can be found on IFDB.
In addition, the game must be accessible to non-technical players. This definition is a little fuzzy at the moment, but the guiding principle is that the game should be playable via a widely-used multi-platform interpreter (e.g. Gargoyle) or directly via a web interface. MS-DOS games or other games requiring emulation (e.g. for 8-bit computers such as the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Apple II, TRS-80, etc.) are acceptable if they can be played via a web interface such as that in use at the Internet Archive.
Q: Do I have to enter five games?
A: No, you are allowed to enter up to five games, but you are also encouraged to submit a full five nominations for several reasons.
First, there will be a lottery to decide which candidates become contestants, and the more you submit the more likely that some of your candidates will be chosen. Second, if you see other games that have been nominated which you support, your additional votes for them will give them extra tickets for the lottery. Third, games that are not selected during the lottery will get special mention as having been passed over by the hand of fate, so at the very least it will give a little publicity to any game that you enter.
Q: Can I change my nominations after my initial submission?
A: Yes. You may revise your nominations as many times as you like before the entry deadline. (See the question about the tournament schedule below.) If you made your nominations publicly, you may wish to make changes publicly, so that other players can adjust their own nomination list accordingly.
If you are posting your new picks or updates publicly, please use the nominations thread instead of this one.
Q: Do I have to have played the games that I nominate?
A: No; you can nominate games for any reason you like. Go ahead and use this event as an excuse to get to some of those long-standing residents of your wishlist!
Q: How many rounds will there be?
A: Six, but early rounds will take longer than later rounds, and matches will not begin immediately. (See the question about the overall schedule below.)
Q: 64 games is a lot of games. How will I play them all?
A: It is not expected that each fan will play every game. It is expected that each fan will have tried both games for every match in which that fan casts a vote; that’s part of the honor system governing fans who participate. Between the “quiet play” period and the longer early rounds, you should have time to try the games that interest you the most. And if you don’t manage to fit them all in during the tournament, then you can certainly play them later and share your thoughts on the forum or on IFDB.
Q: How long will each set of matchups last?
A: Two weeks for the early larger rounds (1 and 2) and one week for later smaller rounds (3 through 6). (See the question about the overall schedule below.)
Q: Why are matches two weeks long instead of one week like last time?
A: Because the contestant games for the Free IF Playoffs were all in the top 1/2 of 1% of rated games per the Top 100 algorithm, it was very likely that each fan would have played at least several of them. For this contest, the field is wide open, so it is much less likely that fans will have played any particular game. The extra time in each early round is to give fans a chance to play more games, so that they will be able to vote on more matches. There will also be a “quiet play” period before matches begin, during which contestant games are introduced and early play is encouraged.
Q: Won’t these longer rounds slow down the pace of the tournament?
A: Yes. It was decided to extend the length of the tournament in order to allow more fans to play more games. The alternative was to expect fewer votes in each match because fans participating in good faith would not be able to cast votes. The overall pacing of the tournament will be closer to a television season than to March Madness.
Q: Early rounds will each involve sixteen games! I can’t finish all those games in two weeks!
A: This is why there will be a “quiet play” period before matches begin. It’s also why the rule is that voters should have tried each game in a matchup before voting on it. It’s not required that you complete the game or spend a minimum amount of time with it as with IF Comp, though the 2-hour standard used in IF Comp makes a good rule of thumb. It is suggested that you focus first on games that you haven’t played which are matched against games that you have played.
Q: What exactly do you mean by “trying” a game?
A: I mean that you approach the game with an open mind, give it an honest shot to hook you, and explore it long enough to get a feel for how much you like it. It’s up to you to decide how long that takes, but you should feel comfortable with publicly declaring how long you spent with the game before casting your vote for or against it. This is an honor system, so be honorable. The 2-hour standard used in IF Comp is a reasonable rule of thumb.
Q: What will the schedule be?
A: After competing games are announced on Sunday, January 12, 2025, a “quiet play” period lasting 8 weeks will begin. Community expert mathbrush has agreed to provide a “meet the contestants” review of 8 games each week, to stimulate interest in playing them before matches commence.
The actual tournament matches will begin on Saturday, March 08, 2025. The plan is to run 8 matchups at a time in segments lasting two weeks each for the first two rounds, followed by up to 8 matchups in segments lasting one week for the final four rounds. Note that “segments” means voting periods for a particular set of matchups, and that early rounds have multiple segments due to their size.
Following is the detailed schedule (last updated Jan 03 2025):
- Jan 11 – Nomination Deadline
- Jan 12 – Lottery Results
- Jan 12 to Mar 07 – “Quiet Play” Period (with “Meet the Contestants” posts each week by mathbrush)
- Mar 08 to Mar 22 – Division 1, Round 1
- Mar 22 to Apr 05 – Division 2, Round 1
- Apr 05 to Apr 19 – Division 3, Round 1
- Apr 19 to May 03 – Division 4, Round 1
- May 03 to May 17 – Divisions 1 and 2, Round 2
- May 17 to May 31 – Divisions 3 and 4, Round 2
- May 31 to Jun 07 – All Divisions, Round 3
- Jun 07 to Jun 14 – Division Championships, Round 4
- Jun 14 to Jun 21 – Tournament Semi-Finals, Round 5
- Jun 21 to Jun 28 – Tournament Championship Match, Round 6
Q: Am I supposed to vote just for the game that I like, or the one that I feel is objectively the better game?
A: You’re supposed to vote for the game that you think is the better of a pair, using whatever criteria you think apply – but the rules require that you have at least tried both games in any matchup for which you cast a vote. (See the question about trying games above.)
Q: I want to vote on Game X in a matchup and I’ve never played Game Y with which it is matched. How do I resolve this conundrum?
A: Start playing Game Y!
Q: That’s all I do? Just play and vote?
A: If you’re reading this early in January 2025, then you’re encouraged to submit your own candidates. (See the question about submitting candidates above.) Up to five candidates can be nominated, and the number of independent nominations will influence each game’s chance of being selected. Note that multiple nominations for a single game by the same person will not increase a particular game’s chances, so be sure to choose different games.
You are also encouraged to post the reasons why you nominated a game or voted for it in a match, or just to share your impressions of any work that you try. Lots of people won’t have played the games “competing” in the tournament, and getting people to try new games is one of the main points of the whole event, so your positive impressions are especially valuable. (See the ground rules on discussing games. The short version is: “Stick to the games, and avoid fan brawls.”)
Q: I can’t seem to vote on a matchup. What gives?
A: Fans are required to “register” as voters/players by joining the PCT Fans group. Click that link to go to the registration page, where you can read and accept the rules for the honor system binding players and click the “join” button at top right to be added to the group. Once that is done, you should be able to vote on matches.
PLEASE NOTE: Although this registration is required for all players, your actual votes will be anonymous.
Q: Why is player registration being required? It wasn’t for the Free IF Playoffs.
A: During the Free IF Playoffs, there were a small number of incidents in which votes were cast in a manner not aligned with the honor system binding players. Although these votes did not end up influencing the outcome of any match, player registration is intended to discourage casual bad faith behavior.
All actual voting on matches will remain anonymous.
Q: One of my works is on this list, but I don’t think I want it to be. What can I do?
A: The fact that your work was chosen for the tournament means that at least one fan/player thought it was worth submitting. That’s quite an honor! Also, this “competition” is entirely for fun. If you really wish to withdraw one or more of your games, let me know by post or DM, and I will remove your game(s) from the tournament and choose the necessary replacement(s) from among those games whose tickets were not drawn by lottery.
Q: Can I nominate my own work?
A: Absolutely. Authors are particularly encouraged to nominate any of their works that they feel haven’t gotten as much exposure or attention as they would like, and to participate in commentary during matches to the degree to which they feel comfortable. Feel free to send a direct PM if you prefer not to nominate your own games publicly.
Q: Can I vote in favor of my own work?
A: If you have tried your work’s opponent and honestly feel that yours is the better of the pair, then it is entirely in keeping with the rules to do so. Your opinion counts as much as anyone’s!
Q: Last year the rule for discussion about games was “positive commentary only,” but that’s not the case this year. Please explain.
A: Many participants in the Free IF Playoffs thought that the “positive commentary only” rule was too restricting, and the available evidence suggests that it did have an undesirable chilling effect. As an experiment, the rule limiting discussion to positive commentary is being lifted this year.
Please note that normal forum rules still apply, and are all posts are subject to moderator action. For everyone’s benefit, fans are encouraged to avoid blanket unsupported statements while commenting on games, and to avoid interpreting any comment about a game as a comment about its author or fans. The short version is: “Stick to the games, and avoid fan brawls.”
Q: When will the voting close for each match period?
A: Voting will close sometime circa Saturday evening each appropriate week, per UTC time. The precise time will not be announced and is likely to vary significantly depending on my schedule on those days, but I will wait until at least noon UTC in any case. Late votes will not be accepted – when the whistle blows, the match is over!
Q: What if there is a tie between two games in a match?
A: Should any tie occur, I will flip a coin to declare an arbitrary winner. Fans backing a particular game in a close contest are free to recruit others to play by the rules and in good faith before the match period is over. Remember: This is an honor system, so be honorable. This is only for fun!
Q: How will games be chosen for the tournament?
A: Contestant games will be chosen based on submissions by fans/players during the period January 01 to January 11, 2025. Each fan is entitled to submit up to 5 games and is encouraged to submit five picks. Each independent nomination of a game by a fan will result in that game being granted one “ticket” for a lottery drawing. Once all games are received, the lottery will be held, and the first 64 games for which tickets are drawn will be selected. Non-selected games, along with the number of their independent nominations, will be announced after the drawing.
Any game that is not officially free to play will be rejected, and notice sent to the submitter to allow a replacement if time permits. No new contestant game candidates will be accepted after 11:59P January 11, 2025 UTC.
Q: How will assignments to divisions and matches be decided for each game?
A: This will be the total process:
- A total of 64 games will be selected based on fan submissions and a lottery. (See the question on how games will be chosen above.)
- All selected games will be placed in a spreadsheet and assigned two columns of random numbers using the built-in spreadsheet function.
- All selected games will be sorted by the two random columns.
- Divisions will be assigned by each game’s placement in the first 16 rows (Division 1), second 16 rows (Division 2), etc. after the sort.
- Round 1 matches will be assigned by top row vs. next (Match 01), third row vs. fourth (Match 02), etc. after the sort.
- All Round 2 and later matchups will be based on the ladder structure for the tournament.
Q: Hey! I only just found out about this and missed the beginning!
A: I’m glad that you want to participate – your rules-abiding, good faith votes and commentary will help make the tournament better for everyone. The good news is that the tournament will be going for some time, so you’ll get plenty of chance to take part. (See the question about the schedule above.)
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If it’s before submissions are due, then you can still enter your own picks for the tournament by sending a PM to me or a more public method – up to five different games, the more the merrier. (See the question about nominating candidates above.)
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If it’s after submissions are due but before before the matches have begun, then you can still register as a fan and participate in the “quiet play” period to familiarize yourself with contestant games, in preparation for voting during the matches.
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If matches have already begun, then there’s almost certainly time for you to try new games and get in a few votes before the end of the current segment. Click here to be taken to the PCT Fans registration page, where you can read and accept the rules for the honor system binding players and click the “join” button at top right to be added to the group. Once that it done, you should be able to cast your vote.
Q: Who made the cool player/fan flair icon, and how can I use it?
A: The trophy-and-laurels flair icon was created by FLACRabbit. In order to use it, you must first sign up for the PCT Fans group. After you’ve done that, you can select the flair from your account preferences. Feel free to make use of it to show your support!
