IDTGA Rules

The rules for It's Dangerous to go Alone, our flagship, solo registration tournament!

Format

Due to the large number of signups, players are seperated into multiple skill brackets to keep players close in skill level with each other. There is a registration cap of 50 teams (200 players).

All brackets are run independently of one another and have their own preliminaries and top cut.

The skill brackets are, in order of highest skill to lowest skill: Master, Power, Wisdom, and Courage. Note that the Master and Wisdom brackets may not always be active depending on the number of signups.

Preliminaries:

  • Format: Swiss
  • Matches: Play all 3
  • The number of rounds will be determined by the amount of teams in the bracket.
  • There is no elimination, remember to play all of your rounds!

Top Cut:

  • Format: Single Elimination
  • Matches: Best of 5
  • The top 4 teams advance from the preliminaries.
  • There is no 3rd place match. 3rd place is determined by preliminary results.

Schedule

This is the general schedule for each season, if you want to see the dates for the current season, please check out the schedule listed on your profile.

  1. Registration opens!

  2. 4 days before the tournament:

    Check-in opens 24 hours before registration closes! Please remember to check-in within those 24 hours or you will be removed from the tournament.

  3. 3 days before the tournament:

    Both registration and check-in closes, if you haven't checked in by this point you will be removed. You're still able to sign up as an emergency sub!

  4. 2 days before the tournament:

    Teams are revealed for players to practice with. Once confirming team name and captain, teams must register in the Nintendo Tournament Manager on the Nintendo Switch Online mobile application.

  5. 24 hours before the tournament:

    The #reporting-players channel is opened. For more info, please refer to the Reporting Players section.

  6. The tournament begins!

    All tournaments begin on the same minute/hour, but may be at a different hour depending on your timezone. Only standard timezones are listed below, if daylight savings / summer time is in effect, please add an hour:

    PST  - 12pm Saturday
MST  - 1pm Saturday
CST  - 2pm Saturday
EST  - 3pm Saturday
GMT  - 8pm Saturday
CET  - 9pm Saturday
JST  - 5am Sunday
AEST - 6am Sunday

    The tournament is scheduled to last 4:00 hours total.

    • Preliminaries take approximately 2:25 hours in total.
    • Top cut take approximately 1:35 hours in total.

Round Durations

  • Each swiss round lasts 35 minutes.
  • Each top cut round lasts 40 minutes.
  • The very first swiss round lasts 5 more minutes, for 40 minutes total.
  • Players must start their matches within 5 minutes of the round (or 10 minutes for the first round).
    • If the match has not started yet, the first game will be automatically awarded to the waiting team.
    • For each additional 5 minutes that the match still hasn't started, another game will be awarded.
    • Please Contact the Director, and follow the instructions listed below in Match Issues to resolve this issue.
  • There is a 5-minute break before finals commence.

If a match has not been completed by the end of the round, players are to not play any more matches, and the set will be marked as a draw.

If a team abuses this feature, it will result in an instant disqualification from the tournament.

Nintendo Tournament Manager

Entering the Tournament

Once teams have been published, team captains are responsible for registering their team onto the Nintendo Tournament Manager. For a full in-depth instructions on how to do this and use the Nintendo Tournament Manager, please refer to the official help document from Nintendo.

Teams must be registered to the tournament prior to the tournament commencement, otherwise they will be disqualified. If a team has a substituion prior to the commencement of the tournament, the new player will need to be added into the team to use the features of the Nintendo Tournament Manager. If a player is substituted after the commencement of the tournament, see the match issues below.

Match Issues

If there is an issue regarding your match, and you need to speak with either your opponents or the TOs, please select the Contact the Director option, and select the most applicable option. This is so your opponents also know to look in the Discord server before proceeding with the match. Then, in the Off the Dial Discord server, please create a forum post in your bracket's respective forum channel. You must also quote your match number (e.g. 003).

If your team has had a substitute after the tournament commencement time, you will need to create standard Private Battle matches. Start by Contacting the Director to signal an issue, following all instructions above and organise a PB lobby in the Discord forum channel.

Disconnects (DC)

To end the game early, any player can push the ZL, ZR, L, R as well as pushing down the two sticks all at the same time for 3 seconds. This is not a rage-quit feature, misuse of this feature will result in the entire set loss. Abuse of this feature will result in disqualification and/or a permanent ban. Remember to use the switch capture feature to record misuse if it has occured.

If either 2 DCs occur in the same lobby, the host DCs, or there are a significant amount of complaints about lag; the team currently not hosting must host the new lobby.

To reduce the chances of a DC happening, please check you have a good internet connection with low ping and/or have a LAN adapter for a smoother experience. If not, consider switching hosts.

If there's a dispute, or something unforseen occurs during the set, feel free to bring it up to helpdesk.

Redo the game if:

  • The objective has not passed 50 points remaining for either team.
  • The game has not passed 2:30 before the DC has occured.
  • Both teams use the same weapons/gear shown on the results screen.

Do NOT redo the game if:

  • Any player on the same team DC's again the same round.
  • There was a misuse of ending the game early, see above.

If the host DCs after 50 points remaining and the timer has passed 2:30, the game is awarded to the team without a DC with no redo.

Reporting players

Sometimes, your team needs a replacement for one of your team members. Some examples may include:

  • A team member notifies you that something has come up and they need to drop out.
  • A team member just isn't responding to any of your messages.
  • A team member is being toxic to the rest of your team.
  • A team member is making one or more of your other team members uncomfortable.

To solve this, Off the Dial has a system for reporting such players and receiving a sub, to make sure that your team can have a good experience in the tournament!

  • Your team can report players 24 hours after teams are released.
  • Everyone on your team (besides the player getting reported) must approve of the report.
  • Your sub is not allowed to play for any other player on your team except for the reported player they are replacing.
  • Once your sub is assigned, the reported player is no longer allowed to play.
  • This is an irreversible action, so be thoughtful when you report!

How to report

To report a player, send a message in the #reporting channel, formatted like this:

@Lynel - Reason for reporting

If you don't feel comfortable reporting them publicly, you can send a staff member a DM 💙.

  • Please ping the person that you are reporting, don't just give their username.
  • For better chances of approval, make sure your reason is specific and detailed. for example:

    @Lynel - Despite their status being set to online, they haven't responded to any of our DMs since teams have been created, multiple of our team members have attempted to get in contact with them, but to no avail.

Once you have made your report, our staff members will update you with the status of your report by reacting to your report message:

  • 🗒️ - We've noted your report, and are working on matching a sub.
  • ✅ - The report has been resolved, we have assigned a sub.
  • 🚫 - We don't approve of the report. This usually doesn't happen, assuming you did everything correctly.

If there is no reaction, we haven't seen your report yet. Please note that it may take up to 24 hours to recieve a sub.

Receiving your sub

Once you've been assigned your sub, you should see a reply to your original report, usually formatted like this:

@DJam98 > @Lynel

You now know your sub. Friend them on discord, add them to your group chat, and hopefully get some practice in!

When we have no available subs

Sometimes, there are no available subs to substitute for missing players. In this case, the team is responsible for finding a new sub. This can be done by using the #lf-pickup channel in Off the Dial, or on another server.

Subs must be approved by a TO and have signed up as a sub at otd.ink/signup.

If all options are exhausted, your team will be disbanded and become emergency subs.

Team Updates

Changing Captains

Usually, the player with the highest signal strength is automatically assigned as captain.

If you were assigned as captain but would like to opt out, please talk to your team to decide who will be captain, and let a staff member know in the #team-updates at the latest 12 hours before the tournament starts.

Changing Names

Team names are randomly generated. If you want to change your team name, here are the following conditions:

  • Must be posted in the #team-updates at the latest 12 hours before the tournament starts.
  • Must be a 2-word alliteration that starts with the same letter as the original team name.
  • Must be appropriate, use common sense for this one.
  • Must be under 25 characters.
  • Must be approved by a staff member (indicated by a checkmark reaction to the message)

Cheating

Forms of cheating include, but are not limited to, playing under false names, bracket manipulation, providing false information in your profile or on start.gg, anything considered cheating by Nintendo, controller mods, and failure to comply with any of the rules on this document.

If you cheat:

  • Instant disqualification from the tournament.
  • A permanent ban from Off the Dial and all tournaments.

This is a strict no-chances policy, and we do not make exceptions to this. Staff also reserve the right to disqualify or ban players at their discretion.

Others

  • Rules are subject to change between seasons, Make sure to reread the rules each season, you can check the patch notes to see what we changed.
  • Signups are first-come-first serve. If there are an uneven number of players, the last ones will be removed. Make sure to sign up early!
  • If you drop out after check-in closes, you will be suspended from playing in the next season.
  • If third-party services, such as Nintendo Online become unavaliable, the tournament may be delayed, change format, or even cancelled. If we need to make adjustments, please be patient with us.
  • Head TOs reserve the right to make any changes to the tournament at any time on a case by case basis.
  • Additional info regarding the tournament can be also found in our FAQ.
  • By registering you agree to abide by our terms and conditions, thank you!

That’s it! If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to ask in #helpdesk. Good luck in the tournament!