ozfortress BBall 2: May Madness '25

BBall returns with BBall 2!

BBall 2, our second iteration of BBall, brings everything from BBall 1 with some minor changes.

Signups

You can sign up for BBall 2 from now, until Thursday, the 8th of May 2025. We aim to have initial seedings out by Friday, the 9th of May, 10 PM AEST at the latest. BBall will be on Saturday, Saturday the 10th of May 2025.

Ok, so what is different about BBall 2 and May Madness '25?

Well, we're bucking tradition. In ozfortress, we tend to call one, two or three-night tournaments "cups", and anything longer a "tournament". We do this to try to make a clearer distinction in format, length, and general approach when it comes to player rewards. If those last few words didn't set off any lightbulbs, in-game medals.

Captains Discord

For BBall 2, we'll be enforcing the use of our Captains Discord. If you aren't sure what that is, you are either a new or returning player (or just enjoy living under your comfy rock, we get it), so we'll give you a quick rundown. For a year now, we've been using the ozfortress Team Captains Discord alongside our seasonal leagues and competitions to instantly connect teams when their match pages on ozfortress.com are generated, giving them an avenue of communication to instantly get the action organised. There are some advantages to this approach of course - we can monitor these chats, issue reminders, and are instantly reachable here with a simple role ping!

For BBall 2, both you and your duo partner (regardless of who is a captain) will need to join this Discord. You can find a link to the Discord in the buttons at the top of the page (under Cup Details). Once you join, please apply for the BBall Captains role in #setup.

Medals

We typically never award medals for cups, but that might be changing. For May Madness '25 (Ultiduo and BBall), players who participate in both events will receive a unique and "new" ozfortress medal. We can't provide a new medal model due to Valve's limitations on that, but we can certainly provide interesting recolours of our existing medals! To be clear, we will be doing this sort of thing sparingly, but for recurring cups like May Madness, we feel it is a unique and interesting way of rewarding those who play both events.

Here's a look at the medal we'll be handing out:

Medals FAQ

We expect you might have some questions, so we'll try to answer a few now!

Q: Do I need to play with the same person/people to obtain a medal?
A: Nope! Medals will be awarded to individuals who play both events.
Q: Participation/Placement?
A: Only a participation medal will be awarded for participating in both cups. We may change this for future events, but for now (and considering this is a trial run), just participation medals!
Q: Won't this just encourage people to play the cup they like, and throw/cause problems in the one they don't?
A: Potentially, and it's something we are hyper-aware of. We'll be detailing further how we plan to combat this before Saturday (the day of), but for now, rest assured our normal rules of disbands making teams ineligible for medals will be enforced, and any outlier cases will be reviewed case-by-case by the administration team post-event. This will allow us to look at any/all cases equally and provide consistent rulings.
Q: When will they be distributed?
A: Well, after May Madness '25. We will need to wait for Valve to add the medals to the game, so that could be quick, or it could be Valve time.

Roster Changes

Yes. As we are adding medals, we will be making some small but healthy changes. In previous BBall events, we have set the maximum roster size at 3, but for BBall 2, we will be lowering this to 2. This is an attempt to limit roster riding, but we don't want this to be too harmful, so we'll be allowing player swaps/substitutions, and admin approval-only mercenaries.

Player Substitution

If prior to the event (the deadline will be 3 PM Saturday the 3rd of May), you need to replace a member of your duo, please ping the @May Madness Staff role within the Captains Discord and we'll work with you to get that done, but please note it may affect the seeding of your duo!

Mercenaries?

Mercenaries will not be allowed for BBall 02, unless it is absolutely necessary. To request a mercenary, you will need to ping the @May Madness Staff role within the Captains Discord and await approval from an administrator. Mercenaries will not be eligible for in-game medals.

Map Pool

BBall 2 will see the return of:

ctf_bball_ozone_ozf

See the schedule page for what maps are being played when!

BBall Ruleset

Coming soon. See our BBall ruleset here.

Match Procedure

When each round starts, matches will be generated. Teams will need to communicate who will be booking the server, with the base expectation that the Home team will book the server (see our Book a Server guide to learn how to book). Teams will need to both load the map and execute the config before playing. We have allowed for extra time between matches, but the scheduling is still tight.

Please start each game as soon as possible, as there is a tight schedule, and delaying will delay the entire cup. If the other team has not shown up five minutes after the server has been booked, message an administrator to claim your forfeit win. Please DO NOT delay for the other team as a courtesy.

After the match is over, please submit and confirm the scores immediately. Posting of logs is mandatory.

Reminders

If you are unsure of whether or not something is considered a game exploit, contact a League Administrator for clarification. Ignorance is not an excuse.