Detailed rules

The decathlon is a speedrunning contest where participants learn 10 speedruns from April 21 to October 28, 2018, and enter tournaments (on this page), restreamed in French on the Ultime Décathlon Twitch Channel and in English on the Speedgaming Twitch Channel for the chance to qualify for the Ultimate Final, the last tournament of UD6.

BASICS

Learn 10 speedruns one by one, as the games are announced. Each game has specific rules which can be found on the Resources Page. Register your speedruns and submit your PBs as you complete them. You must register in advance for tournaments. Information on how to stream can be found on the Resources Page. Qualification for the Grand Final will take place during the 3 summer tournaments, or during the Last Chance Tournament.

Important dates to remember:

• From April 21 to June 30: One game per week
• July 14: July Tournament Playoffs
• August 11: August Tournament Playoffs
• September 8: September Tournament Playoffs

GAMES

The games will be unveiled one by one, every Saturday starting on April 21. 2 games will be announced at the same time on May 12 and June 9. The games on the list vary in genre and duration, as in previous seasons. Each game follows a specific set of rules that can be found on the Resources Page. Be aware that each game follows a specific category, so the rules can vary greatly from one game to another.

1. Game 1 : Shovel Knight
2. Game 2 : Castlevania : Aria of Sorrow
3. Game 3 : A Story about my Uncle
4. Game 4 : Announcement on May 12
5. Game 5 : Announcement on May 12
6. Game 6 : Announcement on May 26
7. Game 7 : Announcement on June 2
8. Game 8 : Announcement on June 9
9. Game 9 : Announcement on June 9
10. Game 10 : Announcement on June 23

PARTICIPATION RULES

The Ultime Décathlon is open to everyone and is free of charge. When you exceed 100 points in a game, your runs must be recorded (with OBS, for example) locally or on Twitch, and if possible uploaded to YouTube. The free tools to do so and the instructions on how to use them will be posted on the website. The players and organizers are also there to help you! For tournaments, it is necessary to be able to stream. When you complete a run, simply submit it to this website. Your time will then be validated by a moderator, and your score will appear on the championship.

Speedruns must be done on the proper versions of the games, following the specific rules of each category.

Scoring system

UD6 is based on a points system made to reflect the level of players on the complete collection of games:

Each game has a maximum time above which the speedrun will score no points at all. (We encourage you to submit these times on the website anyway!).

Between 1 and 100 points, the points follow a logarithmic rule. Therefore, you need to save more time to go from 1 to 2 points than to go from 99 to 100 points.

Above 100, each point corresponds to a gain of 3, 6 or 9 seconds depending on whether the world record at the start of the season is short, intermediate or long. 200 points is used as an easy to remember rounded value, chosen so that the world record at the start of UD is generally between 210 and 220 points.

There is no point limit, meaning that if a WR is achieved, a player could theoretically get any score. No re-calibration will be done, even though there will certainly be possible score disparities, with games where all players could exceed 200 points and others where it is unthinkable for most to exceed 180 points, for example. This has no impact on rankings and tournament results.

About emulators

All UD games are played on PC for cost and accessibility reasons. If you have the original console (and the correct version of the game) and you have the ability to capture your gameplay, you can play on the original console.

For emulators, it is mandatory to only use those explicitly allowed in the detailed rules for each games.

It is forbidden to use a turbo controller and to make macros. The key binding must follow one simple rule: one key per action, one action per key. Example: The A button on the NES controller must correspond to a single button on your controller, and this button on your controller must not be associated with any other button on the NES controller.

Communication between players and the organization team

Information is transmitted through this site. There is also an open Mumble server that all participants are encouraged to join. UD is essentially based on its community, so do not hesitate to ask questions, interact on Discord, Mumble, or Twitch chats! The visibility of the event is mainly done via twitch, so don't hesitate to stream your progress either!

That said, please get any information you might need on the site first. Most questions can be answered by visiting the Resources Page. One of the most important things is the schedule of the UD, with detailed weekly streams and tournaments that are planned.

Submit a personal best (PB)

For PBs achieved during grinding sessions (meaning: personal training for speedrunning), as soon as you get a new PB (made between the announcement of the game at launch and October 28, 2018 at the end of the Ultimate Final), submit it on the site so that the ranking remains up to date. Submissions are validated by the organizers.

For the PBs achieved during races (made during an official tournament): PBs will be submitted automatically, and will be entered in a 2nd part of the ranking. If this time is better than the PB done during training, both times will be updated simultaneously. Note: Community or fun tournaments do not count in this ranking.

In short : Submit your PB on all games until the end of UD!

Training

You're free to practice all ten games in any way you like. Feel free to talk about your strategy ideas, what you've learn, or anything you've discovered to other runners. The important thing is to learn games together and be part of a speedrunning community. Feel free to organize your own races, to motivate people to run with you, to make tutorials or coach people on the games you know! Search the Resources Page to find tutorials and explanations, and ask your questions.

Tournaments

UD follows 3 phases:

• From April 21 to June 30, the games list will be unveiled one by one. Every Saturday at 5pm CEST / 11am EDT a 2 hours tournament on the game of the week will be organized. Every Sunday at 5 pm CEST a community blind race will be organized and on every Thursday evening at 9 pm CEST a 2nd community race.
• During the months of July, August and September, 3 tournaments of 3 qualifying rounds will be organized. The playoffs will be opened to everyone. The final will be composed of the top 4 players of the semi-final, and the winners of previous tournaments. If a player announces in advance that he/she will not be able to participate in the semi-finals or the final, the first player eliminated will be entered again. The 2 best finalists will qualify directly to the Grand Final. For those eliminated and those who prefer this alternative, official non-competitive tournaments will be held at the same time, called Black Star Tournaments, which are less restrictive.
• The final phases will take place during the month of October: The weekend of October 6 and 7 the Last Chance Tournament will be held, where the last 2 places for the Grand Final will be at stake. The Grand Final will take place on the weekend of October 13 and 14. The 4 best will qualify for the Ultimate Final, which will take place on October 27 and 28 in Fougères, France.

Tournament details will be available on the Resources Page. Runners must be registered prior to the start of tournaments in order to participate. It is impossible to add a late player once a tournament has started. The restreams of the official tournaments will go through the server of UD, you will find the details on how to stream to it on the Resources Page, to be able to be shown during the restream.

Community races will work the same way, but restreams will be a direct capture of your twitch stream, so just stream on your own channel.

Stars will be given for the following tournaments results:

• Gold stars for the qualified at the Grand Final.
• Silver stars for the finalists of one of the summer tournaments.
• Bronze stars for the semi-finalists of one of the summer tournaments.
• Paper stars for a top 16 in the first round of one of the summer tournaments.
• Black stars will be given upon the first participation in a black star tournament.

Some runners will be restreamed on the Ultime Décathlon Twitch Channel. For this reason it is requested to runners to stream their run to the dedicated server of UD during the official tournaments whenever possible.

The Ultimate Final will see the four Grand Final winners compete against each other and will take place after 4 direct qualification tournaments! Finalists will be invited on location, with their costs covered according to a maximum budget that depends on the success of the tipeee (fundraising campaign for the Ultimate Final).

Achievements and Arrows

Achievements :

Weightlifting icon: in the grind championship, the scores of all your games must be equal to or higher than a certain value (in other words, your lowest score is equal to or higher than a certain value). White (100+), Bronze (140+), Silver (160+), Gold (180+). Shoe Icon: In the Race Championship, the scores of all your games must be equal to or higher than a certain value (in other words, your lowest score is equal to or higher than a certain value). White (100+), Bronze (140+), Silver (160+), Gold (180+). Flash icon: in the grind championship, you have one or more games with a score of 200pts or more. White (1 set), Bronze (2 sets), Silver (4 sets), Gold (8 sets).

Arrows and sheet cosmetics:

• Shovel Knight : Bar filled at 210pts (48:30) ; Arrow at 233pts (45:00)
• Cuphead : Bar filled to 205pts (18:30) ; Arrow to 210pts (18:00)
• A Story About my Uncle : Bar filled to 205pts (29:30)
Arrow to 215pts (28:30)
• Spectraball : Bar filled at 220pts (09:00) ; Arrow at 230pts (08:30)
• Metal Slug : Bar filled at 190pts (12:30) ; Arrow at 210pts (11:30)
• Inertia : Bar filled at 215pts (07:45) ; Arrow at 220pts (07:30)
Castlevania Aria of Sorrow: Bar filled to 215pts (34:45); Arrow to 225pts (33:15)
• Donkey Kong Country : Bar filled at 175pts (38:45) ; Arrow at 200pts (35:00)
• Trials 2 : Bar filled to 220pts (14:00) ; Arrow to 225pts (13:30)
• The End is Nigh : Bar filled at 195pts (20:30) ; Arrow at 205pts (19:30)

Double Arrows :

• For all games: any time in the same points range as the WR, therefore the Double Arrow is relative.