Official Soulcalibur V Post-EVO 2012 Rule Changes!

EVO has just passed... Usually, we wait till after EVO before we start making sweeping changes to the community ruleset, as EVO usually marks the end of the tournament season. Well its that time again and here we go. These changes have been in discussion for several months and these are the final decisions I have come up with based on advice from various community leaders.

Set Construction:

• 3 out of 5 matches in ALL SETS (even finals)

With the speed of Soulcalibur V and how quickly matches can end, it was determined that 2 of 3 in preliminary sets was a bit too quick. MLG has adopted a 3 of 5 in all sets system and the community has appreciated the lengthier battles. Because of this, the community has decided to adopt the MLG set construction. Naturally, we will not be adopting MLG's "extended-series" system.

Infinites:

• All infinites, unless specifically identified are LEGAL until further notice. Most infinites are extremely situational, and thus should be treated as a "ring out". Ring outs are not "broken", if you put yourself in a situation where you could potentially get rung out, that's your fault and you've already done something wrong.
  
  Most infinites are the same; if you put yourself in a situation where you could potentially get infinited, that's your fault and you've already done something wrong. The only real difference is the "ring out" from an infinite is not guaranteed, and the player can mess it up, giving you another chance.

• Viola Back-Throw Infinite is BANNED!
  
  
  
  As you can see in the above video, a single back throw can lead into an easy infinite with repeated back throws. For this rule to be enforced, we have decided that only ONE back-throw will be permitted in sequence.
  
  In addition to this, we will not be permitting Viola back-throw resets! This becomes a "dicey" situation which would be impossible to enforce, so we are simply banning the reset. If a Viola player does a back-throw, waits for a reset, and then does a back-throw reset immediately after, it will be treated the same as the back-throw infinite.
  
  So to sum it up:
  • back-throw > back-throw = BANNED
  • back-throw > reset > back-throw = BANNED

Should a player do a banned infinite, they will surrender the round to the opponent and continue the match. Should the infinite end the round, they will surrender the match to the opponent and continue the set. The reason for this is that it is extremely difficult to "return" to the previous situation with a penalty, so rather than delay the tournament, the offending player will simply receive a harsher penalty.

The Official Tournament Ruleset wiki page has been updated to reflect these changes:
http://8wayrun.com/wiki/tournament-ruleset/

 

tiers become kind of subjective towards the top, so while I can claim viola is the best with the infinite, you can easily disagree and I could not prove it, no tourney results do not prove tiers, S tier characters do not win every tourney, so your whole argument resides on the fact that you do not believe viola is top tier, that is your belief, and cannot really be disproven, so this is a belief issue, but most people believe she is too good with her infinite, the fact is, the best viola players have NOT exploited the infinite, so your argument that since tokido did not win evo is invalid, just because I teach a 4 year old the infinite, doesn't mean they will automatically win, you also need to have good game fundamentals, just because it makes her broken and unbalanced doesn't mean she has an automatic win button

This is certainly true but also the problem. Because Viola players have not tried to exploit it this makes everything in discussion regarding the infinite as pure speculation, or generally untested outside of local competition.

I personally don't understand why a Viola player wouldn't use this when it isn't banned but I'll leave that up to individual players' opinions.

Such is the speculation that most people believe she is too good with her infinite. Maybe a lot of players have expressed this to you, but they haven't to me. I have no doubt you speak to more active players than I do but some kind of mass confirmation would be nice.

There is no doubt that the tactic is strong and equally no doubt that it is unpopular. But Viola is unbalanced and broken because of it? That isn't the full reaction that I'm seeing.

 

I dunno watching that partisan tokido match was pretty convincing, granted more testing would definitively prove one way or another, but I have watched tokido play enough good players to feel no doubt in stating that this infinite should have been banned

granted if you wanted to play on the totally safe side in terms of what is permissible in banning, we could have allowed it to continue, and see how it pans out, but the longer we allow it to go on for "testing purposes", the more victims there would be of this injustice, and we cant retroactively ban things, so like viruses, I think this needed to be quarantined immediately, and ask questions later, frankly viola doesn't need another tool, and not one nearly as effective as this

 

Maybe they don't have to ban that back throw with certain characters that can escape it xD

 

Would you guys like some cheese to go with all that Whine?

Honestly though, if a low tier char had an Infinite that was hard to pull off, extremely situational and didn't interfere with the majority of game mechanics to their advantage - keep it. It adds flavour to the character, it also means that the person who pulls said infinite off in a tournament condition deserves that round win. They have put in the effort to practice it, learn where its applicable and the nerves to sustain it under pressure.
If that infinite was easy to pull off, had a large number of ways in and in a game where you can't burst out and the infinite meant instant lose? That's ban worthy even if the character was originally below a full yoda-tier below Raphael and Aeon. SCV is not a game where you're supposed to have long combos. The majority of combos are 2-3 hit with the rare 14-18 hit beasts. Infinite combos honestly don't belong in the game period except in the rare cases where the combo comes off of such an idealistic starter.

Only 4 Characters I know of can touch of Death, of which viola is the only one where the setup is not extremely situational.

 

Any news on
Attaching the 22a22a22a glitch?

 

Sorry to be REALLY slow here, but where is 1.04 officially mentioned/announced?

 

Sorry to be REALLY slow here, but where is 1.04 officially mentioned/announced?

It isnt, I doubt they will even do one.

 

It isnt, I doubt they will even do one.

Why would they not patch the game?

 

Why would they not patch the game?

TT2 hogging all the attention and money.

 

TT2 hogging all the attention and money.

Makes sense.