timp, Daaanty, & Hurfydurfy, co-hosts of

Go Mode: A Link to the Past Randomizer Podcast

are pleased to announce the return of the

GO MODE PODCAST: MENTOR TOURNAMENT 2023!

Summer 2023 (June – August)

Last Update: May 4. 2023 

Already familiar with GMP Mentor Tournament rules from last year? Scan for the NEW FOR 2023 entries to see what’s new this year!

What is the Mentor Tournament?

During the summer of 2019, the co-hosts of the Go Mode Podcast (timp, Hurfydurfy, and Axeil at the time) wanted to put on a tournament in which all of their listeners could participate if they chose, whether they were brand new to ALTTPR or seasoned vets. Given that Go Mode is big on promoting improvement and participation within the Rando community, they liked the idea of focusing the tournament on the concept of improvement. Thanks to some brainstorming in our community and a particularly great suggestion from a listener, the Go Mode Podcast Mentor Tournament was born!

The Go Mode Podcast Mentor Tournament (GMPMT for short) has had four very successful seasons, hosting over 230 Racers, dozens of Mentors, and a dedicated crew of volunteers. Now, timp, Daaanty, and Hurfydurfy are ready to bring it back for Season 5 in 2023.

How Do I Get Involved? SIGN UP HERE!

We have an all-purpose Signup Sheet for you to fill out, but here are some general criteria of what we’re looking for in each role.

Racers: New to the game/racing, has room for improvement, open to accepting feedback in real time. NEW FOR 2023 For the MT2023, there will be no Racer cap*

Mentors: Has experience with the game & some form of accolade(s) to prove it; able to patiently explain ALTTPR concepts and work with new people over voice chat.

Commentating/Tracking/Restreaming: An interest and a willingness to learn by doing.

Sign-up Cutoff Date for Racers: Fri, June 2, 2023, 11:59 PM EDT (Mentors & volunteers may continue to sign up after this date)

First Group Stage Races: Mon, June 12, 12:00 AM EDT

*”no cap” refers to the absence of the 64-racer cap that has been in place the last 3 tournaments. We may still reserve the right to enforce a cap if registered Racers begins to exclude total Mentors signed up.

Tournament Guidelines

How are Racers and Mentors Chosen?

Racers Selection Process Considerations

• Did the Racer submit an application during the initial 2 week period?
• Is the Racer green/inexperienced?

We will be asking for racers to provide self-assessments to determine if they are eligible to participate in the tournament, as well as asking all potential racers to run two seeds asynchronously and submit their times. The seeds and submission form can both be found in the #mt-async-seeds channel of our Discord. These times (kept private until the end of the tournament) will give us a better idea of how to initially seed entrants in the 1st week of the group stage of the tournament. Please submit the results of both seeds before Friday, June 9th at 11:59 PM EDT.

These async seed results also help us determine a reasonable cutoff for entry. There are no lower limits, meaning a Racer could be brand new to the game and still eligible. However, admins may reserve the right to ask an applicant who is interested in Racing to instead consider mentoring if their skill level seems like it may be too high compared to the rest of the Racers. More on these async seeds below.

Mentor Selection Process Considerations

• Has the Mentor submitted an application at any point?
• Does the Mentor have some justification to demonstrate their ability to mentor a new Racer?
• Do they have some degree of availability?

There will be no cap to the number of Mentors allowed to participate. Additionally, we would encourage folks who may be on the fence about this to go ahead and apply if interested. Even Mentors with “intermediate” knowledge of the game can still make great Mentors, especially for newer Racers!

Async Aptitude Seeds

During the period of sign-ups, participants will be asked to complete two async seeds on their own and report their finish times to the admins (Async, short for asynchronous, means that you will play these seeds on your own time and offline.) These seeds, as well as the submission form, can be found in the #mt-async-seeds channel of the GMP Discord. Once completed, participants will report their In Game Time and collection rate, which can be found on the final ending screen.

Before Group stages begin, we will take both async seed times for each participant into account and use them to help inform preliminary seeding for Week 1. This will ensure that Week 1 races are evenly matched, and also help us to match up racers with appropriately skilled mentors.

Failure to complete one or both of these async seeds before the end of the day on June 9th may result in a Racer’s exclusion from the tournament. If you are concerned that you may not be able to complete these seeds in the time allotted, please reach out to a Mentor Tournament Admin in the GMP Discord.

Organized Pre-Tournament Training

NEW FOR 2023 Boots Camp VODs: Go Mode will not be rerunning the Boots Camp videos from 2021 this year, but links to the series are available here. These contain a wealth of tips from many high-level runners. Watching these VODs will help teach you new tactics and strategies you may not have considered before.

• “Movement and Tricks” by P-Train
• “Basic Dungeon Routing” by Espeon
• “Boss Strategy” by Daaanty
• “End Game Strategy: GT, Agahnim & Ganon” by Sailor Nep
• “Mock Mentor Seed” by Laoria & SEJay

NEW FOR 2023 VOD Critique from Experienced Runners: This year, mentees can submit a VOD to be reviewed and critiqued live and in real time on Go Mode Podcast’s Twitch channel. An experienced runner will review movement, routing, and execution on a mentee’s recent VOD and offer positive and encouraging feedback. These reviews are expected to take place once each night during the week between the end of sign-ups and the beginning of the tournament, June 5th through June 9th.

NEW FOR 2023 Mentee live races: Regularly each week through the tournament, we would love to host a live race on GMP featuring only the mentees. Restreams may or may not be organized for this event, but if they are there is no obligation to be featured on the restream. All mentees are welcome to join in this exhibition race.

Participation in Organized Pre-Tournament Activities is 100% optional.

Racer/Mentor Matching Process

Setting Up a Race: Racers will be given a group of opponents to race twice every two weeks for 6 weeks in a modified Swiss-system of group rounds. Once opponents have been identified, Racers will be responsible for securing a Mentor for their races. Racers will then consult the 2023 Mentor Availability Schedule to find a mentor with availability that matches their own. Racers do not need to use the same mentor every race; in fact, it can be a good thing to switch up your mentor to get a better perspective week to week.

We strongly encourage you to choose a mentor, and THEN schedule a race time along with your opponent and their mentor. This way, the four of you can work out a race time that works for everybody.

1. If you have a specific Mentor from the community in mind, feel free to reach out to them directly to confirm them as your Mentor.
2. If you don’t have a Mentor in mind, you’ll head to the #mt-racer channel of our Discord to find one. We will have a list of all registered Mentors and some info about each of them to peruse, including a Mentor Availability Schedule.

We recommend considering both availability and areas of expertise when choosing a Mentor to reach out to.

• Next to each mentor’s name will be the total number of races they’ve mentored over the last 7 days. Please take this number into consideration when you decide to reach out, and consider mentors with a lower number in this column first. Only reach out to a mentor who has hit their number of preferred races if you have zero other options.
• Once you know the Mentor you’d like to work with (along with 1-2 backups in mind), ping them in the channel or DM them to ask. PLEASE! Be respectful of Time Zones! Keep pings and DMs between 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM THEIR TIME as a courtesy.

Once both Racers have a Mentor lined up, it’s time for all four parties to coordinate a race time that works for everyone. In the event that 2 Racers and 1 Mentor can make a time work but the 2nd Mentor cannot, that Racer’s Mentor may then choose to reach out to a different Mentor who is available at that time if they wish.

Time Commitment, Racers: One to two races per week for 6 weeks starting June 12th (total of 6 races), then 2-3 races a week for up to 4 weeks in brackets.

Time Commitment, Mentors: If and when a Racer reaches out, Mentors will be expected to try to make an effort to attend the race and participate if possible. Racers and Mentors may also work out “practice time” on their own time if desired (though this is not a requirement by any means)

The Format

After Boots Camp and the two asyncs are finished, the tournament proper will be divided into two phases: Group Swiss Rounds and Finals Brackets.

Group Swiss Rounds: Once the final pool of Racers has been locked in, the admins will use the results of the two async seeds to determine initial seeding for Week 1 of the Swiss rounds.

NEW FOR 2023 Racers will not take part in a single 6-week Swiss group phase. Rather, the racers will be split into groups of 3. For two weeks, the racers will race the other players in their group once. After two weeks, racers with similar records will be grouped for the next phase. This shuffle will happen twice in the group phase giving each racer 6 races total.

No stream delay will be required for the Swiss rounds.

Swiss rounds will feature a variety of modes.

Bracket Tiebreakers: Because there are only six weeks of Swiss, there will be many racers who have identical win-loss records. To place racers in their proper brackets, we will be using a set of tiebreakers at the end of the Swiss stage. UPDATED FOR 2023:

1. Swiss system points (1 pt per win)
2. Buchholz (strength of schedule, sum of points of all opponents the racer faced)
3. Wins vs Tied Participants (of the same point value)
4. Head to head scores
5. Time difference vs opponents

All races will have a time difference capped at 15 minutes. A forfeit match will have a time difference of 15 minutes.

Brackets: Standings at the end of the Swiss Group Round will seed Racers into brackets. All Racers will make it to a bracket since we plan to host tiered brackets; one for each group of 16 Racers. This means we could have 3, 4 or more brackets depending on the final Racer count. But no matter how many brackets are filled, the bracket consisting of the 16 Racers with the best record will be considered the “Main” bracket.

All Bracket races will be unmentored.

A ten minute stream delay will be required for the bracket stage.

All four rounds of playoffs will be a best of 3 series.

The mode will be chosen from any of the Swiss phases.  Higher seeded player picks the mode for game 1.  Loser of game 1 picks the mode for game 2.  If necessary, loser of game 2 picks the mode for game 3.  The same mode cannot be repeated in a series.

• Playoff R1: July 24 – July 30
• Playoff R2 (Quarterfinals): July 31 – August 6
• Playoff R3 (Semifinals): August 7 – August 13
• Playoff R4 (Finals): August 14 – August 20

Racer & Mentor Pairing Details

Requesting a Mentor by Name: Racers will request specific Mentors by name, but please note that a Mentor’s time is not guaranteed; Mentors will presumably do their best to accommodate specific mentoring requests but if they are unavailable, the Racer will be responsible for reaching out to choose another Mentor.

Requesting a Mentor Generally: If a Racer does not feel comfortable requesting a Mentor by name, they may simply put out a general message in the #mt-racer channel stating that they’re looking for a Mentor to step up. However, at the end of the day, securing a Mentor will be the responsibility of the Racer. Racers will be encouraged to reach out to Admins with any problems or issues during the pairing process.

Voice Chat vs. Text Chat: We will officially recommend that each Racer and Mentor engage in a 2-way voice chat in order to most effectively communicate through a seed. However, Racers are allowed to request any of the following for any reason:

• 2-way voice chat (recommended)
• Mentor on voice, Racer w/ no mic
• Mentor in Discord or Twitch chat

The reason for this rule is to provide Racers with no mic or racers who are anxious about participating in a voice chat an opportunity to still participate in the tournament.

Partial Mentoring: If agreed upon by both the Racer and the Mentor, a Racer may “dismiss” their Mentor before a seed has finished with no penalty. Furthermore, if a Mentor is running late and joins a seed already in progress, that is also allowed, provided that the Mentor has not been “spoiled” on the seed in any way (See cheating definitions below). However, once a Mentor leaves a Racer’s voice or text chat, they may not join again for the rest of the race and are effectively finished in their mentoring duties for that race.

Beginning & Ending Each Race

The 2 racers of each race will ultimately be responsible for setting up & starting each race, as well as reporting the race’s outcome to admins.

DO NOT WORRY if you’re new to racing; not only are there lots of step-by-step guides to help you with these tasks, but Mentors will also be responsible for helping newer Racers work through all of these.

Pre-Race responsibilities include:

• Individual Racer streams (OBS Setup Guide Here)
• Acquisition of a voice chat channel for Racer/Mentor pairs
• Generating the seed (in racetime.gg)
• Setting up a race in racetime.gg (generates the seed, handles the pre-race countdown, and accepts !done’s)

Beginning a race: Open a race room at racetime.gg/alttpr by clicking on the “Start New Race” button. For Swiss (mentored) matches, choose the option “Beat the game (assisted).” For Bracket matches (unmentored), choose “Beat the game.” Generate a seed by typing the appropriate command in the racetime.gg room. Once you load your seed you should double check that your game hash/code matches what is listed in the racetime.gg room. Once racetime.gg recognizes that your Twitch stream is live and you are ready, you can click the Ready button. When both racers are ready, the race countdown will begin.

If the race is being restreamed, your restreamer will gate the racers and will drop from the race room once all racers and crew are ready to start playing/broadcasting.

Ending a race: Once a race is complete, the winning Racer will be responsible for reporting the victory to the admins. This will be done via a designated #mt-race-results channel in the Discord in which the winning and losing times & Mentors will be reported.

TIES: If the runners finish within 2 seconds of each other, a VOD review will be conducted to determine who finished first. A tie will only be declared if both racers finish on the same frame after the retime/review.

Restreaming/Watching Races

The Default: Given that this is a relatively small community tournament run solely by volunteers, restreaming every race is not feasible. However, racetime.gg makes watching a multistream easier than ever with the click of one button. Viewers of these multistreams should feel free to react to the race along with other community members in our #live-races Discord channel.

When Restreams are Possible: In the event that a restream is possible, admins will coordinate with all of the necessary volunteers ahead of time to ensure that an acceptable quality stream can be produced. The Racers will be notified and consent will be gained to broadcast the race. These races will take place on the Go Mode Podcast Twitch Channel.

Winners

The Winning Racer: will receive an opportunity to be interviewed by timp, Daaanty, and/or Hurfydurfy on an episode of Go Mode Podcast, and will receive much praise by all of us and the community at large.

Mentors: The admin team will choose 1 or 2 “VIP Mentors” to invite onto the show to share their experiences. Criteria for this is fluid, but factors considered may include number of races mentored, number of matches “won” as a Mentor, repeated willingness to help out in a time of need, etc.

Cheating

Cheating will result in immediate expulsion from the tournament. Do everything in your power to avoid accusations of cheating. We do not tolerate public accusations of cheating. If you have a concern, please DM one of the admins with your concern. The admins reserve the right to forward any cheating concerns to the Racing Council for evaluation. The following will be defined as Cheating:

Stream Sniping – Watching your opponent’s stream while you play. This includes mentor partners.

Co-op Play – Having someone else play the seed at the same time as you and relay information to you about item locations, routing, etc.

Listening in – Either the racer or mentor listening to/reading the communication between the other racer/mentor team

Intentional Use of Major Glitches – Exploration Glitch, Door Glitches, Wrong Warps, Out-of-Bounds, Fake Flute, YBA, etc. In the event of accidental activation of a major glitch, the racer is to immediately save and quit, or if not possible trigger a console/emulator reset, and the mentor needs to notify a tournament admin about the accidental glitch activation. A list of allowed glitches can be found at ALTTPR Racing Ruleset and referring to the “Competitive” ruleset.

Asymmetric Knowledge Exploitation (the “Insider Coaching Rule”) – Due to mentors being privy to information about ALL participating racers, using knowledge of another racer’s Rando knowledge (or lack thereof) to gain an unfair advantage for your own racer will not be allowed. If a mentor uses information in an opponent’s bio to guide their own racer in a way that provides them an advantage, that mentor will be disqualified.

Emulator-specific Features – Use of Save States, Fast Forward/Rewind, turbo buttons, layer transparency, etc.

Anything else that creates an unfair advantage or otherwise violates the spirit of the tournament as determined by the tournament admins. Remember, this is a Mentor/Learning Tournament. By cheating, you are not only cheating others out of a fun and competitive experience, but you are cheating yourself out of growing and becoming better at this game.

We Can’t Wait to Get Started!

Please feel free to email us at gomodepodcast@gmail.com, tweet at us @GoModePodcast, or ping us on the Go Mode Podcast Discord with any questions or concerns.

Thanks and we’ll see you in Go Mode!