Announcing the season0 Celebration Tournament

To show appreciation for the GMs who have been part of the monumental season0 alpha, VBA will be hosting a Celebration Tournament with a $10,000 prize pool! Competing in this high profile showcase will be a free entry reward for the top 128 VBA teams.

What are the prizes?

There is a total prize pool of $10,000. Every team that qualifies for the tournament will walk away with a cash prize.

1st Place Grand Prize: $2,511

2nd Place: $1,026

Teams finishing in the following brackets will win…

Round of 4: $404

Round of 8 : $235

Round of 16 : $141

Round of 32 : $80

Group Stage: $25

What does it cost to enter the tournament?

The season0 Celebration Tournament is a free entry reward for the top 128 VBA teams.

How do I qualify for the season0 Celebration Tournament?

128 teams will compete in the season0 Celebration Tournament.

• 64 teams will be those with the highest Rating Points since the w15 reset.
• 64 teams will be those with the highest earnings in our Cash Prize Contests starting w19.

Starting w19, Cash Prize Contests will no longer impact your Rating Points but participants will still earn Competitive League DIMES.

Each team can earn only one spot in the tournament. If a team qualifies in both Ratings Points and Cash Prize Earnings, only one entry will count, and it will go to the slot in which the team is higher ranked.

In the event of a tie for the final qualification spots, we will do a random selection.

What is the Tournament structure?

1. Group Stage: Inspired by the World Cup, the 128 teams will be split into 16 groups of 8, playing every team twice with a point differential tie breaker. The top 2 teams from each group will move on to the Bracket Stage.
2. Bracket Stage: Remaining teams will be reseeded according to their total wins in the Group Stage (using Points Differential as a tiebreaker). One round will take place each day to allow GMs a chance to manage their lineups. There will be 5 Rounds of best of 3 games (no lineup changes between games), culminating in a Championship Game where one team will walk away the season0 Champion.

Note: Once the tournament begins, teams will not be permitted to use players that were not on their roster at the start of the tournament. Teams will still be able change their starting lineup for each game with players from their tournament roster. Violating this rule means that you will be eliminated from the tournament on the first offense.

Seeding Tie Breaks

In the event of ties with Group Stage seeding (to determine groups), the following tie breaks will be used:

1. Total Lifetime Wins
2. Random Selection

In the event of ties with Bracket Stage qualification and seeding, the following tie breaks will be used:

1. Points Differential within the Group Stage
2. Random Selection

Roster Locks

Once the tournament begins, teams will not be permitted to use players that were not on their roster at the start of the tournament. Teams will still be able change their starting lineup for each game with players from their tournament roster (except during Best-of-3 series in the Bracket Stage). Violating this rule means that you will be eliminated from the tournament on the first offense.

Wen Tournament?

Expect the tournament festivities to begin at the tail end of season0 in early 2023. Exact dates will be released soon, with plenty of time for you to prepare your strategy for climbing to the top of the VBA.

In the meantime, continue to ball out.