ITS (Infinity Tournament System) Season 5

Branoic

The 2014 ITS season is kicking off on January 10th, with new scenarios, new tournament modes and a new escalation league from Corvus Belli.

There's some exciting additions and changes. Below is copied from an official post on the Infinity ITS forum:

REGIONAL RANKINGS
Infinity’s players community grows constantly. So much they no longer fit in just one ranking! There will be 3 Regional Rankings for the new season: Spain’s Ranking, United States’ Ranking and International Ranking.

That means that, when the season ends, there will be prizes for the best three players in Spain, the best three players in the United States and the best three players in the rest of the world.

In the following season we will add more Regions as the communities in other countries grow.

NEW ITS RATING SYSTEM
With the new rating system, based off the known ELO system, the rating will go up or down depending on the player’s performance: When the organizar sends the tournament results, the system will calculate the expected position for every player using the results from previous tournaments. If the actual position of the player is equal or better than the expected one, his ITS Rating will go up. If the actual position is lower than the expected, his ITS Rating will go down. The greater the difference between the expected and the actual positions, the greater will be the modification.

Who will be able to stay on top?

TOURNAMENT TIERS
One of the most asked features for this new season was to add some variety to the Army Lists’ Points for tournament. Our response is the Tournament Tier.

To keep the organized structured that brought the last season but give some liberty to organizers, there will be 3 Tournament Tiers:

•Low-Tier: The smallest of the tournament tiers is perfect for introducing the ITS to new players. In this Tier, players have up to 200 Points and 4 SWC allowance for their Army Lists. This Tournament Tier is more indulgent with new players, so it’s outcome will have a lesser impact on their ITS Rating.
•Mid-Tier: This is the standard level known by most of the players: 300 Points and 6 SWC allowance.
•Top-Tier: This tier will test veteran players and allow them to deploy more miniatures in the table. In the Top-Tier, army Lists have 400 Points and 8 SWC allowance. This Tountament Tier is ruthless, but also offers a greater reward for the ITS Rating.

NEW FORMATS
During the last season there were two Tournament Formats. In ITS 2014 there will be a total of five different Tournament Formats.

STANDARD TOURNAMENT
The classic format for four or more players playing one versus one games along three or more tournament rounds.

SPEC OPS TOURNAMENT
Last season’s great success. In this format, players are allowed to include one Spec Ops with 12 Experience Points in their Army Lists.

SHOWDOWNS TOURNAMENT
For express tournaments. In this format there is only one tournament round. Perfect for mid-week tournaments or even to let every game count towards yout ITS Rating combining it with a Mini Tournament Pack.

CAMPAIGN TOURNAMENT
This new format adds the Campaign Rules introduced in Campaign: Paradiso to the tournament. After each tournament round, players can use the Objective Points gathered to improve their army lists or their Spec Ops.

JOINT OPERATIONS TOURNAMENT
Tournament for pairs! This format is perfect to let the veteran players help the newcomers. There are two different modes: every team shares their turn or alternate turns for each player.

ITS ESCALATION LEAGUES
Leagues are one of the best ways to support the game in a community. Players play against each other along 8 league rounds, beginning with very reduced lists (just 120 Army Points), perfect for beginners, and raising the bar little by little until playing ITS Scenarios with 300 Points.

As leagues are official ITS events, the results for each league round will modify the ITS Rating for each players but, as leagues are designed primarily for beginners, this modification will be very low (even lower than Low-Tier Tournaments). The best way to begin with Infinity and prepare for ITS Tournaments.

I'm thinking of kicking off an Escalation League in January / February in my LGS (Wicklow Town) leading up to a tournament then once the league is finished. Looking forward to it