Cactus Game Design Message Boards

ROOT Constitution
There are some aspects to ROOT which are somewhat flexible, and which can change from month to month depending on the decisions of the ROOT leadership team.  These would include: how many points winning a game is worth, how many bonus games a person can play in a week, how to handle ghosting situations, and even whether everyone is in a single group or split up into different groups.  The ROOT leadership team is responsible for making these decisions on a monthly basis in order to deal with any issues that may arise in the tournament that need to be dealt with in order to maintain the fundamental aspects of ROOT.  This is done with simply a majority vote of the 3 leaders.  However, those fundamental aspects of ROOT may only be changed by a unanimous decision of the ROOT founder (Soul Seeker) and all members of the Leadership team who are current at the time of the change.

These are the fundamental aspects of ROOT.
1 - ROOT was started as a place for people to be able to play in a tournament who do not have the opportunity to play in physical tournaments.  Therefore, it must always remain open for anyone, anywhere to be able to participate.

2 - Although everyone wants to win a tournament that they enter, the focus of ROOT must always stay on having "Fun and Fellowship" with each other.

3 - The purpose of the prizes in ROOT must always be to increase both the number of participants and the amount of participation.  The RNRS points are motivational for the people who consistently win, and the prize packs must be distributed in some way that it weighted in favor of players who do not consistently win, but who consistently try.

4 - The purpose of points in ROOT must also be to increase the amount of participation as well as to differentiate success.  Therefore, players should always get some points even if they lose every game.

5 - The winner of ROOT each month should be legitimate.  Therefore, winning should naturally be rewarded with more points than losing.  The system of games should also be set up in such a way that the winner had to play the other top players during the month in order to reach and stay in 1st place.

6 - The Leadership Team of ROOT must always be made up of 3 REPs (Real Experienced Players), and at least 1 of them must always be a Redemption Elder.  Each of them will serve a 6-month term (offset from the other 2 members of the Leadership Team).

7 - Logistical considerations must be made to maintain issues that will likely lead to increased "Fun and Fellowship" and participation.  This would include requiring both RTS and Hamachi so that people may easily connect and play with each other.

8 - Logistical considerations must also be made to prevent issues that will likely lead to decreased "Fun and Fellowship" and participation.  This would include limiting the use of Haman's Plot to 3 official games per month, so as to avoid abuse of that card in ways that would not be possible in a traditional tournament.

ROOT Leadership:
       ROOT was originally started as an unofficial online tournament by Jon Greeson (soul seeker).  When it became an official tournament and category of Redemption, he was joined by Gabe Isbel (BrianGabe) and Mark Underwood (Prof Underwood).  This leadership team led ROOT for the first 2 years of its existence.  At that time, the leadership of ROOT began a rotation, which included several other players.

Current Leadership:
  Jan     Feb     Mar     Apr     May     Jun     Jul     Aug     Sep     Oct     Nov     Dec
---------------------------------------------------------][----------------Soul Seeker----------
---------------------------------------------------------][----------------ProfAlstad------------
                                                                        [-----------------jmhartz--------------]
[------------------------Red---------------------------]

Responsibilities of Leadership:
1 - Assign "Official Swiss" games for each week.
2 - Update the "Rankings" thread for each week (before Tue morning).
3 - Award prize packs each month (gather addresses and pack requests to email to Rob).
4 - Update the "Challenge" thread for during the week and make sure challenges are legal.
5 - Update the ROOT Hamachi groups to ensure spots for people.
6 - Update the "Archive" thread each month with the results from the latest month.
7 - Update the "Rules" thread each month (before Tue morning of the 1st week).
8 - Email Rob the top 3 finishers each month so they can receive RNRS points.
9 - Respond to PMs from players.
10 - Track which players are ghosting too much, and are banned temporarily.
11 - Meet monthly to discuss any rule changes.
12 - Handle any issues that may come up.