All Netrunners are warmly invited to Crown of Lasers – a team tournament with very special features – on the Friday of the 2019 NISEI World Championship (4 October). Teams consisting of 3 players will battle it out for the Crown of Lasers and unique prizes.
↳ Special features
Crown of Lasers will be run as a regular team event (details below), with some special features:
- Every participant receives one lasered identity (ID) when they sign in at the event!
- Top prizes consist primarily of additional lasered items.
- Some of the prizes are 100% exclusive to the event.
↳ How does this work?
- Once they have bought their tickets (see below), all participants/teams must tell the tournament organiser (TO) – Jakuza – what IDs they will be playing by Friday, 30 August. See below for more details.
- Your choice of IDs is then “locked”. You will not be able to change your IDs after this date! This is to allow enough time for all the lasered IDs to be made and for any new designs to be created.
- This bears repeating: you cannot change your ID choices after Friday, 30 August (changes before this date are possible, but please try to stick to your initial choices if you can!).
- Decklists are not locked and are handled in exactly the same way as for a regular tournament.
- IDs will be lasered in acrylic or wood.
- The lasered ID you receive when you sign in at the event will be either the Runner or the Corp that you are playing in the Crown of Lasers tournament. The TO will decide whether you receive a Runner or a Corp ID (this depends on various production-related factors).
- Extra IDs will be available for trade or purchase at the event itself.
↳ Tickets
- Participation fee: $35 per 3-person team
Crown of Lasers participation is NOT included in the fee for the main event due to the unique nature and generous prize pool of the event.
- Maximum capacity: 60 (20 teams of 3 people)
We will be starting with a slightly higher number of seats than the last Lasers event (King of Lasers 2018). If we reach maximum capacity quickly enough, we will look at expanding the event.
↳ Registering your IDs and team
Once your team has purchased a ticket, please tell the TO what your team name is, who the 3 players in your team are and what IDs you will all be playing. Contacting the TO directly through Stimslack (look for: Jakuza) is preferred, but you can also use the Stimhack forum topic. Alternatively, you can send an email to op@nullsignal.games with “Crown of Lasers team IDs” as your subject.
↳ Team event
For those not familiar with team Netrunner events, the concept is as follows:
- Teams of 3 players each register for the event by contacting the TO (Jakuza).
- Every player on a team must play a different faction, both on the Runner side and on the Corp side. Mini-factions are considered a single Runner faction.
- We will play 4 or 5 rounds of Swiss, depending on the number of teams registered.
- Prestige is gained as in regular Swiss, with the total team prestige for each round counting towards their total score.
- Teams will be paired according to Swiss rules, with teams with the same (or similar) total prestige facing off. Players in the matchups will then be seated in order of their individual prestige, so the highest prestige player on a team will play the highest prestige player on the opposing team, and so forth for the remaining two players.
- Team talk is allowed – encouraged, even! – except during the last 5 minutes of each round.
↳ Rules and regulations
- TO: Jakuza
- MWL: 3.3 or any update to MWL within 3 weeks of the event (see FAQ)
- Legal cardpool: NISEI Standard
- Decklists: Required
Community created/fan alt arts are explicitly allowed, but please bring the original cards as well if at all possible. If you’re unsure about using certain cards in your deck, please check them with the TO beforehand. We’ll follow a roughly similar approach for proxies, but readability and easy recognizability is key here. We suggest that you use colour proxies, in a high enough print quality (dpi) and backed with an official Netrunner card that is illegal for your deck.
↳ Prizes
- Participation: one acrylic or wooden ID (Corp or Runner at the discretion of the TO, as explained above).
- Plenty of additional prizes will be announced at a later date.
- Champions: personal version of an acrylic or wooden ID to be created together with Jakuza. This can be either a completely new artwork, or a personalized version of an existing ID.
↳ FAQ
What ID do I get for participating?
You get an acrylic or wooden ID for either the Runner or the Corp you’ll be playing during the Crown of Lasers event. In some cases, the ID may be made from another material…
Can I choose whether I get a Corp or Runner ID?
No, but you can definitely state a preference when registering. I’ll try to honor these as much as possible. If you choose a “competitive” ID or one I have an existing design for, you can be pretty sure I’ll be able to honor your request.
This is mainly to avoid me having to hammer out 40+ new designs for singleton IDs in less than 4 weeks. This way I can combine choices for bigger batches, which also helps with the economic viability of the event.
Why not two IDs?
Two reasons. One is simply a matter of cost; the event would have to have an uncomfortably high entrance fee if I were to give everyone who plays two IDs. The second reason is mentioned above – to avoid me having to potentially design 40+ IDs within the span of 4 weeks.
What if you have lasered IDs for both sides I’ll be playing?
If I have enough supply available of both, you can choose one. This is quite likely, as the early ID registration will allow me to properly prepare. If I have spares left after every participant has picked up their first ID and the additional prizes have been put aside, I’ll make them available for trade or purchase.
Why do you need my identity choices so early?
This is partly to give me enough time to actually laser all the IDs. Also, I’ll need a cushion of time for designing new IDs I haven’t done before, which will likely be the most time-consuming part of the process.
Do you need my decklists so early as well?
Luckily no! You’re only locked into your ID choices, not into the actual decks you’ll be playing. I’ll need to know which IDs you’ll be playing by Friday, 30 August, but you can hand in your decklist on the morning of the main event, just like any other tournament.
What is the latest date that I can let you know what IDs I’ll be playing?
The final date for registering your ID choices is Friday, 30 August.
What is the legal cardpool?
NISEI Standard, with MWL 3.3. If there is an MWL update within 3 weeks of the event date, we will follow that MWL.
This does mean that an MWL update could be issued after Friday, 30 August (the point at which your IDs are locked in) but in time for the event itself, meaning that you would be registering your IDs under a different MWL to the one used for the Crown of Lasers and the main NISEI World Championship event. This is an unfortunate consequence of the Crown of Lasers event needing at least a full month of preparation time, but also wanting to follow the same MWL as the main event.
Wait! An MWL update for the event after I’ve locked in my IDs?
Yes. The event will be far easier to play in, organize, etc. if it follows the same MWL as the main event. Crown of Lasers will also require a significant amount of preparation time, as new IDs will need to be designed and lasered, materials will need to be sourced, etc.
Can I register after Friday, 30 August?
If the event isn’t filled to maximum by then, you are very welcome to join us. However, the previous Lasers event reached maximum capacity, and we expect the same to happen here. Also (and this is the worst part), when registering after this date you will not get your participation ID, as materials will have been ordered and prepared by then.
Any restrictions on what I can play?
Just one. Due to the nature of the event, you cannot choose Jinteki Biotech as your Corp ID! Other than that, play whatever you like. You may Rebirth away from your glowing piece of orange acrylic. And I have a solution for SYNC.
I already have things you’ve made! I’ll be playing them! What do I do?
Great! You’re still locked into your registered ID choices though. If you have a preference for one side because you own the other ID you’ll be playing, be sure to let me know. I can’t promise to honor requests like this, but I will do my best.
I don’t have a full team for the Crown of Lasers event. Can you help?
We have a simple solution lined up for this: anyone who doesn’t have a team should visit the Stimhack forums where we will have a topic dedicated to Crown of Lasers. Make a post in that thread saying that you’re looking for teammates, and hopefully you’ll meet other people in the same situation!
