ANNOUNCING THE SAPPHIRE STAR TOURNAMENT SERIES
     We will begin a new tournament series on 1 July 2018 - the Sapphire Star Series. The Platinum Hat and RAT tournaments have ended; it's time for something entirely different. We plan to run at least four Sapphire Star Tournaments through SFBOL in each 12-month period but will consider adding more tournaments if there is enough demand.
     Tournament Marshal Steven P. Petrick will judge the Sapphire tournaments. He will be in charge of rulings, adjudications, wild card assignments, and the tree. He must be CCed on all tournament emails.
     Each tournament will have exactly 16 players; anyone who signs up too late will be put into the next tournament (or might be offered a wild card seat in the first round of the ongoing tournament). There will be four single-elimination rounds resulting in the winner, who will be a Rated Ace.
     There will be a non-refundable $10 entry fee, which must be paid through our web store within one day of registration. Registration is done on SFBOL.
All $160 will be distributed as prizes. There are $10 prizes for 5th-8th place, so if you win one game you get your money back; keep playing to win more. You can take cash or use triple the value of the prize in merchandise or PDF credit. (If used for credit, this must all be used in one order within 30 days of the award. You do not have to use matching cash in redeeming the prize, but will have to pay cash or use prize cash for the shipping costs. Tripled prize credit cannot be used for Shapeways, Starmada, ACTASF, Starline 2500, or SFBOL due to those contracts.) Prize notifications will be distributed within five business days of the conclusion of the final game. The winner is encouraged to write an article on his tactics for Captain's Log (for which he will be paid $50) but is not required to do so.
      There will be strict deadlines: three weeks for round one and two weeks for the later rounds. When matched with an opponent you have 72 hours to agree to a time to play. If the game cannot be completed, you must agree to a schedule to resume the game at the time the session ends, and must finish within the deadline. Any game not completed on time (or if both players request it) will be adjudicated and, if the game is inconclusive, the judge reserves the right to declare both players lost and fill the spot with a wild card. If someone drops out, disappears, or just won't schedule his game and there is time to put a wild card player into his place, we will do this if we can find one. If not, it will count as a forfeit and the other player will win and advance. There will be no forfeits in the final game, even if we have to find a wild card player (or have two players fight for the wild card spot) and start the two-week clock over again. Wild cards for the second and third rounds (and possibly the first round) will come from those who did not advance from those rounds.
      We plan to keep the rules intact for the first Sapphire Star Tournament but we will consider tweaks and changes based on lessons learned for the second and subsequent tournaments.
      Next year, the top finishers in the first few Sapphire Star Tournaments will be offered seats in the annual Sapphire Crown Fleet Captain's Tournament. The only way into the Sapphire Crown tournament is through a Sapphire Star tournament.

     You can download the PDF file for the Sapphire Star Tournament rules here