With the introduction of seasons in [C] division there has been some implications on tournaments as well... and the Grotty Little Tournament knocks at the door.

Since it is always a bit hard for me finding the right places to look up the needed information, I thought an little overview may help others as well. On the one hand-side this post will try to cover the tournaments and the qualifiers itself, but also the requirements and consequences to take part in these tournaments.

But first of all an important remark: This is not the official overview, but only a collection I did mostly for myself. (Because I somehow miss all the important information.) Bazakastine's blog is a very good source for any official annoucements e.g., the tournament schedule for 2025. The given descriptions are not meant cover the whole rulesets, but only provide a brief overview on the event.

And please also keep in mind that I did use some alternative / not official banners in this overview!*


Meta-Competitions


(Play Blackbox games against random coaches/teams and win as often as possible before you lose three games)


(Create a squad of four official rosters and play 15 Blackbox games against random coaches/teams with each of them)

IDT and BBT play three seasons per year (Jan-Apr, May-Aug, Sep-Dec). Winning one of the two trophies will be awarded as a 'Majors' win (3-star). Winning a roster in IDT will be awarded a 'Minors' win (1-star). Winning 10 games in IDT before the team gets frozen (3 losses) earns the roster badge for you. BBT acts a qualifier for the Steel Gauntlet, where the 32 roster leads/best teams compete. (see below)


Frequent Minors


(Bi-weekly tournament of all fresh/zero Games played teams)


(Weekly tournament in three different TV brackets)

XLF are roster specific tournaments through out the year. Have a look at the tournament homepage and see which of your favourite rosters are played when. (Applications will be open two weeks before the tournament starts) Minors are awarded with 1-star trophies.


(February 5th, April 2nd, June 4th, August 7th, Oktober 1st and December 3rd 2025)


Majors

Applications will open 2 weeks before the tournament begins. Majors will begin on the 3rd Wednesday of their given month (exceptions are Steel Gauntlets).

The given date expresses the start of the tournament. The banner will lead to the page of the Main Tournament, while - if applicable - the date below the banner will lead to the qualifier page.

Winning a Major will be awarded a 3-star trophy, while winning a qualifier will be awarded with 2-stars.


(January 1st 2025)


(Qualifier: January 22nd 2025)


(Qualifier: March 19th 2025 - shifted to 26th LIGHT / DARK)


(May 1st 2025)


(Qualifier: May 14th 2025 BIG / NEW / Special / Forlorn)


(Qualifier: July 16th 2025)


(September 1st 2025)


(October 15th 2025)


other Minors

As with the majors, applications will be open two weeks before the tournament starts. Like the frequent minors, winning one of them will be awarded a 1-star entry on the coach page.


(February 19th / April 16th / September 17th / November 19th)



Tournament Modes and their implications

As mentioned at the beginning this overview shows all the relevant information on the tournament modes used on FUMBBL. Based on that I try to provide some additional information especially for the official [C] division tournaments:

* 'Transparent' and 'Free-Form' are modes that are not used for any of the above mentioned tournaments.

* None of the used tournaments modes allow re-drafting or shifting to End-of-Season state during the tournament.

* Frequent Minors and Minors (as mentioned above) use the mode 'Minor', thus you can apply any C team with 15 or less games. No need to be in End-of-Season state, but you can.

* Qualifiers for a Major use the mode 'Qualifier', thus you need to be in End-of-Season state and are not allowed to have played more than 15 games in this season. When you leave a qualifier you are automatically pushed to End-of-Season state. Which means if you did not win the qualifier you can either re-draft or use the team to play other tournaments (as long as the number of games he team already played in this season allows / is below 15!)

* The Majors use either the 'Major' mode in case you do not need to win a qualifier before entering or the 'Invitational' mode in case you need to win a qualifier. Rational behind is that your team does not need / is not allowed to re-draft after the qualifier and your team may enter the Major ('Invitational') with more than 15 games played in the current season.

* Important to know if you drop out of a Major (no matter if it uses the 'Major' or the 'Invitational' tournament mode) you are obliged to redraft your team!



Hope this is helpful. As always I am happy about any comments.

Cheers,
Chris


*) played around with gimp a bit and managed to create Banner variations for BBT, IDT, RRR, XLF and a little repair-work on the Warpstone Open. Hope the officials do not mind. If otherwise, please tell me and I will delete the banners and/or this blog post. If you like and want to use them, feel free.