UBFC/Rules

This page describes the rules of the UBFC.

Summary
Fighters (buttons) within a "weight class" (range of overall winning percentage) are ranked, with a champion, a top contender, and so on down. Players select fighers to "manage", and play that fighter in matches at a series of "events", seeking to move up the ladder and become the champion of their weight class.

To claim a fighter, look at the Prospects list on the Fighters page page, and pick a fighter you'd like to play; then, post to the "draft" forum thread for that weight class. Feel free to start with just one, or one from each weight class, as you like. Links:

See below for more details (or just play, if you're disinterested in the details).

Weight classes
The league consists of a set of ladders, each corresponding to a "weight class", i.e. an upper limit on the overall winning percentage for a fighter in that class. This will eventually use the stats for buttons on the new site, but for now uses a snapshot of the stats from shortly before the demise of the old site; the fighters in each weight class can be found on the UBFC/Fighters page. If a player is interested in managing a button who wasn't on the old site (so they're not on the prospect lists at all), and that button has played at least 50 games on the new site, contact the matchmaker to confirm what weight class they should be in (e.g. to make sure their record isn't heavily biased by having all of their games against the same button or something).

The weight classes are:


 * Heavyweight: 83.0% or lower
 * Light heavyweight: 63.0% or lower
 * Middleweight: 53.0% or lower
 * Welterweight: 48.0% or lower
 * Lightweight: 43.0% or lower

If a fighter's overall percentage increases above the weight limit for their current class, the matchmaker will discuss with that fighter's manager whether the fighter should move up to the next higher class, and if so, where they should be ranked. If a fighter's overall percentage decreases below the weight limit for the next class down, their manager can choose to have them continue to fight in their original class, or drop down to the new class. Fighters may also move up or down just for variety or narrative reasons, in consultation with the matchmaker -- the stats are meant to divide the buttons into reasonably competitive groups, not to be a rigid obstacle to people having fun.

Rankings
The UBFC ranks fighters by weight class, in four-fighter "tiers" that are used to determine (or at least inform) future matchups. After each set of fights (in which, typically, each fighter has one bout), fighters move up or down a tier for the next set. The UBFC/Rankings page lists the current rankings.

The four fighters in each tier are ordered: 1 - 4 for the top tier, 5 - 8 for the second, and so on. Within each tier, the first fighter takes on the second, and the third fights the fourth -- for simplicity's sake in the rest of this explanation, we'll call them "1 - 4" for their ranking within the tier, even if their overall ranking is actually 9 - 12 or whatever.

Fighters move between tiers as follows:


 * In the top pairing (1 vs 2) the winner becomes the #3 fighter of the next tier up, and the loser becomes the #1 fighter of the next tier down.
 * In the top pairing (3 vs 4) the winner becomes the #4 fighter of the next tier up, and the loser becomes the #2 fighter of the next tier down.

To put it another way, focusing just on the tiers: Winners move up and fight each other next, losers move down and fight each other next. The numbers within the tiers don't affect that at all.

At the top and bottom tier, things are slightly more complicated -- especially at the bottom where there may not be four fighters in the last tier, if the total number isn't evenly divisible by four -- but the general pattern holds.

The matchmaker can also make fights other than in the usual tiered way described above, if it would make things more fun -- for example, if a given pair of fighters keeps meeting up, perhaps they'd take on the other two fighters in their tier rather than fighting each other again.

Forfeits count as a regular loss, and stale games can be declared forfeits by the non-stale player, as soon as they go stale, at the active player's sole discretion. (Currently moot, until forfeits for stale games are implemented, of course.)

Unclaimed fighters are "prospects", and can be claimed by a manager, entering the rankings at the bottom.

Managers
Each player can manage up to two fighters in per weight class. One in each weight class is typical, but it's also fine to only be in a subset of them.

A player can also manage a second fighter in each weight class, but only one of their fighters can be active at a time. This originally came up in the context of allowing someone who's picked a fighter who isn't doing well, but who the player isn't ready to give up on yet, to have a way to get more variety without having to drop their struggling fighter. The current implementation is that if a fighter loses a fight in the bottom tier, you can swap them out for a different fighter, while keeping your claim on your previous fighter as well (and then swap them back in later). (The real-world/narrative analogue is a fighter who gets released from a major national promotion, takes a couple of fights in smaller regional organizations to gain more experience, and then returns later to the big leagues.)

If a released fighter is claimed by another manager, they may retain their ranking; otherwise they return to the pool of prospects, and become the lowest-ranked fighter when someone else claims them.

If a player doesn't log in for 30 days (without notice that they'll be away), the matchmaker may rule that all of their fighters are released, or otherwise adjust the rankings accordingly. In practice, the matchmaker will typically attempt to contact the player (if possible) to find out whether they plan to return.

Events
As fighters finish their matches, they'll become ready to fight again at the next event. When six fights are ready, the matchmaker will announce the next event, starting a new thread on the, with further instructions. The UBFC/Events page has a list of all of the past and current events.

Matchmaker
If the matchmaker doesn't log in for 30 days, the player who manages the top-ranked middleweight becomes acting matchmaker, and solicits volunteers to become the new matchmaker. If more than one person volunteers (and does not defer to one of the others), the acting matchmaker conducts an election to choose between them, in which all active players may vote, and whichever receives a plurality of the votes becomes matchmaker.

If the matchmaker wishes to step down, they solicit volunteers and/or conduct an election to select the new matchmaker, as described above.

The players may modify these rules in any way they like by consensus. The matchmaker adjudicates any disputes that can't be resolved by consensus.

irilyth is the current matchmaker.