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TOURNAMENT RULES UPDATE
The board of directors of ADB, Inc., having met on 18 Nov 2025 to review certain recent issues regarding tournaments reports these decisions to the tournament community.

1-The effective and enjoyable continuation of the Star Fleet Battles Sapphire Star tournament system is a priority for the company. The Board takes note that the Sapphire Star system was created because of previous consumer comments that the time deadlines should be enforced and not allowed to drag on for months.

2-Paul Franz will continue as the Tournament Judge. Steve Petrick will remain as Tournament Marshal. Albert Beddow will join this team as Deputy Tournament Marshal. These three will comprise the Board of Judges.

3. Deadlines will be continued and enforced as before, i.e., three weeks for Round One, two weeks each for Rounds Two, Three, and Four. The Tournament Judge, Deputy Tournament Marshal, or Chief Tournament Marshal may extend any given tournament for one or (in unusual cases) one additional week in order to accommodate emergencies or other required adjustments. Players should not expect such extensions to be granted automatically. The Tournament Judge or a marshal may resolve games by judicial decree if they exceed the scheduled deadlines.

4. The Tournament Judge and/or Tournament Deputy Marshal shall email all active participants in any given tournament once per week to remind them of impending deadlines. The deadlines will be posted in the tournament topic on the BBS.

5. Any player who sees a violation of the rules by his opponent is responsible for notifying the Tournament Judge and may also choose to notify the marshals or other company officials. Players can be reasonably expected to handle such violations privately with the judges and not by public displays of rancor. The judges and the company cannot be faulted for not enforcing violations which are not reported to them.

6. The limit of five minutes for Energy Allocation provided in SFB Module T is extended to 10 minutes for online games only. Players may mutually agree on minor extensions for their convenience, but this is a courtesy a player may extend to his opponent not a right which a player can assume or demand. In the event of violation of this time limit, the following steps will apply:
First violation: a warning by the aggrieved player.
Second violation: a warning by the aggrieved player with specific notice given to the Tournament Judge.
Third violation: the Tournament Judge will impose a penalty of five damage points to be distributed by the offending player to “internal” boxes of his ship at the selection of that player.
Fourth violation: five damage points to the offending player’s ship distributed by the Damage Allocation Chart.
Fifth violation: the judge will terminate the game and the offending player will forfeit the victory to the aggrieved player.

7. Tournament judges may use the lost boxes penalties above in other situations which the judges feel warrant such penalties. This is intended to avoid situations in which the only action a judge has available is to declare a forfeit.

8. Players cannot be expected or forced to commence a game session at unreasonable times, such as after 10pm, before 8am, or during hours the player is required to be at his real-world employment. Any player may grant his opponent other starting times at their mutual agreement, but no player can be bullied into an unreasonable starting time. If two players cannot agree on a schedule, they should contact a judge to consider options such as rearranging the tree or the schedule, or replacing a player. In such cases, a player might be given a free pass into a later tournament, at the discretion of the Board of Judges.

9. The Board of Judges reviewed the plasma-vs-plasma question that came up with company officials as decided to make no changes in the rules. Games must be completed within the deadlines and if both players are happy with the situation no one can complain that the game took an unusual number of turns. Let plasma be plasma.

10. Geoffery Clark (Spartan) will have to replay the disrupted game against a wild card selected by Paul Franz, who will adjust the schedule appropriately. Seth Shimansky, having resigned from the disrupted game, cannot be this wild card player. Geoffrey is specifically warned not to repeat the actions which disrupted the game; Seth Shimansky will be given a free pass to Sapphire Star 20 but it is noted that he failed in his obligation to contact a judge when the problems began. Players should not benefit from violating the rules or failing to follow the judicial protocols.

11. To encourage tournament participation, ADB will provide four pre-paid passes to Sapphire Star 20 and 21 (and possibly future tournaments) to players who have not played in a Sapphire Star Tournament during 2024 or 2025. This will not affect the prize fund as ADB is buying the four tickets. Seth’s free pass (#10 above) is in addition to these four.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 04:38 pm: Edit

Ok, so should I *not* play Geof (Spartan) on Friday at 5:00 pm?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 04:44 pm: Edit

Correct. Paul will arrange for someone else to play Geoff first. It was the best of bad options.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 08:12 pm: Edit

Fair enough. Thank you for clarity.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 08:56 pm: Edit

We knew we had to get this decided.

By Justin Royter (Metaldog) on Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 09:46 pm: Edit

What ship does the wild card player have to play or can they choose? I would be interested in being the wild card.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 10:31 pm: Edit

Paul will pick the wildcard from players who lost in the previous round (or the current round might be better, I guess, his call). I would presume they would continue in their original ship. That's how we usually do it. We have never picked a wildcard from outside the players already in the event.

By Justin Royter (Metaldog) on Wednesday, November 19, 2025 - 10:40 am: Edit

I went out in round 1 so I suppose I am not allowed.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, November 19, 2025 - 11:23 am: Edit

I would say not eligible, more accurate. Or at least not the first in line. In theory if every player who got farther than you did declined, you'd be in, or have to fight another first rounded for the slot. Anyway, Paul has this.