(Also available at:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rMdrx0Y2HK44TgPggJjEDmhVPhcYEeabZa8cdgWlDc4/edit)

EVERYONE CAN FANTASTIC ATTACK 2019

An online In The Groove/Stepmania/4 Panel timing event

Table of Contents (use CTRL + F to search for these topics):

What is ECFA 2019?

Requirements for ECFA 2019

Divisions for ECFA 2019

Qualifying for a Division

Grade Weights and FA Pass

Scoring

Format - Lower

Format - Middle

Format - Upper

Format - Stamina FA

Rules for Submitting Scores

Special Thanks

What is ECFA 2019?

	ECFA 2019 is an online event for the game In The Groove 2 (or Stepmania on a dance pad) that has the primary focus of challenging players and promoting growth in multiple areas of skill sets within the game.  FA (or fantastic attack) is the idea of acquiring the most amount of good judgements as possible in a plethora of different styles of charts, music, and BPM.  These skill sets include mostly technical based footwork and ability to comprehend and execute challenging patterns, including cross overs, foot switches, side switches, brackets, fast drills, fast runs, long 16th note runs, and more.  There will also be a tighter timing window featured in 3 of the 4 divisions called FA+ (more on that later).  

In this event, you will be submitting scores for a division(s) from a pack of 30 songs per division.  You are permitted to play and improve a score as many times as youd like and submit the song score as many times as youd like (besides a qualifying song if necessary, more info. Listed below).  This will have a point based system, where points are assigned based on receiving an FA Pass and ranking on a song (more information below).  There will be 3 rounds total, separated with 3 different packs for each division with all different songs for each round, and the rounds last 1.5 months each, with the final one ending June 15th, 2019, so it will be a 4.5 month total event.  The rounds will get progressively more difficult as the event continues.The final round will segue into qualifiers for ECFA 6, which will be held in August, 2019.  

Requirements for ECFA 2019

This is what is required for all entrants to participate in ECFA 2019:

An ITG or SM 3.95/SM5 set up.
The Simply Love SM5 or Simply ECFA theme (3.95/ITG) for the FA+ portions
ITG dedicab, DDR upgrade, SMX, or other home version pads (pad scores only will be accepted)
23 ms Fantastic timing windows and 12.5 ms blue fantastic timing windows for FA+ on Simply ECFA or ECFA mode
JWA:  JWA of 1.5 ms should only be used if it makes your timing windows accurate to what they should be (12.5 ms for blue timing, 23 ms for normal fantastics).  The themes available with the download will provide the correct timing windows already so they should not need modified.

Divisions for ECFA 2019

ECFA 2019 will have four separate divisions that you can be ranked in.  All participants will be ranked in the division that is most fitting for their current skill level and higher, meaning a player placed in the middle division, for example will not be ranked for scores against other plays in the lower division, but will be for the middle, upper, and stamina FA divisions. Regardless of which division you are placed in for ranking purposes, all scores will be tracked by all players, so each player is permitted to play any division theyd like, including the ones they are qualified out of, but are not going to be ranked alongside everyone else.  I strongly encourage all participants to try all of the divisions they are able to commit to, regardless of what they will be ranked in, as that will further challenge and help grow your skill.  There are 4 total divisions for ECFA 2019, which are as follows:

Lower - for the newest players; those who qualify for this division are very new to 4 panel dance games or In the Groove in general, and have no acquired many of the basic skill sets needed for the higher levels.  The block difficulty for this division will be 7s to 10s.

Middle - for experienced players with timing ability and some capability of technical skill sets; those who qualify for this division will be challenged to refine some of the skill sets theyve already acquired while pushing their limits into the harder charts.  This division will have an FA+ portion in addition to the normal fantastic part.  A lot of this content is around the same difficulty youd find in a major ITG tournament (Storm, Raj, RIP, COTC, etc.)  The block difficulty for this division will be 9s to 12s for both FA+ and regular FA.

Upper - for very experienced players with excellent timing ability and already developed high end tech skills; those who qualify out of middle will be playing in this division, where the content is the most challenging available for the block ranges.  The charts take a lot of the refined skill sets in middle and up the difficulty from a small to large amount.  Not even the best players will be able to 100% all of the songs in this division very easily.  These charts are the same are harder difficulty than what youd find in high end timing events such as East Coast FA.  The block ratings are 9 to 12 for FA+ and 10 to 13 for normal FA.

Qualifying for a Division

To see what division or higher you qualify to be ranked in, you need to meet this criteria:

Lower - if you have 99d any 10 block songs or higher, you will be qualified out of lower and into middle/upper

Middle - if you placed top 16 at Raj 5 or Storm 2018, qualified top 16 for ECFA 3 to 5 without being a stand in, or ranked top 4 in ECFA 2018 lower, then you will be qualified out of middle and into upper

Stamina FA - no qualifying; anyone of any skill is permitted to play in Stamina FA

Again, even if you qualify out of a particular division, you can still play and submit scores for that division(s), but they will not be ranked; simply just tracked on the spreadsheet so you can see your numbers alongside other players.

For those on the border of lower to middle or middle to upper, which will be decided based on not enough data for the qualifying specifications met above or under my discretion, you will have to play a qualifying song.  The qualifying song will be one from the division you might be placed out of.  Before you can submit any other scores for the division you might be on the border of qualifying out of, you must submit to me a finalized score for the qualifying song (once submitted, it will be locked in and cannot be improved and will be your final score for the round).  I have the criteria documented for what I deem to high of a score for the division based on the qualifying songs.  You may send me the score via discord PM or Facebook PM ONLY, and you may only send the score once.  Those who need to check for qualifying are already documented on the spreadsheet.  
The following songs are the qualifiers:

For seeing if you qualify out of lower:  Eternity
For seeing if you qualify out of middle:  Random Box

Finally, it is up to my discretion if I feel that someone has been misplaced into an inappropriate division, whether its too high or low, for qualification.  Within the first few score dumps, I have the right to remove you from being qualified in a certain division or allow you to be qualified in a lower one.  The point of this event is to challenge yourself and grow and develop; dont try to sandbag just to win because the real winners are the ones who improve!

Grade Weights and FA Pass

The event will function on a point based system via ranking alongside other plays in your division that are qualified to be ranked.  Every player who submits an FA pass score will be guaranteed 1 point.  An FA Pass is when a player receives enough fantastics in a song to demonstrate that they have successfully timed the song based on the required threshold, after accounting for misses, mines hit, dropped holds and dropped rolls.  The total number of fantastics after these factors will be called DP, or dance points.  The calculation will go as follows for all divisions EXCEPT Stamina FA:

Fantastic count = 1 point each
Misses, mines hit, dropped rolls/holds = -0.5 points each

For stamina FA:

Normal FA:  Fantastic Count only will be the DP (nothing will deduct from that count)

FA+:  Blue fantastics = 1 point each
White fantastics = 0.5 points each
Nothing will deduct from those counts

Each division will have a different threshold for an FA pass, which are as follows:

Lower:  No FA pass required; any and all scores submitted will be tracked

Middle:  50% DP for an FA pass (you achieved 50% of the available DP for the song after accounting for -0.5 points for misses, dropped holds/rolls, mines hit)

Upper:  90% DP for an FA pass (you achieved 90% of the available DP for the song after accounting for -0.5 points for misses, dropped holds/rolls, mines hit)

Stamina FA:  50% DP for an FA pass (half of the notes must be fantastics to get the FA pass, for FA+ this can be whites and blues)

For FA+ middle and upper, all % of blues will be tracked and no FA pass is required for either one.  Misses, mines, and dropped holds/rolls will not deduct from your fantastic % either.
Scoring

Receiving an FA pass guarantees 1 point to your total ECFA 2019 rank.  For lower, simply submitting any score will give you 1 point for your ECFA 2019 rank.

To increase your point count for a song, after you get your FA pass or submit a score for lower, you will be ranked alongside all other players qualified for ranking in that division.  All scores in the top 15 will receive an additional point per rank for 15 and higher. 

Heres how scoring will work:

16th place or lower score - 1 point for an FA pass on the song
15th place score - 1 point for FA pass + 1 additional point for 15th place ranking = 2 points for the song
14th place score - 1 point for FA pass + 2 additional points for 14th place ranking = 3 points for the song
13th place score - 1 point for FA pass + 3 additional points for 13th place ranking = 4 points for the song
12th place score - 1 point for FA pass + 4 additional points for 12th place ranking = 5 points for the song
11th place score - 1 point for FA pass + 5 additional points for 11th place ranking = 6 points for the song
10th place score - 1 point for FA pass + 6 additional points for 10th place ranking = 7 points for the song
9th place score - 1 point for FA pass + 7 additional points for 9th place ranking = 8 points for the song
8th place score - 1 point for FA pass + 8 additional points for 8th place ranking = 9 points for the song
7th place score - 1 point for FA pass + 9 additional points for 7th place ranking = 10 points for the song
6th place score - 1 point for FA pass + 10 additional points for 6th place ranking = 11 points for the song
5th place score - 1 point for FA pass + 11 additional points for 5th place ranking = 12 points for the song
4th place score - 1 point for FA pass + 12 additional points for 4th place ranking = 13 points for the song
3rd place score - 1 point for FA pass + 13 additional points for 3rd place ranking = 14 points for the song
2nd place score - 1 point for FA pass + 14 additional points for 2nd place ranking = 15 points for the song
1st place score - 1 point for FA pass + 15 additional points for 1st place ranking = 16 points for the song

Those who ranked 1st for a score in upper will received a bonus of 2 points, thus giving them a score of 18 points total.

For those who tie in rank, the points assigned to those players will be based on the total points of the ranks tied and averaged out and given to the players that are tied.  If there are ties for quad stars, the points will not be distributed and everyone will receive the 18 points who have that quad.

At the end of each round, the total points for all players qualified for the division will be tallied and everyone will be ranked based off of those points.  The final rankings for each round will be added up into a cumulative ranking at the end of all 3 rounds, and the one with the lowest cumulative rank number will be deemed the winner for that division.

Format - Lower

For those interested in lower, this is the information you need for this division:

No FA pass is required; simply submit your scores in your score dump and all will be tracked and ranked (ranked if you qualify for the division, so no middle or upper players)
The difficulty will be 7s to 10s with only one to two 10s per round.
No FA+ in this division; it will be strictly normal fantastic timing
Decents and way offs may be disabled
Passing a song via lifebar is not required; your focus should be on fantastic timing and avoiding misses and mines and dropping holds/rolls
Mirror is permitted
All speed mods are permitted (No CMODs allowed for the songs labeled No CMOD)
No rate mods allowed
Hide background is permitted
All noteskins are allowed
Mines must be on for all songs

Format - Middle

For those interested in middle, this is the information you need for this division:
An FA pass of 50% or better is required for score submission (information for FA pass listed above).  All scores will with a 50% FA pass or better will be tracked and ranked (ranked if you qualify for the division, so no upper players)
The difficulty will be 9s to 12s for both FA+ and for normal FA
The normal FA division:  This will be split up into 2 parts; Certified Bangers through the ages (songs ranging from 2007 to 2016) and New Generation (all new charts from 2017 to present).  These will be tracked the same way, and no song will be repeated throughout the rounds or from a previous ECFA.
The normal FA portion must be played on a stock Simply Love theme or Simply Love Competitive mode without blue fantastics enabled.
FA+:  We will be tracking your % of blue fantastics.  No other judgements will be taken into account, including white fantastics.  There are 3 songs per difficulty, and you may submit a score for any song of that difficulty and the % will be ranked.  Therefore, a song with less notes is not necessarily worse to choose since its based on percentage and not a raw number.  You need to submit one 9, 10, 11, 12, and a bonus song, which is an additional 9, 10, 11, or 12 labeled Bonus.  Mines are allowed to be off for this division since they do not count against your %.  This can be calculated by taking the number of blue fantastics you got and divide it by the total number of steps to see your %.
FA+ must be played on the Simply ECFA theme (3.95/ITG users) or the ECFA mode found in Simply Love for SM5 users.  The FA+ window must equate to 12.5 ms
Decents and way offs may be disabled. Greats may also be disabled for FA+ only
Passing a song via lifebar is not required; your focus should be on fantastic timing and avoiding misses and mines and dropping holds/rolls
Mirror is permitted
All speed mods are permitted (No CMODs allowed for the songs labeled No CMOD)
No rate mods allowed
Hide background is permitted
All noteskins are allowed
Mines must be on for all songs in normal FA but not FA+

Format - Upper

For those interested in upper, this is the information you need for this division:
An FA pass of 90% or better is required for score submission (information for FA pass listed above).  All scores will with a 90% FA pass or better will be tracked and ranked (ranked if you qualify for the division, so no upper players)
The difficulty will be 9s to 12s for FA+ and 10s to 13s (one 13 per round) for normal FA
The normal FA division:  This will be split up into 2 parts; Certified Bangers through the ages (songs ranging from 2007 to 2016) and New Generation (all new charts from 2017 to present).  These will be tracked the same way, and no song will be repeated throughout the rounds or from a previous ECFA.
The normal FA portion must be played on a stock Simply Love theme or Simply Love Competitive mode without blue fantastics enabled.
FA+:  FA+:  We will be tracking your % of blue fantastics.  No other judgements will be taken into account, including white fantastics.  There are 3 songs per difficulty, and you may submit a score for any song of that difficulty and the % will be ranked.  Therefore, a song with less notes is not necessarily worse to choose since its based on percentage and not a raw number.  You need to submit one 9, 10, 11, 12, and a bonus song, which is an additional 9, 10, 11, or 12 labeled Bonus.  Mines are allowed to be off for this division since they do not count against your %.  This can be calculated by taking the number of blue fantastics you got and divide it by the total number of steps to see your %..
FA+ must be played on the Simply ECFA theme (3.95/ITG users) or the ECFA mode found in Simply Love for SM5 users.  The FA+ window must equate to 12.5 ms
Decents and way offs may be disabled.  Greats may also be disabled for FA+ only
Passing a song via lifebar is not required; your focus should be on fantastic timing and avoiding misses and mines and dropping holds/rolls
Mirror is permitted
All speed mods are permitted (No CMODs allowed for the songs labeled No CMOD)
No rate mods allowed
Hide background is permitted
All noteskins are allowed
Mines must be on for all songs in normal FA but not FA+

Format - Stamina FA

For those interested in stamina FA, this is the information you need for this division:
An FA pass of 50% or better is required for score submission (information for FA pass listed above).  All scores will with a 50% FA pass or better will be tracked and ranked (ranked if you qualify for the division, so no upper players)
The difficulty will be 12s to 16s for FA+ and 12s to 18s (one to two 18s per round) for normal FA
FA+ will be tracked by number of blue fantastics (1) plus white fantastics (0.5) as stated above.  % of blues is not relevant to this division like it is for middle or upper
FA+ must be played on the Simply ECFA theme (3.95/ITG users) or the ECFA mode found in Simply Love for SM5 users.  The FA+ window must equate to 12.5 ms
Decents and way offs may be disabled.  Greats may be disabled for FA+
Passing a song via lifebar is not required; your focus should be on fantastic timing and avoiding misses and mines and dropping holds/rolls
Mirror is permitted
All speed mods are permitted (including CMODs for all songs)
No rate mods allowed
Hide background is permitted
All noteskins are allowed
No mines allowed for FA+ or normal FA








Rules for Submitting Scores

Scores will be tracked on the universally viewable spreadsheet (coming soon) or on this temporary one listed below:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uL5VdK4qbTQf7oonPmar7hyYxPgpJlVdjvl2Ng7yzCc

This is how score tracking will work:

You must post your scores either in the discord ECFA 2019 score dump or the Facebook ECFA 2019 group (preferred)
You are allowed to post ONLY ONCE PER WEEK.  Meaning, if you have a lot of scores spread out over the week, dump them all into one post approximately once per week.  Over posting scores will lead to me avoiding those score posts and deleting the thread if its not followed
You need to format your posts as follows:

For facebook posting, you must state the song name and the DP (which is your dance points after accounting for misses, mines hit, dropped holds/rolls if its for lower, middle, or upper normal FA) for the song for each picture you are posting.  For example,

	Hold It Against Me - 400 DP
	Calcutta - 325 DP

	An example for FA+ (This can be calculated by taking the number of blue fantastics you got and divide it by the total number of steps to see your %)

	Glacier - 75%
	
	For Discord posting, post the name of the song with the calculated DP followed by the picture

Scores that have been entered by one of the score entrants will have a like or reaction on the post with a comment or tag saying Updated X/X where X/X is the month/day
It is your responsibility to check the spreadsheet to make sure the scores are added and updated properly; if a score is not updated because it was missed or miscalculated, tag one of the score entrants in discord or Facebook so they can correct the error.  
The score entrants have busy lives outside of this; do NOT panic if your scores are not added immediately, as we will get to them as soon as we can; we are humans after all, not computers



Special Thanks

Thanks to all who have assisted me with making this event possible, including:

Score entrants TJ Barber, Trevor Whitehurst, Logan Barnes, Will Mandrola, Janel Dobay, Henry Wu, Mason Hester, Brian McCarthy

Those who created graphics, including Ryan Gudonis, Trevor Whitehurst, David Nelson (as well for quality check on CB)

Everyone who continues and is starting to create content for this event.  Seriously without you guys and your hard work, none of this would be possible.

Shout outs to everyone who supports me and supports everyone else contributing to the event

Finally, special thanks to everyone who plays 4 panel dance games and keeps ITG/SM alive;  I wouldnt be trying to keep the community going and growing all of our skills if it werent for the players of course, and I appreciate everyone of you. 

Last reminder:  This event is NOT about winning; the real winner is the ones who strive to improve.  Play stuff thats too hard for you, play stuff you are weak in or dont enjoy, and I promise you will make gains and be a better overall player.  

Any feedback or questions, please come to me and Ill do my best to respond and assist you.  

Happy FAing!
