Hello everyone! I am here today to present you with the Western Server Challenge!
To sign up, please fill our this form. Deadline for signing up is the end of March.
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Results: Click Here
For those who don’t know, last year we did the Western Dan Challenge. The original idea was to promote Dan players to play on western servers more and increase activity. It ended up exploding it to something a bit bigger. However, I wasn’t sure of the impact it had. But due to a lot of people asking me to host it again and the activity about it on the forums here, I have decided to dedicate myself to hosting this event every year if possible from now on. Also, due to the inclusion of other ranks I have deemed it necessary to update the name to the Western Server Challenge.
The goal of this event is to promote more activity on western servers. Your goal as participants are to play 100 games in a month. For the hardcore players, we do have prizes for the most games played in a month for 4 divisions. More information down below…
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Each year I hope to make the event just a bit better and more easily manageable as well as making sure everyone can enjoy the event. Thus, I have made some changes this year.
Firstly, the event will be taking place in March instead of February to give more days in the month to complete the event. (What insane person though Feb was a good idea 
)
In addition to this, this year we will only be using OGS. I would like to include KGS but I currently have no way to automatically count the games, and last year manually counting them was a huge pain. If I can solve this problem in the future I hope to add KGS back in the fold. CGS unfortunately does not have enough activity atm. We shall see if that changes in the future.
Also in addition this year, we are including OGS’s new Rengo feature!! I have discussed this with @anoek and concluded that Rengo will have it’s own prizes as well as not limiting it to exclusive teams. Thus, you can play Rengo with anyone and switch up partners as you see fit.
Donations
Last year we had several individuals donate to the prize pool. I will not be doing that this year due to personal reasons. This may change in the future but this year the prize will be capped at $1,000. If you would still like to support the event, I encourage you to donate to streamers playing in the event.
Rules
- Only games played in March will count.
- Must be a ranked or rengo game.
- Must be on OGS.
- Must be on the same account. (Makes it easier to track)
- Must not use AI. I will be having people check.
- Minimum time settings of 1min 10sec x 5
- Must use an overtime clock equivalent to the minimum time settings if not using byo yomi.
- No Sudden Death (Only main time and no over time.)
- Only 19x19 games
- Bot games will not count.
- For Fischer someone has suggested the more or less equivalent will be Fischer 5/5. 5 min +5s per move with no cap.
- For draws there will be a tie breaker. The one with the most wins. If this number is the same we will offer a split prize or a play off.
- For OGS the time zone will start on UTC. (pending how OGS handles this)
- Do NOT resign games too early just to quickly move on. This defeats the spirit of the event.
- Prizes will be given via Paypal. If this does not work for you, we will donate the funds to a charity or streamer of your choice. (If possible.)
- Do not violate OGS’s TOS.
- Do not find flaws with the rules that defeat the spirit of the challenge.
Prizes (Most Games Played)
Dan division (3k and above)
- 1st $125
- 2nd $50
- 3rd $25
SDK division (9k-4k)
- 1st $125
- 2nd $50
- 3rd $25
DDK division (10k and below)
- 1st $125
- 2nd $50
- 3rd $25
Rengo division (Any level)
- 1st $125
- 2nd $50
- 3rd $25
Everyone
- Everyone who plays 100 games in March will receive an achievement award on their profile.
- Everyone who plays 100 games will get 1 month free AI-Sensei at Dan level.
