Info/Rules

What is ECS13.5?

ECS13.5 is an online ITGmania/Stepmania5 tournament. The objective is to try to clear as many of the hardest stamina charts as you can within the format of the event. It is a cooperative tournament, and you may enter it on a team of up to three individuals in the division of your choice-- there are no qualifiers.

Teams enter on one of the following game modes:

• ITG (4-panel)
• Pump (5-panel)

Every team also chooses one of the following two chart types:

• Singles
• Doubles

...and the event is split into three divisions, each with its own songs and marathon courses:

A common rule of thumb for stamina difficulty ratings is that multiplying them by 1.5x can give you an approximation of the rating on modern DDR or Pump It Up (so a 14 on ITG would be somewhere around a 21 on Pump).

When:

Entrants can submit their sets at any time BEFORE 2025/06/16 (2025/06/15 @ 11:59 PM EST is the latest you can submit) to count towards the ranking. Within that timeframe, when and where they play this is at their discretion, so long as they adhere to the rules detailed further on.

What are the prizes?

Teams meeting the following conditions will win an ECS13.5 shirt:

For singles teams--

• The members of each team in lower division that breaks 1100 total points between their marathons and their Raw Output set
• The members of each team in mid division that breaks 300 total points between their marathons and their Raw Output set
• The members of each team in upper division that breaks 100 total points between their marathons and their Raw Output set

For doubles teams--

• The members of each team in lower division that breaks 650 total points between their marathons and their Raw Output set
• The members of each team in mid division that breaks 175 total points between their marathons and their Raw Output set
• The members of each team in upper division that breaks 75 total points between their marathons and their Raw Output set

The top OVERALL team for each division, regardless of being ITG, Pump, Singles or Doubles, will get a trophy, but trophies will also be awarded as follows for the teams that don't get overall first:

• The top team in each division for ITG Singles
• The top team in each division for ITG Doubles
• The top team in each division for Pump Singles
• The top team in each division for Pump Doubles

In order to be eligible for these secondary trophies, your team must have met the point thresholds for the shirt prizes mentioned previously.

It takes a substantial amount of time to handle mailing prizes-- especially for international addresses-- so please be patient after the event ends.

Overall Rules/Info:

• You must compete on ITG settings. The easiest way to accomplish this is using ITGmania (recommended) or Stepmania5 with the Simply Love theme. You may not compete on a theme that uses different life and scoring metrics (for example, Pumpsanity is not allowed).
• Players must participate on pads using either the ITG (4-panels in a "+" shape) or Pump (5-panels in an "X" shape) arrow configuration.
• PATTERN MANIPULATION/BRACKETING/MASHING THROUGH STREAMS IN CHARTS IS NOT LEGAL. This is not permitted in any portion of the tournament.
• WAY-OFFS AND DECENTS MUST BE ENABLED FOR ALL CHARTS, PERIOD.
• C-mods are legal. Mirror/other turn mods are legal. No Mines is legal.
• Any mods that add or subtract arrows, holds, or rolls are NOT legal.
• You may rate mod songs, but only at rates that are at or above 1.0x, and you will not receive any point bonus for doing so.
• Teams are comprised of up to three individuals total; deciding who to team up with is up to you.
• Each entrant can enter on up to two teams for EACH division, but they are not eligible for duplicate prizes (meaning if I were to enter on the maximum of six teams, and all of the teams happen to win the same prize, I would only get that prize one time rather than six times)
• Streaming your sets or having videos/pictures of scores is highly recommended. If your scores are questioned and you fail to produce proof, Archi reserves the right to disqualify your team.

All teams are responsible for two portions: a Marathon set, and a Raw Output set. Rules and general information for these sets are detailed below.

Marathon Rules/Info:

You have two options on how you approach the marathon.

• Play the full marathon as a group. You may switch between team members between each song. You may not switch team members mid-song-- you can only do it before the first arrows of a chart or after the last. Each member must pass at least one song for a team to be eligible for prizes.
• Each team member plays at least one of the provided marathon splits in its entirety solo. If you're a team of three, that means each member plays one. If you're a team of two, one person plays one and the other plays two. If you're a team of one, you play all three. I'll be calculating your team's points based off of the combined scores across the three splits.

If you're going with option 1, during the marathon ONLY, you may have team members play on an unused pad to stay warm. You are still not allowed to do this during Raw Output.

You or your team can spend as much time as you desire warming up for any marathons you attempt. If you fail, or you are just dissatisfied with your score, you may reattempt the marathon(s) as many times as you like or can manage before the event ends.

The points yielded by the marathons/splits are based off of the max points for each marathon/split * the score obtained on it.

Raw Output Rules/Info:

• UNLIKE THE MARATHONS, YOU MAY ONLY ATTEMPT YOUR RAW OUTPUT SET ONE TIME.
• You can warm up however you like and for as long as you like BEFORE your team's Raw Output.
• Each team gets 4 hours to try to pass as many of the songs on the list as possible for the team's respective division.
• If you are competing remotely, you may divide up your 4 hour block however you would like between your team members.
• PLEASE use the in-game timer for your set.
  • You can use an external timer if, for instance, you're playing in a public location and can't change the settings, but be aware that you will likely be at a disadvantage time-wise if you do so.
• Each team member must pass at least one song.
• Score does not matter.
• You can replay songs if you don't pass, but only passes count for points, and duplicate passes on the same song don't count for extra points.
• You may change out whoever is playing at any time, provided it is not during a song.
• You may not play while someone else is playing a song
  • Part of the challenge is coming up with a strategy for your player rotation to stay warmed up without burning out!
  • This rule must be followed even if you're playing remotely and decide to share the 4 hours so you can alternate songs!
• You may ONLY select a song if you have enough time left to complete it.
  • I don't expect you to predict song load time or anything, so as long as the timer says you have enough time when you proceed from the last menu before gameplay, you're okay.

Each song played is worth a set amount of points. Basically, all you need to know is that denser, longer, faster songs at higher ratings are worth more than shorter, less dense, slower songs at lower ratings.

The planning spreadsheet (follow the link and go to File -> Make a Copy) can be useful for determining what to play in your set-- all you need to do is take the ID from the first column on the Songlist tab and enter that into the second column on your scoresheet for each song your team passes, and it will display the points earned. You can optionally enter the name of the team member who passed the song in the first column on the scoresheet, which will automatically calculate some extra metrics just for fun if you also fill in the team members on the far right section.

If you're interested in the point calculations, they are determined as follows:

$$ Points = \frac{(Steps^{1.05} \times Stream\% \times BPMMultiplier^{1.1}) ^ {\LARGE{{1+\frac{Difficulty-LowestDivisionDifficulty-1}{100}} }}}{PointsConstant} $$ $$ \displaylines{Points = \\ [(Steps^{1.05} * Stream\% * BPMMultiplier^{1.1})^{\large{\wedge}} \\ ({1+\frac{Difficulty-LowestDivisionDifficulty-1}{100}})] \\ \div PointsConstant} $$

...where:

Steps = Number of steps in the chart
Stream% = Percent of measures of stream versus total measures in the chart
BPM Multiplier = \(\large{1 + (10 \times \frac{BPM_{song} - MinBPM_{division}} { MaxBPM_{division} - MinBPM_{division}})}\)
Difficulty = Block level of chart.
PointConstant = This is just a value to scale things such that the 'best possible set' in each division is worth roughly 1000 points (This helps us avoid having to normalize scores).

Acknowledgments:

Special thanks to Levitas and JWong for putting together the songlists for the Upper Division's Raw Output and Marathon portions!

For everyone who submitted new content for the event, thank you for contributing. I love to feature up and coming stepartists, and I hope it's exciting for you to see your charts included. Thanks also to those whose content I've selected from publicly released packs!

Thank you JNero for handling various bits of audio/sync work that I requested!

aminuteawayx and JWong do the prize mailing every year, which saves me a lot of effort! Thanks a ton!

Thanks to Arthur for his ITG Singles to ITG Doubles/Pump Singles/Pump Doubles conversion script!

Thanks to the following people for providing translations for the rules:

• Rems (French)
• Okami (French)
• aminuteawayx (Japanese)
• feedbacker (Korean)
• Xiwangz (Spanish)
• maru (Spanish)

Thanks Pluto for helping with the graphical needs of the event! She provided everything except for the course graphics.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns-- I'll usually respond quickest if you reach out to me on Discord or Facebook. There may be scenarios with the format or rules I haven't thought of, or something I haven't explained clearly enough, so definitely speak up; it'll be helpful to everyone if you do so.

--Ian/Archi