Pizza Power's Balatro Team Tour

Too Long, Didn't Read

Rules and FAQs: what YOU need to know. New players should at least read the Intro to Team Tour and Scheduling sections.

Team Tour lets players of all skill levels compete, improve, and socialize within the community. The short version, relevant to every player:

Signups are posted a couple of weeks before each season.
Tournament Organizers (TOs) create a list of players to be drafted. If you are on that list you will be drafted.
Drafted players schedule one Bo3 (best of 3) set a week against someone of somewhat similar skill. Scheduling is mandatory: make sure you can DM and schedule with your opponent. Reach out as early as possible, and use Hammertime to communicate times across timezones.
If you cannot play or schedule your set, tell the TOs and your captain.
The team that wins the majority of the sets that week wins.
Every rule in this document applies whether or not you have read it.
All server rules apply. TOs use their own discretion and always have the final say.
https://www.twitch.tv/pizzapower55

PPTT is run separately from the Balatro Multiplayer main server; this is not an official server. Follow the rules here and do not bring drama or stress there.

Intro to Team Tour

Pizza Power's Balatro Team Tour (PPTT for the rest of this document) is a team-based, all-skill-level event where players sign up, get drafted by captains, and play to be crowned that season's champion.

Every player on a team has a seed showing how strong they are compared to the rest of their team: the strongest is 1, the weakest is 11. Captains match players of similar seeds against each other every week, creating close matches and letting every skill level compete. Teams play a regular season, and the best performing teams battle in a playoff bracket to be #1 and claim the medal of our largest event.

Teams cooperate to help each other improve. Some very tight bonds have been forged through PPTT. Most sets are best-of-3: first to two wins takes the set.

Tournament Organizers are here to help. Ask the community and the TOs about anything you do not understand. TOs run the event, solve disputes, and answer questions.

Drafting and Seeding

Drafting

The draft is where every season begins. At the start of the season, captains draft players to their teams. The draft usually takes a few days: there is a lot to get through and the community is spread across the world.

The draft follows a snake format: the captain who picks first in one round picks last in the next, and vice versa. TOs set the draft order. Captains draft themselves where they would likely have been drafted had they not captained, so a captain predicted to go at the start of the 5th round drafts themselves in the 5th round. This lets captains of very different skill levels run teams without creating imbalanced ones. Exact player counts vary with signups; captains draft until no players remain.

Seeding

Seeding generally follows draft order, since captains pick the strongest players first. TOs make any necessary changes after the draft. Seeds may change halfway through the season or at the start of playoffs, when players are re-seeded on performance to account for improvement and keep matches close.

Season Format and Matchups

Regular Season

Over 100 games of Balatro are played a week during the regular season. It follows a Swiss format: teams play teams with a similar record, so an undefeated team plays another undefeated team where possible. Every team plays every week, normally for 7 or 8 weeks.

The number of set wins needed to win the week depends on team size:

9-player teams need 5 wins
11-player teams need 6 wins

The teams that win the most weeks make the playoffs.

Playoffs

The 8 best teams by week wins make playoffs. Ties in week wins break on set wins, then individual game wins. The top finisher chooses their opponent from the bottom four (5th to 8th), then the second-place team picks, and so on. The bracket is single elimination and decides the season champion.

Matchups

Players are not locked to their own seed: they can play up to two seeds higher or two seeds lower. Captains start matchups with a coin flip; the winner chooses whether to go first or second. Matchups happen at the start of each week, and captains share them with their team so everyone knows their opponent.

Why Swiss?

Previously the Tour ran conferences. Both formats have upsides and downsides, and it is a tough call. Swiss is not common with a small team count like ours and can produce odd matchups in later weeks. Conferences arguably have more personality, and there is intrigue in the top teams playing each other.

But conferences caused problems we hope to fix. Keeping later weeks competitive gives struggling teams something to play for instead of being steamrolled by the undefeated team in week 6. Keeping players on losing teams engaged is hard, and playing an already "broken" team, where a few players have stopped showing up, hands a big advantage to teams in tight contention for playoffs. We hope Swiss keeps every week tense and close for every team.

Scheduling

This is the only real responsibility on the average player. Once your captain posts matchups, DM your opponent as soon as you can. If you cannot find or reach them, tell your captain.

You and your opponent find a time you are both free to play a best-of-3 set under the ranked ruleset with ranked bans. Players may agree to other things, a specific deck or stake, extending to a best of 5, anything that keeps it a competitive set of Balatro.

Use https://hammertime.cyou when scheduling. It shows the same moment in your opponent's timezone, so times are communicated accurately. Post your set time in the schedule channel, especially if you will stream it; watching people play is part of the fun.

Have a time scheduled by Thursday. The earlier the better; we run on a tight schedule. A player who does not communicate or make a reasonable effort to schedule may be given a 0-2 loss.

If your scheduled time works, great; that happens 95% of the time. Real life happens, so if the agreed time falls through, try to find a new one. This is a for-fun event and we always encourage playing the set if possible. You are not forced to accept a reschedule, but please try. If you have both tried and cannot find a time, an extension may be possible: tell your captain and open a ticket with the TOs in the Discord server. A set left unresolved without a reason known to the TOs may be forfeited or voided.

Streaming

Most sets are streamed somewhere, usually in the Discord server with the player deafened.

Players may not receive any backseating during a set. Receiving any makes you liable for a game or set loss. Players are responsible for not being backseated, and anyone deliberately trying to get a player to read their backseating will be punished.
You may not read chat during games. A few larger streamers have exceptions, but they remain liable for not being backseated.
Stream sniping of any kind, including listening to commentary, is not allowed.
Sets may be casted if the players agree; commentators are welcome.

Outside the Games

Reporting Matches

Report the score in the results channel of the Discord. Players are responsible for making sure their matches are reported correctly. A reported result gets a pizza reaction.

Preferred format: Player A X-Y Player B (player A won X games, player B won Y games).

In every stat, record and fantasy game point, a set longer than a best-of-3 counts as its best-of-3 equivalent (2-1 if the loser was competitive, otherwise 2-0; the loser is competitive with at least 1 game won in a best-of-5, or at least 2 in a best-of-7), so a best-of-5 3-2 counts as 2-1; the real score stays recorded.

Sportsmanship

All sportsmanship rules of BMP Colosseum are enforced here. Being sportsmanlike is not hard:

If someone asks you to stop doing something, stop doing it.
If it could be offensive, do not say it.
If you are not sure whether it is offensive, do not say it.
Don't be weird.
Don't be overly rude and an asshole.

TOs make all final judgements on sportsmanship and act as they see fit.