Using nonstop and oni mode in tournaments


Note: The nonstop portion of the guide is meant for DDR Extreme. For you European players and tourney organizers, I have no clue what the nonstop portion of Euromix has, so these may or may not apply to you. As I pointed out in the scoring section, the nonstop mode can be used in a tourney, but I strongly recommend you play all 4 songs in the matches.

But if you want to run a nonstop tourney, then I will write a small guide. Basically for the most part, all the rules for a regular tourney apply, but what nonstops to pick?

You can do a full nonstop tourney in which the nonstop course is picked at random.

Or you can use one of the players best, in which it may or may not be a good idea due to the fact that you might have a really hard players best (like all 10 footers in a set, hey, they are very popular to play on light and standard)

One of the tourneys that I have competed in is one in which the random all course (DDR Extreme) was selected. That was an unusual tourney, in which any 4 songs could come up. The problem of course is with the speed mods. Suppose you pick 2x, hoping the songs were around 150 bpm or so. Then suddenly, Across the Nightmare shows up. Gah. You have to do it on 2x. Or if you are a speed mod dependent player, and you think the fast songs are coming, and you pick 1x. Then Be In My Paradise (63 bpm) or Bag (65 bpm) comes up. Crap. Need I say more?

To remedy this, you can use the Random Caprice nonstop. It acts the same way as Random All, except that the songs are shown in the song stack, so players will know what is coming, and can choose speed mods accordingly.

There aren't too many tourneys that use nonstop, so I can't really give you any more advice than this.

Oni Tournament (Max 2/Extreme/Supernova only)

Once again, there are a number of ways that an oni tournament can be run. There are two scoring systems that are used:

The first player to fail loses the match, regardless if they had more points (or %, depending on what mix is being used) or less at the time of the fail. If both players complete the course, then the winner would be the one with the most dance points or higher percentage.

OR

Whoever has the most points or percentage wins the match, regardless of where a player fails. If one of the player fails, the other must continue up to the point where that player is ahead of the player who failed.

In either case, if a winner is decided before the course is over, the course can be failed.

Now the ways it can be run:

Elimination Rounds - 2 players would go up head to head, and an oni course would be picked at random, depending on what round it is.

Another way is that all players would play the same oni course, and you take a portion of the players, and play another round with another oni course, and so on.

The scoring system in Max 2/Extreme/Supernova is based on this:

Marvelous = +3 (Extreme/Supernova)
Perfect = +2
Great = +1
OK = +2 (Max 2), +3 (Extreme/Supernova)
Good, Boo, Miss, NG = 0

Oni Tournament FAQ

Q. What courses should I use for qualifying or elimination rounds?

A. That depends on how good your players are. I can't suggest one. Though I do recommend Legend Road & Trick not be included early. Do use discretion in what is allowed to be picked. Usually the courses in the finals are the hardest.

Q. Don't these tourneys last long?

A. Believe it or not, a lot of them can be very short! Why? It's simple. A lot of people don't play oni courses due to the fact that everything is on 1x. Of course with less and less players being able to read 1x effectively, this can be a short tournament. However, that is not a guarantee, and may be longer depending on the talent of your area.

Back to the Tourney Guide