General Achievement medals policy

A Tournament Organizer (TO) has the option to grant a General Achievement Medal (formerly known as a Contest Medal) to a player or team participating in his/her tournament. In order to obtain permission from the Tournament Director to grant this medal the TO must:

1. Establish a specific objective (or set of objectives) to be achieved by the participant(s) in his/her tournament other than winning the tournament or, for example, losing in the final. In other words, the objective(s) must be something distinct and original.

1. Clearly describe how the objective(s) can be achieved. The objective(s) can be achieved in various ways, for example: By reaching a certain predetermined goal while playing in the tournament, which only one player or team can achieve, or by holding a vote amongst the tournament participants to determine who "did the best" if more than one player or team can achieve the objective(s).

1. Send the above mentioned information to the Tournament Director in charge of General Achievement Medals. The TO is not allowed to publish the idea or post anything about it in his/her tournament thread until authorization is given by the Tournament Director.

For a General Achievement Medal to be awarded, the TO must:

1. Complete his/her tournament.
2. Send the name(s) of the winner(s) to the Tournament Director in charge of General Achievement Medals, along with a link to the tournament thread.

Note: The Tournament Directors reserve the right to accept or deny any idea for a General Achievement Medal. We will not automatically authorize the use for General Achievement Medals in tournaments.
(What I mean to say is that we will sparingly allow General Achievement Medals, so it will be somewhat of an added value to a tournament.)

## Multiple tournaments with Grande Finale - Clarification

This is an explanation of the policy for awarding medals for these type of tournaments and Grand Finales. What we are talking about is basically a series of tournaments of which the winners (usually) get invited to play in a big super final, i.e., "Grand Finale". That Grand Finale is per definition not open to the public and hence do not qualify for a Tournament Achievement Medal for the winner, nor a Tournament Contribution Medal for the tournament organizer (TO).

Awarding Medals:

* For every tournament in the series a Tournament Achievement Medal will be awarded to the winner(s).
* For every tournament in the series a Tournament Contribution Medal will be awarded to the TO.
* The winner of the Grand Finale can be awarded a General Achievement Medal.
* The TO of the Grand Finale will NOT receive any medal.

The winner of the Grand Finale will receive a General Achievement Medal if:

* The TO of the Grand Finale applied for the medal through the proper channels.
* The tournament series leading up to the Grand Finale has to consist of at least 8 tournaments, i.e., there must be a minimum of 8 players/winners participating in the Grand Finale.\*

* Note: If a player wins more than one tournament in the series, the runner(s)-up of the tournament(s) after his first win must be used to fill the Grand Finale if that is needed to reach the minimum of 8 players.

Marking the title of a Grand Finale Tournament:
When creating the topic for a Grand Finale Tournament the TO needs to indicate the fact that it is a Grand Finale with [GF] in the title, after the tournament name.

Example:
Classic Escalating Championship [GF]
Previously awarded medals:
We know that in the past Tournament Achievement Medals (for winners) and Tournament Contribution Medals (for TOs) were awarded for Grand Finale Tournaments. The fact is that those type of tournaments are difficult to track for us as Tournament Directors and the medals were awarded mistakenly. In most cases this was discovered well after the fact and we decided against taking the medals away from people.

Those precedents, however, will not be regarded a valid argument for awarding medals against the policy. We are also working on solutions to better track Grand Finale Tournaments and ways to avoid medals being awarded mistakenly.