The history of the event began when the European members began asking for their own region since two problems consistently occured from week to week. First, the time zone problem that members encountered when trying to schedule a match. For example, if a member on the East Coast of the US was scheduled to play someone in England, there is a 5-hour difference. The East Coast member could be playing at 8 PM local time, which meant the English member would have to stay up until 1 AM their time. Conversely, if the English member wanted to play at 8 PM his time, that would be a problem for the US member since that was 3 PM Eastern time. For some, those time weren't possible, and would result in a lot of matches going unplayed. The second problem encountered was more concerning...lag. As most of us have encountered when playing online, lag can creep up on matches between players. In most cases, a match between two players who are physically located close to each other, like two California players, they will have the best 'green bar' connection in most cases. As the distance between two players increases, so does the lag. Some connections are stronger, but most suffer simply due to the distance. These two constant problem would result in members from both sides of the 'pond' to not want to play these international matches. In my opinion at the time, I didn't think we would have enough of an international prescence to warrant different regions, so we all had to play together. However, the European community did a great job spreading the word of the league to fellow gamers, and we suddenly had enough members in the league plus those on the Waiting List to create a separate European Region. And so, in Week 4 of this season, the SFCCL divided into two different and separate regions, the Americas Region and European Region. All players from North America, Central America, and South America would be grouped in the Americas Region, while all European members would be grouped together. This would solve the two problems members encounterd - time zone & lag problems. While every connection isn't perfect, it greatly reduced the impact of these two nusances.
Nearly all members in the league at that time liked the idea of splitting up the league into two regions. The league expanded from 48 members to 64, with 16 members in the newly created European Region with two divisions, Red & Blue. Since then, the European Region has grown to 24 members total and a third division (Green). The possability to grow into more divisions is always there as long we have enough members. That would have already have happened based on the number of European players signing up, if not for some of the original members leaving the league.
The one concern about splitting into two different leagues was that some still enjoyed the international competition, even if it meant dealing with the time zone and lag problems. Therefore, I came up with an idea to create a brand new event called the Ryder Cup, which is directly taken from the international gold tournament by the same name. Just like that event, the best members would be named Captain of their region's team and then invite additional members to play in the international tournament. This type of event would be perfect to matchup the best fighters from both regions while not burdening all members in the league with time and lag. However, I still felt we needed to add something to make the pot a little sweeter for the tournament. Thus, was born the idea of the tournament being for the title of 'Grand Champion of the SFCCL', the best fighter in the league. As a result, the Ryder Cup is now a highly anticpated, much discussed tournament every couple of weeks during the season. Also, it is the only time that international members face off in official league matches with the exception of the season-ending Super Brawl tournament. The format for the final tournament may also change a bit as to avoid the problems that ended up creating the two regions, but we still have many weeks to go before discussing the Super Brawl tournament details.
Overall, the excitement and final results were positive. The time zone didn't prove to be an issue during the first tournament. All matches were completed. Lag, however, remained a problem that plagued most matches. For those new to the event this time around, be prepared to deal with the possability of lag. No one likes it, but it is part of life when playing online. Don't let it distract you though. Just like the real golf tournament, all players want to play in a sunny, cool, no wind day. However, as proven by the last tournament, weather becomes a factor during play. The same can be said for our competition. It is part of the game, and the player who can better adjust usually wins the match. Nonetheless, lets hope we have better connections this time around.
The Ryder Cup tournament is a single-elimination tournament. All matches are best 2 out of 3 five-round matches, just like weekly league matches. The winning fighter wins a point for their region's team, and moves onto the next round of the tournament. The losing fighter is eliminated. For a team to win the tournament, all 8 fighters from the other team must be eliminated. In other words, a team must win 8 points to officially win the tournament, and take the title of 'Grand Champion of the SFCCL' back to their region. The tournament can be over in the first round (8 to 0) or as late as the eigth round (8 to 7). It all depends on who wins each match for their region. All 8 fighters from each region will have a match in the 1st round. Matches begin by casting the highest ranking fighter from one region against the lowest ranked fighter. Specifically, the Captains from one region will fight the invited fighters from the other team, and visa versa. Each winning fighter earns a point for their team, and eliminates a fighter from the other team. once all matches are completed in the frst round, we have a score thru 1 round ranging from 8 to 0 all the way to 4 to 4. Since the possability exists that teams may be uneven after the first round, the team with less fighters is matched up from lowest ranked to highest ranked. This will result in the higher ranked fighters for the team with more fighters receiving a bye in the later rounds. Only when the lowest ranked fighters are eliminated can the Captains of a team beginning get matched. This is a perk of being a Captain and highly ranked - the invited fighters have to fight first. Since rankings are based on wins & losses earned by each fighter's skill level, the other region must work their way up the other team's ladder to play the best fighters. If they can't, then they lose the tournament.
There is no specific time limit or deadline to complete the tournament. Since the fighters will need to time setup their long distance matches, it is best to let the tournament run its course without a specific deadline. All involved fighters are very committed and excited to play their matches, so there doesn't appear to be any problem with them not being able to play their matches. Also, to aid them in their efforts to play, all fighters participating in the Ryder Cup tournament do not have to play their weekly matches. Their fighter will be excused from Week 16 matches, and their ranks will be cemented until Week 17. That means that their fighter will not go up now down in the rankings between Week 16 and 17. Even if the tournament is still going, all fighters participating in the tournament will begin playing regular weekly matches beginning in Week 17. By this time, most if not all fighters in the tournament will have completed their matches & will be free to play again.
This occured during the first Ryder Cup tournament. After the 1st round, the score was 6 to 2 in favor of the Americas Team. The second round was the two lowest ranking Americas Team fighters defeat the two remaining European fighters. The final score was 8 points to 2 in favor of the Americas Team. Thus, the title of 'Grand Champion' remained with the Gold Division champion.
Below is a summary of the fighters involved in the first Ryder Cup tournament, results, and individual records:
Americas Team:
Champion: Zabi- VIPER (New York)
#1 Contender: ElGeneral GUILE (California)
#2 rank: xxUltimaCloudxx RUFUS (Canada)
#3 rank: Flashfan7 BLANKA (New York)
Invitee: Deltron2020 RYU (New York)
Invitee: Skrface13 BLANKA (New Jersey)
Invitee: Zti890 CAMMY (Louisiana)
Invitee: Jay19000 VEGA (Florida)
European Team:
Champion: Shooryukenn BLANKA(England)
#1 Contender: Hedr1984 VEGA(Poland)
#2 rank: Klesk_1 ZANGIEF (England)
#3 rank: Hedr1984 BISON (Poland)
Invitee: Orkanmuoh23 DHALSIM (Germany)
Invitee: Ryumanjisen ABEL (Spain)
Invitee: Sabishiiryuu ZANGIEF (Finland)
Invitee: Hooko28 KEN (Iceland)
First Round Mathes:
Zabi- VIPER defeated Hooko28 KEN
xxUltimaCloudxx RUFUS defeated Ryumanjisen ABEL
Flashfan7 BLANKA defeated Orkanmuoh23 DHALSIM
Jay19000 VEGA defeated Shooryuken BLANKA
Skrface13 BLANKA defeated Klesk_1 ZANGIEF
Deltron2020 RYU defeated Hedr1984 BISON
SabishiiRyuu ZANGIEF defeated ElGeneral GUILE
Hedr1984 VEGA defeated Zti890 CAMMY
2nd Round Matches:
Jay19000 VEGA defeated Hedr1984 VEGA
Skrface13 BLANKA defeated SabishiiRyuu ZANGIEF
Americas Team wins the Ryder Cup tournament: 8 to 2
Ryder Cup I records:
Americas Team:
Champion: Zabi- VIPER (1-0)
#1 Contender: ElGeneral GUILE (0-1)
#2 rank: xxUltimaCloudxx RUFUS (1-0)
#3 rank: Flashfan7 BLANKA (1-0)
Invitee: Deltron2020 RYU (1-0)
Invitee: Skrface13 BLANKA (2-0)
Invitee: Zti890 CAMMY (0-1)
Invitee: Jay19000 VEGA (2-0)
European Team:
Champion: Shooryukenn BLANKA(0-1)
#1 Contender: Hedr1984 VEGA(1-1)
#2 rank: Klesk_1 ZANGIEF (0-1)
#3 rank: Hedr1984 BISON (0-1)
Invitee: Orkanmuoh23 DHALSIM (0-1)
Invitee: Ryumanjisen ABEL (Spain)
Invitee: Sabishiiryuu ZANGIEF (1-1)
Invitee: Hooko28 KEN (0-1)
The rosters are still coming together for the upcoming Ryder Cup tournament, but here are the confirmed fighters:
Americas Team:
Champion Cuby KEN (9-1-1, Florida)
#1 ElGeneral GUILE (13-5, California)
#2 Skrface13 BLANKA (14-6, New Jersey)
#3 Fran_Gil BALROG (13-6, Dominican Republic)
Invite #1 Gold #11 rank Crusader884 KEN (13-3-2, New Jersey)
European Team:
Champion SabishiiRyuu VEGA (13-1, Finland)
#1 Contender Shooryukenn BLANKA (12-2, England)
#2 Cravin456 RYU (9-1, England)
#3 Rudeboy_2Deep ABEL (8-2, England)
Four members from each region are no longer in the league, so we shall have some new faces & fighters competing in the second Ryder Cup tournament. Updates will be posted via the SFCCL Facebook account as they come in from day to day. Daily updates to the Ryder Cup II page on this website will also be made, but the best place to get up-to-date info will be the Facebook page since it is so easy to update.
Good luck all fighters, and lets hope for a great tournament! That being said......USA! USA! USA!