What to expect in this guide: This guide will include everything you need to be aware of as a new member to our community. Starting with a "
How-to" section where you'll learn how to do few things, even If you already know how to do those in other places. Next there will be a "
Dorms and Ranking System" section where you'll learn more about our four dorms and how to get higher rank, also how to ear re-tests. Next, we'll include a few
briefings and
links to major events and important topics as well as some of the RP games and
prizes we give for the winners of our events.
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Click here to Jump to: How-to section.»
Click here to Jump to: Ranking System»
Click here to Jump to: Briefings Section»
Click here to Jump to: Prizes Section In this section you'll take a general look on how to do few things here and there.
How to Introduce yourself:
It's always important to leave a first good impression when you first join a community, even more important if you're planning on staying. You can Introduce yourself at our
Introductions Forum, It'd also be a good Idea to talk a bit about yourself so our members get to know you better.
How to Report to the Support Desk:
When you have an issue with one of the forum features It's better to report It at our
Support Desk, It's the quickest method to get a Staff member's attention to your problem and help getting It resolved much faster.
Note: We have our PMs system disabled at the time being; If you have an issue with one of our members, you CANNOT report that at our Support Desk, It'd be easier to contact our Staffers through the Information found on each of their signatures.
How to Start Topics in Certain Sections:
Basically, this only applies on few of our sections, where you MUST follow a certain "form" when creating a topic, so others could follow your lead. When you open a topic in our
TCG & OCG Discussions,
Deck Discussions, or
Single-card Discussions; you're obligated to include the following in your topics: Card Name + Card Image + Effect Description +Your Comment; If It's a Discussion then you could also add: Strategies + Siding with/against + Example of a Decklist.
Introduction of the Ranking System:
Being Duel Academy, we follow the original Yu-Gi-Oh! GX series theme. Where players are ranked through visual appearance, colors, and ranks depending on which dorm they belong to. Following that habit, we do also separate our players from each other with colors and ranks.
The Purpose of the Ranking System:
Ranking System is used to distinguish the good player from the great player. it's important in a community solely based around a cards game to have such a feature that could make the atmosphere a bit extra competitive. The better you are the easier it should be for you to Rank-up to higher dorms.
Introducing Dormitories:
Similar to the original anime series, we have four dormitories: Slifer Red > Ra Yellow > Obelisk Blue > Society of Light. Each dorm holds players of an equivalent level of skills: once someone rise above the others he or she could earn a Dorm Upgrade to the next one.
Joining a Dorm:
When you first join our community you'll automatically be placed in Slifer Red, we call it auto-Slifer. Then with time, you'll rank up to Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue by raising your ELO in
DA's Circuit. To join the Society of Light, you must meet certain conditions which will be in the SoL section further on.
Rank-up System
In order for you to Rank-up, you need to play for Duel Academy's Circuit Ranking and raise your ELO. Your ELO is raised by winning games for
DA's Circuit Ranking. At the end of a season we'll measure up your ELO and place you in a higher dorm if you have earned it. Another way to earn a rank-up is to get the appropriate amount of Tournament stacks. 2 Stacks are required for Ra Yellow and 3 Stacks are required for Obelisk Blue!
Points System
The way the points system works, is it counts how many games you have played in our DA's Circuit, and depending on how much effort you put behind this, it'll be the factor in your Rank-up. An ELO score will be given to you over time and this will represent your skill level and what dorm you should be in. The ELO per dorms are: 750 points is needed to reach Ra Yellow and 1000 points are needed to reach Obelisk Blue duels which apply for these are Battle Arena Duels and Shadow Arena Duels.
Applying for Test
There is no "Testing" or " a Test" in our Ranking System, after all, It does say "Ranking" and not "Testing". What you need to do to reach a higher rank in our academy is to duel in BA's and SA's, these will affect your ELO which determines your Dorm.
Society of Light
The Society of Light is a tier above all of the rest. If you are here it's because you earnt your place up to the top. There are 6 different ways to rank up to this dorm and one must be completed whilst in the Obelisk Blue dorm.
1. Win a World Championship Qualifier as an Obelisk Blue
2. End up in Top 2 of DA's World Championship as an Obelisk Blue
3. Win any other Major Event hosted by DA as an Obelisk Blue
4. End up in Top 2 in DA's Circuit season as an Obelisk Blue
5. End up in the top 4 in at least 10 tournaments as an Obelisk Blue.
6. Sell at least +100 decks from your deck shop as an Obelisk Blue.
Instant Rank-up
With all of that mentioned, there is still few methods where you could earn an instant Rank-up from your current Dorm, they're as the following:
1. Finish Top 2 in any 16-Participant Tournament
2. Finish with an appropriate amount of points in DA Circuit
3. Finish Top 8 in any 64-Participant Tournament.
4. Having participating in +3 Tournaments during a month, while reached at least top 4 in all of them.
(not necessarily won any) 5. If you're top 15 on either DN Rankings or YGO/DevPro Rankings; auto-obelisk.
Demotions
This did NOT exist in any of our previous systems; however, if your ELO is too low and it matches the dorm below you, we'll be moving you down to where you need to be.
Avoiding Demotions
At the end of each DA's Circuit. DA's Staff nominate to demote few individuals whom couldn't perform well in events and couldn't prove themselves worthy of their dorms. Note, that only Ra Yellow and Obelisk blue can be demoted - Slifer is already the lowest dorm, you can't be demoted there (believe me, we tried, there was a pink basement).
The Purpose of Demotions
In our community, we don't seek to be a huge community, we're gladly satisfied with being limited in numbers as long as everyone is having a good time. We realize some members come here to relieve some of their real-life pressure and meet new friends, we exist to provide that to everyone. One way to keep it competitive and fun is to assure we have no slackers in our higher dorms.
Duel Academy's Circuit:
The Duel Academy’s Circuit(or DA Circuit for short) is an event where members of the community duel each other in order to raise their ELO to climb the ladder. DA's Circuit has it's own Leaderboard which shows everyone's ELO, their wins and losses. At the end of a Circuit, duelists will be assigned to their new dorms and special awards will be given to those who have met certain criteria. DA Circuit has it's own leaderboard which can be found here:
DA's Circuit Leaderboard Participating in Events:
By "Events" we don't mean Tournaments, we mean our other events which will have special conditions attached to them and limitations or additions to the game or rules to make it new and interesting. These will be happening at random points over time so keep an eye on our events section for more:
Events Section Participating in Tournaments:
Playing in a Tournament is similar to participating in an Event. The only differences in Tournaments are your time zone and willingness to wait for your opponent to be available. This is something not everyone can manage. We request that you attempt to contact your opponent through the Tournament's topic itself, Dueling Network's Chat, DA's Chat, or any other communications system you're comfortable with.
Articles & Lessons:
Until recently we had a special staff group called Professors who used to write Articles and Lessons occasionally. However, due to several changes we've been through, that group has been removed from our staff team. We will still occasionally write Articles and Lessons as time allows.
Dice Games & Dice Jar:
We were the first Academy to ever have Dice Games within its forums, others only copied what we started. There are several Dice Games in which you can participate:
Lottery of the Forbidden One and [url=http://www.duelacademy.net/f116-deck-racing, <a]Deck Racing[/url]
For participating in our events (or winning) there is a set of prizes which we always pick from to give for our winners. When participating in any event - aside from having a good time - you should expect, should you win, that you'll be receiving one - or more - of the following:
1. Duel Points
2. Custom-made Rank
3. Custom-made Profile Borders (Yet to be created)
4. Rank-ups