Besides the Registration Office and the Bank, Referee Headquarters is the most prominent building in ASB Central. It is home not only to the offices of all current referees, but is also responsible for processing new applicants and overseeing the promotion of already-approved referees.
Referees are crucial to the health of an ASB league, as without them, battles cannot progress. The job of reffing is difficult, but referees get the best benefits of any ASB position. Approved referees are grouped into one of four ranks depending on the quality of their work. At present, these are the referees of TCoD and their ranks:
Head Referee - The de facto leader of the league as a whole, the head referee is responsible for approving new referees, handling promotions for those that have already been approved, and distributing paychecks. He or she is also the final word in rules disputes and implements changes to the overall game structure.
The current head referee is Negrek.
Elite Referees - Elite referees are the senior members of the referee squad and considered to produce the best reffings.
Current elite referees include: blazheirio889, Byrus, Chiropter, Crazy Linoone, Deathguise, Jack_the_PumpkinKing, Keta, Kratos Aurion, Kusarigamatiachi, Metallica Fanboy, Mike the Foxhog, Pentimento, Shadoow Serenity, Walker
Advanced Referees - Although they have not yet attained the title of Elite, advanced referees are considered competent and active members of the reffing team.
Current advanced referees include: Dragon, Lars the Turtwig, Leafstorm, MurrMurr, The Omskivar, Prettzel, Rossymore, sreservoir, Zhorken
Novice Referees - Rookie referees have usually been recently approved. Although they understand the basics of reffing, their work lacks some of the polish of the higher ranks.
Current novice referees include: Aethelstan, Alraunne, Amoeba, Arylett Dawnsborough, Blastoise, Blaziking 175, Blinkingsky, bulbasaur, Captain Sea Turtle, DarthWaffles, Empoleon, Eonrider, Full Metal Cookies, Glace, Grass King, Heavy Lobster, Hiikaru ♥, Icalasari, Karkat Vantas, Kindling Queen, Mai, Li'l Dwagie, Lord of the Fireflies, Lucas755, moon-panther, Oreku, PichuK, Psymon, Respect The Blade, Sage Noctowl, Scyther, Skylark, SomeGuy, Squornshellous Beta, Summergale, Superbird, Totodile, YetiPenguin, Viki, zeKierenator
Referees are promoted based upon the quality of their reffings and their activity within the League. Although some people may be moved up the ranks without their request because the head referee notices that they are reffing a lot or producing particularly good reffings, she does not have time to evaluate each referee regularly and therefore may pass over some individuals deserving of a promotion. If you would like to request that she review your work in the interest of a promotion, send her a PM with links to two of your more recent reffings for her to evaluate.
Referees are responsible for keeping track of the rounds that they ref. They can redeem them any time they wish and in any number they wish by posting in the Bank with links to all the rounds they wish to claim money for and the amount that each round is worth. This depends both on the rank of the referee and the kind of battle being reffed.
The value of a reffing is calculated based on the number of pokémon in the field at the beginning of a round. In an ordinary one vs one battle, this is two, so the base referee pay is multiplied by two for each round that a referee cashes in on this battle. In a double battle, on the other hand, there are usually four pokémon on the field at a time, so the rate for such a battle is four times a referee's base pay. Later on in the battle, one of the pokémon may have fainted; there might be a round in which only three pokémon were still battling. In this case, the value of the reffing would be three times the referee's base pay.
A referee's base pay is based on their rank. For novices it is $2, for advanced referees, $3, and for elite referees, $4.
Emergency referees receive $3 more per round than they ordinarily would. Frequent emergency reffing will increase a referee's chance of earning a promotion. At the end of a battle, if it was the first battle one of the players involved had had on TCoD and was reffed by the same person all the way through, that referee gets a $15 bonus.
If a battle is reffed within one week of the last set of commands being posted, there is a $1 bonus per pokémon on the field ($2 for most battles, $4 for a double battle in which all pokémon are still active, etc.). If it has been more than two weeks since commands were last posted, the round is instead worth half its normal value. These modifications are independent of when money for the reffing is actually claimed--you could wait weeks to claim a round without taking a monetary penalty on it, provided that the round was originally posted within two weeks of the last set of commands.
A referee does not receive payment if they do not actually produce a round of reffing. There is no payment for just starting a battle thread if one or more of the trainers doesn't show up and the battle goes nowhere. Likewise, there is no payment for simply ending a battle in a tie or ending a battle by DQ, aside from whatever the referee might make from the end-of-battle prizes.
Some examples of hypothetical reffings and how much they would be worth:
1. A novice referee refs one round of a single battle: $4
2. A novice emergency referee posts a round in the battle above: $9
3. An advanced referee posts a round in that same battle: $11
4. A novice referee refs one round of a double battle: $8
5. An advanced referee refs one round of a double battle where one pokémon has been knocked out (3 remaining in battle): $9
6. An elite referee refs one round of a double battle where two pokémon have been knocked out (2 remaining in battle): $8
7. An elite emergency referee refs one round of a sixteen-pokémon melee: $69
Anyone can try out to become an approved referee, but you must have an ASB account in order to receive your paychecks. It is recommended that you read through others' battles to familiarize yourself with the ASB system before attempting one of the mock battles. Also, know that it is possible to retry the mock battles an unlimited number of times without penalty.
If you're interested in reffing for this league, you must first be approved for the position. There are two steps to becoming a referee: passing the ref quiz and being approved during a mock battle.
The Referee Quiz
The ref quiz consists of fifteen questions. Simply PM your answers to Negrek for grading. If you get all of them correct, you will move on to the mock battle stage. If not, Negrek will respond to your PM with which questions were wrong, and you will have the opportunity to correct them and re-submit. If you do not succeed in getting everything right on your second attempt, you will have to wait until the next quiz is posted to make another attempt at becoming a referee; otherwise, you will move on to the mock battle as normal.
These questions can all be answered by reading the various ASB information threads and looking at battles currently in progress. If you're having trouble, try using ctrl + F to search for particular words, or the board's search function to do the same. All of these questions have either been answered before or should be easy to deduce based on common sense or a general knowledge of the ASB system.
Previous quizzes: 1
The current quiz is as follows:
1. When setting up a battle thread, how do you determine which player sends out first and which player posts attacks first?
2. A pokémon that is holding a lum berry is paralyzed. Does it need to be told to use its berry?
3. In the scenario above, how many actions does it take to eat the lum berry?
4. How much less damage does a burned pokémon deal with physical attacks than it would without the burn?
5. Two pokémon are fighting in an enclosed warehouse arena. One of them uses rain dance. What happens?
6. A pokémon is commanded to make a 15% substitute. How much health and/or energy must it sacrifice in order to complete the attack?
7. How much more damage does a porygon-z with adaptibility do with its hyper beam than a porygon-z with an attack boost from download?
8. What is the base power of body slam when used by a luxray against a caterpie?
9. When you (hopefully!) become a novice referee, how much money will you make for emergency reffing one round of a double battle in which all four pokémon were still in play?
10. If a pokémon has a safeguard in place, what happens if another pokémon uses swagger on it?
11. If a pokémon has its held item stolen with thief over the course of the battle, which trainer owns the item at the battle's end, the one that has the pokémon that use thief, or the one with the pokémon that was stolen from?
12. How long does a post in the absence sheet protect a person from being DQ'd?
13. A pokémon uses protect, then endure. How likely is endure to work?
14. If a pokémon holding a king's rock uses flamethrower on an opponent, is it possible for the attack to cause the target to flinch?
15. What is the accuracy of a surf attack used against a pokémon with five double team clones?
The Mock Battle
After you pass the quiz, Negrek will PM you to let you know of your success, and also post your mock battle in the Challenge Board. You will serve as the battle's referee, while a current, high-ranking referee will be a participant and give you feedback on your reffing as the battle progresses.
The approved referee overseeing the battle is responsible for determining whether you're ready to be approved as a full referee. This may occur after any number of rounds; if they see that you know what you're doing after two, you'll be approved then; if it takes ten or fifteen for you to get the hang of things, then you'll be approved at that time. You will be expected to finish the mock battle even if you are approved long before it ends, but as soon as you are approved you can go out and pick up more battles if you'd like.
The mock battle uses the following standard format, although if the battlers decide they'd like to change some of the details (e.g. damage cap, banned moves), it's fine:
Referee Headquarters
Referees are crucial to the health of an ASB league, as without them, battles cannot progress. The job of reffing is difficult, but referees get the best benefits of any ASB position. Approved referees are grouped into one of four ranks depending on the quality of their work. At present, these are the referees of TCoD and their ranks:
Head Referee - The de facto leader of the league as a whole, the head referee is responsible for approving new referees, handling promotions for those that have already been approved, and distributing paychecks. He or she is also the final word in rules disputes and implements changes to the overall game structure.
The current head referee is Negrek.
Elite Referees - Elite referees are the senior members of the referee squad and considered to produce the best reffings.
Current elite referees include: blazheirio889, Byrus, Chiropter, Crazy Linoone, Deathguise, Jack_the_PumpkinKing, Keta, Kratos Aurion, Kusarigamatiachi, Metallica Fanboy, Mike the Foxhog, Pentimento, Shadoow Serenity, Walker
Advanced Referees - Although they have not yet attained the title of Elite, advanced referees are considered competent and active members of the reffing team.
Current advanced referees include: Dragon, Lars the Turtwig, Leafstorm, MurrMurr, The Omskivar, Prettzel, Rossymore, sreservoir, Zhorken
Novice Referees - Rookie referees have usually been recently approved. Although they understand the basics of reffing, their work lacks some of the polish of the higher ranks.
Current novice referees include: Aethelstan, Alraunne, Amoeba, Arylett Dawnsborough, Blastoise, Blaziking 175, Blinkingsky, bulbasaur, Captain Sea Turtle, DarthWaffles, Empoleon, Eonrider, Full Metal Cookies, Glace, Grass King, Heavy Lobster, Hiikaru ♥, Icalasari, Karkat Vantas, Kindling Queen, Mai, Li'l Dwagie, Lord of the Fireflies, Lucas755, moon-panther, Oreku, PichuK, Psymon, Respect The Blade, Sage Noctowl, Scyther, Skylark, SomeGuy, Squornshellous Beta, Summergale, Superbird, Totodile, YetiPenguin, Viki, zeKierenator
Promotion
Referees are promoted based upon the quality of their reffings and their activity within the League. Although some people may be moved up the ranks without their request because the head referee notices that they are reffing a lot or producing particularly good reffings, she does not have time to evaluate each referee regularly and therefore may pass over some individuals deserving of a promotion. If you would like to request that she review your work in the interest of a promotion, send her a PM with links to two of your more recent reffings for her to evaluate.
Referee Pay and Benefits
Referees are responsible for keeping track of the rounds that they ref. They can redeem them any time they wish and in any number they wish by posting in the Bank with links to all the rounds they wish to claim money for and the amount that each round is worth. This depends both on the rank of the referee and the kind of battle being reffed.
The value of a reffing is calculated based on the number of pokémon in the field at the beginning of a round. In an ordinary one vs one battle, this is two, so the base referee pay is multiplied by two for each round that a referee cashes in on this battle. In a double battle, on the other hand, there are usually four pokémon on the field at a time, so the rate for such a battle is four times a referee's base pay. Later on in the battle, one of the pokémon may have fainted; there might be a round in which only three pokémon were still battling. In this case, the value of the reffing would be three times the referee's base pay.
A referee's base pay is based on their rank. For novices it is $2, for advanced referees, $3, and for elite referees, $4.
Emergency referees receive $3 more per round than they ordinarily would. Frequent emergency reffing will increase a referee's chance of earning a promotion. At the end of a battle, if it was the first battle one of the players involved had had on TCoD and was reffed by the same person all the way through, that referee gets a $15 bonus.
If a battle is reffed within one week of the last set of commands being posted, there is a $1 bonus per pokémon on the field ($2 for most battles, $4 for a double battle in which all pokémon are still active, etc.). If it has been more than two weeks since commands were last posted, the round is instead worth half its normal value. These modifications are independent of when money for the reffing is actually claimed--you could wait weeks to claim a round without taking a monetary penalty on it, provided that the round was originally posted within two weeks of the last set of commands.
A referee does not receive payment if they do not actually produce a round of reffing. There is no payment for just starting a battle thread if one or more of the trainers doesn't show up and the battle goes nowhere. Likewise, there is no payment for simply ending a battle in a tie or ending a battle by DQ, aside from whatever the referee might make from the end-of-battle prizes.
Some examples of hypothetical reffings and how much they would be worth:
1. A novice referee refs one round of a single battle: $4
2. A novice emergency referee posts a round in the battle above: $9
3. An advanced referee posts a round in that same battle: $11
4. A novice referee refs one round of a double battle: $8
5. An advanced referee refs one round of a double battle where one pokémon has been knocked out (3 remaining in battle): $9
6. An elite referee refs one round of a double battle where two pokémon have been knocked out (2 remaining in battle): $8
7. An elite emergency referee refs one round of a sixteen-pokémon melee: $69
Anyone can try out to become an approved referee, but you must have an ASB account in order to receive your paychecks. It is recommended that you read through others' battles to familiarize yourself with the ASB system before attempting one of the mock battles. Also, know that it is possible to retry the mock battles an unlimited number of times without penalty.
Becoming a Referee
If you're interested in reffing for this league, you must first be approved for the position. There are two steps to becoming a referee: passing the ref quiz and being approved during a mock battle.
The Referee Quiz
The ref quiz consists of fifteen questions. Simply PM your answers to Negrek for grading. If you get all of them correct, you will move on to the mock battle stage. If not, Negrek will respond to your PM with which questions were wrong, and you will have the opportunity to correct them and re-submit. If you do not succeed in getting everything right on your second attempt, you will have to wait until the next quiz is posted to make another attempt at becoming a referee; otherwise, you will move on to the mock battle as normal.
These questions can all be answered by reading the various ASB information threads and looking at battles currently in progress. If you're having trouble, try using ctrl + F to search for particular words, or the board's search function to do the same. All of these questions have either been answered before or should be easy to deduce based on common sense or a general knowledge of the ASB system.
Previous quizzes: 1
The current quiz is as follows:
1. When setting up a battle thread, how do you determine which player sends out first and which player posts attacks first?
2. A pokémon that is holding a lum berry is paralyzed. Does it need to be told to use its berry?
3. In the scenario above, how many actions does it take to eat the lum berry?
4. How much less damage does a burned pokémon deal with physical attacks than it would without the burn?
5. Two pokémon are fighting in an enclosed warehouse arena. One of them uses rain dance. What happens?
6. A pokémon is commanded to make a 15% substitute. How much health and/or energy must it sacrifice in order to complete the attack?
7. How much more damage does a porygon-z with adaptibility do with its hyper beam than a porygon-z with an attack boost from download?
8. What is the base power of body slam when used by a luxray against a caterpie?
9. When you (hopefully!) become a novice referee, how much money will you make for emergency reffing one round of a double battle in which all four pokémon were still in play?
10. If a pokémon has a safeguard in place, what happens if another pokémon uses swagger on it?
11. If a pokémon has its held item stolen with thief over the course of the battle, which trainer owns the item at the battle's end, the one that has the pokémon that use thief, or the one with the pokémon that was stolen from?
12. How long does a post in the absence sheet protect a person from being DQ'd?
13. A pokémon uses protect, then endure. How likely is endure to work?
14. If a pokémon holding a king's rock uses flamethrower on an opponent, is it possible for the attack to cause the target to flinch?
15. What is the accuracy of a surf attack used against a pokémon with five double team clones?
The Mock Battle
After you pass the quiz, Negrek will PM you to let you know of your success, and also post your mock battle in the Challenge Board. You will serve as the battle's referee, while a current, high-ranking referee will be a participant and give you feedback on your reffing as the battle progresses.
The approved referee overseeing the battle is responsible for determining whether you're ready to be approved as a full referee. This may occur after any number of rounds; if they see that you know what you're doing after two, you'll be approved then; if it takes ten or fifteen for you to get the hang of things, then you'll be approved at that time. You will be expected to finish the mock battle even if you are approved long before it ends, but as soon as you are approved you can go out and pick up more battles if you'd like.
The mock battle uses the following standard format, although if the battlers decide they'd like to change some of the details (e.g. damage cap, banned moves), it's fine:
2vs2 Single
DQ: One week
Damage Cap: 40%
Banned Moves: None
Terrain: ASB Central Stadium
Although designed to be a state-of-the-art battling facility and located at the very heart of ASB Central's battle district, ASB Central Stadium actually sees very little use. Most battlers prefer the infinite variety of the holodrome's simulated arenas to the basic, if impressive, stadium field, and official tournaments tend to feature tours of other regions rather than a homefield brawl. There is one advantage to the stadium, though--its proximity to the holodrome grants it access to a full range of simulation options, allowing trainers to trick out their team to whatever extent they like before battling.
There's nothing much to say about the battlefield: it's a large, rectangular arena covered in astroturf. A circular pool will open in its center if a pokémon requiring water to move around in is sent out. In this arena, pokémon can summon absolutely anything they need for their attacks: tidal waves, boulders, and so on are in ready supply.
Other: This battle takes place between a referee and one other member. The referee will use their own team of pokémon, but the other battler may choose either to use their own team OR choose any six nonlegendary pokémon with any items and abilities to use for this fight. In the former case, their pokémon gain experience as normal. In the latter case, they may choose to apply the experience earned by their rental pokémon, minus one point, to their team in any manner that they choose.
The prizes for this battle are $20 to the winner, $10 to the loser, and $15 to the referee. This battle does not fill a battle slot for either participant.
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