In the Groove Tournament

Say Hello to our ITG TO: Dave Seltzer

Dave has 20+ years of rhythm game experience as both a competitor and tournament organizer. He has helped run or assist in dozens of rhythm game events throughout the country, and nowadays is most well known for being a co-head of the Big Deal series of tournaments in Texas, which is still the largest DDR event that has been held in the US. He and his events been featured on Engadget and Kotaku before, and he looks forward to assisting with the ITG event at AFKCon

In the Groove Customs Tournament

Song Pack and qualifier info:

  • A random 10 and 11 footer from the pack will be chosen ahead of time as the qualifier. Players will be permitted warmups for the qualifiers, but must complete their qualifier set by Friday, September 30th. If you will be unable to qualify on Friday, please let the TOs know in advance.

  • The song pack is identical from the Panini Fest pack (trying to make this as easy as possible for the local Colorado folks)

  • For qualifying only, Fantastics count is the only thing that will be scored. Your total percentage and other step judgments will not be factored in.

  • Here is the difficulty weight distribution for the event. %'s are approximated:

  • Entire pack (77 songs):

    • 8s - 12%

    • 9s - 18%

    • 10s - 19%

    • 11s - 25%

    • 12s - 18%

    • 13s – 8%

  • Once we are down to 8 players left, 8 footers will no longer be selectable in the card draw. For semifinals onwards, 9 footers will no longer be selectable in the card draw.

CMods and hide background are permitted, Decents and way offs can be disabled for qualifying.


Players will be allowed one warm up song prior to playing the qualifiers, but they are not allowed to play the qualifiers prior to qualifying. Players will be seeded by total number of Fantastics combined between the two songs. A separate tiebreaker song will be used if a tiebreaker is needed.



Play Rules

Note: Rules are subject to change based on entry size


If there are 16 or less people who enter, we will use a double elimination bracket. If there are more than 16 entrants, we will have round robin pools with 4 people each in a waterfall style format. Each round robin pool will have 1 winner that moves on. These pools will eventually feed into a 16 person bracket, which will then turn into a double elimination bracket for the duration of the tournament. The top 8 seeds will have an automatic bye into the double elimination bracket and will not have to compete in pool play.


If you are assigned to a pool, the TO will try to give you an approximate time for your pool start time. You are expected to report to the machine by the expected start time of your pool. If you are unable to do so due to a tournament scheduling conflict, please let the TO know in advance.


Each match will be played using the Card Draw system. For all matches leading up to finals, 5 songs will be randomly chosen from the song pack. Both players will have the opportunity to remove 1 song and protect 1 song. The 3 songs remaining will be played in order from how they were randomized unless BOTH players agree on a new song order. If both players do not agree, then it will be played in the order the card draw shows. A separate card draw may be used if needed in the event of a tie.

The higher seed will have the choice of the following 3 options: Choice of Pad Side (Left or Right), Choice of Song Removal (1st or 2nd), or Choice of Song Protection. Lower seed will get the 2nd choice, and the remaining 3rd option reverts back to the higher seed. The first player to win 2 songs will move on to the next round.

For Winners Finals, Losers Finals, and Grand Finals (time permitting) 7 songs will be randomly chosen. Both players will have the opportunity to remove 1 song and protect 1 just as before. The remaining 5 songs will be played from in order from how they were randomized unless BOTH players agree on a new song order. If both players do not agree, then it will be played in the order the card draw shows.

The higher seed will have the choice of the following 3 options: Choice of Pad Side (Left or Right), Choice of Song Removal (1st or 2nd), or Choice of Song Protection. Lower seed will get the 2nd choice, and the remaining 3rd option reverts back to the higher seed. The first player to win 3 songs will move on to the next round.

  • The use of turn mods is allowed. Speed and Note Skin mods are by preference.

  • We will not be using FA+ for the event. However, you are allowed to turn on FA+ judgment for your own personal gameplay (pending theme availability).

  • If you FAIL or stop playing the song for 5 seconds (whichever comes first), your opponent wins the song.

  • All arbitration will be handled at the tournament coordinator’s discretion.

  • Players are allowed to disable Decent and Way Off judgements.

  • CMOD allowed unless it says "no cmod" in the song subtitle.