IGM EMERALD CIRCUIT 2025 is a series of tournament events for Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 & Guilty Gear Strive brought to you by Irish Gaming Market (IGM) and their partners/sponsors. It is in no way in collaboration with Capcom, Bandai Namco, or Arc System Works. The circuit may also have a presence at other community events across Ireland, though to qualify for this the tournament organisers and players must abide by the format and systems as listed here.

Upon completion of the form, players will be registered for all games on the Emerald Circuit, however they will only be placed on a games leaderboard upon earning at least 1 point in that game at any event.

Players registered must:

- Be over 16 years old, with any 16/17 year olds having adult supervision at IGM

events.

- Not be banned at any Irish FGC event space or Discord servers.

- Be a resident of, or born on the island of Ireland. If there are any players with inconsistent residency or any other causes for concern over this, they may contact, IGM staff to seek an exemption. This is handled on a case by case basis.

If a player registers after already placing at a points qualifier event, points will be reimbursed for up to 30 days prior to resignation. If registration occurs after 30 days, those points are no longer valid.

If a player is ineligible for points but places high in a points qualifier event, those points will be removed from the system entirely. For example, if a player from and residing in the USA were to come first at an IGM Showdown, the points for placing

first at that will not be allocated to anyone.

After IGM Winter Showdown, no more points will be allocated. The Top 15 players on each games leaderboard will qualify for the finals, with 1 spot being left open for a Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ).

In the case of a tie for 15th, the player(s) with the highest results from Showdown events will qualify. In the case of a Top 15 player being unable to make it to the finals, their spot will go to the 16th player and further down if needed.

All games will follow the same match rules formats as their publishers world tours (Capcom Pro Tour, Tekken World Tour, Arc World Tour).

Should these change or overhauled as a new tour season begins for them, those rule changes will be reflected in the Emerald Circuit as well.

Capcom Pro Tour: https://sf.esports.capcom.com/cpt/rules/

Tekken World Tour: https://www.bandainamcoent.com/legal/community-

events/official-rules-twt

Arc World Tour: https://www.arcsystemworks.jp/awt2024/ or https://www.start.gg/tournament/evo-japan-2024-presented-by-rohto/event/evo-japan-2024-guilty-gear-strive-2/overview/rules

There is one exception for Street Fighter 6, as IGM Showdown events will follow CPT rules regarding how long sets are, but non IGM tournament organizers are free to use a FT2 or FT3 format all throughout, as both will qualify regardless.

This is to give Irish tournament organizers the freedom to experiment with formats, as this has been a topic of debate by many.

The Finals of the Emerald Circuit will be run some time during December 2025 or January 2026. The exact dates, start times and venue is still TBD.

Last Chance Qualifiers

Each game will have an off stream LCQ early in the day of their finals.

The LCQ will be a paid entry bracket early in the day of that games finals. The winner of each LCQ will qualify for group stages later that same day. There are no cash prizes planned for the LCQ winner as of right now.

All LCQs will be run under the same rulesets as their game would have been ran under at any of the 3 Showdown events throughout the year. The only additional rule being that the 15 players already qualified for group stages of that game cannot enter.

Entry to the LCQ grants you spectator and free-play access to the entire finals event.

Group Stages + Top 8

The initial phase of the finals will be run as 4 round robin groups with 4 players each.

These will begin shortly after the LCQ finishes, with a select number of games happening on stream.

First place in each group will be placed into Winners Side of the Top 8 finals, with Second place in each group being placed into Losers Side. Those who place Third and Fourth will be eliminated.

The last phase of the finals will then be a traditional Top 8, following the same rules and format as would happen at any of the 3 IGM Showdown events.

The exact prize pools are TBA. Unlike regular IGM Showdown events, the community will have the chance to influence the prize pools for the finals through crowdfunding, available on this page here.

The final prize pools will be made up of a combination of funds directly from IGM, from event sponsors and from this crowdfunding page. Any excess funds acquired through crowdfunding will go towards cost such as paying for the venue used for finals, paying production staff, assuring all tech used for tournament setups is up to a high standard and is consistent, etc.

Top 8 finalists for each game will receive a custom made medal, with a unique medal for the champions. Each champion will also have their name etched into the custom made Emerald Circuit plaque, their legacy remaining on it for years to come. This

plaque will be at every IGM Showdown event from IGM Spring Showdown onwards, right at the stream setup.