Evo Ruleset for Game Controllers

Motivation

There are open questions as to the legality of custom controllers and controller modifications in the FGC. This has led to uncertainty both for players and product developers:

  • Players don't know what controllers will be tournament legal in the future, leading them to choose traditional gamepads and fightsticks. This limits choice for players, preventing players from choosing the very best controller according to their own personal taste.

  • Controller manufacturers are uncertain as to whether future products will be tournament legal, stifling innovation.

To resolve this uncertainty, Evo has developed these tournament rules for 3rd party controllers.  We are posting them now for open feedback from the community, with the aim of finalizing them by October 31st 2019.

Definition of Terms

Controller:  The device a player manipulates to interact with the game.  Examples of  controllers include:

  • Game pads
  • Fight sticks
  • Home-brew controllers developed by players.

Input Mechanism: Any device on the controller which the player interacts with to play the game.  Example input mechanisms include:

  • A digital pushbutton
  • A lever (i.e. joystick) used to activate one or more push buttons simultaneously (e.g. those typically found on fight sticks)
  • A lever designed to sweep across a sensor, generating a range of analog inputs (e.g. the L-stick typically found on console controllers)

Game Input: A signal sent from the controller to the game in reaction to the player manipulating some input mechanism.  Example game inputs include

  • The X button is pressed
  • The L button is pressed
  • The analog R2 button is pressed 85% of the way.

Rules

Controllers at Evo are tournament legal, so long as they abide by the rules below.

  1. The controller may not activate multiple game inputs from a single input mechanism.  This includes both chorded (i.e. A and B together) and sequential (i.e. A followed by B) inputs.  In-game assignment of multiple inputs to a single button are, of course, allowed.  Cardinal directions (Up, Down, Left, and Right) are specifically excluded from this ruling, except as noted in Rule 3 (below).
  • OK. A lever which sends the Down+Right inputs when held in a certain position.  Down and Right are both cardinal directions and therefore can be activated simultaneously by a single input mechanism.
  • OK. Using the in-game controller settings for a game to assign a multi-game input function to a single button on a player controller (e.g. push R2 to activate PPP)
  • NOT OK. Re-wiring a push-button inside the controller to simultaneously push three other buttons to send three punch inputs.   One input mechanism activation may not send multiple game inputs.
  • NOT OK. A push-button that activates a hardware macro which sends a series of game inputs at a specific timing.
  • NOT OK. A slider that when moved from left to right will send a series of inputs, one after the other.  One input mechanism activation may not send multiple game inputs.
  • NOT OK. An analog push-button which sends either game input A or input B depending on how hard it is pressed.

  1. The controller may send analog game inputs from analog input mechanisms or digital input mechanisms, so long as it does not violate Rule 1.
  • OK. A push-button that when pressed sends a game input that the analog stick is 75% to the right.
  • OK. Two push-buttons (A and B) that produce different analog outputs depending on whether one, the other, or both are held (e.g. the R2 analog game input is at 25% held when A is pressed, 50% held when B is pressed, and 100% held when both A and B are pressed).
  • NOT OK. A push-button that when pressed will sweep the analog stick from 100% left to 100% right over 1 second.  This violates Rule 1 by sending multiple analog game inputs from a single input mechanism activation.

  1. The controller may not send simultaneous opposite cardinal directions (SOCD) game inputs.  SOCD inputs include Left+Right and Up+Down.  This is typically enforced by adding “cleaning” firmware to the controller which removes one of the inputs before passing to the game.  “Stock” gamepads (e.g. the Playstation DUALSHOCK®4) are explicitly exempt from this rule.  This rule will be removed on April 30th, 2021.
  • OK. A lever which sends the D+R inputs when held in a certain position.  D+R are not opposite cardinal direction and can be bound to a single input.
  • NOT OK. A push-button that when pressed sends L+R inputs.  L+R are opposite cardinal directions and therefore cannot be bound to a single input.
  • NOT OK. A player mods his fight stick to add an additional button to press R without adding a SOCD cleaner.  The player can hold L on the lever and hold this new button to also send the R game input. Since this results in sending SOCD inputs to the game, this stick is not tournament legal in 2020.  It would become tournament legal after April 31st, 2021.

Evo suggests that fighting game developers take these rules into account when designing their game.  For example:

  • A game designer may determine that going from D to U should require at least 1 frame in neutral and add game logic to enforce this.  (i.e. the sequence D, D, D, U, U, U is transformed to D, D, D, (neutral), U U by software in the game)
  • A game designer may conclude that holding L and R simultaneously is not a valid input for their game.  When processing game inputs, the designer decides to treat L and R simultaneous inputs as if neither input were present (i.e. neutral).

Applying Rulings to Existing Devices

The Hit Box Cross|Up under active development remaps input mechanisms found on a stock controller to different locations on the device.  Specifically:

  • The left-analog stick is remapped to a lever on the left side of the device
  • The digital d-pad buttons have been moved to the right side of the device.
  • A SOCD cleaner which prevents sending L+R or U+D simultaneously

Since the Hit Box Cross|Up avoids violating Rule 3 by implementing a SOCD cleaner and does not send multiple inputs, it is a tournament legal device.

The Hit Box Smash Box maps many of the analog functions of the Nintendo Gamecube Gamepad to digital buttons.  For example, a player can activate specific analog tilt angles by entering chords of digital inputs.  This is specifically allowed by Rule 2.  The Smash Box is therefore tournament legal.

The “Gafrobox” implements a specific method of SOCD cleaning where holding multiple, opposite directions will always keep the most recent, still depressed input.  For example, when a user holds Left, presses Right, and releases Right, the Gafrobox will send the Left, Right, Left inputs to the game.  In this case, 3 user inputs (press Left, press Right, release Right) has resulted in 3 different game inputs (Left, Right, Left) and therefore is not in violation of Rule 1.  The Gafrobox also implements SOCD cleaning such that Left and Right are never simultaneously sent to the game and is not of violation of Rule 3.  Therefore, the Gafrobox is tournament legal.

Some tournament players have developed a novel grip with the Playstation DUALSHOCK®4  controller which allows them to simultaneously hold Left on the analog stick while pressing Right on the D-Pad, or vice versa.   The device violates the SOCD portion of Rule 3, but is specifically allowed by the “stock” controller exemption.  Therefore, the Playstation DUALSHOCK®4 is tournament legal at Evo 2020.  Rule 3 will be revoked on April 30th, 2021, which means the Playstation DUALSHOCK®4 will remain tournament legal for Evo 2021.

In 2014, tournament player Full Schedule added extra buttons to his stick to activate Up+Left and Up+Right simultaneously.  Since a single button press resulted in multiple non-opposing cardinal directions, the Full Schedule stick is tournament legal.

Conclusion

We appreciate your feedback on this ruleset in advance of any final decision.  We look forward to engaging with the community in finalizing these rules for Evo 2020.  If you have specific feedback you would like to convey directly, please direct it to mrwizard@shoryuken.com with the subject Evo Controller Ruleset Feedback