The North American Faux Tour (NAFT), formerly known as the US Faux Tour, is a North American rankings league for competitive Malifaux that aims to foster fun, organized play and the growth of the North American Malifaux community. We believe that anyone of any skill level can enjoy Malifaux organized play and we hope to encourage more people to experience the joys of interacting with players from all over the country at competitive events.
How it works
Players earn points based on participation in events and placing in those events. At the end of the season Players are ranked within their home conferences (see below) and compete for spots in the invitational Masters Championship Tournament held June 8-9, 2024 at Dragon’s Lair Games in Houston, Texas. All players are encouraged to come to the annual NAFT Championship Weekend to close out each season and kick off the next season.
Who can participate?
Any US or Canadian resident that plays in a qualified tournament that meets the following criteria:
- 50ss Malifaux tournaments that follow the current Gaining Grounds document.
- Tournaments must be a minimum of 3 rounds and at least 6 players playing all rounds.
- Tournaments must be open to the public and have been advertised to the public at least 10 days in advance.
- The event may use the Base Game format with any of the Gaining Grounds Individual player Variants (no team events).
Season Timing
The 2023-2024 Season runs from July 1, 2023 through April 15, 2024. Starting this year, each new season will run April 16 through April 15 of the following year with the NAFT Championship Weekend taking place at a rotating location each summer.
Masters Invitational
Each season will conclude with a 32-player, 50ss, 5-round invitational Masters Tournament featuring the top players from all conferences battling it out to be the season’s North American Malifaux Master! There will also be an open tournament at the same time as the Master’s Invitational, kicking off the new season with a public 50ss 5-round tournament that gives players not lucky enough to qualify for the Master’s Invitational the opportunity to launch the new season!
The number of Masters Spots is dynamically determined based on the amount of activity in each conference. Roughly speaking, the more events that take place in a conference, the more masters invitational spots they will earn. However, to earn any masters invitational spots, a conference most host at least 3 qualified events and have at least 15 unique in-conference players who each participated in at least one in-conference event.
- 24 spots are reserved for the conference top-ranked players
- 7 spots are Wildcard spots awarded to players that did not qualify for a spot in their conference but had the highest combined total conference and out-of-conference points.
- 1 Wildcard spot awarded to the US or Canadian player with the highest score from the Vassal World Series.
Conferences
A conference is a bound and defined geographic area. Each season may see adjustments to the conference definitions based on player and tournament activity. A tournament is considered a conference event if it takes place within the bounds of the conference. Players are considered members of the conference in which they principally reside.
- “In Conference Play” is any player participating in an event hosted in their home conference
- “Out-of-Conference Play” is any player participating in an event hosted in another conference.
Details of Scoring
The philosophical goal of the USFT scoring system is to encourage players to travel to other conferences and to play in many events during the season.
Players earn points based on the following scoring rubric:
- 3-4 round events award 3 basis points to every player (5 points for out-of-conference)
- 5+ round events award 5 basis points to every player (7 points for out-of-conference)
- 1 basis point per player ranked above
- 3x basis bonus for finishing 3rd
- 5x basis bonus for finishing 2nd
- 10x basis bonus for finishing 1st
Event Scoring Example
Consider the Example GT, a 12 player, 3-round event (3 basis points in-conference, 5 for out-of-conference). 11 of the players were in-conference and one (Jim) out of conference.
| Player | Placing | Basis | Players Beaten | Bonus | Points Earned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Betty | 1st | 3 | 11 | 30 (10×3) | 63 |
| Pat | 2nd | 3 | 10 | 15 (5×3) | 45 |
| Daisy | 3rd | 3 | 9 | 9 (3×3) | 36 |
| Akim | 4th | 3 | 8 | 24 | |
| David | 5th | 3 | 7 | 21 | |
| Chris | 6th | 3 | 6 | 18 | |
| Juan | 7th | 3 | 5 | 15 | |
| *Jim | 8th | 5 | 4 | 20 | |
| Rajesh | 9th | 3 | 3 | 9 | |
| Sally | 10th | 3 | 2 | 6 | |
| Craig | 11th | 3 | 1 | 3 | |
| Bob | 12th | 3 | 0 | 0 | |