created by: barn content provided by: laser dbdleague 2023 dbdleague guide to competitive index 3. Killer and map selection 4. duplicate perk bans 5. killer perk bans 6. mandatory offerings 7. allowing everything 8. Add on restrictions 9. camping and tunnelling 10. Breaks between games 11. dbdleague & competitive scene overview 12. contact us & thank you 2 why are killers played on a specific map? What makes a map viable for a killer is a combination of a few things the killer has to be able to realistically use their power effectively the map cannot feature any problematic interactions between the killers power and the map design. the map has to allow for sufficient counterplay on the survivors side. balancing what makes maps really good to put killers on, rather than just acceptable, is a mix of a few more things. Anything that plays into allowing for multiple viable playstyles for killers and for survivors is a good feature. Anything that plays into allowing a wide variety of realistic results based on how good both sides play and interact with each other allowing them to express their skill, as well as reduce the effect of RNG on the outcome. EXAMPLES maps which have horrible hitboxes for Blight would not be suitable. maps with very tight 3 gens and bad visibility are not suitable for Skull Merchant. maps with very low tile density and/or very small size are not suitable for Blight, while maps with very high tile density and/or very large size are not suitable for playing weaker m1 killers. 3 why can't survivors duplicate perks? balancing There are various reasons why duplicate perks have been mostly removed from competitive play at this point. The first reason is variety - forcing 16 different perks to be used, instead of potentially 4 different perks on all survivors increases creativity and build variety, making games more interesting to watch and play, while also allowing for much more interesting perk build design. variety and perk build design then allows for more skill expression because the survivor team needs to play around their unique set of perks and coordinate properly to get the most use and value out of them. the killer can play around the information they have on which perks are on which survivors to effectively try to counter this and make necessary decisions. This creates a very interactive dynamic with high amounts of skill expression for both sides. sometimes having the same perk multiple times is simply too strong for balancing reasons. example A simple switch from 1 to 2 Deliverance players changes the entire dynamic of the game, since now it doesn't really matter for that player to not get hooked first anymore and guarantees the availability of deliverance in the game without actually having to coordinate or execute anything properly. 4 why are perks banned against specific killers? balancing In the new balancing philosophy of tiers and trying not to overcomplicate balancing, the purpose of individual bans is to address highly impactful perks which are not relevant to most/any other killers, but are highly relevant to a specific killer/map combination. examples Self-Aware against Cenobite significantly reduces the impact of survivors being chained PERKS THAT CHANGE/REMOVE scratch markS OR SURVIVOR audio CUES against Spirit. On the killer side it's the same philosophy. Agi is banned on S-Tiers on smaller maps because of how impactful the hook locations can be Hoarder is banned on Cenobite to allow for more skill expression and to avoid cheese. 5 why do players have to bring offerings? balancing Offerings are used to both reduce the effect of RNG on the game as well as increase the amount of skill expression possible. By setting up spawns in a more or less specific way with shrouds, both sides can play around their game knowledge to make the best decisions, there's no uncertainty if someone spawned on your side on Suffocation Pit as Plague, which changes the entire dynamic of the game. examples basement and Hatch offerings allow both sides to actively play around their respective locations. that way you cannot blame RNG for dying in basement and you can actively avoid it. in addition, the end game is not decided by who gets luckier with the hatch spawn location. a Cut Coin is used by the killer to remove RNG loop extensions in the form of chests, which can have significant effects on some tile-killer combinations, and in some cases may be detrimental to the hitboxes of specific killer powers. 6 why can't you just allow everything? balancing You could argue that the base game is balanced by being incredibly unbalanced. Both sides have very broken, unfun to go against tools with very little counterplay. While the results might look somewhat similar in some cases, the experience of both playing as well as watching decreases significantly. Additionally, a lot of the competitive nature and skill expression is lost in the process. No matter how good the killer is, dealing with 4 Brand new parts is simply impossible, just like holding chase against a Blood Favor Blight with Alchemists Ring, or trying to stealth at spawn against a spirit with mother daughter ring and lethal pursuer. With little to no restrictions the amount of times the better team wins is decreased, the amount of RNG heavily increased and skill expression decreased, all while significantly reducing the amount of fun playing the game. This not only makes for a suboptimal competitive setting, but also decreases the long term fun of playing in it - it might be fun for a few games, but that's about it. example a no restrictions tournament was held previously and the only killers played, from the first round to the finals were spirit with mother daughter ring and blight with compound 33. Whilst it was fun and exciting seeing how top teams deal with these combinations, after a few games you know how the match is going to end before even watching it. 7 why are some add ons restricted? balancing add on availability is covered by the followingnothing broken can be allowed - simply for balancing reasons, it has to still be possible to hold chase against the killer in the way you would expect to, based on the killers power and the general comp standard aura reading addons are judged individually, but if they have a significant impact on gameplay and strength they need to be removed to allow for sufficient counterplay and skill expression/game sense on both sides rng increasing addons are removed - the best example for that are pigs trap addons which make it more likely to get deaths from traps consistency - on killers where specific mechanics need to be played around that are usually consistent, but can be changed with addons. for example huntress bringing extra hatchets, which are very commonly counted in comms to properly play around the number of hatchets left when taking hits/going for unhooks, these are also judged individually. prison chains on deathslinger could fall under this, but are considered standard enough, with not enough impact to warrant a ban. 8 why is there so much camping and tunnelling? gameplay Camping and Tunnelling are simply strategies in the game - necessary ones. Playing the game at a high level, with coordinated and individually highly skilled survivors killers need tools to put them under pressure. No matter how good the killer, no matter how good the player piloting it, if you don't put the survivors under pressure you will inevitably lose the game. In competitive play you can assume that there is no baby survivor you can tunnel out, camping doesn't magically drag every other survivor to the hook watching you stand there because they don't know what's happening. or how to counter it. Furthermore, neither of those strategies are a one-size-fits-all kind of approach. You cannot afford to camp in every game/situation, you cannot afford to blindly tunnel in every game/situation. There are situations in which these are the optimal plays and decisions, but not always. Identifying and understanding what options you have as a killer and which is ideal, being able to pivot your strategy based on the game state is a very important skill to learn. Survivors are also aware of the same dynamic, they know how to counter those strategies and make their ideal play based on what the killer does. Both sides will try to brutally punish the mistakes of the other side, because that's how you win games. in a competitive setting that is simply all that matters. both are simply strategies with counterplay. Neither of them allows you to win a game for free and there's a lot more going into a game than that. Survivors know how to deal with them as a collective team, the game in competitive is truly a 4v1 and is to be played with all the macro game strategies that comes with this implication. There's nothing toxic about it and our players don't mind dying on first hook with 2k points. 9 why are the breaks between games so long? streams as a volunteer ran, independant org, we have no sponsors, no funding, and no developer support from bhvr. Everything you see, whether it be in our discord server, on our social media, or in this very guide, has been created by someone volunteering their time and effort to build a community and a competitive scene for a game they love. due to this, our prize pools are funded by either donations from our wonderful community members and our staff team, but mostly from ad revenue played during our tournaments. we ensure that ads are only ever played between games so you'll never miss anything! alongside the need for ads to be played, we also have to prepare for the match, there's quite a bit to this! killer players complete a ping test with a staff member, this confirms they're not using a vpn and have stable ping and staff can see if they have a nice consistent connection to their home server, staff then give the killer the ok to play the staff member streaming joins the killers lobby, as well as the survivor team, survivors have 5 minutes to finalise their builds, equip them and ready up. players have shared with us over the years that they feel pressured and overwhelmed being asked to join the lobby and ready up without time to confirm their builds, and with all the balancing requirements, we think it's fair to give them a few minutes to clarify what they're bringing, and ensure it aligns with our balancing. as with public games, or swf lobbies, we also experience bugs in custom lobbies. in some cases the lobby will crash and we will have to invite everyone back, in some cases players don't load in at all. all of this adds extra time to the match being set up, and the subsequent break on stream. 10 dbdleague overview scene founded on June 23rd 2018, we're an independent Esports organisation hosting Dead by Daylight tournaments. We host a broad range of competitive events that span across the year; our main event (and our namesake) is the "League Season". Whilst we allow and welcome all platforms to enter our events, we typically cater to the top 16-20 teams. some events are restricted to invite-only. take your chance at proving yourself by participating in our highly sought-after tournaments when we announce sign ups in our discord server. if playing is not for you, simply be a spectator amongst our viewers and find yourself clinging to the edge of your seats during our engaging production. we're a volunteer-based organisation and we strive to display professional and regular content. Our tournaments are personal-pocket funded, stream fundraised or otherwise sponsored if mentioned. competitive scene overview there are many up and coming orgs specialising in competitive dbd content which may be more accessible to newer players than dbdleague. if you're a newer team wanting to try out competitive, these can be a great place to start! it can be difficult to find a team with an open spot if you're a solo player, but many servers like ours have channels to find teams that may need your skills! don't be discouraged, sometimes the best teams are created by a group of friends! 11 do you have any other questions? contact we hope this guide sheds some light on why we do things the way we do, and simplifies what can be seen as quite overwhelming and confusing. throughout the years we've spent playing in and hosting tournaments, as well as the vital feedback provided by players and viewers, we think we're in an incredible position to showcase the best players and the best teams that dead by daylight has to offer. if there's anything else you'd like to know, feel free to open a ticket in our discord server or contact a member of our staff team. a huge thank you to laser, our head of competitive design, for providing the much needed details and explanations throughout. dbdleague 12
