Bingo Lockout
Bingo Lockout is an unofficial series of Integrated Strategies tournaments in the Global server of Arknights organized by Lungmen Dragons, Global's largest hardcore gameplay community.
The objective of Bingo Lockout is to claim more tiles than the opponent(s) by completing tasks written on tiles laid out on a 4×4 or 5×5 bingo board. Each task varies in difficulty, scope, and interpretation, serving as a test of a player's knowledge, decision-making, comprehension, and luck. The "Lockout" part refers to the rule that once a tile is claimed by a player, their opponent(s) cannot claim it anymore.
The first Bingo Lockout was held on June 2023 and consists of three editions; the first two editions uses Mizuki & Caerula Arbor as the setting, while the third, latest edition uses Expeditioner's Joklumarkar. All tournaments were held within Lungmen Dragons' official Discord server and the Bingosync website.
The "Bingo Lockout" concept has already existed prior to being adapted for Arknights, having been used in several games popular within the speedrun community such as Minecraft and Elden Ring.
Rules
- Only players with an account in Arknights EN will be able to participate. This does not necessarily bar players from countries outside those covered by the EN server (China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau) from participating, however, but they must use their own EN account (not borrowed/shared).
- English will be used as the standard language.
Qualifiers
In the qualifying round, players must complete an I.S. adventure/run as fast as possible, then submit screenshots of the run's result screen along with their IGN and UID to a Google Forms link published by Lungmen Dragons. The players are ranked based on how long the run lasts as shown in the result screen.
The player must also fulfill additional conditions:
- Clear a certain amount of (Emergency) Operations, specifically ISW-NO ones, which varies on each tournament.
- Do not possess certain Collectibles, Operators, and/or Squads, which varies on each tournament.
- On Bingo Lockout 1, the qualifiers quickly centralized around obtaining
"End of Times", which allowed a player to shave off minutes worth of time. To avoid creating such a scenario again, End of Times is banned from Bingo Lockout 2.
- On Bingo Lockout 1, the qualifiers quickly centralized around obtaining
- Fulfill at least three conditions forming a row, column, or diagonal in the qualifying round's bingo board. There are 8 categories in total.
- Example conditions include "Beat at least 4 Emergencies", "Maximum of 7 Collectibles", and "Achieve Ending 2 or 3".
- Multiple categories may be achieved in a single run, but the player may only qualify in the fastest category.
At the end of qualifiers, a certain number of fastest players from each category will advance to the Main Event.
Main Event
Tournament format
The main event pits all qualified players in a single-elimination bracket. Initial seeding is usually based on their clear time in the qualifiers.
All rounds are best-of-1, except the Grand Final which is best-of-3.
The top prizes consist of Arknights merchandises from the Yostar Store, while players eliminated in the opening rounds will receive in-game packs such as Monthly Headhunting Pack and Monthly Card.
Gameplay procedure
- Matches are conducted on the Lungmen Dragons Discord server, while the bingo board for each game is conducted inside a private room on Bingosync.
- All players are encouraged to talk and listen through voice chat, or at least be able to read and send text messages.
- Each match is presided by a referee (or referees) who will actually perform the act of shading the tiles on Bingosync. Thus, players cannot shade the tiles themselves; they must declare to the referee(s) through text or voice chat that they have completed a tile or are intending to complete a tile soon, so that the referee(s) may verify their claim.
- To claim a tile, a player must complete a specific objective written on it.
- Each tile claimed gives 1 points.
- Lockout: if a player claims a tile, their opponents cannot claim that tile anymore.
- Some tiles are specially labelled, like giving 2 or more points, automatically subtracting points, "stealable" (completing the objective overwrites their opponent's claim), only giving points when the time limit ends, and allowing a tile to be claimed by both players.
- In some editions, a player who manages to achieve a Bingo — claim an entire row, column, or diagonal — will award that player bonus points.
- The Bingo Board size is 4×4 for the opening rounds, and 5×5 for the quarter-finals and beyond.
- All games vary in length depending on the round and board size, but the usual is 25 minutes for 4x4 boards, and 45 minutes for 5×5.
- A winner is decided when a player scores a majority (>50% of all possible points in a given board), or have the most points when the time limit expires.
- If the game is still tied in points when time expires, it goes into sudden death overtime; the first player to claim any tile during this period instantly wins.
- Intentionally abandoning and restarting a run is permitted. Depending on the situation, it may even be encouraged, or outright required.
- Investing or withdrawing Originium Ingots during a game is forbidden. If caught, the offender will be forced to abandon their current run and start over.
- Some tournaments may require players to play in a minimum difficulty, and forbid the use of Operation Rewards at the start.
Editions
| Name | Date | P# | Theme | Winner(s) | Runner-up(s) | Bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bingo Lockout 1 | Until June 18, 2023 | 32 | Mizuki & Caerula Arbor |  wayhazel
|
 Fersangu
|
Challonge |
| Bingo Lockout 2 | November 12 – 25, 2023 | 64 | Mizuki & Caerula Arbor Expansion I | PHXYotes
|
 Larfa
|
Challonge |
| Bingo Lockout 3 | March 16 – April 18, 2024 | 16 (duo) | Expeditioner's Joklumarkar | Vienanmeri toboruo
|
PHXYotes Ushio Ebi
|
Challonge |