The Rainbow Cup
The Rainbow Cup is a 1v1 tournament played on Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition and is open to all South African players.
Rules & Settings: (Full guide here - The Rainbow Cup Guide)
- The Tournament is open to South Africans of all skill levels who are members of the Age of Empires ZA Discord community who’d like a chance to show that they’re the top South African player
- Any South Africans who are not part of the Age of Empires ZA Discord community yet feel free to DM Necron for an invite
HOW THE RAINBOW CUP WORKS:
- The Rainbow Cup is a 1v1 tournament with a 5-round group stage in which players will face each other in best-of-3 matches, followed by best-of-5 playoffs and Grand Final
- The Rainbow Cup uses standard tournament settings, home maps, and hidden civ picks
TIME FRAME:
- Signups will close at midnight on 30 April. You will need to have played at least 20 ranked 1v1 matches and have recent activity on the ranked ladder by the time signup closes
- The Rainbow Cup Group Stage will consist of 5 rounds of 1v1 matches, taking place over a 5 week period from 4 May – 7 June
- The Group Stage will be followed by the Finals Stage taking place over a 3 week period from 8 – 28 June
- Matchups will be posted on Discord every Monday morning and should be played by Sunday 22h00
SETTINGS:
- All games are played on Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. Latest patches must be installed
- All games should be played on standard settings (tiny map size, standard resources, standard difficulty, conquest, etc.) – see guide for screenshots
- Best of 3 Match Structure:
- Game 1: Arabia
- Game 2: loser game 1 home map
- Game 3: loser game 2 home map
- Best of 5 Match Structure:
- Game 1: Arabia
- Game 2: loser game 1 home map
- Game 3: loser game 2 home map
- Game 4: loser game 3 home map
- Game 5: loser game 4 home map
- To decide home maps a quick map draft should occur prior to each match using the A-B draft format for best-of-3 matches and A-BB-A draft format for best-of-5 matches
- Civilizations: Games are played on hidden civ pick with free choice of civilizations. You can play each civ only once during the course of each match, so pick your civs wisely
- Matches that are played on the wrong settings will not count for match points and will thus have to be replayed if you wish to earn points for that round
- There are no restarts unless a map is bugged and should be called by 6:00 game time. A map with standard resources is considered bugged if:
- Less than 5 tiles of main gold cluster are accessible on one side
- Less than 4 tiles of main stone cluster are accessible on one side
- Less than 4 tiles of a berry cluster are at least accessible on one side
- Spawned with 1 or more of your deer, sheep or boars (incl. other variants) trapped and inaccessible
- If you get a bugged map please pause the game the moment you notice and explain the situation to your opponent. If you resign without pausing and upon review your map is deemed not bugged, you have effectively forfeited that game from your opponent--so be careful
- Stealing of sheep, laming of boars and deleting of straggler trees will all be allowed
MAP POOL:
- To ensure ease of entry for those playing in their first ever tournament, all matches played on standard DE maps. No map pack/mod needed for this tournament
- Arabia (for game 1 only)
- Acropolis
- Arena
- Four Lakes
- Serengeti
- Nomad
- Hideout
- Golden Pit
MATCHMAKING:
- Each round players are paired based on a few basic criteria:
- Current tournament win-loss records (based on Swiss System)
- Pre-tournament seeding
- You can be paired against the same opponent at most twice during the duration of Group Stage, although this will be avoided as far as possible
SCHEDULING:
- We will be announcing new match pairings every Monday morning in the appropriate channel in the Age of Empires ZA Discord community
- Once you have your match pairing for each round it is up to you and your opponent to begin scheduling your match. A scheduling document will be made public as soon as the first round matchups are announced. Please also post the scheduled match time on Discord so spectators can try and watch the games LIVE
POSTING MATCH RESULTS:
- After each match the winner of the match should post results
- Matches can be scheduled in the Age of Empires ZA Discord or in DMs but the results of the matches must be posted clearly in the appropriate Discord channel so they are publically available to everyone
PRIZE POOL:
- Current Prize Pool: R2000
- agentoverton - R1250
- NeCrOn - R500
- adorerofblood - R250
- If anyone would like to contribute to the Prize Pool, please contact NeCrOn directly for details
- The final prize pool will be divided between the top-4 finishers. The breakdown will be: 1st = 60%, 2nd = 20% and 3rd/4th=10% each
STREAMING:
- If you are participating in The Rainbow Cup you agree for your games to be streamed on Twitch and/or other streaming platforms
- If you do choose to stream please place The Rainbow Cup logo somewhere on your stream overlays so it is visible before and after games to stay brand consistent. Contact NeCrOn in order to receive the transparent files
GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP:
- Good sportsmanship is one of the key requirements of participating in The Rainbow Cup. While it is sometimes tough to immediately digest the results of a hard-fought match, always be grateful to your opponent for taking the time to play you in a best of 3/5 series
- Any forms of spec cheating or extreme instances of harassment and abuse are terms for immediate disqualification from The Rainbow Cup and exclusion from any future tournaments
ADMINISTRATION:
- For any help related to map drafting, settings, admin restarts, etc., please DM me (NeCrOn#7183) on discord. I will be as prompt as possible
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