Crystal Cup 2! Tournament for Everyone 1400 ELO+

Hello there! I'm hosting a tournament featuring players over 1400 ELO called "Crystal Cup 2".

This is a single elimination 1v1 tournament.

If you'd prefer to look at this in PDF format: https://pdfhost.io/v/GtNy4hh.L_Crystal_Cup_2_Tournament_Pamphlet

The 3 Brackets:

Bronze League: 1400-1600 ELO
Silver League: 1600-1800 ELO
Gold League: Open ELO

In each bracket, there is space for up to 32 people.

Seeding will be done based on the average between your current and peak ranked 1v1 ELO. Your peak ELO may not exceed the bracket's ELO cap by more than 50 for Bronze and Silver League.

Sign-ups for the Bronze & Silver Leagues will be considered and approved on a first come first served basis with the maximum number of slots limited to 32. If Bronze & Silver divisions are filled, people are allowed to sign-up for the Gold division instead.

Seeding will be done to match the highest seed to the lowest seed.

Entry Requirements:

1) You need to have played at least 80 ranked 1v1s on your account
2) You must fit the ELO criteria above
3) Smurf accounts must be declared, and you will be seeded according to the highest possible ELO between those accounts (if accounts are found to be undeclared, you will be disqualified)

Sign-ups:

Sign-ups and tournament scheduling will be done via my Discord in the "Crystal Cup 2" section: https://discord.gg/s5CXs6k

Prizepool:

If you would like to contribute, please let me know through Discord: ShadowCrystallux#0806

The initial prizepool will be $50 USD, split as follows:
Gold Winner: 30% ($15)
Silver Winner: 20% ($10)
Bronze Winner: 15% ($7.50)
Gold Runner-up: 15% ($7.50)
Silver Runner-up: 10% ($5)
Bronze Runner-up: 10% ($5)

Expected Timeframe:

All games, with the exception of semi-finals and finals, should be organised between the two players themselves, but the semi-finals and finals must be discussed with the admins of this tournament to find a suitable time so that they may be cast live. Players will be informed as quickly as humanly possible if there are delays to this schedule for any reason whatsoever.

Sign-up deadline: 31st October (08 GMT)
Seeding: 31st October (15 GMT)
Round of 32: 1st-7th November
Round of 16: 8th-14th November
Round of 8: 15th-22nd November
Semi-Finals: (TBD)
Finals: (TBD)

Tournament Format:

All matches are a best of 3, with the exception of the Semifinals and Grand Finals. Semifinals will be a best of 5, Grand Finals will be a best of 7.

The first game will always be on Arabia.

Each player gets 2 map bans. Each player will select 2 home maps for Bo3 and Bo5 & 3 Home Maps for Bo7
Higher seed starts draft, following an "ABAB" pattern

All civs, including DLC civs, are available to be played in this tournament. Owning the DLC however, is not mandatory.

The preset for each civ draft is as follows:

Bo3: https://aoe2cm.net/preset/wMDEb
Bo5: https://aoe2cm.net/preset/PHnlE
Bo7: https://aoe2cm.net/preset/VFCGY
Higher seed is to host the civ draft

Gameplay Rules:

Laming Boars allowed
Walling in resources and laming sheep not allowed during Dark Age
Straggler tree laming not allowed
No TC Douching
No restarts allowed, except if a bugged map occurs. It must be called before either player reaches Feudal Age, and the replay must still be provided for verification.

The title of the lobby should be: "Crystal Cup 2: A vs B Game #" with A referring to the higher seed's name and B referring to the lower seed's name, and game number at the end.

Map pool:

All maps in this tournament are found in the base game of Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition.

As noted above, the first game is always Arabia, and therefore cannot be picked as a home map.

Spoiler: Map Pool

Acropolis
Arena
Atacama
Baltic
Bog Islands
Crater
Enclosed
Four Lakes
Gold Rush
Golden Swamp
Hill Fort
Islands (1 hour 30 time limit - Score Victory)
Land Madness
Ravines
Serengeti

Rules:

Spoiler: Rules

§1 - Seeding and Participation
The Crystal Cup has space for up to 32 participants per bracket that players may sign-up for. After the signups stage has been completed, all players will be seeded according to the average between their highest and current elo.

§2 - Respecting Deadlines
You must complete your games within the given deadline. Failure to do so will result in disqualification of one or both players, depending on effort made to schedule the match by each player.

§3 - Admin Times
If both players cannot come to an agreement in scheduling their match, admins will analyse the situation, schedule, and time zones in order to add a viable Admin Time that suits both players to the best of their ability.
If there is no agreement about the playing time by Thursday 04:00 GMT, admins may get involved.

§4 - Respect & Fairplay
Flaming, racism, sexism or other discriminatory behaviour will not be tolerated during this tournament, and will result in immediate disqualification. Any cheating (i.e. using hacks to win matches) will result in immediate disqualification and a permanent ban from future events hosted by ShadowCrystallux.
Players are requested to limit the time between games during a match as much as possible to improve the experience of everyone involved.

§5 - No Smurfing
All players have agreed to the No Smurf rule. Each player must submit all relevant player usernames for Admin discussion. Smurfing and account sharing is not allowed. Any discovery of the aforementioned will result in a player's disqualification. You must play on your highest rated account for all tournament games.

§6 - Lobby Location
All tournament games are to be played in an unranked lobby in AoE2 DE with the allow spectators & hidden civ options turned on.
You and your opponent must agree which server to play on, it should give both players a roughly equal ping. If an agreement cannot be reached, Admins will determine which server is best between the two players.
By signing up, players acknowledge that their games can be spectated and casted by any streamers.
If a game is not recorded, it must be replayed regardless of the result.

§7 - Recorded Games Posting
The winning player must post their recorded games, the map & civ draft in the Tournament Results section of Discord immediately after the conclusion of their games, if this information is not posted, the result will be void.

§8 - Scheduling
Players may schedule in the assigned Discord sections given to them, or privately - but it must be posted in the assigned Discord section either way.

§9 - Restoring
In case of disconnections, the players must attempt to save and restore. All the .aoe2record recorded game files (multiple parts of the game before/after drop) must be provided when posting the recorded games.
If restoring is not possible, the recorded game should be provided, along with any additional information to the Administration of Crystal Cup instantly. Subsequently, facts will be analysed and a final decision made. If an Admin is not around at the time of playing and the players cannot agree on a result, continue with the rest of the series and if the series is tied 2-2 at the end, then the final game shall be rescheduled.

§10 - Schedule Reliability, Admin Wins, Rescheduling
If a player does not show up to a scheduled game without notice their opponent must wait for a minimum of 20 minutes before any action can be taken. They should notify an Admin as soon as possible and a decision will be made.

§11 - Prize Money
Prizes will be sent via PayPal. Other arrangements may be able to be made, however there may be unavoidable additional third party fees.

§12 - Communication
Each player must be fluent in English, or have a translator available, and is responsible for scheduling, possible disputes, and everything else regarding their participation.

§13 - Streaming, Spectating & Spoilers
All players may share their POV with a 2 minute delay. You may drop this delay if agreed to by both parties, but chat must be disabled during the each game, and this does not apply to Semifinals and Grand Finals - there must be a delay during these sets.
The entire event is open casting.
When streaming games from Crystal Cup 2, players are asked to have either:
A) "Hosted by ShadowCrystallux" in the title; or
B) A command as follows:
"!cc2 Crystal Cup 2 is a tournament hosted by ShadowCrystallux, focusing on players above 1400 ELO - https://www.twitch.tv/shadowcrystallux"

§14 - Tournament Delay(s)
Admins may delay the tournament due to game breaking bugs, crashes or freezes. As much notice as possible will be given in such an event, however.

§15 - Rules Additions
New rules can be added and current rules can be changed. However, Admins MUST inform the players about such changes in the Crystal Cup Rules Discord Section. All the latest additions in Rules & Settings will be in red.

If you have any questions about the tournament, do not hesitate to ask.

 

"Straggler tree laming not allowed"

TC straggler laming is impossible anyway, but what about stragglers between walls far from TC?

 

"Straggler tree laming not allowed"

TC straggler laming is impossible anyway, but what about stragglers between walls far from TC?

For the purposes of this tournament, it will be treated as straggler tree laming.

 

isn't that irrelevant? laming trees refers to deleting them with a placed palisade and not with a built palisade, right?

 

Yeah they patched out tree laming. Although it is still possible if you send vills forward. Like that cheeky Berbers strategy somebody posted about a few months back.