Good Old Times Cup Rules and Settings

[siestes]

Here are the rules and settings for the tournament. Registration thread is here.

Admin: Huehuecoyotl22

I. Tournament formula

Spoiler

There will be 3 steps for the tournament.

1. Qualifiers
Ro32 will be played as Bo1
Ro16 will be played as Bo3
Ro8 will be played as Bo5

2. Main event
2a. League stage
A pool of 6 players (2 directly qualified through seed and 4 qualified through qualifiers will participate in a league, every player facing every other player in Play all 3 series.
The ranking in the league table will follow those steps in order (if 2 or more players are equal for one step, go to the next step):
- Most individual games won
- Most series won
- Most games won in direction confrontations
- Most series won in direct confrontations
- Lower number of restarts used
- Lower number of restarts used in direct confrontations
- Bo1 playoff Arabia Huns war

2b. Second and third in the league will play a play-off series, then the winner of that series will play a grand final against the first in the league to crown the champion.

II. Players Seeding and Brackets

Spoiler

At the end of the registration period, players will be seeded from averaging current ELO (as of 14 March 2021, 20gmt), highest ELO in the 1v1 ladder, and tournament ELO at aoe-elo.com with a threshold at 1980.
The two highest seeded players who participated in at least one S-tier, A-tier or B-tier event in aoe2 before the 01/01/2010 will be directly qualified for the main event. Other players will be distributed in the qualifiers brackets according to their seed.
Tracksheet for ratings and seedings, thanks to @Michaerbse: click here.

III. Scheduling

Spoiler

Players will schedule their game at any time during the defined time frame (see section "calendar"). They will schedule publicly in dedicated channels on the discord server. If players can’t agree on a schedule, admins will determine a time to the best of their ability. If a player shows unwillingness to schedule they will get an admin loss for the series.

If a player is 15 minutes late to a series, they will get an admin loss for the series. The player waiting in the lobby must take a screenshot with both the lobby and https://time.is/UTC open and post it immediately in the dedicated scheduling discord channel for this to be effective.

During league stage, any player who doesn't make efforts to schedule in time or doesn't show up at scheduled time will see his prizepool reduced and redistributed to other players.

IV. Maps

Spoiler

The maps will all be legacy AoC maps, has well as a few legacy HD maps. You will be able to find the mod "Good Old Times Cup Maps” on the official site or in game soon.

Edit: The mod "Good Old Times Cup Maps" is up now and fully founctional.

List of the maps in the map pack:
Arabia, Archipelago, Arena, Baltic, Black Forest, Blind Random, Coastal, Continental, Crater Lake, Fortress, Ghost Lake, Gold Rush, Highland, Islands, Mediterranean, Migration, Mongolia, nomad, Oasis, Rivers, Salt Marsh, Scandinavia, Team Islands, Yucatan, MegaRandom

Blind Random is composed of every map in the map pack except: Arena, Black Forest, Fortress, Nomad, MegaRandom, and itself.

All maps are original AoC maps, except
- Mega Random which is original HD map
- Oasis: Edited so that the middle pond can never be accessible without chopping at least 4 trees

V. Settings

Spoiler

Note: For all Hidden Pick No Repeat settings including AoC civilisations, the Huns civilisation is not affected by the “no repeat” part of the setting (players can pick Huns as much as they want)

Note 2: Fishing is forbidden on Fortress

Note 3: On nomad, before your TC is up you cannot:
- fight with villagers
- build palisade walls
- build a barracks
- TC drop the opponent

Qualifiers
Ro32 Bo1
Arabia Huns war

Ro16 Bo3
Fortress Chinese war, played as Regicide
Baltic Vikings war
Arabia Meso war (Aztecs or Mayans, hidden pick)

Ro8 Bo5
Coastal Persians War
Blind Random Vikings War
Mega Random Mayans War
Arabia Hidden Pick No Repeat AoK+AoC civs
Arabia Hidden Pick No Repeat AoK+AoC civs

League stage
For the league stage a pool of 12 different settings has been determined:
Arabia Huns war
Fortress Chinese war, played as Regicide
Baltic Vikings war
Arabia Meso war: Aztecs or Mayans, hidden pick
Blind random: Huns or Vikings, hidden pick
Arena: Aztecs, Turks, Britons or Byzantines, hidden pick
Arabia HPNR only Aok+Aoc civs
Migration HPNR only Aok+Aoc civs
Nomad HPNR only Aok+Aoc civs
Scandinavia HPNR only Aok+Aoc civs
Arabia HPNR only Aok+Aoc+Forgotten civs
MegaRandom HPNR only Aok+Aoc+Forgotten civs

The first day of the league stage will be as follow:
G1: Arabia Huns war
G2: loser of G1 chooses a setting from the pool
G3: loser of G2 chooses a setting from the pool

Days 2 to 5 of the league stage will be as follow:
G1: The player ranked lower in the table chooses a setting from the pool. If they are equal, the game is Arabia Huns war
G2: loser of G1 chooses a setting from the pool
G3: loser of G2 chooses a setting from the pool

Semi-Final
Bo5 settings TBD.

Grand Final
Bo7 settings TBD.

VI. Lobby settings

Spoiler

Public lobby
Spectators enabled
Spectator delay: 2 minutes
Hidden civ activated when playing HPNR
Server: choose the fairest server possible for both players

VII. Game settings

Spoiler

Data Mod: Definitive Set
Game: Random Map (Regicide if playing RF games)
Location: (depending on the map)
Size: Tiny (2 players)
Difficulty: Standard
Resources: Standard
Population: 200
Game Speed: Normal
Reveal Map: Normal
Starting Age: Standard
Ending Age: Standard
Treaty: None
Victory Condition: Conquest

Lock Teams: [X] Yes
Team Together: [X] Yes
Team Positions: [ ] No
Shared Exploration: [ ] No

Lock Speed: [X] Yes
Allow Cheats: [ ] No
Turbo Mode: [ ] No
Full Tech Tree: [ ] No
Record Game: [X] Yes

VIII. Player restarts

Spoiler

Due to the nature of the maps player restarts will be allowed before 4 minutes of game time
Qualifiers: 1 restart per round per player.
League stage: 5 restarts per player for the entirety of the league stage, use at the discretion of the players, limited to one restart per player per map. Remember that the number of restarts you used is used for the final league ranking in case of draw

IX. Admin restarts

Spoiler

An admin re can be called in the following cases
- Within 1 minute 30 secs of game time if a starting unit doesn’t have a path to the TC
- Within 4 minutes of game time, if a starting resource didn't spawn (missing resource)
- Within 4 minutes of game time, if a starting resource cannot be properly accessible

In case of gold, stone and berries, if less than 5 sides of the entire pile are directly accessible, or if no drop off point can be built next to it

In case of wild animals and herdables, if they don’t have a path to the TC

If the other player doesn't agree with the call, admin restarts game files should be sent to an admin. If the restart was abusive, and the player calling the restart won the game eventually, decisions will be made by admins to the best of their ability.

X. Laming

Spoiler

Straggler trees laming within 10 tiles of the opponent’s TC is not allowed, except if the said tree is part of a wall.
On the map Arena, stealing boars is not allowed
All other forms of laming are allowed.

XI. Recorded games

Spoiler

Once the series is played, players must provide in the dedicated discord channel, the score of their series, the settings played, the number of restarts used by each player as well as the recorded games, included restarted games.

XII. Fair-play and respect

Spoiler

Insults, unsportsmanship and overall bad behaviour will not be tolerated.

XIII. Mods

Spoiler

Here is a comprehensive list of mods that are allowed in this tournament:
- (Better) Small Trees or equivalent
- Improved mangonel shot visibility
- Fish Borders
- Useless Plants Remover or equivalent
- No Snow or equivalent
- Original Sounds
- Age of Mandala mods
- Better Idle Villager Icon Highlight or equivalent
- Mods that change the place, shape or size of the UI, but don’t add extra information to it. Transparent UI is allowed.

No other mods are allowed (including, but not limited to: Advanced Idle Pointer, Mangonel range). Use of other mods will result, after a warning, in gradual prizepool reduction (-5% for each game used).

If you’re using a mod that you think doesn’t go too much against the spirit of Age of Empires, please contact the admin team and we’ll see if we can allow it too.

Note: We understand that it is nearly impossible to enforce rules on graphical mods. We just think some mods are not in the spirit of the game. The rule is here. It’s up to you if you want to risk breaking it or not.

XIV. Cheating

Spoiler

Cheating (including, but not limited to: stream cheating, spec cheating, use of macros) is not tolerated and will result in immediate disqualification.

XV. Calendar

Spoiler

10 march, 20gmt: Showmatch between Daut and Capoch
14 march, 15gmt: end of registration period
14 march, 22gmt: seeding and brackets
15 to 21 March: First and second rounds of qualifiers
22 to 28 March: Third round of qualifiers
1 to 7 April: First day of the league stage
8 to 14 April: Second day of league stage
15 to 21 April: Third day of the league stage
22 to 28 April: Fourth day of the league stage
29 April to 4 May: Fifth day of the league stage

Exact date TBD: Semi-Final and Grand Final.

XVI. Brackets

Spoiler

TBD on 14 March 2021. Brackets will then be available.

XVII. Streaming Policy

Spoiler

Open streaming, players are encouraged to stream their POV too if they feel like it. If you are a caster, we recommend to sign up to the discord server to get access to all infos in one place as well as spoiler free recs. Do not hesitate to participate in the prizepool if you are interested in streaming the event, any amount will be greatly appreciated.

XVIII. Prizepool

Spoiler

As of now the prizepool amounts to $530 thanks to anonymous but generous donators

Prizes will be distributed as follow:
1,75% for each individual game won in the league stage (15 games played per player in total)
20% for the winner
10% for the runner-up
Examples: If you win all your series 3-0 in the league then win the final, you will get 1,75x15+20=46,25% of the total prize
If you lose all your 5 series 1-2 you will get 1,75x5=8,75% of the total prize

If you wish to participate to the prizepool please contact an admin!

XIX. Admins and communication

Spoiler

sieste and huehuecoyotl22 are the admins for the tournament.
General questions and feedback can be asked in the discord server, or in this thread if necessary
The preferred mean of private communication is through discord: sieste#6361 or Huehuecoyotl22#3717. You can also PM on aoezone @hallogallo or @Huehuecoyotl22

Please do not contact sieste about recorded games or game issues.

 

[daehiise]

I am curious, why is the ELO cut-off 1980? seems very ramdom 11

 

[Michaerbse]

I am curious, why is the ELO cut-off 1980? seems very ramdom 11

This just means that anyone with a tournament elo of below 1980 (or no tournament elo at all) will be rated as 1980. The reason is that the tournament elo is very inaccurate at lower ratings. I.e. the tournament elo only affects seedings of higher rated players.

 

[siestes]

I am curious, why is the ELO cut-off 1980? seems very ramdom 11

Below 1980 the ELO is not accurate anymore on aoe-elo.com, so everyone below 1980 or not ranked will just get 1980. If you prefer, everything above 1980 is bonus for the seeding.

Maybe the exact cut off is a bit random, but at the same time I use the site all the time and I feel relatively confident to say that the accuracy of rankings actually drops quite a bit below 1980. But I'm open to suggestions as to what cut off number should be used instead of 1980 if you feel like it's not the right number!

 

[daehiise]

aaah that explains it! I though it was 1980 DE ELO

 

[siestes]

There are some technical difficulties for making the mod for the map pack. Until it's resolved (hopefully very soon), you can find the maps as a zip file attached in OP. In order to use them, put the files in the rms folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\AoE2DE\resources\_common\random-map-scripts

 

[Julinse]

Sounds fun

 

[siestes]

In V. settings added the line: Fishing is forbidden on Fortress.
In X. Laming added the line: On the map Arena, stealing boars is not allowed.

 

[siestes]

Map Pack has been updated to v2 with some minor tweaks in map scripting and a relatively big edit of the map Oasis. If you already downloaded it, I'll advice to delete all the maps from your folder and download the new version. We are working on putting a mod on so that all of this is done automatically. In the meantime, sorry for the inconvenience.

 

[siestes]

Map Pack is up now in the mod center, the name is "Good Old Times Cup Maps"

 

[The Bloodless]

Is short walls mod ok?

Edit: how about "huge number" mod? Nice to see control groups.

 

[siestes]

Huge number mode would fall under "Mods that change the place, shape or size of the UI, but don’t add extra information to it." So it is allowed

Short walls not allowed for round 1, will review it for round 2.

 

[The Bloodless]

Another quick question, arabia in your mod spawns with only 1 extra stone. I'm used to 2 extra. Is it intentional?

 

[siestes]

Yes it has one 4-tiles extra stone. It's the original Arabia generation.