Knights of the Empire Announcement

Hello everyone, and mid ELO masters specifically! I am proud to announce a new tournament under the name: Knights of the Empire. This is a 1v1 empire wars tournament focused around cavalry civilizations for players in the middle ELO range. It also comes with a healthy prize-pool of $300+ to hopefully motivate players to show their best game.

The resitrictions on sign-ups might seem a bit overly tight, but we want to ensure that everyone who enters feels like they have a real shot at this, and the matches are close, maximizing fun.

To sign-up for the tournament you do have to meet a few criteria:

- Don't have an account with a highest 1v1 RM ELO over 1600.​

- Have a highest 1v1 RM ELO over 1300 on an account older than 3 months.​

- Sign-up using your highest rated account, and have enough games played on it (50 in total + 10 in the sign-up period).​

- And finally fill out the google form linked below before 8th October.​

- Sign up link: Over here​

The tournament will take place in the following timeframe:

- Sign-ups: - 8th October​

- Seeding and bracket: 10th October​

- Group stages R64, R32, R16: 11th October - 21st November (5 weeks)​

- Semi-final, R8: 22nd November - 28th November (1 week)​

- Final: 29th November - 5th December (1 week)​

During the tournament scheduling can be done in the following ways:

- Preferred to do it on the discord server (invite link) using the dedicated room, so in case of something going badly admins can see the history.​

- Exact same thing applies for scheduling on aoezone, using the subforum.​

- Any other form is also acceptable though discouraged. Only do so in mutual agreement. In case of any hiccups we will evaluate the situation only looking at the aforementioned channels.​

- If two players have difficulty scheduling it will be resolved on a case by case basis, but please be sure to keep an eye on both channels if you can! If either party seems unwilling, we will disqualify them.​

Prizes:


$300 + stream donations

- $25 for 3rd and 4th place​

- $75 for 2nd place​

- the rest goes to 1st place​

Rules:

The rules in its entirety, can be found here​

The exact maps, game settings, and allowed civilizations as well as the drafting information are in there.

Some of the more interesting points are:

- A limited civ pool focused, around cavalry civilizations.​

- Unlike usual empire wars, the maps start with 4 farms.​

- The exact method for civ and map drafting.​

- The way to post the match results (use the match results subforum).​

Brackets & seeding:

The tournament will be played in single-elimination format.

Link to the brackets: TBA

Seeding will be done by taking an average of the highest and current ELO then sorted into descending order.

Link to the seeding: TBA


Streaming:

This tournament will be hosted by a host of smaller streamers:

- Ndurrance (Who sponsored this whole tournament)​

- Rioukay​

- philster401​

- bean__dip​

- NoKings​

- Hugo_xiv​

- Ocarinaofellie​

Streaming POVs is also an option but be sure to use at least a 90 sec delay. For casting it is preferred to have it casted by the people above, but if you wish to cast the tournament contact us. You can do so using the discord server. Alternatively you can go through me using aoezone or Salytmacska#8324 on discord.

 

[Ajajp_Alejandro]

When you say "Have a highest 1v1 RM ELO over 1300 on an account older than 3 months", do you mean that the Steam account must be older than 3 months, or that said Steam account must have had the game for more than 3 months?

 

[Salytmacska]

It's the first option, the steam account has to be at least 3 months old. I actually don't know if it's even possible to enforce the second option. I think you can view when you bought a game for your own account, but not for anyone else's account.

 

[AR12]

Any chance extending the highest elo to 1700?

 

[Salytmacska]

Extending the ELO range is not something we're planning to do. If this means you or anyone else are unable to participate I'm really sorry, but in the interest of keeping the competition as tightly packed as possible, we want to keep the range of players' skill levels as narrow as we can.

 

[Julinse]

Hey, that sounds awesome, can I sign up?
I don't have 60 ranked games yet but I will work on it to get them before sign ups close!

 

[Salytmacska]

Hey, that sounds awesome, can I sign up?
I don't have 60 ranked games yet but I will work on it to get them before sign ups close!

If you can achieve the requirements before the end of the sign-up period, then yeah go ahead. Hope to see you on the field!

 

[Umdeuter]

Great settings, sound like a lot of fun and finally something where I can hopefully compete. Looking forward to that, thanks for the organisation!

 

[Salytmacska]

Nice to have you on board Umdeuter! Good luck!

Also writing this post as a heads-up, the rules have changed the little. Aside from adding a few missing links, including the mod page for the map pack (Thanks Panda <3), we realized that, we kinda left the civ & map selection part in a bit of a placeholder state. I'm sorry for that.

As far as actual changes go, these are:
- Added seperate BO3, BO5 and BO7 civ drafts (with presets) and map drafts.
- Added Fortress, removed Arena (We think this swap will allow for more aggression and we could see some interesting strategies)

 

[Ajajp_Alejandro]

Another question: in the rules it is stated that "Any 1v1 rating exceeding 1k6 at any time regardless of whether you are below 1k6 during the sign-up period will be disqualified from joining".

Does that mean that, during the tournament, players can be disqualified? Let's say, I get to quarter finals or something, and then I surpass 1k6 ELO. Am I going to be disqualified?

 

[Ndurrance]

No, it's for sign ups. You can sign up prior to reaching 16xx, and if you exceed 1600 during the 10 games it's fine. You'll still be allowed to play. Just no one who is already over 1600 can sign up

 

[Salytmacska]

No, it's for sign ups. You can sign up prior to reaching 16xx, and if you exceed 1600 during the 10 games it's fine. You'll still be allowed to play. Just no one who is already over 1600 can sign up

Sadly the rules written do not really reflect what we intended (we intended it to be the highest ELO reached before seeding), so I'll reword it to better reflect ndurrance's statement. Of course it would be stupid to disqualify someone before the finals because they reached 1k6.

So basically the requirements are:
- Have 50 total games played on the ranked 1v1 RM ladder.
- Play a further 10 during the sign-up period.
- Have no account with a peak on the 1v1 RM ladder over 1600. (And have one with at least 1300)

We basically will keep these, but change it so, that if at any point during the sign-up timeframe these criterias are met at, that is good enough.

Now I will add, that we will take a look at applicants in an attempt to filter smurfs, so there is one more hurdle, but this shouldn't affect a lot of people if anyone. We do want to be careful not to disquailify anyone who has legitimately signed up.

For this reason (Putting it out early here just so people can know, as this was not mentoined beforehand), I will put out a post on this subforum, with a document that will detail the decisions on each player's sign-ups. We will do it before the sign-up period ends (early next week hopefully) and continue to update it as we go. This will also give a bit longer timeframe to contest our decisions, if need be (really hope it won't be the case), or correct information, if we made a mistake.

And lastly I apologize, because I already recieved a message along the lines of: "I'm almost 1600 I'm afraid to play further ranked games", and obviously stopping someone playing ranked is not our intent. When I recieved that message I should've known, that I should clarify the rules publicly.

 

[Julinse]

Do I need to have the required ranked games by October 8th, 00:01gmt or 23:59gmt (or anything in between)? I‘m still working on it

 

[Salytmacska]

Do I need to have the required ranked games by October 8th, 00:01gmt or 23:59gmt (or anything in between)? I‘m still working on it

Fair question, because we haven't said otherwise I think it is only fair to have it be until the end of the day (GMT). So you'll have until 23:59 GMT+0

 

[A B C 1]

Maps get drafted first, then civs? The rules don't really indicate anything in that regard.

 

[Salytmacska]

Maps get drafted first, then civs? The rules don't really indicate anything in that regard.

Yeah this is an oversight on our part. Maps must get drafted first, so civilizations can be picked accordingly!