Rules and Settings

[Huehuecoyotl22]

1. Sign Up

Spoiler

Sign-ups will close on October 17, 20 GMT.
Since the number of 16 sign-ups was reached on October 13, and the original plan was that if there are more than 16, the tournament will start on October 12, all rounds are delayed by one week.

If there are more than 32 sign-ups, the lowest-rated players will be asked if they want to play an extra qualifying round, which has to take place on October 18-21.
Example: 36 sign-ups: 28 players are in the Ro32, seed 29-36 (8 players) play a Bo5 to get the last 4 players. This will only work if the involved players agree.

The seeding will be based on the AoE II: DE RM 1v1 ratings (50 % highest, 50 % current) the day after the sign-up closes, at 20 GMT.
With the sign-up you pledge to look at all of the map pack's maps before your first tournament game, so you will not be surprised by any map.

2. Players Seeding

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Seeding will be made from averaging current ELO and highest ELO in the 1v1 ladder at 20 GMT on the day after the sign-up ends.

3. Scheduling

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Players will schedule their game at any time during the defined time frame. They will schedule publicly in dedicated threads on AoEZone. 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 30 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 and post it immediately in the AoEZone scheduling thread for the game for this to be effective.
An exception can only be made if the player who waited agrees to reschedule for a time before the round's deadline.
From the second round on: If a player knows (s)he can't play a round within the first 48 h of the round, it is possible to replace this player with the defeated opponent from the previous round.

4. Schedule and set maps:
Civilisations will be hidden pick no repeat for set maps and random mirror for "Map pack" games.

Spoiler

Ro32 (Bo5): October 19-25 (Single Elimination)
Game 1: Double Arabia
Game 2: Regicide Metropolis
Game 3: Map pack
Game 4: Map pack
Game 5: Empire Wars Double Atacama

Ro16 (Bo5): October 26-November 01 (Double Elimination starts)
Game 1: Double Arabia
Game 2: Triple Savanna
Game 3: Map pack
Game 4: Map pack
Game 5: Empire Wars Double Atacama

Ro8/LB R1 (Bo5): November 02-08
Game 1: Double Arabia
Game 2: Triple Arabia
Game 3: Map pack
Game 4: Map pack
Game 5: Empire Wars Double Gobi

WB Semifinal/LB R2 (Bo5): November 09-15
WB SEMIFINAL:
Game 1: Double Atacama
Game 2: Regicide Double Leaf Lakes
Game 3: Map pack
Game 4: Map pack
Game 5: Empire Wars Double Arabia

LB R2:
Game 1: Double Arabia
Game 2: Double Savanna
Game 3: Map pack
Game 4: Map pack
Game 5: Empire Wars Triple Arabia

LB R3+4 (Bo5): November 16-22
Game 1: Double Arabia
Game 2: Regicide Metropolis
Game 3: Map pack
Game 4: Map pack
Game 5: Empire Wars Double Gobi

Winners Bracket Final (Bo7)/LB R5 (Bo5): November 23-29
LB R5:
Game 1: Double Arabia
Game 2: Snakepit
Game 3: Map pack
Game 4: Map pack
Game 5: Empire Wars Double Gobi

WB FINAL:
Game 1: Double Arabia
Game 2: Map pack
Game 3: Map pack
Game 4: Regicide Metropolis
Game 5: Home map of player behind in score (from map pack)
Game 6: Home map of the other player (from map pack)
Game 7: Empire Wars Double Gobi

LB Final+Grand Final: November 30-December 06
LB FINAL:
Game 1: Double Arabia
Game 2: Map pack
Game 3: Map pack
Game 4: Regicide Metropolis
Game 5: Home map of player behind in score (from map pack)
Game 6: Home map of the other player (from map pack)
Game 7: Empire Wars Double Gobi

GRAND FINAL:
(Game 1: WB Winner gets 1:0 lead)
Game 2: Double Arabia
Game 3: Regicide Double Salt Lake
Game 4: WB winner decides whether WB winner's home map or LB winner's home map is played first
Game 5: Home map of the other player
Game 6: Home map of player behind in score
Game 7: Triple Arabian Valley
Game 8: Enemy Islands
Game 9: Empire Wars Double Atacama

4a. Map generation and home map choice.

Spoiler

If a game's setting is "map pack" and the map pack generates a map that already is in the list of maps to be played in one Best of 5/7/9, you have to restart with "map pack" selected to generate a different map. Similarly, the "home map" can not be a map that is already set and you can't pick the same home map twice in a match or the home map that your opponent already picked before you.
E. g. "Double Savanna" and "Triple Savanna" or "Empire Wars Double Gobi" and "Double Gobi don't count as the same map.

WB Final, LB Final and Grand Final:
Minimum 48 h before the scheduled time, each player announces their home map pool of 5 maps in the scheduling topic. This way, when it's time to choose a home map, the player still has a choice between minium 2 maps, if up to 3 of their home maps have been generated by the map pack and/or were chosen by the opponent already.

5. Lobby settings

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Public lobby
Spectators enabled
Hidden civilisation activated
Server: Choose the fairest server possible for both players

6. Game settings

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Data Mod: Definitive Set
Game: Random Map
Location: (depending on the map)
Size: Small (3 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

7. Player restarts

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1 restart per match per player is allowed before 4:00 in-game minutes. In this case both civilisations remain the same. If it was a game to be played on the "map pack", the player calling the restart can chose between using the map pack again to possibly generate a new map or using the same map as before by choosing the individual map.

8. Admin restarts

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An admin re can be called in the following cases
- Within 1 minute of game time if a starting unit doesn’t have a path to the TC
- Within 4 minutes of game time, if you are sure that there is an error in the map generation. As many maps have not been tested 100s of times, we don't know excatly what could occur. An example would be if water or a cliff spawns too close to one starting town center or even 2 town centers on top of each other.
In case of gold/stone and wild animals/herdables, if they don’t have a path to the TC (e. g. trapped in a forest).

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.

9. Laming

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Straggler trees laming within 12 tiles of the opponent’s TC is not allowed, except if the said tree is part of a wall.
Fish laming is not allowed within 12 tiles of the opponent’s TC.
All other forms of laming are allowed.

10. Recorded games

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Once the series is played, players must provide the score of their series in the dedicated thread, the maps played, as well as the recorded games. Don’t forget the spoiler tags.

11. Fair-play and respect

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

12. Mods

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Graphical mods are allowed. All other mods are not allowed and using them will be considered as cheating.

13. Cheating

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Cheating is not tolerated and will result in immediate disqualification.

14. Streaming Policy

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Open streaming, including POV streaming.

 

[Huehuecoyotl22]

Changed that "map pack" games will be played as random mirror civ, to reduce the luck factor for those.

 

[Huehuecoyotl22]

Since the number of 16 players was reached in the middle of the sign-up extension, I have to add this:

Sign-ups will close on October 17, 20 GMT.

Since the number of 16 sign-ups was reached on October 13, and the original plan was that if there are more than 16, the tournament will start on October 12, all rounds are delayed by one week.

If there are more than 32 sign-ups, the lowest-rated players will be asked if they want to play an extra qualifying round, which has to take place on October 18-21.

Example: 36 sign-ups: 28 players are in the Ro32, seed 29-36 (8 players) play a Bo5 to get the last 4 players. This will only work if the involved players agree.
If seed 29 disagrees, then seed 36 can't participate, etc.

Sorry for any inconvinience, but at the time of the first sign-up deadline, there were only 9 sign-ups. So reaching >32 was not expected.

 

[Huehuecoyotl22]

To clarify the civilisation use in map pack games/game 5 or games after map pack games in general for later Bo7/9:

Civilisations from map pack games that were "random mirror" don't have to be different from civilisations in the other games.
This means that if game 3 is "map pack" and you get a mirror of civilisations that already have been used in game 1 or 2, you don't have to restart using different civilisations.
And the "free pick, no repeat" is not affected by those either, because I want players to be able to prepare civilisations for game 5, which they can't if they don't know yet which will be played in game 3 and 4.

 

[Huehuecoyotl22]

Addition to 4a (Home maps), for Winners Bracket Final, Losers Bracket Final and Grand Final:


Minimum 48 h before the scheduled time, each player announces 5 home maps in the specific scheduling topic.

This way, when it's your time to choose a home map, you still have a choice between minium 2 maps, if up to 3 of your home maps have been generated by the map pack and/or were chosen by your opponent.

 

[Huehuecoyotl22]

Changed Grand Final settings sligthly, because I forgot that the Winners Bracket winner should get a 1:0 lead going into the match.