RULES
§1 - Seeding and Participation
Duke of the Lowlands had 32 Qualification spots available for players to sign-up for. Only players with the Dutch, Belgian or Luxembourg nationality are allowed to enroll. The admin will check this on AOE2.net. Be sure you picked on of the three nationalities in order to enroll. The first 32 attendents can join the tournament. Everyone else will be on a waiting list. If the waiting list is big enough we can change the number of players to 64 players.
You can enroll via the website www.aoezone.net or the e-mail [email protected]. We need at least your aoe 2 nickname and a link of your (main) account on www.aoe2.net. We will take the highest rating for the seeding. It is most likely that the higher rated players will have a wild card the first round(s). You will find information of the tournament on www.aoezone.net and www.facebook.com/pagadder.aoe or ask your question via [email protected].
§2 - Respecting Deadlines
All players must respect the tournament schedule and times for each round. There will be no exceptions or delays granted to any player. No excuse will be accepted for failing to play in the specified time. If the admin staff determines that a player is trying to avoid scheduling and playing the tournament games, the player may be warned, receive an admin loss for the game or match, or be disqualified from the Duke of the Lowlands tournament.
§3 - Admin Times
If both players cannot come to an agreement in scheduling their match, the staff will analyse the situation, schedule and time zones in order to add a viable Admin Time that suits both players to the best of our ability. Admins will ensure players are not forced to play games between 2am - 6am local time.
If there is no agreement about the playing time, the staff might start interfering in order to get the games scheduled and completed in time.
§4 - Respect & Fairplay
Every player must respect their opponent. Bad behavior (determined by the Admins) will result in a warning and may lead to immediate disqualification of the player. This tournament values not only great skills but also sportsmanship and fairness. Any insult, racism, or flaming will not be tolerated. Laming and mind games in-game are allowed.
Players are requested to limit the time between games as much as possible to make the experience as smooth for everyone as possible. Please make screenshots or recordings to have evidence you can show to the Admins.
§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, or stream sniping is not allowed. Any discovery of the aforementioned will result in a player's disqualification.
§6 - Lobby Location
All tournament games are to be played in an unranked lobby in AoE2 DE with the allow spectators option turned off.
§7 - Recorded Games Posting
You need to keep the recordings till the tournament is finished. It is enough if both players report their result to the Admins at aoezone, e-mail ([email protected]) or discord (Pagadder #3418). Submit also your recorded games to the Admin.
Recorded Games can also be used for the Tournament Admin immediately when their is an issue about the results of the game. Please check the page on on www.chalonge.com where the results will be shown.
§8 - Scheduling
Players will schedule the Qualification Rounds (quarter finals) publically in the Scheduling Forum. Scheduled Games will be posted to the calendar and posted in the Duke of the Lowlands Tournament Progress Thread.
Players will send their available playtimes to the tournament admins and they will organize a time that works for both parties. Players are expected to check and respond to messages a minimum of once per day. Failure to schedule a game may result in Disqualification or loss of prize money.
For the main event players will schedule via their provided steam accounts & through direct messages with Admins.
§9 - Restoring
In case of disconnections, the players must attempt to save and restore. All the .mgz 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 Duke of the Lawlands instantly. Subsequently, facts will be analyzed 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 1-1 or 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. If the recipients do not use/have PayPal the prizes will be sent by other means. However, certain fees may be deducted from the amount.
§12 - Communication
Each player must be fluent in English (or Dutch and French) and is responsible for scheduling, possible disputes, and everything else regarding their participation.
§13 - Streaming, Spectating & Spoilers
The entire event is open streaming. The main event (with the exception of the finals) will be recorded games.
§14 - Rules Additions
New rules can be added and current rules can be changed. However, Admins mustinform the players about such changes in the Duke of the Lowlands Rules & Settings forum. All the latest additions in Rules & Settings will be in red.
SETTINGS
§1 - Game Settings
The game settings must be the following.
Game : Random Match
Map Style : Custom
Location : Wolf Hill
Size : Tiny (2 player)
Difficulty : Standard
Population : 200
Game Speed : Normal
Reveal Map : Standard
Starting Age : Standard
Victory Condition : Conquest
Team Together : [X] Yes
All Techs : [ ] No
Allow Cheats : [ ] No
Lock Teams : [X] Yes
Lock Speed : [X] Yes
Record Game : [X] Yes
Multi Building Queue : [MQ]
§2 - Restarts
In a Best of 3 each player is awarded one restart each.
In a Best of 5 each player is awarded one restart each.
A restart must be requested before minute 4:00 game time (remember that this is shorter than real minutes). Press F11 to see the game time. When a game is restarted, each player must choose the same civilizations as in the previous attempt.
§3 - Bugged Map Restarts
A player can request bugged map restarts during the first 6 minutes (game time). A restart requested due to a bugged map does not count as one of the restarts awarded before a series.
A bugged map is defined as the following for standard resource starts:
Gold: Less than 5 tiles of the main gold cluster are at least accessible on one side, extra gold are excluded.
Stone: Less than 4 tiles of a stone cluster are at least accessible on one side, extra stones are excluded.
Berries: Less than 4 tiles of a berry cluster are at least accessible on one side.
Animals: Spawned with less than 3 deer or less than 8 sheep or less than 2 boars or, one or more of the animals being trapped.
§4 - Hidden Civilizations
For the Duke of the Lowlands "Hidden Civilizations" must be selected when hosting the lobby on DE.
§5 - Different Civilizations
Different Civilizations means a civilization must be picked, choosing "Random", "Full Random" or "mirror" at the start of the game is not allowed. So it’s hidden pick, no repeat.
§6 - Graphical Mods
Any graphic changes that only affect the player's Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition are allowed.
§7 - Cheating
Cheating is not allowed under any circumstances. Players using any kind of cheat will be disqualified from the Duke of the Lawlands tournament and banned from future events.
§8 - Automatic Agreement & Punishment
All the game settings provided in this post must be followed. Not following them may result in penalties and possibly disqualification.
§9 - Player Colours
Players must stick with a single color for an entire series. They may freely choose their color, as long as it does not clash with the opponent's color. EG. Red vs Orange, Blue vs Teal etc. It is each player's own responsibility to make sure that their color is correct for all games.
§10 - Laming
Players may steal enemy boars with their scout and are allowed to do anything else that is permitted within the game, including stealing boar with villagers, walling in resources, or blocking/killing villagers in the dark age.
Maps have been updated to make boar stealing much harder.
§11 - Server
Players must pick the West-Europe or UK-west server. If this server doesn’t garantee a smooth gameplay for the qualifiers, the players should together work out a server that best suits the two players.
§1 - Seeding and Participation
Duke of the Lowlands had 32 Qualification spots available for players to sign-up for. Only players with the Dutch, Belgian or Luxembourg nationality are allowed to enroll. The admin will check this on AOE2.net. Be sure you picked on of the three nationalities in order to enroll. The first 32 attendents can join the tournament. Everyone else will be on a waiting list. If the waiting list is big enough we can change the number of players to 64 players.
You can enroll via the website www.aoezone.net or the e-mail [email protected]. We need at least your aoe 2 nickname and a link of your (main) account on www.aoe2.net. We will take the highest rating for the seeding. It is most likely that the higher rated players will have a wild card the first round(s). You will find information of the tournament on www.aoezone.net and www.facebook.com/pagadder.aoe or ask your question via [email protected].
§2 - Respecting Deadlines
All players must respect the tournament schedule and times for each round. There will be no exceptions or delays granted to any player. No excuse will be accepted for failing to play in the specified time. If the admin staff determines that a player is trying to avoid scheduling and playing the tournament games, the player may be warned, receive an admin loss for the game or match, or be disqualified from the Duke of the Lowlands tournament.
§3 - Admin Times
If both players cannot come to an agreement in scheduling their match, the staff will analyse the situation, schedule and time zones in order to add a viable Admin Time that suits both players to the best of our ability. Admins will ensure players are not forced to play games between 2am - 6am local time.
If there is no agreement about the playing time, the staff might start interfering in order to get the games scheduled and completed in time.
§4 - Respect & Fairplay
Every player must respect their opponent. Bad behavior (determined by the Admins) will result in a warning and may lead to immediate disqualification of the player. This tournament values not only great skills but also sportsmanship and fairness. Any insult, racism, or flaming will not be tolerated. Laming and mind games in-game are allowed.
Players are requested to limit the time between games as much as possible to make the experience as smooth for everyone as possible. Please make screenshots or recordings to have evidence you can show to the Admins.
§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, or stream sniping is not allowed. Any discovery of the aforementioned will result in a player's disqualification.
§6 - Lobby Location
All tournament games are to be played in an unranked lobby in AoE2 DE with the allow spectators option turned off.
§7 - Recorded Games Posting
You need to keep the recordings till the tournament is finished. It is enough if both players report their result to the Admins at aoezone, e-mail ([email protected]) or discord (Pagadder #3418). Submit also your recorded games to the Admin.
Recorded Games can also be used for the Tournament Admin immediately when their is an issue about the results of the game. Please check the page on on www.chalonge.com where the results will be shown.
§8 - Scheduling
Players will schedule the Qualification Rounds (quarter finals) publically in the Scheduling Forum. Scheduled Games will be posted to the calendar and posted in the Duke of the Lowlands Tournament Progress Thread.
Players will send their available playtimes to the tournament admins and they will organize a time that works for both parties. Players are expected to check and respond to messages a minimum of once per day. Failure to schedule a game may result in Disqualification or loss of prize money.
For the main event players will schedule via their provided steam accounts & through direct messages with Admins.
§9 - Restoring
In case of disconnections, the players must attempt to save and restore. All the .mgz 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 Duke of the Lawlands instantly. Subsequently, facts will be analyzed 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 1-1 or 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. If the recipients do not use/have PayPal the prizes will be sent by other means. However, certain fees may be deducted from the amount.
§12 - Communication
Each player must be fluent in English (or Dutch and French) and is responsible for scheduling, possible disputes, and everything else regarding their participation.
§13 - Streaming, Spectating & Spoilers
The entire event is open streaming. The main event (with the exception of the finals) will be recorded games.
§14 - Rules Additions
New rules can be added and current rules can be changed. However, Admins mustinform the players about such changes in the Duke of the Lowlands Rules & Settings forum. All the latest additions in Rules & Settings will be in red.
SETTINGS
§1 - Game Settings
The game settings must be the following.
Game : Random Match
Map Style : Custom
Location : Wolf Hill
Size : Tiny (2 player)
Difficulty : Standard
Population : 200
Game Speed : Normal
Reveal Map : Standard
Starting Age : Standard
Victory Condition : Conquest
Team Together : [X] Yes
All Techs : [ ] No
Allow Cheats : [ ] No
Lock Teams : [X] Yes
Lock Speed : [X] Yes
Record Game : [X] Yes
Multi Building Queue : [MQ]
§2 - Restarts
In a Best of 3 each player is awarded one restart each.
In a Best of 5 each player is awarded one restart each.
A restart must be requested before minute 4:00 game time (remember that this is shorter than real minutes). Press F11 to see the game time. When a game is restarted, each player must choose the same civilizations as in the previous attempt.
§3 - Bugged Map Restarts
A player can request bugged map restarts during the first 6 minutes (game time). A restart requested due to a bugged map does not count as one of the restarts awarded before a series.
A bugged map is defined as the following for standard resource starts:
Gold: Less than 5 tiles of the main gold cluster are at least accessible on one side, extra gold are excluded.
Stone: Less than 4 tiles of a stone cluster are at least accessible on one side, extra stones are excluded.
Berries: Less than 4 tiles of a berry cluster are at least accessible on one side.
Animals: Spawned with less than 3 deer or less than 8 sheep or less than 2 boars or, one or more of the animals being trapped.
§4 - Hidden Civilizations
For the Duke of the Lowlands "Hidden Civilizations" must be selected when hosting the lobby on DE.
§5 - Different Civilizations
Different Civilizations means a civilization must be picked, choosing "Random", "Full Random" or "mirror" at the start of the game is not allowed. So it’s hidden pick, no repeat.
§6 - Graphical Mods
Any graphic changes that only affect the player's Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition are allowed.
§7 - Cheating
Cheating is not allowed under any circumstances. Players using any kind of cheat will be disqualified from the Duke of the Lawlands tournament and banned from future events.
§8 - Automatic Agreement & Punishment
All the game settings provided in this post must be followed. Not following them may result in penalties and possibly disqualification.
§9 - Player Colours
Players must stick with a single color for an entire series. They may freely choose their color, as long as it does not clash with the opponent's color. EG. Red vs Orange, Blue vs Teal etc. It is each player's own responsibility to make sure that their color is correct for all games.
§10 - Laming
Players may steal enemy boars with their scout and are allowed to do anything else that is permitted within the game, including stealing boar with villagers, walling in resources, or blocking/killing villagers in the dark age.
Maps have been updated to make boar stealing much harder.
§11 - Server
Players must pick the West-Europe or UK-west server. If this server doesn’t garantee a smooth gameplay for the qualifiers, the players should together work out a server that best suits the two players.