Registration for a PBEM 2 vs 2 team tournament will open next week (Tournament)

A 2 vs 2 PBEM tournament should start on July 15 and gather about 32 players, with registration opening on 15 June

An Article by Hiliadan

Following a poll asking the type of tournament people would like to participate in, on which PBEM 2 vs 2 tournament came on top with 18 players interested, it was decided to organize such a team tournament on the Battlefield!

In order to prepare for this tournament, the team functions on the Battlefield have been significantly improved and balance fixes have been released through the PBEM balance mod (see the news PBEM balance mod v1.1 released! for more information and the full changelog). The improvements for teams include:

• a revamped interface to create and administer your team that you can access through the menus \"My Account\" -> \"My Team\"


• a team ranking!

• a team chat, accessible in the chat page of the Battlefield: http://www.the-battlefield.co... People registered in a team have a new tab, named with the tag of their team, and can chat there with their team mates.


• an improved team page, displaying the team latest matches, members, ranking, etc.

In the future, new improvements are planned, for instance a function to post gaming blogs visible only by your team mates to share strategic information on an ongoing game.


The tournament will be played with the PBEM balance mod v1.15, a version based on v1.1 and fixing additional issues linked to Necro, XP farming and conversion - Example of a change brought by v1.1: Human eco RG1 gives only 15% discount (was 25%) on settlers


Players who plan on joining the tournament are thus strongly encouraged to register or join a team on the site, in order to benefit from all these functions! You can see a list of existing team through the Community menu.

The tournament will be double-elimination, 2 vs 2 and PBEM. It will be hosted on the Battlefield website and will thus benefit from its existing functions, such as roster visualization, meta-statistics, ranking, match reports, etc. A dedicated page will be opened on 15 June for teams to register. You will not need to have an officially registered team to participate.


Roster visualization: Example of the latest 16 players Duel PBEM tournament

The rules and settings are under final discussion on the official Triumph forum. Three settings are being discussed by participants:

1. Random heroes match player race: on or off?


2. Maximum Heroes Level: 15 or more?


3. Continent and water slider at 25% or Land and water slider at 50%?

You can see arguments for the current settings here.
Please do share your opinion on these 3 settings on the comments of this article or anywhere appropriate.

If you want to participate to this tournament, please join the 2016 PBEM tournament player pool to get the latest news regarding the tournament!

Settings

Balance mod: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=661597466

Turn timer = 1 day
Medium Map with Surface and Underground on Continents
Normal Game flow speed

Start town: Village
Starting units: Weak
Starting distance: Far
Roads: Few
Roaming units: Average
Treasures: Average
Cities: Few
Dwellings: Few
Ressource structures: Average
Visit structure: Average
Treasure structures: Average

Water Slider at 25%
Undiggable walls and Diggable Wall Sliders down to 15-20 %
All other sliders left untouched at standard 50 %

2 teams of 2
Seal Victory: off
Unifier Victory: at 2 Beacons

Game speed: Normal
Starting Resource: Standard
Starting Skills: Normal
All Heroes Have Resurgence: Never
Defenders Strength: Strong
Cosmic Events: Medium
Maximum Number of Heroes: 2 (1 Leader + 2 heroes)
Maximum Heroes Level: 15

Map Exploration: On
City Founding: On
Random heroes match player race: Off
Empire Quests: On

Rules
1. One round cannot exceed 2 months. If neither of the players won 2 months after the start of the round, then one should surrender and take a screenshot of the score and provide it to the judges. The team with the highest (combined) score then wins the match. If scores are very close, the judges can decide that it is a draw and ask the players to replay the game with a shorter (for instance 1 month) deadline.
 
2. Players can arrange whatever settings (e.g. no dwellings) they choose, but in the absence of consensus, the settings described in the “In-Game settings” above are to be considered the default. The host is automatically and randomly chosen by the Battlefield website. If for any reason (e.g. no DLC), the designated host cannot host the game, then another player does but the designated host needs to be #1 player in the turn order. The host must take screenshots, preferably in windowed mode (showing the date and hour when the screenshots were taken), of the settings and post them publicly (so that his opponent and the judges can access them) before the match starts.
The host should set up the turn order for the teams as follow I / II / I / II (and not I / I / II / II).

3. If one player temporarily cannot play his turns in 24 hours (e.g. because of holidays, or personal issues), and warn the host reasonably in advance, then the host should temporarily change the turn timer to accommodate him.
 
4. In the event of a crash (from your PC or from AoW), reloads are allowed BUT the player who crashed needs to take appropriate screenshots, pictures or videos (with a mobile phone for instance) and sends them to the judges. Reloads should be counted by all players and reported to the judges. If no proof of a justified crash or in case of repeated reloading (during one match or during the tournament as a whole), the judges have full power to disqualify the player.
 
5. A team cannot play the same class or race that it played in its latest match. BEFORE the match, you must let the Judges (but not your opponents) know what class and race you will play for your upcoming match by private message in the Battlefield website. For example, if your team played Human Theocrat and Warlord Frostling in your last match, for your next match, you cannot be Human, Frostling, Theocrat or Warlord (all the 4 are forbidden).
Both players in a team can play the same class/race as long as they respect the restrictions explained above.
 
6. Banter and taunting is allowed, rudeness, swearing and racial (or other prejudicial) language is not. Repeatedly trolling will lead to forfeiting the match.
 
7. The decision of the Judges is to be respected. Players breaking the rules get a total of 3 warnings before being disqualified from the tournament entirely. Judges may disqualify a player without warnings if their behaviour is deemed to be completely out of order (e.g. racism).
 
8. When awaiting judges’ decision (as soon as his opponent requests arbitration), the host must remove the turn timer and may need to revert turns to come back to the situation existing prior to the issue being judged.
 
9. Players must play with the latest official version of the game (no beta). If the official version is updated during the tournament, players must update to it as soon as it is released both on GoG and Steam (and turn timer must be removed while waiting for the GoG release). Players must also play with the PBEM balance mod http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=661597466. At the beginning of the tournament, v1.15 of the mod will be used, that is to say a version of v1.1 corrected for potential issues or including additional changes to fix Necromancer, XP farming and mind-control abilities. All the games may be updated to a newer version if all the judges deem it to be stable and necessary for game balance (they may require the non-binding opinion of the players through a poll).
 
10. If you feel one of the rules had been broken, but you carry on playing without reporting to the judges, then you have no recourse.

Arbitration process
The main judge is Hiliadan.
Assistant judges are: Markymark and Fistandantilus.
When arbitration is necessary:
1. If 1 or 2 of the judges are involved in the game which needs arbitration, the 3rd judge should name two temporary judges to replace them for this arbitration. If all 3 judges are involved in the game, they need to all agree on a 4th person not involved in the game as a temporary judge, which will then design 2 other temporary judges; the 3 temporary judges will conduct the arbitration;
2. The players should both send necessary files to the judges (screenshots, videos, their latest saved game which can be found here in Windows: C:\\Users\\[user name]\\Documents\\My Games\\AoW3\\Profiles\\[profile name]\\PBEM) by email or any other means
3. The arbitration will be taken at the majority of the 3 judges and the decision taken is definitive. If one player refuses it, he is disqualified.

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Created on: 09.06.2016 at 10:26:28