ESOC Stay-at-Home Cup - Tournament Rules & Information

[Cometk]

Time Line

Sign Ups
July 5th - July 17th
Sign up in the MyESOC tournament panel

Upper Bracket
July 20th - August 30th

Upper Bracket Schedule

Round of 32 (Bo5) - defeated players will drop to Lower Bracket Round of 64
July 20th - July 26th

Round of 16 (Bo5)
July 27th - August 9th

Quarter-Finals (Bo7)
August 10th - August 16th

Semi-Finals (Bo7)
August 17th - August 23rd

Finals (Bo7) and 3rd/4th Place (Bo7)
August 24th - August 30th

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Lower Bracket
July 20th - September 6th

Lower Bracket Schedule

Round of 64 (Bo3)
July 20th - August 2nd

Round of 32 (Bo5)
August 3rd - August 9th

Round of 16 (Bo5)
August 10th - August 16th

Round of 8 (Bo5)
August 17th - August 23rd

Semi-Finals (Bo7)
August 24th - August 30th

Finals (Bo7) and 3rd/4th Place (Bo7)
August 31st - September 6th

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Note: When necessary, the tournament administration may extend the deadline for any match if scheduling proves to be an issue.

The tournament administrators for this event are @BrookG, @Cometk, @Mr_Bramboy, and @n0el.

[Cometk]

Prize Pool

The total prize pool is $750 USD.

All proceeds from Twitch subscriptions & bits will go towards COVID-19 relief funds, specializing in assisting those facing homelessness in America. The Sacred Heart COVID-19 Financial Assistance Program provides temporary financial assistance and supportive services to low-income families and individuals who are at risk of becoming homeless in Santa Clara County, California. At the end of the event, ESOC will forward our revenue accrued via Twitch to Sacred Heart to help combat poverty and homelessness struggles that have been exacerbated by COVID-19. If you would like to contribute directly, consider donating to Sacred Heart here.

Donations received throughout the tournament will go towards future ESOC events - if you would like to contribute to ESOC, you may do so here.

Upper Bracket - $750
1st place: $250 & exclusive badge
2nd place: $165
3rd place: $115
4th place: $80
5th-8th place: $35 each

Lower Bracket
1st place: Exclusive badge

[Cometk]

Tournament Rules

Civilization Restrictions

Once you have won with a civilization, you may not use it again for the rest of the series. Losing a game does not disable a player’s civilization - this means that there isn’t a limit to the number of times a civilization can be played, provided the player has not won with it.

For the 1st game in a series, players agree on a civilization matchup. For each subsequent game, the winner of the previous game selects their civilization first. This pick is final and is locked in. The opponent chooses their civilization afterwards, aka "the counterpick".

In a Best-of-3, you must win with 2 different civilizations.
In a Best-of-5, you must win with 3 different civilizations.
In a Best-of-7, you must win with 4 different civilizations.

Example (Best-of-5)

Game 1 (Best-of-5)

Player A and Player B agree on a matchup

Player A plays British
Player B plays French

Game 2 (Best-of-5)

Player A wins Game 1 (1-0)
Player A may not select British
Player B may select any civilization

Player A selects Dutch
Player B selects Russians

Game 3 (Best-of-5)

Player A wins Game 2 (2-0)
Player A may not select British or Dutch
Player B may select any civilization

Player A selects Aztec
Player B selects French

Game 4 (Best-of-5)

Player B wins Game 3 (2-1)
Player A may not select British or Dutch
Player B may not select French

Player B selects Russians
Player A selects Aztec

Player A wins Game 4 and wins the series 3-1.

Map Selection

Before the tournament begins, players will submit a selection of 3 maps that will represent their "home pool" of maps for the entire tournament. The list of maps that may be selected from are included below - any map with UIx compatibility on the ESOC Patch is eligible for selection.

After a player has lost a game in a series they are allowed to select the next map to be played from their "home pool". For example, the player who lost the previous game selects Cascade Range as the next map, out of his home pool consisting of Adirondacks, Baja California, and Cascade Range. Once a player has selected a map from their home pool, they cannot select that map again for the rest of the series. After losing another game, the aforementioned player may only select Adirondacks or Baja California as the next map.

Game 1 of every series is played on an admin-selected map. They are as follows:

Round of 64: ESOC Manchuria
Round of 32: ESOC Hudson Bay Summer
Round of 16: ESOC Kamchatka Summer
Round of 8: ESOC Florida
Semi-Finals: ESOC Fraser River
Finals/Bronze: ESOC Arizona

List of maps

To submit your selection of 3 maps, please send a private message to @Cometk. You may change your selection at any time before sign-ups close. Once sign-ups close, all selections are final.

For additional information on most ESOC maps, take a look at the ESOC Maps page.

UIx Ceylon
UIx Deccan
UIx ESOC Adirondacks
UIx ESOC Alaska
UIx ESOC Arizona
UIx ESOC Arkansas
UIx ESOC Baja California
UIx ESOC Bengal
UIx ESOC Bering Strait
UIx ESOC Bonnie Springs
UIx ESOC Cascade Range
UIx ESOC Cerrado
UIx ESOC Colorado
UIx ESOC Dhaka
UIx ESOC Fertile Crescent
UIx ESOC Florida
UIx ESOC Fraser River
UIx ESOC Global Warming
UIx ESOC Gran Chaco
UIx ESOC Great Basin
UIx ESOC Guatemala
UIx ESOC Herald Island
UIx ESOC High Plains
UIx ESOC Hudson Bay
UIx ESOC Indonesia
UIx ESOC Iowa
UIx ESOC Jebel Musa
UIx ESOC Kamchatka
UIx ESOC Klondike
UIx ESOC Lumaco
UIx ESOC Malaysia
UIx ESOC Manchac
UIx ESOC Manchuria
UIx ESOC Mendocino
UIx ESOC Nahanni
UIx ESOC Nepal
UIx ESOC Pampas Sierras
UIx ESOC Parallel River
UIx ESOC Tassili
UIx ESOC Thar Desert
UIx ESOC Tibet
UIx ESOC Tuparro
UIx ESOC Wabakimi
UIx ESOC Wadmalaw
UIx ESOC Yalu River
UIx ESOC Zavkhan
UIx Himalayas - Upper
UIx New England

[Cometk]

Gameplay Rules

1.1 - All games must be played on the ESOC Patch.

1.2 - Every game must be recorded.

1.3 - Winners must submit recorded games using the Match Results Submitter.

1.4 - Every player must respect their opponent, casters and organizers. Misbehavior** will result in a warning and can lead to disqualification. Racism and/or insults will not be tolerated. More information regarding this can be found in the Disqualification Rules section.

1.5 - When a player disconnects from the internet BEFORE 2 minutes, the player can (when both agree) restart and replay the game. When the opponent does not agree to restart, the outcome of the game will be determined by the tournament administration. Players must first follow rule 1.6a before invoking this rule.

1.6 - When a player disconnects AFTER 2 minutes, the players can (when both agree) restart and replay the game. When the opponent does not agree to restart, the player who lost connection will be given a loss. Players must first follow rule 1.6a before invoking this rule.

1.6a - When a player disconnects from the internet, the players will first attempt to 'save' the game and to replay from the saved game. If this does not work due to technical difficulties, the players will follow rules 1.5 or 1.6.

1.7 - Every player may restart a game BEFORE the 2 minute mark when necessary. This is allowed ONCE per map when the game is NOT casted by an official caster. Restarts for CASTED games will be determined by the caster themselves.

1.8 - The caster is allowed to restart a game as many times as necessary for optimal play.

1.9 - Recorded games must be submitted with match results. Failure to do so may result in a match being considered invalid.

1.10 - Players must be respectful to each other when selecting civilizations during the first game in a series. Players cannot intentionally change to unfair match-ups, or otherwise be difficult to agree with. The tournament administration reserves the right to two possible outcomes. 1) If one player is deemed challenging, then that player will be forced to pick their civilization first. 2) If both players are disagreeable, then a blind pick will be enforced.

[Cometk]

Scheduling Rules

2.1 - Please read the ESOC Guide to Scheduling!

2.2 - Players must respond with the times they are available to play in their dedicated scheduling thread. Players will then play out their games on the given maps.

2.3 - If a player is more than 15 minutes late to a scheduled match, then they will lock their civilization first in Game 1 when the match is eventually played.

2.4 - Posts in scheduling topics will be considered along with interaction with admins when making decisions regarding scheduling. Other communications will not be considered.

[Cometk]

Casting Rules

3.1 - It is every players responsibility to work with tournament admins for the casting of games.

3.2 - Players and casters may request that measures be taken to reduce lag during a match. At the discretion of the tournament admins, or casters if no admins are available, a streamed match may have its casters switched out, have its number of casters reduced, or be casted from replays.

3.3 - Players cannot deny casters without consulting with the tournament admins first.

3.4 - Only casters that have been authorized by the tournament administration will be permitted to stream matches on ESOCTV.

3.5 - All streamed games must have a time delay of 2 minutes. This includes games streamed by players themselves.

3.6 - The tournament admins reserves the right to extend the deadline of a match if deemed appropriate.

3.7 - All tournament-streamed matches must be recorded.

3.8 - No additional observers may be present in games.

3.9 - If issues preventing players from playing on ESO occur, players and casters will meet on GameRanger to play the series out.

[Cometk]

Disqualification Rules

4.1 - All external exploits and game modification software are forbidden. The tournament administration reserves the right to disqualify a player for use of any exploits to gain an unfair advantage.

4.2 - Exploits include but are not limited to: Map Hacks, Trainers, Explorer Revival Glitch, Explorer ROF Glitch, OOS / Intentional Lag (Stacked downloads or other game crashing exploits), mods (building rotator, zoom modification), and UIs (Ekanta, Transparent UI).

4.3 - Acceptable hotkey modifications should follow the "1 input = 1 output" rule. This means that a custom hotkey does not queue multiple actions that would normally require several keys. An example of acceptable hotkey modifications are Agra Fort hotkeys.

4.4 - If you suspect your opponent has violated any of the player integrity rules, finish the game and submit it for review with an explanation of why you think the game was unfair. If the tournament administration find someone to be guilty of cheating, the cheater will be disqualified from the tournament and subject to a tournament ban.

4.5 - The tournament administration has the right to disqualify a player in cases where there is severe lag to the point where the playing and/or viewing experience is unusually burdened.

4.6 - One-Touch Forfeiture: Once a player has expressed that they have forfeited a match, they will be disqualified from the tournament and not permitted to continue playing. Having an insufficient reason for forfeiture may result in a tournament ban.

4.7 - "Smurfing", playing for another user, or having another user play your match for you, is subject to immediate disqualification for both parties involved and may result in a tournament ban.

4.8 - When a player is disqualified, they have no right to claim any prize money.

**Misbehaviour includes excessive shit-talking and disrespecting players, casters, and admins. More severe misbehaviour such as racism will not be tolerated in any form and may result in immediate disqualification from the tournament.

The discipline procedure for misbehaviour during casted matches will be:

1) Informal Warning
2) Official Warning
3) Disqualification

An informal warning is a yellow light to cease offending behaviour. Informal warnings may be issued by the caster, who will also notify the stream manager. Informal warnings will not carry over from series-to-series during a player's tournament lifespan. Continued misbehaviour will escalate to an official warning.

An official warning warning is a red light to cease offending behaviour. Official warnings will be issued by the stream manager. Continued misbehaviour will escalate to a game loss or disqualification. A player will only receive one official warning during the course of the tournament; should their misbehaviour continue, the admins reserve the right to disqualify them at any time.

[Cometk]

Seeding Rules

5.1 - A player's tournament Elo will be measured using a mix of current and max EP 1v1 Elo.

5.2 - Qualification for the Upper Bracket and Lower Bracket will be decided by tournament Elo. The Top 32 players by tournament Elo will start in the Upper Bracket, and everyone else will start in the Lower Bracket.

5.3 - Seeds 17-32 of the Upper Bracket will be decided by tournament Elo. Seeds 1-16 will be decided by a conglomerated peer rating system, where each Top 16 player will create a list of the other Top players ordering them from strongest to weakest. The rankings from this list will be averaged with other lists to create the seeding for the Top 16.

[giveuanxiety]

It’s dumb to give a prize to people in the lower division. But have 24 players from the upper league get nothing. It just increases the chances of players throwing seeding to be in the lower division to win money and it also disrespects the upper division players who grind for years. Also it just gives something to the lower division players who don’t deserve it or truly worked for it.

[giveuanxiety]

Well actually never mind, just noticed the losers from upper division drop down to lower division so then it’s prob ok