Posts from 2009 World Championship for Heroes IV Online.

Regulations and Game Rules for the 2009 International Online Tournaments in Heroes IV (World Championship, Celestial Way, Altars of Knowledge)
(Download Regulations and Rules 2009, Download Software, Download Player Seeding, Download Tournament Maps, Download Participant Contacts, Download Tournament Bracket Images)

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE AND DISTRIBUTION OF DUTIES

Organizers:
• Oxygen (oxygen[dog]heroesleague.ru)
• CTPAHHuK (huk[dog]heroesleague.ru)
• Vsev (technical administrator)
Organizer functions: publishing information on the website, control of tour deadlines and results finalization, notifying participants and judges of competition news via forums and email, technical control of websites and necessary tournament software, creating Hamachi networks, providing assistance to tournament participants (consultations, resolving time zone mismatches, troubleshooting in-game).

Judges:
• DJN (jeanbesses[dog]yahoo.fr)
• LordZezuk (zezuk[dog]heroesleague.ru)
Judge functions: resolving complex game situations (checking saves, settling disputes, making decisions regarding players missing tour deadlines, etc.), awarding results, reviewing appeals and complaints, drawing lots.
The list of judges may be expanded or corrected before the start of the tournament. Judges' decisions during the tournaments are not subject to appeal.

Information and Technical Sponsors:
• Equilibris (www.equilibris.celestialheavens.com)
• Heroes League (www.heroesleague.ru)
• Heroes World (www.heroesworld.ru)
• Archangel Castle (www.archangelcastle.com)
• Hero's Corner (www.heroes.ag.ru)
• Tournament of Honor (www.toheroes.com)

Information and technical sponsor functions: publishing information about championships, providing a platform for comprehensive tournament information (Heroes League), providing special mailboxes for organizing committee members.

SOFTWARE, SETTINGS AND MAPS

Tournaments are held on the latest available version of Heroes IV — Equilibris 3.51. No third-party modifications are allowed.
The following may be used as means of communication between players: hamachi, gamespy, direct connect. After the tournament starts, players must join the corresponding hamachi subnet or gamespy so that organizing committee members can track player activity and have a universal method of communicating with everyone.

The following networks have been created in hamachi for WC-09 participants:
For players of the first 8 pairs: WC 2009 1-8 (password WC 2009)
For players from pair 9 to 16: WC 2009 9-16 (password WC 2009)
For players from pair 17 to 24: WC 2009 17-24 (password WC 2009)
For players from pair 25 to 32: WC 2009 25-32 (password WC 2009)

The following networks have been created in hamachi for CW-09 participants:
For players of the first 8 pairs: CW 2009 1-8 (password CW 2009)
For players from pair 9 to 16: CW 2009 9-16 (password CW 2009)

It is recommended to use ICQ or MSN for communication between players (forums and email as a means of contacting an opponent will be considered last).
Games for the World Championship, Celestial Way, and Altars of Knowledge tournaments are played on one set of maps.
Tournament maps must be proposed by the organizing committee (each judge has the right to submit no more than 5 maps; duplicates are allowed). After the publication of maps proposed by the organizing committee, anyone may "add" maps — the list must be public. The 10 best maps based on voting results will be used in the tournaments. Voting is permitted only once and only by people who will participate in the competitions (other votes will be annulled at the time registration closes). Votes can be posted on forums or sent to judges' mailboxes. Results are published only after voting ends.

As a result of map selection, 3 maps were chosen by resources (Archangel Castle, Heroes league, Heroes World):
1. Power Spot (Expert, 8 min)
2. Power and Reason (Expert, 8 min)
3. Circle of life (Expert, 8 min)
The remaining 7 maps were selected as a result of voting:
4. Eldorado (Expert, 6 min)
5. Bizarro (Advanced, 8 min);
6. Heart of the Winter (Expert, 6 min)
7. Iron Man (Expert, 8 min);
8. Spleen (Expert, 8 min);
9. Showdown (Advance, 6 min);
10. Lezkandra (Expert, 8 min).



TOURNAMENT FORMAT

World Championship, Celestial Way, and Altars of Knowledge are a series of interconnected tournaments, each providing 3 prize places. The tournament series is created using the Double Elimination system and has no qualifying stages. The World Championship is the first to start and the most important in terms of prizes. It has a classic Playoff structure. In the figure, host nicknames are highlighted in red, and nicknames of players who have not yet made contact are in gray. The image is updated (updated March 7).


Players defeated in the World Championship move to the Celestial Way, which is played as a Playoff, supplemented up to the semi-finals by WC players. In the figure, host nicknames are highlighted in red, and nicknames of players who have not yet made contact are in gray. The image is updated (updated March 7).


The three prize winners of the World Championship and Celestial Way participate in the Altars of Knowledge tournament. Altars of Knowledge consists of three matches between the respective winners for the Archmage’s Altar, Guildmaster’s Altar, and Expert Wisdom’s Altar.


Thus, the three tournaments represent a Double Elimination with a final six. The bracket size depends on the number of registered players.
Player drawing is conducted by judges with seeding for the eight strongest players based on the results of the 2008 championship. Other players are distributed across the bracket in alphabetical order, while participants from the same country occupy positions as far apart as possible. This approach is due to the fact that 2008 championship statistics are insufficient for seeding all players by rating.

SCHEDULE AND DATES

July 1: publication of tournament materials and maps selected by the organizing committee, opening of the possibility to add/withdraw judges or maps, opening of registration for the championship.
August 1: locking of the map and judge list, start of map testing and preparation.
August 12: start of voting on maps.
August 21: end of voting on maps, publication of the championship map list.
August 25: closing of registration, publication of drawing results, and completion of map preparation for the tournament.
August 28: start of the championship.
Each tour of the World Championship is given 21 calendar days (3 weekends).
Each tour of the Celestial Way is given 14 calendar days (2 weekends). An exception is the first tour of the Celestial Way and the semi-final, which falls on the New Year holidays. The duration of these two tours is increased to 21 calendar days to ensure continuity of the competitions.
The Altars of Knowledge tournament takes place over 14 calendar days immediately after the conclusion of the Celestial Way tournament.



Responsibility for starting and completing the game lies with the host (the first player in the pair, the upper one in the Playoff bracket). He must notify judges in advance (5 days before the end of the tour) about the absence of an opponent or a failed game start. In the absence of explanations from the host regarding a failed match, a technical defeat is awarded to him. A technical defeat is also awarded to the host for using maps not included in the tournament map list and for using modified tournament maps without agreement with judges (modifications aimed at improving gameplay and fixing bugs should be agreed upon with judges — for example, if a dwelling generates such that it cannot be captured, but this was not noticed before). In case of a disputed situation (time mismatch, mutual absence of two participants for a valid reason reported to judges 5 days before the end of the tour), the decision on the match result is made by judges by majority vote.

TOURNAMENT RULES
Competition rules are prepared by judges no later than 21 days before the start of the championship. (Read the full text of the rules in the file)

PRIZE PLACES AND AWARDS
The first three places in each tournament are prizes.

World Championship (WC)
1st place: title of World Champion, World Cup (non-transferable Cup), and World Champion mark (Grail — non-transferable mark).
2nd place: WC Silver Prize certificate, WC Silver Prize mark (Sword of the Gods — transferable mark).
3rd place: WC Bronze Prize certificate, WC Bronze Prize mark (Adamantine Armor — transferable mark).

Celestial Way (CW)
1st place: title of Celestial Champion, Celestial Champion certificate, Celestial Champion mark (Boots of Travel - non-transferable mark).
2nd place: Celestial certificate II degree, CW Silver Prize mark (Equestrian's Gloves - transferable mark).
3rd place: Celestial certificate III degree, CW Bronze Prize mark (Surefooted Boots - transferable mark).

Altars of Knowledge (AK)
1st place: title of Archmage, Archmage’s altar mark (Archmage's Codex - transferable mark).
2nd place: title of Guildmaster, Guildmaster’s altar mark (Guildmaster's Compendium - transferable mark).
3rd place: title of Expert Wisdom, Expert Wisdom’s altar mark (Master's Spellbook - transferable mark).

Registration for World Championship 2009 is closed! To register for Celestial Way 2009, please send your nicknames, ICQ, MSN, e-mail and country of residence. The number of places is limited. Registration will end no later than September 18.

P.S.: Those who wish may help in creating the prize fund. Contact Oxygen.

It seems like something is brewing. The French are really going all out. They've already chosen 5 maps. One of them is in second place! - Will and Reason :eek: Well done, Papalars, well done, mapmaker :smile20:

What kind of maps are these?

Hello everyone! Ruslan, I would like to know more details. I also want to participate in the Championship. Maybe something worthwhile will come out this time :) And how are we doing with the preparation? I would like to offer my help, but due to some problems (including the lack of a stable internet connection), I can't do it yet. But as soon as I can, I will definitely let you know!

What maps are these?:)

The following maps will be used in order for the AC league at the World Championship '09:
1. Power Spot (PS)
2. Power and Reason (Vir)
3. Circle of life (Circle)
4. One hot minute
5. Eldorado
I don't think it's worth providing links to them right now. The maps are well-known.

Hello everyone! Ruslan, I would like more details. I also want to participate in the Championship. Maybe something worthwhile will come out this time :)

And how are things going with the preparation? I would like to offer my help, but due to some problems (including the lack of a stable internet connection), I can't do it yet. But as soon as I can, I will let you know!

Good news! :) I heard about your move and thought that a hero was lost ))) There will definitely be a post when the tournament organization begins.
All that is available now is a couple of dialogues with Oxy, DJN, and a set of maps from Archangels. We are waiting for Oxy to finish working on the League website, and then we will start discussing what to start with and when to finish.

We can start discussing it now :-) First of all, we need a set of rules – I’ll take care of that. And we’ll figure out the rest as we go.

First, what is needed for organization is maps and judges from the leagues that participate in the tournament.

To start, I suggest taking 5 maps from each league, with only 1 of them being from the Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Succession Wars map set. Depending on the number of participating leagues, we will determine how many maps from each set to keep.

I suggest nominating 2 judges from each league. Considering the coordinator, Oxygen, we will have an odd number.

It would be best to discuss any issues during the tournament organization together. After the tournament starts, only the judges and the coordinator will handle their resolution.

Hehe)) Well, I would have suggested Will and Mind, but the French brazenly outdid us :( And why isn't Bizarro on the list? The map is good... And they even surpassed us with Spot))
Ruslan, what options are there regarding the maps?
Regarding the judges... I suggest you :) You are already experienced and seasoned))))
Regarding the maps... I suggest that everyone who is interested express their opinion...

This thread is created specifically for discussing the World Championship 2009 for Heroes IV Online.

By the way, maybe we should submit it to DiD? The Europeans definitely don't know this map. Besides, I think I've refined it and taken all the community's suggestions into account. We can take another look at it and refine it again if there are any further comments. Here. This is my suggestion. I'm putting it up for discussion! :-)

From the AC league at the World Championship '09, the following maps will be played in order:
1. Power Spot (PS)
2. Power and Reason (Vir)
3. Circle of life (Circle)
4. One hote minute
5. Eldorado
I don't think it's worth providing links to them right now. These are well-known maps.

Ruslan, I know all the maps... but I'm hearing One hote minute for the first time... Maybe you could still provide a link?:) Or upload it as an archive if you have it:)

By the way, maybe we should register a team for DiD?

That's a good idea, I was already thinking about it yesterday :)
I have an idea about Leskandra... The map is quite specific, but it's well-known and was one of the popular maps at the 2008 World Championship :)
What about Ruins of Zezland? Ruslan, have you played it? What do you think?

1. Dark and Dalia
2. Ruins of Zezland
3. Bizarro
4. Lezkandra
5. ?

Well, this is just a rough list... It's a pity that only 1 map can be chosen for the World Championship... Hmm, by the way, we could also work on the Throne:) It's a very nice map!

Lars, why make statements about things that are obviously unknown? Just to get people talking? It's incredibly boring. It would be great to play on an old, popular map so that we could actually see who is truly capable. Otherwise, victories on BoU are worth very little, for example. Regarding the rest: the draft regulations will be published on the League by the end of the week. We will discuss the judging panel privately, including the responsibilities, rights, and obligations of each member, in order to minimize the risk of failure.

Dmitry. I don't entirely agree about the unknown maps. For several reasons. Firstly, there are always maps, even well-known ones, that you would eliminate first. You just don't like them, no matter what... Secondly, it's not that difficult to learn a completely new map, especially if there's a decent readme file. And thirdly, regarding which is more interesting... I think there's absolutely no difference, because on known maps, players will use tried and tested tactics, while on unknown maps, both will be experimenting. So, in the second case, the game will even be more exciting. IMHO.

Why speculate? We already have statistics, and they don't favor new maps. As for studying and so on – it's possible, it's possible. Only a few will do it. The World Championship isn't the event where you can test new court surfaces.

Hello everyone :) Does the regulations for the World Championship 2009 stipulate that it should conclude in 2009? Or will it be another year of scandals after two months of intense gameplay, when the main group of participants is eliminated, and the remaining players resort to unheroic behavior?

The idea is that the requirements for moral and ethical standards of behavior in high-level competitions should be appropriate:smile43:

I completely agree with "the new approach" from Okhu.