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Swiss Stage:

5 Rounds of Best of 1 (Bo1) series.
The Top 8 Players advance.
Seeding is done over the global check-in period and based on the official leaderboard.
Wins are worth 1pts.
Tie Breakers:
- Head to Head
- Game Win %
- Opponents Game Win %
- Opponent point total (median Buchholz score)
Bye rules:
- A bye can happen when there is an odd number of participants; in such cases, the player with a bye will earn 0.5pts.
- The player to receive the bye is selected based on complex criteria by the Start.gg system that will prioritize creating pairs in the upper half of the group.
Expansion:
- In the event of there being 32-63 players registered, the Swiss Stage splits into 2 groups, with the Top 6 of each group advancing.
- In the event of there being 64+ players registered, the Swiss Stage splits into 2 groups, with the Top 8 of each group advancing.

Single-Elimination Finals:

Standard 1v1 default rules.

No Show / Delays

Players have 10 minutes to check in and begin talking with their opponents, failing to do so will result in a game loss for the delaying player.
- After another 5 minutes, the player will be given another loss, and so on, until they either show or lose the series.
Depending on the circumstances, the admin team may allow more delay time.
- Only if the delaying player has communicated these circumstances with admins.

Hosting

Players must add each other as friends via Steam. Once done, form a party inside Stormgate (bottom right in the main menu). Once formed, creating a lobby will automatically select a neutral server for both parties.
- Players may choose not to perform this and instead give hosting rights to one of the players.

Map Pick Order

Weekly:
- Swiss Stage:
  - Map Pool: Boneyard, Broken Crown, Furious Resolve, Lost Hope, Secluded Grove, Titan's Causeway, Isle of Dread.
  - Draft link: https://aoe2cm.net/preset/kFhcL
    - The remaining map from the draft is played.
- Bracket Stage:
  - Map Pool: Boneyard, Broken Crown, Furious Resolve, Lost Hope, Secluded Grove, Titan's Causeway, Isle of Dread.
  - Best of Three (Bo3):
    1. Players veto one map each. AB
    2. Players veto one map each. AB
    3. Players pick one map each. AB
    4. The remaining map is for Game 3.
  - Best of Five (Bo5):
    1. Players veto one map each. AB
    2. Players pick one map each. AB
    3. Players pick one more map. AB
    4. The remaining map is for Game 5.
Finals:
- Map Pool: Boneyard, Broken Crown, Furious Resolve, Lost Hope, Secluded Grove, Titan's Causeway, Isle of Dread.
- Best of Three (Bo3):
  1. Players veto one map each. AB
  2. Players veto one map each. AB
  3. Players pick one map each. AB
  4. The remaining map is played first
- Best of Five (Bo5):
  1. Players veto one map each. AB
  2. Players pick one map each. AB
  3. Players pick one more map. AB
  4. The remaining map is played first
- Draft link: https://aoe2cm.net/preset/kFhcL
  - The remaining map from the draft is played.
  - From there on, it is the loser's pick with no repeats.

Faction Pick Order

Both players agree on a matchup for Game 1 via the chat.
If an agreement cannot be made, a blind pick is called and an Admin is contacted.
The losing player of each Game can freely swap their faction.

Bug / Exploit Abuse

List of SGTC recognized bugs/exploits: Linked here.
- All SGTC Bans are prohibited in this competition.
- All Precautions are prohibited in this competition.

If you want to confirm whether something is or is not intended behavior, please do so via the Stormgate Discord server by contacting @adico.

Crashes

In the event of a crash, the game is replayed.
The event organizers may rule the game won or lost depending on bracket circumstances or in-game replay review.

Post-Game

Both players must fill in and confirm the game details in Start.gg after each game.
- See the "Tasks" tab at the top of the Stat.gg match window for details.
- Players must bundle all their replays and send them to the main admin of the bracket at the end of their competition for archiving.