Benchmark Brawl Debut — In partnership with Cure Rare Disease

Sign up here. You will need to create a Hardstuck account to register. Any questions? Ask away  here, but make sure to do so at least a week before the event.

ABOUT THE TOURNAMENT

After two editions of Ready Check Cup, Hardstuck is bringing raid tournaments back, introducing a tier of higher competition for our more daring players. Enter Benchmark Brawl, coming up on Saturday, September 23 at 16:00 UTC/17:00 BST, live on  Twitch. We will be partnering up with Cure Rare Disease once again!

Benchmark Brawl is a middle-ground meant for more advanced players looking to test their mettle and climb to the highest ranks of PvE competitive play. Our goal with this tournament is to introduce more skill-based segmentation to our events and ensure balanced match-making. As you may know, the primary target of Ready Check Cup was ‒and is‒ novice players, but with RCC being the first raid tournament in a long while, last time, the roster of participants was a bit of a melting pot; this was particularly punishing for our intended demographic, who had to compete with overqualified players. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that Benchmark Brawl is open even to players who never participated to any raiding tournament before. Just make sure to bring a couple spare t-shirts, because things will be getting sweatier than before! Read below to find out if you qualify, how to enter and how the event is structured.

SUPPORT THE EVENT

Consider supporting us by using our referral links to buy Guild Wars 2, or getting our wicked merch to rock that guild badge IRL! Head over to links.hardstuck.gg!

The first line in supporting any of our events is taking part in them, although being part of the audience is just as important. Show up to cheer for the competing teams and in the meantime, spread the news, get your friends involved and people hyped. You can head over to our links page for a shortcut to all our social media platforms, as well as to our shop and Guild Wars 2 affiliate links. Additionally, you can donate to the in-game prize pool: contact Mightyteapot, Snebzor, or any of our Moderators.

HOW TO ENTER

Registration will close 2 weeks (September 9th) before tournament start time. A minimum of 12 teams are required for this tournament to receive special prizing (title & gems). We will run the tournament with a minimum of 8 teams, but special prizing may not be available.

Entering Hardstuck events is incredibly easy with our sign-up tool; you can thank our basement-bound developers for that! Now you can register directly on each event’s page —in this case, here. You must have a Hardstuck account for this to work. Only one member has to fill out the form for the whole team and everyone on the team will have to give this “leader” their Guild Wars 2 API token. Upon submitting your team’s keys, our tool will calculate your rating; more on rating requirements below. If you have any problems signing up, you can contact our Moderators on Discord.

EVENT STRUCTURE & INFO

For those familiar with Ready Check Cup, this event will have a very similar format and duration. However, we are expanding the repertoire this time: all 7 wings —but NO Challenge Modes enabled. The tournament will have a total of ten rounds: four initial rounds serving as a seeding phase to find the top eight teams, three elimination rounds to determine the strongest two and three final rounds to find out who will seize the crown. Wings will be selected randomly and will not repeat, therefore all seven wings will be played before entering the finals; the pool will then reset and the last three wings will be, once again, picked randomly. During rounds 1-4, teams will be evaluated using a scoring system that goes from 0 to 15 points –see below, same as for Ready Check Cup.

ROUNDS

1. SEEDING: Four rounds, everyone competes. Teams will be assigned a score from 0 to 15 based on their performance.
2. SEMI-FINALS: Three rounds, only for the top 8 teams. Each round, the 2 slowest teams will be eliminated.
3. FINALS: The showdown will unfold over three rounds (1v1 – Bo3). The team with the fastest time will seize the cup.

SCORING SYSTEM

• 1st: 15 points
• 2nd: 12 points
• 3rd: 10 points
• 4th: 9 points
• 5th: 8 points
• 6th: 7 points
• 7th: 6 points
• 8th: 5 points
• 9th: 4 points
• 10th: 3 points
• 11th: 2 points
• 12th: 1 points
• 13th: 0 points

QUALIFICATION & REQUIREMENTS

We reserve the right to ban players who do not meet the spirit of this competition.

• Your team rating average must be less than or equal to 1390.*
• Only one player per team can be rated greater than or equal to 1390**.
• You can hold the Community Hero title.
• A maximum of 12 people per team will get special prizing (Example: Community Hero). A maximum of 16 teams will be able to register. All players who are signed up will gain/lose rank with the team regardless of how many/few games they play.

* New players start with a rating of 1200. You can find your rating here. Inactive players (haven’t participated in over two years) will no longer show up in the raid rankings list, but the rating is still stored in the database.

** Players rated 1390 and above will have ranking protection during this tournament (their rank and number of games played will not change).

REQUIREMENTS

• At least one player from each team must be streaming and provide us with the Twitch link prior to the event, so it can potentially be showcased. The quality of the stream must be set to a minimum of 720p, preferably 1080p. The team name must be displayed on stream and team logos are welcome to be showcased. Twitch VODs must be enabled.
• A team leader must (temporarily) be in the Hardstuck Competitive guild. Guild chat will be used for a countdown and to signal teams to start by saying “GO!”.
• Team members must play on the account they signed up with. Team members must have included their account API key. Failure to do so will result in immediate disqualification.
• Logs must be available for checking.

EXPLOITS, SKIPS & RELOGS

All rulings on specific cases will be posted in the  Hardstuck Competitive Discord. We reserve the right to dequalify players using exploits they did not ask about.

• Relogging to change profession & swapping players out between matches/rounds is ALLOWED. However, players need to remain the same throughout the entire match.
• Out-of-bounds, dialog skips and a clever use of skills (e.g. Spectral Walk, Continuum Shift, but no cloning swords on CA) for positioning only are ALLOWED.
• Encounter and mount exploits, glitching through walls, profession bugs are NOT ALLOWED. This also includes in-combat skyscale.

The general rule of thumb is, if you have to actively try and trigger a bug, don’t do it. You will find a channel dedicated to questions in the Hardstuck Competitive Discord; a tournament admin will get back to you as soon as possible, but to ensure smooth communication, all questions should be asked at least a week before the tournament.

SPIRIT OF THE GAME

While the event format can change, the spirit of the game never does; we need a healthy scene at all levels. Teams and their members must show good sportsmanship. Respect each other and treat others how you would want to be treated. Should any issues arise, speak with the admins politely. Do not harass the admins. Do not flame, insult, rage, or otherwise show a lack of sportsmanship. Poor behaviour will result in potential disqualification and bans from future competitions.

REWARDS

SPECIAL PRIZING

Prizes sponsored by ArenaNet are still in the works. Keep an eye on this page, as well as our socials for updates.

• 1st place: N/A
• 2nd place: N/A
• 3rd/4th place: N/A

Note: Prizing is contingent upon team participation, so please sign-up ASAP.

GOLD & ITEMS

The in-game gold pool starts at approximately 5000 gold, but with community support it can scale up. You can send donations to Mightyteapot, Snebzor, or any of our Moderators. With the exception of special prizing, all prizes will be “door prizes”; drawn for individual participants following the tournament. We anticipate prizes will be delivered within 30 days of the conclusion of the tournament.

STARTING PROCEDURE

To ensure fairness, players must remain in the starting position, i.e. loading and not moving. If you move, you can /gg, respawn and stay still.

1. Spirit Vale
   Teams can spawn the guardians in whatever order they wish. After that, the team must /gg, respawn and wait for the start signal without moving.
2. Salvation Pass
   Teams load into the instance and wait for the start signal without moving.
3. Stronghold Of The Faithful
   Teams can have Glenna in the ready state, such that upon talking to her, she will have the option to immediately start the escort event. This is achieved by moving near her, triggering her dialogue and then typing /gg, respawning and waiting for the start signal without moving.
4. Bastion Of The Penitent
   Teams can have Glenna in the ready state, such that upon talking to her, she will have the option to immediately start her movement to spawn Cairn. This is achieved by moving near her, triggering her dialogue and then typing /gg, respawning and waiting for the start signal without moving.
5. Hall of Chains
   Teams load into the instance and wait for the start signal without moving.
   
6. Mythwright Gambit
   Teams can trigger and skip the initial Zommoros dialog such that the Conjured Amalgamate has spawned, then /gg, respawn and wait for the start signal without moving.
   
7. The Key of Ahdashim
   Teams can trigger the initial dialog between Glenna and the Key of Ahdashim before typing /gg, then respawn and wait for the start signal without moving.