Masters of the Arena III: Full Tournament Rules

6 months ago, last modified 1 month ago

Pre-Tournament Communication

Feel free to contact us with any questions about the rules and or tournament organisation!

Contact information

MightyTeapot

Twitter/X: @mightyteapot

Discord: mightyteapot

Email: [email protected]

The Legendary Lyn

Twitter/X: @thelegendarylyn

Discord: thelegendarylyn

Email: –

During The Tournament

The Admins can be contacted by direct messaging thelegendarylyn during the tournament on the Hardstuck Competitive Discord.

Please refrain from messaging any shoutcasters during the tournament.

1. Tournament Structure

1.1 – Regional final brackets will feature the 6 teams that qualified during the Masters of The Arena qualifiers with the following seeding:

- Seed 1: 1st qualifier upper bracket winner
- Seed 2: 1st qualifier lower bracket winner
- Seed 3: 2nd qualifier upper bracket winner
- Seed 4: 2nd qualifier lower bracket winner
- Seed 5: 3rd qualifier upper bracket winner
- Seed 6: 3rd qualifier lower bracket winner

1.2 – If any previously qualified team is no longer able to play in Masters of the Arena, then the following team that would’ve qualified in the 3rd qualifier will take their spot.

1.3 – Regional final bracket matches are all best of 3.

1.4 – Regional final brackets do not feature a grand finale. Instead the winners of the upper and lower bracket qualify for playing in the global finals.

1.5 – Global finals feature 4 teams with the following seeding:

- Seed 1: EU upper bracket winner
- Seed 2: NA upper bracket winner
- Seed 3: EU lower bracket winner
- Seed 4: NA lower bracket winner

1.6 – All global finals matches are a best of 3 with the exception of the Grand Finale being a best of 5.

2. Teams And Player Conduct

2.1 – Admins have the final say in all matters. No toxicity towards any tournament staff or other players will be tolerated. This includes any toxicity found outside of tournament games for example in Twitch Chat or discord servers. Players or teams who cross the line will face potential disqualification.

2.2 – All matches are 5v5. Teams are allowed one substitute that they may sub in and out freely in between games.

2.3 – Teams must have at least their Team Captain in the Hardstuck Competitive Discord server so admins can contact them. All members are encouraged to join.

2.4 – Team rosters must not change during the tournament, special cases will be considered but teams should not assume they can change their roster.

2.5 – Teams should be ready to join the arena and play at least 15 minutes before their match. A schedule will be readily available to ensure this is easy to do. In the eventuality that a team will be delayed or even unavailable they must alert the admins as soon as possible – adjusting timings to accommodate will be made when possible. If teams are more than 10 minutes late without informing the admins they may face disqualification.

2.6 – Account names from each player (both EU and NA accounts) are required when registering a team. Wherever possible teams should play on their main accounts. If an admin suspects a player is not who they say they are they’ll ask for an API key to validate the identity of the player.

2.7 – When playing in tournament games, it is mandatory that players play on a character that has their team name (or guild tag) and screen name in their name. For example if a player entered under the name Roy and the guild ‘This Is An Example [Exam]’ then their character name could be ‘Exam Roy’. Accents and stylizations are fine.

2.8 – Streaming matches or restreaming the tournament is not permitted, recording and then uploading games after the fact is of course fine.

2.9 – Players should behave with sportsmanship and should not attempt to influence matches outside of gameplay. An example would be deliberately attempting to distract or otherwise confuse the opponent (spamming the chat or pretending to need a restart)

3. In Game Restrictions

3.1 – Specialization stacking is not allowed. This means teams can have multiple players playing the same profession but not the same elite specialization. For example a team could have a Firebrand and a Dragonhunter on the same team but not two Core Guardians.

3.2 – Swapping character or build during a game is not permitted. However swapping between games or matches is fine.

3.3 – Nobody except tournament staff and the players of each team are allowed inside the arena during a game. Substitutes who are not playing in that game are also not allowed in the arena.

3.4 – Players are not allowed to abuse any bugs. If teams are unsure if a specific interaction is allowed please contact the administrators.

3.5 – In the event of a disconnection or game breaking bug (stuck in terrain etc) Team Captains are allowed to request a restart under the following conditions:

- The team requesting a restart is currently winning by points and the disconnect is earlier than 2 minutes into the game.
- The team requesting a restart is currently losing by points and the disconnect is earlier than 1 minute into the game.
- Teams may only request one restart per game.

4. Cross Region Matches

4.1 – In case of a Cross Region Match, the highest seeded will determine on which region the first two games will be played. The three remaining games will be played on the other region.

4.2 – To make up for latancy for playing on the opposite server, the winner of a cross region match will be determined by the total amount of points gained during all games. Points scored on the other region will be modified by 1.1. Example:

- Game 1: Team EU vs Team NA (500 – 450) played on EU Team EU (500) vs Team NA (495)
- Game 2: Team EU vs Team NA (494 – 500) played on EU Team EU (994) vs Team NA (1045)
- Game 3: Team EU vs Team NA (500 – 480) played on NA Team EU (1544) vs Team NA (1525)
- Game 4: Team EU vs Team NA (500 – 465) played on NA Team EU (2094) vs Team NA (1990)
- Game 5 will be played on EU as EU as 2094 ‘meta points’ whereas NA only has 2025

4.3 – Forfeiting a game in a Cross Region Match will count as a loss where the opposing team scored 500 points.

5. Map Pool

5.1 – The map pool for the tournament is as follows:

- Battle of Kyhlo
- Eternal Coliseum
- Forest of Niflhel
- Legacy of the Foefire
- Revenge of the Capricorn
- Skyhammer
- Temple of the Silent Storm

6. Map Rotation

6.1 – The maps played in a regional finals Best of 3 match are determined by the following order:

- The highest seeded team determines which team bans first. This team is ”Seed 1” and the team bans second ”Seed 2”
  - Seed 1 bans 1 map
  - Seed 2 bans 1 map
  - Seed 1 picks 1 map and will be played in the 1st game
  - Seed 2 picks 1 map and will be played in the 2nd game
  - Seed 1 bans 1 map
  - Seed 2 bans 1 map
  - The final remaining map will be played in a potential 3rd game

6.2 – The maps played in a global finals Best of 3 match are determined by the following order

- The highest seeded team determines which team bans first. This team is ”Seed 1” and the team bans second ”Seed 2”
  - Seed 1 bans 1 map
  - Seed 2 bans 1 map
  - Seed 1 picks 1 map and will be played in the 1st game
  - Seed 2 picks 1 map and will be played in the 2nd game
  - Seed 1 bans 1 map
  - Seed 2 bans 1 map
  - The final remaining map will be played in a potential 3rd game

6.3 – The maps played in The Grand Finale are determined by the following order

- The highest seeded team determines which team bans first. This team is ”Seed 1” and the team bans second ”Seed 2”
  - Seed 1 bans 1 map
  - Seed 2 bans 1 map
  - Seed 1 picks 1 map and will be played in the 1st game
  - Seed 2 picks 1 map and will be played in the 2nd game
  - Seed 1 picks 1 map and will be played in the 3rd game
  - Seed 2 picks 1 map and will be played in a potential 4th game
  - The final remaining map will be played in a potential 5rd game

7. Prizes

7.1 – The prizepool will be distributed to the winning teams in the weeks after the tournament in the form of in-game items.

7.2 – The value of in-game items will determined by their Black Lion Trading Company sell order price at the time of distribution.

7.3 – Prizes sponsored by Arenanet will require the Guild Wars 2 in-game accountname of every player on a team. Players who don’t provide their accountname during the sign-up process, forfeit their right to any Arenanet sponsored prizes.

7.4 – Prizes sponsored by Arenanet will only be distributed to players who played at least 1 game during the tournament.