Automated tournament

Automated tournaments are swiss-style tournaments for Guild Battles. These competitions take place three times daily, and are staggered to allow players from different time-zones to take part. Competitors, by performing well through the automated rounds for a month, will have the opportunity to participate in the tournament at the end of each month which offer large amounts of Tournament Reward Points as prizes.

Ladder / Rating change in tournaments

 * The tournament system interacts with the ladder rating system, but victories in the tournament reward greater ladder adjustment modifiers (K-values), with a K value of 25. Monthly tournaments have even greater rating modifier with K=50. The current ladder system has a K=15.
 * Since the 20 March 2008 update a guild or player will now lose K value (25 for daily, 50 for monthly) rating if the guild or player signs up for a tournament and forfeit the first round.
 * Be wary that rating change for win/losses is significantly higher than in a normal rated GvG match.

Tournament style

 * The tournaments are currently run as a swiss style tournament where each instance has a maximum of 32 competitors. This means that there is a maximum of 5 rounds of play.  There is currently a minimum requirement of 8 parties for tournaments.  If more than the maximum number of competitors sign up for a tournament, then the tournament is split as necessary and two or more instances of the tournament are created.  A future feature will be that the top 8 finishers, determined by the number of Match Points earned during the swiss rounds, are invited to continue playing in elimination playoffs to determine the results of the monthly tournament.  Each round the pairing is random based on the win-loss statistics.

GvG tournament requirements for participants

 * Two players must have been a member of their guild for 7 days. One of these players must be an officer. The remaining players may be a combination of up to six guests, henchmen, or members. This is automatically verified. Henchmen are restricted to a maximum of four.
 * Monthly tournaments require four guild members who have been a member of their guild for at least 7 days. No guests are allowed. Henchmen are restricted to a maximum of two.


 * Other players are allowed to substitute into later rounds. As long as the above requirements are maintained.
 * All party members must be registered with Tolkano.
 * The first battle of a daily tournament sets the tournament roster for that tournament and is the list of players that are eligible for receiving Tournament Reward Points.
 * These rules also apply to Dwayna Vs Grenth tournaments.

Tournament times
GvG has tournaments which run every 8 hours. Participants are required to register within an hour before the tournament. A countdown clock is provided in the staging area, the Guild Hall, showing the time until the match starts. The competitor must have joined before this timer completes or forfeit the match and leave the tournament.

All Automated Tournaments also have wait times between rounds to allow for guilds to finish playing matches.

Match times, pairings, and posting of results to the website during tournament play will be automatically performed in a future update.

Tournament setup

 * Entry to the tournament is bought with Tournament Tokens which are purchased with Balthazar faction. If a competitor drops out of the tournament once it has started there is no refund.  Any competitor that forfeits in the first round will not be considered for prize points, and they will also suffer a drop in rating.
 * GvG tournament entry costs 5 Tournament Tokens.
 * Dwayna Vs Grenth tournament entry is free.

Tournament maps

 * Tournament matches are performed on a predetermined list of Guild Hall halls; this list and the order is published in the tournament description that can be found by talking to Tolkano.
 * Dwayna Vs Grenth matches all occur on its own map.

Win / Loss / Bye

 * With an odd number of competitors, the guild with the lowest amount of match points will receive a Bye, which means an automatic win for the tournament. If this happens at the beginning of the tournament a random competitor will be given the Bye.
 * When receiving a forfeit or a bye, no match is played, because of this there will be no change in rating.

Monthly Tournament / Qualifier Points

 * The top eight teams earn Qualifier Points for the major monthly tournament. 20 qualifier points allow entry to the monthly tournament.  The monthly tournament is held in the last weekend of each month.
 * Placing in the top eight of the daily tournaments grants you 9-{your rank} qualifier points.

Tournament Reward Points

 * Players are also rewarded with Tournament Reward Points which will give the player access to items with unique skins. The tournament agent Tolkano grants the rewards (see the PvP reward article for a list of rewards).  Top placing players earn bonus reward points.

Tournament rules

 * Newest tournament rules can be found here.

Tournament results
The first monthly automated tournament started in May 2007. The prizes and results of all the tournaments can be found here:

2007


 * May tournament prizes, GvG results, 1v1 results
 * June tournament prizes, GvG results, 1v1 results, Skill usage charts
 * July tournament GvG results, 1v1 results, Skill usage charts
 * August tournament GvG results, 1v1 results
 * September tournament GvG results, 1v1 results, Skill usage charts
 * October tournament GvG results, 1v1 results, Skill usage charts
 * November tournament GvG results, 1v1 results, Skill usage chart
 * December tournament GvG results, 1v1 results, Skill usage chart

2008


 * January tournament GvG results, 1v1 results, Skill usage chart, rules
 * February tournament GvG results, 1v1 results, Skill usage chart, rules
 * March tournament GvG results, 1v1 results, Skill usage chart, rules
 * April tournament GvG results, 1v1 results, Skill usage chart, rules
 * May tournament GvG results, 1v1 results, Skill usage chart, rules
 * June tournament GvG results, 1v1 results, Skill usage chart, rules
 * July tournament GvG results, 1v1 results, Skill usage chart, rules
 * August tournament GvG results, 1v1 results, Skill usage chart, rules
 * September tournament GvG results 1vs1 results
 * October tournament GvG results 1vs1 results
 * November tournament GvG results 1vs1 results
 * December tournament GvG results 1vs1results

2009


 * January tournament GvG results 1vs1 results
 * February tournament GvG results 1vs1 results
 * March tournament GvG results 1vs1 results
 * April tournament GvG results 1vs1 results
 * May tournament GvG results 1vs1 results
 * June tournament GvG results 1vs1 results
 * July tournament GvG results 1vs1 results
 * August tournament GvG results 1vs1 results
 * September tournament GvG results 1vs1 results
 * October tournament GvG results
 * November tournament GvG results
 * December tournament GvG results

2010


 * January tournament GvG results
 * February tournament GvG results
 * March tournament GvG results
 * April tournament GvG results
 * May tournament GvG results
 * June tournament GvG results
 * July tournament GvG results
 * August tournament GvG results
 * September tournament GvG results
 * October tournament GvG results
 * November tournament GvG results
 * December tournament GvG results

2011


 * January tournament GvG results
 * February tournament GvG results
 * March tournament GvG results
 * April tournament GvG results
 * May tournament GvG results

Controversy

 * In the January 2009 monthly tournament, guilds Rebel Rising [rawr] and Survival Rate [zero] purposefully drew a match to advance in the tournament. The two guilds were punished by having their metallic cape trims removed temporarily. Similar behavior in the future may bring harsher punishments.