RCVII - AI Allies ~ 4v4 ~ $2,000

3 Teams are now remaining.

Team "Clown Crushers" have advanced to the Finals,
after a hard fought 3 game match.

Team "3 Musketeers & cement" and
Team "Justice4TeleBilly"

Will meet in the Semifinals match, on
Saturday March 2nd @ 1500 UTC.
and...
The Finals will be on following day,
Sunday March 3rd @ 1500 UTC.

In case any of the remaining teams don't monitor the RC discord thread, I've given a brief overview of how part of the M28 logic is meant to work:
https://discord.com/channels/197033481883222026/1183903661794005182/1211795958170386452

I'm hoping to release an update to M28 ahead of the semi-finals (will try and remember to post here and in discord if I do), e.g. to fix some late-game bugs that occurred in some of the games. If I do release an update, a summary of the changes will also be provided.

Good News!
I made rules even easier for Finals.

LESS "!roll" ing !!!

Only 2 !rolls needed for whole Finals process.
Including Map pool and Team 1 or 2 winners.

Trying to keep simple and have less confusion.

Now...
Only require One !roll for the map elimination process.
The winner of !roll will get 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th map veto.
The loser of !roll will get 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th map veto.
This will leave 7 maps in the map pool for the
2 Captains to select the 2-5 maps required.

and,
The Second and last !roll, is:

"Finals map selections" and "!roll team Selection's"
For the Finals -
There will be 1x !roll at start of match and no more.

The winner of the !roll will get to:
pick the 1st map of the tournament, and
the loser chooses to be team 1 or 2.

This procedure continues for rest of tournament.
Teams alternating picking maps, and
the other team always gets choice to be team 1 or 2.

I like this method, as it saves on lobby time and confusion
!roll ing, and
I like that by having a team get to pick a map they be be better on,
the other team will always get to select to be team 1 or 2.

And, that's how we play Finals with just one !roll.

Thanks for player feedback, it helps
our AI modders out immensely.

Once again I would like to give shout outs to our
2 participating AI modders = Maudlin27 + Relent0r

Maudlin27
M27AI = 4-5 maps
M28AI = 6-7 maps

Relent0r
RNGAI = 5 maps.

Each AI has it's own unique style of play.
Which makes playing the same map,
multiple times against AI - remain fresh
just by switching the AI mods.

Feed back is welcome on
the Rainbow Cup Discord channel here:
https://discord.com/channels/197033481883222026/1183903661794005182, or
on the AI Discord tournament channel here:
https://discord.com/channels/619646141306503181/975157386614542377

Remember..
Maps are "blanked out" again, and
80% of maps have had changes made to them.
Either different AI, different AI spawns,
an added AI, etc.
So.. Be sure to double check set ups, before
picking to eliminate, or to play for the finals.

Attention:
The Semi Finals time has been moved up to 1300 UTC.

1 hour before the Semi Finals start -
Check in Discord, or check this forum for,
the release of Maps #13 and #14.

Tournament starts in 90 minutes!

Maps #13 and #14 will be released in 30 minuutes.

Join FAF Client irc chat room #rainbow

Don't forget to DL the last updated version of M28AI for today.

Congratulations to Team "3 Musketeers & cement"
For placing 3rd in this years RC.
Game #1 today was back and forth a couple of times.
Great play!

And,

Congratulations to Team "Justice4TeleBilly"
One match left.
Hoping for More Great play tomorrow.

And, of course
Congratulations to Team "Clown Crushers"
and for your great play...
you get to start the Finals Best of 7 one game up!

1 hour before the official tournament start time:

We will release the 15 maps for the Finals .
Captains will !roll.
The winner of !roll will get 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th map veto.
The loser of !roll will get 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th map veto.
This will leave 7 maps in the map pool for the
2 Captains to select the 2-5 maps required.

Once the Map veto process is complete:
The Finals Map #16 (Game #1 map) will be released.
Teams have the remainder of the hour to get ready for Game #1.

Tournament will start at 1500 UTC sharp.

After Playing the Surprise Game Map #1 of Finals:
the Captains will "!roll" for the last time.

The winner of the !roll will get to:
pick the 1st map of the finals, and
the loser chooses:
to be team 1 or 2.

This procedure continues for rest of tournament.
Teams alternating picking maps, and
the other team always gets choice to be team 1 or 2.

V78 hotfix of M28 has been released, please could players/casters ensure they've downloaded ahead of joining the game. Details of changes are below but there's not much to note (other than a late-game bug for UEF was fixed):
https://forum.faforever.com/topic/5331/m28ai-devlog-v78/240

Attention:

Finals start in 1 hour

Update M28 to latest v78 hot fix

Good Luck

Finals have been paused at 2-2.
The match will resume on Mar 9, @ 1600 UTC.

Come watch this back and forth close match finale this Saturday.

Tune into the FAF Twitch channel for all the action Casted by Endrani.

If you Missed Any of the Live matches Round 1 Matches will start going up today Friday 8th March @ 2 pm UTC each day on the FAF Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/forgedallianceforever

The Finals resume in 2 hours.

Congrats to Team Clown Crushers and Team Justice4TeleBilly

Score is 2 - 2.
Game #1 = Auto award = Team CC
Game #2 = Ad Setons Clutch = Team J4TB
Game #3 = Plat of Arracis FFA = Team CC
Game #4 = Ad Mizar = Team J4TB

New version of M28, v79, has been released ahead of the finals, please could all players download ahead of the first game. Details of main changes are summarised here:
https://forum.faforever.com/topic/5331/m28ai-devlog-v79/242

Pay outs and Avatar

Players can contact me here, or on discord - for
info about getting their avatar, or
about the prize pool pay out options.

If you do not reach out,
I will start contacting players over the next few days.

Thank for playing, and
hope to see you all again for the next RC.

The Rainbow Cup VII tournament is now over.

Team Justice4TeleBilly defeated Team Clown Crushers 4 to 2.

Congrats to FtXCommando for his 3rd straight RC championship.
TheWheelie and Archsimkat have won 2 RC's each, and
InsidiousNoob has won his first RC.
Great job guys!

Big Thanks to everyone who participated