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

The Tournament brackets are now set.
Check out the Challonge brackets here:
https://challonge.com/cn0x2gty

To see the full roster of the teams players..
Hover your mouse over the Teams bracket, and
the names of all the players will show, in
a pop up box underneath the Team name.

Tournament starts in 9 days.
I will begin posting a daily "Tip and/or Reminder" post,
that goes over the Tournament specific rules.

Todays Reminder:
Each best of 3 match, will have a different AI for each game.
ie. No Bo3 will have the same AI twice.
So.. the reminder is too..
Make sure to "ONLY" load the 1 game specific AI for the current game.
Loading 2 different AI mods in same game, may
cause the game to "bug" with conflicting coding, and
the game may also run slower.

Read the tournament rules here:
https://forum.faforever.com/topic/6918/rcvii-ai-allies-4v4-2-000/2

Here are the tournaments 4 AI mods that will be used:

Please also check you and the rest of your team have the latest version of the AI mods installed on each day of the tournament. In the case of M27AI and M28AI, while I do not expect any updates to M27AI (assuming no major bugs are discovered in the next week for it), M28AI will be receiving a small update ahead of the tournament start date (and might receive an update inbetween the first and second weekends).

If players have different versions of an AI mod when starting the game it will be highly likely to cause a desync, so don't just rely on the the client automatically downloading the latest version when joining a game.

Today's daily Reminder.

These are the 3 game options, used for every game.
Listed in the FAF forum Post #2, above - titled:
Post #2: Team Colors, Mods, Options, Directions and Rules here:
https://forum.faforever.com/topic/6918/rcvii-ai-allies-4v4-2-000/2

2 AI related News Bits:

AI-Uveso has been removed from the Tournament.
(AI-Uveso is still a very good AI for those that are
learning the game and need an AI to practice against)

The Tournament AI's will be the following 3 AI's

Also...
M28AI has been updated to Version-76.
This is "most likely" the last update before the Tournament.
Make sure Everyone has Version 76 to prevent game desynch's.
M27AI and RNGAI have not been updated in about a month, and
do Not expect to be updated either... but
check the Mod vault, to be sure you have the latest versions.

Here are the latest release notes from Maudlin27:

Todays Reminder:
Here is a sample game day map.
(this map will Not be in the tournament)

The game lobby host's duties are too -
setup the game lobby as shown in the game lobby/map.

Set the Options (Full Share, and AIx Omni = Off)
Place the AI's in their designated spawn positions, and
set the AIx cheat and build multipliers.

Close out any spawns shown in the setup.
In this example spawns 5+6 are closed to the players.
When available in Adaptive maps -
Close out the positions - but spawn mexes.
Any spawn positions not occupied by players are left open.

The game host must also communicate with the
opposing Captain, to set their AI's desired factions and color.

Some maps will have 'More' available spawns to choose from, than
the number of players and AI's.
Having teams be able to setup un-symmetrically from each other, is
one of the RC Tournament's unique, one of a kind game play and setup, that
allows for another added level of strategizing.

In the case of "extra" available spawns - and also for every setup..
there is a procedure to select the players spawn positions.

The below screen shot is the procedure that is used:
Screen shot is captured from Post #2 in the FAF Forum.
(Basically - all of the RC directions and rules are in Post #2)
Post #2: Team Colors, Mods, Options, Directions and Rules, Here:
https://forum.faforever.com/topic/6918/rcvii-ai-allies-4v4-2-000

Teams use this procedure to set up their players spawn sites:

The purpose of the above setup instructions is to -
Prevent teams from infinitely jockeying for positions, and
continuously changing their setups.

@wifi_ said in RCVII - AI Allies ~ 4v4 ~ $2,000:

Sing up

Hope everyone is ready to play 48 hours from now.

Notice for Team players who will be hosting games:

Please help out the Tournament Directors by -
doing two things in the game lobby.

1-"x" the "hide default options "box" in the lobby.
---This is Very Important, as it enables the TD's and players in the game,
---to check the proper AIx cheat and build multipliers for each game.
-----With-out an "x" in this box the pertinent game options will not show in lobby.

2:- Hit the "Default Settings" button, so all default settings will be reset,
and only the game specific options will apply -
---Share conditions = Full Share
---AIx Omni Setting = Off
---AIx Cheat and Build multipliers = Set to specified multipliers.

FYI
NOC- will be joining some lobbies to help with game lobby scenario setup's.
Please give him your cooperation, so he is able to expedite the process,
help other team's game lobbies and then join his own teams lobby as well.

Thank you, and good luck

Attention:
Tournament starts in 3 hours.

We have had a player drop out.

Substitutes - Please gather in the Discord channel, here:
https://discord.com/channels/197033481883222026/1183903661794005182

Let yourselves know that you are available to play in next 2 1/2 hours.

Thanks

Congratulations to the 5 teams who have made it to Day #2

Matches 9 + 12 start tomorrow - Feb 25th at 1500 UTC (same time as today)
Maps 7-9 will be released at 1400 UTC.

Maps 10-12 will be released at the end of Match 9.
Match 11 will start 30 minutes, after the end of Match 9.

The winning team of Match 9 -
will have up to 30 minute max break time.
before starting their 2nd match = Match 11

This way Both teams playing Match 11,
will see the 3 game maps at the same time,

Good Luck !!

Here is the Current Team and Draft Pool:

Here is Current brackets
For most up to date Brackets > See Challonge here:
https://challonge.com/cn0x2gty

Attention:

Matches commence in 1 hour.

Maps 7-9 are now updated in post #7 above,
here: https://forum.faforever.com/topic/6918/rcvii-ai-allies-4v4-2-000/7

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