Tournaments

A cup among friends: a knockout of 4, 8 or 16, or a league where everyone plays everyone, played at a time its two players agree.

A cup

A signed-in player makes a cup from TOURNAMENTS on the main menu and sends its link to friends. The organiser plays in one seat, or only organises, and picks its format:

Knockout: 4, 8, 16 seats; the loser of each match is out, the winner of the final takes the cup.
League: 3 to 8 players, everyone plays everyone once, and the top of the table takes the cup.

One set of rules for every match: Level 1 or 2, with or without the Wilds.
Each match is best of 1 or best of 3; in a best of 3 the same players keep their sides and their map.
It starts when the organiser says, or by itself: when its last seat is taken (ticked by default), and / or at a time set up to 30 days ahead. Short of players by then, it starts as soon as enough are in.

Maps

The cup has a map: a random one, a seed or a published map from the Maps page. A random map is drawn when the cup starts, then it is the same for every match on it.
Any round may have its own map instead (Another map for some rounds in the form): the final on a map of its own, say. A random round’s map is drawn at the start too.
The cup’s page names each round’s own map under its heading.

Map vote

Or the organiser proposes a pool of 3 to 7 maps (A map vote in the form), and each match’s two players choose theirs from it, one map for the whole match (a best of 3 too). Random maps in the pool are drawn when the cup starts, never the same one twice.
The vote happens in the match’s room, once both players are in, before the call to arms. First each one vetoes the maps they would rather not fight on, as many as the organiser allows (1 to 3: at least one map is always left), within 30 seconds. Neither sees the other’s vetoes until both have chosen.
Then each one picks one of the maps left, within 20 seconds, again unseen. The same pick plays; two different picks are drawn by lot; a lone pick plays; with no pick, the lot falls among the maps left. Both players watch the lot drawn, then the map that plays is shown a moment before the call to arms.
Time runs out for nobody’s sake: a player who does not choose vetoes nothing, or picks nothing. The game draws the lot: nobody can sway it.

The knockout

The organiser starts the cup with more than half its seats (3 of 4, 5 of 8, 9 of 16). The server draws the bracket; an empty seat is a bye, and its rival goes straight to the next round. Two byes never meet.
A bracket of 4 has 2 rounds, 8 has 3 rounds, 16 has 4 rounds: the last are the semi-finals and the final.

Bots in the empty seats

The organiser may fill the empty seats with a bot instead of byes (Empty seats in the form): Bot-Easy, Bot-Normal, Bot-Hard, one for the whole cup, so every player meets the same.
A player drawn against the bot plays it instead of going straight through. Bots never meet in the first round; two that meet later (both beat their players) are settled at once by the cup’s lot.
A league with an odd number of players takes one bot in the resting seat: nobody rests.
The bot is always ready: PLAY opens the match against it at once, and there is no time to agree. A player who never plays it by the deadline loses the match to it. The bot may win the cup.

The league

The organiser starts it with 3 to 8 players. The server draws the order and the rounds: each player plays at most one match a round; with an odd number, one rests each round. 8 players play 7 rounds, 7 play 7.
Every match is open from the start, each with its round’s deadline: you may play your matches in any order, and the cup shows PLAY on each.
The table ranks by wins. Between players level on wins: for two, who beat whom; then the difference of games won and lost, then games won, then the draw’s order.
Once every match is decided, the top of the table takes the cup (never a player who withdrew).

Playing a match

Each player sees PLAY on the cup and a card in the War Council, which says when your rival is waiting in the room.
Only the match’s two players may sit in its room. The game decides who won: nobody reports a result.
A fallen castle, a retreat, leaving the field or an idle loss lose the game. A game both players left idle counts for no one and is played again.
A cup’s games are in both players’ history with the cup and the round, with their replays. They are not rated.

Agreeing a time

Each match on the cup’s page has Agree a time for its two players: propose up to 3 days and hours (on the hour, or every 15 minutes past it), at least 15 minutes ahead and before the match’s deadline.
Your rival sees Answer on the match, a card in the War Council and a mark in My cups. They accept one of your times with a click, or propose others in its place.
The agreed time shows on the match for everyone, each in their own time zone. Either player may ask to change it: the old time stands until a new one is accepted.
An agreed time is a promise between you two: it never decides the match. The round’s deadline still does, as below.

Deadlines

Each round has 1 to 7 days (3 by default).
At the deadline, a match only one player came to play (pressed PLAY for it) is theirs: a walkover, with no organiser needed. Coming late changes nothing.
If both came, or neither, the match is late, and the organiser may give it to either player; the cup shows when each one last waited in the room.
A player who withdraws gives their matches still to play to their rivals; in a league the ones played stand. The organiser may cancel the cup.
A cup not finished within its rounds’ days and 7 more (at least 30 days) ends as Unfinished.
You may organise 3 cups and play in 5 at once.

Watching live

Joining a cup asks whether you accept that your matches may be watched live; a cup already live takes only players who accept. Its organiser turns Live for spectators on or off on the cup’s page while it runs: off at any time, on only once every player has accepted (you may accept later there). The organiser also picks its Live delay (30 s, 1 min, 3 min, 5 min or 10 min; 3 minutes by default): longer at any time, shorter only before another player has joined, since each accepted live with the delay the cup showed. A match being played keeps what it began with, unless a player takes their consent back with Stop showing my matches live on the cup’s page: live then stops at once for the whole cup.
Unless its organiser turns it off (Live for spectators in the form, on by default), anyone with a cup’s link may watch its matches as they are played: WATCH LIVE on the cup’s page, beside the match and how many watch. No account is needed, and a phone may watch too.
Spectators see the match behind the players by the cup’s delay, on the game’s own battlefield: until that much of the battle has passed, only the map and “Starts in…”. The delay keeps it fair.
A spectator chooses the fog: All, or what Blue or Red saw (F). The bar goes back (←) and returns LIVE (L); its marks and the events beside the map take the camera to a battle, a castle under attack or a cannon shot (N and Shift+N step through them).
The Director follows the hottest fight on its own; a hand on the camera lets it go, and D takes it back.
The players see in the muster that the match is live, nothing during the battle, and on Game Over how many watched. You cannot watch your own match; a cup’s other players see WATCH LIVE on the War Council’s cup card while one of its matches is played without them.
At most 200 spectators watch a match at once. They are counted, never named.
The main menu’s LIVE shows how many matches are being played now and lists them, each with its map, its players, how many watch and WATCH LIVE: the matches both players took live in To Arms! (below) and those of cups whose organisers ticked Listed on the LIVE screen (off by default) for everyone, and, signed in, those of your own cups that you do not play in.

Any other match goes live too when both its players want it: a quick match, a private match or a match against a bot.

In the To Arms! muster, each player has a Go live switch, off by default. The match is shown live only once both switched it on; a bot always agrees. Each lord wears a LIVE mark when theirs is on, and the line under the switch says who has agreed.
Beside it, each player picks a Delay on a slider: 30 s, 1 min, 3 min, 5 min or 10 min behind (3 minutes until moved). The longer of the two plays, so nobody is shown sooner than they chose; against a bot, yours. Each lord’s LIVE mark shows their choice.
It is listed on the LIVE screen for everyone, each card saying how far behind, and a rematch goes on live while both keep the switch on.
In the battle, the War Tent (Esc) shows how far behind it is and your slider: move it and spectators follow at once. A longer delay holds them where they are until the battle catches up (they see “the battle goes on in…”), a shorter one moves them on.
Changed your mind? STOP LIVE in the War Tent stops it at once for every spectator, and that battle does not go live again.
At most 24 such matches are live at once on a server: past it, a battle that begins is not shown.

Tip: A cup is unlisted, but anyone with its link sees its players’ names and its results, and may watch its matches live. Listed on the LIVE screen, anyone in the game finds its matches while they are played.