Foreword

This is the unified tournament handbook for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition tournaments. 

Note: This handbook is the result of multiple discussions with the players’ council, tournament organizers, tournament administrators (admins), and the World’s Edge tournament coordinator.

Last updated: May 2026

This handbook includes feedback from discussions in March 2026. The next round of discussions will take place in August 2026.

Tournament Hosts

World’s Edge sponsored tournament hosts are expected to use the unified handbook rules and guidelines. Some topics are left to the discretion of the tournament host: marked as recommended or recommendation.

Hosts should use this document as a standard, and should start their individual rules/handbook with the following disclaimer: 

We follow the rules of the unified tournament handbook with the following changes/edits: (followed by any specific modifications to these rules/recommendations for their tournament).

Additional information that the tournament host should provide includes:

• Tournament name and format 
• Schedule of the tournament and play times
• Map pool, civ and map drafts
• Information about the registration process
• Seeding method used
• How people should report scores and post recorded games
• Information about the prize pool
• Information on how participants will get their prizes
• Broadcasting rules
• For LAN events: travel information
• For team game tournaments: sling rules 

General Sign-up Rules

• When signing up, players should use their highest rated account, most known account, and all accounts that were used on the ladder in the last 28 days. If a player has multiple accounts that are relevant for the seeding, all of them have to be posted.  Smurf accounts (accounts that don’t reflect the true skill or rating) will not be accepted. 
• Recommendation: Admins may adjust a rating-based seeding for players that are dodging a relevant amount of their ladder games to gain a higher rating.
• Players must use the account they registered with to play their games and may not change their name during the tournament.
• Tournament hosts should refuse nicknames and team names that violate the Age of Empires Code of Conduct and Xbox Community Standards. 
• Any host or admin of a World’s Edge sponsored tournament cannot sign up for that tournament as a player. Anyone working in any capacity with World’s Edge or a development partner studio on the Age of Empires franchise cannot sign up for World’s Edge sponsored tournaments. For non-sponsored events, staff working for or with World’s Edge should disclose their role to tournament admins before registering. 
• Communication with admins will be held in English exclusively.
• If a player is not able to communicate in English, they are allowed to be assisted by a representative who will be responsible for communication with the tournament admins on their behalf. They will then be held responsible for every action the representative takes on their behalf.
• In case of a regional tournament, communication can happen in the regional language.
• Players registered for a tournament are responsible for staying informed and up to date with tournament communications, including schedule, rules, settings and other information, by regularly checking platforms associated with the event.
• Players are expected to promptly answer messages from tournament admins and opponents. Messages should be replied to within 24 hours, unless players proactively notify the admins that they will be away or have delayed response times.
• Players unavailable during part of a tournament should inform the tournament organizer or admins before signing up.

Scheduling and Punctuality

• The time zone used for scheduling and communication is UTC/GMT.
• When a tournament includes a map or civ draft, it’s recommended to schedule both the draft time and the play time. 
  • Example: “Player A vs Player B, draft starts Saturday at 14:30 UTC, game 1 starts at 15:00 UTC.”
• During live games, players must be in the game lobby and ready to begin their match at the scheduled playing time.
• Preliminary practices, such as drafting civilizations, must be completed beforehand.
• If a player fails to show up to an arranged or confirmed game, after ten minutes the opponent will be granted an admin win equivalent to one game per ten-minute interval.
• Exceptions can be made by the admins if it is clear that a participant is experiencing difficulties that prevent the game from starting.
• If a player is unable to play at a scheduled time, attempts may be made to accommodate the player’s situation, but this is not a guarantee. Failing to play at a scheduled time may lead to losing the series.
• All players are expected to communicate via the prescribed channels (usually via Discord) in a timely fashion – including using @ to tag the opponent with important information.
• All information pertaining to the match must be posted in the appropriate Discord channel. That includes map & civ drafts, lobby codes, and notification if there are any delays. 
• Players are expected to start the game as soon as possible. Players must not take longer than 15 min after finishing the draft to start the first game (this rule does not apply to pre-draft situations). Players must keep breaks between games to less than 10 minutes.
• If a player needs more time (i.e. after a very long game), they should message an admin. 
• If a tournament host feels like a player is repeatedly using unreasonable amounts of time, please message the tournament coordinator. 

For Tournament Sets with Free Scheduling

• Players should contact their opponents at their earliest convenience and provide all available times as well as preferred match times.
• All players are expected to schedule their matches during the prescribed timeframes to the best of their ability. Should players believe they are unable to do so, they must request an exception as soon as possible.
  • If a round time extension is granted, both players need to have a set time with the other potential opponents.   
• Players must provide at least 24-hour notice when scheduling their match. If players schedule or reschedule on shorter notice, they have to get confirmation from an admin.
• These tools are helpful to make scheduling easier:
  • Crab Fit to mark windows of available play times.
  • Discord Timestamps a tool to convert times to display as a localized timestamp.

For Tournament Sets played Live at Fixed Times

• When there are multiple sets running consecutively (for example to have a better show for the main broadcast), there will be set times for each set.
  • When the previous set finishes early: admins can ask that players start earlier (any length of time). Players are only required to be available to start up to 30 minutes ahead of the initial set time (excluding first set of the day).
  • When the previous set finishes late: players have the right to start 30 minutes after the initial set time if both players agree. Players must inform the admins.
  • LAN events are excluded from this rule.
• When there are multiple fixed time sets per day, tournament admins are expected to coordinate with all affected players to find the best slot for all parties. The main consideration should be the local time zone players are in at the prospective match time.
• Recommendation for LAN Events: the schedule should try to avoid scheduling players for back-to-back sets (including the last set of a day and the first set the following day.
• Players asked to play back-to-back sets should be given an extended break between sets.

For Tournament Sets Played Ahead of Time/Cast as Recorded Games

• Players can request to play their matches in a private lobby to be broadcast as recorded games at a later date/time.
  • Exceptions to this rule are LAN Events, series from the quarterfinal onwards, and S-Tier events that provide live cameras.
• When recorded games are being used, results must not be shared before the matches have been broadcast.
• The draft must use fake names to prevent spoilers.

Map and Civilization Picking

• Map and civilization picking will be different for every tournament. All players should read the rules specific to the tournament they are playing in. 
• Drafting typically happens using AoE Captains Mode.
• The higher seed (lower seeding number) hosts both drafts. The map draft typically happens before a civ draft. 

Civilization Draft 

• Players are advised to only draft civilizations that they themselves have access to in-game.
• If a player plays with a restricted civilization, the game must be restarted. The opponent may pick any available civilization (that was not banned or sniped) for that player to play in the restarted game. 
• Players must not repeat a civilization that they have already played during the same series. 

In-Game Settings

Create Lobby Settings

• Players must work together to find a game server that benefits them both equally. Sharing screenshots of player pings to different servers can be helpful for this.
  • If the players cannot agree on a server to play on, contact an admin.
  • If there is no fair server, the admins will help figure out the server for the first game and then a player can choose a server for their picked home map. The “home server” should be a server that is better for the home map player, but still playable for the away map player. The goal is to still have every game as fair as possible. 
• Hide civilizations must be enabled. 
• Visibility must be set to public (unless agreed on otherwise with an admin).
• Allow Spectators must be enabled with a 2-minute spectator delay.

Standard In-Game Lobby Settings

All parties are equally responsible for ensuring the lobby settings are correct before launching a game. Incorrect settings may result in a game restart.

• Location should be replaced with the map being played
• Size should match the number of players, or follow the individual handbook
• For 1v1s players can pick whatever color they want. There might be color requirements for individual tournaments (offline events or with specific sponsors).

Game & Game Builds

• Participants must own a genuine copy of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition and it is recommended but not needed to own all currently released expansions.
• If a game receives an update before or during the event, a decision will be made whether to remain on the old build or to use the new one. Please check the tournament specific rules and channels for information and instructions to access old builds. 

Team Game Specific Rules

During team games, slinging, defined as sending any amount of resources to a teammate, is usually limited or prohibited by rules against it in the tournament handbook. Be sure to read and understand those rules, and any players who are unsure about the rule should contact an admin.

Make sure that “Team Positions” in the in-game lobby is activated. This allows players to choose the spawning positions of the players in 3v3 and 4v4 tournaments.

Team #1 uses the colors blue (1), green (3), teal (5) and gray (7), with the highest and lowest color number being the “flank”. 

Team #2 uses the colors red (2), yellow (4), purple (6) and orange (8), with the highest and lowest color number being the “flank”. 

The higher seeded (lower seeding number) team is team #1. 

No TC Start (Nomad) Rules

No TC start rules can vary. The rules below should be considered a recommendation, tournament hosts can define their own rules.

On maps where players start with 3 villagers and no town center, the following rules apply to the first 3 minutes of in-game time (or until the treaty period ends, in the case of maps with a nomad treaty):

• Attacking enemy units, buildings or herdable is not allowed. 
• Walling in enemy units or buildings is not allowed. 
• Walling in relics, resources, herdable or wild animals is not allowed. 
• Players must not knowingly construct their first town center within firing range of the enemy town center. 
• Killing wild animals without gathering a minimum of 35 food is not allowed. 
• Stealing enemy herdables is permitted. 

For games with a 9 villager start, there are no restrictions on how to use your villagers.

For 3 or 9 villager starts, if two players unintentionally build their town centers in range of each other, the game must be immediately restarted. “Douching” (deleting a finished TC and re-building it close to another player’s buildings) is allowed.  

In-Game Bugs, Exploits and Cheating

• Intentionally utilizing any bugs, glitches or errors in the game is not allowed. 
• In instances where bugs are utilized, the admins will decide whether the match should be restarted, replayed or forfeited. This could lead to disqualification and/or a ban from future tournaments. 
• Players should contact an admin for any uncertainty about what is considered an exploit. 
• Macros (external software/applications that emulate the use of multiple keys by using only one) are prohibited.  
• Graphical mods available in the mod center are allowed. 
• Players are permitted to do anything that the game allows, including, but not limited to, walling in resources, blocking or killing villagers and killing enemy herdable or wild animals. This only applies to maps that start with a town center. 
• Players are not allowed to continuously stack large armies of melee units (excluding ranged melee units: Kamayuks, Steppe Lancers, Axeman, Gbetos, Mamelukes) on a small area using “patrol stacking” to force an advantageous fight. Each instance will be reviewed by the admin team on a case-by-case basis and will result in an admin loss for the player that uses this unit behavior on this map. 

Restarts

• Players may only restart a game if there is an issue with the game, a bugged map, an incorrect civ chosen, or when directed to by an admin. There are no restarts by players for bad maps or starts.  
• It’s the tournament admin’s responsibility to check for bugged maps. It’s recommended that the admin talks to the player with the disadvantage and gives them the option to decide if they want to restart. Excluded from this rule are mass open qualifiers, recorded games and tournaments with free scheduling.

Game Restarts 

• Players can request a restart in situations where their maps are bugged or otherwise failed to generate in the intended way.
• After a restart, civilizations and colors must remain the same. 

Bugged Map Restart Conditions

• More than 25% of the sides on a player-specific gold deposit, stone deposit or forage bush cluster are inaccessible. 
• The intended number of relics fail to generate. 
• Any herdable or wild animal that belongs to a player is trapped or in any way inaccessible. 
• Any player-controlled units are trapped or in any way inaccessible. 
• Any player-specific object, such as resource deposit buildings, wild animals or villagers, fail to generate in the intended amount or at all. 
• If no drop off point can be built next to wood, gold, stone or berries for villagers to gather the resources in a reasonably efficient way. 
• Admins should also consider issues with map balance or fairness when deciding admin restarts.

Requesting a Restart

If a player is not sure if their map allows for a restart, they should pause the game and reach out to an admin, whenever available.

• Players should communicate potential restart situations to the admins in all circumstances.
• When admins are immediately available, players must wait for an admin decision before restarting the game. 
• If an admin is not immediately available, players should use these rules to determine if their map warrants a restart. If the other player doesn’t agree with the call, the game files should be sent to an admin. If the restart was abusive, and the player calling the restart won the game eventually, a decision will be made by an admin. 
• Admins may also restart a game under any circumstance if deemed necessary for the flow and fairness of the game.

Technical Difficulties 

In the case of a game crash or de-synchronization, an admin will assess the situation and decide whether the game should be restored or restarted. In either case, players must exit the game without revealing the map and are not permitted to go back and watch the recording before rehosting.

Pausing

• Players must only pause a game if they or their opponents are experiencing technical issues that are directly affecting the game and their ability to play. Players should not pause for strategic reasons (checking tech tree etc.)
• An admin can order a pause at any time for any reason.
• Players experiencing exceptional circumstances should discuss their issue (ahead of time if possible) with an admin.
• Unless paused by the admin, players must immediately inform an admin of the situation and issues they face.
• The player pausing the game must also be the one to unpause the game.
• Before unpausing, the participant pausing the game must ensure that the opponent is ready to continue. 

Respect and Fair Play

• All participants, broadcasters, and admins are expected to show good sportsmanship and be respectful of all other parties at all times. This applies to behavior in-game, on Discord and also in chats, messengers, comments and other media.
• All parties (players and staff) are expected to keep a respectful and professional attitude to one another in all situations during the event. Any behavior that violates the Age of Empires Code of Conduct or Xbox Community Standards will not be tolerated. This includes but is not limited to, insults, racism, sexism, bad sportsmanship and excessive use of aggressive/disrespectful language.
• All participants must cooperate respectfully and assist in any situation or incident they are involved in to ensure that the event runs smoothly. 
• Any instances of misconduct or harassment will be taken very seriously and should immediately be brought to the attention of the tournament admins and/or the tournament coordinator. 
• Communicating (even if it’s one way) with people other than the tournament admins, teammates, and opponents during a game is strictly forbidden. This includes, but is not limited to, stream sniping, spectator cheating, communicating with stream chat or voice chat. 
• All types of competition manipulation hindering competition integrity will not be tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, seeding manipulation, bribing, threats to other participants. 
• Any player and/or team found to have either placed a bet themselves, instructed someone else to place a bet on their behalf, deliberately altered the outcome of an event, or recommended someone else to place a bet on an event in which they are participating will be disqualified immediately and further sanctions are likely. 
• Players are asked to always try to win. If a player feels like they are in a situation in which winning a game is not advantageous for them, contact the tournament admin or tournament coordinator. 
• The admins may request to view the players’ point of view.

Seeding

Seeding 1v1 

Seeding is a process that puts players in an order trying to determine their expected placement to create fair brackets or groups. There are different options for seeding with all of them having pros and cons. The following is a recommendation for tournament hosts: 

• For tournaments expected to have at least 15 players out of the Top 20 signing up, use the S-Tier ATP. 
• For tournaments that will have top players sign up, but also includes a lot of players that typically don’t have a lot of S-Tier tournament appearances, use ATP (Player Ranks).
• For tournaments featuring players who don’t have a well-established tournament ranking (low elo participants), use the sum of highest 1v1 ladder elo + current 1v1 ladder elo. An account needs to have at least 20 games played, with at least 1 match played within the last 28 days.

Seeding Team Games

There are different options for seeding with all of them having pros and cons. The following is a recommendation for tournament hosts: 

• Use the sum of highest 1v1 ladder elo + current 1v1 ladder elo + highest TG elo + current TG elo per player.
• In case of a 4v4 tournament, the 4 highest players should be relevant for the seeding, even if 5 or more players signed up for the team.

Rule for 1v1 and Team Games: If a lower seeded player or team defeats a higher seeded player or team, they inherit the seed.

Broadcasting and Streaming

All events are open to stream and cast. Please read the specific tournament handbook to follow potential guidelines of the tournament organizers. 

• If a player is streaming their own POV they are expected to have the same stream delay as the in-game spectator delay. For World’s Edge sponsored tournaments that is 2 minutes.
• For tournaments with a prize pool below $20,000, games before Quarterfinals don’t have to have a delay. If a tournament is a sub-league or qualifier of a $20,000+ tournament, a 2 minute delay is mandatory.
• For prize pool tournaments a spectator and stream delay of 2 minutes is recommended.
• For non-prize pool tournaments, no spectator or stream delay is required.
• If a player is unsure of the exact delay needed, a tournament admin should be contacted.
• For players external information that could give the player an unfair advantage (such as their stream chat) must not be visible or audible to them.
• Players cannot refuse to have their games broadcast.
• If a player wants a longer stream or game delay than 2 minutes, please contact an admin at least 12 hours prior to the match. 

Miscellaneous

• Any issues that cannot be resolved between players must be immediately brought up to an admin.
• The contents of private messages or correspondence between players and tournament admins are strictly confidential. The publication of such content is prohibited without the explicit agreement of the tournament admins.
• Host, Admins and Players have an important responsibility when it comes to communicating about each other’s behavior during a tournament. All parties should be very careful to not trigger or encourage any type of harassment or negative reactions from the public.
• If there is a conflict between a player and an admin that cannot be resolved, please contact the tournament coordinator.
• If anyone believes that a tournament organizer or admin is not following guidelines, is abusing their power, or is not acting in the best interest of the tournament or franchise, contact the tournament coordinator.
• Admins are allowed to ask players to wait a reasonable amount of time between games for content segments (10 minutes) or if they are experiencing technical difficulties (no time limit specified).
• When tournament matches are played privately and later cast as recs, both players/teams must privately deliver all recorded games immediately after the games have been played.
• Players can use the following tool to upload their recorded games: Replay Packer
• To secure tournament integrity and easier communication with an admin, it’s recommended that players are in a Discord voice channel of the tournament while playing a tournament match. Excluded from this rule are mass simultaneous qualifiers, and ro64 and earlier.

Common Rulings

• Upon discovering any participant committing any violations of the rules listed in this handbook, the tournament admins may issue one or more penalties. 
• Penalties range from verbal or written warnings, prize forfeitures, game forfeitures, match forfeitures, disqualification to being banned from future World’s Edge sponsored tournaments.

Tournament hosts and admins are expected to enforce these rules and penalties. If a tournament host or admin wants to make an exception to these rules, a case can be presented to the tournament coordinator.

Note: An admin’s council has been founded to collaborate on admin decisions regarding these rules.

Common Rule violations: 

• Players making no effort regarding schedule and communication may face game forfeits or disqualification. 
• Streaming without the required stream delay will result in losing all the games the player participated in. 
• Not showing up in time to draft will result in a 10% prize reduction.
• Players showing up more than 10 minutes late (failing to show up for an arranged/confirmed game time without prior communication) will begin with an 0-1 deficit. All civs stay in the draft, and the first map (often the neutral map) won’t be played.
  • If both parties are 10 minutes late, the series will start with 0-0 and a 10% prize pool penalty will be applied for both parties.
  • After being 20 minutes late, an admin loss for the whole series will be applied.
  • In case of communication prior to the set/draft start from the player that a delay will happen, the admin can apply an optional prize pool penalty instead of a game/series loss.
• If a player takes more than 10 min between games, a prize reduction of 10% will be applied. For every extra 10 min, another 10% prize reduction will be applied. 
• If a player takes more than 15 min between the draft and the start of game 1 (unless otherwise scheduled), a prize reduction of 10% will be applied. For every extra 10 min, another 10% prize reduction will be applied.
• Not showing up to a tournament set will result in a 50% prize reduction.
• Players should provide 24-hour notice if they need to reschedule a match. Matches rescheduled without proper notice (less than 24 hours) may result in a 0-25% prize reduction.
• Failure to allow observers for a match may result in the game being restarted. 
• Failure to have the games being played private when that was previously required by an admin will result in the series being replayed. 
• Failure to provide recorded games from private lobbies before the intended broadcast time will result in a 50% prize reduction. 
• Incorrect lobby settings may result in the game restart. 
• Failure to follow the sling guidelines will result in a game loss. 
• Failure to follow stand ground patrol stacking guidelines will result in a game loss. 
• Picking an incorrect civilization will result in the opponent deciding the civilization out of the possible options. 
• Failure to follow the nomad rules will result in a game loss. 
• Failure to follow (tournament specific) laming rules will result in a game loss. 
• Repeated pausing without a valid reason will result in a warning from an admin, repeated breaking of that rule will result in a 10% prize reduction. 
• Typically, players are not required to receive admin permission to start a game. If a tournament requires admin permission to begin a game, starting without the permission of an admin will result in a 10% prize reduction. 
• Using macros will result in a disqualification and a potential exclusion from future tournaments. 
• If a streamer is not following stream guidelines, they must receive a reminder from an admin. If they are still not following the guidelines, they are losing the right to stream the event.

Tournament Organizer Rights

• The tournament admins reserve the right to amend, remove or otherwise change the rules at any time. 
• The tournament admins reserve the right to judge and act on cases not explicitly covered by the handbook. 

Tournament Organizer Responsibilities

Handbook and Format

• Tournament handbooks must be posted at least two weeks before the start of qualifiers.
• The handbook should be available publicly online, both during and after the event.
• A changelog should be documented at the end of the handbook, ensuring changes remain well documented and accessible.
• The map pack needs to be published two weeks before the tournament start date (including qualifiers). Major alterations to the maps should also be published before this deadline.
• Recommendation: the handbook should include an overview of all maps, documenting what the intended map generation looks like:
  • Quantity of starting resources available to each player.
  • Count of starting units and buildings (if different from the standard settings for the map).
  • Quantity/Variability of neutral resources on the map.
• Tournament organizers are expected to create and maintain an official bracket (that’s not Liquipedia). This should be linked in the handbook and posted to Discord.
  • Recommended sites include: start.gg, Challonge, and Toornament.
• Tournament organizers and admins should create a tournament format that avoids irrelevant matches and situations where losing is rewarded.

During and After the Tournament

• Tournament organizers are responsible for adequately promoting their tournament to players.
• An admin or tournament host must be present for the duration of all fixed match times in the tournament schedule.
• Matches that are freely scheduled are not subject to this rule, but it is recommended that players schedule during timeframes that admins are available.
• When a tournament is using recorded games, the admins must make the played match times public when sharing the recorded games for broadcast.
• The tournament organizer is asked to pay out all penalty fines that were collected during the tournament. It’s expected that the money is to be distributed on a % basis to the other prize winners.
• Admin decisions and penalties must be posted publicly in a dedicated Discord channel.

World’s Edge Sponsored Tournament Organizer Responsibilities

These requirements are only for World’s Edge sponsored events.

• Tournament organizers should provide a channel for feedback for the participating players and a spot for feedback for the community.
  • The tournament coordinator should be granted access to those channels. 
  • The tournament coordinator’s contact information must be clearly posted in these sections, along with official contact information for World’s Edge including Age of Empires support.
  • Feedback should be used to consider potential improvements for current and future events by the tournament hosts and admins.
  • Feedback should be formulated in a constructive and respectful manner, with a clear structure of what could be improved, why and how.
• The tournament organizer has to offer bank wire and PayPal (or an alternative approved by World’s Edge) as options to pay out players.
• The tournament organizer is expected to pay out the prize money within 30 days after receiving funds from World’s Edge. To facilitate this, players are expected to submit their invoices within 14 days of the end of the tournament.
• Organizer shall ensure that all tournament participants are treated equitably with respect to travel and accommodations. Organizers shall not provide preferential or enhanced travel arrangements to any participant based on notoriety, prior performance, commercial value, or other subjective criteria. Any exceptions must be (i) objectively justified, (ii) documented in writing, and (iii) applied consistently across similarly situated participants.

Changelog

This changelog tracks updates made to the handbook after biannual feedback sessions.

Published May 2026 (incorporating feedback from March 2026)

• Edited rule: “If a player fails to show up to an arranged or confirmed game, after ten minutes the opponent will be granted an admin win equivalent to one game per ten-minute interval. Exceptions can be made by the admins if it is clear that a participant is experiencing technical difficulties that prevent the game from starting.” Removing the word “technical”. (Section 3)
• Deletion of rule: “The restart must be called during the first four minutes of in-game time.” (Section 9)
• Added rule: It’s the tournament admin’s responsibility to check for bugged maps. It’s recommended that the admin talks to the player with the disadvantage and gives them the option to decide if they want to restart. Excluded from this rule are mass open qualifiers, recorded games and tournaments with free scheduling. (Section 9)
• Added rule: If a lower seeded player or team defeats a higher seeded player or team, they inherit the seed. (Section 12)
• Added rule: For tournaments with a prize pool below $20,000, games before Quarterfinals don’t have to have a delay. If a tournament is a sub-league or qualifier of a $20,000+ tournament, a 2 minute delay is mandatory. (Section 13)
• Added recommendation: To secure tournament integrity and easier communication with an admin, it’s recommended that players are in a Discord voice channel of the tournament while playing a tournament match. Excluded from this rule are mass simultaneous qualifiers, and ro64 and earlier. (Section 14)
• Added rule: Organizer shall ensure that all tournament participants are treated equitably with respect to travel and accommodations. Organizers shall not provide preferential or enhanced travel arrangements to any participant based on notoriety, prior performance, commercial value, or other subjective criteria. Any exceptions must be (i) objectively justified, (ii) documented in writing, and (iii) applied consistently across similarly situated participants. (Section 17)