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 30 days. If a player has multiple accounts that are relevant for the seeding, all of them have to be posted. (Only) Smurf accounts (accounts that don’t reflect the true skill or rating) will not be accepted. 
• 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. 

• 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 technical 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.

For Tournaments with Free Scheduling

• 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.  
• 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.  
• 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.
• For easier scheduling, this tool might be helpful. 
• All information pertaining to the match must be posted in the scheduling 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. 
• If a round time extension is granted, both players need to have a set time with the other potential opponents. 
• 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. For every set (excluding the first set of the broadcast day), admins can ask players to start 30 min before the initial set time. If an earlier set is still running, players have the right to start 30 min after the initial set time without the chance of an admin disallowing it, but players must let the admins know. 
  • LAN events are excluded from this rule. 

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.  

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

Pre-Lobby

• 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. 
• Hidden civilizations must be enabled. 
• All game lobbies must be hosted publicly (unless agreed on otherwise with an admin).
• Spectators must be allowed with a 2-minute spectator delay. 
• For 1v1s players can pick whatever color they want. There might be color requirements for individual tournaments (offline events or with specific sponsors).

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.

• Data Mod: Definitive Set 
• Game: Random Map 
• Location: (depending on the map) 
• Size: According to the numbers of players (1v1s are played on a Tiny 2 player map) 
• Difficulty: Standard 
• Resources: Standard 
• Population: 200 
• Game Speed: Normal 
• Reveal Map: Normal 
• Starting Age: Standard 
• Ending Age: Standard 
• Treaty: None 
• Victory Condition: Conquest 
• Lock Teams: [X] Yes 
• Team Together: [X] Yes 
• Team Positions: [X] Yes 
• Shared Exploration: [X] Yes 
• Lock Speed: [X] Yes 
• Allow Cheats: [ ] No 
• Turbo Mode: [ ] No 
• Full Tech Tree: [ ] No 
• Record Game: [X] Yes

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

On maps where players start without a town center, the following rules apply to the first 3 minutes of in-game time: 

• 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. 

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 map bug, an incorrect civ chosen, or when directed to by an admin. There are no restarts by players for bad maps or starts.  

Game Restarts 

Players can request a restart in situations where their maps are bugged or otherwise failed to generate in the intended way. 

The restart must be called during the first four minutes of in-game time. 

After a restart, civilizations and colors must remain the same. 

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. 

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

Players can communicate potential restart situations to the admins but must wait for an admin decision before restarting the game. 

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. 

• Using a pause to take a break is forbidden.

• 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 AoE-Elo.  

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 30 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. 

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 prize pool tournaments a spectator and stream delay of 2 minutes is advised. 

• 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 being 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.
• If there is a conflict between a player and an admin that cannot be resolved, please 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.  

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.

Enforcement of these rules and penalties is left to the discretion of the tournament host/admin team.

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. 

• Delaying the starting time more than 10 minutes will result in a map loss for every 10 minutes the player is late. 

• 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, 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

• Rules are subject to change at any time.

• 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

• Tournament handbooks should 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.
• 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. 

WE 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.

• An admin or tournament host must be present for the duration of all set 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. 

• The tournament organizer is asked to pay out all penalty fines that were collected during the same tournament. It’s expected that the money is to be distributed on a % basis to the other prize winners. 

• 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.  
• When a tournament is using recorded games, the admins must make the played match times public when sharing the recorded games for broadcast. 

Changelog

A revised version of the handbook will be published after July 2025 feedback sessions.