The final series of the YC118 Amarr Championships approaches, and with it the new ruler of the Amarr Empire!

Earlier today the champions representing House Tash-Murkon and House Kor-Azor met with representatives of the Court Chamberlain in the Imperial City of Dam-Torsad. They were provided with the details of the rules they will be competing under during the finals, and completed their preparations for righteous combat.

Lady Catiz Tash-Murkon is represented by her champion Kelon Darklight and his retainers: Lucian IV, Wasa Qc, and Maxine Antilles

Lord Aritcio Kor-Azor is represented by his champion Lysus and his retainers: Hoodie Mafia, Sarek Minyatar, and Anariasis

The finals will be broadcast live for free via Galnet video streaming on Friday April 22nd at 17:00 EVE Time.

The Championship rules presented to the finalists are as follows:

General Rules:

Respect for the Holy Traditions of the Empire

This Championship has been called by the Imperial Succession Committee, comprised of the Theology Counciland the Privy Council, in accordance with the traditional Rituals of Succession. It shall be conducted in a manner which brings glory to God and the Amarr Empire.

The Capsuleer Emissary to the Court Chamberlain (tournament referee) shall have all authority to ensure that this Championship is conducted in an honorable and godly fashion. The Emissary may levy any penalties deemed necessary to any champions or retainers that are found to be acting against the spirit of this competition.

All ships flown during the matches of this Championship must originate within the Amarr Empire and/or Khanid Kingdom. Ships that require any racial ship skill other than Amarr skills are not eligible to be flown in this Championship.

All the Champions and Retainers involved in this Championship have been selected by the respective Heirs of the Houses they represent. The Emissary and the Heirs reserve the right to eject any Champions or Retainers whose actions reflect poorly on their Houses or the Empire.

Pilots are forbidden from flying the colors of heretics during matches in this Championship. As such, ship SKINs connected to the following factions must not be displayed at any point during the Championship:

• Blood Raiders (also known as Sani Sabik)
• Equilibrium of Mankind

If SKINs connected to either of these heretical groups are used at any point during the Championship, penalties will be levied against the pilot and their team at the discretion of the Emissary. Potential penalties for flying heretical colors include, but are not limited to:

• Destruction of the offending ship
• Forfeiture of the match
• Team disqualification from the Championship

This tournament is intended to showcase the talents and valor of pilots and should be both entertaining to viewers and honorable in the eyes of God. If any team is determined to be acting in a dishonorable fashion, the Emissary (tournament referee) is empowered to destroy ships at her discretion. This penalty will be levied against any team that appears to be acting in collusion with another team, or if a team acts in a cowardly manner by attempting to evade combat until time runs out.

General Match rules

Teams consist of 4 pilots.

Fights are limited to 10 minutes. If a fight reaches time, it will be stopped and whichever team has more surviving ships will be declared winner. See "Victory Conditions", below.

Intentional pod killing is NOT allowed and may result in the offender being punished. All podkills will be reimbursed.

The match simulation is taken as is. Teams are advised to spend the pre warp-in time to verify that their ships are completely operational.

The Referee has final say in all matches and in any disputes.

Penalties

A player found breaking any rules can be penalized to various degrees, depending on the severity of the offence. All penalties are incurred at the discretion the Tournament Referee. Decisions are final. Penalties may be levied against a player or team and may include, but are not limited to:

• Reducing the offending ship(s) shield / armor / hull / capacitor to any level, up to and including complete ship destruction
• Involuntary moving of the offending ship(s)
• Removal from the fight
• Ban from competing for one or more matches
• Ban from competing for the remainder of the Championship, and/or any future tournaments
• The referees can call a match null and void or declare a result if they believe that one of the teams is not competing. This tournament is intended to showcase the talents and valor of pilots and should be both entertaining to viewers and honorable in the eyes of God.

Format

This Championship is made up of three phases, each with a different structure:

• In Phase One (taking place on November 8^th) each house will conduct a separate single elimination tournament to determine which of the four shortlist teams will officially represent them.
• In Phase Two (taking place on November 14^th and 15^th) the teams representing each house will engage in a round robin tournament to determine which two houses will compete in the finals. In this round robin phase, the two finalists will be determined through the following methods, following one after the other in the case of ties:
  • Win/loss record
  • Head to head matchups
  • Ship kill/loss differential over the entire round robin phase
  • Average time to first kill by each team over the entire round robin phase
• In Phase Three, the two final teams will be flown to Fanfest 2016, where they will compete in a series of matches on stage during the event.

Place & Tactics

Captains must be online and available one hour prior to the match. If required, bans will be made at 45 minutes before their match starts. Further details on bans can be found in the special rules for any match or round that includes banning.

Participants should be prepared, in their chosen ships, and in a fleet 20 minutes before their scheduled fight time. Teams will be brought by a GM to a solar system in uncharted space and designated as team 1 and team 2. If you are not ready within this time allocation you will be disqualified from this match and the opposing team will be given an automatic win.

There are eight beacons in the system which serve as start off points. Four beacons are marked for Team 1 and four marked for Team 2. Teams will be moved to the beacon of their captain's choosing. Once the teams are in system, all instructions will be given by the referee in local chat. You must keep an eye on that channel at all times once in system.

Once word is given, teams warp in to the arena beacon specified, at a range of their choosing, up to a maximum of 50 km. Team members are allowed to warp in at different ranges.

The arena will measure 125 km radius around the central beacon.

The arena contains nine Mobile Micro Jump Unit structures, one placed in the center and eight placed 87km away from the center in the direction of each of the eight team beacons. These outer structures form a cube around the center of the arena with sides approximately 100km in length. These Mobile Micro Jump Units are indestructible and usable by all.

The host will begin a countdown. When the countdown ends, the host will break target locks of all ships in the arena.

If a player warps out/leaves the arena, his/her ship will be destroyed. This includes disconnection emergency warps. This rule is in effect before and during the match.

Warping within the arena is NOT allowed.

Boarding a ship during the match is NOT allowed.

Dropping cargo containers, anchorable items or mobile structures is NOT allowed. Dropping regular jettison containers is allowed.

The following restrictions are in place after teams warp to the arena beacon, until the match begins:

• Locking players before the match starts is NOT allowed.
• Activating aggressive or targeted modules before the match starts is NOT allowed.
• Launching drones before the match starts is NOT allowed.
• Moving before the match starts is NOT allowed.
• Beginning the activation cycle of a Micro Jump Drive or Mobile Micro Jump Unit before the match starts is NOT allowed.

Ships

The details of Ship restrictions will be provided in the special rules for each match or round.

No special rules will ever allow pilots to fly any non-Amarr ships.

No special rules will ever allow pilots to fly Capital Ships, Marauders, Black Ops or Tech 2 Industrial Ships.

No special rules will ever allow pilots to fly “unique” limited issue ships such as the Malice or Armageddon Imperial Issue.

No special rules will ever force a team to include a command ship (although teams may find themselves at a disadvantage in some rounds if they do not have the ability to field command ships).

Fitting restrictions

All T1 and T2 modules are allowed, with the following exceptions:

• All Remote Armor Repair modules and Remote Shield Transfer modules are NOT allowed, EXCEPT on: T2 Logistics cruisers, T2 Logistics frigates, Tech 1 Support cruisers, or Tech 1 Support frigates.
• Remote repair and shield transfer modules may NOT be fit to Strategic Cruisers
• Remote Energy Transfer modules are NOT allowed.
• The Ancillary Shield Boost module will be restricted to a maximum of one per ship
• The Bastion Module is NOT allowed.
• Polarized weapons are allowed.
• ECM modules (including Racial ECM, Multispectral ECM, and ECM Bursts) are NOT allowed

Faction, COSMOS, deadspace and officer modules are NOT allowed.

T1 Rigs are allowed. T2 Rigs are NOT allowed.

All T1 and T2 ammunition, missiles and charges are allowed, with the following exception:

• Remote Sensor Dampener and Tracking Disruptor Scripts are NOT allowed.

Faction ammunition, missiles and capacitor boosters are allowed.

Only standard T1 (tech one) combat drones and sentry drones are allowed. This means that T2, faction, augmented and integrated combat/sentry drones are NOT allowed. The Gecko is NOT allowed.

ECM drones are NOT allowed.

All logistics drones are allowed.

Attribute Enhancers that give bonuses to anything other than perception, intelligence, willpower, memory, and charisma are NOT allowed.

Genolution "CA-" implants are NOT allowed.

With the exception of Leadership Mindlinks, ONLY Hardwirings that have a name ending in "1", "2" or "3" are allowed.

All Leadership Mindlinks (including navy mindlinks) are allowed.

Boosters (drugs) are NOT allowed.

Cloaking is NOT allowed.

Cap Boosters are allowed.

Micro-jump drives are allowed.

Micro Jump Field Generators are NOT allowed.

Target Spectrum Breakers are NOT allowed.

Victory Conditions

During a match, a team scores 25 points for each enemy ship it kills. All ships in the tournament have an identical point value. The team that has scored the most points at the conclusion of the match, or that destroys the entire opposing team, is the winner.

If a team chooses to field less than the maximum allowed points for any given match, non-fielded points count towards the opponent's score.

If a fight is tied after 10 minutes, a 5 minute overtime period will begin.

During the overtime period, if the Emissary determines that the match has been delayed by one team acting in a cowardly fashion she may eliminate the offending team at her discretion using the might of the Imperial Navy.

In the very unlikely case that a fight is tied after 15 minutes, the victory will be awarded to the team that had more collective potential team DPS at the beginning of the match, as measured by the tournament automated “attack bar”.

Ships and Bans

Some matches and/or rounds of the tournament may involve banning of ships. The specific rules for banning in each match will be provided in the special rules for that match or round if necessary.

Special Championship Finals Rules:

Each team will be sequestered in separate rooms with no access to outside help. They will then build 11 full four pilot teams from the following ships, without re-using the same ship in any setup or across any two setups (they will need to use almost all of the ships) They will have two hours to complete this task:

The teams will be provided the use of paper and pens, a whiteboard, and one computer without internet access but with an Office software suite, EFT and PYFA.

The teams will determine ship types, fittings, ammo, charges, drones and implants for each of their setups.

This time limit is extremely difficult and it is intended to provide a challenge that can only be overcome by the most skilled and knowledgable champions. If for any reason a team is unable to complete this task within the time limit, they will be given the option of gaining an extra 10 minutes and providing an extra setup ban to their opponents (meaning that they would enter the tournament with 4 setups instead of 5). Any ships that are left completely unfit on unbanned setups after all fitting and banning periods are complete will be fit by CCP in an intentionally suboptimal way.

Once the fitting period is over and each team has created their 11 setups, CCP will show the list of ships in each setup (without disclosing fittings or other details) to the other team.

Once presented with their opponent’s setups, each team will be able to ban 6 of the setups of their choosing. They will have one hour to complete this task.

The teams then take their 5 remaining setups into the finals series on the stage at Fanfest. Once a team wins a match they will be unable to use their winning setup in any subsequent matches (this is also know as the Conquest Format). The losing team may use their setup again if they choose.

The final round will be a best 3 out of 5 series on the stage at Fanfest. This means that the winning team must win with at least 3 of their 5 setups.

Finalist Setups

After completing a round of setup creation and banning, here are the 5 setups each team will have available to them in the Championship Finals series:

Lysus for House Kor-Azor

The House Kor-Azor champions encountered the time limit and declined the option of providing the Tash-Murkon champions an extra ban to gain an extra 10 minutes.

Kor-Azor Setup 1:

• Legion
• Pilgrim
• Pontifex
• Heretic

Kor-Azor Setup 2:

• Inquisitor
• Crucifier Navy Issue
• Imperial Navy Slicer
• Crusader

Kor-Azor Setup 3:

• Sacrilege
• Guardian
• Omen
• Dragoon

Kor-Azor Setup 4:

• Absolution
• Omen Navy Issue
• Vengeance
• Purifier

Kor-Azor Setup 5:

• Magnate
• Executioner
• Tormentor
• Anathema

Kelon Darklight for House Tash-Murkon

Tash-Murkon Setup 1:

• Apocalypse Navy Issue
• Augoror Navy Issue
• Heretic
• Crucifier

Tash-Murkon Setup 2:

• Legion
• Prophecy
• Dragoon
• Crucifier Navy Issue

Tash-Murkon Setup 3:

• Abaddon
• Sacrilege
• Tormentor
• Crusader

Tash-Murkon Setup 4:

• Oracle
• Devoter
• Zealot
• Imperial Navy Slicer

Tash-Murkon Setup 5:

• Apocalypse
• Executioner
• Curse
• Purifier

The finals of the Amarr Championshiops will be broadcast live for free on CCP's Twitch channel. Tune in on Friday April 22nd at 17:00 EVE. Make sure you tune in to see the exciting conclusion to this competition what will determine the future of the Amarr Empire.

-The Amarr Championships Team