1. Overview
The Summer AoE4 Gold Tournament is a 1v1 Age of Empires IV tournament hosted by NightShift Gaming, exclusively for Gold-league players. Matches are casted live on the NightShift channels (Twitch, YouTube, Kick). The goal: give league players a real tournament experience — brackets, casting, pressure and glory.
2. Eligibility
- Your current ranked league must be Gold (I, II or III) at registration time, verified via your AoE4 World profile.
- Peak 1v1 rating may not exceed 1100 — admins' final say. Smurfing = instant disqualification.
- You must be a member of the NightShift Discord — all communication happens there.
- Admins may re-verify any player's rank at any point in the tournament.
3. Format & Schedule
- Field: aiming for 32 players.
- Format: single elimination — Bo3 every round until the semifinals; semifinals and grand final are Bo5.
- Bracket seeding: by 1v1 rating at registration close (live seeding is visible on the registration page).
- Tournament days: Monday August 17 & Tuesday August 18, 2026 — games start 5:00 PM CEST (6:00 PM Cairo) each day. Day 1: Round of 32 & Round of 16. Day 2: Quarterfinals, Semifinals & Grand Final — all casted live.
- Registration closes: Monday August 17, 3:00 PM CEST (4:00 PM Cairo) — bracket is posted right after seeding.
- Round of 32: players have 4 hours to finish their series. Self-organized; report results with a screenshot in Discord.
- Round of 16: 3 hours to finish.
- Rolling starts: if you won and your next opponent is already decided, you may start your next series immediately — no need to wait for the round to close.
- Day 2 (Aug 18) — Quarterfinals, Semifinals & Grand Final, all casted live on NightShift. Starts 5:00 PM CEST and runs until we're finished. Exact match times are shown on the live bracket.
- Round of 8 (Bo3): QF1 & QF2 start together at 5:00 PM CEST · QF3 & QF4 start 75 minutes later (6:15 PM CEST).
- Semifinals (Bo5): played one after the other — SF1 at ~7:30 PM CEST, SF2 at ~9:00 PM CEST. 90 minutes per series, both fully casted.
- Grand Final (Bo5): follows SF2 — ~10:30 PM CEST.
- Postponement rule: if 25% or more of a round's matches are absent, the tournament is postponed (announced in Discord).
- If we don't reach 32 players: the call is made Monday Aug 17, 12:00 PM CEST — either postpone one week or start with a smaller bracket, based on available players.
- The bracket and match schedule are posted in Discord (#tournament channel).
4. Check-in & No-shows
- Check in via Discord 30 minutes before your scheduled match.
- 15 minutes late = forfeit of one map. 30 minutes = forfeit of the match.
- If you can't make your slot, tell the admins at least 24h before — one reschedule per player per tournament, if the opponent agrees.
5. Game Settings & Map Pool
- Server: best mutual ping; when disputed, admins decide.
- Settings: standard 1v1 ranked settings (unless stated otherwise).
- Map 1 of every series: Dry Arabia (fixed opener).
- Map pool for remaining games: Gorge · Relic River · Atacama · Mongolian Heights · West Lake · King of the Hill.
- Map picks: the loser of the previous game chooses the next map from the pool. No map repeats within a series.
- Civilizations — draft & sniper: before each series players run the civ draft and civ sniper (links below), unless both players agree to play without a draft.
- ⚔ Bo3 civ draft · Bo5 civ draft · Bo7 civ draft · Civ sniper
- No civ may be played twice in a series — by either player, under any circumstances.
- No mirror matchups — both players can never play the same civ in a game.
6. Disconnects & Pauses
- Disconnect in the first 5 minutes with no major engagement → restart, same map and civs.
- Later disconnects: admins decide (restart / resume / map awarded) based on the game state and stream VOD.
- Each player gets 2 pauses per game, max 5 minutes total. Announce pauses in chat. Unpausing without the opponent's ready = warning, then map loss.
7. Conduct
- Zero tolerance for toxicity, hate speech or harassment — in game, Discord or stream chat. First offense: warning or DQ at admins' discretion.
- No cheating, exploiting, ghosting (watching the stream during your own match) or account sharing. Instant DQ.
- BM within reason — banter is culture, abuse is not. Admins decide the line.
- Admin decisions are final.
8. Broadcast & Content
- Matches are streamed on NightShift channels and may be clipped, uploaded and promoted across our platforms — by registering you consent to this.
- Mandatory branding: any casting, co-casting or re-streaming of tournament matches must display the NightShift Gaming logo and the official tournament title on screen at all times and credit the tournament. Casting without NightShift branding is not permitted — no exceptions.
- 🎙 Everything you need is in the Casting Kit: official logo files, tournament title, ready-made stream titles and description. Use it as-is and you're covered.
- Players may stream their own POV with a 2-minute delay minimum.
- Winner interviews on stream are appreciated (and great for your own following).
9. Prizes — $150 base pool 💰
- 🥇 Champion: $75 + 25,000 Loyalty Points
- 🥈 Runner-up: $50 + 20,000 Loyalty Points
- 🥉 3rd place: $25 + 15,000 Loyalty Points
- 🎁 Every verified participant earns 5,000 Loyalty Points — redeemable in the NightShift Market for gift cards, V-Bucks and more.
🔥 Community Goal — double EVERYTHING
- If the broadcast reaches 75 concurrent viewers per channel on each day:
- 💥 All prizes DOUBLE — $150 / $100 / $50 (and the points prizes double too)
- 💥 Plus prizes extend to 4th–6th place: $25 each
- So bring your friends, clanmates and enemies — every viewer literally raises the stakes.
- Points condition: points are credited to the exact Twitch/YouTube username you registered with, and activate only once you appear in the stream chat with that name during a live stream. No chat appearance = points cannot be credited.
10. Admins & Contact
Tournament admins are listed in the Discord #tournament channel. For anything — scheduling, disputes, rule questions — ping @Tournament Admin in the NightShift Discord. Rules may be amended before registration closes; registered players are notified in Discord of any change.