Official website of Carcassonne Asian Cup:　https://carcassonne.gg/Asian-Cup-2025/

Who can play?

The teams will be formed by players from (or living in) the same country (or region), while that country is within Asia. The definition of "country or region" will simply follow the International Olympics Games. Only one team can be entered per country. This tournament is free and open to all players on the continent. We will invite the WTCOC team captain of those countries to recruit team members using their own strategy.

Where and When will it take place?

The whole tournament will take place on boardgamearena (BGA) within August - September 2024. 

What tournament format will be used?

The tournament will be split in two stages: a group stage followed by a play off stage. Similar to the rules of WTCOC, we will have group stage and play off stage in the Asian Cup. If there are more than 7 teams participate in the Asian Cup, the group stage will use random lucky draw to separate into 2 groups. If there are 7 or less teams, then all teams will be in one single group. The group stage will be in single round-robin format, whereas the play off stage will be in single elimination format.

Draw

After team submission period ends, the organiser will draw using this tool: https://challonge.com/17nuf5xz. If necessary, teams will be drawn into different groups randomly. For the first edition, the teams were seeded into pots, based on the results in WTCOC 2024. The schedule of matches will also be revealed in the draw.

Each group will run in a round robin format, i.e. every team will play a match against every other team in its group. Each team will generally participate in one match per week, except for teams in odd-sized groups that will have one resting week during the group phase. 

The number of teams qualifying for the playoff phase will depend on the number of registered teams. The playoff stage will be in single elimination format. Each team will play one match per week. 

Match Format

For each match, both teams will form lineups of 5 players, assigning each player a number from 1 to 5 corresponding to the 5 duels to be played during the match. To save time, the two team captains can submit the line-ups in a Google form at least 48 hours before the agreed match date time. The captain should then publish both lineups on the Asian Cup page, at least 24 hours before the agreed match date time.

If the match date and time have not been submitted by midnight (23:59 UTC) on Thursday, the match will automatically be scheduled for Sunday at 11:00 UTC

In each game, one team will be designated as the home team and the other as the visiting team. The home team must assign Premium players to positions 1, 3 and 5 in the lineups (the remaining positions may be players with regular or Premium accounts). Conversely, the visiting team must assign Premium players to positions 2 and 4. This will ensure that every duel has at least one Premium player. All the duels of each round will be played at the same time.

Each duel will be played to the best of 3 games (the duel stops at 2-0). In the event of a tie in a game, the winning player will be the player who was not the starting player. The winner of a duel gives their team 1 point. The team that wins 3 or more duels wins the match. 

Standing

In each group, the teams will be ranked in order of matches won. In case of a tie, the order will be determined by the number of duels won. If a tie persists, the order will be determined by the difference between games won and lost (difference = games won - games lost).

The teams will be ranked according to the following criteria in the order listed:

- Number of matches won (victories).
- Number of duels won.
- Difference between games won and lost.

In case of a global tie, the same criteria will be considered but applied only to the games between the tied teams.

Teams may advance to play off stage according to their standing in the group.

If there exists only 1 group, then the 2nd and 3rd highest ranked teams will automatically advance to the semi-finals, while the 1st highest ranked team will be in the final. The semifinal (rank 2 team vs rank 3 team) will be held in a following week, then a final between its winner and the rank 1 team will be held in the last week.

If there exists 2 groups, then the semi-final will be group A rank 1 vs group B rank 2, and group B rank 1 vs group A rank 2, then a final between the semi-final  winners will be held in the last week. The losers of the semi-final will play for the 3rd place in the same week.

Each match in the play off stage also require 5 players per team, and the duels are played with best of 3 games.

How long will it take place?

The group stage will last for X-1 weeks (X being the number of teams in each group). Within each week (from Monday to Sunday), each pair of teams can arrange a timeslot to play a 5-player vs 5-player match and submit the result.

The play off stage will last for 2 weeks. Within each week (from Monday to Sunday), each pair of teams can arrange a timeslot to play a 5-player vs 5-player match and submit the result.

For example, if there are 6 teams register for the tournament, then the whole tournament will last from 5th August 2024 to 22nd September 2024 (5+2 weeks).

If there are 8 teams register for the tournament, then the whole tournament will last from 5th August 2024 to 8th September 2024 (3+2 weeks).

How will the teams be formed?

Each teams must have a minimum of 8 players and maximum of 10 players. Each team will elect a captain who will be responsible for communication with the captains of opponent teams and the organizers of the tournament. The captain's primary tasks will be to ensure all team members understand the rules, to submit their team’s line-up for each match, and to communicate with the organizers and other captains. 

Important: It is mandatory that at least 3 players per team have BGA Premium accounts throughout the tournament. In each match, the visiting team must have at least 2 premium players in their lineup, while the home team must include at least 3 premium players.

The organizers do not have any relation to this additional BGA cost when playing this tournament and they do not benefit in any way from it.

The deadline for team member submission to be 23:59 UTC, 31st July 2024 via the Asian Cup website Google form, and the tournament starts from 5th August.

Which player creates the games?

Players 1, 3 and 5 of the home team (on the left side of the lineup) and players 2 and 4 of the visiting team (on the right side) will create games. All of these players are Premium players according to the rules. The player creating the first game must press the "rematch" button to start the second game. If both players each won one of the first two games and need to play a third game, the player who created the first and second games must press the “rematch” button again to guarantee the ABA sequence where A is the starting player of the first game. 

Game format?

All games will be played:

* Real time.
* Slow speed.
* 1 vs 1.
* Carcassonne base game (no expansions).

* Field scoring and city of two tiles following the international rules

What happens if a game is tie?

In case of a tie within one game, the player who started second wins

What happens if a player exceeds the allowed time?

The first player to run out of time in any game will automatically lose the game (not the duel) regardless of the final score. We ask players who run out of time to concede the game as a courtesy. Even if a player runs out of time and does not concede (either because they didn’t realize they ran out of time or because they didn’t want to concede), their opponent will be declared the winner of that game. If there is any doubt, a player ran out of time if there is a red clock next to their username at the end of the game. 

What happens if a player not come to the match?

If your opponent does not appear 15 minutes within the agreed match time, your duel will be considered as a 2-0 win.

You can inform your team captain and she/he will let the opponent team knows and agree.

Reporting Results

After all duels of a match have finished, the captains should report the results on the dedicated Google form. 

Can I use any external support?

Players are expected to play their own games without advice or coaching from others, and the use of tile-counting or memory aids (e.g. apps, spreadsheets, or pen and paper) is strictly forbidden. Players are also responsible for avoiding potential unrequested aid

What if there are edge cases not covered in Asian Cup rules?

In case of any additional questions, please see the WTCOC 2024 Rules: https://www.carcassonne.cat/wtcoc/doc/wtcoc2024rules.pdf?version=1718377126 

Is there a Prize?

The winning team will be crowned as the continent’s best online Carcassonne team. One player within the Asian Cup 2024 winning team will also earn a ticket for participation in the Carcassonne Champion League 2025 hosted by carcassonne.gg (the details please refer to the organiser of Carcassonne Champion League)