SC2AI Ladder 2026 Tournament Will happen from From the 10th Jan up until the final on 15th March

Live
----
Tourney will run each Saturday at 8pm UTC starting 10th Jan on:

<https://www.twitch.tv/starcraft2ai>

Basics
------
- Ladder will be frozen 23:59 on 2nd Jan
- The top 16 bot authors from the SC2AIArena Ladder will qualify for the tournament
- All games will be played on the latest ladder map pool:
 - - MagannathaAIE_v2
 - - UltraloveAIE_v2
 - - LeyLinesAIE_v3
 - - TorchesAIE_v4
 - - PylonAIE_v4
 - - PersephoneAIE_v4

- Authors may submit updates and bug fixes up to 5th Jan at 23:59 UTC for the first round. This will be via a separate upload from the main ladder, details of which will be communicated to authors
- Bots may change strategy from that used on the ladder, but must maintain the same race.
- After the first round, each author will be given up until 23:59 UTC on 15th Feb to resubmit their bot for the elimination rounds. After this, no more updates will be allowed

Tournament Format
-----------------
- Bots will be seeded into a 5 round Swiss tournament bracket according to ladder rank
- The first round of the swiss bracket will be seeded first by ladder rank
- For the first and second round, each bot will play a best of 1 game against another bot based on swiss tournament rules
- Rounds 3 - 5 of the swiss bracket will be best of 3 series
- Any bot which manages 3 wins will advance to the bracket stage. Any bot that loses 3 times will be eliminated
- All replays will be available immediately after the final stream of each round.
- The top 8 bots from the swiss stage will play off in single elimination bracket. 

- - Elimination bracket will be seeded with the two best performing bots from the swiss stage seeded into opposite halves of the draw, and drawing teams at random from those with a 3-2 record in the swiss stage.
- - Remaining teams will be drawn at random into the bracket

- Elimination bracket will be Bo5 games
- In case of any disputes tournament organisers decision will be final

Prize Pool
----------
- 1st: $125
- 2nd: $75
- 3rd: $50