“A girl stole from the Many-Faced God. Now a debt is owed.”
―Jaqen H’ghar
This September, Tournaments return to Game of Thrones: Conquest! Last year’s Elder Kingdom tournament was so much fun we’ve decided to bring it back, with a few adjustments. Read on to learn more about…
- How tournaments work into the larger goals of the ongoing Kingdom Lifecycle Initiative,
- Tournament rules,
- Participating in Kingdom Leagues and Tournament Brackets,
- And exclusive tournament Rewards!
Kingdom Lifecycle Initiative Update
Before we get into the tournament details, we’d like to put some of the decisions made into the context of the ongoing revisiting of the Kingdom Lifecycle Initiative announced earlier this summer.
In that post, we
- defined what it means to be an Early, Midlevel, or Elder Kingdom.
- Introduced the concept of a Month of Migration, mainly impacting Elder-level kingdoms.
- Read more: Here.
June 2023 was our first Migration Month; this is scheduled for October.
This established how the beginning of a lifecycle looks for elder kingdoms- fresh starts and Migration events (Stake Your Claim, Kingdom Merge.) In the following months, kingdom dynamics are formed, alliances are made (or broken), and eventually, the shape of the new kingdom settles. What better to do with that stability and familiarity than to see how it measures up to other kingdoms?
This September, being the final month of this inaugural cycle, seemed the perfect opportunity to bring back tournaments. In addition to the opportunity to earn bonus rewards, these tournaments will provide an opportunity for kingdoms to show off their strengths and scope out possible competition or allies for the following month’s Migration events.
There will be some adjustments compared to the previous tournament’s structure, so we’ve included development notes below to add context to those design choices.
We also have some additional tools/features in development to help support future tournaments- but share more details about those once we review the feedback and results from September’s tournament.
Tournament Participants
The September 2023 Tournament of Many Faces will have 10 elder kingdoms compete, split into 3 separate brackets (also called leagues.)
All tournament events will coincide across the different brackets, but you will only compete against kingdoms from your particular bracket.
See the graphic below for participating Kingdoms and matchups.
Kingdom Lifecycle Initiative Development note:
A complication in organizing tournaments is the fluidity of available kingdoms. The Kingdom pool can fluctuate from cycle to cycle based on who most recently merged or had a Stake Your Claim event, as well as any mid-level kingdoms that have since graduated into the Elder pool. We want these to be fun, so we also anticipate the need to have the flexibility to accommodate significant power disparities.
Tournament Rules & Schedule
The tournament will occur over a 3-week period, consisting of 2 rounds per bracket/league.
- Round 1: September 8th-10th, 2023
- Round 2: September 22nd-24th, 2023
The events you will be competing in each round are determined by your bracket/league.
- The Stormlands League and Riverlands League will compete over War for the Throne in both rounds
- The Dornish League will have Rebellion (Non-KvK) for round one, and compete in War for the Throne for round 2
The Spoils of War
In addition to event rewards, an event bonus will be applied to the following week’s events after each round. Winning kingdoms will receive a larger event buff.
Round 1 Rewards
- Winning Kingdom: 10% Valyrian Stone and Keystone Cost Reduction
- Defeated Kingdom: 5% Valyrian Stone and Keystone Cost Reduction
Round 2 Rewards
- Winning Kingdom: 10% Slate, Marble, and Red Gold Flakes Cost Reduction
- Defeated Kingdom: 5% Slate, Marble, and Red Gold Flakes Cost Reduction
At the end of 2 rounds, the overall winning kingdom from each bracket/league will also receive an exclusive tournament reward of 60,000 Tully Pawn Shards!
Kingdom Lifecycle Initiative Development note:
Because the Dornish league is a two-kingdom match up, we decided to give them a slightly different round 1 event rather than War for the Throne against the same kingdom twice. The 2 round structure allows the entire tournament to take place in September. This will be the second opportunity ever to catch the rare and elusive Tully Pawn, and there are new variants to unlock for players who unlocked the pawn in last year’s tournament!
Let us know what you think!
Are you excited about the return of tournaments? Does the timing with the new lifecycle work make sense? Any suggestions?
We’ve opened a new #tournament channel on our official community Discord for you to discuss and leave feedback. The dev team is eager to hear your thoughts, see all your memes, and incorporate new perspectives into future tournament planning.