Status of legally hosting threads by boards

While most boards have different reputations with 4chan staff members in response to the 4chan Cup, it is possible for a user to be banned for posting cup threads on boards, especially if it is a special-interests board (examples would be /a/ and /biz/). Despite the growing popularity of the cup, moderators and janitors will usually delete threads and possibly ban the topic creator on the guise of violating Global Rules 11 (advertising the Cup on boards), 10 (victory threads being posted all at the same time), and 4 (raids organized by one board on another board, or in this case, posting threads whoring the winning board).

Officially Allowed Boards

As of the 2014 4chan Winter Cup, only three boards have been given any word by staff members on if it is okay to legally host Cup threads without the risk of being banned. /vg/ has traditionally always been allowed to host generals, while /sp/ and /mlp/ were officially sanctioned by the 4chan staff as boards that are allowed to host threads. Of the three boards, only /mlp/ has restrictions (threads can only be hosted if /mlp/ is participating in games, invitationals are not considered official, and posts regarding invitationals can be banned via Global Rule 11 if not worded correctly)

Board	Year Allowed	Special Notes
/vg/	2011	/vg/ has always allowed cup threads, due to it partly dealing with Pro Evolution Soccer in addition to 4cc content.
/sp/	2013	/sp/ was officially allowed to have Cup threads due to a declaration by moot that a single cup thread could be maintained then on /sp/ in addition to /vg/.
/mlp/	2014	/mlp/ was allowed to have threads after the loss to /a/ in the 2014 Winter Cup. /mlp/ is technically allowed to have threads only when it is participating in the events.