Format

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The 4chan Cup has had its format altered in a number of ways since its inception. Changes have been made to the tournament format, the rules of the game, and friendlies.

Player and Team Regulations

Pre-Spring 2012

Teams were allocated three gold-level players, rated at 99, with no silver or bronze element. All other players were rated 66 overall.

Pre-Winter 2013

Medal Players

To encourage balanced play and promote tactical skill, the decision was taken to remove the three-golds rule and allow each team to use one gold player, one silver (rated 88 overall) player and two bronze (rated 77) players. The changes were introduced to prevent imbalanced formations (for instance, playing with three gold forwards or three gold defenders) which could simply overpower most teams and required little in the way of forethought on the part of managers.

Winter 2013 Onwards

Note:	For managers seeking detailed advice on how to make these changes, see Requirements.

Sexcopter !!DmLjci16Djv petitioned for a number of changes in November 2012, which were put to a poll by Germanbro !!i9X8R/z42Rt. The intention was for the new rules to add a new tactical element and depth to management as well as improving the overall footballing quality in matches.

Form

Prior to the change, Form was set to 4 for all players. This led to erratic conditioning match-by-match, and it is argued this was unfair as some players would on average have generally inferior conditioning to other players, scuppering a manager's efforts through no fault of their own. This was especially true for medal players, whose form is often crucial to the outcome of a result. Form rules were changed so all non-medal players were set to 6, and medal players were set to 8. The intention of these changes was to reduce the likelihood of erratic conditioning, and overall improve chances of teams having good conditioning. The changes should also, theoretically, provide a better balance in matches where previously one team may have fared especially badly with conditioning while another fared much better, creating a match-affecting imbalance.

AI

Gameplaytool offers an option for an altered AI 'level'. The proposed change was to set this level to 2 (the maximum setting) which is an improvement on the default PES AI with better player positioning, improved goalkeeping and trickier play on the ball.

Def. Strategy

The game has a hidden tactical setting, available in PES Editor, for 'Def. Strategy'. The setting can be adjusted from 0 to 1, though to full effects of this setting are not yet known. It is assumed that setting 1 will encourage defenders to surround the attacker, while setting it to 0 will encourage defenders to try to steal the ball more often, but this is all speculation.

Formation/Mentality

Using PES Editor, it is possible to make alterations to teams' mentality dots and formation arrows. These elements are unchangeable in-game, but can have an large influence on team strategy. Formation arrows determine where players make their runs in the field, while taking into account their allocated position. Mentality dots work in tandem with formation arrows, with each 'dot' acting as a offensive/defensive mentality switch. Overall this change gives managers a further degree of control over their sides, and ensures teams are not being hindered by erroneous 'hidden' default settings.

The GGSS System

The GGSS rules in image form. Discussion was held over the standard of play in the 4chan Cup, and there was some agreement that 66-rated players were incompetent defenders against medals and this led to unvaried goalscoring opportunities, especially through-balls leading to one-on-ones. The suggestion was for an overall increase in the stats of all players and an overhaul of the medal system. The system suggested was known as GGSS (Gold, Gold, Silver, Silver).

Teams would be allowed two gold players and two silver players. All other players including goalkeepers would be rated 77, which became the new "regular" player rating. To promote varied play and strategy the card system was also overhauled. Teams were allowed 20 cards and a maximum of four for a gold player, three for a silver, and two for a regular player. Of those, a gold could have a maximum of three skill cards, a silver two skill cards, and a regular one skill card. Skill card limits were introduced as it is believed they are a more powerful enhancement than playstyle cards.

The GGSS system was tested widely after the 2013 4chan Winter Cup and had its full outing during the 2013 4chan Spring Babby Cup Friendlies. The system was accepted by vote and will have its official debut at the 2013 4chan Spring Babby Cup.

Height Abuse and new height regulations

200px-Autumn_rules.png magnify-clip.pngThe new height regulations in image form. These rules were introduced in response to alleged height abuse by teams in the 2013 Summer Cup. Main article: Team Height Requirements  

The 2013 4chan Summer Cup highlighted the controversial issue of player heights. The cup's top three finishers also happened to be three of the cup's tallest teams (on average). Teams with a greater-than-average height were derided as height abusers. While the exact effects of player height are unknown, it was generally agreed that a player of larger size conferred advantages in reach, tackling and ball retention against smaller players. Furthermore, no real-world player in PES has a height higher than 206cm, but PES Editor allowed for players to be as tall as 220cm. Since Konami made no provision for players being this tall in their game, the exact effects of having a player of this height were unknown and perceived by some to be potentially game-breaking. Likewise, no real-world player in PES has a height lower than 160cm but PES Editor allows for players to be as short as 148cm. The effects of extremely short players is even less understood, but it was also decided that the potential for game mechanics to be altered by these extremes warranted regulation.

Height regulations introduced in time for the 2013 Autumn Babby Cup Friendlies stipulated that teams must field a certain number of players within several height divisions, with no player taller than 190cm being given the S05 (Speed Merchant) skillcard (as no real-world player in PES over the height of 190cm has the card). The intention of the new regulations was to normalise heights while still granting a degree of freedoms to managers to decide how best to allocate heights themselves.

Tournament Format

Double Elimination Era

Starting with the very first tournament, the 2011 4chan Summer Cup, competitions took the form of double elimination bracket with 16 teams competing. Everyone agreed this was a disgusting format for a simulated divegrass tournament and it was promptly ditched after the following 2012 4chan Winter Cup.

Babby Cup

As the number of competing teams increased, it became necessary to use a two-tiered format with newcomers competing to earn their place in the Summer and Winter Cups. Thusly, the Babby Cup was born. The first Babby Cup had 20 competitors, with a group stage of five groups of four. The two best teams from each group after a round robin advanced.

10 teams do not fit into an 8-team bracket, so a play-off round had to be held for two remaining slots in the quarter finals. Due to >pez logic these were randomly selected by the RNG gods. The winning teams advanced to the quarter finals and the 2012 4chan Summer Cup. The remaining teams remained at Babby Cup level until the following tournament.

2012 Summer Cup

The second Summer Cup saw 24 teams compete, in a similar format to the preceding Babby Cup. Teams were divided into six groups of four and played for two qualification spots in the knockout stage. Again, 12 teams didn't fit into an elimination bracket so a play-off round had to be held. The outcome of the random draw caused considerably controversy and a redraw was made. The worst-faring teams in the group stage were relegated down to Babby Cup level, to compete at the next tournament.

The headaches that random selection and play-offs caused suggested that format changes had to be made to avoid similar happenings in the future. As the number of competing teams increased the format was able to be improved upon further.

Autumn 2012

The 2012 4chan Autumn Babby Cup was the first tournament to be run with 32 teams. Since 32 is a power of two it is ideal for knockout tournaments, as evidenced by the FIFA World Cup. Eight groups of four play for 16 qualifying spots with the worst-faring two teams from each group remaining at Babby level, or in the case of the Summer and Winter Cups, relegated to Babby level. The conveniently-placed International Cup in PES was used as the tournament template for the Autumn Babby Cup and will be for future tournaments until someone wants to make THE DREADED 49TH TEAM and fuck everything up.

Winter 2012/13 to Autumn 2013

Following 4chan's board expansion in Spring of 2013, a number of new boards (including slightly older /wsg/) expressed an interest in competing. These teams were granted provisional status, and as this status suggests they were placed into the category of Provisional Teams. As long as these teams continued to be maintained and remained active until the opportunity for qualification presented itself, they would be granted the chance to prove themselves against full-members of the 4chan Cup. These teams were eventually allowed to participate in friendlies while they waited for an opportunity to qualify.

It was decided that the first point of entry for these teams should be to attempt to qualify for the Babby Cup. The provisional teams would play off against some of the poorest-fairing 4chan Cup teams of recent times in the hopes of bettering them and claiming a spot for themselves. The 2013 4chan Autumn Babby Cup was chosen as the first tournament which would have a qualification event preceding it, to become known as the Babby Qualifier, or Foetus Cup colloquially.

A number of teams were left dead in the aftermath of Dragongate, and following rankings readjustments accounting for compromised matches, /3/, /an/, /diy/, /ic/, /o/, /s/, /vg/ and /vp/ were selected as the teams which would play off against the provisional teams for their right to participate in the Babby Cup.

Autumn 2013

The 2013 4chan Autumn Babby Cup Qualifiers contains 16 teams - of which there are eight provisional teams and eight of the cup's worst-performing Babbies. These 16 teams are to be placed into four groups of four, with two from each group qualifying for the Autumn Babby Cup. The eight teams which fail to qualify will remain as 4chan Cup hopefuls until their next opportunity to qualify for the Babby Cup in Spring 2014.