Getting Involved

Introduction

The 4chan Cup lives and thrives on user contribution. Everything in this cup is done >for free, including but not necessarily limited to streaming, commentating, hype videos, promo material, aesthetics, game modding, team management, organization, administration, and maintaining the wiki.

If you are considering being more than just a viewer, please follow this guide on how to get involved (also do check out Software for a list of useful programs to assist with the tasks mentioned here). However, some things are not as easy as they may seem or have to follow strict guidelines, as we could not manage the amount of contributions otherwise.

Getting in touch

The quickest way to reach out to people involved with the cup is the 4chan Cup thread on /vg/, commonly referred to as /4ccg/. It is also linked on the Main Page. Please keep in mind however that the thread, to put it in 4chan terms, has become a circlejerk that is often dominated by shitposting, off-topic discussion, and vendettas run by people that got banned from the cup and cannot let go. Furthermore, the threads go by pretty fast so the people you are looking for might not even see your post. Still, any on-topic discussion in the thread is more than welcome and someone should be able to point you in the right direction.

Another option is the IRC, where a fair share of people involved with the cup hang out. Its quality is not much better than the thread's at times, but it is usually more actively checked by people who can help you. Please be aware however that most proxies are either banned or at least monitored as we had to deal with massive ban evasion in the past. We are dealing with 4chan users, after all.

You can also reach various people involved with the cup directly through Skype or Email, see Contact for a full list. If your board allows cup threads, it is also recommended to bounce off ideas there first. Some people you may only catch in such threads and only if they are lurking.

Hype material

We consider hype material to be videos, posters, fan art, songs, and whatever else comes to mind that is related to the 4chan Cup, but does not need to be put into the game. Obviously, you don't need to check with anyone to make or share this kind of content, but in case of videos and music there is a good chance it might be usable on stream.

If you do not want to rely on someone in charge stumbling over your content by chance, contact the corresponding manager if it is team-specific or the staff if it isn't.

Promo material

While closely related to hype material, we consider promo material to be 'official'. Hype material can become promo material simply because it is deemed worthy, but there is also promo material that is considered essential and requires prior communication. This includes but might not be limited to cup logos, team logos, and trailers/opening videos that are scheduled to be played on stream (also called hype videos). Refer to Contact to find out who to approach.

In-game content

Making or modifying in-game content always takes two steps: making said content and putting it into the game. The former usually has to follow harsh restrictions the game engine dictates and unless you are providing simple graphics like ad boards or kits, your contribution can usually only become usable if you are also capable of putting it into the game and testing it yourself. This might require some self-study and trial-and-error, but also prevents your content from being forgotten or having others spend more time on your stuff than on their own.

If you are not sure in which category the content you want to provide falls, contact someone already involved with aesthetics and/or modding.

The following aspects can be edited:

• Player faces & hair models
• Kits/jerseys
• Shoes
• Gloves
• Balls
• Ad boards
• Pitches
• Stadiums
• Other 3D objects
• Menu backgrounds
• User interface graphics
• Score boards
• Game tips
• Other game strings
• Transition wipes
• and more

Modding

You do not need to be an artist to help modding the game. You can provide assistance to people who want to put their works into the game or help speeding up the process. This can go from working with existing tools and a hex editor, over further understanding the game, developing new methods, writing your own tools, up to reverse engineering existing modding tools and even the game itself.

Please be aware that what already applies to making in-game content holds even more true in bare modding. While we are in dire need of people with skills and experience in this area, we also lack the time to provide much initial training. In other words, we rely on you being self-sufficient while at the same time actively communicating with others to make sure you are focusing on what is truly needed. The wiki already contains a great deal of info on our current processes and understanding of the game.

Commentating

The colour commentators bring life to the games, usually even more so than the streamer. If you think you can entertain well and have the technical capabilities, you should give it a try.

First of all, make sure you have a decent microphone and internet connection. Test your setup beforehand by calling someone on Discord while having some audio playing. If the other person cannot hear said audio and hears you loud and clear without any noticable background noise or clipping, you are probably good to go.

Contact the current streamer/commissioner or other people from the staff to get in touch. Please be aware that we usually don't let new people commentate main Cup events (i.e., Elites) right away, so consider making yourself known through unofficial events or in the Babbies first. There are some guidelines to follow as well, like 'No talking while anthems/goalhorns are playing'. Most of these you probably already know about simply by watching the cup.

Streaming

Being a streamer is only a few steps away from being the commissioner and thus, it comes with a great deal of responsibility.

Streaming combines most of the prerequisites of commentating with some technical (your setup and understanding of the game) and further personal aspects. As for the technical side of things, you need to have a decent connection to stream the game at a good quality, as well as possibly provide a webcam feed to managers and commentators. This implies you have a good understanding of streaming software and audio management. Furthermore, you need to know the game well enough to set up the games and carry out the managers' requests in a timely fashion. As for the additional personal aspects, you need the endurance to stream up to 5 hours in row with only short breaks, as well as be in touch with available commentators who can join you. Most importantly however, you have to be reliable, as people expect you to start the show on time.

These things need practice, so we strongly advise you to offer yourself to host some unofficial events first. We will try to provide you with someone who can help you going through the motions and understand the fundamental aspects of the game needed for hosting an event. This includes how to handle team exports, applying modded game content, setting up games and changing tactics, and get a general feeling for the flow. This also gives the staff a chance to have a closer look at your qualities as a streamer.

From there it might still take a while to be trusted with the responsibility of hosting an official event, but that does not mean you shouldn't start trying to climb that ladder today.

Team Management and Caretaking

To ensure a board's team can play in the 4chan Cup, it needs at least one manager or caretaker. Managers manage the team in different ways before and during a cup. They are also responsible for staying in touch with their board to update the team (roster, faces, kits and whatnot), make tactics, and compiling/providing the needed files and input on time for the official events.

Caretakers play a similar role, in that they are responsible for communicating with their board, providing proof of a board's interest to participate, and providing up-to-date aesthetics, music, and the like (or coordinating with those who can provide them) -- but they are not allowed to make tactical input on the team. The role of caretaker is often for those who want to see their board play, but may not have the time to commit to full managerial roles.

For more information on becoming a manager, please read New Managers and New Manager Advice.

Those interested in becoming a caretaker for a team should first check the Contact page. If your team doesn't have an active caretaker listed there, consider getting in touch with the current Commissioner if you're interested in bringing a team back.

Please do not caretake for boards you do not actively browse, and be mindful of previous circumstances which may have caused a team's inactivity.

Testing

Before and during every cup a manager is always on the look for the best (counter)-tactics to ultimately win the cup for his team and board. However, there is practically an infinite amount of possible tactics and only limited time. This is where testers come into play. Their job is to help their team manager before and during the cup.

Becoming a tester is a whole lot less work than becoming a manager (as explained on New Managers), and a good way to start if you plan on stepping up one day. Simply Contact the manager(s) of a board you heavily support and have them involve you. Your testing may consist of only running some numbers or actually come up with new formations and the likes. You do not need any prior experience with PES or even football in general (but obviously, it helps).

Keep in mind however that only a verified manager can livemanage (so you can't just fill in if a manager is not available), and that you can only test for a single team during the run of one cup. We highly recommend to become a verified (co-)manager as soon as you feel comfortable with the work you do.

If you have the feeling that the manager is inactive and might not return in a timely fashion, please contact the staff.

Wiki maintenance

An up-to-date wiki is extremely important, we all heavily rely on it. The easiest way to help out on the wiki is to keep track of affairs (such as game results, announcements, rule updates, etc) and update the wiki accordingly. If you find a page that is out of date, update it. Something broken? Fix it, or let an admin/assistant know. A lot of the internal templates used here rely heavily on ParserFunctions (and to a much lesser degree RegexFunctions), any major modifications to these (especially anything interactive) will requite a basic knowledge of ParserFunctions syntax. Don't be afraid of making mistakes, though, since almost everything can be rolled back extremely easily. So, jump on in! Trust us, your contributions will be noticed and appreciated.

A lot of this work can be done silently and without you ever contacting other people, but if you want to involve yourself with the wiki on a higher level (as in restructuring or reworking pages entirely), please visit the IRC for general stuff or contact the manager(s) of the team in question.

General input and feedback

It is very likely that any opinions or ideas you may have were already brought forward and discussed at some point. Also, please keep in mind that one reason why things are the way they are might be that this is what the staff is comfortable with to run. Even the greatest idea is useless if we do not have the qualified(!) manpower or motivation to make it a reality.

See the Getting in touch section above for further details.