The Competition
Rome Clan's Shield is a ladder competition for the clans who are playing Rome Total War. It is a new tournament, based on other formats. RCS test each clan in many ways. It tests their abilities in 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 games, as well as forcing each clan to use a variety of different factions, therefore tactics. The winners of this tournament will truely be the Clan of Clans!

The tournament system is based on challenging other clans to compete in a "series" of games with them. The clans that do not prefer to challenge other clans will also be able to play games and compete in the tournament through automated fixtures. In the season, every 4 weeks, the clans will be fighting with up to 2 other clans in series of games. The clans who arrange their games by challenging other clans will play against these clans (thus the clans that they prefer to play against), while the remaining clans will need to play against the clans according to the fixtures posted by the Staff. The games will consist of 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 matchups, each having attack and defense games. After half the season has taken place, there will be a slight change to the setup - clans will start to be able to challenge for the RCS Shield! At the end of the season, the clan that has held the Shield the longest will be declared the winner. It is explained below in more detail.

Clan Requirements
Clans participating in the RCS must be relatively active, and have a minimum of 4 players available to participate in each series. Although it is not enforced by the rules, it is "advised" that clans should field minimum 4 players in the series. The clans must compete in the series games in the competition phases which are organized every 4 weeks. If a clan does not show up to minimum 2 matchups in a series, then the series will be forfeited and the clan that didn't show up will not recieve the 1 point which is normally given to the loser side. If a clan forfeits 2 series in a row (by not showing up to minimum 2 matchups for each series), then it will be removed from the competition. As any clan can register for the tournament at any time, the removed clans will also be able to register again anytime if they wish, but they will start with 0 points just like a newly registered clan. Admins will decide on each case of forfeit individually, and their decision is final.

Registration
Clans should assign one or two players to act as a Clan Emmisary. They will be in charge of arranging and organising fixtures. Only two emmisaries are allowed per clan to avoid lots of different members arranging the same game. The Clan Emmisary needs to post a registration thread in the Registration Forum, including clan name, forum and the one or two emmisaries.

Points System
The winner of the whole series will be determined by the highest Total Score. The winner of a series will recieve 3 points, the loser will recieve 1 point. As you see, it is more beneficial to try to play more series instead of playing only one in the 4 week period due to the fact that even the loser clan which completes the series recieves 1 point. In some situations, admins may decide to award 0 points to each clan if neither have made an effort to arrange their games, and end the series.

Challenge System
Clans are able to challenge any clan on the table. Clans are free to reject challenges if they are being challenged or if they are challenging some other clan. However, if the clan has not been active in any kind of challenging, then rejecting a challenge will cost them -1 point. If a clan is challenged by more than two clans, they are free to choose which challenge(s) to accept and may decline the other challenge(s) without losing any points. If a clan has already arranged a series with another clan (by either challenging a clan or accepting a challenge), then this clan may also reject additional challenge(s) made without losing any points.

Challenging a clan is very simple. Your clan emmisary needs to create a new thread in the Challenges and Fixtures Forum.

Phases
Each Phase will last for 4 weeks in the first half of the season, during which time, each clan may play in upto 2 series with different clans. If you do not arrange any series, each clan will receive one automatic challenge which they should play. Clearly, the more series that you play, the better chance you have of coming near the top! In the second half of the season, it will change slightly, as clans challenge for the Shield...

Challenging for the Shield
After 4 Phases, there will be a chance to fight for the Shield, and the system will change slightly. Phases will now only last for 2 weeks, not 4, and clans can play only 1 series in this time, not 2. Points will remain the same for all clans except those challenging for the Shield. This will be done by the top 2 clans in the ladder originally. They will fight in the first series for the chance to take control of the Shield, but neither clan will score any points for this series - win or lose. In the next phase, the defending clan will be challenged by the top clan (this could well not be the clan they fought last time, if another clan has overtaken them on points) to take control of the Shield. Again, the winner will be challenged by the top clan in the next Phase and so on. There will be 6 Phases in the second half of the season, with each lasting 2 weeks. This will give us time for there to be 6 different Shield challenges. At the end of this, the clan that has held the belt the longest will be the winners. Note, the clan that is top of the leauge will not be winners unless they have also held the Shield the longest, because clans in a Shield series cannot gain points, whereas the rest can. However, clearly the top clan has the opportunity to challenge for the Shield, so there is still a big advantage to getting there! If there are 2 or more clans that have held the Shield for the longest time, there will be a further series between them (or tri-series if needs be) to determine the winning clan.

Matchups and Scores
1v1's, 2v2's and 3v3's are called matchups. Each matchup consists of 1 attack and 1 defense games. Each 1v1 win is woth 1 point, each 2v2 win is worth 2 points and each 3v3 win is worth 3 points. There are 12 possible points and these points are the "scores" within the series, thus it won't effect the points recieved by winning or losing the whole series. So, in other words if you win a series 12-0, your clan will recieve 3 points and if you win a series 6-5, your clan will also recieve 3 points. The loser clan will always recieve 1 point unless the series resulted as a forfeit.

If in the end, the score ties to 6-6, an additional tie-breaker 2v2 game will be played. There is no designated attacker or defender in this game. For more infomation, check the Game Rules and Maps topic.


Note: Any series that is not complete by the end of the Phase deadline will now by assessed by the Admins. In some situations they may award a forfeit win to one clan, but if both clans are equally active, then the series will carry over into the next phase. It will now NOT count as one of their two allowed in the next Phase, so each can continue to make 2 more series if they wish. However, admins will watch for activity in the old series too, and if neither clan tries to carry on with it, then the series may be voided or forfeited as applicable.