Summer Cup

General

The Summer Cup was a community event held over several months during the summer of 2021. It was a double elimination tournament, in which players raced a pre-determined set of objectives, including, but not limited to: Acquiring certain collectibles, completing a tallneck, and finishing main quests.

The banner for the Summer Cup, made by Charlatan_11235

It was announced on the 2nd of July by Elkjaer, and signups would be open until July 9th. In total, 13 runners signed up for the tournament. The players were expected to set up matches themselves, and could coordinate with either Robsdedude or DorianSnowball for the race to be restreamed.

Rules and Objectives

(A full document detailing the rules can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XhrjY2k8acP-HoCnBWB_McK5Hav6OxfbVIUQUAyuSts/)

General Rules

The rules for the races were as follows:

• No Fast Travel
• No Restarts from Save
• No death abuse
• Runs are timed with Real Time
• Runs will be done on atleast Story and you can change it during the run
• Runs will be done in New Game

Save File Specifications

Runners were to set up their own save files before their races, and had to follow certain guidelines for their inventory. This was to ensure that file setup wouldn't take too long and that players couldn't gain an unfair advantage by grinding out a save file. The allowed items were as follows:

• Spear (Green Version)
• Carja Hunter Bow
• Outcast Outfit
• Nora Brave Outfit
• 100x Ridge Wood
• 20x Hunter Arrows
• 20x Fire Arrows
• 10x Rocks
• 3x Small Health Potions
• 1000x Shards
• As much medicine as you want
• You can rank up to level 9 and learn whatever skills you want

The banned items were as follows:

• Have any resources not listed in the rules above
• Have any mods in your inventory or on your weapons/outfits
• Have any boxes
• Have any Special Items collected
• Have any ammo not listed in the rules above
• Upgrading any Carry Capacities
• Complete any side quest or errands
• Complete any Tutorial Quest
• Complete any Activities
• Leave any dropped items that you can pick up in the run
• Travel further outside The Embrace than the starting Campfire (Of cause you leave the embrace during “Point of the Spear” and that is fine)
• You are not allowed to buy back sold items during the run

Objectives

The objectives for the run were not based on any pre-existing category, and were set in a way to make for a run that would last around 30 minutes. This was done to not have the time requirement for participating be too high.

The objectives that needed to be completed were as follows:

• Complete “Revenge of the Nora”
• Complete “A seeker at the gates”
• Complete 2x Bandit Camps
• Get 3x Blazing Suns
• Complete a Tallneck
• Collect 5 Metal Flowers

Progression

The tournament bracket can be found here: https://challonge.com/HZDSC2021

Of the restreamed matches, only a few were actually saved. These can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsS_oLIqn119AJohb53tu2l57P3dR8s8g&si=-DniJ1DZZQqbIx4O

Route

The route for the Summer Cup was made fairly quickly, with only a few uncertainties persisting throughout the tournament. Near the end though, the route had been finalised.

The route went as follows:

At the beginning of the run, the runner would wait around 35 seconds in order to manipulate the tallneck into being in an optimal position. This strategy was originally found by Fleur_Bleue101. It only came to the community's attention a few matches in when Robsdedude also discovered it, and a brief discussion was had about whether it should be allowed, to which it was decided that it was valid.

The runner would then make their way to the first metal flower, before going to the Massacre Site for the first step of the "The War-Chief's Trail" main quest. After this, you would ride your mount to the Tallneck at Devil's Thirst and climb it.

You then continue progressing through War-Chief's trail, completing the Dig Site and picking up a metal flower near the site. After this, you complete the Devil's Thirst bandit camp and make your way to Mother's Crown to progress the "A Seeker at the Gates" main quest. Now, complete the 2 corrupted zones and collect 2 more metal flowers. Proceed with completing "A Seeker at the Gates", and then turn around to complete the Two-Teeth bandit camp.

Since fast-travelling is banned, you have to ride your mount back, making a stop at the Valleymeet Hunting Grounds to get the 3 Blazing Suns.

Finally, complete the camps and Ring of Metal for the "Revenge of the Nora" main quest and pick up 1 more metal flower to finish the run.

Conclusion

The tournament concluded with Elkjaer in 3rd place, having lost to Fleur_Bleue101 in the Loser's Finals. Fleur in 2nd place, losing to BrewingWeaver in Grand Finals and as a result, Brewing in 1st place, winning the tournament undefeated.

Trivia

• Elkjaer had initially planned for the tournament to only take a few weeks, it ended up taking 3 months.
• Several loopholes to the rules were proposed by Fleur, all of which were shut down by the community.
• BrewingWeaver was awarded the "Cup Champion" role in the discord server for his victory.
• Brewing and Fleur were the only runners to achieve a 26-minute time in the cup, with Brewing being the only one to achieve a 25-minute time.
• There was a brief discussion of adding the Summer Cup category as a category extension, although nothing came of it.