2018 Sims 4 Challenge Tournament Overview

[Metropolis Man]

2018 Sims 4 Challenge Tournament Overview

Welcome to the 2018 Sims 4 Challenge Tournament! The 14-event Tournament runs from January 1st to December 2nd (anyone can jump in the Tournament at any time throughout the year). With the exception of the mid-season Major and the Tournament Finale which are 6-week events, all events will be 3 weeks. When an event goes live on a Monday the team will also post a preview ruleset of the next scheduled event to give players 3 weeks to practice. Here is a link to the official 2018 Sims 4 Tournament Events Calendar.

General Challenge Rules

Players are responsible for knowing and following the General Challenge Rules. The rules below apply to all 2018 Tournament events (Dynasty challenges are not Tournament events). Any exceptions will be noted in individual rulesets.

Participation and Practice
Participating in Tournament events is easy - just pick an event and dive in. Live events and/or events that are soon to go live have a thumbs up topic icon. Events that have closed have a standard icon. Practicing before a challenge officially goes live is fine, but once you create your scoring file, that’s it—you have one attempt and cannot create a 2nd scoring file. You may never use any mods while practicing for an event. All mods or programs/utilities that allow you to look at code to gain information must never be used once you begin practicing for a challenge.

Starting Dates/Closing Dates
At the bottom of rulesets you will notice official starting and closing dates. If the event is a minor event you have three weeks to finish. If the event is a major event, then you have six weeks. Playing your scoring file before the starting date or after the closing date is not allowed. The only time reference you need to remember is your local time/date. You must submit scores in the individual challenge thread before the closing date has come and gone in your local time zone. Scores submitted after the closing date will not be accepted.

Creating Your Scoring Game File
All challenges begin in a fresh, virgin, completely unaltered town of your choosing. If you wish to place a missing community EA lot such as the spa, then you must do so at the beginning of your file. Personal inventory items may be placed on non-home lots, but aside from this, non-home lots must remain unaltered. Unless a particular ruleset lays down restrictions, you are free to travel and/or move to any neighborhood or town. Options - all default settings: Autonomy > Full; Auto Age (Played Sims) > Yes; Auto Age (Unplayed Sims) > Yes; Sim Lifespan > Short; Seasons players > No Extreme weather. Do not start any holidays of your own and turn off any holidays on the calendar.

Always create Sims in CAS from scratch. • Cannot use gallery downloaded Sims • Cannot use cloned/twin gallery downloaded Sims • Cannot use saved Sims from your library • Cannot use saved Sims clone/twin from your library.

3rd Party Custom Content / Modifications
3rd party Custom Content that alters appearance for CAS purposes is acceptable and can be used at the player's own risk. Modifications (mods) are patches that alter some core component of gameplay and are never allowed. Programs and utilities that allow you to see the game code such as ILSpy are also never allowed. Remember, no mods or code utilities can be used during practice.

Cheats and Banned Content
You are only allowed to open the cheats panel for two things: a stuck Sim or a stuck object.

ResetSim Firstname Lastname. You may only use this cheat in the event of a stuck Sim. This cheat is case sensitive, so make sure to type your Sim’s name correctly).
Moveobjects. You may only use this cheat for a stuck object.

The following content is banned in all 2018 Tournament events:

All 13 Plumbob Reward Lamps (from owning Sims 3 base game and expansion packs).
Reloading a game or traveling/entering CAS to reset Whims - This is an exploit to force the game to spawn more Whims.
Editing Non-Home Lots - Anything from personal inventory that can be placed on a non-home lot is allowed, but this is the only allowed editing of non-home lots. 
Life Extension - anything that lengthens pre-Elder life stages is prohibited. Pregnancy falls into the life extension category, but in certain Tournament challenges - most obviously Baby Boomer - pregnancy will be allowed.
No contact with Jasmine Holiday - no visits and no calling her.
Exiting without saving to avoid a mistake or an unfortunate occurrence (i.e. burglar or fire) is cheating. Restarting from an earlier save is also cheating. In the event your challenge file is plagued by a game-breaking bug, then PM the team with specifics. We will then make a decision as to restarting from a previous save or simply allowing a complete restart.

Some Aspiration Milestone have you finding collectibles, etc, and these can be exploited by having items in your inventory already as the Milestone becomes active with you then removing and replacing the items to make progress on the Milestone. This falls into the category of cheating. Whims related to collectibles can also be quickly finished via the inventory exploit, so please do not do that.

Strategy Discussion
Do not discuss any strategy pertaining to a given event once that event’s ruleset is posted. Asking questions like "Can I do x?" may seem innocent, but may in fact put that idea in someone else's head if they had not thought of doing that. So, please, PM the team. After an event closes you are free to discuss strategy for that event.

The Honor System
The 2018 Tournament is all about friendly competition and having fun. The Tournament attracts players of all abilities and competitiveness from casual first-timers to seasoned high-caliber veterans. We all want to have a good time no matter what we’re seeking to get out of the Tournament. Allowing everyone to have a good time means we all need to play honestly — no cheating and no exploits. If you discover an exploit then you must PM the team (Metro, sdhoey, MarianT, and LenaLJ) so we can quickly edit a ruleset. We have a zero-tolerance policy for cheating.

Submitting Scores
When you have finished all the requirements for a given event submit your final score in the individual challenge thread and the team will update the leaderboard with your information. Remember not to comment on how you approached the event with specifics until the event is closed.

Prizes
**Champion. The 2018 Tournament Champion will be the player at the top of the World Ranking at the close of the Tournament Finale on December 2 and will receive two $20 EA game cards as well as a 2018 Sims 4 Tournament Championship Plaque and a $100 Amazon.com gift card.
**Runner-Up. One $75 Amazon.com gift card and one $20 EA game card will be awarded to the runner-up.
**3rd Place. One $50 Amazon.com gift card and one $20 EA game card will be awarded to the 3rd place finisher.
**Fabulous Fifty Club Winner. All players who participate in at least 5 regular events (or one major + 4 regular events) will be entered into a random drawing at the end of the year. The lucky player chosen will receive a $50 Amazon.com gift card. It's the team's way of saying thank you to those who dedicate a serious investment of time to get their participation component of their world ranking to 50%.

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We hope the 2018 Sims 4 Challenge Tournament adds new and exciting dimensions to your playing, and most importantly, we hope everyone has a great time.

See you on the leaderboard — Metro, sdhoey, MarianT, and LenaLJ.

[Metropolis Man]

Just in case you regular Tournament players did not want to wade through my wall of text above there really are only two changes to the standard operating procedure that has been the case for years. First, only one event will be live at a time. I am hoping this is a good change where everyone's focus will be on one event and you won't have to juggle.

The other main thing is the concept of two Major events -- one mid-season and then the Finale. Both of these six-week events will be treated in the World Ranking spreadsheet as having the weight of two shorter events. It's always been the case to require three events of a player to earn a World Ranking, but next year you could earn a ranking with one shorter event, plus one Major. Obviously, we hope you participate in more than two events.

The team is always open to new ideas and suggestions. Good luck next year, everybody.

[Shewolf13]

Oh wow, can't believe I missed all of last year's tournament!  I hope to be able to participate this year.  Love the fact that the first one is a vampire challenge!

[simemie]

Never participated in one of these before but just made an account specially to do so this year hopefully!

[MarianT]

Never participated in one of these before but just made an account specially to do so this year hopefully!

Welome to the forum, @simemie! I hope you enjoy the challenges.

[Metropolis Man]

Never participated in one of these before but just made an account specially to do so this year hopefully!

Welome to the forum, @simemie! I hope you enjoy the challenges.

Ditto, @simemie. Thank you for joining the forum and good luck this coming season.

[MarianT]

@Metropolis Man, Can players with the console version participate? The console game seems to be almost identical to the PC version, so my inclination would be to say yes, but I want to check before giving the go-ahead.

[Metropolis Man]

@Metropolis Man, Can players with the console version participate? The console game seems to be almost identical to the PC version, so my inclination would be to say yes, but I want to check before giving the go-ahead.

I don't see why not. The more the merrier, right? Does anyone know of any differences in mechanics of the console version of Sims 4 that may give a challenge player some advantage?

[cyclonenic]

If anything console players may be at a disadvantage in more generalised challenges, having access to less expansions etc. But for the first challenge at least they should be okay.

[MissYuna4ever]

Oh wow, I'm pleased I found my login details again as this sounds really interesting ^_^ I'm hope to participate in as many of the tournaments as possible, even if it's just to experience different aspects of the game ^_^

[Metropolis Man]

Oh wow, I'm pleased I found my login details again as this sounds really interesting ^_^ I'm hope to participate in as many of the tournaments as possible, even if it's just to experience different aspects of the game ^_^

Woot! Welcome back. Good luck in the upcoming challenges.

[Sam Priest]

Good evening! New to the forum and the idea of challenges.

Could you explain why we use the Short lifespan?

[Metropolis Man]

Good evening! New to the forum and the idea of challenges.

Could you explain why we use the Short lifespan?

Welcome to the forum, @Sam Priest. For years Tournament challenges were always played in the Normal lifespan. Given a lot of events have you finishing when your Sim turns Adult, or Elder it can be quite a grind with the number of game days needed to play. So, this year we made the change to the Short lifespan and have received quite a bit of positive feedback since the amount of time needed to play many events was almost cut in half.

[hanalu]

Literally just made an account to join in with this! Wish I'd know last year as spent WAY too much of my time curled up in bed signed off work with Hypermesis could have filled my time with challenges!

Might be joining the first one if I don't talk myself out of purchasing Vampires as I don't currently own that one!


ETA - oops... downloading now.... I have zero willpower

[Metropolis Man]

Literally just made an account to join in with this! Wish I'd know last year as spent WAY too much of my time curled up in bed signed off work with Hypermesis could have filled my time with challenges!

Might be joining the first one if I don't talk myself out of purchasing Vampires as I don't currently own that one!


ETA - oops... downloading now.... I have zero willpower

Welcome to the forum and good luck with the first event.