2020 Sims 4 Challenge Tournament Overview

[Metropolis Man]

2020 Sims 4 Challenge Tournament Overview

Welcome to the 2020 Sims 4 Challenge Tournament! The 14-event Tournament runs from January 6 to November 29. With the exception of the mid-season Major and the Tournament Finale, five weeks, and six weeks, respectively, all events will be three 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 three weeks to practice. Here is a link to the official 2020 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 2020 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. 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.

Starting Dates/Closing Dates
At the bottom of rulesets are official starting and closing dates. Playing your scoring file before the starting date or after the closing date is not allowed. 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
Always create Sims in CAS (not CAS Storymode) from scratch; no gallery downloaded Sims or library Sims. All challenges begin in a fresh, completely unaltered town of your choosing. Missing community EA lots, such as the spa, must be placed at the beginning of your file. 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 > Normal. 

3rd Party Custom Content
3rd party Custom Content that alters appearance for CAS purposes is acceptable and can be used at the player's own risk.

Expansions and Game Packs
If an Expansion or Game Pack comes out less than 30 days before a Tournament challenge goes live, then that content must be disabled before you start your scoring file. But, if there have been at least 30 days after an Expansion or Game Pack, then you are free to use it (unless a specific ruleset says otherwise).


Banned Content for the 2020 Tournament

Cheats panel. You are only allowed to open the cheats panel for three things: a stuck Sim (ResetSim Firstname Lastname), a stuck object (Moveobjects), or preventing abductions with a satellite dish (showhiddenobjects).
Modifications (mods) are patches that alter some core component of gameplay and are never allowed, including your practice runs.
Tricks to reset Whims, such as reloading a game or traveling/entering CAS.
Editing Non-Home Lots. Personal inventory items can be placed on a non-home lot, but this is the only allowed editing of non-home lots. 
Household Management screen. Do not click on this tab during any challenge. 
Inventory Exploits - removing and replacing inventory items to make Aspiration milestone progress.
Exiting without saving and/or restarting from an earlier save. In the event your challenge file is plagued by a bug, then PM the team with specifics.


The Honor System
The 2020 Tournament is about friendly competition and having fun. It 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, which 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, LenaLJ, and GlazeyLady) 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 an 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 2020 Tournament Champion will be the player at the top of the World Ranking at the close of the Tournament Finale on November 29 and will receive a 2020 Sims 4 Tournament Championship Plaque and a $100 gift card (player’s choice - Amazon, Steam, EA, etc.).
**Runner-Up. One $75 gift card  (player’s choice - Amazon, Steam, EA, etc.) will be awarded to the runner-up.
**3rd Place. One $50 gift card will be awarded to the 3rd place finisher.
**Fabulous Fifty Club Winner. All players who participate in at least five regular events (or one major + three regular events) will be entered into a random drawing at the end of the year. The lucky player chosen will receive a $50 gift card. It’s the team’s way of saying thank you to those who dedicate a serious investment of time to get the participation component of their world ranking to 50%.


We hope the 2020 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, LenaLJ, and GlazeyLady.

[Metropolis Man]

1/29 — added that players can use the showhiddenobjects cheat to prevent abductions.

[Metropolis Man]

Here we go for 2020 . Make sure to read the rules for all events above carefully. Some bans have been eliminated in order to make things a bit simpler. We also changed the lifespan for all events to Normal.

[Metropolis Man]

Forumer Teresa was not able to message the entire team with a question she had regarding the upcoming 20 Ways challenge. Is anyone else having problems messaging the team as a group option under My Messages?

[Vesper]

I couldn't find an option to message the team, only individual people, do you perhaps need to be a member of the team to do this?

[Metropolis Man]

Not sure what is going on. Some players have messaged the whole challenge team with no issues. I sent Carl a Discord message so maybe he can shed light on this.

[oshizu]

I couldn't find an option to message the team, only individual people, do you perhaps need to be a member of the team to do this?

@Versper
When sending a message, do you see a "Show membergroups" option between the "To:" and "Subject" boxes?
Clicking that displays three more options:
"Administrator, Global Moderator, and Challenge Board Moderator.

I think addressing the message to Metropolis Man plus checking the "cc" and "Challenge Board Moderator" boxes might send the message to the entire Challenge Team.
Not sure, though.

[Metropolis Man]

Carl is going to look into permissions and group messaging. There is always the old fashioned way of simply adding all team members individually: Send a Message > To > Metropolis Man, LenaLJ, GlazeyLady, MarianT and sdhoey.

[Carl]

@Vesper see if you have the option to send to groups now, with the intended target group being Challenge Board Moderator. I'm aware the others will be available with this permission - just putting it out there that this is the intended use of this feature for anyone who sees this in the future.

[Vesper]

yes send to groups is now showing up as an option

[Metropolis Man]

Thank you, Carl.

[Teresa]

I can see the Groups option now - Thanks!

[Metropolis Man]

The team made the following decision to eliminate the line below that has a strike through it. Basically, for any event -- you choose your weather and season length and if you want holidays, etc. But, individual rulesets may ban certain things.

Creating Your Scoring Game File
Always create Sims in CAS (not CAS Storymode) from scratch, no gallery downloaded Sims or library Sims. All challenges begin in a fresh, completely unaltered town of your choosing. Missing community EA lots such as the spa, must be placed at the beginning of your file. 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 > Normal; Seasons players > No Extreme weather. Do not start any holidays of your own and turn off any holidays on the calendar.

[ratchie]

Hey I'm getting back into playing the sims. So it all started way back when with sims 3 challenges so I'm ready to losd up the computer and start enjoying this game again.

rachel

[Metropolis Man]

Rachel, it's so awesome to see you back. Good luck in the 2020 season.