2023 Challenge Tournament Overview

[Metropolis Man]

2023 Challenge Tournament Overview

Welcome to the 2023 Sims 4 Challenge Tournament! The 19-event tournament runs from January 2 to November 12. There will be two events per month (except October and November, which will only feature the Finale), with challenge #1 beginning on the first Monday and ending the following Sunday. Challenge #2 begins on the second Monday and ends on the second Sunday of play. Rules for each month's events will be posted the Monday before the first event goes live to allow plenty of practice time and for questions to be answered. Here is a link to the official 2023 Challenge Tournament Schedule.

General Challenge Rules
Players are responsible for knowing and following the General Challenge Rules. The rules below apply to all 2023 Tournament events (Dynasty challenges are not Tournament events). Any exceptions will be noted in individual rulesets.

Creating Your Scoring Game File
Always create Sims in CAS (not CAS Storymode) from scratch; no gallery downloaded Sims or library Sims. 3rd party Custom Content that alters appearance for CAS purposes is acceptable and can be used at the player's own risk. 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.

Allowed cheats: You are allowed the bb.moveobjects cheat at any time; (ResetSim Firstname Lastname) for stuck Sims, and (showhiddenobjects) for preventing abductions with a satellite dish.

Options - all default settings: Autonomy > Full; Auto Age (Played Sims) > Yes; Auto Age (Unplayed Sims) > Yes; Sim Lifespan > Normal; Holidays: No changes to holidays unless specific rulesets allow them.

Neighborhood Stories System: Enable Neighborhood Stories needs to be checked.

Expansions and Game Packs
Any new Expansion or Game Pack content (less than 30 days before a Tournament challenge goes live) must be disabled before starting your scoring file. 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).

Practicing and Submitting Scores
At the bottom of the rulesets are the official starting and closing dates. Playing your scoring file before the starting date or after the closing date is not allowed, but practicing before a challenge officially goes live is fine. Once you create your scoring file, that’s it—you have one attempt and cannot create a 2nd scoring file. 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. After you submit your score, remember not to comment on how you approached the event with specifics until the event is closed.

Banned Content
Cheats panel. Opening the cheats panel is only allowed in the situations mentioned above in the Creating Your Scoring File section. 
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. 
Plasma packs exploit from purchased fish and selling the packs.
Inventory Exploits - removing and replacing inventory items to make Aspiration milestone progress.
Exiting without saving and/or restarting from an earlier save. If a bug plagues your challenge file, then PM the team with specifics.

The Honor System
The 2023 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, you must PM the team (Metropolis Man, sdhoey, GlazeyLady, Teresa, and mismck) so we can quickly edit a rule set. We have a zero-tolerance policy for cheating.


Prizes

Champion. The 2023 Tournament Champion will be the player at the top of the World Ranking at the close of the Tournament Finale on November 12 and will receive a 2023 Sims 4 Tournament Championship Plaque and a $50 gift card (player’s choice - Amazon, Steam, EA, etc.).
Runner-Up. One $25 gift card will be awarded to the runner-up.
Perfect 10 Winner. All players who received at least §10,000 in sponsorship over the 2023 season will be put into a pool for a random draw $10 gift card.


We hope the 2023 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, Teresa, mismck, and sone.

[Vesper]

Regarding Creating Your Scoring Game File - Options
There no longer seems to be an option to Fill Empty Homes. Presumably that's part of neighbourhood stories now?
Just to clarify that if a setting isn't mentioned then it should remain as default e.g. lunar cycles and season lengths.

[Metropolis Man]

Regarding Creating Your Scoring Game File - Options
There no longer seems to be an option to Fill Empty Homes. Presumably that's part of neighbourhood stories now?
Just to clarify that if a setting isn't mentioned then it should remain as default e.g. lunar cycles and season lengths.

Yes, default settings unless otherwise mentioned. Thanks again, Vesper.

[SueDenim]

Wants and Fears?  If it isn't explicitly related to the challenge, can we turn those off?  It's inconvenient to have the sims worried about their unfulfilled dreams when they're supposed to be working on my unfulfilled dreams.

[Metropolis Man]

Wants and Fears?  If it isn't explicitly related to the challenge, can we turn those off?  It's inconvenient to have the sims worried about their unfulfilled dreams when they're supposed to be working on my unfulfilled dreams.

Hi, Sue. Correct me if I am wrong but the default for Show Wants and Fears should be unchecked. If the default game setting is to show them then leave it checked.

[Metropolis Man]

The team has changing its view on the following...

Neighborhood Stories System: At the start of every new save, unless otherwise specified for a particular tournament challenge, be sure to go into Manage Households to disable all Neighborhood Stories System settings.

The new general rule covering all tournament events is...

Neighborhood Stories System: Enable Neighborhood Stories needs to be checked.

[Vesper]

To confirm: from the baby challenge onwards we need neighbourhood stories switched on? All types all households?

[Metropolis Man]

To confirm: from the baby challenge onwards we need neighbourhood stories switched on? All types all households?

Correct.