As the TNA administrators announced it on the IRC channel (#tna.tm), the second edition of the TNA 5on5 tournament will begin at the end of january. There will be some major changes in the rules, and they will all be explained in this short article.

Before talking about these rules changes, let's take a look at the first edition:

January 2008, the first TNA cup is created, with about 100 teams participating, including some of the best trackmania teams of the moment. The german team, aX.tmn (now known as n!faculty), wins the tournament after an amazing semi final (against nEph, 7-6 / 7-6) and the final against Le (who proceeded there after a close semi-final, 2-1, against o-Q), a team composed with rL and nWo players. At the same time, the swedish team, x-dt, wins the Loser bracket final.

Main Rules of TNA #1

• Played in a 5vs5 format.
  

• Matches are played on Wednesday or Friday, at 20h30 CET.
  

• Three maps are released every week, including two normal maps around 1minute, and one multilap, played in 10 laps.
  

• The two normal maps are played until 7 points, while the multilap is played until 2 points.
  

• There is some kind of loser bracket, but it is used for the 3rd team of each division only.
  

• 96 slots
  

• 16 divisions of 6 teams
  

• Draw matches are allowed.

TNA #2 :

As previously said, the second edition of this tournament will begin on the 28th of January, while the registrations should be opened on the 3rd of January. There will be lots of changes, and we decided to put the teams limit to 128, instead of 96.


Rules Changes

• Matches : The matches will have to be played on Wednesday, beginning between 20h and 21h CET.
  

• Teams limit : Put to 128, instead of 96.
  

• Divisions : Divisions will be composed with 4 teams only. The two best teams of each division will go to the playoffs.
  

• Mappacks : There won't be 3 maps released every week. We decided it was time for tournaments to change that rule, as lots of players get bored. A mappack will thus be released every 3 weeks. That means there will be :
  • A mappack for the 3 divisions matches
    

  • A mappack for the 1/32, the 1/16 and 1/8 finals
    

  • A mappack for the quarter and semi-finals
    

  • A mappack for the final

• Maps : There won't be multilaps anymore. A mappack will be composed with 3 normal maps, 2 around 1 minute, and the last one around 45-47seconds.
  

• Points limit : The 3 maps will be played until 7 points.
  

• Draw matches : No draw matches anymore, only the maps will count.
  

• Loser bracket : With the playoffs start, there will be a real loser bracket. At each playoffs round, the loser teams will thus fall into the loser bracket, having a chance to come back to the overall final.

We may do some minor changes, but these were the most important, changing the tournament structure. The mappack system has been chosen because of players complaining about training 3 maps per week in every competition. We thus hope they will be happy with this new system, which is also different from the ESL system.

Ask the admins via IRC (#tna.tm) if you have any question regarding the tournament, and don't forget these important dates:

- 3rd of January : Registrations opening
- 28th of January : First mappack release

Source: cryo-gaming