Tournament

Tournaments let players compete for rewards and bragging rights. Players need either Standard or Gold Tournament Tickets to take part in Tournament Battles.

## How Tournaments Work

### Heats

Tournaments consist of 6 consecutive **Heats**, each one lasting 24 hours, running weekly from Tuesday 6 AM UTC (2 AM EST) until Monday 6 AM UTC.

In each of those Heats, your first Tournament Battle you will set your **Tournament Score** which will determine your place in the **Ranking**. These Rankings include yourself and 19 other players who entered the Tournament around the same time as you. Every tournament battle that you fight will increase your Tournament Score. At the end of the Heat you will get rewards based on your place in the Ranking.

### Brackets

Your Tournament Bracket affects the types of rewards you can get when a Heat finishes. The first Heat you will join in a tournament will place you in the *Novice* Bracket. If you finish a heat near the top of the Ranking you will be promoted to the next bracket (where rewards are better). If you finish near the bottom of the Ranking you will be relegated to the previous bracket. Your bracket doesn't change if you skip a heat, and is reset back to Novice at the start of the next Tournament. The brackets are Novice, Expert, Professional, Master, and Grand Master.

### Rotation

Tournaments alternate each other week between the battle modes: 5V5 Deathmatch and Free-For-All.

Each heat is one of three maps that cycle on rotation.

## Tournament Tips and Tricks

* In the Novice bracket the rewards near the top of the Ranking are not significantly better than the rewards near the bottom of the Ranking. Also, you only need to reach 15th place in order to advance to the next bracket. So it might be more economical to play just the minimum amount to advance to the next bracket and save your remaining standard tickets for the following brackets where you'll get better rewards for pushing higher scores.
* Even if you don't want to play in Tournament battles at all, you can still gain rewards from it. The bottom ranks in Novice still provide a reward of 1,000 Credits, a silver crate and 2 Fortune Vault Keys. If you join a tournament Heat, spawn your first mech and immediately quit you will still receive those rewards (and likely stay in the Novice bracket for the next day). By spending about 45 seconds daily you can receive 12 Fortune Vault Tickets each week without actually playing any Tournament battle.
* You can affect which players compete with you in the Ranking by selecting the time that you join the Heat. Some competitive players only join in the last few hours of the heat and play continuously until the heat ends. If you join earlier in the heat you might find a less competitive group of players (but some players will just play for more hours to reach even higher scores in the Ranking).
* Since each bracket offers incrementally better rewards, players generally become more competitive and push for higher scores as they progress in brackets. If you don't have the time to grind the scores needed for the top of the Ranking in a given bracket, it might be a good strategic decision to intentionally fail the heat and return to a lower bracket where you have a better chance to achieve top rewards.