Today we're giving you the first report about the progress of Goultarminator 2012!
I wish I could have started talking about this earlier, but there were a few issues - not many, but quite important ones - which needed to wait for the development of the version 2.7 content.

The rules

For starters, let’s see what hasn’t changed:

• Qualification: The concept will remain the same as last year, a Test of Speed against Goultard, and then the Test of Popularity. I had mentioned the use of the Kolossium system for qualification, but it was not possible for this year’s edition.
   
• The team format: We will stick to teams of 4vs4 characters. A 5vs5 format was considered, but there were concerns about the length of fights and restrictions on the team formation. 3vs3 is the Kolossium format, something we’re practicing all year, so I’m not interested in it for Goultarminator, I prefer fights which provide a change from the usual.
   
• The tournament progression: We’ll keep the separation between a selection phase and a final phase, as well as a separation between International and French servers during the selection phase.

And now, the major changes:

• The two classes which will be duplicated to fill out each server team with16 representatives (in 2011, these were the Rogue and Masqueraider) this year will be... Iop and Cra. This choice is quite simple to explain: they are the two most played classes in general, and among the most active in Kolossium (you got a glimpse during the inter-server Kolossium challenge during the 2.6 Beta). With these two classes, we’re ensuring dynamic fights and avoid the risk of running out of representatives, as was the case with Rogues/Masqueraiders in 2011.
• The rule of 2011 that “Each of the 4 teams must have 1 Rogue OR 1 Masqueraider” (or Cra/Iop, respectively) will be removed and replaced by the following, simplified rule: “A team may not have two of the same class.”
• Like the Kolossium, wearing shields will be completely disabled during Goultorminator.
• The four "pillar" classes, which must be distributed in four different teams, are: Xelor, Osamodas, Eniripsa and Sacrier.
  
  

Other adjustments will be made to the rules, but these are details that do not affect the preparation of candidates and will be published in full later.
 

Community events

 
I must, however, mention another major change to Goultarminator, although it is not part of the tournament itself:
 

• We will refocus on the PvP Tournament of the Goultarminator by making a division between it and the normal array of community events. We will no longer hold community events related to the tournament during the months of July and August. We now have two distinct events during this summer period for two types of players: the Goultarminator for those who enjoy PvP and Vulkania for those who enjoy PvM. However, this does not mean that we are abandoning the concept of the community event. The Game Designers, CCM team and myself will work on an event exclusively built around the concept of community events as competition between different servers, which will take place at another time of year.

 

Dates

 
Finally, the last news of the day... Dates! 

The schedule of Goultarminator 2012:
   
Next week I will publish an announcement for the owners of fansites and other volunteers who wish to participate in broadcasting Goultarminator 2012.
 
Additional thanks goes to the representatives of the Zenith for their participation in the development of these rules.