Battlefield 1 Test Cups & ESB Council #1 Recap

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Image Credit: @Berduu

BF1 Test Cups & ESB Council #1 Recap

Test Cups

Last week, the Rental Server Program (RSP) was finally released on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4. While servers got released in a Beta version, and missing key features required by the competitive community, having them available this early is already a step in the right direction.

Due to missing features, we can’t currently customize player counts as we wish, which means we can’t try 5v5s, or 8v8s or 16v16s for now, however we have found a way to play 12v12 Conquest while we wait for the next patch to add more features.

All you need to do is insert a round of either TDM/Domination/War Pigeons in the map rotation prior (or even after) to the Conquest map(s) and the server will automatically set the maximum player count to 24 players, therefore allowing for 12v12 Conquest to be played. While we also don’t have password protected servers, changing a few server settings will cause your server to become a “Custom Games” Server and that should stop players from being able to join your server through the “Quick Play” feature, which should reduce the amount of randoms joining to the bare minimum if not completely.

While we wait for the next patch to arrive with more server features in order to run bigger and better events, we would like to already start running test cups and working with the community on creating an first ruleset for the Conquest competitive scene.

During the next 3 Weekends, we will be running test cups, each with various different rules in order to test various aspects of the game, and then vote on them in our second BF1 ESB Council which will take place on either Saturday December 17th or Sunday the 18th (more details and sign-ups for this council will be released in the future).

The first test cups will occur this Sunday at 2pm EST / 8pm CET on both PS4 and X1. You can find the links to sign-up below:

XBOX ONE TEST CUP #1

PLAYSTATION 4 TEST CUP #1

Each Test Cup is an ODC (One Day Cup) with a Double Elimination bracket, with all rounds being played in Bo1. This means that once the cup starts, every team will play at least 2 maps vs 2 different teams, with each tournament round not lasting (hopefully) more than 30-40 minutes. If all goes as planned, for teams reaching the final stages of the cup, it shouldn’t last more than 4-5 hours total.

The full rules including flag/vehicle restrictions will be added on the tournament pages this Friday night (Nov. 25th), so please be patient while we finalize everything ahead of this weekend.


ESB Council #1 Recap

On the 6th of November, we hosted our first Battlefield 1 ESB Council in which we discussed various topics such as game modes, match formats, class/weapon balance, etc. With 20 teams attending and taking part in the discussion, here is a brief summary of what was discussed and a rough idea of how teams reacted to each topic of discussion, ahead of launching our first test cups this coming weekend.

Below are the topics discussed with how many votes each received globally.

What game modes & formats would you like to see played in the competitive BF1 scene?
  • 15 – 12v12/16v16 Conquest
  • 6 – 5v5 Domination
  • 5 – 5v5 War Pigeons
  • 2 – 8v8/10v10 Domination
  • 2- 12v12 Operations
  • 1- 5v5 Rush

This seems to be coherent with a poll we ran a few days before on Twitter:

What Weapon/Class restrictions would you like to see in BF1 Conquest?
  • 13 – Elite Classes
  • 12 – Gas Grenades
  • 10 – Martini-Henry
  • 7 – Shotguns
  • 5 – 1 Shot Sniper Riffles
  • 3 – Hellriegel 1915
  • 1 – Lawrence of Arabia
  • 1 – Tripwire Bombs
  • 1 – Rifle Grenades
  • 1 – Impact Grenades

What Vehicle restrictions would you like to see in BF1 Conquest?

  • 9 – Behemoths
  • 6 – 1 Light and 1 Heavy Tank only
  • 5 – Bombers
  • 4 – Limit Tanks to 1 type of each
  • 3 – Horses
  • 2 – Attack Planes
  • 1 – Fighter