This morning we’ll be pushing out a new patch on the client and server to prepare for today’s Runemage Tournament, which will take place at 4 PM US Central Time. Handy Countdown in Your Timezone

6 of the best Mages from the Orbus community will assemble in front of a live audience to crown the winner of the tournament. Similar to an Olympics game, we will feature two rounds with each Mage getting a chance to put up their best score.

The Tournament will take place in its own special zone. To join it, just go to the Social tab on your Menu (the “multiple people heads” icon), then choose “Activities” -> “Tournament” -> “Join Queue.” Within a few moments you will leave wherever you are currently at in the world and be teleported into the Tournament zone.

Similar to the PvP Arena if you’ve ever done that, the Tournament zone is a special zone where none of your changes will persist once you leave. Once you leave the zone, you will be teleported back to wherever you were at previously in the same state you were in.

If you are a participant in the Tournament, you will load in with your actual inventory and full control over your character. If you are not one of the six participants, instead you will load into the zone as an Observer with a basic inventory and appear as a Wisp (similar to how you look when you are dead). You will be unable to move and your hands are hidden from all other players. You will be assigned a random position along the Arena to watch. You will see a box which lets you leave the Tournament zone if you wish to do so.

After the patch goes out this morning, the Tournament zone will be active, so feel free to hop in and check it out briefly anytime today if you just want to see how it works. If you’re going to be participating in the Tournament, feel free to get a few practice runs in.

Finally, please note that we are running this as a live event, and as such there will be a lot of people in the zone. We want everyone to be able to talk and have fun and cheer just like a sports event in a stadium, but please keep in mind that if you violate the Code of Conduct or are just generally being a nuisance to disrupt things, you will be kicked and may receive a temporary ban from the entire game. We’re hoping that this is the kind of thing that we can do on a regular basis, so please come ready to have fun, listen to the moderators running the event, and get ready to cheer on these Mages as they make history!

We look forward to seeing you all later this afternoon!

EDIT: Note that if you’re a Participant in the Tournament and want to leave after you join the zone, just logout and log back in.