In the Board Game Tavern, to the right of the entrance door, there is a second door that leads into the special Tournament Room. Only citizens with Premium Accounts may play in the Tournament Room.

This is the place where, most notably, official Tournaments of the Catan Online World are carried out. The official Tournaments are always City Tournaments. This means that all citizens of one city compete against the citizens of other cities. In each game, only players from different cities are allowed to play, meaning that no more than one citizen per city may participate in the same game. The home town is indicated by a number following the nickname of the player. To start the game, all players therefore must have different city numbers.

For ranking purposes, all scores obtained by the citizens of a city are added up and then divided by the number of citizens with Premium Accounts, so that smaller cities are not penalized. The ranking of the individual games is determined according to the established pattern.

During a Tournament, a slightly modified quitting rule applies. According to the normal rule, the game is counted towards the substitute player only if he or she wins, while losses are imputable to the quitter. The reason is that the substitute player shouldn’t be punished for helping out. However, in a Tournament game each game is an asset for the city ranking, no matter if it is won or lost. This is why the points are counted towards the city of the substitute player even if this player loses the game. The individual score remains unaffected, so that the substitute player is not at a disadvantage.

A Tournament usually lasts for a period of three days, where a different game is played each day. An advance news communication will announce which games to be played and what other special rules will be applicable for the Tournament (e.g. a fixed number of players per game).

If no official Tournament is held, the Tournament Room is also available for normal games. That’s why unofficial Tournaments of the COW community are often held there, too. You can find information on these Tournaments in the Community News at www.playcatan.com and im the PlayCatan Forum.