The neo cup is a self-scheduled, double elimination (DE) tournament split into two skill pools: Lower and Upper. Each pool runs its own independent DE bracket. Players are seeded and assigned to a pool according to their performance in the qualifying period. The Lower Pool runs to completion first, followed by the Upper Pool. Within each pool, players self-schedule their matches against opponents over a multi-day window, with the tournament running over the course of multiple weeks.

Qualifier period: May 5 – May 31. Submissions close May 31 at 11:59 PM.

The tournament and qualifiers are split into two brackets, the Lower Division and the Upper Division. A maximum of 15 players will be placed into the Upper Division, and the remaining players will be placed into the Lower Division, with a maximum of 16 players in the Lower Division.

Players above 15000 DX Rating are only allowed to submit qualifier scores for the Upper Division, with submissions for the Lower Division being ignored. Players under the 15000 rating are allowed to submit scores for either bracket, however they must at least have a submission for the Lower Division to submit for the Upper Division. If the Lower Division submission is a higher score than the Upper Division submission, the Lower Division submission will be used. If the Upper Division score submission is higher, it will be used and treated as an Upper Division submission. If there are more than 15 Upper Division submissions, the excess players will instead become the top seeds of the Lower Division in descending order.

Qualifiers should be submitted into the qualifier Google Form. It must include your division, and your best score for each of the 3 qualifier songs with photo proof. The photo must be of the set result screen, or an uploaded score image to maimai DX NET, as described in Section 1.6.

The following rules also apply to qualifiers:

• Qualifier songs can be played as many times as you want, as only your best score per song counts.
• Songs can be played in any order, and on different credits.
• You may resubmit as many times as you like during the qualifier period.
• The combined best achievement percentage across all 3 songs is what determines your qualifier ranking and seeding placement, with the highest combined achievement score being 303.0000%.
• You may not submit a score achieved before the qualifier period.
• Qualifiers may be played on International or MYT cabs.
• Offline scores are allowed, however, online scores are preferred.

The Lower Division bracket runs to completion first. Once the Lower Division has a winner, the Upper Division bracket begins. The Lower Division winner enters the Upper Division bracket as the pre-fixed lowest seed and competes from the first round of Upper alongside the rest of the Upper Division.

Player's initial matchups are based on traditional seeding rules.

Example:

All matches are self-scheduled within each pool. Once a round opens, you are responsible for reaching out to your opponent and agreeing on a time to play. You will be added to a private thread to facilitate scheduling and the TO will be present in those chats throughout the tournament.

Each round will have a stated deadline. Both players must complete their match before that deadline or risk a loss or disqualification. Deadline windows are approximately one week per round, subject to change based on player availability. If all matches in a round are completed before the deadline, the next round may begin before the end of the deadline window.

When scheduling, players also must decide and mutually agree on which location, cab, and player side to play their match on.

Players should check within the chosen arcade Discord channel for updates on cab maintenance, as playing on certain cabs and sides can lead to more or less machine malfunctions, faults, or advantages over another side.

There are two types of facilitated matches in the neo cup: TO Facilitated and Player Facilitated matches.

TO Facilitated matches are run in the traditional tournament sense. At the chosen arcade venue, the players and at least one TO will be present. The TO present will facilitate and observe all match procedures for the players, including the card draw, pick/ban process, and enforce all rules in this document.

Player Facilitated matches only require the players to be present at the chosen arcade venue. The processes required by a TO must be done over Discord Voice Chat when both players are ready to begin their match and at the agreed location and cab, including the card draw and pick/ban process. Since there is no TO present to watch the match, the players TO each other, watching their opponent if they are following the rules and recording their scores.

In a Player Facilitated match, the match may only be recorded if proof of the match is sent to a TO. At least one of the following must be provided:

• Photos or videos taken of the set result screen of each track played for the match.
  Example:
  
• Screenshots from both players of their recently played songs and results that include each track played for the match, available in maimai DX NET under the RECORDS and GAME RECORD menus.
  Example:
  

All matches, except for Finals and Grand Finals as stated below, are allowed to be played in the listed NorCal arcades, since the tournament is self-scheduled and players may agree to play their match at any listed arcade. Tournament matches are only allowed to be played in the following U.S. International arcades:

• San Jose - Round 1 ESC - Main venue
• San Francisco - Round 1 STG

The Losers Semifinals, Finals, and Grand Finals matches for both divisions will be TO Facilitated matches held at San Jose, Round 1 ESC, even if players ask or agree otherwise.

Song pools and difficulty ranges will be announced alongside the final seeding prior to the beginning of the Lower Division bracket.

At the start of every match, there will be a card draw from the eligible song pool for that round. The eligible pool is determined by the difficulty range assigned to that round, which scales upward as the tournament progresses. Difficulty ranges will be announced alongside bracket seeding.

The following song types are excluded from all card draws regardless of difficulty:

• UTAGE (宴) charts
• Long version songs
• Songs unavailable/removed in the U.S. version of maimai DX CiRCLE

Locked songs may appear in a card draw and can only stay if at least one player in the match has the song unlocked. If neither player has a locked song that was drawn, that song is rerolled.

Before the pick/ban phase begins, both players may mutually agree to redraw the entire card pool once. If only one player wants a redraw and the other does not, the original draw stands.

If you are the higher seed of a match, you will be asked to either:

• Ban first, pick second (PO1): Higher seed bans first. Lower seed bans second, then picks first. Higher seed picks second.
• Pick first, ban second (PO2): Lower seed bans first. Higher seed bans second, then picks first. Lower seed picks second.

The order songs are played in the match follows the order they were picked during the pick/ban phase. Whichever player's song was picked first will be played first.

The Best of 3 match procedure is as follows:

• The TO asks the higher seed to choose PO1 or PO2 as described in Section 2.4.
• The TO draws 5 songs from the eligible pool. Both players may agree to redraw once before proceeding. The decision must be mutual, otherwise proceeds as normal.
• Players execute their pick/ban choices: Ban, Ban, Pick, Pick. The remaining fifth song becomes the tiebreaker.
• Songs are played in pick order. If a player wins the first two songs, the tiebreaker is not played.

The Best of 5 match procedure is as follows:

• Both players privately write down 3 Pocket Pick songs. See Section 3 for Pocket Pick rules and restrictions.
• The TO asks the higher seed to choose PO1 or PO2 as described in Section 2.4.
• Both players simultaneously reveal their Pocket Pick sets to each other. Each player then selects 1 song from their opponent's set. The TO then asks the higher seed whether they want their selected Pocket Pick to be played first (PP1) or second (PP2). The lower seed's selected Pocket Pick takes the remaining slot. See Section 3 for rules on identical Pocket Picks.
• The TO draws 5 songs from the eligible pool. Both players may agree to redraw once before proceeding. The decision must be mutual, otherwise proceeds as normal.
• Players execute their pick/ban choices on the 5 drawn songs: Ban, Ban, Pick, Pick. The remaining fifth drawn song becomes the tiebreaker.
• Songs are played in this order: PP1, PP2, first picked song, second picked song, then the tiebreaker if needed. If a player wins three songs, the remaining songs are not played.

Both Divisions' Grand Finals use a reset format. If the player coming from the Losers bracket of the current division wins the first Grand Finals match, a second Grand Finals match is played immediately after. This second match is a fresh Best of 5 with a new Pocket Pick phase and a new card draw. Any Pocket Picks that were selected by a player's opponent during the first Grand Finals match may not be used again as Pocket Picks in the reset match.

In the event that a match ends completely, i.e. a victor is decided, and there are extra songs left on the credit used to play the match, players are allowed to play whatever they would like for the remaining songs.

Pocket Picks are a set of songs chosen by each player before a Finals or Grand Finals match. They represent the player's preferred charts and are presented to the opponent, who selects one to be played in the set.

For Best of 5 matches, each player writes down 3 Pocket Pick songs privately before the match begins. The following restrictions apply to all Pocket Pick selections:

• Pocket Picks must be charts within the difficulty range assigned to the Finals round.
• UTAGE (宴) charts, long version songs, and removed songs are not eligible as Pocket Picks.
• Locked songs are eligible as Pocket Picks, provided at least one player in the match has the song unlocked.
• Once one of your Pocket Picks has been selected by your opponent and played, that chart may not be submitted again as a Pocket Pick in the Grand Finals reset match.

If both players submit overlapping charts in their Pocket Pick sets, the following rules apply:

• 1 identical chart: The matching chart is force-selected as one of the two Pocket Picks to be played. The second Pocket Pick is randomized from the remaining eligible songs in the draw. If the randomized song matches the force-selected chart, reroll.
• 2 identical charts: Both matching charts are force-selected as the two Pocket Picks to be played.
• All 3 identical charts: Each player individually picks 1 of the 3 shared charts to be played. Both players may select the same chart.

All songs are scored using Achievement percentage (%). The player with the higher Achievement on a given song wins that song.

If both players achieve the same Achievement percentage on a song, the following tiebreaker steps are applied in order until a winner is determined:

• The player with the higher DX Score wins.
• If DX Scores are also equal, the player with the lower non-perfect note count wins. Non-perfect counts are weighted as follows: Great = −1, Good = −2, Miss = −3.
• If all of the above are still equal, a sudden death tiebreaker is played. The TO will draw a single song from the same difficulty range as the current match. The result of that song determines the winner of the original song.

Players must set their Track Skip option to Buttons before beginning any match. All other in-game settings, including note speed and offset, may be configured freely by each player.

If a match is interrupted by a cabinet issue or any external condition outside of either player's control (e.g. a broken button, power interruption, or hardware error), the affected song(s) will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. A player must raise a malfunction dispute before the end of the match. Disputes raised after the match has concluded will not be accepted.

If a malfunction dispute is raised during a match to a TO, the following steps will be taken to determine the validity of the dispute:

• The TO (or opponent in a Player Facilitated match) must confirm the malfunction, whether by replication or by observation.
• If the malfunction is confirmed, isn't fixable in a timely manner, and affects the match, the match will be void and players will be prompted to reschedule their match, following normal scheduling rules.
• If the malfunction can be fixed within a reasonable time, or another present cab doesn't have any issues, the match may restart if both players agree, otherwise the match is rescheduled.
• If the match cannot be rescheduled before the round deadline, by default, the higher seed may advance.

If both players acknowledged a known cab condition during scheduling in written text, disputes arising specifically from that acknowledged condition will generally not be accepted, and the TO retains ultimate discretion in these cases.

If a drawn or picked song is judged to be too far outside a player's current ability level (i.e. below 90.00%), that player may request to play the chart on a lower difficulty. If they do, and their opponent chooses to remain on the original difficulty, the requesting player forfeits that song automatically. If both players agree to play on a lower difficulty, the match proceeds normally on that lower difficulty with no penalty.

Since matches are self-scheduled, players are expected to be present and ready at the agreed time. If a player is more than reasonably late to a confirmed match without prior notice, the present player may be awarded the win by default.

If a match doesn't occur by the round deadline, the tournament organizer will determine advancement based on which player made the most demonstrable effort to schedule and complete the match. A player who does not respond to scheduling attempts or goes completely silent may be disqualified at the tournament organizer's discretion. If neither player makes an effort to schedule, the higher seed advances by default and the lower seed receives a loss, and the next round will resume as normal following the same rules.

A player may be disqualified from the tournament for any of the following reasons:

• Failing to respond to their opponent or the tournament organizer during a round window.
• Failing to show up to a confirmed match without prior notice.
• Conduct that is disruptive or disrespectful to other players, staff, or the arcade.
• Any form of cheating or match manipulation.

Disqualification decisions are made at the tournament organizer's discretion.

The TO reserves the right to make final rulings on any situation not explicitly covered by these rules. These rules may be updated if circumstances require it, and any changes will be communicated to all participants.