Greetings Guest, and welcome to Chaos Era Academy!

So you're new to CEA and don't have much experience with academies? Maybe you do and just want to learn a bit more? Or maybe you just want to find out how CEA does things? This thread will be your one stop source of information for anything you need to know about the academy and how to go about it.


Introduce Yourself
So first off you should post an introduction if you haven't already. This tells us a bit about you and gives the staff and members a chance to welcome you to the academy.
You can make an Introduction here: Introductions and Farewells


Dorms
All members are placed in one of 3 dorms after being tested... Slifer Red, Ra Yellow, and Obelisk Blue. To take part in any events or Shadow Arena duels on CEA you will need to be in a dorm. Dorms will also play a roll in events such as Dorm Wars, Dorm Leaders, and upcoming leagues. When you are in a dorm you are free to create your own room in your dorms section to share what you like, or have others share with you... your own personal space on the academy.


Getting Tested
To get into a dorm you will first need a test which you can get after 1 week of joining the forum. The dorm test consists of 2 matches, and will evaluate your performance, your deck building skills, and your judgment. Using more than one deck, as well as your attitude in a test can affect your score positively or negatively with bonus points. If you want to go up in dorms you can apply for a retest after 1 month, or by paying 300 DP for an instant test in the Main Shop. Tests are scored according to a set rubric and custom banlist to properly test your dueling skills and not just your familiarity with a deck.
Scoring rubric and more information: Dorm Testing


Earning Duel Points
DP is the forum's currency and used to buy items from the Main Shop and user created shops, bets in the Shadow Arena, betting on team wars, paying for retests to advance in dorms, or to just roll around in. You can earn DP either from dueling or playing some of forum games. Both of these methods will be explained in more detail below.


Dueling
There's a bunch of ways to duel on CEA and I'll do my best to explain them...

Arena Duels
Here we have 3 kinds. Battle Arena duels which are straight matches with members which affect your win/loss record on CEA. Winning these gives you DP, experience, and a win on your profile record for all to see. Shadow Arena duels are exactly the same, except you can wager on the duel with your opponent. Basically you gamble your DP on the duel to add some risk, or try earn DP faster. Tag Arena duels will be an upcoming feature.

Events
We have a variety of different events here on CEA. You can enter these to win DP, win items such as userbars, and get your name carved on the CEA Hall of Fame for all to see.


Team Wars
You also have the option of starting/joining a team and warring others. CEA has a custom-made system to record both individual and team ELO within Team Wars. Towards the end of each format there is a team cutoff and the top teams face each other in the playoffs to determine the best. At the start of a format all scores are reset and a new season begins, however we still record Careers of both players and teams across ALL the seasons.

For rules and war formats: The War Book
Info on ELO and the war system: War Ranking System
Rankings for Teams and Players: Career ELO Ratings


Games
Outside of the dueling arena we some dice games for you to enjoy. You can win DP from these, or even gamble DP depending on the game. All instructions to these can be found in their respective threads. All the games are also in the Game and Events Menu in the top right of the forum.


If you have any questions, or just want to know more about something, feel free to PM one of the Admins or Moderators, or the staff in charge of specific sections of the forum such as War Managers and Game Masters.

These are just the main features on the forum, but there's still plenty more to discover and enjoy.

Enjoy your stay on Chaos Era Academy  

~Sabbaticus