Hydra and The Nights Watch are pleased to announce a cooperative venture: the Cautery Cup!

Here's how it works: teams of two knights race to kill the Royal Jelly in the Sovereign Slime mission in the fastest time, defeating all the enemies they find along the way! 4- and 5-star gear is not allowed, so leave your Skolver-FOV combo at home; you'll need to lean on your skills, not your gear, to survive! More rules below:

==Team Registration==

- Teams are composed of two members. Only Nights Watch, Hydra, and allied guild members are eligible to compete (though anyone can bet).

- Team registration is 2000 crowns. 1000 crowns from each member is acceptable too.

- Additionally, an observer accompanies each team to observe that they follow the rules; they will die immediately in a non-disruptive way at the start of each level.

- 4 and 5 star equipment of any kind is not allowed. All other gear is permitted.

- Teams must register their team name and equipment with their accompanying officer before the run begins. Betters may ask about the gear being used.

- All teams will meet in the guildhall before the race begins to show their equipment, encourage bets, and be assigned their observer.

==Run Rules==

- A run is considered to be finished when the Royal Jelly begins its death animation. At this point, an officer will call “Done” over guild chat.

- ALL enemies must be killed, and ALL rooms must be completed. If any enemies are left alive at the end of a room, the team is disqualified.

- Energy revives disqualify the team; they may still continue the run if they wish, but they will not be eligible for prizes.

- The accompanying observer may give the team warnings if they would be disqualified (if they see a lurking mini cube for instance), but may not otherwise assist or interfere in the run.

- The winning team takes home 5% of the total pot, each! They also win a larger share of the funds for their guild!

==Betting==

- Any amount of crowns can be bet on a team, and anyone can bet!

- Bets can be registered with any officer; they will be relayed to our bookkeepers and their number stored in a separate document.

- Bets pay out of the total pot in proportion to the amount that was bet, like in a horse race. The more people bet on the winning team, the more ways the pot is split; the more you bet, the bigger piece you'll get of the winnings! Or you could bet on an underdog and win even bigger if they succeed! Just ask an officer if you want to know the current odds of a given team.

- Bets may be placed before and during the run, up to the point at which one team has cleared the last of the four rooms in Red Carpet Runaround. The observer with that team will announce when this happens.

- Observers cannot bet; additionally, teams may only bet on themselves.

- You may bet on multiple teams; it's only possible for one of them to win, thought!

==Funding Structure==

For those of you who love numbers, here's how the money gets distributed:

- All of the bet and entry money goes into a pot, with the names and amounts of the betters recorded.

- The winners each get 5% of the total pot (so 10% total).

- The guild that the winning team represented takes home an additional 20% of the pot, and the other guild gets 10% (30% total). This leaves 60% of the initial pot left.

- The remaining money is divided proportionally among the people who bet on the winning team, according to the amount they bet. For instance, if there is 20k to distribute among three people, two who bet 1k and one who bet 2k, the first two would receive 5k and the third would receive 10k.

The first race will take place on Saturday, December 22, and 4 PM PST. Watch this space for more information on the teams and the odds!