Pro OC Cup Q2'13 - 3DMark11 - Performance

The first Pro OC Cup starts on March 1 (today!) and finishes on May 31. Until April 1, Pro OC overclockers can register to participate in the Pro OC League. For each Pro OC Cup, the first month of the competition will always be the transfer period: users can create new teams, join existing ones, leave their current team and even opt to completely stop with Pro OC. After this registration period of one month, the teams and their line-up are fixed. There’s no stepping back and no sudden stepping up to the game – if you’re in, you’re in. If you’re out, you’re out.

During the next two months, all teams can submit their results as they please. Even though sandbagging (the process of withholding scores until the very last second) is a concern, this phenomenon is inherent to the current HWBOT competition format. Two weeks before the end of the competition, on May 15, elimination takes place. Only the 10 best overclocking teams will be allowed to submit results in the last two weeks of the competition; for the rest the competition is over and the ranking will not change. In future Cups, we might introduce multiple elimination rounds depending on how much the sandbagging is affecting the competition.

As we host more Pro OC Cups, a Pro OC Ranking will be compiled based on the performance of the teams and individual members in the Pro OC Cup. The performance will be calculated by taking into account the last three Pro OC Cups and will serve as an indication of how consistent overclockers and teams are. Obviously, the ranking cannot be found on the site just yet as we need multiple Cups to calculate the team and user’s performance.

Each Pro OC Cup will consist of five different stages, similar to the other competitions we host at HWBOT. The five stages will be decided by the HWBOT staff (not involved in the actual competition) and will be made available at the beginning of each Cup. In this case, March 1. The stages of the first Pro OC Cup are:

• 3DMark Fire Strike Single GPU
• 3DMark 11 Performance Full Out
• Super PI 32M
• Memory Clock
• Cinebench R11.5

The benchmark selection will, as much as possible, reflect difficulty, popularity, relevance to mainstream and once in a while the need for creativity. Benchmarks can return in future Pro OC Cups and some benchmarks may never make it to the Cup series.

Each Pro OC Team can consist up to five members. The members will be linked to the Pro OC Team and will no longer be participating in any of the other user leagues, excluding the Hardware Masters, for the duration of the Pro OC Cup they are registered for. The members are not obliged to submit any results, so joining a team can be merely to point out you are part of the team. For example, if someone takes up the role as Team Manager, he or she may be responsible for finding sponsors but may never submit a single result. Once the Cup finishes, all members are free to stay with the team, leave it or join another one. As each competition starts from scratch, moving from one team to the other will not affect the team’s ranking.