RULESET UPDATE HIGHLIGHTS
7/28/26
- Qualifying clarification added
- ex: You may submit your best Singles scores only
- Final Top Division reverted to Top 12
- Top 8 qualifiers auto-seeded with Top 4 byes
- 4 players advance from Wave 7
- One winner each from 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7D
- Bracket reset information for Grand Finals added
- Both players must agree to either Best-of-1, Best-of-3, or Best-of-5 for their bracket reset match
7/11/26
- Qualifiers announced!
- General rules have been updated:
- Footwear requirements
- Dry/wet substance usage rules
- Pad error discrepancies
- Final double elimination bracket increased to 16 players
- Qualifier cutoff for Top 16 changed to Top 12 qualifiers (previously Top 8 qualifiers)
- Weighted distribution of charts for Top 16 have been updated.
- Center metal strip mod will NOT be applied to any and all machines.
- In the event that the cabs are running the newest version, Phoenix 2 (2026):
- Only content up to Phoenix 1 will be allowed to ensure fairness.
- Phoenix 2 ratings will be used (including new chart re-rates).
- Rise content will NOT be used (including half-doubles).
- Judge and Note Timing options are allowed.
STAFF
| VivaLaMoo | Project Storm: Main Point-of-Contact for Questions |
| VKIM | Pump It Up: Head Tournament Organizer |
LINKS
| Main Site | ceogaming.org |
| Project Storm Site | project-storm.com |
| Registration | start.gg/ceo |
| Qualifier Submission | bit.ly/Storm26PIUQuals |
| PIU Phoenix – Ruleset | bit.ly/Storm26PIU |
| Commentary Application | forms.gle/fNMNU4xeuRx7aYAcA |
| Volunteer Application | forms.gle/PfQB73w2JhRy9Zjz6 |
| CEO Gaming Discord | http://discord.gg/ceogaming |
SPECIAL THANKS
- ANDAMIRO Co., Ltd.
- Arrow Eclipse Community
SCHEDULE
All competitors must arrive at their pools at least 15 minutes ahead of scheduled time to check in and do their card draws. Failure to check in will result in the following order of events:
- If not checked in by 10 minutes prior to pool start, the player(s) will forfeit their veto(es), and a random veto will take place.
- If not checked in by the time the first group of players have begun playing the selected songs:
- Winner’s side: the player(s) will be given the lowest rank(s).
- Loser’s side: the player(s) will be disqualified.
Please regularly check back for updated pool times once the event has started. Times will fluctuate ahead/behind schedule throughout the weekend.
Schedule, waves, and level ranges subject to change.
| Friday, August 14, 2026 | ||
| 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM | Wave 1 | S13-S16, D13-D15 |
| 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM | Wave 2 | S15-S17, D14-D17 |
| 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM | Wave 3 | S/D, Lv. 16-18 |
| 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM | Wave 4 | S/D, Lv. 17-19 |
| 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM | Wave 5 | S/D, Lv. 18-20 |
| Saturday, August 15, 2026 | ||
| 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM | Wave 6 | S/D, Lv. 19-21 |
| 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM | Wave 7 | S/D, Lv. 20-22 |
| 3:00 PM – 9:00 PM | Top 12 | S22+, D23+ |
| 4:00 PM – 4:30 PM | Project Storm 2026 Group Photo / Staff Dinner | |
GENERAL RULES
- All footwear are allowed (ex: shoes, skinners, socks).
- Barefoot play is NOT allowed.
- Do NOT apply any dry or wet substances directly on the pads (ex: baby powder.
- Substances must be applied off the pad (ex: baby powder on the carpet).
- Please be considerate of other players, play styles, and event staff, and use the minimum amount as needed.
- Notify the TO/staff to request cleaning if the pads are too sticky or slippery.
- Failure to follow these instructions can lead to disqualification as well as this privilege of using said substances being removed for everyone.
- In the event of a pad call:
- Pad issues must be replicated by the player.
- Only one replay may be issued (either on a different side or machine) if the pad issue cannot be immediately resolved and/or is found to be a significant factor in the player’s result of a match.
- Score recalculations may also be requested (to be handled and extensively reviewed by staff on a case-by-case basis).
- Unruly or rude participants may be subject to having their accommodations denied.
- If at any point you do something deemed unsportsmanlike, verbally/physically interfering with someone while playing a match, damage venue property, assault another person, or any other similar malicious behavior, you will be immediately disqualified from the tournament and subject to ejection from the event.
GENERAL
- All matches will be played under the following conditions:
- Premium Mode, Normal Judgment (NJ), BGA DARK
- Normal Mode may be used in case of network issues.
- Machine Score will be used for all purposes.
- This is the new 1,000,000-based scoring system introduced in Phoenix.
- Mods only from the following categories are allowed:
- SPEED, AUTO VELOCITY, DISPLAY, NOTESKIN, JUDGE TIMING
- The center strip mod will NOT be applied on any and all machines.
- In other words, the metal strip in the center of the pads will be left on.
- If Drop (DR) or other similar mods outside of the allowed categories are your preferred playstyle, notify the TO(s) in advance. Scheduling may be adjusted if sufficient players fall in this category.
WARMUPS AND BREAKS
By default, players will be given one warmup song prior to the start of their first match of their pool. (One song total, not one per player.)
Warmup songs must be either Arcade or Shortcut length, and cannot be one of the drawn songs for your match. Due to time constraints, we will be trying to ensure as many warmups can be played on versus as possible.
During the tournament, players will be allowed at most two minutes between song plays. This will not be strictly enforced unless it is noticed that players are taking excessive amounts of time between songs. Time is essential at Storm after all.
QUALIFYING
Qualifiers are due by Wednesday, August 12th, 2026 @ 11:59 PM EDT.
On-site qualifying will NOT be available for this event.
Submit your qualifiers here: [LINK]
| S13 | Silver Beat | D13 | VANISH |
| S15 | District 1 | D16 | Stardream |
| S17 | Fallen Angel | D19 | The Revolution |
| S19 | POINT ZERO 2 | D22 | Poppin’ Shower |
| S22 | 4NT | ||
Qualifiers will be used to sort players into “relative skill” tiers.
Qualifiers must be played on official hardware running Phoenix. For special accommodations, please contact the TO.
TO staff has the right to manually seed players to make sure pool integrity is ensured if not enough information has been submitted. Past event results may also be used for this purpose.
A list of singles and doubles charts will be provided for players to choose from.
- You must play AT LEAST TWO qualifiers that best suit your skill level.
- This typically means the hardest songs you can (almost) pass if you tried really hard.
- You may submit more than 2 songs if you wish. This can help if you are unsure which scores would give you the best qualifying rating.
- If you are capable of playing doubles, it’s recommended to submit qualifiers for at least one singles chart and one doubles chart of your choice!
- If you are incapable of playing doubles (or your skill level in doubles is significantly worse than that of your singles), you may focus on submitting your best Singles qualifiers!
- Players who achieve at least a grade of SSS (990,000) on a qualifier may be asked to submit for a higher level qualifier.
- The Phoenix Rating system will be used to help better determine seeding.
- The Total Phoenix Rating achieved for the best two songs will be used.
- Tiebreakers will be determined by the following order:
- Total Machine Score
- Order of Timed Submissions
The Top 8 qualifiers will be automatically placed into Top 12.
PHOENIX RATING
| Level | F | D | C | B | A | A+ | AA | AA+ | AAA | AAA+ | S | S+ | SS | SS+ | SSS | SSS+ | |
| S/D | 13 | 64 | 80 | 96 | 112 | 128 | 144 | 160 | 168 | 176 | 184 | 192 | 201 | 211 | 220 | 230 | 240 |
| S/D | 15 | 100 | 125 | 150 | 175 | 200 | 225 | 250 | 262 | 275 | 287 | 300 | 315 | 330 | 345 | 360 | 375 |
| D | 16 | 124 | 155 | 186 | 217 | 248 | 279 | 310 | 325 | 341 | 356 | 372 | 390 | 409 | 427 | 446 | 465 |
| S | 17 | 152 | 190 | 228 | 266 | 304 | 342 | 380 | 399 | 418 | 436 | 456 | 478 | 501 | 524 | 547 | 570 |
| S/D | 19 | 220 | 275 | 330 | 385 | 440 | 495 | 550 | 577 | 605 | 634 | 660 | 693 | 726 | 758 | 792 | 825 |
| S/D | 22 | 352 | 440 | 528 | 616 | 704 | 792 | 880 | 924 | 968 | 1011 | 1056 | 1108 | 1161 | 1214 | 1267 | 1320 |
GAUNTLET STAGE
WATERFALL
Players will be seeded into pools of their “relative skill” tiers consisting of 4 players per pool (with 2 pools per wave). Waves will be run in order starting with the first wave (lowest skill) and ending with the last wave (highest skill).
This year’s format will reuse the double elimination style waterfall from last year.
See below for an example on how pools in each wave will be structured:
Point values will be assigned to players depending on their placement for each song:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
| 5 pts | 3 pts | 2 pts | 1 pt |
The winner of a pool will move onto the next pool on the winner’s side. All other players will play in the loser’s side pools where they will play charts in the same difficulty range in the same format against others who weren’t able to advance in their pool. The winner of the loser’s side pool will advance onwards on the loser’s side.
Ties will be broken by Total Machine Score across all songs in the gauntlet. Players are encouraged to finish all their songs!
SONG LIST / CARD DRAW
Normal card draw makes its return this year! During this stage, all arcade songs up to the latest v2.12.0 patch will be used.
- For each pool in a wave, five (5) Singles charts and two (2) Doubles charts will be randomized from the full/master list within a pool’s respective difficulty level range.
- Each player will have an opportunity to veto one of these songs. Veto order will go from lowest to highest seed by default. The remaining three songs will be played in the order the list was created.
- Players will then be asked (again from lowest to highest seed) for which machine and/or pad side to play their set on.
(For pools with less than four players, the remaining veto(es) will be decided at random for both Winner’s or Loser’s pools respectively.
- Example: for the very first round of Loser’s pools of 3 players each, the “fourth” veto will be decided at random, and that song will not be included in the curated song list for both Loser’s pools.)
TOP 12: FORMAT
OVERVIEW
A standard double elimination bracket will be used for this stage. Top 12 will consist of the Top 8 qualifiers and two winners each from the previous initial and redemption pools.
All matches until Winner’s Finals, Loser’s Finals, and Grand Finals will be Best of 3 songs. All Finals matches will be Best of 5 songs.
Machine score for each song will be used to determine all matches.
SONG LIST
All songs will be included to be potentially randomized for the card draw, including but not limited to:
- Premium Mode exclusive songs
- Full Songs and Remixes
SPECIAL CARD DRAW
In each match, both players will be presented with a card draw. This will be used to generate the following number of sets:
- Top 12: 5 sets, 3 songs per set
- Winner’s/Loser’s Finals: 9 sets, 5 songs per set
In the event of a bracket reset during Grand Finals, both players will be presented an option to agree to one of the following options for their match before going into their card draw:
- Best of 1 song
- Best of 3 songs (must win 2 songs)
- Best of 5 songs (must win 3 songs)
Weighted distribution of charts for each round (subject to change)
NOTE: Some sets may include only singles/doubles or a mix of singles and doubles.
| Rounds | 22 | 22-23 | 23 | 23-24 | 24 | 24-25 | 25 | 25-26 | 26 | 26+ | |
| Winner’s/Loser’s Round 1 | 25% | 50% | 25% | ||||||||
| Winner’s/Loser’s Round 2 | 15% | 35% | 35% | 15% | |||||||
| Winner’s/Loser’s Round 3 | 15% | 50% | 35% | ||||||||
| Winner’s Semifinals | Loser’s Round 4 | 15% | 35% | 35% | 15% | ||||||
| Loser’s Round 5 | 15% | 35% | 35% | 15% | |||||||
| Winner’s/Loser’s Finals | 5% | 35% | 35% | 20% | 5% | ||||||
The veto order will be as follows:
Top 12
| Lower Seed | Higher Seed | |
| Veto (Set #1) | → | Veto (Set #2) |
| ↓ | ||
| Veto (Set #4) | ← | Veto (Set #3) |
| ↓ | ||
| Play Remaining Set (Set #5) |
All Finals Matches
| Lower Seed | Higher Seed | |
| Veto (Set #1) | → | Veto (Set #2) |
| ↓ | ||
| Veto (Set #4) | ← | Veto (Set #3) |
| ↓ | ||
| Veto (Set #5) | → | Veto (Set #6) |
| ↓ | ||
| Veto (Set #8) | ← | Veto (Set #7) |
| ↓ | ||
| Play Remaining Set (Set #9) |
The Lower Seed will then be asked for which machine and/or pad side to play their set on.
PRIZES
The final Top 4 ranked players will also receive the following payout:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
| 45% | 25% | 20% | 10% |
Additional prizing will be announced at a later time