The second edition of ROG OC Showdown Team Edition starts September 22

Following a successful ROG OC Showdown Team Edition earlier this year, we're bringing back the online overclocking competition for a second edition. The PC enthusiast community has had almost endless possibilities for overclocking in 2017 thanks to the introduction of four new motherboard platforms: Intel Z270 and X299, plus AMD X370 and X399. This competition is your chance to showcase the limits of your hardware in pursuit of team glory and great prizes.

Starting September 22, overclockers will begin working in teams that include everyone from newbies to experts. They'll use all types of cooling, from standard air to exotic liquid nitrogen (LN2), to set high scores with different benchmarks and hardware limitations. Teams and individual overclockers will both be awarded from a total prize pool worth $6,000 USD. The competition is hosted by oc-esports.io and ends November 6.

How to participate

1. Create an account on HWBOT - learn how in this guide.
2. Join or create a team if you don't have one yet. The list of existing teams is available here. Most of the teams on HWBOT are based on popular forums like overclock.net, hardwareluxx.de, and Cowcotland. If you're looking for one, we advise you to check with favorite forum first. Some overclockers might already be active, and they can provide useful advice on running benchmarks and competing as a team. The ROG forum has its own ASUS Republic of Gamers team - check their profile here.
3. Discuss tactics and strategies with your teammates.  A team template is available to keep track of your scores and stage rules.
4. Run the benchmarks and submit your results between September 22 and November 6. Learn how to submit results in this guide.

 

Five stages to win

The competition is divided into five distinct stages. Each one has different limitations for the hardware and cooling that can be used, and the league (or experience level) of the overclockers who can participate. Be sure to check out the full rules on the official competition page before you get started. Here's a quick summary:

	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Stage 5
Benchmark	XTU - 5GHz	Geekbench3 - multi	wPrime 32M	Max CPU Frequency	3DMark Vantage Performance
Hardware Limitation	4 x cores	4 x cores	No X299/HDET/X399	No Limitation	8 x cores max Single GPU  No TitanX/XP/1080ti
League Limitation	Rookies Novices	Rookies / Novices Enthusiasts	Rookies / Novices Enthusiasts / Apprentice	Rookies / Novices Enthusiasts / Apprentice Extreme	Rookies / Novices Enthusiasts / Apprentice ​Extreme / Elite
Cooling Limitation	Air / Water Above 60ºC during bench	Air / Water 25ºC IDLE +  temp monitor	No limitations	No limitations	No limitations
Average scoring / team	Top 3 scores / team	Top 5 scores ​/ team	Top 3 scores ​/ team	Top 3 scores ​/ team	Top 2 scores ​/ team
Unique Hardware / team	CPUs model	CPUs model	CPUs model	CPU socket	GPUs model
Points repartition	50-48-46-44-42-40...	50-46-44-42-40-38...	50-46-44-42-40-38...	50-46-44-42-40-38...	50-46-44-42-40-38...

 

A prize pool worth $6,000 USD

We partnered with EKWB, G.Skill and Seasonic to provide a pool of exciting prizes to upgrade your rig. ROG will also provide the next generation of ROG Maximus motherboards along with our new Rampage VI Apex, Maximus IX Apex, and Crosshair VI Hero motherboards.

Competitors can win prizes in three different ways:

1. Being on one of the top two teams overall
2. Getting the best individual score in one of the five stages
3. Being the most valuable player by scoring the most points to your team

Visit the prizes page for a full list of what's up for grabs. And good luck in the competition!