Hi

I would like to make a Cortex Command 1V1 tournament with friends of mine.

Which mods / scenes would you advise ?

Restrict yourself to stuff like, maybe 2-3 crafts, 3-4 soldiers and some weapons, that way it goes on skills rather than equipment.

Some UniTec weapons and maybe coalition soldiers.

Grasslands, both players take brainbots and pistols. Nothing else :), or
a battle with only stuff from the dummies.

I would use Unitec soldiers, with their weapon presets.

Old grasslands or that numgun scene. Uhh, Bear Fed use to be good but isn't balanced for B23. Geti's zombies and EAF are fairly balanced ('cept for the engineer zombies).

Uh, vanilla content only.

Duh?

Thor, he asked for mods.

Well in that case he's lost to the tides of time...

BW mercenaries. Perfect for a tournament.

Doesn't mean I can't suggest he just do it vanilla.

I think that Vanilla is actually less balanced than some user-made mods.

Exhibit A: The entire Dummy faction.

Just Ronin.

Emporeans, I have found, are on-par with vanilla content.

Otherwise, don't use any mods.
And have each player choose a faction to restrict their purchases to.
"Tradestar Goods" like drop-crates, Rockets (MKI, MKII), and the basic Dropship are accessible for all players, as well as the basic robots and generic armaments (flak cannon, laser rifle, SMG, shield, and so forth).

More important than choosing scenes or mods are having a set of gameplay guidelines that everybody can agree to follow.
Otherwise you will have cry-babies spoil the tourney.