Monthly Team Tournament Codex

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Monthly Team Tournament Codex

Postby Impregnable » Wed 24 Jun, 2020 7:56 am

- This is a page to help people understand detailed rules of Monthly Team Tournament.

- If anyone got any questions regarding rules in this page, contact the organizer on Discord.
Discord - Impregnable#8903

- The organizer has the right to alter any rules during the tournament to adapt to various needs that may arise.
- I will refrain from altering rules during tournaments as best as I can in order to keep consistency in applying rules but will not hesitate to intervene if the need arises.

Table of Contents
1. Starting Time / Date
2. Sign Up Procedure
3. Tournaments Settings
4. Disconnection
5. Break Time
6. Dropping / Tardiness
7. Reserves
8. Extra Players
9. Player Rights
10. Post-Tournament
11. Banning
12. Definitions

1. Starting Time / Date
- This section explains how Monthly Team Tournaments are scheduled and where to check time and date of each tournament.

1.1/ Scheduling
- Monthly Team Tournament is a once per month tournament.
- The organizer can host more tournaments outside the regular schedule if he has more time. On the contrary, if he got less time available, some months will go without tournaments being hosted.
- It is always held at 5 PM UTC and always on Saturday.
(CAUTION) Depending on where you live, the tournament day can be Sunday instead of Saturday.
- Usually, the tournament is held on first Saturday of each month.
- Upcoming tournament schedule is posted on Tournaments section of this forum after the last event of May, August, November and February
(CAUTION) There will be times when the organizer cannot come up with concrete dates for upcoming events. Schedule posts will not be made in such cases.

1.2/ Time I Date
- Starting time and the date of each tournament is provided in the respective sign up page for that tournament.
- All sign up pages are located at Tournaments section of this forum.
- Each tournament sign up page contains Time Conversion Links. This link auto detects IP location and converts 5 PM UTC starting time into local starting time. It takes into account changes caused by Day Light Saving when providing local time to the user.
- Right side clock inside the Time Conversion Link is the local starting time and date.

2. Sign Up Procedure
2.1/ Players I Reserves
- How to sign up as a player or a reserve is given in the link provided below.
- The link also includes what a signed up player or a reserve has to do on the tournament day.
- viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5187

2.2./ Referees I Streamers I YouTube Casters
- Those who wishes to be a Referee, a Streamer or a Youtube Caster should contact the organizer directly on Discord.
Discord - Impregnable#8903
- Once contacted, the organizer instructs the person who contacted him on what to do.

3. Tournament Settings
- These are standard settings for a Monthly Team Tournament.
- If a specific tournament sign up page includes special rules, those special rules hold priority over standard rules.
- Most of the time, these special rules are about banning certain heroes or factions because of glaring imbalances or game breaking bugs.

3.1/ Format
- Monthly Team Tournament is a 2 vs 2 tournament.
- Lobby Settings is the same for all Divisions.

Division A and B
Double Elimination
Lower Bracket matches - BO1
Lower Bracket Final - BO3
Upper Bracket matches - BO3
Upper Bracket Final - BO3
Grand Final - BO5

Division C
Single Elimination
Non Final matches - BO3
Final - BO5

Lobby Settings
Victory Point Control: 500 VPs
Starting Location: Random
Resources: Standard

3.2/ Patch
- The patch used for each tournament can be found at the respective tournament sign up page of each tournament.
- The newest patch available on the day of the tournament is used but beta or test patches are not used.
- The organizer finalizes which patch is going to be used at least 6 hours before the start of any given tournament.

3.3/ Divisions & Seeding
- viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6506

3.4/ Map I Faction/Hero Picks
- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

4. Disconnection
- The meaning of the term disconnection used here includes but not limited to any activities that result in leaving the game while it is in progress such as sound bug and rage quitting.

Important Notice
- When a decision has to be made regarding disconnection related rules, the hosting referee's decision will be final and without discussion so the tournament can go on as smoothly as possible. Failure to comply will result in the tournament ejection of the offending party.
- All conversation from the hosting referee on this matter will be done by lobby chat by default. Only on occasions that lobby chat cannot be done, communicating will be done by using steam direct message or through other mediums such as MRT group chat and Discord.

4.1/ Standard Procedures
- When a disconnection happens while the game is in progress, below procedures are taken by the hosting referee.

Phase 1 - Rehost the room
- When a disconnection happens, the referee tells everyone to leave the game in progress via directly messaging each player on Steam and rehost the room. The next phase starts when all applicable players come back into the room.
(CAUTION) In game chat cannot be used to contact players in this case because messages of players in observer slots cannot be seen by players on either side.

Phase 2 - Resolve what to do with the crashed match
- When all players are back in the room, the first thing the hosting referee needs to do is figuring out whether the winner should be declared for the crashed match or go for a rematch.

1) Player Agreement
- Firstly, players are asked whether they can reach an agreement on which team wins the crashed set or they want a rematch.
- When an agreement on either cannot be reached or when players agree on wanting a rematch, rematch rules will apply.

2) Rematch Rules
- The default format of a rematch is using same map and same hero settings as the crashed match for both teams.
- Doing a rematch option comes with some strings attached.
a) If 2 units belonging to either team except Spore Mines/Ripper Swarm got wiped before the disconnection, a rematch does not happen.
- Hero deaths also count as unit wipes.
- The hosting referee is the one who determines whether a disconnection happened before or after 2 squad wipes based on his or her observation.
- It is also possible for the hosting referee to declare the disconnected side the winner if he or she deems the disconnected side had an overwhelming advantage in VP count, unit numbers and tech lead at the moment of disconnection.
b) When a rematch cannot be done for whatever reason, the team with disconnected player loses the applicable set of the series.

Phase 3 - Inform players about penalties and preventive measure
- After being done with phase 2, the hosting referee informs players about penalties of disconnection and what can be done to lessen the disconnect chance.
- Second disconnect onwards, this phase is skipped as players should already know details from getting informed after the first disconnect.

a) Disconnection Penalties
- For whatever reason if a team member disconnects twice in an entire tournament, it will result in that player being ejected out of the tournament.
- If each team member of a team disconnects once within a round, the entire team is disqualified.
- Players who got disqualified due to these penalties cannot be a reserve.

b) Preventive Measure
- When a disconnection happens in a room, all players who were in the room are highly recommended to restart game and Steam after every set form that point onward. This is known to be effective in decreasing disconnection chance by a good margin.

Phase 4 - Conclude the procedure
- After informing part is done, what has been decided in Phase 2 takes effect.

4.2/ Supplementary Rules
a) Exceptions to normal disconnect rules
- In below cases, standard procedures are ignored and a clean reset of the crashed set is done. This means there is no need for using same map and same hero settings on both teams, counting unit wipes and applying penalties.
> Everyone crashing together including the referee
> Players crashing during the loading screen

b) Division Final Specific Rules
- Rematches are limited to only 1 time per team.
- Rematches due to disconnections described in exceptions part above does not count towards this limit.
- Disconnection Penalties are not applied in Division Finals.

5. Break Time
- Any and all breaks need to be taken after informing the hosting referee. Breaks should always be taken before the start of the first set of a BO.
- Upon completing a match, players are asked if they need to take a break. Those who want to take a break will be given 15 minutes. When players don't return within the time limit, they will be subject to Dropping rules.
- The hosting referee is the one who decides from when to when is 15 minutes time limit.

6. Dropping / Tardiness
- A player either being absent or being unresponsive in the match lobby when required to be present and ready is considered dropping. Reasons for absence or unresponsiveness are not considered when judging whether someone has dropped or not. Tardiness is also covered by this rule.
- When dealing with dropping, the organizer chooses the course of action with below priorities in mind.
a) The top priority is progressing the tournament at normal pace as to not cause other involved players to wait unnecessarily.
b) The second priority is making sure the reserve player given as a new teammate is of similar skill to the missing member of the team.

Important Notice
- When a decision has to be made regarding dropping related rules, the hosting referee's decision will be final and without discussion so the tournament can go on as smoothly as possible. Failure to comply will result in the tournament ejection of the offending party.
- All conversation from the hosting referee on this matter will be done by lobby chat by default. Only on occasions that lobby chat cannot be done, communicating will be done by using steam direct message or through other mediums such as MRT group chat and Discord.

6.1/ 15 Minutes Rule
- The moment the referee realizes dropping happened, he or she starts 15 minutes countdown and takes different actions depending on what happened in the room.
- The hosting referee is the one who decides from when to when is 15 minutes time limit.
- Time taken for explaining rules to applicable players should not be included in the time limit.

a) When there is no remaining member who is present and responsive
- The referee will wait for 15 minutes and report to the organizer.
- If the entire team manages to return and be responsive within the time limit, the match will progress as normal.
- If only one member arrives or become responsive within the time limit, reserve finding procedure begins immediately.

b) When there is a remaining member who is present and responsive
- The referee asks the remaining member to choose from one of four options stated below.
- The remaining member can decide to switch between options but need to know that 15 minutes countdown is shared among options and which means it is not reset when switching to other options.
- It is also important to note that when it comes down to the organizer to find a reserve player for whatever reason, the remaining member cannot refuse the reserve given by the organizer.

b.1) Wait for 15 minutes
- If the remaining member decides to wait, the hosting referee continues the countdown. If the missing or unresponsive member manages to return or become responsive in time, the match proceeds as normal.
- If the missing member fails to arrive or become responsive in time, the referee reports to the organizer and he starts reserve finding procedure.

b.2) Find a substitute member
- If the remaining member decides to find a substitute, the substitute player must be found and be made to arrive in the game lobby within the time limit.
- In case of unresponsiveness, when the substitute member comes into the lobby, the unresponsive member is kicked from the room.
- Just saying that he or she is available and not coming inside the lobby within the time limit is not allowed. For countdown to stop, the substitute member must enter the match lobby.
(CAUTION) After arriving in the lobby, the substitute player must respond quickly to the referee's instructions. If the referee deems that the substitute or the remaining member is delaying the tournament, the entire team is disqualified.
- If the substitute member fails to arrive in the match lobby within time, the hosting referee reports to the organizer and he starts reserve finding procedure.

b.3) Ask the organizer to find a substitute member
- When this option is chosen, the hosting referee reports to the organizer immediately without waiting for 15 minutes and he starts reserve finding procedure.

b.4) Quit the tournament
- The remaining member is eliminated from the tournament.
- It is possible for the eliminated player to become a reserve player.

c) When an entire team or both teams drops in Division Final
- When missing an entire team or both teams, the score freezes at that moment and the tournament concludes without a champion team.

6.2/ Reserve Finding Procedure
- With the aforementioned priorities in mind, the organizer chooses from below options.
a) Choose a replacement player from signed up reserves
b) Search from Steam friend list
c) Get recommendation from someone
- This someone can be literally anyone who messages the organizer on either Steam or Discord.
d) Merging
- This is done by grouping two players who both lost their teammate into a new team.
- In order to apply this option, both players must be under reserve finding procedure.
- This is a destructive process that cannot be undone thus is used as a last resort
- Merging will only be done when involved players agree with not being allowed to reunite with their missing member.

6.3/ Reuniting with Dropped Players
- The team in question should be a preset team and not a team made of two single sign ups.
- The returning dropped player must contact the organizer on either Steam or Discord for this section to apply.
- When a dropped player returns after reserve finding procedure began, he or she can only reunite with the original member under below conditions.

a) The remaining member was not subject to merging
- Once contacted, the organizer contacts the hosting referee to ask the remaining member whether he or she wants to accept the dropped player. The dropped player is only allowed to rejoin when the remaining member allows it.
- The lobby in question should not be in game. Once the game starts, there will be no stopping in the middle. The returning member should wait until the game in progress concludes.

b) The remaining member got merged
- It is not allowed.

7. Reserves
- A reserve is a player who substitutes for a missing member of a team.
- Anyone except players who have disconnection issues and those who are banned from the tournament can become a reserve.

Important Notice
- To become a reserve means to agree with below points. The organizer will always inform a player who wants to become a reserve regarding below points and will only allow one to be a reserve after confirming the person agrees on them too.
a) When the original member of the team the reserve got placed into wants to regroup with the returning missing player, the reserve player cannot refuse to give up the spot. This can happen literally a second before the match start.
b) Reserves who did not partake in the first set of semifinals for the team they got assigned to in Division A, is not rewarded tournament champion status even when the team wins the final.
c) Reserves who did not partake in the first set of semifinals for the team they got assigned to, cannot receive tournament prizes.
d) The organizer gets to choose which room a reserve enters and when.
e) It is entirely possible for a reserve to not get any rooms until the end of the tournament.
f) Registering early does not give priority in being put into a room.

7.1/ Reserves who are acquired by the organizer during the tournament
- This would apply to players who are in the organizer's Steam contact list.
- When the need to find a replacement arises and no skill wise suitable reserve is prepared in advance, the organizer will contact players in his Steam friend list to find a suitable reserve player.
- Once the contacted player agrees, the organizer tells the person which room to enter and who is the referee hosting it.
- There is no need to register with a forum post in this case for the chosen reserve player.

7.2/ Reserves who seek to sign up in advance
- This would apply when a player wants to register with a forum post as a reserve before the tournament start or during the tournament.

a) Before the start of the tournament
- Check Players I Reserves Sign Up Procedure link for instructions on how.
- viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5187

b) During the tournament
- Players who want sign up as a reserve during the tournament should contact the organizer directly on Discord.
Discord - Impregnable#8903
- Once contacted, the organizer instructs the person who contacted him on what to do as a reserve.
- When there is no need to put a reserve player into a room straight away, he will tell the reserve player to read instructions page, make a registration post at the sign up page accordingly and be on standby.
- When there is a need to put a reserve into a room straight away, formal sign up procedures are skipped and the reserve player is asked to enter the needed room right away. Name of the hosting referee is provided so that the reserve player can enter the right room.

8. Extra Players
- Extra Players are defined as anyone inside of a match lobby that is not a player for that match.
- YouTube Casters do not fit the definition of an Extra Player technically but is included in this section for convenience.

8.1/ Observers
  • No private observers are allowed. Only signed up streamers and referees can be inside the room.
  • Players who signed up for the tournament can be in a match room to observe only if they got permission from the organizer. Enter the room and ask the hosting referee to relay the message. The organizer usually grants permission.
  • Non signed up players cannot observe games. Report to the referee hosting the room if you see one.
  • (CAUTION) Observers must leave if there is no observer slot for referees or streamers or when one of players exercises the observing slot purge right.
8.2/ Referees
- The organizer is the only one who can remove referees from a hosted room.
- Being a referee does not stop a player from participating as a player or streaming or doing both.
- Referees are expected to be able to:
  • Be in Steam MRT group chat some time before the tournament start.
  • Host rooms assigned by the organizer and help people find their opponents.
  • Proceed rooms according to rules and enforce rules in case they are not followed.
  • Deal with Disconnection and Dropping situations.
  • Referees have first say on rulings. If there is a dispute between referees and players, the dispute is brought up to the tournament organizer. Then, the organizer will have final say on the matter.
- Details of what referees do are stated in below post.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2975

8.3/ Streamers
  • Only signed up streamers are allowed in the lobby.
  • Players can purge observer slot. Even if only one player requests it, the referee must kick all observers and streamers. If this happens, streamers should leave the lobby.
  • Streamers get priority over observers in occupying observer slots in the lobby. Between Streamers, it is first come first served for occupying observer slots.
- Details of being a streamer are stated in below post.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2975

8.4/ YouTube Casters
- This applies for those who want to get replays to cast in YouTube after the tournament is done.
  • Anyone is free to grab replays from ESL reporter to cast on his or her YouTube channel.
  • Those who contacted the organizer will receive replays via method they requested.
  • (CAUTION) Players have YouTube Cast Privacy Right. When a player exercises the right, the organizer requests YouTube Casters whom he has contacts with to not cast replays from the tournament that involves that player.
9. Player Rights
- Any participating player can exercise below rights during a tournament.
(CAUTION) These rights cannot be exercised during Division Finals.

9.1/ Observer Slot Purge Right
- Players have the right to kick all observers and streamers. Even if only one player requests it, the referee must kick all observers and streamers from the room.
- Participating players can exercise this right anytime during a tournament by messaging the hosting referee.

9.2/ YouTube Cast Privacy Right
- Players have the right not to get casted on YouTube.
- Participating players can exercise this right any time during a tournament by messaging the hosting referee who will relay the message to the organizer. However, it has to be exercised before leaving the tournament. The last chance a player gets for exercising this right is when the organizer gives a farewell message to that player after the last game of that player concludes on either Steam or Discord.
- When requested, the organizer will not provide replays of all matches in which the requested person played in to YouTube Casters.
- Furthermore, the organizer will ask YouTube Casters whom he has contacts with to not cast replays from the tournament that involves that player.
(CAUTION) If a YouTube Caster refuses to respect this right, there is nothing the organizer can do. Also, if replays in question are sent a long time after the tournament they originated from concludes, YouTube Casters are likely to forget and the organizer won't have time to take care of them.

10. Post-Tournament
- This section deals with all the parts that happen after the tournament is over.

10.1/ Replays
- Anyone is free to acquire tournament replays in whatever way available.
- Anyone is free to do anything with replays.
- All participating players and streamers are required run ESL reporter which auto uploads games they played or watched into this forum's server. Therefore, as long as everyone followed the instruction, all replays from any tournament should be available for download. Anyone can freely download uploaded replays.

10.2/ Results
- After a tournament concludes, the organizer posts tournament results at the respective sign up page of that tournament by making a reply post.
- The reply post includes Bracket results for each Division, the list of Streamers who participated on the tournament day and the list of YouTube Casters who signed up to cast replays from the tournament.

10.3/ Prizes
- The prize pool for each tournament is shown at the bottom of each respective sign up page for that tournament.
- viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5405

11/ Banning
- Activities that lead to a ban from the tournament includes below activities but is not limited to them.
- Applicable players will be first asked to change their offending behavior as a warning. Failure to comply will result in an immediate ban.
- When it is brought up to the organizer multiple times that such offending behavior is of a repeated nature, a ban is applied without further warnings.
- These bans are up to the organizers discretion and are not up for discussion.

11.1/ Notable Examples
a) Toxicity
- When playing versus a friend and like to have some banter during the match, need to notify the organizer through the referee before the start of the applicable series.
b) Cheating
- Any attempt to bend rules will be met with a ban.
c) Repeatedly dropping or taking overextended breaks
- These behaviors are an affront to players who come prepared to stay until the end and keep break time rules. For tournaments to go as smoothly as possible, these are not allowed.
d) Smurfing
- This applies when someone who got banned tries to sneak in.

11.2/ Players under watch
- Banned players may join after having a talk with the organizer but with strict penalties attached.
- This opportunity will only be given when they contact the organizer first.
- When contacted, the organizer will present penalties they need to receive. Banned players must agree on the condition that they will accept a permanent ban when they violate penalties imposed on them.
- When such players join the tournament, referees will keep them under a close watch to see if they keep their words.

12. Definitions
- This section is placed here purely to standardize tournament language so everyone knows what I am talking about in this page.
  • Bracket: The bracket is a chart that displays the progress of players throughout a tournament.
  • Round: A round is comprised of a single column of the bracket. Each round is named in the bracket with names such as "Round of 16" or "Semifinals". Rounds go from left to right, and with more matches in a round to less matches in a round.
  • Match = Series = BO: A match is a singular series within a particular round of the bracket. Matches are always between two particular players or teams and each match is composed of several games to determine the winner of that match. Matches are sometimes also called series or BO. BO is an acronym for Best of. Best of 3 means whoever wins 2 times first wins the entire series. The winner of a match advances into the next round of the tournament.
  • Game = Set: Every match consists of a number of games.


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