NATribes League 2014 Rules

Tournament Format:

Seasons

The seasons will be played as a round robin in divisions of up to 8 teams. The top division (Pro-League) will consist of 8 teams, the lower divisions (House League) will be divided up to get divisions as close to eight teams as possible.

Playoffs

Depending on the number of teams the house league may be one single playoff bracket or multiple playoff brackets.  The teams will be seeded based on group stage results into a Swiss Tournament.  Playoff tie-breaker rules will be used to decide second and second last place for each division.

Relegation/Promotion

Relegation will be played by the bottom two teams from the pro league and the top two from the house league.  The format will be a GSL-style (double elimination) bracket with the two eliminated teams being relegated to the lower division and the two remaining teams promoted to the higher division.  The matches will be best-of-one and played out all in one night.  Relegation matches are considered the start of the next season and not the end of the previous.


Gameplay Rules (Currently Subject to Change):

Standard physics will be used.

Banned/Limited Equipment & Perks:


Pathfinder:
None
Infiltrator:
Stealth
Prism Mines
Sentinel:
SAP
Rage
Any Form of Claymore or Mine

Drop Jammer
Soldier:
Proximity Grenades
Shortfuse Grenades

Raider:
Plasma Gun
Technician:
Shortfuse Grenades
Motion Sensors
Repair Kits
Both Turrets
Juggernaut:
None
Brute:
None
Doombringer:
Mines
Force-field

Class Limits:
1 Sniper

Server Settings:

Region

North America Central

Score Settings

Score To Win: 7 captures

Base Settings

Base Objectives: Disabled
Base Upgrades: Disabled
Generator Regen: Disabled
Generator Destroyable: Enabled
Powered Deployables: Enabled

Vehicle Settings

Health Multiplier: 1.0
Grav Cycle Limit: 2
Grav Cycle Price: 1200
Beowulf Limit: 1
Beowulf Price: 15000
Shrike Limit: 1
Shrike Price: 36000

Call-in Settings

Powered Call-ins: Disabled
Tactical Strikes: Disabled
Orbital Strikes: Disabled
Supply Drop: Active, 2000 credits, 30s cd, 2s buildup, ammo only disabled.


Friendly Fire Settings

Friendly Fire: Enabled
FF Multiplier: 1.0
FF on Deployables: Enabled
FF on Base Assets: Enabled
Kill Limit: Off
Damage Limit: Off

Time: Group stage games will have 10 minute overtime, playoffs will have unlimited overtime (60 minutes in server settings and the map will be restarted and played sudden death if the time limit expires).

Points: Points are awarded as follows:
2 for a win
1 for a tie
0 for a loss

Points in the group stage are awarded per map, points in the playoffs are awarded per match.

Scheduling: Each round of games will be assigned a play-by date and time.  Teams may agree to play the match before this date or in the seasons after this date.  If they cannot come to an agreement the game will be played at the play-by time.  During the seasons, teams may not agree to reschedule a game after the season end date (the final play-by date for a season).  If teams wish to reschedule a game both teams must post this in the match comments on the match page.  Admins will enforce rescheduled dates but only if both teams have confirmed their agreement in the match comments.

Match Reporting: Teams are responsible for reporting their matches in the match comms.  If match results are not reported by the set deadline the game will be reported as a tie.  Although it is best if both teams confirm the score if only one team reports the score it will be entered as the result once the deadline is reached.  If the single reported score is incorrect it will stand once it has been entered even if there is evidence it is wrong.  Scores must be reported by the relevant deadline.  The season deadline is 24 hours after the season end date.  The playoff deadline is 24 hours after the play-by date.  The playoff deadline will be applied to tiebreaker and relegation/promotion matches as well.  Any matches not reported by the deadline will be scored as a forfeit for both teams

Server Selection:  Tournament servers will not be provided.  The default server will be the Blood Eagle team�s server.  If the Blood Eagle team hasn�t posted server info by 24-hours before the match (the play-by date or the rescheduled date) the DS team may post server info to be used.  Whichever team�s server is used the admin password must be shared so the other team can check for spectators.  If the teams cannot find a server to play on it will be scored as if both teams had forfeit.

Grace Period:  Teams will be given a 10 minute grace period after the agreed start time to join the server.  Teams must contact an admin immediately after the 10 minutes to have the other team forfeit.  If the admin can contact the other team and they are able to play they will forfeit the first map and continue to play the remaining maps.  Admins will only enforce no-show forfeits if a server has been selected using the server selection rules 30 minutes or more before the start of the match.  If no server was posted the teams will be required to reschedule the game and it will be scored as a tie if not played before the deadline.

Broadcasting:  On request, teams are required to provide members of TCN or other reputable casters with server info and allow them to broadcast the match if contacted 30 minutes or more before the match.  If a team objects to a certain caster broadcasting their match they can contact an admin to have the caster barred.

Starting Roster:  A team is only required to have one player in the server to be considered on-time.  The map will be rotated 10 minutes after the start time of the match.  Extra time will not be allotted if a team does not have seven players.

Communication:  It is the responsibility of team captains to initiate communication with admins. There should be no expectation that admins will proactively contact the teams.  Admins will be available on Quakenet, Mumble, and Skype.

Match Communication:  Teams are free to discuss their matches anywhere they like but admins will only enforce agreements made in the match comms on the website.

Rosters and Ringing:  Teams may add players to their rosters up until the start of the first playoff game for their league. Team rosters will lock at beginning of the playoffs.  A player may not play for another team once they have played in any league games, including qualifiers.  Teams are required to have updated their rosters on the NATribes site before the playoff games begin.  Any players not on a team�s roster before the start of the first playoff game cannot play in the playoffs.

Subs: Players may be subbed mid-map in the event of technical issues (ping, hardware failure, crashes) only.  The player who left may return to the game only if swapping out with the player who replaced them or coming in to replace a player who is having technical issues.  In any case whenever a player is swapped out for another someone from the team must say in chat which players are switching and for what reason.  Players subbing in and out in order to gain an advantage will be considered cheating and be dealt with accordingly.  Subs must wait to join the server until the player they are replacing has disconnected.

Spectators:  Spectators will not be allowed in the servers.  Subs should not be spectating in the server.
Any team caught with a spectator will be given a rule violation.

Side Selection:  Sides will be randomly decided by the website for each match.

Maps Selection:  Teams will alternate banning maps until the remaining maps are the same size of the map pool.  They will then alternate picking maps from the remaining until there is one map left.  The maps will be played in the order they are selected with the un-picked map as the last map.  Blood Eagle will pick/ban first.

Map Pool:

Arx Novena
Katabatic
Dry Dock
Dangerous Crossing
Tartarus
Raindance
Permafrost

Rules Enforcement:  Rule infractions must be reported within 24 hours of match completion along with some form of evidence (VOD, screenshot, etc).  Rule infractions noticed by an admin, caster, or spectator will all be punished.  Punishments will be decided by an admin with the first option only being used when a rule was broken by accident and quickly remedied by a player.  The default punishments are listed below:

A forfeit for the map in question.
A permanent player ban and forfeit for the match in question.
A permanent player ban and disqualification from the current competition.
A permanent ban on the entire team

Teams that wish to have a say in the proceedings regarding their rule violation must submit a vod of the match from one of their players perspectives.  When a rule is broken by a team on their opponent's server as a result of the server being improperly configured (eg a banned weapon not being restricted) punishment may be less severe than those listed above including the possibility of no punishment at all.  Admins reserve the right to apply punishments not listed or apply no punishment at all in the interest of fairness.

Injects:  The default position on injects is that they are banned from competition.  Players caught using injects will be punished with permanent bans from competition.  Expressly allowed injects are listed below:

Magic Chain

Forfeits: Teams will be assigned a forfeit if they are more than ten minutes late for an agreed upon match time.  If both teams forfeit a match the match will be scored as a tie.

Teams will have absolutely no say in whether they or their opponents forfeit.

Group Stage Tiebreakers: In the event of a tie in scoring, teams will gain advantage through the following criteria:
The team with fewer forfeits
Flag capture differential (caps scored - caps allowed)
Total flag cap scores  (caps scored)
A tie breaker played on at 8pm EST the sunday after the last group stage game. (1 map, 1 hour overtime)

Playoff Tiebreakers:  In order to break ties for second and seventh place the following format will be used:
A group stage with matches from the playoffs being used to replace any possible games
Skolloff swiss tie-breaking system
Cumulative swiss tie-breaking system

If all of the above fail second place will go to the team who played the first place team in the final round.  Third and fourth will be decided by a one map tie breaker map.  If at any point the tiebreakers result in a two way tie with the third team ranked lower the second and third place will be decided by the stage one match between the two tied teams with the fourth place going to the third team.

Admins may add, modify or remove rules and their associated penalties at any time without notice.

Admins may punish teams and/or players for any behaviour that has a detrimental impact on the broadcast.

Admins may request that players who lagg/warp excessively be replaced.  In the case where a player repeatedly lags/warps to his team's advantage the team will be punished at the admin�s discretion.