Rules

1. CLAN SELECTION

1.1 – The number of clans to participate in SPL is determined by SPL.

1.2 – Clans will be selected in the manner as seen fit by SPL – whether all participating clans will be admitted straight away, or a tournament held for the final spot(s) – this is the prerogative of the league.

1.3 – Clans will be chosen by the SPL governing body, whether by consensus or by majority vote in the case of disputes. The primary criteria is skill, however, stability will also be considered.

2. SEASON STRUCTURE

2.1 – The league will consist of a regular season, and a post-season (playoffs). The season structure will be predicated on how many clans are admitted into the league, and thus in turn the post-season will be predicated on this. Specifications for season and post-season structure and rules will be specified at the time of clan admissions.

2.2 – This season will consist of 12 clans in total, equally dispersed in 2 divisions of 6. Each clan will play every clan in its division twice, and every other clan once, for a total of 16 games.

2.3 – Standings are determined based on total points at the end of the regular season. Points are awarded in the following manner: 3 pts for a win, 1 for a tie, 0 for a loss, and -1 for a forfeit.

2.4 – The playoff structure is as follows: (1 vs. (4v5)) vs. (2 vs. (3v6)).

• 2.4.1 – The top team in each division will automatically advance to the playoffs and receive a First Round bye. The next 4 clans with the most overall points will advance to the playoffs as well.

• 2.4.2 – In the event of a tie for a playoff spot, the head-to-head record will determine the standings. In the event of a tie in that as well, a game will be played to determine who receives that playoff spot.

• 2.4.3 – The First Round will be a best out of 3 game series. The Semifinals and Finals will be a best out of 5 game series.

2.5 – Home and Away will be assigned evenly for divisional games (both teams having one each) and randomly for non-divisional games. A clan will have 3 Home games and 3 Away games against non-divisional opponents.

• 2.5.1 – Home team has home field advantage in terms of scheduling, as well as having color choice.

• 2.5.2 – In the playoffs, the higher seed will be the Home team in every other game, starting with the first game.

3. SCHEDULE

3.1 – Game times will be scheduled only between the two clans involved in the match.

3.2 – Discussion amongst the clans, in terms of scheduling, must take place in the designated area on the SPL forums. Each week a new subforum will be available, containing a thread for every game of that week. Anything discussed/agreed upon outside of these threads will be dismissed.

• 3.2.1 – Each clan is to designate 3 captains from their roster. Clans may change these designated captains during the season; however, clans may never have more than 3 captains at any time.

• 3.2.2 – Only captains may post to discuss potential match times in the aforementioned threads. Any post(s) made by non-captains will not only be dismissed but may also be subject to punishment.

• 3.2.3 – When discussing potential times, each clan must list both PREFERRED times as well as ACCEPTABLE times to begin the scheduling discussion. These times will be used should the league be required to step in and facilitate the scheduling process; in the event that league involvement is required, rules 3.5.1 and 3.5.2 will apply.

• 3.2.4 – PREFERRED times is defined as: the desired time(s) a clan wishes to play. This should be a semi-strict timeframe set to specific dates (i.e. 8pm-10pm all weekdays would be considered a PREFERRED time).

• 3.2.5 – ACCEPTABLE times is defined as: any time your clan is available to field 4. This should be a broad timeframe set throughout the entire week (i.e. 6pm-Midnight all weekdays and 2pm-Midnight weekends would be considered ACCEPTABLE times).

3.3 – Once a time has been agreed upon by the clans, it must be approved by the league or else it is considered void. League approval can only be made by the President, the Vice President, or the Head Ref(s).

• 3.3.1 – Once a time has been approved by league officials, it is set in stone. No changes may occur beyond this point.

• 3.3.2 – A maximum of two games will be played simultaneously to minimize any potential server problems.

• 3.3.3 – Game times will be handed out on a first come, first serve basis; therefore, clans are highly recommended to actively participate in the scheduling process.

3.4 – Clans have until Friday 11:59 PM EST of the previous week to schedule a game, and have it approved by the league for the upcoming week. For example, if week 2 is from Mon., Jan. 15, to Sun., Jan. 21, clans must have their game scheduled and approved by 11:59 PM EST on Friday, Jan 12. Week 3 games would then have to be scheduled and approved by 11:59 PM EST on Friday, Jan 19 and so on.

• 3.4.1 – Clans can only schedule games one week at a time. For example, clans may not schedule a game in week 6 when it is currently week 3.

3.5 – In the event that league involvement in scheduling is required, the process will follow a standard procedure to avoid any claims of bias or favoritism.

• 3.5.1 – For each match, a Home Team and an Away Team will be assigned. If two clans are unable to reach a scheduling agreement, the Home Team will be granted their PREFERRED time (see rule 3.2.3) if the time is both reasonable and available (at SPL’s discretion). If the Home Team’s PREFERRED time is not reasonable or available, one of the Home Team’s ACCEPTABLE times will be granted.

• 3.5.2 – If league administration deems that a clan is consistently and purposefully posting times to abuse the home team scheduling rule for a competitive advantage, this clan will be subject to punishment and/or forfeiture of home team scheduling advantage for the remainder of the season.

• 3.5.3 – If one clan has failed to post both PREFERRED and ACCEPTABLE times in the designated thread, the other clan will be granted their PREFERRED time (see rule 3.2.3) if the time is both reasonable and available (at SPL’s discretion). If the clan’s PREFERRED time is not reasonable or available, one of the ACCEPTABLE times will be granted.

• 3.5.4 – If both clans fail to at least follow rule 3.2.3, both will receive forfeits (-1).

3.6 – As the flexible scheduling system is in effect this season, no reschedule requests may be made once times are officially approved/set by the league.

• 3.6.1 – A clan that fails to show up to a game, whether the game was scheduled by the clans or by the league, will receive a forfeit (-1). If both clans fail to show up to a game, both receive forfeits (-1).

3.7 – Games in playoff series will be scheduled in the same manner; however, special emphasis will be placed on successful completion and fairness of playoff game scheduling.

• 3.7.1 – With the possibility of playoff series going 5 games long, if clans are having a difficult time scheduling that amount of games, the SPL staff may step in and schedule some of those games to ease the burden. Again, this might want to be avoided as it may potentially lead to an inconvenient time for your clan.

4. GAME STRUCTURE

4.1 – Players are not permitted to act as a staff member, in any capacity, for any league match that involves their clan. Reffing, recording, broadcasting, or anything else is not allowed if one of the clans participating is your own.

4.2 – Clans are expected to assemble and be organized in the lobby 5 or 10 minutes prior to the scheduled gametime. Before the game starts, both clans must designate a captain. This will be the player who PMs the ref for the password, and refs will now treat this player and ONLY this player as the captain unless he exits the server. (See rule 4.3)

4.3 – Refs should ask for both teams to have their captain PM him for the password 5 minutes before the scheduled gametime. At this time, the captain may and should designate a co-captain to act as the captain in the case that he pings out or has to leave.

4.4 – If the ref starts this process either too early or too late, clans are expected to carry out the game under full authority of the ref and the timeframe, and you may file a grievance with the league afterward.

4.5 – The captain is responsible for a) handing out the password to his team. b) saying “yes” or “no” when the ref asks if the teams are ready. c) being the team’s authority with regard to substitutions. only the captain may request a substitution, or order a substitution for his team. d) calling a timeout for his team.

4.6 – If for any reason a clan is having an internal argument over which sub wants to come in, or a player refusing to sub out even if asked to by the ref or captain, the ref may grant the captain’s request to remove a player from the game.

4.7 – After the password has been handed out, because of rule 4.3, this gives both clans 5 minutes to get their players in the server and ready to go. At the time of the scheduled gametime, refs will ask if both clans are ready. There will be a 5 minute grace period, for both clans, should EITHER clan opt to take it, for any reason. Even if both clans request grace, it only lasts for 5 minutes.

4.8 – At 5 minutes past the scheduled gametime, if one or both clans elected to use grace, the ref will now again ask if both teams are ready. By this point clans are expected to have enough players in the game to play, and whatever players they were waiting for to have arrived. Any clan that insists they need more time, risks forfeit.

4.9 – Refs will use their discretion based on how tight things are running on the league staff’s end, and how much the opposing clan is insistent on starting the game or whether they don’t mind waiting, with regard to giving a few more minutes of leeway. However, *except for in the event of spark crashing, or the server crashing*, games *must* be started by 10 minutes after the scheduled gametime. Anything more than that is unacceptable. If clans do not have enough players, then the ref will call forfeit. If both clans do not have enough players, the ref will call double-forfeit.

5. GAMEPLAY

5.1 – All games will be played on the SPL2010 map and must start 4v4. During the game, if a player pings out or is forced to sub out due to connection and/or spiking issues, and no sub is available, the player’s clan may continue playing the remainder of the game. If the clan feels at any point that they cannot continue, they are allowed to forfeit, and statistics up to that point will be recorded and the forfeiting clan will receive -1 point.

5.2 – Each clan is allowed to have 2 subs, with an unlimited number of substitutions. Only the players in the server at the time of the game’s start are eligible to play or substitute. A clan may not have any players enter the server who were not present at the time of the game’s start.

5.3 – Substitutions must only occur after a player dies or pings-out. When a player is subbing out, he must switch to spectator before the new player may switch in. When a player pings out, it must say “… has left the server” before the new player may switch in.

5.4 – Any clan or player deemed by SPL to be intentionally faking or inducing ping-outs to manually time a substitution instead of waiting for a player’s death, risks severe penalty such as: player suspension, game forfeiture, clan suspension, clan expulsion.

5.5 – All matches will last 40 minutes long, or until a team has gone up by a 3-cap margin (i.e. 3-0, 4-1, etc.) There will be no overtime in the regular season. Playoffs will have unlimited overtime if a game is tied after 40 minutes.

5.6 – The game will end abruptly at the 40 minute mark, regardless if flags are in play. There will be no time extension beyond 40 minutes.

5.7 – Each clan is allowed 1 timeout per game. Timeouts can only be taken after a flag cap occurs. A captain must say “timeout” following the flag cap, in which the ref will set a timeout for 120 seconds. This will stop the game glock. Only the captain may call a timeout – anyone else saying this must be disregarded. During timeouts, clans may perform substitutions.  After the timeout is over, the game time will begin again where it left off. The 2 minutes of timeout-time is separate from the game time.

6. IN-GAME AND POST-GAME BEHAVIOR

6.1 – Clans are expected to stay in the server until the ref has all the stats he needs and tells you that you may go. Any clan or player that does not do this will receive 0 for any stat that was not recorded by the ref.

6.2 – SPL’s policy with regard to sportsmanship and in-game behavior is the following.

• 6.2.1 – Anything you are not allowed to say in spark generically, you are not allowed to say in a league game. Players who violate this risk penalty.

DISCLAIMER: with the new /ignore feature that has been implemented, the following rules have been adjusted from previous seasons.

• 6.2.2 – Any kind of moderate trash talk that would be accepted in a normal public game, is acceptable from the players (not spectators). To whatever extent a clan wishes to damage its credibility with other clans is its own prerogative. Given that any clan or player has the ability to ignore the opposing team’s players, SPL’s view is that any chatter from a clan can only serve to hurt them by taking their focus off of the game, and that anything excessive or bothersome to an opposing clan simply renders the opposing clan expected to ignore the offenders.

• 6.2.3 – If you know a clan talks trash, or rather, if you don’t know that they don’t talk trash, and it is a problem for you, then you are advised to ignore them at the start of the game.

• 6.2.4 – Spectators may not speak out of team-chat while the game is in play. The first violation is a warning. The second violation will result in an immediate removal from the server.

• 6.2.5 – Journalists/Video Recorders/Broadcasters may not speak out of team-chat while the game is in play.

• 6.2.6 – Exception to 6.2.4: Spectators may respond to their team’s captain if asked to substitute.

6.3 – In the event that a player is deemed to be misbehaving/disrupting the game and that players team has only four players in the game, with no available substitutes, the following actions will occur: The first violation will result in a referee warning that outlines the consequences of a second offense. The second offense will result in that player being removed from the server and their clan forfeiting the match, their stats, and receiving a -1 point.

6.4 – The only communication that is mandatory – and it is indeed mandatory – is between an individual clan and the ref(s).

6.5 – Any player from either clan who is asked to leave the server by the ref, must do so. If you feel it is a wrongful request, a grievance with the league may be filed afterward.

6.6 – Even spectator chat must be kept in check, since chat flooding will hinder the ability of the ref(s) to communicate with the clans/players. It is the ref’s discretion as to whether someone is being excessive with their chat, and all players must adhere to the ref’s requests or demands to minimize or eliminate their chatting.

7. STATS AND AWARDS

7.1 – After the game, the ref(s) may or may not choose an MVP. At the end of a game, if there is a player who stands out as having played a notch above everyone else in the game, he will be awarded an MVP for that game. If there is no one who stood out, no MVP award will be given. Further, the ref(s) will not come to an impulsive decision and announce this in the server after a game, but will think about it for 5 minutes and mark it on the scoresheet that they submit.

7.2 – Refs will record score, kills, deaths, frag to death ratio, flag attempts, and flag caps. These stats will also be recorded for individuals as well as the teams themselves.

7.3 – If a flag attempt is started, and a player drops, and a new player picks it up, this will be recorded as a separate flag attempt for each player, but only 1 flag attempt for the team. If the flag is returned, however, the next picking up of the flag will be a new flag attempt for the team.

7.4 – At the end of the regular season, SPL will give out numerous awards to be announced later.

8. ROSTERS

8.1 – Clans must maintain a minimum 8-man roster to be eligible to play during the season. Rosters may have up to 20 people maximum. Only the listed aliases on the roster are eligible to play for that specific week.

8.2 – Each week there will be a roster update thread in which clans may post roster changes. This would include adding players, removing players, changing captains, and any alias changes.

• 8.2.1 – Only captains may post any roster updates/changes. Any posts made by non-captains will be ignored.

• 8.2.2 – Roster changes should be kept to a reasonable minimum. Any clan deemed by SPL to be abusing the lack of limit on roster updates purely for the sake of antics risks having their roster frozen for that week or longer.

• 8.2.3 – Individual players may have up to 3 alias changes per season. Use these sparingly, because once they are used up, that player will be stuck with that name.

8.3 – Week 6 will be the last week any roster updates may be made. No changes can be made beyond this week.

9. PROCEDURES AND AGREEMENTS

9.1 – SPL’s policy with regard to smurfing:

• 9.1.1 – Smurfing of *any* nature is absolutely prohibited. This includes playing for more than one clan, players playing under more than one alias, playing on someone else’s alias, the switching of aliases between established identities, or any action with regard to deceit or multitude of identity. SPL will review any incidents or accusations of smurfing on a case-by-case basis. Also, even though refs should check to make sure all players in game are aliases listed on the clan roster, clans are also accountable for their players playing on the correct names.

• 9.1.2 – If a player is in a clan, which is not participating in SPL, wants to join and play with an SPL clan, he may do so if he is up front about it and both parties are aware of and ok with it. The player must have officially left the former clan on the spark clan website. The main points are that A) you must not be on two different clan rosters B) you must not be attempting to perpetrate deceit by establishing multiple active and league-playable aliases

9.2 – SPL’s policy with regard to cheating:

• 9.2.1 – Cheating is prohibited, and SPL classifies cheating under two categories – intentional game-altering behavior, and non-intentional game altering.

• 9.2.2 – Game-altering behavior includes but is not limited to: extreme lag, constant spikes, a series of spikes or a prominent spike during a critical play, or godmode-like behavior (damage immunity).

9.3 – Any player or clan found to be exhibiting game-altering behavior is subject to protest.

• 9.3.1 – SPL will review accusations of game-altering behavior on a case-by-case basis. The only difference between intentional and non-intentional game-altering behavior is, obviously, if the league has sufficient reason to believe a player or clan (or both) had intent behind the exhibited behavior.

• 9.3.2 – *Sufficient reason can exist without concrete proof*. Things such as behavior, patterns, circumstantial evidence, player credibility, testimony as to the nature of the occurrences, etc., will all be examined and the league will decide whether or not there is enough reasonable doubt as to A) whether significant game-altering behavior in fact occurred B) whether there is strong enough likelihood that there was intent behind it.

9.4 – If a player is exhibiting any kind of game-altering behavior, he is expected to sub out immediately. One of the refs should notice it and ask the player to sub out immediately, and if not the opposing clan may urge the ref(s) to observe said player and request he sub-out. A clan’s captain is also expected to urge his teammate to sub out if he starts spiking or exhibiting game-altering behavior, because his clan will be held accountable for this player’s game-altering behavior, and clans are expected to have any players sub-out if the majority of other players in game including the refs notice this (sometimes a player is smooth on his own screen, but everyone else sees them spiking).

9.5 – Purposely and/or intentionally disrupting the gameplay of another player will be subject to disciplinary action from the league that may or may not include punishment outside the league.

9.6 – SPL reserves the right to modify these rules if there is revealed to be a flaw or a differently desired policy on an issue. Obviously, clans will be judged based on the rules as they exist at the time of their actions.

9.7 – SPL reserves the right to take whatever action necessary to preserve the integrity of the league. By participating in this league, you agree to adhere to all rules and suffer whatever consequences deemed appropriate should your clan or a player in your clan violate the rules.

9.8 – Generally, what the referee says goes. You may politely correct a ref if he is not following rules or procedure, but ultimately he is the authority of the game and must be obeyed; grievance may be filed afterward.

9.9 – In the event of a protest, submit your case via private message to me (Bone) to be reviewed by the board of representatives. All decisions are majority vote/consensus after careful and sufficient discussion and argument. If a case is strong, the player/clan will be contacted and have the opportunity to give a defense/counter-case. By participating in SPL, you agree to abide by whatever decision the board comes to.

9.10 – In the event of a server crash, the following principles govern how to proceed:

• 9.10.1 – The game will restart/resume with whatever amount of time was remaining. The score will be as it was at the time of the crash.

• 9.10.2 – If there was a flag run in progress, but the other team had a possibility of stopping the flag run, regardless of how unlikely, the flag run is considered dead. An example would be if the enemy team had a player in front who had a chance of killing or delaying the flagger for his team to arrive and possibly recover the flag.

• 9.10.3 – If there was a flag run in progress that was a virtual inevitability, i.e. both flags were in or coming into base and no enemies were close enough to even have a chance to make the flagger drop, and it would’ve 99.9999% been a successful flag run had the server not crashed…then this flag cap will be counted.

• 9.10.3.1 – The reason the flag run is to be counted in the aforementioned scenario is because this might affect things such as overtime, extending play if a flag attempt is in progress and the game is a 1 cap margin, etc. If it was a near-certain cap, the safe thing to do is to play the game assuming the cap counted (since in all likelihood the ruling will end up being that the cap was indeed achieved) so that in the event of a tied or 1-cap margin game, the clan does not get robbed of the opportunity for OT or for play extending while a flag is in play.

• 9.10.4 – In the event of a flag run being in progress at the time of a server crash, clans may protest the game either to get the cap counted, not counted, or have the entire game replayed, and the board will make a decision.