Season 16 Rules

1. General rules

1) Ignorance of the rules does not pardon any violation.

2) The Code of Conduct and Appeal process apply to this tournament and can be viewed at http://ensl.org/articles/1068 and http://ensl.org/articles/1070

3) Players must use their name and Steam account registered with the NSL and can only play on 1 Steam + NSL account per contest.

4) Each team is forced to set 1 Leader and 1 Deputee on the team page.

5) If you have more than 1 Leader/Deputee, the first comment on the first match page will be considered as the Leader/Deputee for the rest of the season.

6) If a team forfeits, they get a warning, on the 3rd forfeit they get a contest ban and may be restricted from signing up for the next tournament.

7) Any issues or disputes are subject to the Referee discretion and Admin review. Referee or Admin are available on the NSL discord if they are not present in the match.

8) It is the players responsibility to document ample proof of any issues or disputes in the absence of any staff during the match.

 

2. Server rules

(a) There are two options:

1) Teams agree to use one server with the fairest possible ping.

2) In case of disagreement, a match can use two servers for fairness, which will be decided by a Referee or Admin. Players from both teams may offer their input to the Referee/Admin in this case, who will take their feedback into consideration.

(b) Apply common sense and sportsmanship when deciding servers.

Suggested locations:

EU vs NA - London & Central/East US Servers

EU vs AUS/Pacific Region - Kansas City/West

US ServersNA vs AUS/Pacific Region - West US & EU Servers

(c) Community and private servers 

are acceptable, as long as they adhere to the server guidelines and are approved by Admin in advance of the tournament. See NSL Server Guidelines.

 

3. Season Timings / Format

(a) Format

1) Matches are played between two teams consisting of 6 players each with 1 time playing Marine and Alien on each map on each Server.

2) Teams are required to use the match page for scheduling purposes. Admins and Referees will refer to the match page if any conflict arises.

3) A round ends when the victory screen is displayed each round counts 1 point.

4) A Referee or Admin is to be consulted in case of any rule or match issue.

(b) Group Stages / Round Robin Phase

1) Maps are set by the match page.

2) Lasts 5 weeks, a match has 1 week time after the match page date + time to be played. Matches can be scheduled in advance.

3) Matches may be postponed 1 week after their original week of play if both teams agree.

a) Should one team disagree, then the team who has players ready to play during the original match week may force their opponent to forfeit.

b) Matches in the last week of group play may not be postponed.

4) If a match is not played, the match comments and the date + time match proposals on the NSL website will decide the score by the following possibilities:

a) A score of 4:0 is awarded to the team who displayed more effort than the other team in terms of scheduling and attempts to play.

b) If such a determination is not easily made at the end of the season, no points will be awarded for the match and will result in a score of 0-0.

(c) Playoffs Final Phase / Coinflip etc

1) The Playoffs will be Bo5 with map bans/picks.

2) The Semi-finals and Finals may not be played on the same day, unless agreed upon by all parties in advance and with Admin approval

3) The Finals must be played maximally two weeks after the Playoffs have begun.

4) A Coin Flip is done on the match server and in the presence of each team’s Team Captain or Deputee. The higher seeded team is heads, and the lower seeded team is tails. To do the Coin Flip simply type “coinflip” in the server chat.

5) The team that wins the coinflip decides whether they want to choose map and server or to choose Aliens/Marines first.

6) Map and server choice is selected first and before the second team picks Aliens/Marines.

7) Picking order is reversed for any additional maps.

8) Each team decision at the coinflip stage is final and cannot be changed afterwards.

9) Both teams are allowed to ban 3 maps and the team choosing the first map gets the first ban. Teams alternate in their ban choices until 6 maps have been banned in total and then continue selecting first map and Aliens/Marines as normal. Map bans are in effect until the conclusion of the series.

10) Teams have 1 minute to make each decision alternatively after the coinflip. If a decision takes more than 1 minute, right of choice is given to the opposing team. If neither team makes any decisions all choices are randomized by the Referee or Admin.

(d) Spectators / Livestreams

1) The only allowed spectators during a match are Casters, Admins and the Referee for the current match.

2) Teams have the right to deny a Referee or Caster if a team believes the official may be biased. Note; proper arguments need to be supplied.

3) If a team wishes to do so, they must contact the League Admin or the Admin hierarchy above the League Admin (one who is not involved in the match as a Referee or Caster) to make a final determination here.

4) Any team that denies a referee in an abusive way may be sanctioned.

5) Anyone streaming the match must do so with at least three (3) minute delay (in their owns team interest).

(e) Starting a match - Live/not live on matches

1) When present, Referee and Casters must be confirmed as ready prior to match start.

2) If the team has 6 approved players on the match server and is ready, the opponent team has 10 minutes to get 6 approved players on the match server and ready. This includes any approved mercs.

3) A team may, within the first 15 seconds of a round, use  “ready” in chat or in the console to restart a round. A team must have reasonable grounds for a round restart. Teams are only allowed to restart a round a maximum of 2 times per match. Any violation of this rule may lead to round forfeit.

4) Starting spawns remain unchanged in case of round restart.

(f) Pause function on matches

1) NSL Mod’s pause function freezes the entire state of a game, including all movement and timers. A pause can be initiated by typing “pause” in chat.

2) Each team is allowed 2 pauses to use during a match.

3) An individual pause lasts a maximum of 5 minutes.

(g) During a match

1) All-chat is disabled during live matches, except for gg, gl, hf, ready, pause or during pauses to explain reasons for pause or updates.

2) After a team finishes a round they have a right to a maximum of 5 minutes of break before starting the next round. Teams are responsible for ensuring timeliness.

3) Both teams can agree on a longer break for a maximum of 15 minutes.

(h) After a Match

1) Once the match has ended Captains/Deputees must report match results & players who played in the match to a presiding Admin or Referee or confirm the score on the Match page.

 

4. Teams / Players

1) All teams must have and maintain a minimum five (5) registered users the whole season.

2) Once the season has officially started, any player who joins a Team will be counted as a merc in Matches for (7) full days. Timezones must be taken into consideration in a consistent way, so we use EST.

 

3) Disbanded teams will automatically forfeit all matches. The forfeit score will be given to the opposing team, or none if both teams of a match disbanded.

4) A player can only be rostered on one (1) active team per season or contest, regardless of division.

5) Players from teams that have disbanded in higher divisions and players that have not been playing in the current season will be ineligible to play in lower division teams if it is believed that the player may disrupt play (i.e. they’re too good for that division). A final determination will be made by the League Admin or the Admin hierarchy above them.

 

5. Mercenary Rules

A merc is a player that is not registered with the team requesting the substitution. Teams are responsible for ensuring that they have substitute players available in their active roster. A team may substitute a player in exceptional circumstances by substituting an active player with another player, so long as they satisfy a set of requirements.

1) Teams can use 2 merc at a time: a merc is a player that is not registered on an actively competing team with unplayed matches.

2) Players are allowed to play on only one team. Players from disbanded teams can act as merc substitutes.

3) The merc must be approximately the same skill level as the least skilled player in the match so as to ensure that a team does not gain an unfair advantage. An exception is possible if both teams are in agreement.

4) The opposing team has the right to deny any submitted merc, but not unreasonably deny a proposed merc. If an agreement cannot be made between both teams, all players must respect the Referee or Admin decision to forfeit the match or let the merc play.

5) The intention of a merc is to allow teams that can’t field 6 players the ability to play a match. It is NOT meant to be used to bolster the skills of a team’s roster.

6) Approval of the merc by the opponents teamleader or deputee is final. Starting the match as a team via ready will count as consent by the teamleader or deputee.

 

6. Map Pool

(a) Maps to be played during the Group Stages are:

Week 1: ns2_veil and ns2_nexus

Week 2: ns2_summit and ns2_mineral

Week 3: ns2_tram and ns2_biodome

Week 4: ns2_unearthed and ns2_jambi

Week 5: ns2_descent and ns2_caged

Week 6: ns2_tram and ns2_nexus

Week7: ns2_veil and ns2_jambi

(b) Maps for the Playoffs will be picked by teams in the following list:

1) ns2_biodome

2) ns2_descent

3) ns2_jambi

4) ns2_summit

5) ns2_tram

6) ns2_veil

7) ns2_nexus

8) ns2_mineral

9) ns2_unearthed

10) ns2_origin

11) ns2_eclipse

12) ns2_caged

(c) No close spawns will be permitted on any map.