Rules

DEFINITIONS

TOURNAMENT ORGANISER - This page makes references to tournament organisers in many places. The term is used as a catch-all for the entities organising the event. This will include Esports Wales and any subcontracted entities to organise the tournament.

TOURNAMENT ADMIN - This page makes references to Tournament Admins in many places. This term is intended to identify tournament administrators and personnel working with the tournament organiser to enforce and observe that the rules are being followed.

PARTICIPANT - This page makes references to participant/participants in many places. This term is intended to identify any players or teams taking part in tournaments as appropriate. The terms can be interchanged as necessary to accommodate any team size or denomination in an esports title.

IMPORT - This page makes references to import in many places. The term import is a player who does not class themselves as a Welsh citizen.

RULES

Rules and tournament admin decisions

All the rules in these Competition Regulations may be changed without prior notice during any events if tournament circumstances change and require such rule changes to be made. All tournament admin decisions are final except where the possibility for a protest is explicitly allowed. The tournament admins may also judge any cases not specifically covered in this book and their authority extends to cover the tournament in addition to this rulebook. Any changes made shall be in effect from the moment such changes are communicated to participants.

COMMUNICATION

All tournament communication is handled only using the official Esports Wales discord, Esports Wales Hub, or direct messages from a tournament admin. Any communication occurring outside of the official channels is not considered valid or relevant for tournament operations.

CONFIDENTIALITY

All communication done using the official channels is considered confidential and not to be shared outside of the tournament participants unless specific permission is obtained from the tournament organiser.

BROADCASTING INFORMATION

In case a tournament broadcast is being produced, the tournament organiser has the right to delay the start of the matches with prior notice to the participants.

The tournament organiser reserves all broadcasting rights. These rights may be granted to third parties or the participants themselves on a case-by-case basis. Participants in the tournament may not decline to have their matches broadcast by the tournament organiser. 

If a game is being streamed, the participants must then wait for casters/production to declare they are ready before starting the match.

If any other parties or participants are streaming the game including their POV. It is required to put a delay on to avoid ‘stream sniping’ issues.

WITHDRAWAL FROM THE COMPETITION

A participant is allowed to forfeit and withdraw from the competition at any time. Withdrawal will cause the nullification of all their results up to that point, and their game is considered not to have been played at all.

PROTEST PROCEDURE

A participant may raise an official protest concerning any decision made by a tournament admin. This protest must be submitted to Esports Wales in writing and must include all the relevant details of the case. Any omission of information is considered an additional offence and will be penalized. The protest must be submitted within 24 hours of the incident. The tournament organiser is responsible for processing the protest by conferring with the tournament admin in question. Any final decision by the tournament organiser cannot be protested again.

SUBMITTED INFORMATION

PERSONAL INFORMATION

The tournament organiser will collect personally identifiable information to be able to organise the event. This personal information will include at a minimum: First name, Last name, Email address, In-game nickname, DOB, Nationality, and Address. 

Do not post personally identifiable information in our Discord or in-game, including but not limited to; order numbers, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, etc.

TEAM INFORMATION

All participants are required to belong to a team or organization. Teams will be requested to provide at a minimum: The team name, Contract person, Team Logo, and participating roster.

FORMAT OF STORING DATA

All the identifiable information will be collected and stored in a GDPR fashion, where the information is only accessible to tournament organisers and their representatives. None of the data will be given or sold out to third parties.

ROSTER SUBMISSION

Participants are expected to sign up for the Esports Wales hub and then be added to the correct team by the Game Manager. The rosters must include the main lineup of players for the games played in the event as well as their potential substitutes, managers, and coaches.

TOURNAMENT ELIGIBILITY 

• Participants MUST be in the Esports Wales discord server for updates and the ability to use voice channels in this server on the day and time of the tournament, so we can communicate with you.
• The Participants MUST be registered to the Esports Wales hub.
• Agree to the following rules.

ELIGIBLE PARTICIPANTS

To be eligible to compete in Esports Wales Tournaments each Participant must have satisfied all the following conditions:

• A Participant’s account name should not be offensive and if Esports Wales considers this to be the case the Participant will be required to change their name.
• If a Participant has registered as a Welsh participant, the player must be:
  • born in Wales, or
  • A parent born in Wales, or
  • been living in the country for over 4 years, otherwise, the Participant must register as an Export.
• A player can play multiple games during the tournament but is required to only play for one club at a time.
• If consistent ping issues over the tournament players will be asked to be replaced. Regular in-game ping should be below 90.

INELIGIBLE PARTICIPANTS

The following people are ineligible to participate:

• Referees and Tournament Management
  • Other members of staff who aren’t involved in affecting the outcome of a tournament (e.g. broadcast team) are eligible to participate.
  • If a player has had to be removed from a roster during a season they will be ineligible to play for the rest of the season and not have any prize pool. 
    
    • Reasons for removal - Disciplinary proceeding.

GAME ACCOUNTS

To participate, a participant must have a valid game account registered on the hub. The Participant must use this account to play all of their tournament matches.

FAIR PLAY 

PUNCTUALITY AND DELAYS

Esports Wales is responsible for providing a schedule at least 48 hours in advance before the tournament operations start. This schedule may be estimated by being as precise and transparent as possible.

All players are required to be present within 15 minutes of the match's scheduled start, failure to do so may result in a disqualification.

If a player disconnects and is unable to join within 15 minutes of the pause, the game will need to continue with one player down or forfeit.

CHEATING

Players will be considered cheating and punished accordingly if they partake in any of the following:

• Account sharing, playing under another player’s account, or soliciting, inducing, encouraging, or directing someone else to play under another player’s account.
• Using any 3rd party software that isn’t allowed by the game publisher can give an unfair advantage to a player or team.
• Collusion with other teams.
• Playing whilst under an existing Esports Wales ban or attempting to evade it.

SPORTSPERSONSHIP

Teams are expected to always play at their best within any tournament and to avoid any behaviour inconsistent with the principles of good sportsmanship, honesty, or fair play.

The following actions are poor sportsmanship and will be subject to penalties at the discretion of Esports Wales.

• Flaming: considered to be any comments, in all chat or game lobby, that may be considered negative or hurtful.
• Use of racist or discriminatory language.
• Any other further act, failure to act, or behaviour which, in the sole judgment of Esports Wales officials, violates these rules and/or the standards of integrity established by Esports Wales for competitive gameplay.

PENALTIES

Any person found to have engaged in or attempted to engage in any act that Esports Wales believes, in its sole and absolute discretion, constitutes unfair play, will be subject to penalty. The nature and extent of the penalties imposed due to such acts shall be at the sole and absolute discretion of Esports Wales.

If any team or played is suspected of breaking any rules referees should be informed. At this point, they may ask for screenshots or other evidence of misconduct.

Upon discovery of any team member committing any violations of the rules listed above, Esports Wales may, without limitation issue to following penalties to individuals or to teams:

• Issue a formal warning.
• Forfeit of a match.
• Temporary suspension of a player.
• Permanent ban of a player.
• Deduction of points or seeding for the current or next tournament.
• Disqualification of a team from a tournament.
• Disqualification from prizes.

OTHER

COACHING RULES

Any form of communication between a team’s coach and the players will only be allowed during the following opportunities:

• Tactical timeouts
• Half times of a map
• Between maps of a multimap series

SPIRIT OF THE RULES

These rules may be amended, modified, or supplemented by Esports Wales at any time, to ensure fair play and the integrity of Esports Wales tournaments.

All decisions regarding the interpretation of these rules lie solely with Esports Wales, the decisions of which are final.

BETTING

Participants are not allowed to bet on the outcomes of their matches, either directly or indirectly. Betting includes non-monetary transactions based on the outcome of the match. Any participants found in breach of this rule will not only be disqualified but also reported to law enforcement and publishers.

MATCH FIXING

Participants are not allowed to lose matches on purpose or to encourage other participants to lose matches on purpose. All matches taking place must be played to their fullest potential. Any participant found in breach of this rule will not only be disqualified by also be reported to law enforcement and publishers.

CONTACTING A TOURNAMENT ADMIN

Navigate to the Esports Wales Discord and open a support ticket at the top of the discord channels.