EGFC Rules & Regulations

General Regulations

Tournament Format

  • The EGF Rival Series is formatted as regional competitions that qualify competing colleges for a seed in EGF’s national playoffs.

  • Each tournament including the playoffs will be a single elimination bracket with each match consisting of a series of games as described in the Game Rules section.

  • Each title supported in the series is treated as a separate tournament meaning that a college may qualify for nationals in League of Legends while failing to do so for Hearthstone.

Region Composition

  • Each region will consist of up to eight member colleges as decided EGF officials. These regions may be altered between series by EGF.

Competition format

  • Each tournament will be held as either an online tournament, a LAN tournament, or a hybrid of both depending on the logistics and capabilities within each region. The format for each tournament will be announced at the time of the tournament schedule.

Qualification

  • The first place team from each region automatically qualifies for one of eight slots in the national tournament.

  • Should there be less than eight qualifying teams, the remaining slots may be filled by

a tournament open to any EGF member college or

by random draw at the discretion of EGF

  • Participation in the open tournament may be restricted by EGF in order to meet specific time or logistics requirements. Should a tournament become necessary, an announcement will be made by EGF at least two weeks prior to the proposed start date.

  • Should a national tournament not be viable for reason of logistics, timing, or other unforeseen circumstances, the prizing announced for the national tournament will be distributed equally to the teams who qualified to compete. An announcement as to whether the tournament will occur will happen at least two weeks prior to the last scheduled regional tournament of the series.

 

Match Schedule

  • A meeting including all coordinators from each region will be held a minimum of one month prior to proposed start of the tournament series to set schedules for tournaments.

  • A full schedule of dates and times will be sent to all competing players, coordinators, and other designated personnel prior to the beginning of the first regional tournament.

  • All times for matches are displayed in Eastern Time.

 

Forfeits

  • If a team does not have a number of eligible players equal to the standard team size (ex., 5 for League of Legends) in the lobby/server 15 minutes after the scheduled match time that team will receive a forfeit loss and the opposing team is awarded a forfeit win.

Player Eligibility and Requirements

  • To be eligible to compete in the EGF Rival Series, a team must:

    • All members must be full-time, registered students from the same school.

    • Have a minimum number of required players for the game(s) of choice

  • Teams may make changes to their official roster up to 24 hours before the first scheduled match for the tournament the team is competing in..

  • Team names must include the name of the school being represented

  • Individual player names must adhere to the EGF Code of Conduct. Should a name violate rules, the player will be asked to change their name in game or use a compliant account or forfeit their participation in the tournament.

 

Prizing

  • Prizing for each tournament will be announced prior to the start of the first tournament in the series and may vary from series to series.

  • Prizing will be distributed to the top two teams in each region at the levels announced at the beginning of the series within 30 days of the last tournament in the same series.

  • In the case of custom-made gear or product, an additional buffer period may be required in order to fulfill prizing requirements based on vendor capabilities. Any delay in custom prizing will be communicated to the relevant teams prior to the original 30 day deadline.

Character Restrictions

  • In the event of a major bug or by decision of the developer, select characters may be restricted from gameplay for a period of time by EGF officials. Decisions on any character restrictions will be made the day of the match and teams will be notified at least one hour prior to the start of the first match of the day.

 

Exploits & Infractions

  • Dispute Resolutions - all disputes must be submitted via email to an EGF official within 30 minutes of the conclusion of the match along with the demo. Disputes will be reviewed by EGF admins and will be sent to the Committee on Infractions if deemed appropriate.

  • Exploit & Infraction Penalties - exploits and infractions will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. If a dispute cannot be resolved immediately, the match in question may be postponed for evidence review.

 

Unfair play

The following actions will be considered unfair play:

  • The use of any cheat program and/or map hack program

  • An intentional disconnection without a proper and explicitly stated reason

  • The use of any settings exceeding the standard and permitted settings

  • Intentionally allowing an opponent to win a game

  • Unsportsmanlike or disruptive behavior, such as inappropriate and/or unprofessional actions directed towards another player or tournament official

  • The use of a game bug that is determined by the board of referees as being unfair (“exploits”).

  • The use of an ineligible player (“ringing”)

  • Upon discovery of any player committing any violations regarded as unfair play, the offending player, at the sole discretion of the tournament director or a group of referees, may receive a warning, a forfeit loss, or be disqualified from the competition. During the course of the event, the commissioner or group of referees may determine other actions to embody unfair play

  • Cheating - Any team that is determined to be cheating will be immediately disqualified and removed from the tournament and restricted from entering all future EGF related events. Examples of cheating would include, without limitation:

    • Match collusion.

    • Attempt to DDoS or interfere with another team’s connection.

    • Incidence of ineligible players participating or helping in the match.

 

Server Crashes & Disconnects

  • Server Crash - in the event of a game server crash, please contact an EGF admin via email ticket or through the EGF Discord server. The match will be restarted using the same picks/bans/sides and settings.

    • Teams are responsible for ensuring that their choices are exactly the same as the disconnected match during the remake, to the best of their ability, and any deviation from this is considered unfair play, and will be dealt with accordingly.

  • Player Disconnect

    • If a player disconnects, only the Captain (or a designated player if the Captain disconnects) of the disconnected player’s team may pause the game. The pause for either team may not exceed a total of 15 minutes per match. If a team pauses for longer than 15 minutes total within a match, the pausing team will forfeit that round.

  • Stoppage of Play:

    • A player experiencing technical issues on any team may have their captain call for a game restart prior to first blood/stock loss/death, within the first 5 minutes of the start of game (using the in-game timer).

    • The player must be experiencing a hardware malfunction (e.g., monitor, peripheral), a physical disruption (e.g., table/chair breakage), or a configuration issue (e.g., runes, masteries, or summoner spells are not *properly* applied - not just choosing the wrong ones). The player must declare the issue in public chat and/or to a tournament administrator, and after the problem is acknowledged, the game should be paused, and affected player may disconnect. Once the player disconnects, if the problem can be resolved within [need to determine a time], the match may continue after the fix, otherwise the game is considered null and void and should be restarted. If a tournament administrator determines that the disconnect/conduct represents unfair play, the match may be ruled as a forfeit win for the opposing team.

    • If an unintentional disconnection occurs within 5 minutes from the start of the match and before first blood –OR– a player’s client crashes or fails to load the match, then the match must be restarted with the same selections/sides. Otherwise if the unintentional disconnection occurs after those milestones, the game will continue as normal, barring any decision by team captains to pause; the disconnected player may reconnect into the game as soon as they are able.

    • If a player intentionally disconnects without specifying a reason, then the game will continue as normal.

    • If a server crash occurs, then the tournament director or head referee will decide either between (a) restarting the game, or (b) awarding the game to one of the teams. As a guideline, a game victory will only be awarded upon server crash in a situation where one team was on the verge of certain defeat (e.g., a nexus was about to be destroyed).

Use of Tournament Software

  • In the interest of providing the best possible experience for competitors, EGF utilizes third party platforms to organize tournament brackets. Each team is expected to register their teams with EGF and also on these third party platforms which will require an account.

  • Rules will be published on each tournament page when published.

  • In the event that a platform used by EGF fails, such as in the instance of a League of Legends tournament code, EGF officials will take over the responsibilities of creating lobbies for the relevant games and reporting as necessary.

Rule Interpretations

At times, the EGF Rules and Regulations may not cover an encountered situation, or may be interpreted in an unexpected way, requiring further clarification.

  1. Where a new or clarified ruling is required, a committee of EGF officials will convene to do so. These rulings will become the rule of operation or play immediately.

  2. A review of any new rulings will be undertaken during the seasonal review of the league’s rules and regulations, a meeting held within two weeks of the conclusion of the current series.

  3. EGF Officials will hold an annual review meeting to consider and codify all new rulings, proposed rules, and other necessary documentation.

 

Game Rules

League of Legends

Custom Game

  • Competition Method: 5 vs. 5

  • Map: Summoner’s Rift (summer)

  • Mode: Tournament Draft

  • Bans per Team: 3

  • Game Length: Until the winner is determined

  • Game Winner: The team who completely destroys their opponent’s nexus, or forces their opponent to surrender.

  • Champion Selection: Draft mode will be used. Players may only select champions that are unlocked via any means.

    • Players must have a minimum of 14 champions available to compete in draft mode; players without 14 champions available will be unable to participate in any practices, event, etc. involving draft mode.

  • Draft Rules:

    • Draft Options: Tournament will be using the draft mode feature. Team will only have 5 members, subs can be used but may only play for one team throughout the league/tournament.

    • Draft Order: The team with the better ranking (or listed as the home team) will have the choice to select their side as blue (first pick) or purple (second pick).

    • In a multiple game series, the loser of a game will receive their choice of blue (first pick) or purple (second pick) for the next game.

    • Draft mode proceeds in a snake draft format as follows: Blue Team= A; Purple Team = B

      • Bans: ABABAB

      • Picks: ABBAABBAAB

Tournament codes

Tournament codes are generated through Battlefy. Should a tournament code not be available, the captain of the EGF official will create a game lobby and invite the captain of each team.

 

Overwatch

Prior to the match, each team captain should add their designated EGF producer. The producer will create a custom lobby and invite the captain of each team who will in turn invite the rest of their teams.

EGF uses the following settings for each competitive game:

Custom Game

PRESETS

  • Set Competitive

    • *[On]

  • All others

    • [Off]

LOBBY

  • MAP

    • Map Rotation

      • *[Paused]

    • Return to Lobby

      • *[After a Game]

  • TEAM (unchanged)

    • Team Balancing

      • [Off]

    • Team 1 Max Players

      • [6]

    • Team 2 Max Players

      • [6]

    • Max Spectators

      • *[3]

MODES

  • GENERAL

    • Enemy Health Bars

      • [On]

    • Game Mode Start

      • [Wait for Full Game]

    • Health Pack Respawn Time

      • [100%]

    • Health Packs

      • [Determined by Mode]

    • Kill Cam

      • *[Off]

    • Skins

      • [On]

  • Heroes (unchanged)

    • Allow Hero Switching

      • [On]

    • Hero Limit

      • [1 Per Team]

    • Random Hero on Respawn

      • [Off]

    • Respawn Time

      • [100%]

    • Role Limit

      • [Off]

  • Maps

    • See Below for Map Rules

  • Heroes (unchanged)

    • Leave all heroes on default settings

MAPS

Maps for each series are determined by the following process:

  1. The first team to choose a ban is determined by a coin flip overseen by an EGF official. The team designated as the “home team” selects heads or tails. The team that wins the coin flip may defer to take the second choice.

  2. Maps are banned in alternating order

    1. Team A bans a map

    2. Team B bans a map

    3. Teams alternate bans until each team has banned 3 maps

      1. Individual teams may not ban out an entire type of map (example, may not ban all control point maps)

  3. Once bans have completed, maps are chosen

    1. Team B selects their first choice of map to play

    2. Team A selects their first choice of map to play

    3. Teams alternate choosing maps until each have chosen 1 map for a best of 3, 2 maps in a best of 5, or 3 maps in a best of 7 series

    4. The final map is selected by random list generator operated by an EGF official

    5. The maps are played in order of selection

Region: Americas

Each team is allowed a 10 minute pause per side which accumulates across all games in a series.

Tiebreakers

In the event of a match score tie after all games have been played, then each team will ban one of the control point maps, then a random number generator will be used to determine which map will be played.

 

Hearthstone

Format

EGF Hearthstone tournaments are played as best of 5 series in “Conquest” format meaning that once a deck has one a match, it may not be used again in the same series.

Pre-tournament preparation

  • This is a team based competition, where each team is allowed 1-3 participants who attend the same college/university to form a team and play cooperatively from a single account.

  • The players must submit 4 unique class deck lists in a best of 5 format, to the designated EGF official the day prior to the tournament. The day of, in a captains meeting, each team will be allowed to ban 1 deck class from either their own set or opponent depending on rule set

  • The team may use a person’s account from one of the participants to play the match. Any deck changes from original submission will result in a loss.

  • Any account used that is not one of the three participants will also result in a loss.

  • Prior to the start of the match, each account being used to compete must add the following EGF staff as a friend using the information provided by EGF:

    • Both EGF Casters

    • The designed EGF producer

Hearthstone Gameplay

  • The first match is a blind pick between both teams.

  • If a team leaves the game for any reason once the starting hands are provided, the team will have forfeited the game.

  • If a team disconnects or drops and is unable to reconnect, if one player has lethal or a lethal next turn that cannot be stopped, that player wins. If those  conditions are not met the match will be replayed.

  • If a team starts a match using a deck that has already won, the opposing team will win the game and the next game will be played.

Patch considerations

Hearthstone tournaments by default will be played on the most current patch taking into consider the active card rotation. Cards from expansions that are out of rotation will not be allowed in tournament play.

If a tournament is scheduled to take place within 3 days of the launch of a new patch (launch day + 2), those matches will be played on the previous patch.

Multiple accounts may be used during a tournament to offset any difficulty acquiring new card packs.

  • The accounts (up to 3) must be pre-registered as part of their team's roster.

  • Each deck must be assigned to a specific account

(Ex:account 1 has the team’s warrior deck, account 2 has a druid deck) Deck lists along with their assigned accounts must be submitted at least 24 hours prior to the start of the tournament in accordance with normal procedure.