Newcomers Tournament 2023 Rules

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/coc and http://ensl.org/sanctions

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) To be considered eligible to play in the Newcomers Tournament, a player shall not have Open Tournament or Season matches on record, and/or not played in the Play-offs of any past Newcomer Tournaments.

(a) Exceptions will be made for players who do not fit the criteria but could still be considered newcomers due to their lack of experience, to ask for an exception for you or a teammate please contact an Admin on the NSL Discord

(b) Likewise, if a player is clearly outside of the intended experience scope of the tournament, yet fits the criteria, the Admins reserve the right to deny his or her entry in order to perserve the integrity of the tournament, and will be contacted in regards to the matter.

5) 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.

6) 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, Admin or the two teams' Captains. 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 - Alemenia/Paris & Central/East US Servers (Chapel Hill/NYC)

EU vs AUS/Pacific Region - Alemania/Paris & Melbourne

US Servers NA vs AUS/Pacific Region - Chapel Hill/NYC & Alemania/Paris

3. Tournament Timings / Format

(a) Format

1) The format of the tournament is double elimination, which means that a team ceases to advance if they lose two matches. Early Rounds and Semi Finals are played on Saturday, with the Finals and Grand Finals being played on Sunday.

2) Teams must have at least 6 players and a maximum of 8 players on their roster to register to the NSL Newcomers Tournament and sign up at least 1 day in advance of the tournament start time. Players must be registered in no more than one active team in a tournament. A player registered in more than one team may forfeit their right o play.

3) Players must be registered and assigned to a team at least 1 day in advance of the tournament start time.

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

5) Scheduling will be done by the Admins and announced in time, one week ahead, before the Tournament starts.

6) A round ends when the victory screen is displayed.

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

(b) Group Stage

1) Matches consist of up to two maps, teams play and alternate sides until one team has 2 round wins (Best of 3). Teams will play a round on aliens and marines for the first map, and one round on the second map if required.

2) Teams are encouraged to play their next matches as soon as their opponents are available.

(c) Semifinals & Finals / Coinflip etc

1) The Semifinals & Finals will be Best of 5 on 3 maps with map and side picks.

3) If the team which hasn't lost any matches prior to the Grand Finals loses the first set, another Bo5 will be played which will determine the winner.

4) 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 proceed to alternate in picks of maps until 3 maps have been chosen. Map bans are in effect until the conclusion of the match.

5) 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.

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

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

8) Picking order is reversed for any additional maps.

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

(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 per round.

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/Deputies must report match results & players who played in the match to a presiding Admin or Referee or confirm the score on the Match page, regardless of whether an admin or Referee was present or not.

4. Teams / Players

1) All teams must have and maintain a minimum of six (6) registered users for the tournament
2) Disbanded teams will,

 - during Group Stage, automatically forfeit all proceeding matches once scheduling is done. The forfeit score will be given to each opposing team from that point, or none if both teams of a match disbanded.

 - during Play-Offs, automatically forfeits the match.The forfeit score will be given to the opposing team.

3) A player can only be rostered on one (1) active team during the entirety of the tournament.

4) If a player otherwise not eligible to play will be caught playing on an alternate account to participate, the Admin team reserves the right to sanction the player based on the Code of Conduct 1(a).

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 fulfill all the requirements of section 1. part 4), to be eligible to play.

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:

Round 1 (First): Tram, Biodome, Nexus

Round 1 (Loser): Veil, Unearthed, Mineral

Round 2 (First): Summit, Descent, Tanith

Round 2 (Losers): Jambi, Biodome, Caged

Round 3 (Losers): Veil, Tram, Jambi

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

1) Biodome

2) Descent

3) Jambi

4) Summit (v334)

5) Tram

6) Veil

7) Nexus_Fixes

8) Mineral

9) Unearthed_But_Better

10) Tanith

11) Caged

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