Benelux Pro Sieres

These rules apply for each team and player active in the ESL Pro Series. Please read them carefully. For questions please use the invite forum to contact us.

Definitions

Participants

A Pro Series participant is either a team or a player. Each player of a team, regardless of whether or not they have played, is a participant. A participant is not allowed to be in more than one team of the same ESL Pro Series or another Pro Series at the same time.

License holder

A license holder is always a legal entity (registered association, Ltd. company, etc.). If this is not possible, then the license is awarded to an individual person. When playing solo, it is the participant itself, for team leagues see 3.11 Possession of ESL Pro Series team accounts.

Match week

The match week begins at 0:01 CET on Monday and ends at 23:59 CET on Sunday of the same week.

Penalties

Penalty points are given for rule violations. For minor offences participants are given minor penalties and for greater offences they are given major penalties. Should a participant collect penalties that total up to a prize money deduction of 30% in solo games or 35% in team game, they will be removed from the ongoing ESL Pro Series season.

Penalties given within the ESL Pro Series only apply to the ESL Pro Series. The only exceptions are penalties for cheating or other severe violations of the rules.

Penalties or locks given in the ESL do not affect a participant in the ESL Pro Series; the only exception is being locked for cheating. Under certain circumstances (e.g. insults, fighting or fraud) can players be blocked for one or more matches for violations in the ESL.

Tournament Organization

The Pro Series is organized by the Electronic Sports League (ESL). The Electronic Sports League is operated by WSquared Media

General

Rule changes

The Electronic Sports League (ESL) reserves the right to change or expand the rules if necessary to. In special cases, decisions may be made which are not covered by the rules, to preserve spirit of fair competition and sportsmanship.

Internal information

All contents of protest, support tickets or discussions with administrators are strictly confidential. The publication of such content is prohibited without written permission from the ESL Pro Series tournament directors.

Code of Conduct

All participants agree to behave in an appropriate and respectful manner towards other participants, spectators, the press, ESL TV and the ESL Pro Series administration. Being role models the participants are asked to represent the eSport, the ESL Pro Series and its sponsors in the public with dignity and humility.

Communication

In team leagues, each team can appoint up to three (3) people who can represent their team in the player advice forum. In 1on1 leagues, only the respective players and one orga from his or her team have access to the player advice forum. However, if several players from an organization are in a 1on1 league, then these players have to unite and appoint a single orga for them all.

The player advice forum is the only official communication platform between the players and the admin team.

All information within this forum is to be kept between the admin team and the participants of the player advice forum. Information or statements placed inside this forum by the admin team are not to be made public (news, public forums, etc.) and teams will be punished depending upon the kind of information and content they make available in the form of penalties or a direct disqualification from the league.

Conditions of participation in the ESL Pro Series

Nationality for Solo Games

The ESL Pro Series is held in various European countries. Participants in national ESL Pro Series must be players whose primary residence in a given country. It is not permitted, to take part in the ESL Pro Series of two or more countries.

Nationality for Team Games

An unlimited amount of members may be added to the team account. All of them must be citizens of a European country or have their principal residence in a European country. In each match up to two (2) players may be used that do not have the nationality of or their principal residence in the respective country the ESL Pro Series is held in. If more than two (2) such players are used in a match two (2) minor penalties will be awarded and one (1) wildcard will be removed. Furthermore the match will have to be replayed if the winning team was the offender.

Premium Account

Every player has to be a Premium member of ESL throughout the entire season. Information about the Premium Account can be found here: http://www.esl.eu/eu/premiuminfo/

If a solo participant does not own a Premium Account, two (2) minor penalties will be awarded for every match week without a Premium Account. For players without premium in a team account one (1) minor penalty will be awarded for each player missing a Premium Account per affected match week. The maximum amount of penalty points awarded per week to teams is two (2), even if more than 2 players lack a Premium Account.

Player accounts

General

Each participating player must have an account on the ESL website. In this account a player has to state his or her personal details, date of birth, current place of residence, as well as his or her "real name". All this information can be hidden from public view, except the “real name”. Each player must upload a proper picture of himself to his or her ESL profile. A player is not allowed to have more than one account within the ESL. Having more than one account in the ESL will be punished according to the general ESL multi-account rules and can lead to minor penalties in the ESL Pro Series.

If a player account does not correspond to the above requirements, then for every match week until the requirements are met, one (1) minor penalty will be awarded.

Nicknames

Changes of nicknames on the website or in-game have to be reported to the ESL Pro Series administration in order to get approval. Also player names may not include any form of sponsor tag.

Player photo

The photo must clearly show the face of the player and always needs to be up to date (no child photos). The manipulation of the appearance of the player in the photo is not allowed.

Game accounts

Each player has to have their game account entered on their ESL profile.

Team accounts

General

The team must have a team logo. The team name may have a sponsor as an extension, but extensions like "CS squad" are not permitted. It needs to have a team captain set. The listing of ‘honorary’ or ‘inactive’ members in an ESL Pro Series team account is allowed. If a team account does not correspond to the above requirements, then for every match week, until the requirements are met, one (1) minor penalty will be awarded. A license holder is only allowed to hold a license for one (1) team in the ESL Pro Series.

Team name

Changes to the team's name during the season must be reported to the league management for approval. Changes without approval by the administrative staff can be punished with penalties.

Ownership rights of ESL Pro Series team accounts

Each season the Electronic Sports League gives ESL Pro Series licenses to the participating teams. This “ESL Pro Series license” is valid for one season and must be renewed before the start of each new season by the ESL Pro Series tournament administration.

The ESL Pro Series team license is assigned to a legal entity (registered association, Ltd. company, etc.). If a team is not represented by a legal entity, then the ESL Pro Series administration may hand the license responsibility over to a single person within the team. This is always the team manager or a person appointed by the team manager. This person must be a long standing member of the team and 18+ years of age.

The license holder is responsible for all actions that concern the team. Changes in the team (e.g. name change) must be submitted to the tournament director and if necessary a new agreement be written. The ESL Pro Series license holder is the entity which will receive the prize money after the season has ended. The license holder can name another person to receive the prize money at the end of the season. Offenses and omissions in the duty to supply valid information can and will be punished with penalties.

License withdrawal

The ESL Pro Series administration reserves the right to issue a team a license under certain conditions. An offence against the mandatory conditions can lead to the immediate removal of the license.

The ESL Pro Series administration has the right to withdraw the license from the licensee. This case can arise from ignoring the associated conditions through neglect or deliberateness and from acts that damage the image of the league.

Changing the licensee

A licensee can request the ESL Pro Series administration to transfer the license to another natural or legal entity during a season, if there is a relevant reason for doing so. This reason has to be communicated to and accepted by the ESL Pro Series administration. The ESL Pro Series administration reserves the right to refuse the transfer of the license.

Prize money deduction for penalties

Each minor penalty: 3% Each major penalty: 10% At the end of the season the accumulated percentage will be deducted from total prize money won (base prize money).

At the beginning of each season, the penalties from the previous season are removed from all participants. However, penalties accumulated in the relegation or qualification tournaments prior to the season will persist throughout the regular season. Existing penalties added on individual players in the team tournaments will not be removed.

Forfeiture of prize money

The tournament administration reserves the right to forfeit all or part of a participant’s prize money while it was not paid out yet. This may occur in cases the tournament administration received definite evidence of fraud or similarly heavy offenses committed by the participant during the season.

Participants dropping from the ESL Pro Series during the season, lose their claim on the prize money they have accumulated. This applies to all possible ways of dropping out of the competition, e.g. by own decision or due to a disqualification.

Barrage for dropping out of the ESL Pro Series

A participant that drops out of the current ESL Pro Series for what ever reason can be barred from taking part in the next season.

Matches

Fixtures and wildcards

At the beginning of a season, the roster for the entire season is generated. The schedules are fixed and can only be postponed using a wildcard. Each participant has a one (1) wildcard for each season. It is possible to move a match +-1 hour on the day if all parties agree (including admins). If a match needs to be move more than 1 hour a wildcard needs to be used. Moving the match +-1 hour needs the approval of the tournament administration. If a participant needs to move a match but no longer has a wildcard available, the participant receives (1) major penalty instead.

If a wild card is drawn, the following applies: The match participants can agree on a new date within the period specified in the game-specific rules. If no agreement is reached, the admin decides.

Exceptions: In the last match week no wild cards can be used. All matches have to be played on the default schedules.

Wildcards

Wildcards can be drawn at any time before the start of the match. If a wildcard is drawn less than 48 hours before the match schedule, the participant receives one (1) minor penalty. This penalty will also be awarded to a participant if a wildcard was removed from their account for other reasons.

In addition, if wildcards are drawn within the periods listed below additional penalties are awarded:

between 24 and 2 hours before the match start: two (2) minor penalties Less than 2 hours before the match start: three (3) minor penalties

If a participant fails to show up for a match without drawing a wildcard, one (1) major penalty is awarded and 1 wildcard is removed.

Pre-match statements

Each participant has to submit a pre-match statement in the period between 7 days and 24 hours before the start of the match. An after-match statement must be made no later than 1 hour after the match is complete. These statements are written and submitted as a match report (not in match comments). The statements need to consist of at least 50 words (after match statements at least 25 words). Abbreviations are counted as a word. A maximum of one (1) minor penalty can be given if this is not adhered to.

Lineup

For team games, the lineup has to be submitted no later than 24 hours before the match is scheduled to begin.

Match start

All matches in the ESL Pro Series are to begin at the time shown on the website. Changes must be confirmed by the tournament administration. If the change is denied, it is possible to use a wildcard instead. As the matches need to start at the scheduled time it is advised to be present on the game server and ready to play at least 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time of the match.

Delays

If a participant is not present and ready to play 10 minutes before the scheduled match start time, one (1) minor penalty will be awarded. If a participant is not ready 15 minutes after the scheduled starting time (2) minor penalties will be awarded. If a participant is not ready 30 minutes after the scheduled starting time a (1) major penalty will be awarded and a wildcard will be removed.

Match result

The result has to be entered and confirmed by participants immediately after the match has ended. A protest can also be filed on a confirmed match. Furthermore all match media required by the game-specific rules need to be uploaded.

Storage of match media

All match media (screenshots, demos / replays, etc.) need to be stored locally by the players for at least two (2) weeks. In case of a match protest all match media needs to be stored locally by the players for at least 2 weeks after the match protest has been resolved. Upon request of the tournament administration all at match media has to be uploaded to the ESL website.

Protest Guidelines

A protest may only be opened within 72 hours after the start of the match through the appropriate protest form. Protests received by other means or too late will be thrown out. A protest is made if problems arise during a match. It may even be filed during a match, e.g. when Server settings are wrong. A protest is a means of communication between the administration and the involved parties. It is advised that only one representative per team plus writes entries. The individual participant accused of a wrongdoing may, of course, also post comments his defense. A protest is to contain exact and information about why the protest was filed. A simple “they are cheaters” is not sufficient. Furthermore it is required that all entries are made in proper English. It also required that the text is properly formatted and easily readable. It’s expected that all participants are able to write intelligible English. Insults in the course of a protest are punished with penalty points and may in bad cases lead to the closure of the protest in favor of the other party.

Rematches

If the rules dictate a rematch (e.g. if a player forgets to upload his Aequitas files), the injured party may request a rematch. If the rematch results in a worse result for injured party no further claims can be made and the result of the rematch is final.

Game specific rules

This section will be updated later. For now the ESL EU Game specific rules will apply in the Benelux: - Counter-Strike 1.6 - Counter-Strike: Source - Warcraft 3 - Trackmania Nations