I. Definitions- Clan: Participating teams will be referred to as "Clan". Each clan must consist of at least three (3) players.
- Two teams from the same clan: In general the WC3L will not allow two teams owned by the same individual or company to compete in the WC3L. Nevertheless, the WC3L supervisor can grant exceptions from this rule if all of the following criteria are met:
- Both teams have to be a team from a specific country or geographical region. (e.g. Clan ABC New Zealand and Clan ABC International or Clan ABC Asia and Clan ABC Europe).
- The team names have to include the geographic or national distinction (Clan ABC New Zealand and Clan ABC International NOT Clan ABC Blue and Clan ABC Red or Clan ABC New Zealand and Clan ABC).
- The teams cannot share players or organisers. The players have to be distributed among the two teams according to their geographical or national place of residence. A player or orga who joins one of the two teams is barred from playing in the other team or handling the organisation of the other team for the rest of the running season, even if his geographical or national situation changes in a way that would have made him a player or orga of the respective other team. (Clan ABC New Zealand cannot have members that are no residents of New Zealand and Clan ABC International cannot have members that are residents of New Zealand).
- Team Manager: A Team Manager is responsible for a Clan and is the entity that will receive the prize if its clan wins.
- Team Captain: A Team Captain is an eligible player responsible for a Clan.
- Player:
a) Each player belongs to one and only one clan within the ESL WC3L series. Furthermore a player is not allowed to represent another clan than his WC3L-clan in any other event which has prizemoney, which can be:
- Online or offline;
- National or international;
- Qualifiers or play-offs,
b) Clans and their players are responsible to know whether the event provides prize-money or not.
c) "Representing a clan" is defined by any of the following:
- Playing for another clan
- Using a clan's clantag on the official event homepage (if the website/webmaster use the wrong clantag for your nickname, that should be corrected as soon as possible).
- Using a clan's clantag in the Battle.net name or LAN name of the player
- Wearing a clan's uniform or identification when participating in off-line events.
d) In case a player has a private sponsorship (as individual person), the player may use the sponsor tag in addition to his WC3L clantag in prize-money events.
(so it is not allowed to use only the sponsor tag without the WC3L clantag).
e) "Another clan" according to the player definition is defined by: a group of three or more people playing Warcraft 3 - The Frozen Throne under the same clantag within the past 12 months before the start of the next WC3L competition stage (Qualifiers, Regular season, Playoffs).
f) Excluded from these rules are:
- Players participating in official on-line tournaments run by Blizzard Entertainment
- Players taking part in events in which players clearly represent an "Allstar Team" (such as Korea / Europe etc.)
- Players playing for their national team in any kind of "Nationscup".
g) WC3L teamcaptains are requested to reply to an e-mail whether or not they understand and agree with the rules regarding players and their ESL WC3L Series clan.
h) False, incomplete or missing statements according to g) will lead to at least 2 Penalty Points for the clan and can in extreme cases even lead to disqualification for the remainder of the ongoing WC3L season.
i) A player who violates the rule according to a) will automatically lead to a 4-playday exclusion for that player from the current WC3L season and 2 Penalty Points for the clan. Off-line play-offs are counted as 1 playday. This exclusion begins the day an ESL WC3L Series Headadmin or Supervisor is notified or aware of the violation.
j) ESL WC3L Series Headadmin or Supervisor deserve the right to reduce or extend the playday exclusion according to i) in cases not clearly covered by the definitions mentioned above.
- Headadmin: The Headadmin is the Official designated by the ESL WC3L Series as such. The Supervisor is the final authority on all rules.
- Leagueadmin: Leagueadmins are persons designated by the ESL WC3L Series for the purpose of administering, monitoring and judging any aspect of the ESL WC3L Series.
- Matchadmin: Matchadmins are persons designated by the ESL WC3L Series to observe and administer matches.
- Match: A match consists of a set of 2 one vs. one (1on1), 1 two vs. two (2on2) and one ace match. Matches are being played between 2 clans.
- Game: A game is part of a match and being played between either 2 (1on1) or 4 (2on2) players. Each game consists of two maps.
- Ace Match: The Ace match is a one vs. one match that consists of only one map.
- League language:
During a match, in game, and in any official channel of the ESL WC3L Series, the official league language is English.
II. General- These rules apply to all players and clans participating in the ESL WC3L Series. When registering the clans and their players agree to have read, understood and accepted the rules, as well as to regularly check for updates, additions, etc.
- Players, team-managers and orgas are expected to be courteous and respectful of their fellow gamers, hosts and admins. Bad manner will be punished with a yellow card and penalty points. If a player collects two yellow cards he will be barred for one match. In case, a barred player is used in the lineup, it will lead to a default loss in that submatch.
- Admins reserve the right to change or modify these rules, and in special cases make decisions not covered by these rules to preserve the spirit of competition.
- An updated list of the official ESL WC3L Series staff is always available on the ESL WC3L Series homepage.
- Clans are responsible to complete their clan and player profiles as well as to keep them up to date.
- During a season, teamnames may only be changed with the permission of the WC3L Administration. Failure to comply may result in one (1) penalty point.
- When a clan adds a new player to their ESL WC3L Series roster, it must send an email to the ESL WC3L Series Supervisor within 10 days including the following information:
The player's full name, residence, age, main-race, clans in the past twelve months, a link to the latest ladder profile and five up-to-date replays from the player. (By sending the replays you verify that they belong to the particular player. Make sure to name them properly in order to see which replay belongs to whom.) A player is not eligible to play before the email was received.
- Every player must upload an adequate picture of himself within 10 days after joining the clan. Ignoring this, can result in Penalty Points for the clan.
- Every player must enter his Battle.Net ID in his ESL WC3L Series profile and always use the account written in the profile when playing in the ESL WC3L Series. If he fails to enter the Battle.Net ID before an upcoming season, the clan will receive 0.5 Penalty Points for every 48 hours it is delayed.
(New players who join during a running season have 10 days to enter their account before the penalty stated above is effective, however it becomes effective immidiately in case they are part of a lineup for a certain match before the 10 days are over.)
- Using a wrong account (or having no account) when playing in the ESL WC3L Series will cost 1 Penalty Point for every clanwar concerned, no matter if it was done in one or multiple games.
(Player's marked as 'Inactive'/'Honory' are excluded from this rule, however they are not eligible to play when marked as 'Inactive'/'Honory'. When the player status is changed, the rule applies again from the moment a player is marked as 'Active').
- The ESL WC3L Series is not responsible for additional agreements between players or clans and these agreements are only allowed if they do not violate any of the existing rules. There is no way that the ESL WC3L Series is going to enforce an agreement.
- These channels are important to the ESL WC3L Series and its clans:
- Public IRC channels: #wc3l & #wc3l-updates on irc://irc.quakenet.org
- Private players IRC channel: #wc3l-players on irc://irc.quakenet.org
- Private battle.net channel: "clan wc3l" in battle.net
- Each team-captain has to put the IRC channel #wc3l-players in his perform (auto-join) list. We also recommend that all online WC3L players idle in that channel.
- It is prohibited for participants to place bets on matches of competitions they are participating in. Infractions against this rule will be punished with one penalty point. In cases of evident manipulation of a match, the ESL administration reserves the right to punish involved players with a suspension from league play.
III. Warcraft III- Maps: Valid map choices for 1vs1 games are all maps of the ESL WC3L Series 1vs1 mappool:
For 2vs2 games valid map choices are:
- Gnoll Wood
- Goldshire
- Lost Temple (ROC version)
- Turtle Rock
- Twisted Meadows
- Games are to be played on the Warcraft III - The Frozen Throne version of the maps, if it exists. It is not allowed to play on map versions that differ from the Blizzard ladder maps or the official WC3L custom maps that can be downloaded on the ESL WC3L series page.
- Games are to be played on the Northrend Battle.net server (Europe). In case of problems it is possible to play on a different server if both clans agree to it and a ESL WC3L Series official has been informed.
- Using the third-party programs Garena from Ocean Technology And Media CO.LTD, Singapore and Listchecker is allowed in case both clans agree to it and a ESL WC3L Series official has been informed and agreed to its use. When using such a program, clans agree to play on their own risk, ESL WC3L Series cannot guarantee the stability of these programs and problems such as disconnections will be treated the same way as on Battle.Net. Teams should agree on one third-party program before a match starts.
- Modifying the behaviour of Warcraft III in any way and/or using third party programs which give the user an advantage over other players will be considered as cheating and punished.
- Evading the cooldown on usable items by swapping items in a hero’s inventory will be considered cheating and punished with two penalty points. The game will be replayed if this exploit leads to a victory for the cheating player. The game will also be replayed in case both players take advantage of this bug.
IV. Competition System- The competition consists of two parts:
- Group Stage
- Tournament Stage
V. The Group Stage- The initial group stage consists of 24 teams contending against each other in 4 groups of 6 teams (3 teams from the previous WC3L season and 3 teams which will be selected after sending in an application for the next season).
- The period from Thursday, 0:01am CET, until Wednesday, 11:59pm CET, is being referred to as "playday". The Group Stage consists of 5 playdays.
- 8 teams will advance to the next stage.
- The four teams ranked first in their respective groups will advance directly.
- The teams placed second and third will have to fight for the remaining 4 spots in a single elimination tournament.
- Clans are ranked by how many points they achieved in the group stage.
- If two clans have the same amount of points at the end of the season the one clan who won the match between those two clans will be the higher ranked one.
- If three or more clans got the same amount of points at the end of the season, the first criterion to determine who will be the higher ranked one, is the number of direct matches won. The 2nd criterion is the amount of points a clan gained in the two direct matches. If all those criteria's do not lead to a decision, a rematch between all the clans affected will decide.
- If a clan is not able to continue the regular ESL WC3L Series season it might be replaced by another clan that will continue the season with the current amount of points of the leaving clan. In case that the clan can or will not be replaced all clanwars against this clan will be erased and count as if they never happened.
VI. Tournament Stage- The tournament stage consists of 8 clans advancing from group stage.
- The whole tournamen stage will be played in double-elimation.
VII. Scheduling- Each clan is obligated to autonomously schedule its match together with its opposing clan until Sunday 11:59pm Cet before the playday begins.
- The WC3L officials will enforce a date in case the both clans are not able to agree on a certain date.
- Scheduling matches beyond a playday period is not allowed, unless its permitted by an ESL WC3L Series Supervisor or Headadmin due to special circumstances.
- For each 24 hours the match is scheduled beyond a playday scheduling deadline, both clans receive 1 penalty point. In case a clan feels, that only the opposing clan caused this situation, it may send a formal complaint to a headadmin or supervisor within 48 hours in order to eventually remove the penalty point.
- Each match has to be played as a whole. It is allowed to prepone one (1) match within a 3-hour-timeframe of the clanwar without using a wildcard.
If a match disrupts, i.e. making the opposing team wait for more than 45 minutes, or is being played outside the 3-hour-timeframe a wildcard must be used.
- When a clan has forfeited a match twice during a season, the clan may be removed from the ESL WC3L Series due to inactivity.
- Clans dropping out of a running season may not play in the next season's qualifier.
- A clan can ask for a default win 30 minutes after the opponent failed to show for a scheduled match.
VIII. Lineups- A clan is responsible for the correctness of its lineups and has to choose a lineup for each match and enter it in their administration tool or give it to a WC3L official. The lineup has to be chosen until 30 minutes before the according match starts. A clan receives a penalty point, if its lineup is delayed more than 10 minutes.
- The lineups of both clans will be published on the ESL WC3L Series homepage 30 minutes before the match starts.
- Lineups cannot be changed anymore after they have been published unless both clans agree to it.
- The two 1on1 matches need to be played by two different players. The 2on2 may be played by 1on1 players, 2on2 players or mixed. The Ace match can be played by anyone in the team.
- When a clan in the ESL WC3L Series acquires a new player, who has not been part of any WC3L clan in the current season, this player will not be allowed to play for his new clan on the current and following playday.
- Clans may only acquire players from other WC3L clans in the week before or right after the group stage. Players acquired outside of one of the transfer periods may only play after the next transfer period has passed. Players acquired during a transfer period may play right away with the exception of not being allowed to play against clans they already played with their old clan in the same competition stage.
- A person is a WC3L player if he or she is or has been listed in the clanroster of the current season on the ESL WC3L Serie's website.
- For the ESL WC3L Series, a player "joins" a new clan when he is added to the new clan's roster.
- According to I.c, a player can't be member of more than one clan at any time.
IX. Matches- Matches and games are being played according to I.i/j./k. and XI.e
- For each won map a clan receives 1 point. The clan which achieves four points or more, wins the match, the opposing one loses.
- Each team has to write a statement for each of their matches in the ESL WC3L Series. This match statement has to be posted at least 24 hours but no more than 7 days before a match. This statement has to be written and saved as a match pre-report (not as comment in the match). The statement has to be in an adequate quality and should contain around 50 words. Missing, too short or inappropriate statements may result in a penalty.
- The lineup has to be chosen according to IX - Lineups.
- For every clanwar each clan must appoint one, and only one, responsible organizer to handle upcoming issues of the clanwar. A failure to inform the responsible administrator results in one penalty point per clanwar.
- In order to improve the communication between the clans and admins each clan should send a responsible person 30 minutes before a clanwar actually starts into channel #wc3l-players. That person should be available from then on until 30 minutes after the last game has been played.
- A clan is supposed to have all attending players ready to play during a match. If a player can only show up at a later time the team is supposed to inform an admin about it at least 30 minutes before the match starts.
- 6 hours after the end of a game a clan receives 1/2 penalty point for each replay it failed to upload.
- 48 hours after the end of a match a clan receives another 1/2 penalty point for each replay it failed to upload. (Any replay uploaded later than that will not result in removing penalty points.)
X. Games- Games are to be played according to I.i./ j.
- All games have to be played with the most up to date version of "Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne". The game speed hast to be "fast".
- The maps of the two 1on1s and one 2on2 are random maps predetermined by the ESL WC3L Series and will be published in advance on the WC3L website.
- The map for the Ace match will be announced before the last submatch (in the IRC channel #wc3l-players) and teams will have 10 minutes after the last submatch to decide who will play on this map.
- The pool of available maps can be found in III - Warcraft III.
- A clanwar is divided into three parts:
- 2x 1on1: 1on1A and 1on1B
- 1x 2on2
- 1x Ace Match
Matches are to be played in that order, unless specifically agreed otherwise. Not having the appropriate players ready 30 minutes before the clanwar begins, may result in penalty points.
- Observers are only allowed, when both players agree on it. It is however not allowed to chat in games which are being covered by a videobroadcast, failure to comply may result in penalty points.
- Players aren't allowed to have any kind of contact with other people while playing (except for their allies while playing 2on2).
- Players have to use a certain in-game colour when asked to by an ESL WC3L Series official (ignoring this, can lead to Penalty Points)
- Admins of the ESL WC3L Series, shoutcasters and reporters of our partner sites have the undeniable right to observe. Constantly kicking those people out of games can result in penalty points in extreme cases.
- It is not allowed to start any game with more than two clan members "observing", unless it is specifically permitted by an ESL WC3L Series official. Ignoring this will result in Penalty Points.
- It is not allowed to start and play any matches without an ESL WC3L Series Official present in the game unless it is specifically permitted otherwise by an ESL WC3L Series official. Ignoring this can result in Penalty Points for both clans involved.
- Every team is supposed to bring at least two hosts that suit their needs to every match. The hosts need to be fair for all attending players and may be ruled out by ESL WC3L Series officials. Not bringing any hosts to a match revokes any right to veto against a host. In case the players can not agree on a host, admins will decide.
- In case the players can not agree on a host, admins will decide.
- In case of a disconnect from a player during the first 3 minutes, the game is to be restarted with the exactly same settings as the first one. If a player disconnects at a later point it counts as a loss in a 1on1 game. In 2on2 games the remaining second player is free to finish the game without his partner.
- In case a host disconnects and the game cannot be continued with another host, the game needs to be replayed unless the player's can agree otherwise. If one player had a very clear advantage at the time the disconnect happened, a League - or Headadmin may decide to give the player a direct win.
- League & Headadmins reserve the right to decide for a rematch in case a player with a clear advantage disconnected, in order to preserve the spirit of competition.
- Once a game is started there may be no more delay than 10 minutes between the next maps. Ignoring this can result in Penalty Points for both clans involved.
- All WC3L players are obligated to save all replays of every game they play in the ESL WC3L Series and immediately send them to their team captain afterwards or upload them directly on the ESL WC3L Series page.
XI. Penalty Points and Punishments
- A clan that collects 6 Penalty Points at any point during a running season will be disqualified from the ongoing ESL WC3L Series season and may not play again in the next seasons qualifier.
- Any violation of the ESL WC3L Series rules may be punished with all possible severity.
- Cheating in the ESL WC3L Series will be punished with all possible severity.
- Fraud and deception of the ESL WC3L Series officials in any way will be punished with all possible severity.
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