General Rules v2
1. General
1.1. ETF2L Time Zone = CET/CEST
All times announced on ETF2L are either Central European Time (CET) or Central European Summer Time (CEST). All matches have to be entered using CET/CEST respectively. A clock displaying the current time can be found on the homepage.
1.2. Scheduling
1.2.1 Round Robin
All matches need to be scheduled using the My Matches section. A default win can only be claimed for matches scheduled via the site.
There are two separate deadlines for all fixtures: Scheduling Deadlines & Result Deadlines. Both deadlines can be found on top of the individual match pages.
A match has to be scheduled by both teams before the Scheduling Deadline. Any unscheduled matches will be provided with a Default Date by an admin, only based on any information regarding team availabilities and preferences made public on the match page.
A match has to be played and its results have to be entered before the result Deadline. During a regular season, this marks the end of a match week. Matches unplayed by the result deadline will be punished with a minor warning. Any Default Date or otherwise scheduled match may be rescheduled if both teams can agree on a new schedule.1.2.2 Swiss System
All matches in the Swiss System automatically get scheduled by the system at the start of the week. The day the match gets set on depends on each teams availability they set in their dashboard.
There is one deadline for all fixtures the Result Deadline. This can can be found at the top of match pages.
A match has to be played and its results have to be entered before the result Deadline. During a regular season, this marks the end of a match week. Matches unplayed by the result deadline will be punished with a minor warning. Any Default Date or otherwise scheduled match may be rescheduled if both teams can agree on a new schedule.1.2 Documentation of any agreements
Use the match comments to document any and all agreements made regarding mercs, servers or similar. Merely pasted chat logs are not valid proof of an agreement, screenshots of conversations are preferred. A post by a leader or deputy of the team making the concession is valid too.
1.3 Abusive chat, flaming, avatars
Only use the ingame chat function, forums, match comments or any other ETF2L related communication in a constructive manner.
Any offensive chat, spamming or other abuse of the above may lead to warnings for the teams and/or forum bans.
Same goes for offensive avatars, decals on customizeable weapons (for example the Conscientious Objector) or offensive item names or descriptions used during an official. 1.4 Language You may use only English to communicate with your opponents on match pages or during a match itself, except when both teams’ players are of the same nationality. Comments on match pages made in anything else than English may be ignored if an admin is checking the match page, for example while setting a default date. 1.6 Committing or supporting fraud is strictly forbidden Committing or supporting the act of fraud is strictly forbidden. Different types of fraud include (but are not limited to): – Playing a match to a completely or partially pre-determined result. – Manipulating screenshots, chatlogs or match results. – Impersonating players, ETF2L staff or contacts of the league (with malicious intent). – Non-permitted acquisition of profits (e.g. selling spots on your roster, monetizing ETF2L specific content without our permission etc.). Every case will be reviewed individually and penalties may vary based off of the severity of each offense. Any decisions made will be at the discretion of the admin team and all circumstances are going to be taken into account. 1.8 Disruption of ETF2L and it’s services are strictly forbidden Causing disruption to the ETF2L ( the ETF2L website, ETF2L matches or any other service run by ETF2L ) is strictly forbidden. This includes (but is not limited to) intentionally connecting to an in-game server during an ongoing match, tampering with server settings to disrupt or create an advantage for a team, attacking a server with a Denial of Service attack, connecting to a team’s voice server during an ongoing match with the intention to cause disruption etc. Every case will be reviewed individually and penalties may vary based off of the severity of each offense. Any decisions made will be at the discretion of the admin team and all circumstances are going to be taken into account. 1.9 Roster locks Every season will have a roster lock that gets enabled as soon as the last play week starts unless specified differently for the competition. This means that players will not be able to join rosters of teams within the active competition.2. Players & Teams
2.1 All Players Welcome
All players of any nationality are welcome to play in ETF2L; however, this is a European league at heart, we primarily cater to European players. If you are from outside Europe, be prepared to play at European times on European servers.
Regardless, ETF2L does reserve the right to exclude any player from any competition.
2.2 Only players with correctly entered Steam IDs are eligible
All players need to be registered on ETF2L. Using a player not registered on ETF2L will result in the match being defaulted in the opponents’ favour. A player that’s not verified on a team’s roster (listed as unverified on the roster, or not on the roster at all) counts as merc. Competition specific rules apply. 2.3 One team change per competition allowed A ‘team change’ means playing one competitive match for a team, while being on its roster. Changes from a dropped team do not count towards this limit. 2.4 Every player has to record POV demos POV demos of any player may be requested by an admin until the end of the competition, which is marked by the publishing of its wrap-up news post. Any player of the opposing team may request POV demos of up to two players up to 48h after the match was scheduled to be played. An admin has to be informed of that demo request in order to validate it. Unvalidated demo requests are void. If requested, demos of all maps, including all Golden Caps, must be uploaded within 72h after the request. If a player times out, has to reconnect to the server or stop the demo recording, he needs to record another demo for the remaining time of the map he is playing immediately. Demos need to be uploaded to ETF2L, any third party links will be ignored. Check P-REC, a client side plugin that can automate the recording process if set up properly, however the plugin failing is no excuse to not record demos. 2.4.1 Penalties for not providing requested demos Failure to supply a requested demo will result in one of the following penalties: – First time: Minor warning for the team. This warning can be removed once the requested demo is provided. – Second time: Major warning for the team. Player is banned for two weeks from all ETF2L competitions. – Third time: Player is banned for two months from all ETF2L competitions. – Fourth time or more: Player is banned for a year from all ETF2L competitions. Penalties are applied if a requested demo is not provided within 72 hours. Major warnings and bans are not removable. 2.5 No account sharing and multi accounts Every player is limited to only one ETF2L account at any time. A person creating multiple accounts or multiple players using one account is not allowed. Multiple players from the same household (family, close friends, room mates, …) that may be sharing the same IP address must notify admins and use separate ETF2L and Steam accounts. Players caught creating multiple ETF2L accounts or allowing use of their Steam account to a third party in official matches may face punishment ranging from deactivation of the account to reversal of match results and a major warning for fraud or a league ban. Each case will be reviewed individually and penalties will be assigned based on severity of the offense and its impact on the competition. If you wish to change which Steam account is linked to your ETF2L account, contact admins and they will change it for you. 2.7 No wiping of a player’s ETF2L history We do not wipe a player’s ETF2L history – matches played etc. – in any way, be it by deleting an account or by allowing a player to use a new account, while blacklisting the older account. We can switch Steam accounts linked to a player’s ETF2L account however. 2.8 Switching line-ups or hijacking teams is not allowed Changing more then half of your active roster during a competition without admin permission is considered hijacking the team and not allowed. The players Cases will be reviewed individually, and the league reserves the right to remove such teams from active competitions. Please contact an admin if your team is facing extreme line-up changes. 2.9 The amount of players with higher experience is limited The amount of higher skilled players that are allowed to join a team is limited. This gets done with a “point” system. Only players that join after the release of the provisional tiers counts towards this system. A player will be given a “point” for each tier of experience higher than the division of the team he joins. For example, a high player joining an open team will count as 2 points. A player counts as “experienced” in the tier if, during the last three seasons, they played 3 or more officials in that tier. For example, for Season 10 experience, we will look at matches from Season 7 onwards.3. Match Rules
3.1 League Configs must be used for all matches All ETF2L matches have to be played with up-to-date versions of our League Configs.
3.2 Status & result screenshots required There need to be status and result screenshots for every match. We advise everyone in a team to take those. The P-REC plugin can take status and scoreboard screenshots automatically if configured properly, however, the plugin failing is no excuse to not upload screenshots. A status screenshot has to be taken during the match, showing every player playing. You can take a status screenshot by typing status into console and taking a screenshot of the following console output. Make sure your cursor isn’t obscuring the output. Please avoid custom console fonts, as our parser cannot parse them. If there are any player changes during a match, another status screenshot has to be taken showing the new player(s). For attack/defense maps, like pl_badwater or cp_gravelpit; a screenshot of the winpanel after every round is required, as the scoreboard does not show the match outcome. For any other map, a screenshot of the final scoreboard is sufficient. Make sure all screenshots are of high quality, especially status screenshots should not be compressed in any way. Unreadable screenshots will not be accepted. If required, there’s a subpage where you can upload screenshots after a match’s initial result submission.
3.2.1 Missing screenshots Missing, unreadable or incomplete status screenshots are punished by a minor warning the first time, and a major warning the second time. Missing, unreadable or incomplete result screenshots are punished with a minor warning per map. Three minor warnings due to missing screenshots stack up to a major warning, which is not removeable. If both teams verify a match result and therefore agree on a result, no warnings for missing result screenshots will be applied. Minor warnings can be removed if an admin is contacted after uploading the correct screenshots as long as the minors didn’t stack up to a major yet. Major warnings may not be removed.
3.3 A Delay of 15 Minutes is Allowed A delay of 15 minutes for showing up for a match is allowed. If a team fails to have a complete team readied up on the server 15 minutes after the match was supposed to start, the other team may claim a Default Win – after asking the first team to ready up. After a map change, both teams have 10 minutes to organise, starting when the first player joins the server. If a team fails to have a complete team ready on the server after that, the other team can claim a Default Win, however only for the map concerned, not for the entire match. For claiming a Default Win, please take a status screenshot of your team available on the server at match time, gather any evidence you think concludes the case (demos or server logs) and contact an admin about the issue as soon as possible. The easiest way to prove your team was there at the appointed match time is to take a screenshot of the output of the status command of your console with the Steam community overlay on top of it, showing both console and time stamp. Example
3.4 Player changes during a match Teams are allowed to switch players during a match, with or without a pause, to a maximum of 1 player per map, so long as they are entered correctly on the team roster (or approved as merc). However, using this to bypass spawn times is strictly forbidden. Furthermore, a team may under no circumstances have more than 6 players on the server for 6v6, and no more than 9 for Highlander. Teams are allowed to switch players after a map change freely.
3.5 Spectators Only spectators authorized by the league, or for the use of Source TV, are allowed.
3.6 Pauses Teams may request a pause at any time during a match. Reasons for pausing can include: – player drops – server problems – network issues If you need a pause, you have to request it and your opponents are then required to pause the game for you at the first appropriate time, but no later than 15 seconds after being asked to pause. Inappropriate times are for example rollouts to mid, mid fights or last defenses. A team is allowed to have one pause of up to 5min per map, more or longer pauses may be granted at the opponent’s discretion. If your opponents grant you more or longer pauses, you are expected to extend the same courtesy to them. Do not unpause the pause without giving proper warning to your opponents.
4. Premiership-only rules [only regular 6v6 or HL seasons]
4.1 SourceTV demos for Premiership matches are mandatory For every match in the Premiership division it is mandatory to upload SourceTV demos for all maps played. The responsibility to upload the demos is on the team that owns the server or, if the server is owned by neither team, on the team that arranged the server. Failure to upload the demo within 72 hours is punished with a minor warning for the responsible team. The warning can be removed if the demo is provided before the end of the season.
4.2 Premiership players must use the same nicknames ingame as they’re registered as on ETF2L All players who play a match in the Premiership division must play with their nickname on ETF2L. Team tags and sponsorship additions are allowed but the nickname must be the same as the nickname on ETF2L letter for letter. If a team uses a player who uses a different nickname the team gets a minor warning per player and match.
4.3 No late matches [supplements 1.1 Scheduling] Late matches in Premiership result in major warnings for both teams.
4.4 Matches must be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance Teams must set or change the scheduled date for their match at least 24 hours in advance. Setting a scheduled date less than 24 hours in advance or rescheduling with less than 24 hours left before the match date will result in a minor warning for both teams.
4.5 Results must be submitted within 24 hours of the scheduled date Any Premiership match without a submitted past the week’s deadline or 24h past the scheduled matchtime (whichever comes sooner) will be considered a late match.
4.6 Penalties during Premiership Playoffs and Tiebreakers Specific Minor and Major Warnings now result in a cut of any prize money in that specific competition. A Minor Warning results in 10% of any cash prize won being docked. A Major Warning results in 30% being docked. Please note admin discretion is applied to every single case related to penalties in the Premiership Playoffs. Only specific Minor and Major Warnings are applied to this rule, they include but are not limited to:
- Flaming (Minor and Major)
- No results after deadline
- Using an unapproved merc
- Using an unlisted player
- Violation of the Class Limits
- Nickname rule violation
- Fraud Attempt
- Using a banned player
- Cheating
- Scheduling Violation
- Missing, wrong, or incomplete status screenshot
5. Warnings
Warnings may lead to point deduction or removal from a competition- 3 Minor Warnings = 1 Major Warning
- 1 Major Warning = deduction of 1 point
- 2 Major Warnings = deduction of 3 points
- 3 Major Warnings = expulsion from the league
- Flaming (1st time)
- Missing, wrong or incomplete result screenshot*
- Missing, wrong or incomplete status screenshot (1st time)*
- Not showing up for a match
- Unable to provide a requested demo (1st time)*
- Unable to provide a STV demo (premiership-only)*
- No result after deadline
- Using an unapproved merc
- Using an unregistered player
- Violation of the class limits
- Violation of the pause rule (1st time)
- Violation of the nickname rule (premiership-only)
- any other minor rule break
- Flaming (not 1st time)
- Missing, wrong or incomplete status screenshot (not 1st time)*
- Unable to provide a requested demo (not 1st time)*
- Violation of the pause rule (not 1st time)
- Any attempt at fraud
- Cheating
- any other major or repeated minor rule break
6. Maps
6.1 5cp maps – mp_windifference 5; mp_timelimit 30 5cp maps are symmetrical maps with five control points, of which only the middle control point can be captured initially. The goal of those maps is to capture the enemies’ last control point. Examples would be cp_badlands or cp_process_final1. A map is finished after either thirty minutes have been played or one team leads by five rounds. Winner is the team with more rounds won at the end of the map.
6.1.1 Golden Cap: Decider round in case of a draw – mp_windifference 1; mp_timelimit 0 If the score of a map is tied after the timelimit has been reached; a decider round (‘Golden Cap’) will have to be played. The winner of that GC is whoever caps the opponents’ last capture point first. In regards to scoring on the season’s overall table, a GC winner gets two points, the loser one point.
6.2. King of the Hill maps – mp_timelimit 0; mp_winlimit 3 King of the Hill (KOTH) maps have one single point in the middle of the map. After a short time, the point unlocks and can be captured. Usually, the point will have to be held for a total of 3 minutes by one team to score a round. Examples for this map type are koth_viaduct_pro5 and koth_lakeside. The team who wins three rounds first wins the map overall; there is no timelimit to the map.
6.3 Attack/Defense and Payload maps – mp_timelimit 0; mp_maxrounds 2; mp_winlimit 0 Maps like pl_badwater, pl_upward, cp_steel or cp_gravelpit are played in Stopwatch mode: The team which attacks first sets a time and amount of captures; the second team has to beat those. Make sure to use the correct config so the time will be tracked automatically. Each round won is considered as one point in regards to the season’s overall table. A/D and payload maps have to be played for 2-3 rounds (best of 3). In the first 2 rounds the ABBA format will be used; that means in round 1 team A attacks first, and in round 2 team B attacks first. Winner of the map overall is whichever team wins two rounds. In the case of both teams taking one round (1:1) there will be a decider round. In the first two rounds the teams should note the final cap time of the first team attacking. The team that has the best capture time (or more captures in the case a team did not capture all points) can choose if they want to attack or defend first in the third round. Remember to reload the config between rounds, so teams can be switched.
Example: Team A attacks and sets a time of 4:56. Team B then attacks and caps the last point faster then Team A did, setting the score 1:0. Next team B attacks first and sets a time of 5:28, team A then attacks and caps faster. The score is then 1:1 and a decider round will need to be played. Since Team A’s attack time of 4:56 was faster then team B’s 5:28 they can choose who attacks first.
- Results must be submitted as two maps (the same map twice).
- If you played two rounds and the match was won 2-0, enter the result as ’2-0′ as result for each map.
- If you played three rounds and the match was won 2-1, submit ‘2-1′ as the score for each map and tick the golden cap box for both maps.
7. Servers
Teams can either play the whole match on one server or, if they cannot agree to play on a certain server, a map each on each team’s server. If you can’t agree to play either way; the match must be played on an ETF2L server. Make sure the server is adequate before you start – complaints cannot be made after the match; unless the server suffers from major issues making the game unplayable, i.e. crashes. 7.1. European servers recommended As ETF2L is an European league; you cannot force your opponents to play on non-Europeans servers. We strongly recommend to use servers located in Central Europe like Germany or the Netherlands. 7.2. Servers need to be password protected All servers used for ETF2L matches must be password protected. 7.3 Unusual server settings may be considered cheating Servers with abnormal settings may be refused for matches by the league and/or be classed as cheating. 7.4 Servers must be started with “-sv_pure 2” Match servers must have the parameter “-sv_pure 2″ in the launch options to support the sv_pure setting. sv_pure must be set to 2 in all ETF2L competitions.8. cheats and Scripts
6.1 Bug-Using is not allowed Any kind of “Bug-Using” is not allowed. Player using bugs will be punished. If you are unsure about the legality of any sneaky spot on a map, please contact an admin to clarify the situation and prevent complaints from your opponent. 6.2 Cheats are not allowed Any kind of cheats are not permitted. Players who are found guilty of using cheats will be banned from all ETF2L competitions for 1 year. There is no appeal process for bans. 6.3 Scripts Scripts that allow a player to perform an action in-game that he would not be able to execute without the script, or scripts that purposefully disrupt the player hitbox are banned. Scripts that freeze or glitch the player model (e.g. in mid-air to be less predictable) to make it harder to hit are also banned. Usage of banned scripts will be penalized on a case-by-case basis, depending on the intent of the script, the impact on the matches the script. Possible penalties may include warnings, default losses for one or more match rounds and league bans for repeated offenses. Examples of banned scripts:- Chargeturn script (this includes the use of other peripherals to achieve sharper turn angles)
- Duck jump script
- Null-cancelling movement script
- Rocket jump script
- Mask uber script
- Team say scripts
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