Tournament Rules
Champs Tournaments (Specific Rules)
View the Code of Conduct here.
GENERAL TOURNAMENT RULES
This section of the tournament website is dedicated to the generic rules of all tournaments, if you are looking for the game specific rulesets please click the hyperlinks above.
Eligibility
1.1. School Eligibility
1.1.1. To be eligible to enter a team into the British Esports Student Champs, a school must be registered with the Department for Education or Education Scotland. You must be accredited to deliver RQF Level 2 and/or Level 3 (SCQF Level 5 and/or Level 6) qualifications.
1.1.2. A school must be able to provide a unique reference number (URN) if requested.
1.2. College Eligibility
1.2.1. To be eligible to enter a team into the British Esports Student Champs, a college must be registered with the Department for Education or Colleges Scotland. You must be accredited to deliver RQF Level 2 and/or Level 3 (SCQF Level 5 and/or Level 6) qualifications.
1.2.2. A college must be able to provide a unique reference number (URN) if requested.
1.3. Player Eligibility
1.3.1. Players in a team must be students of the same college or school in the UK.
1.3.2. Players must be registered full-time, or part-time students of the college or school that their team is registered under.
1.3.2.1. Part-time students must be studying a minimum of 4 hours a week at their college. If you are uncertain about eligibility due to your academic hours or course type, please contact your college. Staff members from the college are ultimately responsible for this decision.
1.3.2.2. Students studying an online course provided by their school/college would be eligible. All players must follow the remote play guidelines in 1.3.4.
1.3.2.3. Students studying higher education at a college are eligible.
1.3.2.4. Students who are on apprenticeships are eligible only if affiliated with a college. Staff members from the college are ultimately responsible for this decision.
1.3.3. Players must only be participants of a maximum of one game title per season in the Champs year.
1.3.3.1. In exceptional circumstances, players can move into another game title, or another team, in the season if they have given up their place in their original game title.
1.3.3.2. Players (including subs) can only play in one title, for one team, per week. Players cannot move outside of their Division within the title.
1.3.4. Playing from a supervised classroom is still our primary default position, however we are allowing students to participate from home if participating from the classroom is not possible. We still require all students to be organised and supervised by a staff member, even if remotely. If any member of your team is playing remotely, you must notify an admin of the reasoning in advance. Matches must still be organised and played within the 4-6pm window.
1.4. Substitutions
1.4.1. Change of Leader
1.4.1.1. A Leader may step down at any point during the season. In order to do this, they must appoint a new Leader using the team page on www.champs.britishesports.org.
1.4.1.2. If the majority of a team wishes to replace current Leader, admins must be contacted.
1.4.2. Emergency Substitutions
1.4.2.1. After a team’s roster is locked they may request one emergency substitution to be added to their roster. The request must be submitted either as a support ticket via the website or to admins on Discord.
1.4.2.2. Emergency substitutions must be requested at least one hour before start time of match they wish to play in.
1.4.2.3. An emergency sub must not increase a team over the size limit for that game. However, Leaders may remove a player to reduce their team size before requesting a substitution.
1.5. The Spirit of Substitutions
Teams may replace any number of players between weeks of tournament. However teams are expected to select teams with the intent of trying to create competitive and enjoyable games for themselves and their opposition. If we believe teams are being selected for unsporting reasons for example swapping players between two teams to manipulate seeding, penalties will be placed upon participating players and teams. If unsure about this rule please contact tournament admins before making substitutions.
1.5.1. If eliminated in a Division, any player on the eliminated team roster cannot then switch to another team in another division within that title.
Match Rules
2.1. Pauses and Rematches
2.1.1. If a player fails to connect to game, the game must be paused immediately. If this player fails to connect, the game may be restarted. The new game must follow rules for a rematch found in section 2.1.3.1.
2.1.2. Teams may use the pause command as follows:
2.1.2.1. It is forbidden to use the pause without an obvious reason like a player disconnect.
2.1.2.2. In the case a player disconnects or is having connectivity issues, it is allowed to use the pause.
2.1.2.3. In the case of hardware or software issues it is allowed to use the pause
2.1.2.4. In the event of a pause, the other team must be informed immediately why the pause has occurred and must be informed of any progress towards fixing the issue causing the pause.
2.1.2.5. Before resuming games both teams must state they are ready to continue.
2.1.2.6. Teams may only pause the game for up to 15 minutes. If after 15 minutes technical issues can not be solved the game must not be resumed. If the game cannot be resumed then admins must be contacted and an automatic win will be awarded to the opposing team.
2.1.3. At the admin’s approval, teams may agree to a rematch.
2.1.3.1. A rematch must be played with the same settings i.e. same maps, heroes.
2.2. No Show
2.2.1. Teams must arrive promptly to all games and be ready to play at the start time. Matches are set by default to start at 4pm unless rescheduled. All matches, including rescheduled, should be played or have started within the 4-6pm window. If this is not possible, raise a support request.
2.2.2. If a team hasn’t joined the custom game 30 minutes after the agreed start time, a default win will be given to the team that has all of their players in the custom game.
2.2.3. The team who were present on time must have timestamped proof that they were in the lobby at the scheduled time in order to claim a default win. This can be a screenshot of the lobby with the Windows clock in the corner. This screenshot should be uploaded to the match page as a file, in association with a support ticket.
2.2.4. If neither team has created or joined a custom game within 30 minutes, both teams will receive a loss. For calculating pairing, the higher seeded team will be considered the winner but the match will still count as a loss for calculating final standings.
2.3. Submitting results
2.3.1. After each game, both team Leaders should report results before joining lobby for next game.
2.3.2. Results should be submitted using the tournament website. If players have any issues in doing this, then a tournament admin should be contacted.
2.3.3. Records should be kept of individual map and overall scores, e.g. through screenshots, in case of a dispute of scores.
2.3.4. Individual map scores must be inputted into the tournament website, due to the system using overall wins and points as well as score difference to calculate leaderboards.
2.4. Casting of Games
2.4.1. Tournament admins and people that are explicitly permitted to spectate by British Esports Championships (e.g. shoutcasters or streamers) may ask to spectate. You cannot refuse to invite a tournament admin.
2.4.2 Champs matches can only be streamed if agreed by both teams. Those wishing to stream should reach out to the opposing staff leader and team ahead of the match to gain permission. If one of the teams in a fixture does not agree to be streamed, then the match must not be streamed.
2.4.3. Players must wait for casters to declare they are ready before starting.
2.4.4. Coaches, managers or anyone not explicitly permitted to spectate may spectate with permission from both teams.
2.4.4.1. Overwatch and Valorant coach spectators must be locked to the side of their affiliation e.g. a coach for the blue team must be “locked to blue/attacking side”.
2.4.4. Stream delay of at least 180 seconds must be enabled in the streaming software to prevent cheating.
2.5. Tournament Format
2.5.1. Schools and colleges will play in the same tournament. They will no longer be split into two tournaments.
2.5.2. The format of the tournament will now be year-long, with Winter and Spring season. New teams will be able to join in Spring. The position of the team in the Winter leaderboards will determine which Division they are placed into in the Spring season. Spring divisions will consist of a group stage and playoffs.
2.5.3. Each division will have its own playoffs in Spring. The playoffs will culminate in a finals for all divisions.
Spirit of the Game
3.1. Sportsmanship
3.1.1. Teams are expected to play at their best at all times within any British Esports Student Champs match, and to avoid any behavior inconsistent with the principles of good sportsmanship, honesty, or fair play.
3.1.2. The following actions will be considered unfair play and will be subject to penalties at the discretion of the admins.
3.1.2.1. Hacking. Hacking is defined as any modification of the programme by any player, team or person acting on behalf of a player or a team.
3.1.2.2. Ringing. Playing under another player’s account or soliciting, inducing, encouraging or directing someone else to play under another player’s account.
3.1.2.3. Cheating Device. The use of any kind of cheating device and/or cheat programme.
3.1.2.4. Intentional Disconnection. An intentional disconnection without a proper and explicitly-stated reason.
3.1.2.5. British Esports Student Champs Discretion. Any other further act, failure to act, or behavior which, in the sole judgment of British Esports Student Champs officials, violates these Rules and/or the standards of integrity established by British Esports Student Champs for competitive game play.
3.1.3. The following actions will be considered poor sportsmanship play and will be subject to penalties at the discretion of the British Esports Student Champs.
3.1.3.1. Flaming/toxicity. This shall be defined as any comments in all chat or game lobby that may be considered negative or hurtful.
3.1.3.2. Use of discriminatory language including, but not limited to, comments about a person’s gender, race, sexual orientation, age, hate speech or calls to harmful action.
3.1.3.3. Intentional disconnects. This does not include restarting client in order to bug fix.
3.2. Penalties
3.2.1. Any person found to have engaged in or attempted to engage in any act that British Esports Student Champs believes, in its sole and absolute discretion, constitutes unfair play, will be subject to penalty. The nature and extent of the penalties imposed due to such acts shall be in the sole and absolute discretion of the British Esports Student Champs.
3.2.2. If any team or player is suspected of breaking any rules, admins should be informed by the Leader. At this point admins may ask for screenshots or other evidence of misconduct.
3.2.3. Upon discovery of any team member committing any violations of the rules listed above, the British Esports Student Champs may, without limitation issue the following penalties:
3.2.3.1. Loss of choice of starting side
3.2.3.2. Issue of a warning
3.2.3.3. Forfeit of a match
3.2.3.4. Temporary suspension of a player
3.2.3.5. Permanent ban of a player
3.2.3.6. Deduction of points or seeding for the current or next tournament
3.2.3.7. Disqualification of team from a tournament
3.2.3.8. Disqualification of team from the British Esports Student Champs
Spirit of the Rules
4.1. These Rules may be amended, modified or supplemented by the British Esports Student Champs, from time to time, in order to ensure fair play and the integrity of the British Esports Student Champs.
4.2. All decisions regarding the interpretation of these rules lie solely with the British Esports Student Champs, the decisions of which are final.
Glossary
5.1. Institution.
A school or college as defined in sections 1.1 And 1.2.
5.2. Player
A student who plays esports in the British Esports Student Champs.
5.3. Admins
Also known as tournament admins, referees, umpires. Admins will create fixtures, calculate results, make sure that players adhere to the Rules and Code of Conduct, and hand out penalties.
5.4. Leader
A Leader is an adult member of staff that represents an Institution. A Leader is responsible for supervising online interactions between players, checking-in an Institutions teams, reporting match results to the tournament system. One Leader must be responsible for multiple teams.
5.5. Team
A team is a group of players. A team represents its Institution in the British Esports Student Champs.
5.6. Lobby
Lobbies are menu screens where players must set up the upcoming game session, change their settings, and talk to each other. In many games, players return to the lobby at the end of each session. In some, players joining a session that has already started are placed in the lobby until the start of the next. As lobbies consume very few resources they are sometimes additionally used as a “holding pen” for players while waiting for the next match. Opposing teams must be invited to the lobby for the match to proceed.
5.7. Disconnect
Also known as DC. Disconnect refers to an Internet shortage that removes a player from a game or a player intentionally leaving a game.
5.8. Casting
Commentating an esports match. Commentators are known as casters. This is short for shoutcasters, the original term used to refer to esports commentators which has been shortened over time.
5.9. Seeding
The process of preliminarily ranking teams in a tournament bracket to ensure the most fair outcome. Each team is a seed.
