WINTER 2019 SEASON RULESET
An Arena Rivals participant is a player that participates in any of the weekly tournaments in the Arena Rivals Season. With their participation, the participant states that he understands and accepts all rules.
Players must be aged 18 years or older in order to play in this tournament, in line with the Mortal Kombat 11 PEGI Rating.
Arena Rivals’s Mortal Kombat 11 tournament will take place on PlayStation 4. All players should use their own PSN Account with PlayStation Plus.
Players may also register a second back up account, incase they are unable to access their main account for whatever reason during the tournament.
The account(s) submitted in the roster form must be used for the entire tournament.
If a player does not own a personal account on PSN then an Arena account may be available for use, however players should not count on these Arena accounts being available at all times.
Throughout this rulebook, and documentation relating to this tournament, the terms Game, Series, Set and Match will be used extensively – it’s important to familiarise yourself with these terms and how they are used in the context of the Mortal Kombat 11 Arena Rivals format to avoid potential confusion.
A game is classified as the most basic stage of the competition, each game is made up of up to three rounds, where each player competes to win 2 rounds.
A series is class as a collection of multiple games for example 3 games would be called a Best of 3 Series
A match or fixture is the pairing of two players against each other in a round of the tournament. It can be made up of multiple series.
Swiss pairings are used for Stage One of the MK11 Arena Rivals tournament. On each week, all participants that have registered for that day’s tournament are placed in a swiss pod. The number of rounds is based on attendance as follows:
Players earn 3 tournament points for each swiss round they win. If a player finishes a weekly tournament with no wins, they will receive 1 tournament point.
A bye is worth 3 tournament points.
Players will compete in a Best of 3 (Bo3) series of first to 2 round games.
At the end of Stage One, the top 8 players based on tournament points will continue to the playoff stage.
If players are tied for 8th place, the total Bucholz score from each week will be used to determine who progresses to the Playoff Stage.
All Scores are reported on Challonge.com
Admins are responsible for logging details of each game their player(s) win, and checking the result of games their player(s) lose.
The top 16 players from Stage One are placed into a double elimination bracket. This will include a 3rd place playoff.
The same match format as the group stage will be used during the playoff, except for the Grand Finals. The Grand Finals will be a Best of 5 series of first to 2 round games, rather than Best of 3.
All characters are allowed, unless tournament administration explicitly forbids it, or they are marked as banned. The tournament administration reserves the right to ban specific characters at any time to guarantee that no advantage gets abused. Tournament administration will do their best to send any restrictions or rule changes to the teams as soon as possible.
Any new characters that become available before the Semi-finals will be banned for approximately one week from when they are released in game, the tournament administration will communicate when the character is available and reserves the right to extend the ban if necessary.
Only tournament variations are legal in Arena Rivals. All games must take place in Kompetitive mode - meaning players are only able to select Tournament legal variations. All cosmetics are legal.
Each player is required to sign up to the tournament on Challonge.com using their PSN as a display name, with the arena they are playing from in brackets, eg. MKplayer11 (Portsmouth).
Each round the host invited their opponent using the PSN provided.
The following steps outline the process of playing a Match.
In order to compete a set in the allocated time, series should be played simultaneously three at a time
The following steps outline the process of playing a Match.
Teams may mutually agree who sits on the left and right side, corresponding to Player 1 and Player 2 respectively, at the start of the Set. Players are committed to this selection for the entirety of the next 3 Series they will then alternate sides every 3 series. If Players cannot agree to a Side Selection, they will coinflip to determine who picks their side first. The winner selects a side first.
Rounds will have set start times. Players must be ready to send or accept invites to lobbies at that set start time.
Players are provided with a full setup of hardware and peripherals to use during the tournament.
Players have the option of using their own peripherals during each match. Player-owned equipment must be compatible with Belong-provided competition equipment. Belong is not responsible for ensuring Player-owned equipment is in working condition. Belong
reserves the right to inspect all Player-Owned equipment to ensure compliance with Arena Rivals rules.
It is up to the tournament administration discretion whether the use of any bugs had an effect on the match, and what penalty they will incur. Admins should pause the game and report these to the representative as soon as possible.
Rehost rules are specified below, including the conditions in which they will be allowed:
Each player can receive up to 1 rehost per series maximum.
In case the above conditions are met, players should instantly request a rehost to their Arena Admin, followed by the reason. Arena Admins must immediately inform their opponents Admin. Players should continue playing until the rehost is confirmed by an Arena Admin. Once confirmed, everyone should instantly end the game.
If a match is interrupted then it should be continued where it left off, by re-host. If a game is to be replayed due to a rehost, players must choose the same characters, same stage and the current rounds will be the same.
If players are unable to connect to a game within 10 minutes of the scheduled start time, that game will be declared a draw. Both players will receive one tournament point.
Definitions for all penalties can be found in the Arena Clash Infractions and Penalties Guide.
Penalty: Game Loss
Players must be ready to play at the start of each scheduled round.
Up to 5 minutes may be used if difficulties occur in regard to getting players in-game. If it is likely a player is either going to be late or miss the scheduled start time, then the arena staff must report the fact to their player’s opponent’s Admin.
If a fixture has not started 10 mins after the scheduled start time due to a player not being in attendance on time, then they will receive a Match Loss.
In the case of technical issues, the representative will decide and relay the decision to each tribe. Players will not be forced to forfeit any games due to technical issues.
Penalty: Game Loss
A list of Banned Characters is available to each player. Any player that selects and locks in a banned character will receive a Game Loss.
Penalty: Game Loss
Only tournament legal character variations may be used. It is each player’s responsibility to ensure they choose a legal variation. The lobby not being set to Kompetitive mode is not a valid reason not to use a legal variation. Any that player selects and locks in a non-tournament variation will receive a Game Loss.
Penalty: Game Loss
Players may only select the Tournament stage. If a player chooses a stage other than Tournament, they will immediately receive a Game Loss.
Penalty: Game Loss
Players may only swap characters in between sets, or if they lost the last round played. A player that switches character outside of these circumstances will receive a game loss. That player must then revert to the character they were playing before the switch.
A player may not switch characters if they lose a round due to a rules infraction penalty.
Penalty: Series Loss
Any player found using a Bug or Glitch to gain a competitive advantage will receive a Series Loss.
Penalty: Game Loss
Giving an invalid reason for a rehost, or leaving the match before having approval to do so will lead to instant game loss to the player that uses it.
If an admin or player believes a rule has been broken and there is no assigned punishment for it, they must contact the representative as soon as possible with details and evidence. The representative will judge the case and assign a penalty if required.
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