No-Sanji Draft Tournament Rules

1. General Guidelines:

a)    Ignorance of the rules does NOT pardon any violation.  

b)    The Code of Conduct applies to this tournament and can be viewed here. Player communication and conduct are to be kept as civil as possible. While playful banter is acceptable, any abusive act or communication is unacceptable.

c)    Players must use their name and Steam Account registered with the NSL.

d)    Any issues or disputes are subject to Referee discretion and Admin review. Referees or Admin will be available on the NSL discord if they are not present in the match.

2. Server Rules:

Servers will be assigned to all matches based on lowest common ping value. Common sense will be applied to determine the server used for each match, but the general guidelines are as follows:

 I.            EU vs NA → NYC or <BAD> Chapel Hill Server

 II.            EU vs Oceania → Paris, <BAD> Alemannia, <BAD> Chapel Hill, or NYC Servers

III.            NA vs Oceania → Paris Servers or <BAD> Alemannia

3. Signup Rules:

1.    Players must be below 4100 Hiveskill for a full month prior to the start of the tournament.

2.    Players must not have held sanji rank (4100avg skill) for more than 30 days in their ns2panel history.

3.    Admins reserve the right to refuse signups in order to keep the tournament balanced. Exceptions can be made in edge cases, please contact an admin in the ENSL discord.

4. Team & Merc Rules:

1.    Teams are drafted at the announced time before the tournament match days. 

2.    Each team must have at least 4 starting lineup members each match.

3.    Players cannot play for more than one team in the tournament.

4.    Rosters are capped at 7 members for each team. This may be changed based on the sign-up pool.

5.    Teams may use a maximum of 2 mercs per match.

6.    Mercs cannot be from teams that are currently participating in, or previously were, in the contest.

7.    Mercs must be approved by the opposing team captain, but may be contested within reason:

i)             Reasons to contest:

a)    Perceived excessive competitive advantage gained by a Merc.

b)    Use of Merc is inappropriate (e.g., team has available players).

ii)                 Disagreements will ultimately be settled by tournament referees or NSL admins.

5. Tournament Rules:

a)    Stage 0 - Team Drafting

i)             The draft will follow the standard snake draft format.

ii)            Each captain will be assigned a seeding rank.

iii)           The captain with the lowest rank gets the first pick.

iv)           Subsequent picks are in ascending order of rank from lowest to highest seeded captain.

v)            After the highest ranked captain picks, the order reverses itself, going from highest ranked captain to lowest, and then back again.

vi)           This snake draft will continue until the final player is drafted.

vii)          Admins reserve the right to reorganize teams if one or more teams has a significant advantage.

b)   Stage 1 - Round Robin

i)     Team captains must report on Discord voice 15 minutes before start time.

ii)    Each match will be a best of 3 format with predetermined maps to be played.

iii)   Teams are matched up with opponents to play each side (alien/marine) of one map, or two maps if a tie breaker is needed.

iv)   In the event of a tie breaker, only 1 round will be played to conclude the best of 3.

v)        Scoring:

1)    If a team wins 2-0, they are awarded 2 points, and the losing team is awarded 0 points.

2)    If a team wins 2-1, they are awarded 2 points, and the losing team is awarded 1 point.

vi)   A round ends when the victory screen is displayed.

vii)  Criteria for advancement to Stage 2 (in descending order of priority) are as follows:

1)    Most Points (Example: 2 points > 1 point)

2)    Win-Loss-Tie record (Example: 2-1-1 > 1-1-2)

3)    Wins vs tied participants (Example: Team 1 and Team 2 have the same points, but team 2 won against team 1, so they advance)

4)    Total points difference (net rounds won difference)

5)    Coin flip.

viii)The highest-ranking teams progress to the final stage:

1)    If the number of participating teams is 5 or lower, the top 3 Teams progress.

2)    If the number of participating teams is 6 or higher, the top 4 Teams progress.

c)    Stage 2 - Semi-Finals & Finals

i)     Stage 2 is single elimination, which means that a team is eliminated after losing a matchup.

ii)    Each matchup will be either a Bo5 or Bo7 format.

1)    Bo5 - Teams play and alternate sides on up to 3 maps until one team has 3 wins.

2)    Bo7 - Teams play and alternate sides on up to 4 maps until one team has 4 wins.

iii)   Side and map picks are determined by a coin toss in all Stage 2 matchups.

iv)   Maps cannot be played twice in a series.

v)        A round ends when the victory screen is displayed.

d)   Coin Flip

i)     Coin flips should only be used to determine the following:

1)    Side choice – Which team gets to choose their starting side (Bo3 only). In the event of a tie breaker round, the team that gets to pick first will be handed to the loser of the previous coin toss. There will NOT be a second coin toss.

2)    Decision to ban maps first or second

1.    Only applicable to Bo5/Bo7 matchups. Please see section 5-e) map ban and map pick procedure.

ii)        A coin flip is done on the match server and in the presence of each team’s captain.

iii)   By default, the higher seeded team is “heads” and the lower seeded team is “tails.”

1)        Note: Seedings are re-established for Stage 2 using the standings from Round Robin.

iv)   Procedural format:

1)    Coin flip is made

2)    Coin flip winner picks either first map or first side.

3)    Coin flip loser selects remaining choice

v)    Picking order is automatically reversed after each map during the Bo5/Bo7 stage, without a new coin flip.

1)    Example: Team A wins coin flip and selects ns2_tram. Team B responds by choosing to start Marine. After playing both sides of the map, Team B is now granted the choice of map and Team A chooses the side.

e)    Map ban and map pick procedure

i)             The map banning and map picking stage will be done before the start of the first round of each best of 5 or best of 7 matchup.

ii)            Teams will ban maps, select all maps to be played, as well as first sides to be played all at once before the start of the first round. This is to reduce mid-round downtime and improve the flow of the matches.

iii)           Best of 5:

1)    Coin flip is done.

2)        Winner gets to pick whether to ban maps first and select the first map to play, or ban second and pick first side.

3)    The team who is selected to ban first bans 1 map from the pool.

4)    The team who is selected to ban second bans 2 maps from the pool.

5)    The first team bans 1 map again.

6)    First team selects the first map to play from the remaining map pool.

7)    Second team selects their starting side.

8)    Second team selects the second map to play and the first team picks their starting side for the second map.

9)    First team selects the third map to play and the second team picks their starting side for the third map.

10) First round starts.

iv)           Best of 7:

1)    Coin flip is done.

2)    Winner gets to pick whether to ban maps first and select first map to play, or ban second and pick first side.

3)    The team who is selected to ban first bans 1 map from the pool.

4)    The team who is selected to ban second bans 1 map from the pool.

5)    First team selects first map to play from remaining map pool.

6)    Second team selects their starting side.

7)    Second team selects the second map to play and first team picks their starting side for the second map.

8)    First team selects third map to play and second team picks their starting side for the third map.

9)    Second team selects the fourth map to play and first team picks their starting side for the fourth map.

10) First round starts.

b)   Match pause rules

In the event that a team needs to pause a live match, the following rules will apply:

i)             Each team gets one 5-minute pause per round.

ii)            Teams may only pause for the following reasons:

1)    A player disconnects from the match unintentionally (internet crashed, etc.).

2)    Technical issues: Player lag, hardware failure (like dead mouse or headset), game crashes, or unintentional discord voice disconnect.

iii)           Team composure: team needs a minute to recollect their thoughts and quickly discuss in-game strategy. For this given reason, teams will only have a maximum of 2 minutes to pause.

c)    Map pool

i)             Biodome

ii)            Descent

iii)           Jambi

iv)           Mineral

v)            Summit

vi)           Tram

vii)          Unearthed_Butbetter

viii)        Veil

ix)           Nexus_fixes

Failure to comply with the ruleset will result in punitive action taken by the ENSL staff.

End of article