The Star Battle Community presents
Terran Star Battle League
Season 2
Original rules enacted on August 28th 2012
by representatives of Star Battle clans on
playstarbattle.com
Revision as of September 24th 2013
4.1. Eligibility to participate
4.5. Registering during season
9.1. Interpretation of the Rules
The Star Battle Community enthusiastically welcomes you to the second season of the Terran Star Battle League (TSL)! This league is the one of the largest community driven projects of the StarCraft II Arcade. We are following up an immensely successful first season, and are excited to once again host the hundreds of Star Battlers sure to enjoy another great TSL season.
Star Battle boasts one of the most active and robust communities among all the StarCraft II arcade games, which makes a league such as this possible. The community has had over 20 tournaments with hundreds of participants from all over the world. This league is the product of what can certainly be considered one of the most dedicated arcade communities in existence.
This season of TSL will maintain the spirit of the community, combining our past experiences with the new changes to the Star Battle mod, and bring together old and new players alike. In the spirit of the original season of the TSL, we will endeavor to enhance the playing experience for all members of this community, and push the image of Star Battle to new heights!
- Star Battle Community
find us on playstarbattle.com
1.1.1. Terran Star Battle League is a series of organized matches of Star Battle, a custom map for StarCraft II by Blizzard Entertainment. Series are played in seasons between Star Battle clans and teams worldwide StarCraft II Battle.net servers.
1.1.2. Terms used in “Battle.net Terms of Use”, “StarCraft II End User License Agreement”, “Blizzard Entertainment Online Tournament Agreement” and applicable state laws apply.
1.1.3. Following terms apply:
a) Rules – these Rules;
b) League or TSL – Terran Star Battle League;
c) The Map Maker – zedu, creator and maintainer of Star Battle;
d) Star Battle homepage and/or forum – playstarbattle.com site;
e) League website - TheTSL.org
f) Star Battle wiki - starbattlewiki.uk.to site;
g) Star Battle Twitter/Facebook/YouTube – account named playstarbattle on given sites;
g) Star Battle TeamSpeak – a collective of two TeamSpeak3 servers maintained by Iaijutsu (TS1.learnstarbattle.com) and uPZer0 (TS2.learnstarbattle.com);
h) Official Star Battle tournament – a competitive event organized on playstarbattle.com site, recognized as one by site owner and/or its moderators;
i) Star Battle clan – an organized group of Star Battle players with name and established structure with at least one leader which introduced itself as clan on Star Battle homepage and Star Battle TeamSpeak;
j) Star Battle team – an organized ad hoc group of Star Battle players with a name for the purpose of playing a League season.
Following in game terms apply:
a) game – a single League game;
b) match – series of three or five League games between given teams;
c) game end – occurs when notification of game result for teams appears (“you have won / lost” text in the lower left corner of the screen);
The League bodies are Commission, Captains’ Council, Referees, Official Streamers and The Map Maker.
2.1.1. Commission is the main body of the League. The Commission:
a) executes, changes and interprets the Rules,
b) assures the League is played in friendly ambiance,
c) represents the League.
2.1.2. Commission consists of three Commissioners equal in their competences and obligations. Commissioners make decisions with a full majority at any time.
2.1.3. Commissioner is elected with an absolute majority[i] by Captains’ Council.
2.1.4. Commissioner is revoked by Commission or Captains’ Council with reason stated. Revoked Commissioner has right to comment reason of revoke.
a) Commission revokes Commissioner with an absolute majority.
b) Captains’ Council revokes Commissioner in a constructive vote of no confidence with absolute two-thirds majority[ii] and immediate successor named.
c) A vote on revoke cannot take place sooner than three weeks after previous one has been called forth.
d) There can be only one Commissioner of the Terran Star Battle League per Clan/Team.
e) If two clans merge, each containing a Commissioner from the Terran Star Battle League; one must resign upon merger if both Commissioners remain on the same roster.
2.2.1. Captains’ Council represents Star Battle clans and teams before Commission. Captains’ Council members represent their respective clans and teams before Commission and other clans and teams.
2.2.2. Captains’ Council is composed of permanent and nonpermanent members.
2.2.3. Each Star Battle clan participating in a league season is represented by single permanent member and one additional non-permanent member for every team it contributes to the League season. 2.2.4. does not apply.
2.2.4. Each Star Battle team participating in League season is represented by single non-permanent member.
2.2.5. If not stated by clan or team otherwise, clan leader or team captain is member of Captains’ Council.
a) Permanent member is appointed and revoked by clan leader or other appropriate clan body for clan determined amount of time.
b) Non-permanent member is appointed and revoked by team captain for team determined amount of time.
2.2.6. Commission suspends right to permanent member if clan fails to participate in League season, or due to inactivity resulting in disruption of League.
2.2.7. Commission maintains membership register of Captains’ Council on the official League thread on Star Battle homepage.
2.2.8 CC Vote: Captains’ Council may call a vote in order to overturn decisions/rulings made by the commission. The vote will only count if ¾ of eligible voters participate. The result of an eligible vote is determined by a majority of the voting members.
a) A permanent member of the captain’s council, with public support from 2 other permanent members, may initiate a vote to overturn decisions/rulings of the commission. One of the CC members involved must start a voting thread in the playstarbattle TSL forums, stating the intent of the vote AND the 2 supporting members.
b) The petitioning CC member has until the conclusion of the match week following the commission’s ruling to initiate a CC vote.
c) The voting process will last until every CC member has voted or no longer than 7 days.
d) The Commission may call forth a CC Vote to make major decisions for the league. If the CC Vote is unresolved per the guidelines stated above, the Commission will make the most appropriate decision, subject to the ratification process outlined below.
2.2.9 CC Ratification: Certain commission decisions as directed by TSL rules will undergo an approval process by the captains’ council.
a) When the appropriate ruling is made, it will go into effect immediately. However, the commission will request ratification from the council in order to maintain such ruling permanently.
b) The result of the vote is determined by absolute majority. If an absolute majority has not been reached within 7 days of the start of the vote, the commission’s ruling is ratified.♠
2.3.1. Referees interpret the Rules and provide any support needed on the behalf of Commission.
2.3.2. Referees are appointed and revoked by Commission.
2.4.1. Official Streamers provide live coverage of League games and updates on League status.
2.4.2. Official Streamers maintain their streaming channels, update Star Battle homepage, TheTSL.org, wiki and Twitter/Facebook/YouTube and use other means of promotion of the League.
2.4.3. Joint casting is allowed.
2.4.4. Team may not refuse to have its games casted by an official streamer unless both captains or a referee/commissioner agree that current Official Streamer was causing lag previous game.
2.4.5. Stream delay is five minutes minimum. Commission may ease this restriction.
2.4.6. Official Streamers are appointed and revoked by Commission.
2.4.7. Unofficial Streamers may only cast games if both captains agree.
2.4.8 First-person streaming is allowed unless there is an Official streamer present in game.
The Map Maker has powers of every League body. He may fulfill any League body duty if he deems it necessary. The Map Maker’s decision overrides decision of any League body.
3.1.1. Ladder format is as follows:
a) each team plays every other team three times,
b) all three games (three games = match) against single opponent are played regardless of the result of the previous games consecutively. (time for breaks in between games is max 30 mins)
c) The top four (4) teams or approximately 40% of the teams in the league table (whichever is larger) are eligible for the playoffs at the end of the season. The playoff brackets will be announce at the end of the season. The playoffs are played as best of five (BO5).
3.2.1. League is played in seasons which are announced by Commission at least three weeks ahead.
3.2.2. Season schedule is randomized by Commission two weeks prior to the start of the season.
3.2.3. Match weeks start on Monday and end on Sunday of the following week (for example a season begins on September 9th (Monday) and ends on September 15th (Sunday)).
3.2.4. Matches are played:
a) At times scheduled by the Commission or:
b) At a new time as determined and agreed upon by both team captains.
3.2.5. Captains’ Council members of interested teams mutually agree to move games. Any changes are agreed upon by both parties and are subject of notification to the Commissioner at least one day prior to the agreed date and time. Rescheduled matches are played no later than on the Sunday of the next match week, or on the last Sunday of the regular season (whichever comes first). Special circumstances will be dealt with on a case by case basis
3.2.6. Team forfeits all games (0-3 or 0-5) if it fails to show up for its scheduled match. If the match is a rescheduled event, both teams forfeit (0-3 or 0-5) unless one of them provides proof that it indeed showed up on time[iii].
3.2.7. Missing two (2) league matches in a season results in termination from the League. Commission may ease this punishment.
3.2.8. The League breaks for official Star Battle tournaments or holidays as determined by League bodies, and reschedules games that were supposed to be played on tournament week. Holidays will be determined by Commission and ratified by captains’ council. Teams may, if they both agree, still play games scheduled for tournament week or holidays.
4.1.1. Individual is eligible to participate if he is an adult in his country of residence or a minor over the age of 13 with written permission from parents or legal guardian. Individual:
a) is registered by team Captain (team) or
b) registers to the free agency pool (FA).
4.1.2. The date of the rosters lock is included in season schedule and is set at approximately 3/4 of match weeks in the league season, excluding playoffs. When rosters are locked, adding new players and transfers are prohibited.
4.1.3. Games between teams from different servers are played on home team server. Teams may agree to play on different server.
4.2.1. Team registers for League season by posting on the official League thread on Star Battle homepage. A registration post must include:
a) at least eight (8) and at most twenty five (25) players,
b) exactly one team captain,
c) no less than one (1) and no more than two (2) co-captain(s),
d) contact information (Skype ID, Battle.net name and character code) for all captains’ council members,
e) Skype ID may be communicated to Commissioners privately,
f) server/region information for whole team (e.g.: EU/NA)[v].
4.2.2. Team with less than eight (8) players is considered an incomplete team and is allowed to pick players from free agency pool to fill its roster. 24 hours prior to the season beginning partial teams are merged or have free agency players placed on their rosters by Commission. Exceptions will be dealt with by commission on a case by case basis.
4.2.3. Team changing its roster must add a post to the official League thread with original roster in white and edits in red. Player transferring from one team to another and receiving captain must submit a post to the official League thread.
4.2.4. +Players may remove themselves from rosters by posting in the official League thread.
4.2.5. A Skype chat conference is maintained by Commission as a communication platform between Captains’ Council members.
4.3.1. Players without clan or team register as singles or pairs to be picked up by teams [FA].
4.3.2. Free agency players are picked up by any team, as long as it does not result in breaching players roster limit. Player can decline picking offer.
4.3.3. Commission encourages free agency players to form teams.
4.4.1. Roster limits are eight (8) minimum and twenty five (25) maximum at the start of the season.
4.4.2. Team may be allowed to play with less than 8 players. Team is ineligible to play if roster size falls below 6 during season. If a team does not have the minimum amount of players on match day it forfeits the match.
4.4.3. Commission assists in repopulation and/or merging of teams with roster issues. Two teams merging keep the record of the team with the lesser record.
4.4.4. Commission will determine what constitutes a “merger,” which can be subsequently overturned by a CC vote..
4.4.5. Failing to field a full team twice in a season is a basis for termination from the League. Commission gives at least one warning before termination for repeated offence.
4.5.1. Team may add new player to its roster until rosters lock. All roster changes are made at least one day prior to the scheduled match date.
4.5.2. New players may register to the free agency pool until rosters lock.
4.6.1. Player transferring between teams is eligible to play for his new team on the following match week of play.
4.6.2. Player transferring back to a team he played with earlier in the season suffers two match weeks penalty of ineligibility to play.
5.1.1. The home team set up lobby for all games in the match.
5.1.2. Games are played in 6v6 Classic Unrated mode, unless captains agree on Classic Rated mode. Game continues if it starts as rated.
5.1.3. Co-captain carries on duties of absent captain. In the absence of co-captain one of players announces his temporal captaincy to the opponent.
5.1.4. Only players playing in the current game, Commissioners, Referees and Casters are in a lobby when the game starts.
5.1.5. Teams may agree to any length of break time in games. In the event of disagreement, the break will be 15 minutes. If the previous game lasted over 1.5 hours (in game time) the break will be 30 minutes.
5.1.6 Teams have 15 (or 30 if 5.1.5 applies) minutes after scheduled start time to show 6 people ready to battle in lobby. Failure to show 6 people is an automatic forfeit of game. The clock is reset after forfeit and new countdown begins.
5.2.1. Captain of disconnected player pauses the game as soon as player disconnects. 5.2.3. Does not apply.
a) Teams are allowed one remake per match.
b) Teams will remake the game if player disconnects immediately after loading screen, no remake will be forfeited for either team.
c) Teams can remake within the first 20 seconds of the game for any reason.
d) Teams will remake if a team has an illegal composition, team with illegal composition will forfeit their remake.
e) If a team has used their remake and field illegal composition the team will forfeit the game.
f) Games that are remade shall be uploaded along with the games that were successfully completed
5.2.2. Captain pauses the game after typing “PP” in All chat.
a) A team is allowed a maximum of three (3) pauses per game;
b) Before the game resumes both captains state in All chat that their teams are ready and give a minimum of a three second countdown. Teams that disregard this rule are subject to punishment as determined by the commission.
5.3.1. Ship limit is 2 of each type. Randoming is allowed. Random ship counts as a separate ship type.
5.3.2. New ship limit is 1 of each type. Any capital ship introduced 4 weeks before a match week is considered a new ship. Randomed new ship counts as random ship. Commission may ease these restrictions.
5.3.3. Game participants should refrain from typing in All chat, with exception of captains and co-captains. Typing in Allied chat is permitted. Violations of this rule is considered BM and subject to punishment.
5.3.4. Game is considered concluded when notification of game result and rating change for teams appears or captain surrenders by typing “GG” in All chat. Surrender cannot be revoked. Surrendering team leaves the game first.
6.1.1. Replay is the sole basis for granting a win and points for a game.
6.1.2. Failure to provide replay puts team at risk of contents of whatever replay opponent sent.
6.1.3. Team upload replay to the Star Battle TeamSpeak at the latest on the following Monday 11:59 PM EST.
6.1.4. Both teams forfeit a game scoring 0-6 if they fail to provide replay for the same game in time. Commission may ease this punishment.
6.1.5. Replay is named in a specific format:
week_game_hometeam-composition_awayteam-composition_map_result
example: 1_1_Team1-VRCOCK_Team2-OLDCAR_DeepSpace_6-0
6.1.6 Replays of remade games are to be included when uploading. Remade games have format:
week_game_hometeam-composition_awayteam-composition_map_remake[n]_result
where [n] is a number starting from 1:
example: 1_1_Team1-BRBACK_Team2-GOBALL_DeepSpace_remake1_6-0
6.1.7. Failure to provide replay according to 6.1.3. will result in punishment.
6.2.1. The League ladder table is available on-line[vi] and on official League forum thread.
6.2.2. A number of games won determines the position of a team on the League ladder.
6.2.3. Game result (score) is determined by the amount of ships remaining on the winning team with losing team always scoring 0, meaning a team can score as much as 6 points for a single game and as much as 18 points for the whole match.
6.2.4. Tie-breaker is as follows:
a) number of wins,
b) number of points,
c) match result between teams,
d) in an event of three or more teams tied, games between teams are used to create separate table for tied teams, considering:
¾ number of wins,
¾ score;
e) In an event of several teams being unable to be separated by neither wins nor score as above and if filling a playoff spot depends on breaking a tie, a tie-breaker playoff is scheduled at the end of the League season. Tied teams face each other once, after which a second separate table for tied team is created, considering:
¾ number of wins,
¾ score.
f) If none of above breaks a tie, Commission coin flips in a casted live event in which captains call heads or tails. Winner of coin flip advances.
7.1.1. Prizes are in-game special ship models, ranks and other non-profitable prizes. Prizes to all participants and winners are awarded after conclusion of the League season. Details are posted on official League thread.
7.1.2. Player has to participate in at least one League game to be eligible to the League prize for the team he was registered on.
7.1.3. Player playing for more than one team is eligible to the League prize for the team for which he was playing his latest game in the current League season.
7.1.4. General rules applying to official Star Battle tournaments apply[vii].
League participants and other interested parties are obliged to follow “Terran Star Battle League Rules”, netiquette, “Battle.net Terms of Use”, “StarCraft II End User License Agreement” and applicable state law. Rules apply while in force, in game and out of game.
8.2.1. Clan, team, player or other interested party is subject to punishment for breaking the rules. Commission inflicts following punishments:
a) rebuke of clan, team, player or other interested party in private message,
b) public reprimand of clan, team, player or other interested party,
c) game or match ban of player or team (including forfeit),
d) current and/or next season League ban of player, team, clan or other interested party (termination from the League),
e) removal of player or team from list of entitled to prizes,
f) next EU and/or NA tournament ban of player or other interested party if future tournament host recognizes this punishment.
g) assigning disciplinary demerits. see 8.3.
g) The commissioners may come up with additional punishments as they see fit. The commissioners must unanimously agree on said punishment, unless it is against a commissioner or a commissioner's clan/team then he/she is excluded.
8.2.2. Punished individual or entity and/or Captains’ Council member on behalf of his clan- or teammate can appeal to Captains’ Council against punishment inflicted by Commission. Appeal against punishments 8.2.1. c) and d) must be sent before matches in question start or in 24 hours after end of last of games in question which were already played.
8.2.3. All punishments except 8.2.1. a) are posted in official League thread.
8.3.1. The Commission will assigned disciplinary demerits to teams in violation of the TSL rules.
8.3.2. Teams will accumulate demerits over the course of the season. The penalties associated with receiving/accumulating demerits are as follows:
a) Each demerit received will result in the loss of 1(one) ship score point.
b) Every 3(three) demerits accumulated will result in the forfeiture of 1(one) win.
c) Any team accumulating 10(ten) or more demerits is subject to expulsion from the TSL by the commission, with ratification from the captains’ council.
Interpretation of the Rules by Commission and Referees binds Referees and interested party. Commission can change Referees’ interpretation on proposal from interested party or on its own initiative. Commission can change his own interpretation if new facts are revealed.
9.2.1. Rules are subject to change by Commission without prior notice.
9.2.2. Changes to the Rules are published by Commission in the official League thread on Star Battle homepage.
9.2.3. Changes to the Rules come into force immediately unless stated otherwise.
9.3.1. Rules come into force once the commission posts them on the Star Battle homepage.
9.3.2. Three Founders of Terran Star Battle League are three first Commissioners.
9.3.3. Commission may call Captains’ Council on a vote of confidence on Commission and/or Terran Star Battle League Rules at any time.
[i] Over 50% (>1/2) of all body members in favour.
[ii] Two thirds (2/3) of all body members in favour.
[iii] Reasons are two-fold:
a) discourage re-scheduling of games,
b) re-scheduled games are not necessarily at “normal” times so the league cannot guarantee proper supervision.
[iv] http://www.wowwiki.com/Soon
[v] Server information is needed because schedule makers need to place teams on correct matchdays/times.
[vi] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0ApJRfjjgNBBLdEtZT0c4b0RGdmdPTlM2cEdaTU1WM2c&single=true&gid=0&output=html
[vii] Tournament Rewards by zedu ( http://www.playstarbattle.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=3592 ), Missing Tournament Rewards by zedu (http://www.playstarbattle.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=4942 )
and Bankfile cheaters by zedu (http://www.playstarbattle.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4447 )
[viii] Three Founders of Terran Star Battle League and subsequently the first set of three Commissioners are GrandAdmiral [MACE], Howler [♥2♥] and Nutbutter [We Nuke N Run].