Yeah, notcied that a few weeks ago ^_^

If you're unlucky, you'll be warned at most :P

Congrats, best friend :lol:

Abbreviated curses are not allowed, I've discovered that through personal experience ^_^ Yep, that "+16" means that you should be 16 years of age to use the forum. But I'd say 75% of people here are under 16, including me :lol: Note that it is not against the forum rules to break this particular term of signing up for the forum - so no-one is punished for doing so.

So, I'm sure many of you have seen the new team rules, with varied reactions. Some are excited to see what the future of Cybersport in the English Community now holds; others want to wait and see how they'll work, whereas quite a few are sad to have to leave their current teams due to the rules. However, what impacts will these rules actually have? Well, this article will explain what the new rules mean, and how they could affect you in terms of Cybersport. Rule 1: What it means, and its effects: Basically, the required rank to create a team will be increased from Third Lieutenant to Major, and 9 of the members will now need to be Third Lieutenant in order for the team to be created. This will mean that leaders and members of teams will now have to be more experienced in-game, as higher ranks than previously are required. Also, a 6-member team could be created if all 6 members have played in TOF Tandem, and have passed one round (though the team must reach 10 members in a week). However, players had to be at least WO5 (not to mention they had to have a partner of at least Major if they were lower than Major in rank themselves) to enter the tournament, and so team members would still have to be of a higher rank than required previously. These raised rank requirements will probably mean that joining/leading a team will require more experience than before. As before, players shall need to confirm their membership in a team in its first 48 hours of creation, to avoid running the risk of it being closed by a moderator. This also confirms that the player shall have become a team member. In addition, teams will now need to 'register' some of their members to take part in a tournament, and only the registered members will be able to take part (I will go into the registration process later in this article). A similar, one-off registration process took place for the only team tournament there has been to date, held some months ago. Therefore, these particular aspects are already familiar to many players. Rule 2: What it means, and its effects: Previously, there had to be a team leader and a members list. Now, there shall have to be a team leader, co-leader, members list, and the Skype addresses of the leader and preferably of the deputy leader, too. Whilst many teams already had these pieces of information anyway, this now standardises what should be on a team topic, and could help with the organisation of teams in general. Rule 3: What it means, and its effects: The rules on tournaments expand here to say that to sign up for a tournament, a team leader will have to provide proof of registration and written agreement with the tournament rules. This will mean that a team will only have to go through a registration process once - after that, it can participate in tournaments in accordance with the tournament rules, which should be more convenient for teams to organise. Also, punishments in one part of the Cybersport forum section shall be extended across the whole section; for example, if you're restricted from posting in the 'Clans' section, you will be restricted in the entire Cybersport section. This shall mean that if you violate the rules of one privilege, you could be punished by the removal of all privileges, which should act as an effective deterrent to possible Cybersport rule-breakers. Teams could now be awarded with "clan licenses", permitting them to become official clans; in contrast, clans who lose their license could choose to 'downgrade' to becoming a team. This means that now, as clan licenses will be hard to obtain (I'll describe how later), they will be considered the next step up from a team - the goal of any team will be to become a clan in the future, providing an incentive to stay in a team and work towards becoming a clan. Team leaders shall be able to change the name of their team themselves, rather than having to re-make their team topic, so long as they notify a moderator so the team's registered name can be altered, and record the previous name in the team topic as evidence. This will be a lot more convenient for team leaders. However, there shall be a limit of one name change per month, in order to avoid the feature being abused by overuse. Team leaders will have to be changed by re-making the topic, though the team shouldn't be re-registered - the mods should only be notified that the team leader will have changed. This is to avoid the possible problem of teams registering over and over every time they change their leaders. As before, clan names should be appropriate. However, a team will have to take part in the major TOF Dream Team tournament regularly in order to be considered active, as it is to be a major tournament - failure to participate twice in a row would mean a team will be considered inactive, and could be closed as a result. In addition, if a moderator thinks a team is inactive or if the team members severely break the forum rules, it may be closed. This will mean that teams will have to remain active, avoiding the previous issue of inactive teams. Also, team members shall be deterred from doing things duch as maliciously 'spamming' another team's topic, as their own team could be closed as a result. Importantly, it will now be forbidden to be in both a team and a clan at the same time. This marks the end of the concept of teams as 'less serious' groups of clan members, and the beginning of the concept that teams will be considered a phase lower than clans, and on the same scale as them rather than being separate. Furthermore, the aforementioned punishments system could include a Cybersport ban, which will ban players from taking part in Cybersport or viewing/posting in the Cybersport forum section. As included in the old rules, it will still be forbidden to falsely include non-team members into the list of team members on a team topic. Rule 4, and basic terms: What they mean, and their effects: Rule 4 basically highlights that any members who have left a team will have to be removed from the team topic during a 5-day period of time every month known as a transfer window (again, to be covered later on). This means that teams will have to update their members during each transfer window, providing a specific time for team leaders in which to do so. On the other hand, members who leave a team will be required to post on the team topic (and not edit it after the day it was posted, in order to avoid abuse of the member-removal rule) - again, this has already been common practice for many teams, but the new rules make such formalities official, and so more organised. The fact that team leaders may only be changed once a month under the new rules is also brought up. Furthermore, some basic terms are defined technically in the new rules; again, this will standardise their use (for example, 'clan wars' and 'clan trainings' shall now be considered the same thing). In addition, clan licenses are defined here as licenses which shall allow teams to officially become clans and so take part in normal clan activities. Basically, teams which do well in the major TOF Dream Team tournament could be issued these licenses. Team registration rules: What they mean, and their effects: When the new rules say that registration will not be mandatory to set up a team, they are correct - however, it will be mandatory for a team to continue to exist, as teams shall have to regularly take part in the TOF Dream Team tournament (which shall require registration to enter), or the will be closed. In addition, the 5-day-long transfer window will be for both updating a team's member list, and updating a team's registered member 'line-up' (the members who have been registered to represent a team in tournaments). Teams shall only be able to be registered during transfer windows. The benefit of the transfer windows will be that the transfer history of each player shall be available to the organisers and other players, which will undoubtedly be useful. Teams shall be able to apply to be registered by linking to their threads, linking to the profiles of their team leaders, listing the Skype contacts of the leaders, and providing the profiles, as well as confirming the membership, of every member the teams wish to register. This will mean that registered teams will have a confirmed team leader and list of members, as well as a form of contact, making it much easier to organise their participation in official team tournaments. So, there you have it. I hope this article has helped you to gain a better understanding of the new team rules. Next issue, I'll be decoding the new clan rules, as well as reviewing how they will have operated over the course of September. Feel free to post any suggestions/comments below!

Yes, of course :)

Nope, it's completely valid :lol:

Yeah, very true :)

I was actually thinking of nominating DD667 as well as Remaine for the Topic Maker category, since this is a great thread and the style of writing reminded me of Remaine. Turns out they're the same person :lol:

Hmm... No, I don't think that'd be contructive, sorry. Players might say "So-and-so's entry was rubbish, no wonder he didn't win!", or "His entry was so much better than the winner's", and I don't want that to happen.

Don't worry guys, I told him the truth in the end :lol: However, another new player happened to read what I said, and when he joined a battle, he saw it said "Gold box will be dropped soon", and so left. Sorry 'bout that, random new player!

Well, you could always nominate me yourself to win one of your categories ;)

That would mean the results topic could have up to 100 spoilers...

Two things: 1. You don't have to work at all for this, people will just vote for you if you deserve to win a category 2. The rewards of winning a contest like this generally involve a morale boost, as well as it being emotionally rewarding. The contest's just for fun, so crystals won't play a part here.

Nice blog ^_^ I'd be able to help, if you want.

Not everything has to have a crystal reward to still be rewarding.

Oh, you're Remaine?

Hmm, it would take up too much space...

I've PMed you about this :)

Awesome :o Nice work!

Tanki Humour! Results I'm sure you've all been waiting for these, so why wait any longer? Here are the results, judged jointly by @Lhamster and myself. In first place, winning 50,000 crystals: @MusicJam19 In second place, winning 25,000 crystals: http://goanimate.com/videos/0yKm3HULPkD8?utm_source=linkshare And in third place, winning 15,000 crystals: @gazatron30 A Shaft drives into a bar. The bartender says "Hey buddy, why the long face?" I have also added the following prize of recognition; these are the entrants with commendable entries, in no particular order (each player receives 5000 crystals as a consolation prize) @Zakintosh @niku.sula [member=MeCTb_3a_armenia1313] @Remaine Many of the entries were good, but unfortunately, not everyone can receive a prize. Some of you might be wondering why some of the winning entries are so simple - it is because this contest was not about how much you write or do, it was about how funny your entry was in the end overall. For those who didn't win this round, better luck next time, and keep trying! See you in the battle!

Nope, why?

Ye, he/she would still get a reward.

:ph34r: