Review [Issue 15] The New Team Rules; Decoded

[GoldRock 6,165]

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:

1. - To create a team you need the following:
1.1 - The team leader should have a rank of Major or higher. The team leader has to start the team thread.
1.2 - 9 players (excluding the team leader) with the rank of Third Lieutenant or higher, not including alternative accounts.
If the team leader has gathered 6 participants of TOF Tandem (each should have passed at least 1 round and have no forfeit defeats), the Team Lead may compose a 6-player team, but within a week after the creation the team should hire four more players.
1.3 - The team members should post their confirmations in the team thread within 48 hours from the creation of this thread.
Attention! If there are not enough confirmations, the team may be closed or not closed at the moderators' discretion.
However:
1.3.1 - Only registered teams may participate in the tournament
1.3.2 - A team may be represented in a tournament only by the team members listed in the special registration topic
1.3.3 - To become a team member a player has to post a message in the team topic confirming his membership.

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:

2. - The open team topic should contain the following information:

2.1 - Team members (nicknames are case-sensitive).
2.2 - Team leader and Deputy team leader.
2.3 - Skype address of the team leader and, preferably, of the deputy team leader.
The limitations to the team insignia and description conform to the general rules of the forum.
Only a registered team may submit a tournament participation request.

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:

3. - Other rules:

3.1 - A participation request for TOF Dream Team and other official tournaments is a link to the team registration message and the written agreement of the team leaders with the tournament rules.
3.2 - Punishments in the team sports section apply to the other Cybersports sections (clans, Solo, Tandem, etc.) and vice versa.
3.3 - A team awarded with a "Clan License" may become a clan according to the rules of the clan section. What is a "clan license" — see below.
3.4 - A clan that has lost its clan license without any additional punishments may become a team if desired so.
3.5 - If you want to change the name of your team, the team leader may just change it in the topic heading. However, you should also notify the moderators so that they could modify the registration topic. The first message of the topic should contain the previous team name. It is not allowed to change the name of the team more often than once a month.
3.6 - To replace the team leader it is necessary to re-create the topic (the new team leader should start the topic). The registration of the team persists, you should only notify the moderators that the team leader has been replaced. If an attempt to register an old team anew after replacing the team leader is made, the organizer may deny the request or declare it void afterwards.
3.7 - It is not allowed to use the names of the closed champion clans as well as well-known top clans (you can ask moderators for advice on this matter), names of the existing teams or clans and names mocking the existing/well-known closed teams or clans.
3.8 - A team that has missed the second TOF Dream Team in a row (a participation request followed by a forfeit defeat in the first game is considered as missed tournament) is presumed "dead" and can be closed irrevocably by the moderators.
3.9 - At the moderators' discretion a team may be closed for inactivity as well as for numerous or grave violations of the forum rules by the team members.
3.10 - It is not allowed for a player to be a member of more than one team (including via alternative accounts).
3.11 - It is not allowed for a player to participate in a team and a clan at the same time (including via alternative accounts). Violation of this clause is punished by banning from Cybersport for at least 6 months.
3.12 - Banning from Cybersports means that the player will not be able to be a member (be displayed in the forum thread) of teams and clans, as well as participate in solo and tandem competitions. If a banned player is found in a team, the player and the team/its leaders are considered responsible (at the organizers' discretion).
3.13 - It is not allowed to include the nicknames/banners of players into the team without the players' consent.
3.14 - It is not allowed to leave the nicknames/banners of players as team members after the players' declaration of resigning from the team.

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:

4.1 - The player has the right to unilaterally announce that he or she is leaving the team. The team management is obliged to remove the player during the next transfer window. If a player has left a message about leaving not later than 3 days before the end of the transfer window and it wasn't announced by the team leaders, the team is responsible for it and can be punished by removal of the rating or the ban on registration of new members in the several next transfer windows.

A message about withdrawal from the team should be left in the team thread and should not have marks on editing later than the day on which it was written.
— It is not allowed to replace the Team Lead within the first month from creating (re-creating) the team topic.
— It is not allowed to change the name of the team and to replace the Team Lead more often than once a month.

Basic terms:

Team — a group of 10 or more players united to play, to practice and participate together in TOF Dream Team and other tournaments.
Team leader— an official, the team creator (the user who creates the team topic). May submit the information and make announcements on behalf of the team (i.e. submit the tournament participation or prize distribution requests, contact the organizers or other teams). May close the team.
Deputy team leader — an official appointed by the team leader who has privileges of the team leader except for the right to close the team.
Player— a normal player, member of a team. Their information and questions may be ignored by the organizers.
Training fight(clan war, training) — a friendly game between two teams under the standard rules (6 vs. 6, 20 minutes, format as agreed upon).
Score battle — official game within TOF Dream Team and other tournaments. Takes place according to the rules of each specific tournament (subject to change).
Team registration — a procedure that allows for the existing team to participate in the tournaments organized by the administration.

"Clan License" is a prize awarded to a team at the organizers' discretion. This license allows to move to the clan section, to become a clan and to participate in the clan tournaments. Licenses are issued following the results of TOF Dream Team. The number of licenses issued after each tournament may differ at the organizers' discretion.

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:

Team registration:

Registration is not mandatory to set up a team. However, only registered teams are allowed to take part in the TOF Dream Team tournament..

Once a month a 5-day-long 'transfer window' is open, during which the teams may modify team's line-up by adding or deleting players. Additional 'transfer windows' may be set up at the organizers' discretion, i.e. before, after or during tournaments.
All team membership changes are saved, so the history of transfers of every player will be available both for the organizers and for the other players.
The registration requests may be submitted only during 'transfer windows'.

The registration requests should include the following information:
Link to the team's topic
Aside each nickname (including leaders) — link to the player's profile and the message confirming that this player is the team member. The last is not obligatory for the team leader (topic starter).
Example:
uberblackninja
http://en.tankiforum...showuser=312264
http://en.tankiforum...2
Preferably - the team logo.


What you need to do in order for your team to be registered and admitted to the tournaments:

1. Ask all the players to post the messages (in the team topic) confirming that they are the team members.

2. Compose a registration request (see the template and the example in the next message).

3. Leave the request in the prerequest topic (to be added later). The moderators open this topic every month (so called 'transfer window').

Registration request template:

Logo (if any)
1. Name of the team, link to the team thread.
2. Leaders (Team Leader is the first)
leader 1 link to the profile (no confirmation is required for the team leader)
leader 2 link to the profile confirmation
leader 3 link to the profile confirmation
...

3. Skype contacts
skype1
skype2
...
4. Team members
Player1 profile confirmation
Player2 profile confirmation
Player3 profile confirmation
Player4 profile confirmation
Player5 profile confirmation
....

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!

Edited July 31, 2017 by Hexed

[flae99_forumalt 46]

Nice, now I understand Goldilocks.

[robbiealdo 373]

The new stupid ******ed rules. Dev's only think about high ranks.

[icerugby 1,886]

The new rules caused my old team to close. Most of the guys were already in clans :(

But anyway nice article explaining the rules that some people may not have known about :)

[Lankbouv 6,347]

^RL:-(

[donut70 97]

I just lost 3 members because they chose there teams over my clan, but I think the rules will eventually help.

[Remaine 4,687]

The new stupid ******ed rules. Dev's only think about high ranks.

[TheLonelyEpic 212]

The one good part is how you have to get a clan license, but the rest is crap.

[r_Damn_Slow0 12,476]

thanks.. look forward to clan rules review

[r_GoldRock30 68]

thanks.. look forward to clan rules review

You're welcome, but there won't be one AFAIK ^_^

[Remaine 4,687]

You're welcome, but there won't be one AFAIK ^_^

AFAIK?

[r_GoldRock30 68]

AFAIK?

Unless another reporter decides to write it, I meant.

[aojsd 144]

If I become a reporter, I will do my best to continue your legacy gold *salute*.

 

 

:D

[Remaine 4,687]

If I become a reporter, I will do my best to continue your legacy gold *salute*.

 

 

:D

[Finesse 968]

 

If I become a reporter, I will do my best to continue your legacy gold *salute*.

 

 

:D

 

[r_Damn_Slow0 12,476]

You're welcome, but there won't be one AFAIK ^_^

too bad .... i hope the new ones can keep up with the good work ...

 

ps:  AFAIC

[BackSeatDriver 29]

Nice review