ETFCL Rules

Note: These rules can be changed at all times if deemed necessary. Keep an eye on the news for updated/changed/new rules.

General League Rules

I. League Overview

• A maximum of 20 clans are invited to join this league, no more, no less. They will be formed into 4 groups (A-D) with 5 clans in each. A clan plays each clan in his group once. Maps are chosen by Admins, as well as in the group matches and in the 2nd group stage. A win will be rewarded with 3 points for the winner, a draw with 1 point for each and a loss with 0 points.
• The top 2 clans from each group will form two new groups and will play each other once again. Those groups are formed as follows:
  • The top 4 clans from groups A-D are seeded (A1/C1=group I // B1/D1=group II). 2nd ranked teams from groups A-D form a pot. Teams will then be drawn to group I or II.
  • The winners and 2nd ranked from group I and II will play the semi-finals
    Winner group I - runner up group II
    Winner group II - runner up group I
    The winners of both matches will advance to finals; the other two teams will play for third place.

II. Choosing clans for following seasons

• All clans who make it to the second group stage are eligible to play the following season. The 4 semi-finalists from the former season will be seeded in the groups (A-D). The rest will be drawn from pots 1-4 (4 clans/pot). The 3rd and 4th placed clans of the group I and II (2nd group stage) will be placed in pot 1, the 5th and 6th of that stage will be placed in pot 2. Pot 3-4 will be made up of the 8 other clans invited, regarding their strength in current/past leagues.
• There will be a quota assigned to European countries as follows:
  • UK: 6
  • Germany: 4
  • Sweden: 3
  • Belgium: 3
  • France: 1
  • Rest of Europe: 2

  Being aware of the fact that there are so called "European" clans, we will determine which country / region a clan is assigned as follows: We will first look at the current active members. Single majority is sufficient. In case there will be a question about this and/or the number of clan members from various countries will not be helpful, the clan leader's nationality will determine which country / region the clan will be assigned.

  This leaves 5 wildcards by Admins discretion. These spots will be usually handed out to teams skilled enough but lucked out on the first draw. At no point shall the number of clans from any country/region be more then 5, except for the UK.

  If one or more of the eligible clans fold and / or choose not to participate in the following ETFCL season then their spot will automatically become a wild card spot, but still within the country / region the dropout came from, if this does not compromise the quality of the competition.

  The 12 clans coming NOT from the former season will be chosen as follows. Clans interested in playing in the league may sign up on the website of the ETFCL within a given time. This time will be announced on the ETFCL channel as well as on the ETFCL website. Clans will be reviewed by the admin team after sign up has been complete. We will judge the clans from the time playing the game, their results, especially vs. clans who have formerly been or are currently eligible to play in ETFCL, their community reputation / popularity (this includes especially general netiquette/sportsmanship in or after games) and if members of the clan have been found guilty of cheating in the past. We will then pick the other clans invited regarding to the above said. Please note that ETFCL has been and will always be an invitation tournament only. It is not always easy to make the decision on what clans are allowed to play in this league and which ones are not, so give us a break, even if you don't agree with the picks.

  Being aware of the fact that we lower the number of clans from 32 to 20 the following rule applies for NEXT season (season 5) only:

  • All 16 teams making the playoffs this season will be invited to the following ETFCL season, regardless of the countries4 assigned number of clans allowed. If that number shall exceed the allowed number of clans, those spots will be taken from the wildcards. The 4 semi-finalists will be seeded again, the 4 runner-ups quarterfinalists will be in pot 1, the 8 runner-ups in 1/8-finals will be in pot 2 and pot 3 (evaluated after the net number of caps; own caps - enemy caps), the new teams will be in pot 4.
  • Dropouts will be replaced at the discretion of the Admins. Only any dropouts from the 1st few weeks will be replaced and the quality of competition will not be compromised. These new clans start with a clear record.

III. Requirements

• Clans must have the following: A valid homepage, a war arranger with valid e-mail address, a clan-leader with valid e-mail address and at least 8 active members. War results are to be added to the homepage of every clan the latest two days after the war was played. Clans without meeting these requirements will not be taken into consideration, regardless of current / former records within this league. Clans who will violate any of these rules during a running season will meet a deduction of 2 points after given a warning by the Admins with the request to fix that omission in a given time period.

IV. Matches/Server rules

• Matches can be played on clan servers. It is up to the clans to decide on a server playable for both teams. A neutral server or a server with equal conditions is preferred. If a server of this type can4t be agreed on, a home / away rule should apply - this is no MUST though.
  Servers have to run the following configurations.

                  pausable 0
                  sv_clienttrace 3.5
                  sv_aim 0
                  sv_cheats 0
                  sv_autoteam 0
                  sv_maxspeed 400
                  sv_gravity 800
                  sv_unlag 1
                  sv_maxunlag 0.5
  
                  mp_teamplay 1
                  mp_friendlyfire 1
                  mp_footsteps 1
                  mp_autocrosshair 0
                  mp_falldamage 1
                  mp_timelimit 35
  
                  tfc_clanbattle 1
                  tfc_balance_teams 0
                  tfc_balance_scores 0
                  tfc_fragscoring 0
                  tfc_autoteam 0
                  tfc_clanbattle_prematch 5
                  tfc_clanbattle_ceasefire 5
                  tfc_autokick_kills 0
                  tfc_autokick_time 0
                  log on
                

  Server logs are to be sent to the Admins when they request them.
• Matches must be played in the assigned week. A week starts on Sunday and ends the following Saturday at 23.59 CET. If the war isn't played, it will be possible to play the war in the catch up week. If it isn’t played by the end of the catch up week, both teams will receive 0 points for that war, it will count as default loss for both teams. However, if clans cannot agree on a day within that week the war should be played, then it should be the Tuesday within that week at any time from 18.30 cet to 21.30 CET (starting time). If teams cannot agree on a time on Tuesday admin decision will be final. During the catchup week, if still one clan fails to field a full team (7 - 9 players -> read # 13 also) on the server the team who showed up full strength will be rewarded with a default win. The clan leader of the team claiming a default win should notice an admin NOT prior to 15 minutes after the agreed match time, and ask him to join the server in any case of dispute. The admin will have to decide if one clan succeeds in fielding a full team, therefore it is necessary for that clan claiming a def win to be with your players on the server. The default rule also applies if one side doesn't show for a scheduled match not played on Tuesday.
• A notification of cancellation must be submitted 24 hours before the match is scheduled. If it is cancelled within 24 hours of the scheduled match, then the clan who cancelled will get a capture against them. In other words they start with 0 - 10 (full cap on cz2). This rule will not be enforced blindly, you must inform the clan you are playing that you want the 10 point start and not assume so. Nevertheless it's obligation of the canceling clan to have a new war scheduled within the assigned week. If the opposite clan is not able to play on a different date of the assigned week and the match day TUESDAY is already over, then it will be played in the catch up week. If it is prior to TUESDAY, then the match MUST be played on the Tuesday just as if clans cannot agree on a match date. Cancellation of wars due to, ISP failure etc is not affected by this rule and will be decided individually by Admins. We count on the fairness of clans, not blindly claiming that they cannot play on a different day of the week.
• Point scoring:
  • Win - 3 pts
  • Draw - 1 pt
  • Loss - 0 pts
  A win is considered a win when a clan wins both halves, or wins one half and draws the second half. A draw is considered a draw when a clan wins one half and loses the second half, even if the overall score is e.g. 500 - 30. A loss is considered a loss when a clan loses both halves, or loses one half and draws the second half.
  A map schedule will be handed out by the Admins.
• From semifinals on maps still count. Each clan involved in the game chooses a map from within the ETFCL map selection. Highest ranked team chooses first. In case of a draw, a decider map of ctf is played to 2 caps, on a map selected by the admins.
• There is no LPB rule. If one clan has players all under 100ms and the other all 200ms+, then that's your problem. Please do not complain to the admin-board. However we are sure that clans know what servers are playable for them and what servers are not. We expect fair play though and have teams compete on even grounds.
• Players playing for multiple clans or clans made up mainly of whores will not be tolerated. Each player can play for 1 ETFCL clan and 1 only. If evidence is found of a clan using ringers/Mercs or whores, that clan will receive a loss no matter what the result for that war. All clan leaders are asked to hand in their members WONID. This is required.
• Advancing to playoffs / 2nd-round: If some clans are on level points (i.e. 4th and 5th places) the result of the match against each other will decide who goes through. If this however was a tie, then the net caps in the group will decide (number of caps made minus the number of caps let go). This Rule also applies to decide the other places in a pool. If this is still a tie however, both clans will play one CTF map to 2 caps, chosen on a map selected by the admins.
• If it is deemed necessary or requested, a match will be observed by a member of the admin-board or possibly by a referee.
• We would like to have access to the logs of the server. This is for the, hopefully rare, event of a dispute over a match result. If this is not possible then we cannot allow the server. Make sure you get demos or screenshots of any awkward moments.
• The matches are to be played with these time constraints: 5 minutes pre-match time, 30 minutes first half, [optional: 10 minute 'break' (we allow substitutions in this period! Have a cigar or cigarette or have sex, whatever.)], 5 minutes pre-match time, 30 minutes second half. We mean 30 minutes playtime, so not including pre-match.
• A match MUST be in the range of 7 vs. 7 to 9 vs. 9 players no more, no less. If any clan turns up for an arranged match with less than the agreed amount of players, the clan with the most players must decide what to do, they may drop player(s) so the teams are even or play an unbalanced match. We will leave this up to the sportsmanship of the clans. When a team drops 2 players or more at the same time, the match should be paused immediately until they get their normal player amount back. If it is found out players have been dropped intentional e.g. to make the other team idle/pause when they have flags moving that match will be counted as default loss against the offending team, both maps counted 0-20 against them.
• Spectators are not allowed only the referee or admin, if needed, is allowed into the spectator spot. This is to stop wasting bandwidth.

V. Cheating and use of bugs

• Generally all use of exploits, cheats, hacks are forbidden. This includes use of different models/DLLs (i.e. Spike models, Block models, see-through sprites, no explosions, etc) as well as the use of other programs / means such as aim bots, wall hacks, etc. The use of the nemesis-tool is banned from ETFCL. Basically everything that gives a player an advantage using an exploit, bug, etc. is FORBIDDEN.
  Exceptions are only:
  • voicecomm (Battlecom, Roger Wilco, Teamspeak, etc)
  • scriptusing (grentimer, commscripts, etc) as long as they re not used for using a bug/exploit (e.g. 3rd person script)
  • changed fonts
  • changed rocketsprites (as long as they do not fall short of 30% of the original sprite)
  • different sounds (except for a flagreturn-sound being used as flagreturntimer on touch e.g.)
  • different grentimer (not the ax1.wav timer)
  • different crosshairs
  • different weapon models as long as the user does not get an advantage by using them (in that case these models will be explicitly named)
  • flagreturntimer - if started manually
• Using bugs/cheats is considered quite lame and spoils gameplay. We expect clans not to use them. If proof is found that there was use, then the perpetrators will lose a number of caps immediately, the amount decided by the admins. This includes map bugs as well as the nail-grenade bug or the hw-bug for example. CHOPPING is considered bug-using and therefore forbidden.
• If a player is found guilty of CHEATING, he will be banned from the ETFCL for ONE season. Multiple violators will be banned life.
  We will also enforce this rule if we find players of teams participating in (currently or in the future) ETFCL have been found guilty of cheating in other leagues and / or public servers. The ETFCL Admins can't read all public boards/server logs of all servers, so if there is proof that a player of a clan cheated it is up to those who claim it to bring up proof. In case the player claims he only installed cheats but wasn't using them, we still will ban that violator since we believe there is no difference in actually using a cheat for a different mod and/or on publics or other occasions and use it in the ETFCL war itself. Cheating destroys and spoils the gameplay.
• If a working anti cheat tool is published and one of the clans wishes to play with anti-cheat, the other clan has no choice then to accept. It then is up to the clan who wants to use it to have a server with the anti-cheat software ready for use. We might add / remove any of anti-cheat measures by admin discretion if we believe them to be working / not working.

VI. ETFCL and ETAC

• As some of you know, ETFCL recently joined ETAC. ETAC stands for European TFC Admin Council and it is basically an organization made from league admins all over Europe. Included leagues at the moment are: Vitality, CTFCL, UKTFCL, ECTFC, ETFCL, BYTFCL, LTFL, BETFCL, GTFL. The goal is to make universal cheating rules for all leagues. Soon ETAC will have a site and all rules/public bans will appear there. These are the rules made so far, which are followed up by ETFCL:
• ex_interp 0.1
• _special will no longer be tolerated (to create loops in configs)
• fullupdate commands are banned
• demo recording is mandatory for every player with a week of redundancy (i.e. you must keep demos for a period of 1 week before deleting them)
• ALL hooks are banned (nemesis, sparky etc)

• General Netiquette applies here. Using language during matches, which harms certain populations, is frowned upon. Scoring points may be deducted from the clan who breaks this rule, or the player in question may be suspended from the league. The board of Admins will decide these actions.
• We expect all teams to be fair and not do lame things. We know there will always be a bad apple in the bunch, but please try to keep this league nice. It would be hard to enforce any no-lame-tactics rules. We will however, keep track of clans where opponents consistently claim one clan being "lame". Considered lame is e.g. a 7 or 8 person defense on a map. We might by admin discretion not invite that clan back into the league. We will do so ONLY if undoubtedly proof is brought forward. Demos, logs, etc. We are well aware of the fact that this is a very sensible topic, especially among clans, since everybody has a different view of the gameplay. Some consider it tactics; some consider it spoiling the game. Therefore we will be very careful using that measure.

VIII. Admin decisions

• In case of a dispute the Admins will make a decision together. If any of the Admins plays in any of the involved clans or his voice would directly affect the league standings of his own clan (e.g. in the event the offending clan and the Admins own clan would be eligible to advance to playoffs and the perpetrator would lose that chance when losing the questioned match on default), then his voice will not be heard on this matter nor will he be eligible to vote on that topic. This decision is final.

If you notice any typing mistakes, spelling errors or can think of any beneficial additions to these rules (including rewording, and layout of the rules), please contact Fuse or one of the other ETFCL Admins.