Rules

League Operations

Tom "Gumpster" Gumbleton - League Ops Manager
George "Geo" Peters - League Ops Team Leader
Rory "Vectron" Fitzsimmons - Lead Admin

Please also read the General Rules that apply to every single EPIC.LAN tournament.

Signups & Restrictions

Signups will close on Thursday 23rd February at 16:00 local time to allow for seeding and group scheduling
You must be aged 18+ to take part in any EPIC.LAN tournaments
Due to the age requirement, a valid form of photo ID may be requested on site by tournament staff
Games will start on Friday 24th February at TBD local time
Captains meeting will commence on Friday 24th February at TBD local time
This tournament does not have any UKIN restrictions

Tournament Format

The exact format will be confirmed once all teams have signed up and final numbers are known. These formats will be used as a guide for our schedules but does not garuantee any listed format is used.

Lobby

All players must join the lobby within 15 minutes after the map veto process is finished. The lobby host can start the match once all 10 players have joined the lobby. Players do not necessarily need to indicate "ready" in order to start the match.
Any team that is not ready should be reported immediately to the tournament admins.
If a team has less than 4 players in the lobby 15 minutes after map veto process is finished: the team will be counted as a forfeit and the opposing team will be awarded the win for that map.
If a team only has 4 players present in the lobby 15 minutes after map veto process is finished, the match will begin without waiting for the 5th.
Continued delays will result in the whole match being forfeited and both teams being disqualified from the tournament (which may result in loss of attained prize money).

Substitues

Substitute players may only be used if they have previously purchased a BYOC ticket, signed up to the tournament, and therefore are listed as a member of the team. The player cannot be a participant in any other tournaments at EPIC.LAN or transfer from another team.

Substitutes are only allowed to be made before the match starts.

Protests

If a controversial situation occurs, whether or not it is described in this rule during a match, the team that has spotted it should capture evidence if possible and immediately stop the match and inform the admins via the tournament system.

If the team does not stop the match and continues to play until the maps conclusion, this will be taken as an acceptance of the situation. If the map is played in full both teams will lose all rights to file a protest concerning that situation after the game has ended. Protests must be made immediately, or they may be ignored depending on the circumstances.

Protests can be created via the match page on the EPIC.LAN website.

No Shows

Teams should immediately report any no shows via the R6S channel in the EPIC.LAN Discord server in the event that a team fails to show up after 15 minutes in the following situations.

A team fails to carry out their turn in the map veto process
One or more players have not joined the game lobby within 15 minutes from the map veto process
The hosting team does not start the match within 15 minutes from the map veto process
Any rules outlined in Lobby and Substitutes are not met

The countdown for each match starts from the fixed scheduled time of the match unless the previous match has been delayed.

Maplist

he following maps may be selected for play during the tournament:

Bank
Border
Chalet
Clubhouse
Kafe
Oregon
Skyscraper
Theme Park
Villa

The Veto Process

Teams can use MapBan.gg to complete match vetoes. Teams are responsible for taking screenshots of the map picks/bans process in case of dispute.

Please note, if seedings are not shown, then “Higher Seed” should be replaced with “Home Team” (i.e. the left-hand team on the match page). The Higher Seeded team gets to chose to act as either Team A or Team B in the following veto process. The "Higher Seed" is responsible for match hosting. The "Lower Seed" has side selection

Best-Of-One

Team A: Bans 1 map
Team B: Bans 1 map
Team A: Bans 1 map
Team B: Bans 1 map
Team A: Bans 1 map
Team B: Bans 1 map
Team A: Bans 1 map
Team B: Bans 1 map
Map Choice: The remaining map will be the map that is played

Best-Of-Three

The higher seeded team will choose to act as Team A or Team B during the veto process. The third place decider sides will be decided by coin flip.

Team A: Bans 1 map
Team B: Bans 1 map
Team A: Bans 1 map
Team B: Bans 1 map
Team A: Picks map one
Team B: Picks map 1 side selection
Team B: Picks map two
Team A: Picks map 2 side selection
Team A: Bans 1 map
Team B: Bans 1 map
Map 3: The remaining map will be map three if needed

Lobby Settings

Host Settings

Time of day: Day
HUD Settings: Pro League

Best-Of-One Settings

Number of Bans: 4
Ban Timer: 20
Number of rounds: 12
Attacker/Defender role swap: 6
Overtime: 3
Objective rotation parameter: 2
Objective Type Rotation: Rounds Played
Attacker unique spawn: On
Pick Phase Timer: 15
6th Pick Phase: Off
Reveal Phase Timer: 5
Damage handicap: 100
Friendly fire damage: 100
Injured: 20
Sprint: On
Lean: On
Death replay: Off

Best-Of-Three Settings

Number of Bans: 4
Ban Timer: 20
Number of rounds: 12
Attacker/Defender role swap: 6
Overtime Rounds: 3
Overtime Score Difference: 2
Overtime role change: 1
Objective rotation parameter: 2
Objective Type Rotation: Rounds Played
Attacker unique spawn: On
Pick Phase Timer: 15
6th Pick Phase: Off
Reveal Phase Timer: 5
Damage handicap: 100
Friendly fire damage: 100
Injured: 20
Sprint: On
Lean: On
Death replay: Off
Game Mode: TDM Bomb
Plant duration: 7
Defuse duration: 7
Fuse time: 45
Preparation: 45
Action: 180

Operators

All current operators are allowed. Tournament admin decisions are final on operator use. Decisions on operator bans could be made at any time.

Skins

All skins (Uniforms) except the Operator’s default skins, Pro League skins (gold sets), Pro teams branded cosmetic, Esports Programs’ cosmetics are banned from competitive play.

Ping

All matches should be hosted on a dedicated server, and the ping limit for an EPIC.LAN match is 150ms. If a player has higher ping during the action phase, the match should first be done through a re-host before opening a protest. In the case where rehosting does not fix the issue, please submit 3 screenshots over 2 rounds that are at the action phase - displaying the scoreboard of all 10 players with username and scores.

Spawn-peeking & Spawn-killing

Further clarification was needed on these particular terms, so in these rules we will break it down to the following terms, "Spawn killing" and "Spawn peeking". To see the use of either term, please see below:

Spawn-Killing: Killing somebody instantly after spawning without any chance to react or move away will be rated as spawn-killing and will be rated as glitching/bug using
Spawn-peeking: Killing somebody who already spawned, moved out of cover or is spawn-rushed is considered spawn-peeking and will not be rated as glitching/bug using

Hardware

Players are responsible for their own hardware and should make sure their game is operational each day before the start of the tournament. Matches will not be rescheduled or postponed or paused because of technical issues.

Match Pause

Each team can pause the match ONCE in EACH map for a tactical timeout lasting 45 seconds: The team has to type in chat during the kill-cam to signal the host. Match can only be paused during operator select Team can talk and discuss Timeouts cannot be called by both teams on the same round Player cannot leave their seats during a match pause. The game host is responsible for pausing the match, and responsible for making sure the match is paused for the correct amount of time. Any abuse of this rule should first be reported through discord, violation of this rule will be considered as unsportsmanlike behaviour and can lead to a default loss in the match.

Admins can decide to set start time for the next match if the schedule is delayed.

Rehost

If a player drops from the server during the action phase, the round should continue uninterrupted until the end. Pauses will be started at the end of the round for the player to reconnect and rejoin the team. Each pause can only be up to 2 minutes or 4 times in total.

If a player drops from the server during the preparation phase, the team can request for a rehost: the team will need to provide a screenshot of the scoreboard displaying the missing player(s) and preparation phase. Admins can ignore the request if the screenshot is not presented. If the team does not stop the match and continues to play, will be taken as an acceptance of the situation. Refer to Protests rule.

Each team can re-host the server ONCE in ONE map, a total of TWO re-host can be done in ONE map. All rehost will be hosted by the higher seed from the previous score. Only admin has the rights to restart the whole match to 0:0.

If problems like this appear again, such as a player dropping out when the match has already been re-hosted, the team needs to play the match with the remaining players to its conclusion. Any abuse of this rule will be considered as deception and will result in penalisation and including disqualification of the team.

Cheating & Game Bugs

Anti-Cheat: All players must install and run MOSS during the entire tournament. Players are required to supply Moss files to tournament admins immediately on request.

All forms of cheating at epic.LAN events are forbidden and will see some form of punishment dished out (to see further examples please read the general rules of our esports tournaments above).

In some circumstances, evidence will be submitted to us from third parties or other event organisers and we will review such evidence. If we find the evidence to be serious enough, we will take further action on the players in question.

We do not take kindly to players who try and cheat in order to win, and implore players to respect the competitive integrity of the esports ecosystem.

If any player or team feels unsure on a new advantage they have found through their practice sessions, they are welcome to show this specific spot to the tournament team to review. Any player or team that does this will be treated to the strictest confidence as not to jeopardise your strategic advantage, however we can rule on whether it is a legal move. We strongly advise teams to give us plenty of time ahead of an event so we can review it in good time and make good judgement on it.

The game admins may inspect your machine at any time throughout the event to inspect for cheats or hacks within your game files, steam cloud and anywhere on your PC or memory sticks.

Game Bugs: usage and abuse of using bugs is forbidden and will be dealt with on a case by case basis.

These are known unintended mechanics that have been approved for use in the R6C and, unless a new variation or change impacts these, Teams may implement them.

Using equipment or diffusing through a destructible surface
Destroying a hatch with the diffuser on it to cause it to fall and deactivate (resulting in a win for the defending team)
Smoking through indestructable walls
Hibana’s pellets, Ace’s SELMA charges and Thermite’s exothermic charges can be placed anywhere within the the maps paramters and not on intended places, I.E. reinforced walls.

These are known unintended mechanics that have been banned for use, at minimum, will carry an immediate round loss and/or further Sanction(s).

Any position that Players can get to, and out of, by passing through any object, wall or surface, and the Player cannot be seen or attacked/shot at as normal
Any position that Players can reach only through the help of one or multiple of their teammates clustering around them (through characters’ 3D models collisions)
Any behavior or action that Players can perform to create a situation where they can see or shoot at an opponent without the opponent being able to see them or attack/shoot at them as normal
Standing on a window ledge undetected
Blocking window vaulting with a destructible shield
Shooting through what is intended to be non-destructible items including walls, floors, ceilings and other objects or surfaces.
Placing any equipment or gadget in a place where it cannot be destroyed
Vaulting on ledges and proning to reach normally inaccessible spots
Vaulting onto skylight windows

Team Interference

A player or coach from a team should not interfere with another team whilst a game is live. This includes being in voicechat or spectating the custom game.

If this does happen during a match, the team should report to the tournament admins: 1st time: the coach will be given a warning, the team will be under supervision 2nd time: gets a forfeit of the map 3rd time: Disqualification.

Delay Tournament

Acceptable reasons for missing the scheduled start of a match are:

Network failure
Game Server failure
Power failure

In the event of server failures, please contact a game admin who will advise further.

Server Crashes

In the event of server failures or server maintenance, please contact a game admin who will advise further.

The Final & Match Coverage

During the Final, teams may be assigned their respective referee to administrate team communication during tech pauses and coach communication outside of tactical pauses.

Teams must abide by any change in playing environment (moving to a stage setting) and any regulations associated for tournament Finals.

Admins

All players must adhere to the decisions and rules of the League Operations Team, all their decisions are final, except in cases where the option to appeal is clearly stated. Players - under no circumstances - should engage the Observer team on any match related issues.

Conversations, either verbal or written, between directors and admins, and participants are confidential. Publicly posting or sharing these conversations with outside parties is strictly forbidden, unless permission is obtained.

Streaming

Players will need to submit this form to ask for specific permission to stream from the event.

Streaming is a key part of our events and our participants' / teams' own content and is something that we wish to encourage, however it's also important that any streams of our esports tournament do not compromise the competitive integrity of the event and also, in the case of some titles, match the standards required by those publishers.

Note that application for stream permission is intended only for those participating at the event streaming their own perspectives, we do not grant lobby access to spectators who are not at the event.

In certain cases we may offer increased bandwidth for streams, but this is not guaranteed.

We also ask that those granted permission to stream share some basic viewership figures with us after the event, these figures will be held confidentially and amalgamated as part of the overall event evaluation which will help existing and future partnership discussions, which in turn will help raise the quality and potential prize pools for the event. Your personal viewing statistics will never be shared.

Subject to the title being streamed (e.g. BEACON VALORANT for EPIC38) you may be required to use specified graphics packages for the duration of the event.

If you use the EPIC.LAN logo as part of your coverage, you should follow the guidelines set at https://www.epiclan.co.uk/brand.

Note that permission to stream does not imply any sort of official affiliation or coverage partnership with the event.

You may not stream your games if you are currently featured on the EPIC.LAN main streams.

Support

Please feel free to contact the League Ops Team within the #support in the official EPIC.LAN Discord server.

*These rules are subject to change due to any game-related updates that cause issues to occur in different ways. The game admins and tournament team leaders have discretion to change & update rules within reason at any stage throughout a tournament. The Admins decisions are always final.*

Last Updated: 21st December 2022