Etiquette

1. No use of slurs. This includes racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or other forms of derogatory speech.
2. Server invites are only allowed when relevant to the conversation at hand and do not break other rules.
3. Keep discussion civil (no political or religious debates, etc.).
4. No NSFW or gore. What classifies as NSFW or gore is up to the discretion of Mods.
5. No spam – pings, text walls, excessive attachments, etc.
6. No harassment of any kind.
7. Use appropriate channels for discussion.
8. Stay honest and be respectful of others, including using preferred pronouns or their name.
9. Limit league-related memes and trash talking to ⁠⁠team-propaganda.
10. Alt accounts are not allowed. If you lose access to an old account and have made a new one, please let Mods know.
11. If a Mod (or Helper) tells you to change the discussion topic, do so.

Basic Game Rules

Game settings

• Game mode should be set on Might and a 24-hour timer.
• The host gets to pick the map type ( dryland, lakes, pangea, or archipelago). Any tribe limitations/bans must stated before the game starts.
• 2v2s must be hosted on a large (324 tiles) map. 3v3s must be hosted on a huge (400 tiles) map.
• In order to get credit, games need to be properly logged in the the PolyElo bot. Use the $open, $join, $start, and $win commands to document those stages of the game . Communicate with your opponent using the $ping command. These commands create a log that mods use to help track wins and settle disputes.

Restarts

• If you don’t like your spawn, you can ask for a restart. You must ask to restart before then end of your third turn. You get one restart per game.

Timeouts

• If an opponent is timed out, follow the skip/kick rules. Use the bot to warn and/or log when you are about to skip or kick.
• If you don’t have time to take your turn in 24 hours, you can use and extension to protect from getting skipped. You get three extensions per game

Game Rules in Detail

Game Mode and Win Condition

Game mode should be set on Might and a 24-hour timer. Any map type except waterworld is permitted. By default, players should be invited in the order given by PolyELO bot; players within the same team may switch positions should they wish. A team or player wins the game if they capture all capitals or if all enemies resign. For non-season games, players may select other game settings only by mutual agreement or by host specifications in game notes. Each ranked game must correspond to a single Polytopia game in the Elo bot, therefore best of 3 is not permitted, and each game must be created separately. Players with season games cannot be on the beta version of the game, even if the games themselves are not on beta Section 2.1.1 Players are requested to post the replay link once the game is over(edited)

Cheating and Glitches

Cheating is forbidden. Cheating includes turn resetting, ruin doubling, knowingly using game glitches, bugs, or exploits to your advantage (whether or not you intentionally caused the glitch/bug/exploit), sabotage, using other teams’ screenshots, elo manipulation, or any other method to gain an unfair advantage. If you are unsure whether something constitutes cheating, please submit a modmail ticket. If someone is discovered to be cheating and their teammate reports it, that team will avoid taking the penalty for cheating. Any and all glitches which affect gameplay should be reported to staff at once. Failure to do so may result in the glitch being considered a form of cheating and punished accordingly.

Kicking, Skipping & Timing Out

Players may not skip or kick others from the game except in the circumstances specified below.
First timeout: A mandatory grace period of 12 hours is then given after the first timeout is logged. A player may be skipped after the 12h grace period. This skip is counted as a first timeout.
Two or more timeouts: If a team has previously had at least one logged timeout against them, any player on that team may be skipped immediately after a further timeout is logged against them.
Three or more timeouts: If a team has previously had at least two logged timeouts against them, and if any player on that team has previously been skipped, any player on that team may be kicked immediately after a third or subsequent timeout is logged.

See section 4.4 for time out rules after a restart.

Definitions

Timed out – A player is timed out if they have taken more than their allotted time to complete their turn (normally 24 hours unless otherwise agreed upon, plus 24 hours per extension used).
Logged timeout – A timeout is logged against a player when all players have been notified via $ping with a screenshot of the game and/or game info screen that shows the player in question is timed out.

24 Hour Turn Extensions

Asking for an extension adds 24 hours to a player’s alloted time to complete a turn. Extensions can be stacked on a single turn or used on separate turns. Each team may use up to three extensions per game. To use an extension, the player or a teammate must notify all players via $ping before a timeout is logged. Extensions may be used during a grace period after a timeout is logged

Leniency

Teams that want to relax these skip/kick rules must agree to terms in an accord through pings. Timeout leniency is revocable by either side, given notice of a full turn (not including the current one). If there is no clear communication agreeing to be more lenient with timeouts, the above timeout rules should be followed.

Skip shaming

Skip/kick shaming is prohibited and may be punished by FAT fines

Restart Rules

Every team has 1 restart per game. If a team wants to use their restart, they must do so before the end of their team’s final move of turn 3. A team may change map type, switch tribes, or even substitute players between restarts. You may define custom restart rules in game notes, but they must not be unbalanced (e.g. host gets 2 bonus restarts away gets none).

Restart Timeout Rule: If host doesn’t restart within 48 hours (with or without substitutions), the away side can choose to count it as a timeout If there are substitutions, if the new player does not respond to a friend request within 24 hours, this can count as timeout against the team with the unresponsive player. A $ping notifying the sub that the friend request was sent will start the 24 hour clock ticking.

For non-season games, players may modify restart rules by mutual agreement.

Embassies banned in 3v3s

Embassies are banned in games if either team has 3 or more players unless all players agree otherwise

Logging tribes

Once the game has commenced, if opponents request $settribe, players on both sides must comply and log the tribes they played with using the bot. Otherwise, tribes must be set by the end of the game

Consequences for Rule Violations

Breaking any rules may range anywhere from a warning to a perma-ban, depending on the severity of the case. Teams may also be fined FATs for rule infractions. All consequences and ambiguous cases concerning rules are up to the complete discretion of mods. This is not a legal contract. Players are expected to abide by the spirit of the rules, not merely the letter of them.

League Rules in Detail

Houses and Teams

Teams are grouped into umbrella organizations called houses and placed into a tiered hierarchy. For example, Ronin and Bandits will be two distinct teams under the same Ronin house – Ronin in a top tier and Bandits in a lower tier. Teams will be placed into tiers based on previous season performance. See section 5.9 for rules regarding team relegation/promotion between seasons

New Team creation

Houses may form new teams out of their existing house at any time. Mods must be notified of the new team at least 2 weeks before the start of a new season in order for the new team to compete in that season.

New House creation

If a team has played a season, it can split and make its own house. The new house will receive triple the average number of FATS per team. (For example, if there are 360 FATs across all houses and there are 9 houses, with 40 FATs average per house, a new house gets 120 FATs) Players on the splitting team cannot trade back to the original house for 2 seasons without mod approval. Mods must be notified of the new house at least 4 weeks before the start of a new season in order for the new house to compete in that season

Leadership roles

A House Leader is:

• Essential and unique; one and only one per house
• The sovereign decision maker for the house
• Able to access all leadership channels in this server

A House Co-leader is:

• Able to authorize player trades, Free Agent bids, and promotions/retirement for recruiters, captains, and other co-leaders
• Able to access all leadership channels in this server, except SLR
• Limited 10 per house with 4 teams or less. A house with 5 teams may have 12 co-leaders max; 6 teams gets 14 co-leaders max, etc
• Optional

A Team Captain is:

• A house co-leader
• The point person for that Team’s season games, like doing the $join and $open commands, also finding subs if needed
• Limit one per team; but not necessarily a member of that team
• Optional

Map Size and Type

2v2s must be hosted on a large (324 tiles) map. 3v3s must be hosted on a huge (400 tiles) map. The hosting team must select dryland, lakes, pangea, or archipelago as the map type, unless otherwise agreed by both teams.

Tribe Selection

Each tribe costs a set number of points as specified below. Teams must select tribes whose total corresponding points do not exceed the maximum for that week. All players on a given side must select different tribes (no duplicates on a side).

Teams may downsize their 3v3 games to 2v2 if both sides agree. Team leaders should send a modmail specifying how many games to downsize or if they have specific teams that they want to keep as 3v3 games.

Tribe Tier List

WaterWorld maps are banned on all league games. Continents maps are not permitted in season games. Polaris is banned on 3v3 maps

Dry/Pangea 3v3
4:
3:
2:
1:

Lakes/Archi/Conti/WW 3v3
4:
3:
2:
1:
Dry/Pangea 2v2
4:
3:
2:
1:
Lakes/Archi/Conti/WW 2v2
5:
4:
3:
2:
1:

Mid-season departures

Any player involved in a season game must remain in the PolyChampions discord server for the duration of that game. If a player leaves the server during a season game, the opposing team may count it as a timeout for the player’s team

Game Creation & Fill Deadline

Season games must be opened and slots filled in the PolyElo bot by House Leaders or Co-Leaders.

Games must be filled in the PolyElo bot more than 24 hours prior to the end of that week’s deadline, generally by 11:59pm HST. Players have 48 hours to pick tribes once the lobby is created in the game. If a player takes more than 48 hours to pick a tribe after the lobby is created, it counts as a time-out

If a team fails to fill a season game, or make a good faith effort to start a game in the app, by the week’s deadline, that team will receive a forfeit for the game

Tier Fill Deadlines

Platinum tier’s deadline is 7 days from the start of the week. Gold and lower tiers’ deadline is 14 days from the start of the week

Season Match Structure

The Season is a single-round, round-robin series of 12 games; each team plays 3 games against every other team in their tier. The starting dates for these games are spread across three weeks (4 games each week).

Top Tier (Platinum): Best of 12 games between 5 teams. Each team plays 2x 2v2 (8 games) and 1x 3v3 (4 games) vs every other team. 28 Player Slots.

Middle Tiers (Gold, Silver, etc): Best of 12 games between 7 teams. Each team plays 2 games vs each other team: 1x 2v2 (6 games) and 1x 3v3 (6 games). 30 Player Slots.

Lowest Tier: Best of 12 games between 4-13 teams (Tier size will vary). Game count vs each team will be dynamically balanced. 30 Player Slots.

Accords

Teams may come to an agreement on a change for any of the following rules:

1. Timeouts – Per 2.3.3, teams may agree to leniency on timeout rules.
2. Different map – Teams may use the waterworld or continents map in season games if both sides agree to it.

Any other changes to the rules are not allowed without mod approval via @ModMail. Timeout leniency is revocable by either side, given notice of a full turn (not including the current one). (For example, $ping during t20 that you want to allow kicks, and from t22 onwards kicks are allowed)

All agreements that are not made using the $ping command will not be considered by mods in any dispute.

Overtime

At the end of the season, games that are still active are in overtime.

Overtime games affecting promotion/relegation may progress enough turns to get the turn back to the host. Then, players will submit screenshots of the game to mods. The outcome will be judged by a panel of skilled players, one representative from each team. (Up to 7 panelists vote; players from houses in the game are excluded from judging their own house games). The panel’s decision for the winner will be used for tier reassignment, and the game may progress afterward.

Overtime games that do not affect relegation/promotion may continue if all players agree, otherwise they will be judged based on tie breaker rules below, going down the list until a winner is declared

Tie Breaker rules:

1. Whichever team controls the most enemy capitals
2. Whichever team is producing the most stars
3. Whichever team owns the most cities total
4. Whichever team has the most points

Team promotion/relegation

At the end of the season, teams will be assigned to tiers based on season record. Top Tier: always 5 teams: 3 stay, 2 demote.
Middle Tier(s) always 7 teams: top 2 promote, bottom 2 demote, 3 remain.
Bottom Tier: 4-13 teams. Top 2 promote, the others remain.

Free Agent Tokens (FATs)

FATs are owned by houses. Each season, House balance of FATs will reset, and houses will be given a weekly FAT allowance based on their top team’s starting tier after promotion/relegation.

FAT Allowance Formula: 

Platinum: 40 starting + weekly 6 income
Gold: 40 starting + weekly 7 income
Silver: 40 starting + weekly 8 income
Bronze: 40 starting + weekly 8 income

Trade Income Carryover
FATs received due to a player trade within 6 weeks of season-end will carry over 100%. FATs from trades within 8 weeks will carry over 70%.

Free Agency/The Auction

Nova grads can react to a biweekly announcement to get the @Free Agent role. If Free Agents have a strong preference for a House, the player may also react to indicate a favorite.

Houses must bid on new players according the following rules:
FAT picks occur in ⁠free-agent-picks. The action opens every other Saturday, HST.  The channel may only be used by Team Leadership for making a bid which must contain:

1. Which Free Agent they want
2. How many tokens they wish to bid on that Free Agent.

The bid may also include why the team thinks the free agent should join them. For example: “I want @Player A to join the Lightning for 3 FATs. I believe she would be a good fit because she likes memes about thunder.” 

Within 7 days of the auction opening, teams have a chance to make an initial bid on a free agent. Each time a valid raise is placed the timer for accepting new bids resets to 24 hours. A bid cannot be retracted. Teams may only bid up to the total FAT amount they have listed in ⁠fats-and-trade-list. Teams may only increase bids; teams cannot match previous bid amounts.

The free agent will go to the highest bidding house at the end of the 24 hours. If the house with the highest bid is the player’s preferred house, that House gets a 25% discount – a flat amount (see table below)

Preferred House FAT cost for Free Agents
1-5 FAT bids: 25% discount
6-7 FAT bids: 25% discount – 1 FAT
8-9 FAT bids: 25% discount – 2 FATs

10-11 FAT bids: 25% discount – 3 FATs
12-13 FAT bids: 25% discount – 4 FATs
14+ FAT bids: 25% discount – 5 FATs

FAT Refunds

Free Agent refunds will be granted in the following scenarios:

• For proven alts before the alt gets to T5 in a season game
• If a Nova goes missing and the team spent more than 5 FATs on the player
• If it’s a unique case and the team has a valid argument

A nova will be considered to have gone missing under any of the following circumstances:

• Have zero completed games that they joined after getting recruited
• Have not joined any game within 4 weeks of joining a team
• Have not sent messages in the team server and/or PolyChamps for 30 days after getting on the team

If a refund is granted, that team is not allowed to bid on the player if/when the player becomes a Free Agent again.

Recruiting Code of Conduct

Recruiters

Recruiters should never speak poorly of other teams or houses. Instead of tearing other houses down, build your house up. If a recruiter misrepresents, talks poorly about, or otherwise disparages another house while acting in a recruiting role there will be consequences, including but not limited to FAT fines, being forcibly demoted from the recruiter. This Code of Conduct applies to both recruiting of Novas or League Members on another team.

New Players

Players who are being recruited may indicate a strong preference in #house-preference, but it is not required. Houses get a discount on their bids for players who indicated a preference for that house. See section 4.11 about the Auction for details about discounts for House preferences.

Player Trades

If a player wants to switch to a new team, they only need approval from the new House to join the new team.

Trade compensation is based on the formula below:
– If a player switches teams immediately after a draft, the FAT compensation equals the top bid amount in Free Agent Picks (minus preferred team discount if trading to preferred team). 

– If a player switches teams after playing at least one season game, the FAT compensation  depends on the division of the player’s most recent season game. See list below.

Platinum = 30 FATs
Gold = 15 FATs
Silver = 5 FATs
Bronze = 3 FATs

Players may compete in one season game for an intra-house team (a single game loan), without being added to the new team. If a player competes in more than one game for an intra-house team, that player gets moved to the new team. 

Prizes

Players who competed in season games for the team that wins the tier will get the Season champion role, for example @S17 PlatinumChamp and @S17 GoldChamp. In addition to roles, the team that won their tier may pick a new emoji to add to the server.