Brink TV 5v5 Tournament Rules and Details

Tournament Overview and Rules

The Brink TV 5v5 Tournament is an experiment in competition. Please keep in mind the game has only been out for a week and many rules and settings will surely be tweaked collectively by the community over time. Until then, we've reached out to various teams and community members to get feedback on what feels right for competition at this early stage of the game. Rules found below are subject to change so be sure to check them again before the tournament begins.

To sign up, head here: http://thebrink.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=201
Please be aware of the following in-game rules:

Adrenaline cannot be used. Please tell your medics to unbind this buff.
- If a team accidentally uses it, in-game observers will give the offending team a verbal warning. However, if the ability is used to complete an objective or a team continues to use it after the warning, the offending team will forfeit the game.

Hack objectives cannot be reversed.
- This means that hack progress and hack boxes may not be "deconstructed" by an enemy engineer.

Since there is no SDK and the cvars that allow server administrators to specify abilities do not seem to fully function, these two rules will be enforced by spectating referees and an honor system between competing teams.

Tournament Type: Single Elimination
Team Size: 5v5
Game Type: Stopwatch
Time Limit: 20 minutes
Signups Open: May 15, 2011 at 6pm EDT
Signups Close: May 18, 2011 at 6pm EDT
Tournament Begins: May 18 2011 at 9pm EDT

Tournament rounds will be Best of ONE until the Semi Finals, at which point they will become Best of THREE matches onward, including the finals. Map selection for BO1 rounds will be Toss, Toss, Toss, Toss with the remaining map in the pool being the the battlefield. Top seed gets to toss first. Map selection in BO3 rounds will be handled by Pick, Pick, Toss, Toss, with the remaining map being the tie breaker if needed. This method ensures teams gets a chance to play their favored map in the final rounds.

Map Pool:

Aquarium
Reactor
Resort
Shipyard
Terminal

Servers:

We are acquiring sponsored servers for this event courtesy of Evolution Servers. However, we may also tap teams and community members willing to participate to help us provide additional play locations if needed. Any server used must be named according to the instructions laid out below and must use the server configuration provided below.

Config:

A full configuration ready to be executed by server administrators helping us host the tournament is available at http://thebrink.tv/tournament/server_stopwatch_brinktv_vs.cfg This configuration is subject to change. Simply add "exec server_stopwatch_brinktv_vs.cfg" to your server startup.

For the duration of the event, servers hosting the tournament must be named accordingly:

"Brink TV 5v5 Tourney (Region) #"

For example:
Brink TV 5v5 Tourney WEST 1,
Brink TV 5v5 Tourney WEST 2,
Brink TV 5v5 Tourney EAST 1
etc.

Your server # designation will be given to you by the Brink TV staff.

Anti-Cheat:

Valve AntiCheat must be in use throughout the tournament. Any individual or team caught cheating will forfeit all progress and be ejected from the tournament Observers will be on hand to monitor games.

Disputes:

In the event of a dispute, claims will be handled on the spot by tournament administrators. A representative from each team and the match observers will report their versions of the incident, at which point a tournament administrator will make a decision regarding the dispute.

Rosters:

Roster changes are acceptable until signups are closed. However, once closed, teams must play with the roster with which they singed up to the tournament. Therefore, be sure to list any substitution or alternate players as necessary to account for absences. If a team is short a player who fails to show up for the tournament, the team will have to play a player short or forfeit the match.

These strict roster rules are in place to help the tournament run smoothly by avoiding the often last-minute circus of finding and designating "ringers" which inevitably cause strife and frustration for the opposing team who did show up on time with their players ready to compete. Considering that signups will remain open until a few hours before the tournament begins, we feel this is a fair rule.

Signups:

Tournament Signups will be handled by having the team captain or representative submit a post to the Brink TV 5v5 Tournament Signups thread. The post should be formatted like so:

=======
Team Name: Some Team Name

Team Roster:
Team Captain:
- In-game (Steam) Player1 Tag [Forum username1]

Team Members:
- In-game (Steam) Player2 Tag [Forum username2]
- In-game (Steam) Player3 Tag [Forum username3]
- In-game (Steam) Player4 Tag [Forum username4]
- In-game (Steam) Player5 Tag [Forum username5]

Rules Agreement
By submitting this post, all members listed on this team's roster have read, understand and agree to comply with the rules set forth in this tournament.
=======

Aliases will not be tolerated. Players must be the same gamer tag shown on the roster at the time signups close in order to compete. The forum username of the players must be included as forum private messages will be used as the primary method of communication with the winners for prize distribution. Failure to include the forum username of any player will forfeit their prize eligibility. They can, however, still play in the tournament.

The signup thread will unlock when signups open and will re-lock when the signup window has closed. At closure, rosters will be considered finalized.

Prizes:

Raptor Gaming is graciously offering the winning team hardware prizes for this event. Check them out and follow them on Twitter, too!

Details are being finalized and will be posted shortly once commitments are cemented.

Server Selection and International Play:

North American competitors: the server that provides the least ping advantage to both teams will be used unless an alternate server is agreed to by both teams.

European competitors: The timing of this tournament severely favors North American participation (9pm EDT on a weeknight) and therefore, servers will be based in that region. However, if a European team wishes to compete and is willing to play on NA-based servers, they are free to do so. In this case, the server that provides the best ping situation for both teams will be used.

Team Captain Check-in

Team Captains must be present in #brinktv at 8:30pm EDT. We recommend you connect to irc.gamesurge.net, though irc.quakenet.org is also allowed.

Community Spectators Wanted

We would like spectators for our matches. If you're interested in volunteering your time and ensuring both teams follow the two above gameplay rules (no engineers de-hacking and no adrenaline usage), please join #brinktv at 8:30pm EDT. Note you are not an admin, just an impartial spectator who can relay the events as you saw them to admins.

Source: http://thebrink.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=200&p=2543